Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, Part VII

[bugarup]

One of numerous things I'm baffled about Owlcat's storytelling is how they make an irredeemable villain and then give them a redemption arc. Those sekrit endings in both KM and WOTR are like, "And then Legate Lanius took up gardening for a hobby and lived happily ever after with Courier in cream colored cottage, fostering kittens and supplying ecological avocadoes to local hipsters" 

[Zoraptor]

I thought they did a pretty good job of making Nyrissa redeemable in Kingmaker. It felt like a third of the game was learning why she was like that and ultimately it was because the actual villain had stripped her of her humanity. Or morality since she wasn't human. Romancing her... yeah, that's a bit more questionable. If for no other reason than it essentially reduces to "I restored your empathy, let's boff".

(Then again most rpg romances reduce to "I did x tasks for you, let's boff" I guess)

[bugarup]

Ehhhhh, even before Great Ball of Fire took her empathy away, when he told her what's her punishment, she wasn't "Oh no, he wants me to ruin innocent people because of my own hubris" but "Oh no, where can I find so many kingdoms to ruin?" So no, still a psychopath and no sympathy from me. 

Oh and speaking of romances. I run several lichless and thus Neniofull parties now and girl needs to get laid so bad, for all her self-professed "I am such a professional dedicated scientist" schtick she's very insistent about constantly pestering everyone with sex-related questions and factoids. 

[uuuhhii]

2 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

I thought they did a pretty good job of making Nyrissa redeemable in Kingmaker. It felt like a third of the game was learning why she was like that and ultimately it was because the actual villain had stripped her of her humanity. Or morality since she wasn't human. Romancing her... yeah, that's a bit more questionable. If for no other reason than it essentially reduces to "I restored your empathy, let's boff".

(Then again most rpg romances reduce to "I did x tasks for you, let's boff" I guess)

the whole nyrissa plot line is the best i can fix her plot ever seen

not like there are much strong competition

owlcat always have a talent of making troublesome romance plot line that most player are far too fragile to even think about

at least when playing regular crpg

[kanisatha]

20 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

I was actually surprised I managed to save everyone. The Queen, the Hand, Irabeth...

I know, right?! I loved that they had ending slides for so many NPCs, even a couple of ones I'd forgotten about like the guy from Pulura's temple, and in my game too I got really nice endings for everyone.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I don't think Areelu is really redeemed outside of the big gold, if the end sequence interaction with grave lady is anything to go off of she's still very much cosmic Evil with a capital E. While Owlcat's writing is certainly not stellar, I think that their changes to NPCs from the adventure paths are usually improvements (Hulrun being the big exception), and Areelu is not an exception here. Having her go from being a Deskarii fangurl who opened the Worldwound because lmao to someone with more specific and personal motivations was a good move. Aside from one certain path, her endings still have her being unrepentantly evil and she only gets clemency because the player character asked nicely (and isn't a Lich) or because they filled mommy with enough mythic power to become a demi-god, otherwise she goes to the Abyss.

@Zoraptor already got Nyrissa down. And it is bad that her and Wenduag, who share a VA, both require the protagonist's sexual prowess/romantic interest in order to stop being evil. 

[Sarex]

44 minutes ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

And it is bad that her and Wenduag, who share a VA, both require the protagonist's sexual prowess/romantic interest in order to stop being evil. 

The power of horny compels you, the power of horny compels you, the power of horny compels you!

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

6 minutes ago, Sarex said:

The power of horny compels you, the power of horny compels you, the power of horny compels you!

[Use the voice of Matt Berry as Laszlo Cravensworth]More like the power of my sexual abilities compels them.[/Use the voice of Matt Berry as Laszlo Cravensworth]

I'm all or power fantasy but this is a bit much even for me.

[ShadySands]

Looks like I'm doing a Jackie Daytona playthrough next

Dhampir race, not sure about class.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

Looks like I'm doing a Jackie Daytona playthrough next

Dhampir race, not sure about class.

Dhampir? But Jackie Daytona is an ordinary human bartender!

[InsaneCommander]

In Nyrissa's case, I agree with @Zoraptor, there was a good enough excuse for her acts. Even if she didn't care about what she would do before it happened, she might have changed her mind if she was not changed. I guess it's the benefit of the doubt.

2 hours ago, kanisatha said:

I know, right?! I loved that they had ending slides for so many NPCs, even a couple of ones I'd forgotten about like the guy from Pulura's temple, and in my game too I got really nice endings for everyone.

Even Hulrun made it out alive in the end. And it had a good effect when I made a choice in Iz.

[Gorth]

This game needs more Nocticula romance mods!...

 

Anyway, split off from previous path...

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/131386-pathfinder-wrath-of-the-righteous-part-6/

 

[InsaneCommander]

1 hour ago, Gorth said:

This game needs more Nocticula romance mods!...

Does the Trickster interaction with the Fullsome Queen count?

[Gorth]

52 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

Does the Trickster interaction with the Fullsome Queen count?

Not really... if I understood it correctly, you need either the demon or devil or whatever path (unmodded game)

[ShadySands]

Doormat demon, I believe, is the requirement. 

[HoonDing]

With two dips into Simp

[HoonDing]

Never got the Nocticula craze (even Iomedae is better lmao) but I'd simp for Sorshen tbh

[Sarex]

Finished with Kenabres. Vanilla monk is pretty strong. Not too sure I will do all the side content this time around. Apart from that I'm thinking about bumping up the difficulty, but I dislike how the difficulty is achieved.

[ShadySands]

After playing 5e I can't wait to get back to this game.

[bugarup]

So my Lich walked into assassins' guild of City of the Loading Screens on Greybor business. This time I decided to rough up that Yozz guy a little and so I did. Unfortunately, my repurposed thralls also walked into the guild ("secret location" my arse ) when combat started, one of them acid flask flinging alchemist, another ice storm-happy sorcerer...yeah, party's two meatbags didn't have much chance in friendly crossfire. Bone dudes and lady survived long enough to get "I yield!" conversation, but the game hanged here. Probably couldn't process infinity of spiders.  

 

[Sarex]

3 hours ago, ShadySands said:

After playing 5e I can't wait to get back to this game.

I don't think I mind 5e that much, from what I see at least and from what I experienced in Solasta (the biggest dislike was concentration per 1 active spell), it's simply a different flavor that's simpler. Sven put it perfectly, a softcore RPG. The turned based combat is the bigger issue for me, it's just so slow and limiting. It may be a different story when I play, but I doubt I will change my opinion much.

[HoonDing]

Went through Enigma... had to unequip that fear cloak because it turned into Benny Hill.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

11 hours ago, ShadySands said:

After playing 5e I can't wait to get back to this game.

I think BG3 is a fine game but the 5e ruleset leaves much to be desired. Other than picking subclass (and spells if applicable) or multiclass shenanigans, it feels like your character is on autopilot for the most part. Between an attribute increase and a feat the increase is going to win out 9/10 times.

7 hours ago, Sarex said:

I don't think I mind 5e that much, from what I see at least and from what I experienced in Solasta (the biggest dislike was concentration per 1 active spell), it's simply a different flavor that's simpler. Sven put it perfectly, a softcore RPG. The turned based combat is the bigger issue for me, it's just so slow and limiting. It may be a different story when I play, but I doubt I will change my opinion much.

With reactions being done the way they are, I don't think we'll be likely to see a real time in a 5e or a PF2e game. Personally I haven't had too many issues with combat yet, hardest battles so far have been the party in the Dank Crypt (My guys were blocked in a room and pelted with ranged attacks) and the Harpies (who exploited the high ground and kept murdering a child).

[HoonDing]

Got to level 40 a bit earlier than I wanted, right after spanking Terendelev in one round.

[Sarex]

I wonder if someone could mod in some flavor of the month "AI" to control the enemies in the game to make things interesting and add difficulty without inflating numbers.