Kingmaker Pathfinder Kingmaker release thread

Pathfinder: Kingmaker
That's how I feel as well. It's more BG than NWN, but the ruleset screams NWN. Mechanics wise and gameplay I feel it's more like BG. With, dare I say, a splash of Sword Coast Legends (haha, just had to :p).
Yea, it is as buggy as SCL :p

But no kidding, there are still plenty of bugs. Not as bad as BT4 but game will need to be polished for another month or two. But it is already playable and fun.
 
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Well, I played it up to Oleg's and I found the story felt like a NWN module. A stream of consciousness follows: :D

The game suffers from gimped NPC's, such as a bard and a sorcerer who can't carry anything and so encumbrance becomes a thing almost immediately. There is an NPC at Oleg's who you can use to swap out party members but you need 2000 gp. Even with the two secret treasure rooms from the first dungeon, I didn't have that much since I had to drop a lot of loot so my characters could walk instead of crawling.

I did like messing with the AD&D rules set again. I never got into PoE even though I backed it big. Didn't bother with PoE2.

I think the Deity tooltips are extremely lacking. Playing a paladin or cleric takes a little bit of fiddling and once you click on a Deity you'll need to go back to the beginning of character creation to roll back from your choice. Not a big deal, but could be better.

I'm thinking of starting over and taking at least one level of rogue. There seems to be a lot of extra XP available to that class. A rogue with good persuasion/intimidation might have a leg up on leveling.

I generally min/max builds when playing AD&D so I really hate wimpy companions. I also don't care about romance with a sprite that's less than one inch high. I DO like romance in games like Skyrim where a girl looks like a girl :)

If someone makes a mod that allows me to re-roll the stats of the companions, I will become much more interested in them.

I thought the splitting of the party was super lame. No details to avoid spoilers. Again, sacrificing what I would do to fit what the devs wanted to happen. Hate that.

Linzi sounds just like the tiefling from NWN2. She might be the only companion I would really keep....if I could re-roll her character to not be lame.

I will play it at least one more evening. For those who are wondering why I bought it: I was picking it up for someone else and they ended up getting a copy on their own. This is fine as I was getting bored with Divine Divinity anyway. This will give me a short break from that game and I can go back refreshed. Who knows this could grow on me if the choices open up much more. It feels very linear at the moment.
 
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Looks like it's getting about five times the player count of Bards Tale IV, but about half that of POE2 at release. For what those stats are worth. I suspect that none of them risk over-exciting the bank manager.
 
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The game suffers from gimped NPC's, such as a bard and a sorcerer who can't carry anything and so encumbrance becomes a thing almost immediately […] I had to drop a lot of loot so my characters could walk instead of crawling.

You can disable too high encumbrance changing party member movement speed in the settings.

The party splitting is based on choices you made in the tutorial. Can't be a rpg without choices and consequences. Beside, there is 11 companions, you don't even see half of them early on.
 
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Yeah, I'm aware of both things, Az.

These are not my type of games, but I think I can still get several hours of fun out of it. Hiring mercenaries should take care of most of my complaints. I don't like for the devs to choose my companions. I want to build a hand-picked team. The companions can stay at camp and I'll do their quests with them and that will be it. That's my plan at least. We'll see.

When I work with people in real life, I always choose from those who are the best at their profession. I don't choose the quirky, the lame, the inept, etc. I want to succeed! Games always assume I want a character, but I want a pro. :D
 
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When I work with people in real life, I always choose from those who are the best at their profession.

The companions in the game are actually very well build for what they are intended to do (only Valerie has a strange stats spread). You aren't going to make better in your own, unless you want a class they do not cover (Paladin, Monk, Druid and Sorcerer) or start to cheat because you don't want to bother in which case, just create a custom difficulty with damage and enemies set to the lowest value possible and solo the game with whatever.
 
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I wonder if you can solo on easy mode. That would be ideal. I may actually try that; at least when companions aren't forced on you to fit the story. Good idea!

This game was an oops buy, but I still would like to play it and follow along with the posts from others who are playing. Just because I'm not a party-up gamer shouldn't mean I can't find some fun.

If I take a level or two of rogue and then go paladin, that might be a good fit for me. I know one of the aasimir gets +2 to charisma and dex. That might be viable on a custom game.

What do you think @azarhal; ?
 
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When I work with people in real life, I always choose from those who are the best at their profession. I don't choose the quirky, the lame, the inept, etc. I want to succeed! Games always assume I want a character, but I want a pro. :D
No offense Nut but I can't work with perfectionist's in real life. It seems I always end up in arguments with them. So I prefer average workers to accomplish my work goals.
 
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Odd you compare it to BT4. I've been playing BT4 since release day and haven't run into any significant bugs.

Yea, it is as buggy as SCL :p

But no kidding, there are still plenty of bugs. Not as bad as BT4 but game will need to be polished for another month or two. But it is already playable and fun.
 
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Is anyone finding the game extremely difficult? I'm dying left and right, first on Challenging Mode then on Normal with a few tweaks (Custom mode, really.) It's rough sledding for the first few hours, unless I'm doing something horribly wrong (which may be the case. :p)
 
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Is anyone finding the game extremely difficult? I'm dying left and right, first on Challenging Mode then on Normal with a few tweaks (Custom mode, really.) It's rough sledding for the first few hours, unless I'm doing something horribly wrong (which may be the case. :p)
Simple answer is to change the difficulty level to either Easy or Story mode.
 
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I would recommend a tanky class at first and get as high as AC as possible. That has never let me down in a D&D game. My paladin is lvl 3.
 
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I wonder if you can solo on easy mode. That would be ideal. I may actually try that; at least when companions aren't forced on you to fit the story. Good idea!

This game was an oops buy, but I still would like to play it and follow along with the posts from others who are playing. Just because I'm not a party-up gamer shouldn't mean I can't find some fun.

If I take a level or two of rogue and then go paladin, that might be a good fit for me. I know one of the aasimir gets +2 to charisma and dex. That might be viable on a custom game.

What do you think @azarhal; ?

I'm not sure why you would want to take rogue levels with a Paladin.

For soloing, I would suggest the Inquisitor Monster Tacticians archetype.

- The gets more summons than anyone that last longer and don't take spell slots! (can only have on summon spells, but by Summon Monster II, it can spawn more than one monster)
- They can wear up to medium armor and use shield (but not tower, but you don't want tower shield anyway) so good AC (with some dex).
- they have d8 for HP
- They are proficient in bows, all simple weapons and their deity weapon (greatsword/longsword/scimitar deity are probably best so you have a martial melee weapon you can use).
- They get cleric spells (buff/debuff/healing) but cast them like a bard (only need 16 Wis because they top at level 6 spells like a bard, although higher Wis is helpful for spell DC and having more summons).
- They have lots of skill points (like bard)
- They have tactical feats and around level 5, these are shared with their summons so you don't need other party members for them to work…
- They get the ability to set the enchantment bane (+2d6 against X) on their weapon to the type of their choice (it's a toggle with a round counter, per-day that's equal to your inquisitor level).

At character creation, take the combat casting feat.

The only tricky thing about soloing is probably how camping works.

Is anyone finding the game extremely difficult? I'm dying left and right, first on Challenging Mode then on Normal with a few tweaks (Custom mode, really.) It's rough sledding for the first few hours, unless I'm doing something horribly wrong (which may be the case. :p)

What did you set for damage and enemies in the custom difficulty? I'm on "normal" but switched enemies, critical and damage to "normal" values instead of weak and 80% and it's not really hard so far. I micro-manage Lizzi a lot though, making her cast Daze to CC one enemy and heal if needed while keeping her away from enemies. Added sleep to her arsenal, but haven't tested it yet.

My main is a plain Inquisitor too and I got cure light wound and Shield of Faith if some healing and defense is needed.
 
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What did you set for damage and enemies in the custom difficulty? I'm on "normal" but switched enemies, critical and damage to "normal" values instead of weak and 80% and it's not really hard so far. I micro-manage Lizzi a lot though, making her cast Daze to CC one enemy and heal if needed while keeping her away from enemies. Added sleep to her arsenal, but haven't tested it yet.

My main is a plain Inquisitor too and I got cure light wound and Shield of Faith if some healing and defense is needed.

I'm on Challenging but 90% enemies damage and weak criticals. Getting my butt handed to me by every random encounter. Maybe 80% is the sweet spot. I micromanage and cast spells too but two arrow shots and I'm dead (Aasimar Archaeologist.)

80% and Normal crits seems a good challenge but doable. Question - How does dual-classing work? If I start taking a second class at level up, can I still put levels into my original class later on?
 
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I'm on Challenging but 90% enemies damage and weak criticals. Getting my butt handed to me by every random encounter. Maybe 80% is the sweet spot. I micromanage and cast spells too but two arrow shots and I'm dead (Aasimar Archaeologist.)

Two arrow shots and dead is normal at the start. Low level D&D as always been nasty like that. That's why I suggested early in this thread that people start with a melee tankish class the first time.

Higher AC (from armor) and more HP helps early on and stop you from being destroyed while you are learning the game. ;)

80% and Normal crits seems a good challenge but doable. Question - How does dual-classing work? If I start taking a second class at level up, can I still put levels into my original class later on?

It's not dual-classing, it's multiclassing. You can pick a new class every level or one you already had as long as their alignment do not conflict and haven't reached the max (at least 3 classes/prestige classes, but I didn't look at the limit).

I don't really suggest doing it unless you know what you are doing, the game cap at character level 20.

So you can make a character with 10 level of Fighter and 10 level of Wizard. Or make a level 20 Magus instead (or Wizard or Sorcerer level 9 + 1 level of Fighter and 10 level of Eldritch Knight prestige class).
 
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I'm not sure why you would want to take rogue levels with a Paladin.

For soloing, I would suggest the Inquisitor Monster Tacticians archetype.

- The gets more summons than anyone that last longer and don't take spell slots! (can only have on summon spells, but by Summon Monster II, it can spawn more than one monster)
- They can wear up to medium armor and use shield (but not tower, but you don't want tower shield anyway) so good AC (with some dex).
- they have d8 for HP
- They are proficient in bows, all simple weapons and their deity weapon (greatsword/longsword/scimitar deity are probably best so you have a martial melee weapon you can use).
- They get cleric spells (buff/debuff/healing) but cast them like a bard (only need 16 Wis because they top at level 6 spells like a bard, although higher Wis is helpful for spell DC and having more summons).
- They have lots of skill points (like bard)
- They have tactical feats and around level 5, these are shared with their summons so you don't need other party members for them to work…
- They get the ability to set the enchantment bane (+2d6 against X) on their weapon to the type of their choice (it's a toggle with a round counter, per-day that's equal to your inquisitor level).

At character creation, take the combat casting feat.

The only tricky thing about soloing is probably how camping works.

Ok, I may do this. What would you suggest as a good race and stat choices for such a character? I'm not sure if Aasimar get the same penalties as in AD&D. If not, they're a no brainer choice because of the +4 totals. It would seem I would want a class that adds +2 wisdom and maybe +2 dex so I can disable traps/locks? I'm looking for a Jack-of-all-trades so I can pass skills checks galore and level up quicker. Of course, if I need 6000 XP to hit level 2 as an Aasimar, it might be a horrible choice.

I'm not sure how much the game forces companions on you though. I know I have to keep several till I hit Oleg's. It looks like I can solo or maybe just take one maybe after that.

P.S. I appreciate all of your help, Azarhal. I'm not the target audience but I'd love to make this game fun for me :)
 
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@azarhal;, Thanks for the info. Can you copy that response to the new thread I made so we can keep all the tips/tricks/information in one designated thread? That would be great. Thanks!
 
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@crpgnut;, Aasimar don't have leveling penalties. You should be fine with one.

A note though, the game has armor skill penalty, so trickery (what open locks/disable trap) might fail a lot unless you remove your armor to open chest/door/remove traps early on.

Also, there is no cross-class skills in Pathfinder, you are free to invest in any of the skills and class skills get a bonus(+3). The Inquisitor has a lots of class skills, so you'll start with an early boost.

You will have to have party members until you can leave Oleg, that's when the party selection window popup.

@azarhal;, Thanks for the info. Can you copy that response to the new thread I made so we can keep all the tips/tricks/information in one designated thread? That would be great. Thanks!

Technically this was the hints/tips thread and the release thread. That's what I wrote in the op.
 
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