Pathfinder: Kingmaker Question/Tips & Tricks Thread

Two you rescue from the circus? No circus I know about but there is the Tetonic Leagua where you get the Reg the half-orc and the female. She isn't evil and while Reg is CE he can become CN. Both of them make a good team.

Originally Posted by JDR13
What difficulty level are you playing on?

I'm on normal mode. As for the 'circus' recruits, it's been about 5 months since I played this last. I remember a tent and a story about slaves, but you're right, the female is not evil, I just didn't care for her either.

The only companions I have other than my character and 2 mercs are the tower shield lady, the barbarian lady (horrible with names), and the albino priest guy. Linzi, chaotic evil orc guy, and his partner are the only other ones I've found.

Game seems to punish you for exploring. I just went into some rat cave that appeared on the map awhile ago and again got killed as they're all level 8. I'm still level 5. Is there any way to tell what POIs are higher level before the slaughter?

From chapter 1, you should have met:
Valerie - tower shield specialist warrior (in your party)
Amiri - barbarian (in your party)
Linzi - bard (you met her)
Tristian - human cleric (you met him)
Octavia - rogue/mage, Regongar's lover (you met her)
Regongar - magus (you met him)
Harrim - dwarf priest - you meet him in chapter 1 and should had chance to ask him to join you
Jaethal - elf inquisitior - same with Harrim.

Once you start troll invasion quest in chapter 2, you will have chance to meet Jubilost (gnome alchemist) and Ekundayo (human ranger).

You will meet Nok Nok (goblin rogue) after the troll invasion.

As it's tips thread…
All companions in the game suck except Ekundayo. Unlike all silly others, he:
- brings a sidekick animal/tank/mule with him
- lowers necessary rations to 4 per rest in dungeons
- can be set as spymaster in kingdom management

I admit "carrying" Nok Nok everywhere feels awsome too, but only because the game is low on humor. But there are plenty of people here that for whatever reason hate humor in games, so maybe he isn't for everyone's taste.

Originally Posted by purpleblob
From chapter 1, you should have met:
…
Harrim - dwarf priest - you meet him in chapter 1 and should had chance to ask him to join you
Jaethal - elf inquisitior - same with Harrim.

It seems I missed these two along the way :/ I'm in Chapter 2 already.
EDIT: Actually, I did meet them, but they chose to go with the purple bad guy because of some choice I made back at the original castle. Alignment evil/chaotic, I'd guess, which is why Linzi and Valerie are with me.

Looking forward to the ranger, he sounds interesting, and would be nice to have the inquisitor. I just found the gnome alchemist last evening, and while I like his character, he has so far proven ineffective at everything but lighting trolls, but it's early.

I think another part of my problem is that the 2 mercs I created are all at least 1 level lower than my main party. Things got a bit better while playing yesterday, but I still need to work on my tactics.

Originally Posted by joxer
As it's tips thread…
All companions in the game suck except Ekundayo. Unlike all silly others, he:

I kind of agree, I love the game, but most of the companions are just so poorly designed for my 'preferred' group that I'm finding it tough to use them.

Does it actually matter to her personal quest whether Amiri fights Tuskgutter solo?

What I find interesting is that the damage from enemies and traps is reduced by -20% in Normal difficulty, but a lot of people still struggle. The core rules must be pretty unforgiving.

Originally Posted by JDR13
The core rules must be pretty unforgiving.

I think it's more that any P&P game has a human GM adjusting things on the fly ("oh yikes, they're all gonna die, better shift these monsters down a level …" or the reverse if a fight is a cakewalk). Doing that smoothly is part of what makes a good GM.

Any system designed around a human touch is going to have trouble with balance when run automatically -- or inflexibly by a novice GM.

Personally, I've bumped all the base damage back up to 100% in the options for Kingmaker, but turned off monster crits -- I like planning for a challenge, but it's too irritating to have to restart a fight because of one stroke of bad luck.

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory
It seems I missed these two along the way :/ I'm in Chapter 2 already.
EDIT: Actually, I did meet them, but they chose to go with the purple bad guy because of some choice I made back at the original castle. Alignment evil/chaotic, I'd guess, which is why Linzi and Valerie are with me.

You should have chance to persuade them to join you either at the ancient tomb or sycamore cave.

ItI just found the gnome alchemist last evening, and while I like his character, he has so far proven ineffective at everything but lighting trolls, but it's early.

What?? Did you try using his bombs? He is a killing machine… in my husband's game, Jubilost's alchemist bomb made an easy work out of a lesser dragon (I think he took just 2 or 3 bombs to kill the dragon).

Originally Posted by Hexprone
Does it actually matter to her personal quest whether Amiri fights Tuskgutter solo?

Nope. My whole party joined in to help her kill Tuskgutter and I could progress with her story/quest without any problem.

Originally Posted by purpleblob

Originally Posted by Hexprone
Does it actually matter to her personal quest whether Amiri fights Tuskgutter solo?

Nope. My whole party joined in to help her kill Tuskgutter and I could progress with her story/quest without any problem.

Thanks! For the sake of roleplaying I had my other guys buffing and healing her, but let her do all the damage by herself.

Things have gotten a bit better over the last few days of playing. My party is level 6 now, I found the ranger and am about to swap out my last merc for an actual companion. I'm still trying to play the high dex dual-wielding, heavy armor-wearing fighter/rogue (non stealth build, obviously). Probably not an optimum build, but it's fun and works a bit better with mithral full plate.

But man is it frustrating when you enter an area and have no idea what level it is… I hate save scumming, but you really need to unless you're cool with running back to town for more potions every other battle.

For chapter 2, the appropriate areas are outskirts, shrike hill, and most of kamelands and southern narmarches. Basically, you start exploring regions nearby your capital and move out further as the story progress.

I have been trying to play a dual wielding light armor ranger with some rogue like abilities. It is very hard even on easier settings. I feel most rangers are meant to be ranged even though I like them for DW or even, oddly enough, with a greatsword.

I put him on hold and I am now trying a Sacred Huntsman which has a wolf companion and some cleric spells. Rather cool and they seem to have access to a ton of skills and so he is turning out to be very flexible with many options. He is also a Tiefling.

Originally Posted by purpleblob
For chapter 2, the appropriate areas are outskirts, shrike hill, and most of kamelands and southern narmarches. Basically, you start exploring regions nearby your capital and move out further as the story progress.

The problem is there is no marker that tells you that the POI was 'cleared', just the date that you visited. I will literally have to go to every area again to make sure I completed it as I was turned back quite a bit earlier in the game by the level challenge.

Yeah I did ask for a feature that allow players to add notes to the map like BG series but I guess it was not on Owlcats top list.

General question: I like to take two contrasting runs through big RPGs making opposite choices each time. But I don't like to play evil.

I just watched a video saying that the good and evil paths through the game are both well-developed and distinct. Can the same be said of the lawful and chaotic paths? Are there strongly divergent choices to be made along that axis as well, enough so that a lawful good playthrough would feel significantly different from a chaotic good playthrough?

Originally Posted by wolfgrimdark
I have been trying to play a dual wielding light armor ranger with some rogue like abilities. It is very hard even on easier settings. I feel most rangers are meant to be ranged even though I like them for DW or even, oddly enough, with a greatsword.

I played through it with a DW Ranger, but I basically played him like I'd play a Fighter/Warrior type of character with heavy armor, full strength and so on. Worked like a charm.

Originally Posted by Hexprone
Are there strongly divergent choices to be made along that axis as well, enough so that a lawful good playthrough would feel significantly different from a chaotic good playthrough?

Significantly in a way the game looks completely different, no. There are differences of course.
For example you still won't be able to recruit a certain boss as advisor because you're not evil in both cases up there. An example for second axis - chaotic character can have the best governor for Pitax, if you're lawful or neutral that guy will end up dead regardless of what you do.
There are numerous other alignment locked outcomes, but as I said, the game will still not feel as something drastically different is happening.

Originally Posted by Hexprone
General question: I like to take two contrasting runs through big RPGs making opposite choices each time. But I don't like to play evil.

I just watched a video saying that the good and evil paths through the game are both well-developed and distinct. Can the same be said of the lawful and chaotic paths? Are there strongly divergent choices to be made along that axis as well, enough so that a lawful good playthrough would feel significantly different from a chaotic good playthrough?

Can't say for sure since I always end up as NG (I tried to be CN once… but found that I keep drifting to NG) but from what I read, lawful vs chaotic plays different enough but not as well developed as good vs evil.