Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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Max Peck
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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2nd DLC “Varnhold's Lot”
In this DLC, you join Varn as his general, and experience Varnhold's valorous history first-hand — the whole of it, not just the outcome! Just as you were claiming your first title, another hero of the Stolen Lands became a baron too: Maegar Varn, captain of the Varnling Host mercenary band and rightful ruler of Varnhold. If you've played the main campaign, you already know what happened to him next... Or do you?

Key Features
  • Play a complete and challenging self-contained side story
  • Create a new character and fight for the future of Varnhold while your main campaign's hero establishes their barony in the Shrike Hills
  • Experience the adventure from a companion's point of view
  • Explore a huge new dungeon. What secrets lie in the forbidden depths?
  • Import your achievements into the main campaign! After you finish the DLC, a new event will unlock in the main story: Maegar Varn will invite you to visit the dungeon once again — to witness the consequences of your decisions...
  • Lead your commander to victory in combat and to prosperity in peace!
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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I finally picked this up on the Steam sale and am having a lot of fun with it. Surprisingly, I was having a lot of crashes when I had it set to fullscreen and I alt-tabbed, but it seems completely stable when set to windowed fullscreen. The storyline is great so far, with me being about 12 hours in. I endorse it!
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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I started this in earnest a few weeks ago, and really love it for the most part, and haven't even run into a lot of bugs, but the one bug I did run into seems to unfortunately have ruined my game after I sunk around 25 hours into it. :(

I apparently made the mistake of assigning one of my custom characters to be my treasurer, and after I did an event popped up to kick off the event to raise the economy rank of my kingdom, but when I click the button to meet my advisor, it goes to the throne room, and nothing happens. Tried assigning the gnome to be treasurer after I got him and a number of other things, but could never get that event to reset, so there was no way for my kingdom to raise it's economy ranking.

Sadly I'll probably shelve this for another good while and hope they eventually get it fixed up.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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This is back on sale at GOG for 50% off and I was wondering if the feeling is that the bugs got worked out, or if it's still a pass. Reading that a save with 25 hours of work was lost because you assigned the wrong character to something seems brutal.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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Paingod wrote: Mon Dec 16, 2019 8:19 am This is back on sale at GOG for 50% off and I was wondering if the feeling is that the bugs got worked out, or if it's still a pass. Reading that a save with 25 hours of work was lost because you assigned the wrong character to something seems brutal.
Been playing for awhile on my Surface Tablet with zero bugs. The game is fun, but it is really, really long. I'm finally in the last chapter, i think. Definitely worth playing if you like Baldur's Gate/Pillars isometric RPGs.

My only complaint is the character system is way too deep. Too many choices, subclasses and abilities. It is very overwhelming trying to min/max in this game without reading guides.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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They tried to bring all of the options from the pen-and-paper game in instead of iconic and representative choices, and ended up making it incredibly dense for people who don't know the RPG. I seriously went and got out my Pathfinder core book while playing just for reference. It isn't bad (I've actually had a lot of fun with it), but it isn't a quick study, either.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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Blackhawk wrote: Mon Dec 16, 2019 6:59 pm They tried to bring all of the options from the pen-and-paper game in instead of iconic and representative choices, and ended up making it incredibly dense for people who don't know the RPG. I seriously went and got out my Pathfinder core book while playing just for reference. It isn't bad (I've actually had a lot of fun with it), but it isn't a quick study, either.
As someone who loves Pathfinder, I think it's *awesome*, but I totally get just how dense and unforgiving it can be for people who aren't deep into the pen and paper game.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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Good to know all of that. I was worried there may be some bugs left that ruined it. With the holidays upon me and this sale lasting until after Christmas, I'm not in a hurry to drop cash on it and expect to have a little to spend after the 25th.

Until then I've gotten back into Pillars of Eternity (the original, no DLC) to scratch the itch.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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I picked up the "Imperial" version for $40 on sale (50% off, I think). I've been really enjoying the game. More than I have many other isometric RPG's lately. My concerns over bugs so far seems unfounded, at least up to Character level 7, Kingdom power 2.

Some things I really like:
  • Diversity. I -love- that I'm not just running my pawns around a map constantly and can actually spend time making meaningful choices and plans for a Kingdom. I didn't unlock this until I was 65 days into the game's time, at character level 5, which took maybe 12 hours of poking around with a fine-toothed comb at my own deliberately slower pace.
  • Challenge. I really like that the game isn't spoon-feeding me levels and fights. I often have to try to win, sometimes even in Random Encounters. Last night, for example, I fought Spriggans for the first time - like 8 of them - and they kicked my ass on default combat. I had to pull out the bigger guns and some planning to get by them. I actually like it when the game basically says "You don't belong here" and a second wave of enemies spawns in when I'm barely making it through the first. It's better than a magical grey wall I can't walk past.
  • Exploration. You can easily wander into places you don't belong, but can still take useful actions while you're there if you're careful. For example, I found a cave with a CR15 Crag Linnorm in it - which one Steam poster said was "basically like a dragon, but with extra f**k you" since it has DR10/Cold Iron and Regeneration. In direct combat, it annihilated my party regardless of the tactics I used and I had to back off. I was able, though, to Stealth my way around it and loot the treasure it was guarding.
Some things I don't like:
  • The load time between areas and the kingdom management screen is a little long-ish and frequent. That's about it so far. I'm having trouble thinking of things I don't like.
I think Octavia may be the most over-powered character in my party and I have new respect for Wizards. I often shun them in these games and make myself a Sorcerer (which I did this time), but I've found that her diversity in spell selection means I can prep her specifically for any encounter and her single level in Rogue makes her really dangerous with Cantrips (giving them bonus to Stealth damage), in particular against regenerative enemies like Trolls, who are slain easily by her Acid Splash cantrip once down. Since the Cantrips are "Touch" attacks, they're often much easier to land than regular bow attacks and she doesn't miss anywhere near as much as I'd expect.

My own character is the "Pet Sorcerer" (I forget the exact class name at this moment), but it's a Sorcerer that starts with a Companion animal (I chose a Mammoth) like a Druid might. His spell selection is pretty light, but being able to cast a few choice spells without specific prep hasn't been a bad play so far. My only gripe with him is that, as a "Pet Caster" I've given him all the Summon line, and these spells take a full round to cast, meaning I have to basically start every fight a round in advance if I want my summons to get in before the meat shields. Tristan (the Cleric (Ecclesitheurge) from the Elk Temple) is a better pet caster as soon as he gets Animate Dead and can summon up a 3-6 Skeletal Champions as a Standard Action.

Pet casters continue to be overpowered in these games, which is not unexpected. Anything that provides a force multiplier and lets you start fights with disposable minions who can soak damage will make anything easier. Starting with a Companion Animal (Mammoth) is no exception. My L7 Mammoth actually has higher AC and single-attack damage potential (with a 29 Strength score!) than either of my two fighters, but is a little lacking in HP beside them, and can be re-summoned with rest if he dies at no cost.

I also added a Mercenary early on, a Flame Warden (basically a fire-loving dual-wielder) for piles of easy DPS and it hasn't disappointed me. It even turned out to be a good move as I didn't have anyone else to stick in the Treasurer slot without hindering some other Kingdom aspect. The Merc has been relatively potent, but takes a back seat in most missions to other named characters. There's enough of them that I like and are useful that I don't need to drag this one out except on rare occasions. If I had to make a new Merc to begin with, I'd probably make it a Druid or second Pet Sorcerer (I like pets that much). I've got to remember to stay Level 1 until I do this, though, so they'll be 500g instead of 2000 or more.

This seems like a game I may actually beat and then go back to replay, though my character would be similar. Between Valerie and Amiri, there is absolutely no need to make a fighter-class character. Tristian by himself is a good enough healer to float the party in that way. That just leaves me looking at another caster, and I love pet casters so I'd either do this Sorcerer again or a Druid, and I love the sheer absurd size of my Mammoth now at level 7. I often identify with the Chaotic Good dialog options over the others, despite my character being Neutral Good. I haven't seen any alignment issues come out of making too many choices around Lawful/Chaos despite being Neutral.

One thing I'm itching to try is the turn-based mod for this game. I've heard that it makes things possibly too easy as you can really tactically manage every fight with fine control over every character (not just a tangled mass), but also makes easy encounters more annoying as you have to manage them with fine control despite being cake-walks you could normally auto-combat through while asleep. I'm saving this for my second play-through as I expect it'll make the game quite different.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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I don't really have much to add (my time in the game is around 2 hours at this point). I looks great and feels like a true successor to the Baldur's Gate titles. I enjoy the added PnP RPG stuff (details in dialogue, narrative resolution to big events by making choices) but have finally cemented that I don't enjoy frenetic combat involving managing a party of 4+ characters (even with the AI on). I have it on easy and we'll see how far that goes. I like the banter, I like the characters, story and choices. I apparently find no joy in the combat. If I could go back 20 years and tell this to myself, he'd never believe it.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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Smoove_B wrote: Sat Jan 04, 2020 1:08 pmI don't enjoy frenetic combat involving managing a party of 4+ characters ... I apparently find no joy in the combat.
The combat can get sticky and troublesome at points. I've had a number of fights that I had to either wait and come back to (because my opponent was simply too tough) or that I had to reload and try a few times. I'm playing on Challenging, though, the last difficulty before they just start adding damage to enemy attacks to make things harder (which I think isn't actually "fun" as I hate it when computer opponents get clear advantages over me).

One thing I'm planning on doing in the future is downloading the turn-based mod for this game from Nexus. I've heard that it changes it from a frantic cluster-fluff to a more strategic planning in combat. You're doing more real Pen & Paper style combat and less "throw all the meat at the wall" combat; my primary strategy in any fight is to summon as many creatures as I can and throw them at the enemy, mostly to soak damage while my party does the leg work, but sometimes they get a few hits in. The guy who made the mod makes it look pretty damn good. You get a movement range indicator, attack range indicator, swift/move/standard actions indicators - and everyone falls into line with their Initiative roll. It's all the same numbers per round that the game uses, but put into a Table Top rules format.

One person I was talking with said it makes all the fights easier since you have fine control over every movement, but he also said it makes easy fights more tedious since you have fine control over every movement. Double-edged sword. I'm saving it for my next playthrough, which seems imminent as I'm not bored with the game and my characters are all 9th level and I'm still enjoying playing.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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I started probably six or eight months ago and got distracted. Lately I've been on a Pathfinder kick, and am wanting to come back, but the system is just too dense to come back into mid-game. I'm thinking I may 'rewind' to an earlier point (before the Stag Lord?) and try from that point.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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Blackhawk wrote: Mon Jan 06, 2020 12:17 pm I started probably six or eight months ago and got distracted. Lately I've been on a Pathfinder kick, and am wanting to come back, but the system is just too dense to come back into mid-game. I'm thinking I may 'rewind' to an earlier point (before the Stag Lord?) and try from that point.
The only difference between pre-Stag Lord and post-Stag Lord is that you're running a kingdom. Trying to understand the character classes is pretty dense before and after that, regardless. For what it's worth, I was Level 5 by the time I got to taking down the Stag Lord and had done pretty much everything I could do before then. My characters are level 9 now and I'm working towards unlocking my 4th section of the map to add to my kingdom.

I think the game does a pretty good job of keeping track of quests in your journal for you and dropping hints on what to look for next - except in Kingdom Management. I keep getting indicators to expand this or add that, but it's not clear how to - and after researching, it mostly comes down to "keep growing your Kingdom, upgrading your roles, and adding towns until you hit the next milestone". Most other quests in your log will say "NPC is waiting to meet you at X location" or "Visit Y at the capital city" (your capital you rule from). Some NPC's aren't easy to find and I've had to Google where they hang out to save time.

The kingdom growth stages are pretty glacial compared to the other parts of the game, but it does give you opportunity to fast-forward through time as needed, though you'd be a fool to use that too much instead of exploring the world and gaining experience and treasure. I've only fast-forwarded when it was required to upgrade something and my character had to sit down with one of the advisers to do it.

So far the complaints about kingdom tasks disappearing before you can get an adviser to complete them seem unfounded. I've had a few things come and go - but none of them were essential kingdom issues. All of them have been harmless bonus things you can ignore, and it's clear the game is hitting you with things you have to chose between - just like it does during conversations "Either do this, or do that" ... you can't do both.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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Bought this during the recent GoG sale and for some reason it clicks with me a lot better than Pillars of Eternity. Maybe it's because PoE had a whole bunch of word salad and a completely unfamiliar rules system (I eventually got into it, but damn it took me a while).

Running through with a "boring" Fighter and just killed the Stag Lord.

That was a damned tough fight. I messed up one of the fights with the bandits and someone sounded the alarm so everyone came outside. Luckily, I was able to "aggro" the guys off the west flank separately (guess the Stag Lord didn't like them). Even after clearing out the rest of the fort, I still couldn't kill him and his two mini-bosses (the tank and the sneaky stabby guy). But, thankfully, I was able to "aggro" them separately - the tank came out while the sneaky stabby guy decided to just hang out instead and not respond to my provocations. Eventually, I got him to come to us as well by casting 'grease' under where he was standing invisibly. He still knocked out half my party with 30-40 hit point crits. Wish I could come up with a character build like that. No way I could have taken that guy if he had any kind of backup.

Without backup, it was just the Stag Lord, a cleric and two mooks. Our defector buddy killed the mooks, I had Amiri get the cleric, while everyone else dogpiled on the Stag Lord.

I think I rested about five times clearing out that damn fort.

Then I bankrupted my barony building random structures in the town.

Initially, the combat seemed confusing and uncontrollable to me, until I remembered to turn the dumbass party AI off. Now, they're unable to carry out simple tasks like switching targets after the current one dies, but at least they don't randomly sling around fireballs killing half my party or run past three guys who all get attacks of opportunity.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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NickAragua wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2020 12:20 pmBought this during the recent GoG sale and for some reason it clicks with me a lot better than Pillars of Eternity. Maybe it's because PoE had a whole bunch of word salad and a completely unfamiliar rules system (I eventually got into it, but damn it took me a while).
I wanted to love PoE myself, but the best I could pull off was getting about 3 hours into it each of the three times I started before I got distracted and left.

Kingmaker clicked pretty well and I hammered on it until I was up to level 10 and still going - but I got distracted by a new game and haven't gotten back to it. I keep intending to, though. I did enjoy getting there.

I'd like to finish it and try it again with a Turn Based Mod installed to turn it into less of a free-for-all and more of a strategic experience. I've heard it's a double-edged sword, though. Weenie fights are bogged down by it because you're moving one character at a time.
NickAragua wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2020 12:20 pmInitially, the combat seemed confusing and uncontrollable to me, until I remembered to turn the dumbass party AI off. Now, they're unable to carry out simple tasks like switching targets after the current one dies, but at least they don't randomly sling around fireballs killing half my party or run past three guys who all get attacks of opportunity.
I never really had that problem. My party AI is always on, but I do -not- set my casters to auto-fire AoE spells. It's mostly so that the casters use ranged Touch spells (hits a lower AC) and the fighters use Charge to open fights and move between enemies.

My feeling on combat boiled down to one thing though: spam pet summons. In particular the Level 4 Raise Dead spell, which summons 4-6 Skeleton Champions to fight for you. They make outstanding fodder, especially as opening volleys.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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Paingod wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2020 12:49 pm I'd like to finish it and try it again with a Turn Based Mod installed to turn it into less of a free-for-all and more of a strategic experience. I've heard it's a double-edged sword, though. Weenie fights are bogged down by it because you're moving one character at a time.
If I ever do another playthrough (I don't know if I'm able to do that for any game nowadays, but I did plow through Battletech's campaign twice and am slowly dripping through a career mode run, so never say never), that's going to be perfect for my backstab-happy rogue that I will no doubt make.

I've put too much time into the game to go back on my "sword and board" fighter now, but I'd love to do a "Stabby McBackstab" run, and turn-based mode sounds like it'll let me micromanage that into perfection.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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NickAragua wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2020 12:56 pm
Paingod wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2020 12:49 pm I'd like to finish it and try it again with a Turn Based Mod installed to turn it into less of a free-for-all and more of a strategic experience. I've heard it's a double-edged sword, though. Weenie fights are bogged down by it because you're moving one character at a time.
I've put too much time into the game to go back on my "sword and board" fighter now, but I'd love to do a "Stabby McBackstab" run, and turn-based mode sounds like it'll let me micromanage that into perfection.
Don't forget that Stabby's surname will need to be Flanksalot; McBackstab was his mother's name and she's still playing D&D. Those crazy damage rolls only happen when you've got something flanked, which takes two melee fighters adjacent to the enemy. There are even some ranged flank attacks for solid damage.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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Yeah, I also noticed that there are also a lot of situational feats that are "if you are standing next to someone and they have a parrot in their right hand, you get a bonus to your right-handed parrot attacks as well".

I wonder if there's an NPC fighter that's not a goody-two-shoes that I can team up with, as Val probably wouldn't appreciate all the stabbing and murdering.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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Pathfinder 1's players frequently approach the game (talking the tabletop version here) as the most complex theorycrafting experiment ever, and will design their parties to daisy-chain right handed parrot users in a precise formation to create a dice feedback-loop that causes dragons to die on the players' whim. Go look up some builds that combine feats and levels from four different classes with specific gear in order to create a sequence of actions that manipulates every rule of the game in order to create perfect damage storms. It's crazy.

The video game brought most of those mechanics with it, and it's why so many people get confused about all of the choices.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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NickAragua wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2020 1:42 pm Yeah, I also noticed that there are also a lot of situational feats that are "if you are standing next to someone and they have a parrot in their right hand, you get a bonus to your right-handed parrot attacks as well".

I wonder if there's an NPC fighter that's not a goody-two-shoes that I can team up with, as Val probably wouldn't appreciate all the stabbing and murdering.
Make one as a mercenary. Tailor made duo :) Done that in every last major iso rpg to date. Mostly due to character creation paralysis by analysis. Being able to say "Why not both" instead of "Which one" cuts that time down to about 2 hours instead of 4. Plus you can test two at at a time which theoretically lets you cut down on the number of restarts as you explore the classes. Or your like me with 40 hours played but never past 25% complete :)
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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morlac wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2020 2:07 pmMake one as a mercenary.
The very first thing I did when I hit that point was make a Merc. It ended up becoming my Treasurer, which is good because I didn't have any other NPC's to fill the role.

My main character is a Sorcerer (the version with a pet, I took a Mammoth). My Merc is a flame Ranger (bows).

Unfortunately, I don't know the appropriate chains of parrots on sticks to make dragons dance for me, but I do pretty well by spamming hordes of undead minions at the start of every combat. They tend to keep things distracted and let the powerhouses come in to mop up.

Amusingly, my best fighter - hands down - is probably my Mammoth. That thing often hits 40+ Strength after buffing, and has an AC equal to my best defensive Fighter. It even has a "knockdown" ability that lets it charge through a group of enemies and bowl them over; bowls over allies in the way, too, though.

I've heard that you can make a Merc at level 1 if you avoid leveling before you talk to the person who lets you draft them. The level 1 Merc is something like 500gp and stays around forever at no additional cost. Mercs do get a penalty to kingdom management, but it's nice to have the extra hand. I find there are enough other people to select from to put together an effective party, though - so my custom Merc spends a lot of time counting coins and doing little else.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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Yes, I make them at level 1 because I am cheap. You can a make 2-3 if you skimp and scrap every penny before hitting level 2. Was not aware about the Kingdom penalty. I made/make them in this game because of the awesome synergy you can build that is difficult to impossible with the NPC's. POE was very similar and I did the same there. Druid + Barb combo with some incredible synergy down to the race and backgrounds. They could duo 80% of the battles by themselves. I have not quite cracked to Codex of Complicatedness that is the Pathfinder rule set but I am making headway. Lot's of options, lot's that have little to no gameplay impact :) I do adore customizing characters though and Pathfiner has that down!
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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If you like messing around with character/party building, you can also play the Beneath the Stolen Lands DLC as a sort of stand-alone roguelike with a full party of custom characters for each run.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

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I played through the Varnhold's lot DLC, and it was a pretty decent little romp. Tiny compared to the main game, but reasonably fun. Challenge level is up a little compared to the main game, but you only get two "fixed" NPCs and the rest you should custom-create. Well, technically, you can use the three pre-generated NPCs they give you, but they're a shitty monk that dies from two hits, a shitty two-handed ranger that dies from two hits and... well, the third one is a specialized cleric summoner type subclass that I actually wind up keeping. After trying to go through the first main area ("city of hollow eyes" or something like that) with those pre-generated NPCs, I ditched the monk and ranger and created a pair of tanks - a tower shield toting dwarf and a paladin. Things went much better after that.

Until (and, this is extremely unusual for me) I cheated my way through the final boss fight. Here's the deal: about five minutes into the final dungeon, the "fixed" NPC rogue jumps through a portal and leaves. Fine, no problem, my main character is a rogue, and a better one at that. We do ok with five people. Then, after touching a flower, the other "fixed" NPC leaves. Now the problem: this was the party's only wizard. Now, I'm down to four characters, no way to go back and pick up replacements, and no wizard.

The final boss has an AC of 37. My best fighter has an attack bonus of 15 (and that's being generous after applying "bless" and "prayer", probably could have gotten to 17 or 18 with the strength boosting spell). So, the only real way to hit that final boss is with touch attacks, AoE and magic missiles. Guess who had all those? The goddamn wizard that the game took away. Didn't even give his inventory back - he had a wand of fireball and some kind of other flamer spell too.

No way I'm re-doing that whole dungeon, so I cheated, gave my main character a +20 attack bonus and we flattened that final boss (after using up every heal scroll and wand charge).

So, the bottom line is, the fixed NPCs in Varnhold's Lot are a rogue and a wizard, and they both get taken away before the final boss battle. So make sure you have at least wizard capabilities with the rest of your party.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

Post by Daehawk »

Maybe someone can help me. Thanks to a kind OOr I have a copy of this now. Ive been wanting to play since before release. Its the Pathfinder Kingmaker Enhanced Edition version 3.0.8.

I have two issues that seem to be very common and very well known with no fix that I can find. Just lots of complaints.

1. It wont exit properly. I click exit and it just dies. Sometimes it dies there at the exit screen / menu other times its a blank screen. The only way out of that is ctrl-alt-del. The best way to exit seems to be alt-f4. Which is silly. Online people say it doesn't seem to harm the saves or anything . But if theres a simple fix Id like to know it.

2. The worst thing...portraits. There are so few none look like what I want to play. Ive found them on Nexus and Ive used Vortex to install and enable them. But they never show up. Ive tried multiple portrait packs and no change.

Things Ive tried.....reinstalled the game, Vortex, and the mods. Ive tried without mods . Nothing works. Im very surprised at this as long as the game has been out that such simple and general stuff is still busted.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

Post by Paingod »

Daehawk wrote: Mon Feb 10, 2020 7:13 pmIm very surprised at this as long as the game has been out that such simple and general stuff is still busted.
These are things I hadn't heard about and didn't personally experience. My first thought was to play without any mods, but it sounds like you uninstalled everything and tried it plain and it still crashed. I don't have a good answer aside from anything Google might know, which seems to be "Accept it and ALT+F4 when done" ... :?
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

Post by Blackhawk »

I never had trouble modding it, but I used Unity Mod Manager, not Vortex.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

Post by morlac »

Blackhawk wrote: Tue Feb 11, 2020 1:38 pm I never had trouble modding it, but I used Unity Mod Manager, not Vortex.
Same but I just manually installed portraits. No real other modding required imo. It was as easy as copy and paste. Never experienced the exit bug wither but that is a bit ridiculous to not be fixed after all this time.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

Post by Daehawk »

I manually moved them today. They wont show up. Seems to be a thing with the latest patch a ways back.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

Post by morlac »

Did you try this to make the new ones select able at character creation ?

How to use
Use the little "custom portraits" icon under the official portraits in the character creation.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

Post by Daehawk »

Theres nothing there.
Its also locks the game up same as trying to exit the game.

EDIT: I did just fix the lockup. It now lets me view the folder ok and go back to game and it exits with just an error now but doesn't lock up. I switched from exclusive fullscreen to borderless fullscreen.

Still no portraits.

EDIT2: Ive manually moved the mod portraits yet again and thsi time when I open the folder they are there. But they are each in their own folders and wont show up for me to pick them as a character portrait. Theres 200+ and Im not moving each by hand. At this point my only option may be to search each and every folder then move the ones I want to the folder itself. UGH. Why isn't the mod installer working as its supposed to.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

Post by morlac »

Which mod you using?
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

Post by Daehawk »

morlac wrote: Tue Feb 11, 2020 10:46 pm Which mod you using?
Heroes of the stolen lands. I gave up on loading them all and picked the set that looked most like I want...human male ranger ...and used it. Worked fine.

Im not sure what it is but this game has clicked with me. Pillars of the Earth didn't much and I didn't get far in it or Tyranny but this I love...so far. Im just outside the tutorial town and finished the attack on the tavern. But it just 'feels' like a Baldur's Gate / Icewind Dale game where the others dont. I wasn't expecting it even though screenshots showed the little character movement icons and its exactly BG. This game just feels right. And its fun and the story so far interesting with interesting characters...again 'so far'.

But dang is there a LOT of reading. Its like Torment was...even then that hurt my eyes and I had good eyes then. I dont now. I have to squint and lean to about 2 feet from the screen to read it and theres a lot. Plus the colors are not great for reading. On here the black text on white is easy to read. But there that brown'ish background makes it tough for me. My eyes ache, water, and blur. I actually quit at the tavern not because I was bored or didn't like it but because I could not read any more. Wish they would let you customize the colors.

Id also wish for better merchant info. It doesn't show a comparison to your current weapon and armor when you are shopping. Just shows the stats for whatever you are hovering over in the store. Id also like a sell all junk button. It takes me a lot of time to find and click all the items that say a merchant would like this and then sell it.

Other than that it seems great.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

Post by Max Peck »

IIRC, there actually is a "sell all junk" button. The "offer" button defaults to selling all the miscellaneous junk items, and I believe it can be configured to also sell other things like weapons, armor and such.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

Post by Daehawk »

You know how at the top of the inv store window you can list things only as in all weapons or only all armor?...That works for that but there doesn't seem to be a working junk button because after selling all I see in those tabs if I go to list all theres still useless junk in there too. Then its tougher to do because its mixed in with everything and not sorted as simply junk. Just another niggle. Needs polishing but with them hankering to do pt 2 I dont see them fixing it.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

Post by Paingod »

Daehawk wrote: Wed Feb 12, 2020 4:50 pmthere doesn't seem to be a working junk button
Look for a button that just says "Offer" - this should pile all your junk items into the selling screen. I have no idea why it's named "Offer"
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

Post by Daehawk »

If a character can wear an armor then I dont have to worry about it affecting his stats or speed or anything in this game right? Like in some games in a ranger puts on plate then it messes up his stats and attack..but in here the game probably wont even let me equip bad stuff right?

EDIT: Also I take back a part of my praise. This game forces me to rest all the time. Its annoying and I hate it. Never cared for being forced to rest or eat and such in games. Also dont care for timers like the first Fallout had and this one keep reminding me I have a month to find The Stag. But the resting is killing any enjoyment I once had.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

Post by Blackhawk »

The part before you kill the Stag Lord is basically the tutorial. That's when the game actually starts. And there is an event that can cause the main character to stay tired. Follow the hints it gives you to deal with that.
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

Post by Paingod »

Daehawk wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2020 4:16 pm If a character can wear an armor then I dont have to worry about it affecting his stats or speed or anything in this game right? Like in some games in a ranger puts on plate then it messes up his stats and attack..but in here the game probably wont even let me equip bad stuff right?
Heavy armor does incur a speed penalty, as well as a penalty to some actions, like Acrobatics checks. These penalties should be listed on the armor when you inspect it.

Keep in mind, too, that you'll get a healer that doesn't wear any armor. This character follows a diety that prohibits wearing armor. Giving him armor proficiency is a waste of time; he won't be able to cast spells after he puts it on. This is one of a small number of things that are deeply hidden in the game lore, but you can accidentally spend skills trying to work around it.
Daehawk wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2020 4:16 pm Also I take back a part of my praise. This game forces me to rest all the time. Its annoying and I hate it. Never cared for being forced to rest or eat and such in games. Also dont care for timers like the first Fallout had and this one keep reminding me I have a month to find The Stag. But the resting is killing any enjoyment I once had.
As mentioned by Blackhawk, the Stag Lord is the only thing in the game that has a big pulsing timer on it. Any other timer in the game I've run into after that is less important - like "Monsters are attacking in 60 days, get ready" or "This mission expires in 15 days" - but these things don't end the game. The game is advancing a narrative on a world that doesn't wait for you. It's usually not hard to keep up, and missed deadlines haven't ruined anything for me.

"Resting" every day is essential in every iteration of Dungeons & Dragons or Pathfinder, all the way back to 1978. It's how casters recharge their spells and healing is performed. The game's rest mechanic is pretty tame - you're informed that your characters have been traveling for 16+ hours and they're tired. Camping can be done anywhere, even in some dungeons as long as you brought provisions. I found this to be a very light, minimally intrusive mechanic - and it includes a LOT of good banter between NPC's. With everything else in the game, I just don't get how this is a "I hate it and it's ruining the game for me" thing... :eusa-think:
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Re: Pathfinder: Kingmaker with Chris Avellone

Post by morlac »

I agree that the camping mechanic is complete shit. Nothing wrong with the concept at all it is just executed horribly. i have played RPG's since Wizardry 1 and have never encountered a more obtuse UI than the camping one in this game. Combined with the timer at the beginning and it can be a deal breaker for some. It's mostly just not understanding how it works correctly, take the meal portion for instance. it took me forever to figure out what effect they had:

"When you select a recipe it puts it under the cook portrait. However, if you have changed the recipe, it won't automatically change it on the screen. What you have to do is exit the "jobs" screen back to the "front" camping screen, then go back to the "jobs" screen. Then your newly selected recipe will have been updated and if you hover over the recipe now listed under the cooks portait you will get a tooltip parchment detailing the actual effects of that recipe."

The whole camping part needs a major overhaul as it sucks as implemented. At min. it needs a better tutorial.
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