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Slaan posted:Only thing I've legit hated so far is the loving Fox Pyramid. Place is five hours of lovely puzzles you can't legitimately solve just before the end of the game. Never playing that side quest dungeon again yup, it's almost as bad as final dungeon in Kingmaker. It amuses me how almost everyone hates puzzles in Owlcat games and they keep making more of them.
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Aug 26, 2022 19:25
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Mister Olympus posted:i don't think any backer content is as atrocious as the kingmaker quest, it's true. i didn't even register the whole drow thing as a backer deal when playing I'm sure that OwlCat registered just how the more egregious kickstarter backer stuff has been poorly received and made it seem more natural. Of course once you know that it was a backer deal then it becomes significantly more obvious but anything is an improvement over that quest from Kingmaker.
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Aug 27, 2022 00:47
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DoubleNegative posted:I keep forgetting that dungeon is backer content. Unlike a lot of other people, I never had problems with it because I am a gigantic lover of chain lightning. So it was a fun romp rather than a tedious slog. Not to be over dramatic but please don't push through the pain at all, that is how you get permanent damage. We can wait a bit longer.
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Aug 27, 2022 01:15
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sebmojo posted:Not to be over dramatic but please don't push through the pain at all, that is how you get permanent damage. We can wait a bit longer. 
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Aug 27, 2022 04:04
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sebmojo posted:Not to be over dramatic but please don't push through the pain at all, that is how you get permanent damage. We can wait a bit longer. 
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Aug 27, 2022 07:11
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I’m an Order of the Stick fan. I’m used to waiting indefinitely between updates. As long as the story stays good and updates come eventually I’m fine. I’m also accepting of unavoidable difficulties in getting a story out. I’ve gone through so much in my own writing, back when I did write, I can’t begrudge anyone else their own difficulties. TLDR- echoing previous posts’ advice.
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Aug 27, 2022 08:29
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Don't push throug the pain. I've developed tendonitis in my other foot now and it forces me to walk like an 80 year old woman with a zimmer frame most of the time - don't be a hero.
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Aug 27, 2022 17:28
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JustJeff88 posted:Don't push throug the pain. I've developed tendonitis in my other foot now and it forces me to walk like an 80 year old woman with a zimmer frame most of the time - don't be a hero.
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Aug 27, 2022 23:12
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Now that I'm finally playing through this on my own... I've given everyone a level in Cavalier just so they can have a steed to keep up with my triceratops riding half-orc hunter. I haven't regretted this decision yet but I'm sure it's coming.
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Aug 27, 2022 23:28
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For everyone who has the game but hasn't been playing it, the 3rd DLC (featuring a multi-campaign roguelike) is out, and the Enhanced Edition is scheduled end of next month.
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Sep 2, 2022 17:47
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Deadmeat5150 posted:Now that I'm finally playing through this on my own... I've given everyone a level in Cavalier just so they can have a steed to keep up with my triceratops riding half-orc hunter. I haven't regretted this decision yet but I'm sure it's coming. Yeah, I hear triceratops have size issues. Never played with one personally but just a heads up.
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Sep 2, 2022 18:13
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achtungnight posted:Yeah, I hear triceratops have size issues. Never played with one personally but just a heads up. It turns out giving everyone a steed shatters pathfiding.
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Sep 2, 2022 23:50
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Deadmeat5150 posted:It turns out giving everyone a steed shatters pathfiding. Bad pathfinding in Pathfinder? Well, I never!
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Sep 3, 2022 04:17
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 #13 - Ancientries and Wonders Shop DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 12:42 on Sep 19, 2022 |
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Sep 13, 2022 11:18
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Yeah, that account book tells ya a LOT about Wol. As does, well, everything about him.
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Sep 13, 2022 15:19
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Woljif is one of my favorites. Great mechanically, good personality and has a good storyline
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Sep 13, 2022 16:29
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Out of curiosity, what mod did you find for Finnean?
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Sep 13, 2022 17:41
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DoubleNegative posted:
This is flat out wrong, as he has an accessible upgrade available very early in Chapter 3, and it's arguably better to keep him in that middle form than get the Chapter 5 upgrade. Mainly because it's a +3 weapon with two properties, vs. a +5 weapon with only 1... and Greater Magic Weapon exists. Though by Chapter 5 you should have likely found something better anyways, unless you're using something truly rare or are really overloading the party on a single weapon. It is possible to miss the middle upgrade though, as it requires you to remember to actually talk to him after the relevant event. It's also been a bit buggy in the past and has possibly required unequipping him for it to register. Basically like Radiance, where I'm pretty sure the game doesn't upgrade the existing copy but rather creates a new instance of the weapon but requires it to be unequipped to work - there's a reason Radiance tends to unequip itself whenever you hit an upgrade stage.
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Sep 13, 2022 19:04
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Good to see you again. Best of luck with your goals, there’s still a lot of act 1 left so we won’t hold failure against you.
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Sep 13, 2022 21:42
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Lord Koth posted:It is possible to miss the middle upgrade though, as it requires you to remember to actually talk to him after the relevant event. It's also been a bit buggy in the past and has possibly required unequipping him for it to register. Basically like Radiance, where I'm pretty sure the game doesn't upgrade the existing copy but rather creates a new instance of the weapon but requires it to be unequipped to work - there's a reason Radiance tends to unequip itself whenever you hit an upgrade stage. See, I'm not sure I ever got the chapter 3 upgrade. I know I've talked to him, and even progressed the quest. But at the time Finnean was a permanent companion to the cleric companion and I definitely didn't unequip him. Rorahusky posted:Out of curiosity, what mod did you find for Finnean? Finnean Tweaks. It popped up on my radar after I installed ModFinder to help with keeping mods up to date. quote:FEATURES It doesn't add anything too broken, in my opinion, and makes Finnean useful for the whole game.
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Sep 14, 2022 02:45
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I'm surprised that you haven't showed off Marching Terror yet, you get it off of Hosiliah and the effect is good enough that it can carry you through a lot of combat situations. I stuck that on Seelah the entirety of act 1 and only stopped using it on her because it's still just a +1 glaive and after act 1 you get more enemies that have no problems hitting her AC without a shield. Also I'm playing through the rogue-lite DLC and having a bully wolf as an animal companion is actually stupidly good. The threat level is significantly lower for the first couple of runs and a big old doggo being able to trip everyone is really useful for taking an enemy out of the fight.
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Sep 14, 2022 03:05
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It's got its downside, in that you can accidentally set things up to chain pull encounters as folks flee and trigger other groups.
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Sep 14, 2022 04:54
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One of my problems with systems like Pathfinder/3&3.5D&D is that there is too much focus on damage avoidance and not on mitigation.
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Sep 15, 2022 00:09
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JustJeff88 posted:One of my problems with systems like Pathfinder/3&3.5D&D is that there is too much focus on damage avoidance and not on mitigation. That's mainly an issue of damage generation far outscaling prevention mechanics in the systems. Which does somewhat make sense - if you're going to allow scaling mechanics, then it's less dangerous for the former to get out of hand then the latter. Or in other words, you can potentially dodge that incoming 500 damage hit through various means, but if someone stacks 100 damage reduction then that's a blanket "you must be this damaging to do ANYTHING to this character" restriction. The counter to this would be "just don't do a system with heavy scaling," which is a fair complaint, but many people like big numbers. Alternatively do percentage reduction, but good luck selling people on that for an actual PnP game. On the bright side, damage mitigation should likely be more prevalent in their next game, because it's inspired by Rogue Trader instead of 3.5/Pathfinder. Both health and damage don't scale TOO much past starting values in the base system, so armor/abilities simply mitigating damage instead of blocking it is far more consistent. How closely it'll actually skew is still unclear - there's a reason I said "inspired by" instead of "uses" - but even if it's vaguely similar than mitigation should be much more important.
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Sep 15, 2022 01:45
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JustJeff88 posted:One of my problems with systems like Pathfinder/3&3.5D&D is that there is too much focus on damage avoidance and not on mitigation. funnily enough, both PF1 and D&D3.5 have variant rules for Armor as Damage Reduction, so somebody agrees with you. Though, as Lord Koth pointed out (and WotC agrees in the blurb for the 3.5 rules), damage dealt tends to out-scale damage reduction at higher levels. And WotC wasn't even talking about the broken stuff players can do; damage from monsters will do it as well.
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Sep 15, 2022 16:59
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Lord Koth posted:That's mainly an issue of damage generation far outscaling prevention mechanics in the systems. Which does somewhat make sense - if you're going to allow scaling mechanics, then it's less dangerous for the former to get out of hand then the latter. Or in other words, you can potentially dodge that incoming 500 damage hit through various means, but if someone stacks 100 damage reduction then that's a blanket "you must be this damaging to do ANYTHING to this character" restriction. The counter to this would be "just don't do a system with heavy scaling," which is a fair complaint, but many people like big numbers. Alternatively do percentage reduction, but good luck selling people on that for an actual PnP game. yeah Rogue Trader doesn't scale too much, because attacks start at 'anything halfway decent is going to one or two-shot its target' and don't move much from there. it is a very cool setting married to a system designed via looking at its predecessor, saying 'those numbers but bigger, also make a d100 check to get ahold of stuff instead of tracking money' and calling it a day
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Sep 15, 2022 18:55
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JustJeff88 posted:One of my problems with systems like Pathfinder/3&3.5D&D is that there is too much focus on damage avoidance and not on mitigation. It's the unfortunate part of the system that's common in a lot of systems where it's a far simpler character build to preemptively remove the threat to you than it is to become a fortress character. Becoming a tank in this requires some fairly gnarly and specific multiclassing, being able to nuke or CC someone can be done with a pure caster with the right feat choices.
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Sep 16, 2022 18:33
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Keldulas posted:It's the unfortunate part of the system that's common in a lot of systems where it's a far simpler character build to preemptively remove the threat to you than it is to become a fortress character. Becoming a tank in this requires some fairly gnarly and specific multiclassing, being able to nuke or CC someone can be done with a pure caster with the right feat choices. True. Too many RPGs, pen & paper, electronic or otherwise, favour the alpha-strike mentality of eliminating all possible threats as soon as possible. The prevalance of 'save-or-suck' abilities, speed as a frequent god stat and the rarety of mechanics wherein monsters do less damage as they are weakened are all examples of that mentality.
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Sep 17, 2022 15:40
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JustJeff88 posted:True. Too many RPGs, pen & paper, electronic or otherwise, favour the alpha-strike mentality of eliminating all possible threats as soon as possible. The prevalance of 'save-or-suck' abilities, speed as a frequent god stat and the rarety of mechanics wherein monsters do less damage as they are weakened are all examples of that mentality. There's also the problem that in most RPGs, sensibly played enemies will ignore the heavily armored stack of bricks and focus fire on the obvious glass cannon first. There doesn't tend to be an obvious taunting mechanic in the game.
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Sep 18, 2022 17:13
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In the tabletop? Not super. Owlcat however does throw you a bone in that the vast majority of enemies will beeline whoever is closest
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Sep 18, 2022 17:30
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kaosdrachen posted:There's also the problem that in most RPGs, sensibly played enemies will ignore the heavily armored stack of bricks and focus fire on the obvious glass cannon first. There doesn't tend to be an obvious taunting mechanic in the game. No, that's a major issue. The only edition of D&D/Pathfinder that really has aggro mechanics is 4e.
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Sep 18, 2022 21:57
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JustJeff88 posted:No, that's a major issue. The only edition of D&D/Pathfinder that really has aggro mechanics is 4e. pathfinder 2e has as many aggro mechanics as 4e; they're both defined by punishment for not attacking the tank rather than forced redirection (in most cases)
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Sep 18, 2022 22:43
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Mister Olympus posted:pathfinder 2e has as many aggro mechanics as 4e; they're both defined by punishment for not attacking the tank rather than forced redirection (in most cases) Champions (paladins that come in many flavors) have a lot of reactions they can trigger on allies being attacked.
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Sep 18, 2022 23:01
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 Hello everyone and welcome back. Today we're finally in the market square. We're most likely gonna be here for a while. This place is huge and extremely content dense. I feel pretty safe calling it one of the largest maps in the game.  This is my third attempt at recording. So bear with past-me while I make sure things are still set up. In case you're wondering, the previous attempts at recording ended because LichFix prevented the game from starting. And then also because Enhanced Inventory had not been updated since March, two full patches ago. It's, uh, quite a  moment when you go open your inventory and it's just an empty page. Not an empty inventory. An empty page. As in the inventory had ceased to exist. Thankfully there's a sketchy discord link in the Enhanced Inventory Nexus discussions page that has a version that works for 1.4.4.As of the time of writing, the Enhanced Edition is going to come out at the end of the month - 11 days from now. I look forward to similar teething issues at that time. As a double fun bonus, the "extra spells" mods I'm using get attached to your save file. So you can't remove them mid-playthrough without starting over. Those mods have not updated since July. There is a very good chance that I will have to completely restart the playthrough before we get to act 2.  Anyway, going forward a few steps, we meet this lovely fellow. The term "toerag" keeps coming up here and each time I read it, I can't help but laugh. It's such an archaic turn of phrase and, taken literally, it's this thiefling calling his fellows a bunch of socks. Thiefling: "But I had nothin' to do with it, I swear!"  "Brother Gort, is that you?"Thiefling: "Brother Woljif? I thought you'd pegged it in Irabeth's jail."   "Who are you?"Thiefling: "An honest guy who's fallen in with some bad folks! The Thieflings, the local thieves around here, they forced me to join their gang. But I didn't want to! Just don't hand me over to Irabeth, valiant crusaders! Please, in the name of all the gods there ever were!" "Gort here is a new addition to the Thieflings. So far he's swiped around five thousand gold. He's got a long way to go before he catches up with me, mind."Thiefling: "They made me do it." Gort here is scared shitless of something. But he is offering information we need, so... "An underground passage to the Gray Garrison? Tell me more."Thiefling: "Right, so the temple round here — the temple of Iomedae — has a cellar, and a passage leads from it right to the Gray Garrison. The Thieflings, my pals, drat the lot of 'em, have been using this passage on and off to sell all sorts of stuff to the soldiers in the Gray Garrison." Thiefling: "So when the demons burst into the city, we thought we'd check up on the Gray Garrison to... uh... see how the soldiers were faring. And to offer our assistance." "Don't gimme that look. This is the first I'm hearin' of this. Thieflings keep secrets from each other too, y'know." Suppressing the sudden desire to roll your eyes, you ask, "why are you so afraid of me?"Thiefling: "You're one of them crusaders, ain't you? You lot hate our guts — the Thieflings, I mean. You lock us up and do worse to us." The tiefling gulps loudly. "But I'm not a Thiefling. Not really." You pinch the bridge of your nose and sigh. "Can I help you somehow?"Thiefling: "Yeah! Let me go, please!" "Fine, whatever. Go. Get out of here."Thiefling: "Cheers for lettin' me go like this, I'll remember you a hundred years, I will. I'll name my firstborn after you..." Under your stare, the tiefling falls silent and then runs off." We could shake him down for whatever he's got on him, but that's not the sort of woman Lisbeth is. Ninjas are spies and contract killers, not petty thieves.  I'm wracking my brain trying to remember if I've come across that guy in the past. I don't believe I have. I've done Act 1 many times and if I'm gonna be honest, I barely pay attention to market square.  Demons and their cultists are gonna be our bread and butter enemy for the remaining vast majority of the game. So expect to see a lot of dretch going forward. These little bastards will always be priority one targets because of their disabling abilities.  Anyway, like I said up above, this is a big map. So I'm gonna try to tackle it systematically.  The first major set piece we come across is a couple of crusaders clustered around a young girl.  All three are labeled "crusader" in the script, so I'm gonna call this guy Crusader 1. Crusader 2: "I don't know... Can we really do this?" Crusader 3: "Listen, we don't have a choice. There are demons everywhere, what else would you have us do?" A group of knights surrounds a young elven girl. She is dressed in rags that barely cover the hideous scars on her body. The beggar girl is on her knees, watching placidly as the people argue heatedly around her. It is as if she doesn't sense the looming threat at all. A black crow flies in agitated circles above her head. Crusader 1: "In Iomedae's name, we're sorry, girl, but it is our duty. We have to do this — not for our own sake, but for the sake of everyone who can still be saved from the demons. If we don't win this battle, you won't have long to live anyway!" The knight brings his sword up above the girl's head.  "They're insane!" Seelah looks at you, terror in her eyes. "We've got to do something!" "I understand. You're scared. You feel powerless. You think this will help. You don't have to justify yourselves to me — just do what you've decided to do." The girl smiles serenely, as though she isn't at risk of imminent death.Meet Ember. She's about to become our newest party member. "What's going on here?"Crusader 2: "We, we..." The knight's hands are shaking. Crusader 1: "Our weapons barely scratch the demons' hides! We're sacrificing this girl to Iomedae so we can consecrate our weapons with her innocent blood and gain the power to destroy the spawn of the Abyss!" Crusader 3: "It's extreme, but we have no other choice. We have to defend this city somehow, or else we'll all perish — including her!" [Lore (Religion) 16] "That's ridiculous! The teachings of Iomedae directly prohibit the killing of innocents. The goddess will curse you for making this so-called sacrifice!"Crusader 1: [Failed a Lore (Religion) check] "How do you know what the goddess wants or doesn't want? Who are you, her herald?" "I am Iomedae's paladin!" Seelah raises the sacred symbol above her head. "If I lie, may the goddess strike me down: what you intend to do is a repugnant crime and heinous blasphemy!"Seelah was giving me a bonus on that roll. Then I failed because apparently today is not a good roll luck day. Then she came in with the save anyway. Crusader 3: "Exactly! What were you thinking? The goddess would never allow this!" Crusader 2: "Whose idea was this anyway?" The knight looks at his comrades in suspicion. "I think it was yours!" Crusader 3: "My idea? I was against the whole thing right from the start! Who said we needed to make a sacrifice — wasn't it you? You can't blame anyone else for that!" "Please, don't fight! All of you are good people, defenders of the city. You just made a mistake." The girl turns to you. "Please, don't hurt them!" "Hey, I know her! I see her all the time on the street — she's a couple cards short of a full deck, if you know what I mean."See why I leave the "distant companions can talk" option enabled? This game has so many interactions that you would otherwise never see. "Hi!" The girl waves at Woljif with a bright smile. "Remember how we used to play together when we were little? But then you went and got all big, and I stayed the same for some reason..." "Huh? I played with you? Ha! Pull the other one!" "You did! We played tag, and hide and seek... Then you and the bigger boys came up with the game where you all threw stones at me. You laughed so hard, it made me happy too... But then you grew up and went away to do grown-up things. Want to play with me now?" The tiefling turns away, covering his reddened face with his hand. "For the love of... Kenabres is too drat small..." "Go to the Defender's Heart tavern, that's where the survivors are gathering. And don't even think of doing something so disgusting ever again!"Crusader 1: "Thank you!" The knights hurry away before you can change your mind. Wrath of the Righteous is a very reactive game. Ember preaches forgiveness and kindness, and despite how cynical this game can get, things will work out if you follow her example. It would be very easy for the game to go "these guys ran off, grabbed an orphan, sacrificed them, and became Abyss corrupted" but instead, your mercy and Ember's shaming-by-forgiveness inspires them to do better. That reactivity is what allows the mythic paths to work so well. The elf girl smiles at you. The crow alights on her shoulder and looks at you with eyes that are much too intelligent for an ordinary bird. "They're gone. And they all lived. I was sure that someone would die today! So many people have died here already — but we're still alive for some reason... Strange, isn't it?" The girl shrugs, smiling serenely. "But... You shouldn't listen to me. I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm just a silly girl, really." I don't trust her. She isn't what she seems. What she would have us believe she is," Wenduag says quietly, but you see the tension coiled in her — she is poised to fight or flee at any moment. "That is no simple-minded child before us." "Agreed. I don't think you're an ordinary girl. And that crow with you there — it's not ordinary either." The elf girl strokes the crow's beak: its eyes narrow in satisfaction and it makes a cooing sound. "No, don't be silly, I'm very ordinary. Well, I know different types of tricks, but Soot taught me those." "Now Soot here — she truly is unusual! She's clever and she can talk, but only to me. She teaches me magic tricks, and lots of other stuff... I don't know what I'd do without her!" "Who are you?" "Call me Ember. I live here, on the streets. For many years now... But there's nothing to say about me!" "Magic tricks you say? You could be useful when fighting the demons, and I'll be able to protect you from insane soldiers on the streets. Come with me!" "I must have misheard — this girl, join our party? What could we possibly want with this dirty little beggar?" "Wenduag is right. There's something about her. She's more than she seems. Whatever is going on, I want to be there when it happens, for good or for bad." The girl gives you a smile, joyous and untroubled, like a child's. "Sure! Let's go!" Cam goes out, Ember comes in. Ember is a "Stigmatized Witch" which means she gets access to arcane spells and shaman hexes. Indeed, you can turn Ember into a pretty powerful offensive caster with a couple of items you can get in act 3. That's pretty much gonna be the path I have her walk.  Also this was mentioned in the thread and I wanted to point it out. Marching Terror, a weapon we got from Hosilla, is really good. So we're gonna slap this on Seelah for a while and see how she likes it. I'm also going to give Ember our Gloves of the Neophyte, the gloves that give bonuses to cantrips, and set her to cast those by default. She probably will not need any other gloves for the rest of the game!  Ember is level 3, and so her cantrip here deals 2d3 points of damage. That's not terrible for a spell that's completely free to cast as much as she wants! And that bonus should only grow once she gets the "cantrips scale with CHA" perk.  Anyway, there's a house nearby. So let's barge in.  Swarms! These bastards, I'm given to understand, are the source of much frustration with first time Kingmaker players. You need to hit them with spell or elemental damage to reliably cause damage. Luckily we have a grenadier in the party with a lot of grenades on her belt.  Oh hey, a new recipe! Seasoned wings sound really good, I'm not gonna lie. It's such a pity they're (chicken wings) so freaking expensive anymore. It's hard to justify spending $15 for like 2 pounds of wings that haven't been properly plucked.  Demonology? What could possibly go wrong?   This is our first proper look at a vrock. These guys are huge pains in the rear end to fight because of their spores ability.  The vrock runs away to go make mischief on the map. We'll meet up with him later. This might sound like an incomprehensibly dumb idea, but doing this will get us a quite nice reward eventually!  Moving on, there's a group of opportunists nearby, looting the burning houses for valuables. There's always some in a crisis. (I say this like that isn't my MO whenever I play CDDA.)  The petty bastards were only interested in material wealth.  Past some nearby cultists, we find a path going off to the side...  And the woman we were warned to keep an eye out for!  [Knowledge (World) 21] [Take a closer look at her strange appearance.][Failed a Knowledge (World) check] This elf may have fallen victim to some wicked magic. A curse, maybe? Or did her long service to the forces of darkness twist her appearance in such a gruesome way? "Who are you?"Kaylessa: Giving you a scrutinizing look, she says harshly, "There's no point in you knowing, soldier. Trust me, the answer would only bring you misfortune, and it still wouldn't be of any use to you. I'm a wanderer you won't ever meet again." "Who wounded you?"Kaylessa: With a resolute shake of her head, she barks, "Don't. I can handle it myself. I don't like it when strangers cast spells on me." "As you wish."Kaylessa: The elf nods stiffly. We can go against her wishes and heal her. This is, somehow, a good action. "Who wounded you?"Kaylessa: She responds with a razor-sharp smile. "Haven't you noticed? The city is burning, there's a battle going on. I was wounded by... a cultist." Ember is looking her over thoughtfully. "Her wounds are so strange... not at all like mine. They burned me from the outside, but you were burned from within, I think. It hurt, didn't it?" Unperturbed by her cold silence, Ember continues, "Yes, I can see that it hurt. I'm sorry that happened to you." "Wait. I know who you are. You're Kaylessa, a cultist of Deskari."Kaylessa: "That's a lie!" Her crimson eyes flash, and she says firmly, "I loathe demons and I'll kill any I come across!" [Perception 16] [Take a closer look at the elf]She's clearly holding something back, but... she doesn't appear to be lying either. Whatever it is she's hiding, her claim that she hates demons sounds quite convincing. "You're not lying, but you're not telling me the whole truth."Kaylessa: "What, was I supposed to pour my heart out?" She looks at you defiantly. "You have your war, soldier. I have mine. You're fighting chaos and madness, and I... I'm fighting lies and hypocrisy. But we are both willing to die for our cause, aren't we?" "Why would Forn slander you?"Kaylessa: Kaylessa's grim expression hardens further, as bleak and unflinching as the words on a tombstone. "You're asking questions that are dangerous in and of themselves. I urge you to stop. The more you know about me, the higher the chances that a traitor's dagger will find its way into your back." "I believe you. Forn is at the Defender's Heart, you should keep clear of the place."Kaylessa: "It was never my intention to set foot in there. Farewell, soldier, and... thank you for believing me." Gained 184 Experience She leaves. And we're left with more questions than answers. For what it's worth, if we did attack and kill her, we'd get a nice +3 longbow for our trouble.  Continuing down from where we met Kaylessa, we pretty quickly find this.  As well as some of Irabeth's men.  Building a makeshift bridge is the only thing that's preventing us from exploring the other half of the Kenabres world map. So in theory we're done here. But there's still a lot of unexplored map to go, and some interesting folks to meet. We can't very well leave matters half finished!   Jumping across the rubble took a couple tries. If you squint at the bar at the bottom, you can actually see that Kiyomi has the fatigued debuff. But it's way too early in the map to stop and rest up, so she'll just have to suck it up for the time being.  We can actually get over here without having to do an athletics check, but it involves going another way around entirely. And I don't like doing that.  Past the giant insects we find a cellar we can interact with...  Next Door TheaterRubbledum the Actor: Even the huge pile of junk isn't enough to block out the exclamations coming from beneath it. "Reveal oh dearest darling beauty mine, why didst thou turn thy gaze on me, pray tell? Thy husband I called friend a time, but love 'tis like an ocean, friendship — a well!" Kemh the Sound Master: "But Willas, how are we to live, my sweet?" booms a deep masculine voice in response from beneath the same pile. Indistinct rustling follows. "Pass me the ale, will you?" "Hey! Who's there?"Rubbledum the Actor: The pile of junk seems to shake. A stage whisper drifts up from below: "Granny, let's not answer! Methinks those be demons calling down and trying to trick us!" Grandma Gretlen the Director: "In that case, there is nothing for us to do but accept our fate! Madam, demon or not, we are actors from the finest theater in Kenabres — the Next-Door Theater! We were trapped in this cellar during our rehearsal..." Kemh the Sound Master: "Wait, what? We're trapped in here? I thought we'd barricaded ourselves in here away from the demons! Deliberately!" Grandma Gretlen the Director: "If you didn't nap through the start of every rehearsal, Master Kemh, you would be better informed!" The ensuing exchange degenerates into a stream of unintelligible bickering. [Athletics 13] [Move the pile of junk] The pile shifts easily, revealing an entrance to some kind of cellar. There is an interesting-looking chest among the items. Items received: Silver Ring, Jade, Green Quarts, Port x2 Gained 80 Experience Kemh the Sound Master: "Look, the door is open, and now we are completely at the mercy of whatever's up there. If it really is a demon..." Grandma Gretlen the Director: "We have nothing to fear — we have the power of inspiration, after all! But hand me over my ladle. And that rolling pin." The Path Not Taken posted:[Failed an Athletics check] The pile moves, but a crack sounds somewhere below. Instead of sliding to the side, the whole lot tumbles to the ground. You hear what sounds like a heavy object crashing through the cellar door!    Rubbledum the Actor: "Granny! That's not a ladle! That's one of the props for the Malevolent Lich performance, the one Tinna made! It's a scepter or something..." Grandma Gretlen the Director: "She made it out of my ladle. She wanted to use a broom handle, but I put paid to that daft idea," says the dwarf with dignity. "Oh, I've seen your show! You are very funny! Especially your play where the woman slowly climbs onto the chair while singing, and then falls off again." Ember claps her hands in delight.Grandma Gretlen the Director: "Well, it is actually a great tragedy about unrequited love. The chair, you see, it represents a tower of rock rising up above the raging sea like the finger of a giant. And the woman, she isn't supposed to fall, but rather gracefully cascade into the swirling abyss below, just like I showed her a hundred times... But I'm glad you liked it." "What were you doing down there?"Grandma Gretlen the Director: "We were rehearsing. Our art distracts us from our fear and panic." The dwarf waves her ladle emphatically, doing a fair impression of a conductor. "Really? When I'm scared, I eat."Grandma Gretlen the Director: "We tried that too, but our supplies ran out. But art — oh! Art is eternal!" "Can you get somewhere safe?"Grandma Gretlen the Director: "Oh, don't worry on our account! We'll be going to our basement in the next street, that's where our Lambkin is! We're not afraid of demons with Lambkin around!" "...Lambkin?"Grandma Gretlen the Director: "Lambkin," says the dwarf readily. "Our male lead. He'll protect us. Don't worry, we know what we're doing!" "Okay then. I have to go."Grandma Gretlen the Director: "Thank you again for rescuing us, stranger! Today you did a great service for Mendevian culture, and perhaps the culture of all Golarion. You will certainly be remembered in future eras as the one who saved the critically and publicly acclaimed Next-Door Theater!" I think that's a good stopping point. NEXT TIME: More of the Market Square!
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Sep 19, 2022 12:43
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I said before there are certain characters in this game I enjoy. Ember is one of them. She’s inspiring in a number of ways. Other players seem to like her also, judging by other LPs I’ve watched. I wonder if we’ll get better rewards down the road for letting Kaylessa live. A +3 longbow this early sounds nice. The Theater subplot gets more amusing later, depending on your sense of humor that is.
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Sep 19, 2022 14:23
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Kaylessa's questline does give you better rewards later, naturally, but they're nowhere near as impactful at thst point as getting a +3 longbow this early. Especially when your party comes with a well-statted archer by default.
blizzardvizard fucked around with this message at 14:52 on Sep 19, 2022 |
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Sep 19, 2022 14:40
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Ember is quite easily my favourite character in this game, and pretty high up on my list of favourite CRPG party members overall. "Inspiring" is a pretty good descriptor. "Refreshing" is another one that I've been using.
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Sep 19, 2022 17:03
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kaosdrachen posted:There's also the problem that in most RPGs, sensibly played enemies will ignore the heavily armored stack of bricks and focus fire on the obvious glass cannon first. There doesn't tend to be an obvious taunting mechanic in the game. At least in the pathfinder computer games here, the heavily armored character is usually one of the more vulnerable party members funnily enough.
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Sep 19, 2022 17:28
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Never liked Ember myself. She's so pure it gets annoying, though following her quest to the end has a wonderful ending. [Ranger] has a better arc in a similar theme, I think.
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Sep 19, 2022 22:59
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I like Ember, she's pretty good subversion of both "creepy little girl with supernatural powers" (because this time weird little girl uses her powers for good) and "yet another Avellone NPC" (young girl who is unquestionably good instead of old character with "there is literally no difference between good and evil, you moron, you fool" morality) I think the only NPCs from WotR I don't like are Camilla and Sosiel, latter mostly because he's so bland. For comparision, NPCs from Kingmaker other than Nok-Nok sucked badly. Szarrukin fucked around with this message at 00:13 on Sep 20, 2022 |
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Sep 20, 2022 00:11
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