Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, Part VII

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

I beat the Lord of Nothing just a few minutes ago and I really enjoyed it. I was surprised that it wasn't super buggy, but not bug-free, and I could complete it with no major issues. I liked the almost mythic system they put in and think the 3 NPCs from this might be my favorite of the bunch. Curious to play through the main campaign to chapter 5 and see what they added.

How's it compare to Through the Ashes and how good are the unique NPC archetypes?

[ShadySands]

It's higher level and more epic than Through the Ashes and even has its own alt-mythic system. It ties back into the main story and as you do more "adventures" the timeline moves along and you hear about what the commander is up to. The 2 major NPCs (gnome and tiefling) are back and they added a third, an android bard lady who immediately tells you she's not for romancing. They added some interesting mechanics and even the new puzzles aren't completely terrible. Difficulty is all over the place but if you've been playing these for a while then you probably already know how to easily game the system... though I'm a big proponent of just lowering the difficulty if you aren't having fun.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

16 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

even the new puzzles aren't completely terrible.

Well I'm sold....because I already got the season pass. But I'll play it soon.

Edited November 28, 2023 by PK htiw klaw eriF

[bugarup]

On 11/28/2023 at 2:36 AM, Gromnir said:

maybe a little hyperbolic. 

the numbers remain so much in your favour as an enchanter, particular if you are speaking o' a main character demon or azata enchanter, that am personal not sweating the changes even for unfair battles. and for most battles beyond the bosses, a mid-level and beyond ember is gonna be more than adequate to insta-wipe the field even w/o a few buffs. 

Mayyyyybe, but just a little. 

My enchanter is a Lich since I wanted something to fall back to when enchanting fails. He mostly sucked (in enchanting, not Lich things) throughout first half of Chapter 3 except for Blackwater where we had a field day, was passable in Fane and finally decent in Chapter 4 after getting some more gear. 

I have an unfinished court poet Azata who got really good at heightened Hideous Laughter spam after I got that Azata mythic thing that makes enemies roll twice and take worse result. Don't have Expanded Arsenal on that one but I read that Best Jokes got nerfed too. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[xzar_monty]

To everyone, @Gromnir especially, perhaps: one of the most specialized things you have to do to get the Secret Ending is to talk to the ghost in the Ineluctable Prison AFTER you have done the boss fight. Now, is there anything at all in the game that would direct you to do that, if you haven't read the guidebooks and don't know about this in advance? I know that before the boss fight, you can hear heavy breathing at the spot where the ghost appears after the fight, but I certainly don't regard this as enough of a clue.

So basically I'm wondering whether anyone would ever get to the Secret Ending without knowing about it before. Most of the other steps can be taken without knowing, but I'm not sure about this one.

[Gromnir]

5 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

To everyone, @Gromnir especially, perhaps:

am in agreement, but...

perhaps owlcat took a practical approach and assumed that as soon as the game were released, a few persons would start digging into code and even if nobody did, somebody would discover and then want credit for discovering. the reality is, the secret ending requirements were discovered extreme soon after the release o' the game.

maybe you recall the ring of wizardry at the friendly arms inn from bg1? if you don't, many others hereabouts will. the only way to discover the ring is complete accident or individual pixel hunting... which is what a few folks did to find other curiously rando loot in bg. 

yeah, no doubt multiple somebodies would try to puzzle out the heavy breathing in the ineluctable prison, 'cause is improbable something like that is an accident, right? so am not doubting somebody figures out eventual, but is also inevitable other somebodies would dig into code and unlock all the secret ending requirements.  am suspecting owlcat were perfect ok with either resolution and that they assumed that once the secret ending were known as 'posed to rumor, people would do find solutions via the online community. 

am agreeing some o' the secret ending clues weren't so much clues as just rando requirements, but here we are two years following the game release and near everybody who wanted to complete the secret ending probably did so. owlcat russian developers is perhaps predictable practical. owlcat knew it didn't matter if their trail o' breadcrumbs leading to completion o' the secret ending requirements were rational and reasonable, so why sweat such nuance? 

HA! Good Fun!

[ShadySands]

7 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

So basically I'm wondering whether anyone would ever get to the Secret Ending without knowing about it before. Most of the other steps can be taken without knowing, but I'm not sure about this one.

I mostly lucked into it but I'm a weirdo completionist if I really like a game. Not pixel hunting bad but pretty close.

E: just started chapter 2 in my new run after the DLC

Edited December 1, 2023 by ShadySands

[Gromnir]

was planning on waiting for one more patch, but we might give the new dlc a shot this weekend.

am likely gonna start a new through the ashes party as the bard companion for lord of nothing doesn't mesh ideal with our previous group: sacred huntsmaster, wildlands shaman, sohei/martyr, and skald. much o' the martyr benefits become kinda redundant with a bard companion, but am not wanting to sacrifice the sohei/martyr animal companion and bab progression.  

...

we end spending almost as much time and effort trying to choose right party or characters as 'posed to actual playing the game. sickness.

HA! Good Fun!

 

[bugarup]

Soooo reddit says Owlcats fortified Playful Darkness by making him do damage to swarms, so no more poetic justice of giving that mutt ignominious death by thousand flea bites. Because that's apparently what this game really needs, to make fights with ridiculous characters less fun. Fixing non-stop stuns from swarms and those stupid ass crystals? LOL. 

[xzar_monty]

On 12/1/2023 at 7:59 PM, Gromnir said:

perhaps owlcat took a practical approach and assumed that as soon as the game were released, a few persons would start digging into code and even if nobody did, somebody would discover and then want credit for discovering. the reality is, the secret ending requirements were discovered extreme soon after the release o' the game.

Ahh, yes. Digging into code feels so alien to me that I didn't even think of this approach. But you're probably right here.

Anyway, I thought all the other requirements were ones that you could figure out or even stumble upon, but going to the ghost after defeating the boss in the Ineluctable Prison seemed just extremely improbable to me -- and I can't recall that the game ever gave any hint to that direction, other than the heavy breathing which was not really a hint, in my view, even in retrospect.

Thanks!

And yes, I remember the ring of wizardry from BG1. Fact is, I played BG2 first and then went into BG1, by which point I knew about the ring. It didn't make BG1 any better; I mean, it's a poor game, especially after having played BG2 first.

[ShadySands]

I hit the point of picking my mythic path and have been stuck here for a day.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 minute ago, ShadySands said:

I hit the point of picking my mythic path and have been stuck here for a day.

What's the character deets and are you going more for rp?

[ShadySands]

I'm a tiefling and I was going to do Aeon to Devil and Virtuous Bravo Paladin to Infernal Bloodline Sorc so I feel like I'm kinda stuck with that from an RP perspective. I'm doubting my decision since A to D has been my go-to recently and I kinda want to try something else though I think Trickster and Legend, and I guess Swarm, are the only paths I haven't beaten the game with. I really have no intention of ever doing Swarm and Legend is always an option later.

Edited December 6, 2023 by ShadySands

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

39 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

I'm a tiefling and I was going to do Aeon to Devil and Virtuous Bravo Paladin to Infernal Bloodline Sorc so I feel like I'm kinda stuck with that from an RP perspective. I'm doubting my decision since A to D has been my go-to recently and I kinda want to try something else though I think Trickster and Legend, and I guess Swarm, are the only paths I haven't beaten the game with. I really have no intention of ever doing Swarm and Legend is always an option later.

Trickster to Legend is probably the funniest route and it's mechanically very strong, especially for crit builds which the Virtuous Bravo definitely is. EDIT: I think you're doing gestalt as well, so doing that as a Legend is just ****ing crazy good.

Edited December 6, 2023 by PK htiw klaw eriF

[ShadySands]

Not doing gestalt but I am giving myself an extra feat each time and I'm only playing on Core but with extra enemies and abilities turned on. Maybe I will go Trickster to Legend.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 hours ago, ShadySands said:

Not doing gestalt but I am giving myself an extra feat each time and I'm only playing on Core but with extra enemies and abilities turned on. Maybe I will go Trickster to Legend.

Well then Trickster > Legend is perfect because you can now pick Fighter for the 21-40 levels for a classic "while you were gaining mythic power, I studied the blade" build. Assuming you're using a 18-20 weapon you'll be hitting crits on 11+ rolls and have a Bab of 40.

[Gromnir]

no doubt many people is playing rogue trader, but we just finished lord of nothing, so regardless o' fact few may care at the moment, am offering insights.

am curious disappointed in spite o' fact am thinking the newish dlc was excellent if predictable buggy. examples o' a few annoying bugs: being mounted when a cutscene starts means your character is somewhere improbable when cutscene ends; we noticed sendri had a missing feat only after a subsequent level-up; our martyr paladin had no auras; shaken debuff from greater shadow demon proximity was permanent; etc. the thing is, we expected bugs, so no disappointment, but there were a few frustrating bug moments. more than just a few.

...

if lord of nothing were part o' wotr, it would represent much o' the best content o' the game. one portion o' the dlc had mask of the betrayer nostalgia and a nifty mechanic. lon also benefited from a few o' the more interesting written characters in any owlcat offering. tough choices is always easiest to make at the end o' a title 'cause is no bifurcation o' storyline after the finale, but while owlcat broke no new ground, they made the end choices feel meaningful even w/o knowing how such choices impact the main campaign. were a few kewl encounters/fights and quests.

but lon were not through the ashes 2. most o' the clever gameplay and mechanics from through the ashes were abandoned in lon. we were back to per kill xp and degenerative gameplay. no tough lon decision as to whether to use rope or tools or perhaps save such limited resources for later. no lon chances to exploit geography to win fights or to have different groups o' antagonists fight each other. etc. through the ashes were refreshing particular as owlcat is ordinarily so color-by-numbers with their encounter design. perhaps is noteworthy owlcat literal abandoned color for lon.

oh, and 

Spoiler

chained darkness, the newest iteration in owlcat's deathsnatcher medley, were... stoopid. all those ________ darkness battles is stoopid, but this one were the mostest annoying by far. we had only small difficulty dispatching chained darkness, but

am not sure how many coup-de-grace fails we went through before succeeding. owlcat's cdg rules is much different than pathfinder and chained darkness has a +29 fort on core. so, particular w/o exploiting the fortune hex, we had not great odds o' success. 

am not planning on doing the chained darkness fight on unfair anytime soon, particular not without complete retooling our party to create a merc with an insane high melee weapon damage multiplier.  some kinda alchemical boost would help in a big way.

stoopid.

late edit: reward for killing chained darkness is big xp, but nowhere near enough to get you to level 12, so is kinda a joke on the player, yes? 18k xp and a non-magical lamashtu medallion? thanks bunches... jerks.

 

regardless, we thought lord of nothing content were good (and often excellent), but we were disappointed 'cause we didn't get more through the ashes novel content.

HA! Good Fun!

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by Gromnir

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

So my TtA playthrough got borked due to mods so looks like I'll get to do that again before I do LoN. So I am rerolling Through the Ashes with an Elemental Ascetic/Elemental Scion Kineticist Oread and so far so good. Monk AC + Elemental Fists is honestly pretty cool and so far is working better than shifter claws or monk fists for TtA, the lower bab is the only real problem but that's only going to be like -2 to hit.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

On 12/9/2023 at 9:24 AM, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

So my TtA playthrough got borked due to mods so looks like I'll get to do that again before I do LoN. So I am rerolling Through the Ashes with an Elemental Ascetic/Elemental Scion Kineticist Oread and so far so good. Monk AC + Elemental Fists is honestly pretty cool and so far is working better than shifter claws or monk fists for TtA, the lower bab is the only real problem but that's only going to be like -2 to hit.

Well I was wrong, Elemental Ascetic does not play well with Elemental Scion or any abilities that change the damage dice (size or number) of Kinetic Blast. The gimmick was cool at least.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Finally got through TTA and played LoN for a while. So far I like the aesthetics of the frozen wasteland and the first shard area. Of course Owlcat does Owlcat and there's plenty of jank, and I have to say that I prefer the feelz of TTA in being an urgent struggle for survival while this feels like something that the party can take their time with. Perhaps the biggest complaint is the usage of the mercs who, so far at least, can't get the shard powers. Also wish the Android companion had a proper unique/new owlbrew archetype instead of Thundercaller that uses INT.

As always for the Owlfinder games complaints aside I'm having fun. For me it's not BG3 good but there's a certain charm in this stupid **** that I can't help but enjoy.

[HoonDing]

How weaksauce is azata after legend & angel?

not sure I should uninstall for now

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

14 minutes ago, HoonDing said:

How weaksauce is azata after legend & angel?

not sure I should uninstall for now

Mechanically? Aivu is pretty good, the superpowers are incredible to meh, the unique spells have some serious powerhouses, and if you're not running a bard the songs provide situationally great albeit limited utility. It's not as strong as merged caster Angel, merged caster Lich, or Trickster>Legend martial, but those are all extremely powerful and the Azata should be able to hold things down on at least Core.

[HoonDing]

I'll try it maybe in a year, bit burnt out at the moment with the game.

[majestic]

The recent patches killed a good bunch of builds that were easily powerful enough to clear full Unfair as Azata. Favorable Magic and Zippy Magic were great if you stacked some dice on a caster Oracle, but with the nerfs - well, rather, bugfixes - to Expanded Arsenal and Second Bloodlines, uh... yeah. Could probably still work if you just stacked all the enchantments bonuses in the world, but not sure.

[uuuhhii]

is the puzzle not terrible by owlcat standard or just not terrible