Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - Survey

I think WotR is a game made by a studio called Owlcat. To me, it would be fitting and expected that the next game they make will be just as good as the previous two.

Filled it out. My only gripes were one or two quests that I felt should be adjusted and that I felt difficulty was a bit too high on Core-level.

Which tied into my suggestion that maybe it would be possible to implement some system where you could save a "linked chain of buff spells for party and/or specific members", so you wouldn't have to remember to cast 30 different long-lasting spells after every rest. 20 for the whole party & 10 for specific individuals. (later on in the game)

Otherwise, I was pretty happy with the whole thing. As others have pointed out, Crusade Battles/Management/Kingdom management weren't that great. They could certainly be enhanced and made more complex & interesting.

However, as a general rule, almost anything that provides variety and a change of pace, in a long lasting game, is a good thing in my eyes. Even stuff that I'm lukewarm in my feelings about.

Talking about variety and long-lasting game, the ability for the community to create their own campaign would go a long way. If they had more time to develop an editor, that would be great!

Originally Posted by Feist
Which tied into my suggestion that maybe it would be possible to implement some system where you could save a "linked chain of buff spells for party and/or specific members", so you wouldn't have to remember to cast 30 different long-lasting spells after every rest. 20 for the whole party & 10 for specific individuals. (later on in the game)

Yep, we need that. It has already been discussed during the beta either here or in the Owlcat forums. Can't remember.
It would be so much of a convenience.

However, as a general rule, almost anything that provides variety and a change of pace, in a long lasting game, is a good thing in my eyes. Even stuff that I'm lukewarm in my feelings about.

Yep, good point. The possibility for a change of pace is one reason why I love playing RPGs. And yes, if usability was better, I would perhaps even like crusade management despite its shallowness. But when I think of building up settlements and therefor having to switch screens a thousand times, and also having the stupid cards for projects, all without having a clear overview what is happening and how its interlinked, immediatley makes me want to rather switch to my party, go to a random map and kick demons' asses (for a 100th time).

Originally Posted by Morrandir
Yep, we need that. It has already been discussed during the beta either here or in the Owlcat forums. Can't remember.
It would be so much of a convenience.

Because you buff your party that much?

I buff my party only for those very difficult boss fight and it's no more than 5 or 6 spells and it changes depending of what I have available at the time (and what long spells I already have) and what appears to be appropriate for this particular fight. Not sure how an automatic would work. Some spells have a very short duration, others are high level you can only cast it once before having to rest… Now worth the effort, imo.

I haven't even progressed further, because this whole talk about hefty "combat challenges" (as I call them nnow) has turned me off.
I'm a story player not a war sim simulator.

Originally Posted by Morrandir
Yep, we need that. It has already been discussed during the beta either here or in the Owlcat forums. Can't remember.
It would be so much of a convenience.

It was a bit of a dream come true. When I first arrived in Alushinyrra and discovered that I could just pop out to the Nexus & ask The Inheritor to heal me, only to realize that this would also replenish all the spells in the spellbooks as well as restart the timer on all the buffs on my characters. No resting or casting required. Which made it all the harder to return to Golarion…

Originally Posted by Morrandir
Yep, good point. The possibility for a change of pace is one reason why I love playing RPGs. And yes, if usability was better, I would perhaps even like crusade management despite its shallowness. But when I think of building up settlements and therefor having to switch screens a thousand times, and also having the stupid cards for projects, all without having a clear overview what is happening and how its interlinked, immediatley makes me want to rather switch to my party, go to a random map and kick demons' asses (for a 100th time).

I get that. I find quite a few of the choices on how it's all set up to work, to be rather odd. I still enjoy it, as a bit of variety, but I wouldn't be able to fully commit to it, the way I commit to advancing my party & the respective members.

Originally Posted by vanedor
Because you buff your party that much?

Yes.
Let's see, the default at level 19 is:

• Main char (Wizard, Azata):
  • Mage Armor
  • Shield
  • Mirror Image
  • Ode to Miracolous Magic
  • Mind Blank (Communal)
• Seelah:
  • Divine Weapon Bond
  • Angelic Aspect, Greater
  • Veil of Heaven
  • Bless
  • Bestow Grace (3x)
  • Archon's Aura
  • Bless Weapon (4x)
  • Crusader's Edge
  • Death Ward
• Arueshalae:
  • Hurricane Bow
  • Aspect of the Falcon
  • Aspect of the Bear
  • Magic Fang
• Daeran:
  • Heroic Invocation
  • Shield of Faith (on everyone who hasn't a Ring of Protection +5)
  • Protection from Energy, Communal
  • True seeing (7x)
  • Death Ward
• Woljif:
  • Mage Armor
  • Shield
  • Mirror Image
  • Blur (4x)
  • Heroism, Greater (5x)
  • Reduce Person
  • Stoneskin (Communal)
  • Angelic Aspect
  • Transoformation
  • Protection from Arrows, Communal
  • Echolocation

The spells in italic I only use if an encounter is going to be difficult (I needed to reload) and/or if I know that the spell is needed in the next encounter (e.g. Death Ward against enemies with Energy Drain).
These are are spells with a duration of at least 1 min per level. I cast them before a dungeon or any area with expectable combat.
Then there are some more spells with a duration of about 1 round per level which I cast directly before difficult encounters:

• Haste
• Blink
• Shield of Law
• Protection from Evil, Communal
• Sense vitals
• Overwhelming Presence
• Displacement (3x)

So that are 40-50 casting actions. That's not fun.

Not sure how an automatic would work. Some spells have a very short duration, others are high level you can only cast it once before having to rest…

That's why you would need to have a well-designed tool.
It should be possible to define a sequence (so a defined order) of actions (char x casts spell y on char z). Then you should be able to store multiple sequences and name each one. For example "base buff long spells", "base buff medium spells", "against energy drain", "against archers" and "base buff short spells". Then you could save these sequences in presets:

• preset 1: "base buffing long spells", "base buff medium spells"
• preset 2: "base buffing long spells", "base buff medium spells", "against energy drain", "base buff short spells"

Then with a single mouse click a preset can be executed via the hotbar.

This would be an actual innovation for party-based D20-like games.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
I haven't even progressed further, because this whole talk about hefty "combat challenges" (as I call them nnow) has turned me off.
I'm a story player not a war sim simulator.

Then why don't you just play it as a story player and decrease difficulty to a minimum?

I only use a few buffing spells. If I have to cast dozens of buffing spells for every fight that tells me the difficulty is set to high. The only time I pile them on are the really big boss fights and those aren't common.

Originally Posted by wolfgrimdark
I only use a few buffing spells. If I have to cast dozens of buffing spells for every fight that tells me the difficulty is set to high.

You don't have to do it before every encounter as (especially) at later levels the duration is long enough for 4-5 encounters.
And well, I guess it's part of the game at higher difficulties that it's necessary to buff more often.
However there's no reason why it has to be a pain in the ass.

Originally Posted by Morrandir
And yes, if usability was better, I would perhaps even like crusade management despite its shallowness. But when I think of building up settlements and therefor having to switch screens a thousand times, and also having the stupid cards for projects, all without having a clear overview what is happening and how its interlinked, immediatley makes me want to rather switch to my party, go to a random map and kick demons' asses (for a 100th time).

I agree it was annoying to having to go into each fort to check whats been built etc but I thought its pretty clear what each project does - you just need to mouse over each choice and it tells you exactly what impact it will have.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
I haven't even progressed further, because this whole talk about hefty "combat challenges" (as I call them nnow) has turned me off.
I'm a story player not a war sim simulator.

Change the difficulty to storymode - honestly, combat isn't that difficult in WotR at all, unlike Kingmaker at its release.

The project card part doesn't bother me, I like the part where you have to take care of what's happening and to make choices, as long as we don't have to do it in long sessions at a time like Kingmaker. And we don't have those attribute conflicts we had in Kingmaker with the strange mapping of attributes to kingdom management domains (asking a wizard to have high WIS for ex).

But I don't like the combat itself, the frustrating recruitment process, and the impact on morale. Above all, it's obscure and badly explained. In fact, I don't like the contrast between this seemingly underdeveloped feature and the rest of the game that has been so well crafted.

Originally Posted by Morrandir
Then why don't you just play it as a story player and decrease difficulty to a minimum?

Because these encounters would still appear.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Because these encounters would still appear.

They would be very easy, you could probably let the party on automatic most of the time and just watch the show. Most of the experience would be the story.

If the alternative is giving up on the game, I think it's worth a try.

Funny thing about the inventory.. I've kept literally every single quest or dungeon-related item in my inventory, and it's a mess. None of it was ever needed once that segment was complete, but for some reason I thought, "if it's still there, maybe it will be needed". Surely they wouldn't make you carry all this crap if it didn't have some other use later?

It never was, so eventually I sold it all. And then I get to the wizard's tower in Act 4…

I'm not reading that spoiler, but I think I get what you mean via those three dots … and yeah, I absolutely hate that …

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory
Funny thing about the inventory.. I've kept literally every single quest or dungeon-related item in my inventory, and it's a mess. None of it was ever needed once that segment was complete, but for some reason I thought, "if it's still there, maybe it will be needed". Surely they wouldn't make you carry all this crap if it didn't have some other use later?

It never was, so eventually I sold it all. And then I get to the wizard's tower in Act 4…

Spoiler

Storyteller-- do you still have that useless daggery thing you forgot about from Act 1? (paraphrased)

Me-- Nope

Storyteller-- "Alas… you suck."

Me-- *facepalm*

That's what personal stash is for

They really should mark important items so you don't sell them inadvertently. Like say its a "quest item", or in item description say "this item may be useful in a quest or otherwise a location based reason later" and its marked with a specific tag.

On buffing: I don't see the problem. I don't pre buff most of the time. I think buffing during combat is how the game is intended, and always play that way. Yes, it takes time to do a buff, but that is how combat should work, you have to sometimes buff a party member for a specific reason during a battle.

Its like -- Oh well, yes, sometimes you have to play defense! It would be nice to have your cleric/wizard doing other spells all the time, but pre buffing takes away one tactical aspect of the combat, in my eyes.

I think the attitude of pre-buffing and doing a million buffs every time before a battle is a power player thing, and not common. Just my 2 cents on that topic.