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Lord Koth posted:Assuming you're not aiming for that one ending, the only real difference here is whether you get a free Light Crossbow (if you choose to attack), or your helpful friend casting False Life on you (if you want to flee) before you still get dumped down the hole. The second one can actually be surprisingly helpful depending on just what class and level of difficulty you're playing on, given it's a huge HP increase for a 1st level character that lasts a non-negligible amount of time. Unless you're like playing a melee class on Unfair (already a dubious choice) though, it really doesn't matter. I'd say it's well worth making the attack regardless of your class, if for nothing else that you get a lasting crossbow out of the whole bargain that you can sell once it stops being useful as opposed to a buff that will run out sooner or later. This isn't Kingmaker, after all, there's no walking into caves at low levels where every enemy is immune to your attacks 
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Feb 16, 2024 08:48
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Is there any Aztec/Maya/Inca inspired nation in Pathfinder? Or at least obligatory mashup of all three? I thought Azlanti might be one (it sounds vaguely like Aztlan, legendary homeland of Aztecs), but it turned out to be Totally Not Atlantis.
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Feb 16, 2024 09:40
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Whether the bonuses come because they want it to stop or because it inspires them is irrelevant, any voice that makes your allies kill the enemy faster is inherently bardic. 
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Feb 16, 2024 09:41
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Szarrukin posted:Is there any Aztec/Maya/Inca inspired nation in Pathfinder? Or at least obligatory mashup of all three? I thought Azlanti might be one (it sounds vaguely like Aztlan, legendary homeland of Aztecs), but it turned out to be Totally Not Atlantis. The biggest such nation would be the ancient Razatlan Empire (big and powerful enough to rival Aztlan, and brought low in the same disaster), while the modern nations of Xopatl and Innazpa are probably the most Mayaincatec groups in Pathfinder. Unfortunately, because Avistan gets so much press, anything outside doesn't really get a lot of page space; people just can't get enough of Not!Western Europe in fantasy, it seems 
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Feb 16, 2024 12:18
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CommissarMega posted:And so here we are in the Fifth Crusade, almost a hundred years after Aroden kicked it, all our hopes apparently riding on a single fuzzball with a... unique singing voice and hopefully good personal hygiene (seriously, read up on how bad foxes stink, it's wonderful). Well, right now she's just a hapless bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time as far as anyone is concerned. Your background feat, for the record, never gets mentioned at any point nor does it ever come up where your PC is from. NPC reactivity is based on three things: your race, your deity, and then classes get unique dialogue based on what you have the most levels in, and classes are divided into general groups with only a handful having specific and unique interactions: Agility Warrior Alchemist Arcane Caster Arcane Warrior Divine Caster Divine (General) Brawn Warrior Kineticist Mystic Theurge Nature Performer As a bard, Yua naturally clocks in as part of the Performer class group (as does skald). Beyond that, there's a grab bag of individual classes and prestige classes that get at least one unique interaction, but the only prestige class Yua might conceivably take, Loremaster, further gates its unique interactions behind being on the Lich mythic path.
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Feb 16, 2024 13:17
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Szarrukin posted:Is there any Aztec/Maya/Inca inspired nation in Pathfinder? Or at least obligatory mashup of all three? I thought Azlanti might be one (it sounds vaguely like Aztlan, legendary homeland of Aztecs), but it turned out to be Totally Not Atlantis. A city in Xopatl features in one AP book, and it's blatantly Central American tribes inspired. Unfortunately it's also pretty racist of the "literally everything is the fault of westerners, and we'd be a peaceful, advanced society filled with understanding for everyone if not for them" sort of way. That's not a joke - the final dungeon, the stronghold of the main antagonist (who himself is only evil because he came in contact with an evil westerner - and I don't mean mind control) and his followers (who don't even have that excuse) who at this point has tried to wipe the city out with a tide of monsters, gives you bonus exp for each one you don't kill... except for a couple in one room who are committing petty theft who grant no bonus exp at all (because attempted massacres are fine, but add in shoplifting and it's KoS apparently).
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Feb 16, 2024 16:16
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A few backgrounds I will call out as specifically noteworthy: Farmer - Gives you proficiency with scythes (an exotic weapon, normally you have to take a feat to access). Scythes are rather silly weapons in most versions of the d20 system (I'll go over how weapons work in the next proper update), and normally you kind of have to ask how likely it is that you'll see a given weapon in a game. However, you might have noticed...  Deskari sure likes his scythe! And so do his minions. As such, good scythes are going to be in ready supply throughout the game, so if you just want access to a good melee weapon, Farmer to unlock scythes is a fine pick. Mendevian Orphan - +1 to all saving throws made against demons. Demons are about 80% of all enemies in this game, this will apply a lot. Warrior of the Linnorm Kings - Cold Resistance 5. This is the only background that gives you any kind of flat damage resistance, and will stack with other sources. Cold isn't the most common damage type you'll see in Wrath, but it does come up, so this can be worth considering if you value this more than other bonuses. Courtier, honestly, is one of the weaker picks for the reasons other people have mentioned, but I like building for skills on appropriate characters. 
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Feb 16, 2024 16:44
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But remember d20 is itself silly and with the right build you can do silly and lethal things with a scythe.
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Feb 16, 2024 16:47
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AtomikKrab posted:But remember d20 is itself silly and with the right build you can do silly and lethal things with a scythe. Things like decapitating a dragon in a single strike, looks like.
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Feb 16, 2024 16:57
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My brother back in 3.5 once made a guy who threw his scythe at every enemy we would encounter. He nat 20’d a big bad mid-speech with one once. What I’m saying is what happened to the dragon is basically RAW.
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Feb 16, 2024 16:59
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I like Andoren Diplomat. Persuasion as a Class Skill, which is something your companions can't help with, and +2 to Diplomacy checks.
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Feb 16, 2024 17:02
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Scythes are good because they have a 4x crit multiplier.
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Feb 16, 2024 17:25
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Vargatron posted:Scythes are good because they have a 4x crit multiplier. Doesn't matter since they only crit on a 20. Or 19-20 with Improved Critical.
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Feb 16, 2024 18:15
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It'll come up when we talk about combat mechanics probably, but there are many ways to manipulate your crit chance. Improved crit alone gives you a 10% chance to crit, on each of your swings, which you will have several of (ideally).
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Feb 16, 2024 18:22
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ChaosStar0 posted:Doesn't matter since they only crit on a 20. Or 19-20 with Improved Critical. I think you can take some mythic talents that let you expand the crit range even further. Edit: Depending on class, you can also do Keen enchants with Divine Weapon/Spiritual Weapon, etc.
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Feb 16, 2024 18:24
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I personally like the Street Urchin backgrounds giving Trickery as a class skill. Helps my Lawful playthroughs of a reformed crook trying to fix the world. My characters usually end up with a crossbow over any other weapon. I like the opening scene where you shoot a demon lord with one. Kudos to the game, though, for including many cool examples of just about every weapon they feature.
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Feb 16, 2024 18:26
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Are pathfinder demons immune to crits? This could make a crit focused build less appealing
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Feb 16, 2024 18:31
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Patience, folks, I'll talk about combat mechanics in the next update. All I meant to do was note that Farmhand gives you access to a good weapon that's readily available in this campaign should your class lack one but you decide you want it. I will also not be attempting anything close to optimized builds or telling y'all how to do them.
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Feb 16, 2024 18:36
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Kanthulhu posted:Are pathfinder demons immune to crits? This could make a crit focused build less appealing Not in general, though it's possible some types or powerful individuals might? To my knowledge, they actually made fewer creature types immune to crits when making PF1e. edit: whoops, sorry if that was overstepping; didn't refresh before posting
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Feb 16, 2024 18:39
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Let me stress: this will not be a mechanically optimal LP and if you just want to talk about character optimization there are probably better threads for that. I want to aim this thread's mechanics chat at new and prospective players who may have never played a d20 system game before. There's a near-infinite well of mechanics chat you can get into if you want, but I don't care to.
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Feb 16, 2024 18:42
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I've only ever played and discussed this game through the lens of mechanics optimization (as people are wont to do in PF1) so the idea of a more casual run has me pretty excited.
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Feb 16, 2024 18:53
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I'm a casual play person myself on this and other games, so I'm cool with what Cyth has planned. Mechanics optimization gets annoying when I can still beat the game without it.
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Feb 16, 2024 19:15
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Getting wheeled into Kanabres on a gurney like it's the first time I haven't woken up and all hell breaks loose.
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Feb 16, 2024 20:04
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BisbyWorl posted:Things like decapitating a dragon in a single strike, looks like. And Deskari scythe isn't even the best in the game.
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Feb 16, 2024 20:12
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SettingSun posted:I've only ever played and discussed this game through the lens of mechanics optimization (as people are wont to do in PF1) so the idea of a more casual run has me pretty excited. Mechanics are also extremely safe to discuss without worrying about spoiling plot stuff. Or at least not having to spend half an hour discussing the events that lead up to the one event you actually want to talk about, if describing it to someone who hasn't played yet. Most of the target audience knows at least some of the mechanics-speak.
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Feb 16, 2024 21:11
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Yeah, I just don't want this thread to disappear down the rabbit hole of optimization chat and endlessly theorycrafting about mechanics. That's about 90% of the actual Wrath thread up in video games, after all. This is going to be a casual game on the easiest difficulty setting and I'm hoping to explain how the game works for anyone who might not be familiar with these systems, and show some tips to making capable characters. I'll also be making many build decisions for the purposes of showing off different features of the game, not because I'm interested in maximizing effectiveness. This will not be a thread where I tolerate people going "That sucks and you suck for doing it" like the aforementioned thread in the video games forum did when I told them I was playing a psychokineticist or any similar bullshit.
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Feb 16, 2024 21:20
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Low-chance, high-impact weapons like scythes, wild magic surges and instant death procs are far stronger in the hands of the enemies than the party. A player character's quad damage crit or a dismemberment proc is wasted if it hits a random minion who would probably die to a regular attack, and there are always more enemies where they came from. Conversely, all enemy attacks are aimed at someone who matters, and they only need to land one telling blow to ruin the party's day. Deskari followers being a swarm of scythe-wielding goons is more than just an aesthetical statement; it is a brutally effective Hero Killing strategy.
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Feb 17, 2024 01:52
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Vargatron posted:I think you can take some mythic talents that let you expand the crit range even further. No there aren't. There's one for increasing the Crit multiplier, but not for Crit range. I checked through Mythics building my MC and her companions.
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Feb 17, 2024 04:02
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Vargatron posted:I think you can take some mythic talents that let you expand the crit range even further. ChaosStar0 posted:No there aren't. There's one for increasing the Crit multiplier, but not for Crit range. I checked through Mythics building my MC and her companions. There actually are Mythic(?) feats that further increase crit range (in fact there are two, that stack), but they are exclusive to one single Mythic path and have two features you need to pick on the path to unlock them in the first place. So Vargatron is technically correct, but for the purposes of any playthrough other than that one path they don't exist. And we're not taking that path. Lord Koth fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Feb 17, 2024 |
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Feb 17, 2024 04:10
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I have a question: How do you get the Combat Maneuver defensive rating of 12 for our character? Is it 10 + Dex mod (+3) - Str mod(-1)? I don't think we had those back on my old times of 3.5 D&D.
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Feb 17, 2024 17:46
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Kanthulhu posted:Is it 10 + Dex mod (+3) - Str mod(-1)? I don't think we had those back on my old times of 3.5 D&D. Yup. 3.5E had combat maneuvers, but calculated the chance of defending against them separately for each. Pathfinder, or at least Wrath specifically, just established a baseline defense rating stat.
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Feb 17, 2024 18:03
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My brain parses CMD as command lol.
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Feb 17, 2024 18:11
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Angel Angel, Burning Bright This will be another crunch-intensive update. Future updates should be faster and cover more, but for now I'm still covering the basics.  Yua survived the fall none the worse for the wear, and you can actually see why in this screenshot! At the bottom of the screen, next to Yua's portrait, is the icon of a feather. This is the mark of a spell active on her, Feather Fall, which negates and reduces falling damage. Now how did she wind up with that effect...?  Up ahead, two people weren't so fortunate.   "Hey, hey! Stay with me! You actually got pretty lucky, you fell down into a black hole, but at least you're not on your own, you've got a great companion..." (The young woman in knight's armor studies the rocks intently, clearly trying to work out how to move them.) "Everything's going to be just fine... Tell me something: can you feel your legs?" "I feel 'em all right, wouldn't say no to a little less feelin' in 'em... My ankle's killin' me. But my back seems to still be in one piece. My head, too."This is Anevia, and as you might guess by the fact that she has a portrait, she'll be a recurring character. Generally, though, she's less important than her wife who we'll meet later and doesn't do a whole lot in her own right. The primary noteworthy thing about Anevia is that she's associated with the hardest skill check in the entire game: near the end of the game, there's a DC 50 persuasion check to get her to acknowledge that she's transgender and was assigned male at birth.   Speaking of skill checks, here's our first! When you see a skill and a number in brackets preceding a dialogue option, this is an invitation to make a skill check on the d20 roll versus the specified number. Mouse over the skill, and it will tell you who in the party has the highest effective rank in the skill. In this case, Yua's weak strength means she's unlikely to make the Athletics check here, but on the other hand she only needs a roll of 2 or better to succeed. Also note the option to try to extort them for money, which is marked as (Evil). Whether you succeed or not, just trying will move your character one point towards Evil alignment.  "Look at you! It's good to meet someone who uses brains first and brawn second." (The woman feels her leg.) "drat it all! I think it's broken. Ah well, I've had worse — I'll just make myself a splint outta something..." (Fishing a piece of twine from her pocket, she gets to work.) "Thanks for the help. I wouldn't have lasted long on my own stuck under there. I'm Anevia Tirabade, of the Eagle Watch. I was overseeing security at the festival square — I thought maybe spies or demon worshipers might have something nasty planned... What actually happened, though, now that I did not see coming. I don't think anyone could've been prepared for that..." "Well, I'm Seelah, paladin by the grace of Iomedae. I crossed the whole continent to come to Mendev and fight demons... And well, I've been fighting for a while now." (Seelah's expression darkens.) "I don't even want to think what might be happening up there in the city. Kenabres has lost the protection of Terendelev, and of the Wardstone too, looks like! It's a relic without equal, it was placed here personally by Iomedae's herald with the goddess's blessing. I really wanted to go see it, to pray before it... But there's no point worrying about a stone when there are people dying in the streets."The good news is, passing the skill check awards experience for Yua. The bad news is, the situation is as bad as it looked. The Wardstone is a magic doohickey that was supposed to protect Kenabres from demonic incursion. Welp.   "I came here to fight the Abyss!" "A fellow crusader! Welcome, sister! This is great. I would have been happy to have any companion in this, but it's nice to be stuck down here with somebody who's my kind of crazy." "It's a good thing you've still got your faith. Because right now, to be totally honest, faith's probably the only thing we do have..." (Anevia tightly ties off the twine on her improvised splint and, leaning on a stick, hauls herself to her feet.) "Now then, I'll hobble my way outta here somehow. The city ain't far, only thirty paces or so... That's if you're going straight up, of course. I'm afraid we're gonna have to go the long way round." "To summarize: there are three of us, with five working legs, three pairs of decent hands, two clear heads and one made of wood — that's mine. Underground monsters, beware!" (Seelah winks.) "Anevia, you stay behind us. You're in no fit state to fight. If we do come up against anything, the two of us will try to manage on our own first. Well, onward! May the good deities lead us back to the open sky soon!"And with that, Seelah has joined the party!   Character Overview: Seelah Together we stand! Lawful Good Female Human Paladin (plain class) of Iomedae Romance: No Can I Fix Her: Yes Incompatible Paths: Lich, (spoiler) Background: Pickpocket (add Trickery and Stealth as class skills, +1 bonus if already class skills, +2 to initiative checks) Feat: Dodge (+1 dodge bonus to AC) Feat: Shield Focus (increase AC bonus of any equipped shield by +1) The only thing that could make me like Seelah more would be if women could romance her. Aside from the mandatory paladin 'to be lawful or to be good' quest, you've already seen just about everything there is to know about Seelah, and I adore her for it. Seelah is just happy to be here, fighting the good fight, to the point that some fans of Wrath decry that she can't possibly be a paladin of Iomedae given the total absence of a stick up her rear end. And unless you go down one of the evil mythic paths, she'll stay that way (the lawful resolution to her quest makes her more of a hardass, but not that much more so). In my opinion, there's nothing wrong with having a character who's simply a good person having a good time, if anything it makes Seelah distressingly sane compared to most of the cast we'll pick up. Mechanically, Seelah is by default meant to be a party tank. Except... 'tanking' doesn't really work in this game. Fortunately, Seelah is level 1 when she joins so you can build her in just about any direction. Common choices for Seelah include making her a bard (she's one point shy of the 16 CHA that I established unlocks the full suite of bard spellcasting) or a ranger (one of the most powerful melee classes in this game with one particular kit). I will be keeping her as a paladin in order to show off a very interesting (and kind of overpowered) mechanic that I've never seen in another RPG of this ilk: mounted combat! As a paladin, Seelah will eventually get her own warhorse that she can ride into battle. And no, there are no restrictions like 'you can't ride your horse indoors.' There will be cavalry charges inside peoples' houses.  Seelah joining also means gear, and it's worth a look for prospective new players how weapons work in this system. The longsword is the default weapon of Dungeons and Dragons, and will be the standard by which all other weapons are judged. A longsword inherently is a melee weapon that deals 1d8 slashing damage per swing. Now, just below that, you'll see '5-12 damage.' This is because Wrath helpfully auto-calculates the potential damage of this weapon in Seelah's hand. With her 18 STR, Seelah enjoys a +4 bonus to melee attack and damage rolls. Weapons in this game can score critical hits on a high enough unmodified (i.e. the natural d20 roll, before bonuses and penalties) roll, and a longsword crits on a roll of 19 or 20, which will then roll for damage as normal and then double it per the listed x2 modifier. Longswords are by default part of the martial weapons proficiency group, but as we've seen there are a lot of ways to get around that.  Seelah's shield illustrates how these work. Equipping a heavy shield gives a +2 AC bonus, but note the 'armor check penalty.' Equipping armor and shields imposes a penalty to certain rolls, mostly dexterity-related, reflecting how heavy and constricting equipment makes certain activities more difficult. The heavy shield imposes a -2 penalty to such rolls. Also, Dungeons and Dragons historically hates mages trying to wear armor, so the current system is that shields and armor add a % chance for any arcane spell you try to cast to simply fail. Seelah is not going to learn any arcane magic in my game, but if you give her levels in bard or sorcerer or what have you, equipping a heavy shield will give a 15% chance for any arcane spell she tries to cast to simply not work.  Seelah's armor shows how most armor in the game works. It's largely similar to the shield, but here you can see that the armor flatly caps the max dexterity bonus Seelah can obtain at 1. Which is, to be fair, the only DEX bonus she has. In case my more historical-minded readers are wondering what on earth 'banded mail' even is, it's the Dungeons and Dragons name for what's generally depicted as Roman style lorica segmentata armor, a mail made of overlapping metal plates riveted to an underlying layer of leather.  By comparison, here is Yua's starting weapon, a light crossbow. This deals a straight 1d8 damage, receiving no bonus to damage from any stat unlike Seelah's sword benefiting from her STR, and has a range of 50 feet. Light crossbows are part of the simple weapon group, meaning that from 3E Dungeons and Dragons through at least 3.5E and 1E Pathfinder, the light crossbow is the iconic 'gently caress it, I gotta have *something*' weapon of bards, wizards, and back-liners of all kinds. Wrath, fortunately, does not make you track ammunition for normal attacks.  For armor, Yua wears a humble leather jerkin (or jack or buff coat or cuir boilli or whatever you want to call it). It is, obviously, far less protective than Seelah's lorica but as light armor allows Yua to cast spells without penalty thanks to the bard's armored casting perk.  Yua also has a defensive accessory! The PC starts with these bracers no matter what, and they provide a +1 bonus to your AC and all saving throws.  Now back to the actual gameplay! Interactable objects are highlighted in yellow with the shift key.  Inside is a grab bag of different weapons, plus a cloak.  Seelah actually needs the saving throw bonus more than Yua, so she models the cloak. Also, note in the bottom left that Seelah's speed is only 20 feet. Heavy armor in this game, unless you circumvent this in various ways, slows down a character's movement speed - this is one reason I'll be putting Seelah on her horse the moment that becomes an option!   Alas, Terendelev. Party members dying isn't actually a concern on this difficulty, but hang on to this scale. It's used for something special much, much later in the game.  Up ahead is a survivor and a corpse.  "Relax, friend, we're not demons or cultists! Don't poke my eye out with that thing, all right? We fell down here during the attack. I'm Seelah, that's Anevia and this is our new friend. We're looking for a way back to the surface."Unfortunately, it's a new party member.  What happened to this poor man? Who is he? "I don't know. He must have been in the square when disaster struck. I tried to revive him, but he was already dead, sadly." "He didn't get these wounds from the fall..." (Seelah's eyes warily scan the area.) "Be on your guard. Whatever killed him likely hasn't gone far."Spoiler: Camellia killed him.  "We need to keep moving. There must be a way back to the surface around here somewhere." "That's right. It would be the height of foolishness to survive a demon attack only to perish under a pile of rubble." "Let's see if this poor bloke has anything useful on him. Not to sound like a heartless brigand or nothin', but we kinda need all the supplies we can get right now."   Character Overview: Camellia Death is life's greatest surprise. I enjoy surprising people. Chaotic Evil Female Half-Elf Shaman (Spirit Slayer) of the Green Faith Romance: Men Can I Fix Her: No Incompatible Paths: Aeon, (spoiler) Background: Courtier (add Trickery and Persuasion as class skills, add proficiency with rapier and buckler shield) Feat: Skill Focus: Trickery (+3 bonus to Trickery skill checks) Feat: Weapon Finesse (calculate melee attack bonus using Dexterity attribute instead of Strength when equipped with a light weapon, rapier, estoc, or elven curve blade) Our first cannibalistic serial killer for the party is a rapist besides, and a screenshot LP does not begin to get across how unhinged Cammy's voice acting is. Undetectable her alignment might be, but the all-seeing eyes of the UI know better, and you'll see Cammy's true alignment the moment you mouse over any alignment-restricted feat or class when leveling her up. Allegedly, Cammy was originally listed as simply True Neutral and had far more subdued voice acting, but so many people missed all the hints the game will drop about her true nature during alpha testing and were rudely surprised when the mask finally drops (especially people playing male PCs who romanced her) that Owlcat felt compelled to make it much more obvious to the player that Cammy is legitimately, fundamentally broken in her head and can only put up a facade of normality and being a victim for so long before her psychotic urges become uncontrollable. Unfortunately, the game will still act like the player doesn't realize she's at all suspicious, so I'll be dealing with this millstone around my neck for much, much longer than I'd like. Mechanically, though, Cammy is one of the most powerful characters in the game. Build her properly and she's an astounding support character and front-liner. I, however, will be discarding her from the party as soon as the game lets me, and killing her the moment the game allows me to, so her build is of no concern to this LP.  Moments after Cammy forces herself into the party, our first combat begins as a young giant centipede races out of the darkness and bites a chunk out of Cammy! If you're playing on any but the easiest difficulties, you want to move very carefully to avoid triggering enemies that lie in wait - either you or the enemy can initiate combat and get the first blow! Mousing over the centipede's attack helpfully shows all the math involved: because the centipede was making a surprise attack (i.e. starting combat), Cammy was considered flat-footed and denied her DEX bonus to AC (remember that in the first update?), leaving her with an AC of 15. The centipede needed to roll a 15 or better to hit Cammy, and rolled an 18 even before factoring in its modifiers, so it hit. The centipede has a base attack bonus of -2, but gets a +2 bonus from a buddy being next to it (this is called a flanking bonus - there are mods that show that real 'flanking' requirements can be put into the game and Owlcat consciously chose to model flanking as just having multiple allies in melee range of one enemy) to cancel that out, then the centipede enjoys a +2 bonus from its DEX score and a +1 bonus for being one size category smaller (easier to hit something bigger than you, as you might expect).  Fortunately, the giant centipede rolls poorly for damage and only inflicts 1 point of damage. Damage from attacks can never go below 0 unless actual Damage Reduction is in effect.  Now it's Yua's turn, and mousing over the enemy with the Y key reveals a complete breakdown of the enemy. We're on story difficulty and this is the first combat, so obviously this is almost completely harmless. On higher difficulties, Dungeons and Dragons d20 combat has a well earned reputation for rocket tag gameplay where it's routine for one good hit to kill either way.   Yua shoots the bug with her light crossbow, hits despite a -4 penalty for making a ranged attack against an enemy engaged in melee, and kills!  Seelah is up next and kills in a single blow from her sword.  And Cammy completes the set.   Moving on I loot another corpse for a gold piece, some vendor trash, and a set of padded textile armor. You can see the weight and sale value of any item here.  Another scale from Terendelev. Like the first, you want to hold on to this.  Up ahead is a giant fly, mildly more threatening than the centipedes.  Yua drops it in a single shot before it knows we're here and I skip over some more bugs.  Behind them is more loot.  The magic bracers are actually useless to me at the moment. They're meant to give completely unarmored characters a bit of protection, but even Yua's leather jerkin is better protection, much less Cammy's chain mail shirt and Seelah's lorica.  Scrolls are one-shot magic spells as usable items. This one's not worth remarking on unless you're playing as a dhampir - dhampirs by default count as undead, so 'inflict wounds' spells heal them like undead, and 'cure wounds' spells hurt dhampirs like undead. You have to take a feat to get around this.  Healing potions are healing potions. Mind what I just said if you've got a dhampir PC.  Skipping past another incidental combat, I find new types of loot: alchemy ingredients and cooking supplies. I'll show what these do later.  This monitor lizard is the first enemy to survive an attack! If you don't want to mouse over it for details, enemies have an HP bar visible over their model and in the turn order window at the top of the screen.  And at the end of this cave crawl...   (The man notices you and freezes. The curling horn protruding from his head casts a malevolent shadow on the cave wall.) "Wenduag!" "Lann? Did you find it?" (The woman looks just as strange as her companion — like a cross between a cat and a spider. When she catches sight of you, she immediately drops into a fighting stance. Her movements reveal the lethal grace of a wild predator.) "Who is that?"Meet the  "Demons are laying waste to Kenabres!" (Lann's expression hardens.) "If things are as bad as you say, then we all have to hurry." (Wenduag looks you over, considering something.) "You didn't come from the direction of the Shield Maze... drat it! I couldn't care less about what's happening on the surface, but the Maze..." "I realize that you guys have your own troubles. But we need to be in Kenabres, people are dying up there! Please, show us the way out." "Who are you? Tieflings?" Mongrelfolk like this are, for the record, not a PC option.  "Sadly, 'underground crusaders' is a bit of a mouthful, so people usually just call us 'mongrels'." (Wenduag lets out a disdainful huff.) "You just love repeating that, don't you, Lann? 'Mongrels' — that's what the uplanders call us. But we call ourselves 'neathers'." "No matter what you call us, it's not going to stop our horns, hooves, or tails from growing." "I've never heard of underground crusaders before."Whether this is accurate to Pathfinder's actual lore, I don't know. There's nothing like this in any DnD material I'm familiar with.  (Wenduag gives a contemptuous snort.) "That's human gratitude for you. Our forefathers suffered the consequences of demonic corruption, all to protect Mendev and Golarion, and for what? So we could become monsters used to frighten children." (Lann sighs.) "Every mongrel has their own take on it. Our chief, for example, thinks of us as something like a reserve military force. He thinks we're standing by until the moment we're needed. And when we emerge on the surface and save the day, all the people will see how good we are, and they'll love us for it. He leaves that last part out when he talks about it, of course, but it's easy enough to read between the lines." "What is this place?" "This is the hall where we remember the glory of our forebears. Sorry about the mess — it doesn't usually look like this, trust me. Sometimes we even wipe the dust off the exhibits." "This is where the relics of the first crusaders are displayed. Our lives are short, our glories are quickly forgotten... but this place helps us to remember that we are just as worthy as anyone else, and that our lives are not lived in vain." (Anevia lets out a low whistle.) "The first crusaders? You've been down here that long? That's crazy!" "What are you doing here?" In retrospect, all of this was the first clue I had that the war against the Worldwound had some... blind spots, shall we say. I wasn't thinking about it in those terms at the time, though. "We're looking for a holy sword. It was here, in the center, sticking out of a rock." (Lann frowns.) "The sooner we find it, the better. Some kids from our tribe took off for the Shield Maze. They figured it had collapsed and now it's their time to go up to the surface like all the legends foretold... Except they don't have a clue what's waiting for them up there. They're not fighters. And Sull, the chief of our tribe, is dead set against it — he says that now isn't the time for the underground crusaders to take up arms. If we get the holy sword, we might be able to change the Chief's mind." (Wenduag huffs a breath.) "It's a fool's errand. None of us will be able to hold the sword, let alone use it to save anyone. It's not an ordinary weapon — it's made from righteous heavenly flame and will burn anyone who touches it. Do you think you're special, Lann?" "I'll pick it up with my teeth and tie it to my hand if I have to... it doesn't matter. An angel's sword and a troop of stalwart mongrels will be able to work a minor miracle." (He chuckles.) "Speaking of which — you're still here, Wendu, which means that deep down you know it's possible." (Wenduag shrugs and turns away.) "Maze? Does it really lead up to the surface?"This exchange right here is the conflict between Lann and Wenduag in a nutshell. Lann believes that the mongrels are special, and have a purpose and destiny. Wenduag believes that's so much poppycock and there is only strength and survival.  "When the ceiling and walls started shaking, the young ones in our tribe lost their heads — they figured the Maze was going to collapse, so it was time to go up to the surface. They grabbed whatever weapons were on hand and ran off toward the Maze." (His eyes are filled with genuine concern.) "They think the Maze is no longer a danger to them. They've been listening to Wenduag too much..." "Don't try to blame this on me. Yes, I told them that our people are capable of making our way through the Maze. In the future. But I always told them to wait until I had made a map of all the Maze's dangers. I warned them a hundred times!" (You hear a hint of emotion in Wenduag's voice for the first time.) "But it was no use! My words just went in one ear and out the other!" "A sword of holy flame? How did it end up down here?" "It came here with its owner. A long time ago, fifty thousand gongs to be precise..." "Seventy years ago, in uplander time." (Wenduag rewards Lann with an irritated glare.) "Fifty thousand gongs ago, our forebears found a dead angel here along with the bodies of his comrades. The tribe gave them a dignified burial, and they were laid to rest with their weapons — but the flaming angelic sword was stuck in a rock and no one was able to pull it out. It burned to the touch, like real fire. So the rock was placed over the angel's grave. It should be here somewhere..." "Maybe the angel will dig himself out and find the sword for us? That might be our best shot in this chaos." "We'll find the sword faster if we work together. I'll help you."One of the primary themes and questions of Wrath of the Righteous is the question of identity and nature. Are you what biology has made you to be, or is there more to it than that? Lann believes that the mongrels have a history and a purpose that ennobles them, makes them special and vaunted despite their seemingly decrepit state as a people. Wenduag on the other hand believes that that dedication is so much propaganda and comforting lies, that there is no destiny for their people, no special calling, only fantasies. Both of them want a better future for their people, in their own ways, but their respective visions are incompatible.  "Now we're talking! Let's get to work. It's a good thing we all bumped into each other, isn't it?" "What, you want to find the sword quickly so the underground monsters bring you back to the surface? So be it."Lann is the more overtly helpful and friendly of the two, but his very idealism makes him stubborn and resistant to change. Wenduag is self-interested and cynical, but this also means she's the more open of the two to changing for the better down the line, she in some senses has more intellectual integrity and is more capable of understanding and admitting, under the proper circumstances, when she's wrong.  Lore: Religion check to identify this statue and earn some xp.  You just need to wander around a bit - this is the game tutorializing the use of the Perception skill to spot hidden interactables.  Until you find the sword.  Bringing us to a text adventure! If you read my mythic path overview, then you know that the Angel mythic path is divided into two variants: the Angel of Judgment and the Angel of Mercy. Your choices in this little sequence are what decide which of those two the Angel path will be on, if you decide to commit to it.   In text adventure sequences like this, only the PC's stats and skills matter. No one else can intervene.   It took me a long time to figure out what any of this meant. At the time, I almost felt like I was dreaming, one too many blows to the head that morning. (Seelah kneels before the light, offering up a prayer to Iomedae) (Lann looks at you, dumbfounded.) "That… that was it! The Light of Heaven! But how…" (Wenduag frowns.) "What did you do with it? Where did it go?" "You saw it, too? The traitors, the dying girl...?"Light of Heaven, the Angel mythic theme, played throughout that text adventure sequence.  (Lann rubs his chin anxiously.) "Sorry, I crack jokes when I get nervous. And when I'm upset. And when I'm happy. Anyway, what I said, it came out wrong. We need to bring you to Chief Sull! You can show everyone the Light of Heaven, we'll rally the tribe and go into the Maze, and we'll get back our kin!" "And what if she can't make it happen a second time? What then? The tribe will just say we're crazy and turn its back on us." "I think... I saw the memories of Lariel, the angel who died here." "Lariel? That really was Lariel? The angel from the legends? The ancestors even got his name right on the gravestone — the Chief will be thrilled." (Wenduag watches you with suspicion.) "You? Thousands of gongs and no one's been able to touch it, and now you, an ordinary creature of flesh and blood no different to us, get the sword and start talking about visions?" "Now, now, Wenduag, don't be a sore loser." (Lann nods toward you.) "She is clearly different from us — the sword appeared before her, along with the angel's name, and all that other stuff. Because she doesn't carry our mongrel taint. Heaven doesn't give a drat how special we are. We're born with evil inside us, Heaven doesn't need to know any more than that."If it sounds like Lann's a bit jealous, you're not wrong. He won't be the last person to get jealous of the PC being Special.   Oh, how little they knew. Power almost always comes at a cost, but none of us appreciated what that meant in my case at the time. (Wenduag stares at the divine light as if transfixed.) "This power… is the most majestic thing I've ever seen in all my life... Is this what the sun is like, Lann?" "Yes, it's similar… but this light is more… golden." (Lann drags his gaze away from it.) "Chief Sull needs to see this. Now that we have the power of angels on our side, he can't say no. He'll have to assemble a troop to storm the Maze." (Lann looks at you pleadingly.) "You uplanders care about your kids, right? Help us save ours. Without them, we won't survive. And then… the perils of the Maze won't be so bad if we go together, we'll make our way through it and find the way to Kenabres." "Lead us to your chief, then." "Let's go. We'll take the short route. Well, the only route, really."And with that, Lann and Wenduag join the party and the Angel mythic path has officially unlocked - though it won't be time to commit to a mythic path for quite some time yet. For now, a strange power has awakened in Yua.   Character Overview: Lann Thanks, Lann! You're so awesome, Lann! Lawful Neutral Male Mongrelfolk Monk (Zen Archer) of Iomedae Romance: Women Can I Fix Him: No Incompatible Paths: (spoiler) Background: Hunter (add Perception and Lore: Nature as class skills, add proficiency with longbow and shortbow) Feat: Combat Reflexes (make additional attacks of opportunity per round equal to DEX bonus, may make attacks of opportunity while flat-footed) Talking about Lann's character can be tricky, because it depends on which Lann is going to turn up at any given moment: he's rather inconsistently written between a laid-back nice guy and a high-strung hardass. Allegedly, he was the victim of rewrites in alpha much like Camellia: he was apparently a Neutral Good ranger (demonslayer kit) originally, but testers felt that he was too similar to another character who will join later, so he was reconfigured to his current state, and not all the writing got the message. The consistent core to Lann's character, though, is his desperate need to feel special and give his life meaning. Lann is all too aware of his painfully short lifespan as a mongrel, and has a deep-seated psychological need to feel that his life has purpose. Unfortunately, Yua is going to be rather rude and dismissive to Lann throughout the game for the simple reason that I mean to play Yua as a lesbian, and Lann is very likely to take what sounds like kindness and friendliness from a woman and interpret it as her urgently desiring to gently caress his brains out. While men misinterpreting basic friendliness from women as declarations of love and sexual interest is certainly realistic, it's not something I like to deal with in video games so Yua will spend most of her interactions with Lann driving him away with pointy sticks. Mechanically, though, Lann is a heavy hitter right from the word go and you can do a whole lot worse than keep advancing him in Zen Archer and putting points in DEX and STR. Archers are very strong in this game and Lann comes pre-set to go hard on that game plan. While I intend to do just that, I will be using Lann to demonstrate how you can give characters levels in other classes and so introduce one of the most broken mechanical parts of Wrath's design, so much so that not a single NPC companion comes specced for it by default.   Character Overview: Wenduag Rargh! Neutral Evil Female Mongrelfolk Fighter (plain class) of Lamashtu Romance: Men and Women Can I Fix Her: Yes Incompatible Paths: (spoiler) Background: Hunter (add Perception and Lore: Nature as class skills, add proficiency with longbow and shortbow) Feat: Precise Shot (can make ranged attacks against enemies engaged in melee without penalty) Feat: Point Blank Shot (+1 attack and damage rolls with a ranged weapon against enemies within 30 feet) Our second cannibalistic serial killer for the party, Wenduag is mostly as advertised: a survival of the fittest dog-eat-man libertarian survivalist. She is also a certified BDSM enthusiast happy to bottom for anyone she deems strong, so if you want a murderous spidercatgirl sub who calls you Master/Mistress all the time, Wrath might be the game for you! Wenduag is, unfortunately, a victim of most of her character exploration and growth being locked behind romancing her. There is more to her than what you see on the surface, but getting to that part of her character is contingent on dealing extensively with the surface impression and playing your cards just right so that she opens up. To be honest, I have never romanced Wenduag (see: cannibalistic serial killer) so I can't tell you any hard details, but she has some very dedicated fans out there. Mechanically, she's an in-flavor alternative to Lann, trading Lann's inherent power as a Zen Archer for the extreme build flexibility of a fighter. The Crimson Path Young Giant Centipede x3 Giant Fly x2 Giant Centipede x1 Spitting Giant Centipede x1 Monitor Lizard x1 Cythereal fucked around with this message at 19:17 on Feb 17, 2024 |
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Feb 17, 2024 18:34
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I appreciate the "Can I fix her?" category inclusion.
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Feb 17, 2024 19:11
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I appreciate how immediately upon starting a party we have a roughly equal ratio of Evil to Good characters. Also, how wild is it that we've got two serial killers within the first couple of minutes? We literally just met them so I don't have much to say about the companions but I think I like them. They seem like a colorful cast for sure. I'm not a big fan of having character development locked behind romance but, oh well. What are you gonna do? Also starting with such an immediately huge and important event is interesting. I've never really done an "epic" or long-running campaign for... any tabletop really. I get the feeling that dropping a huge Big Bad Evil Guy towards the start of the game works much better in a video game than at the table.
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Feb 17, 2024 19:22
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The mythic path themes are all really good, but we actually went with the path that has by far the best of them. I can't wait until we get to the point Cythereal can post the Azata theme.
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Feb 17, 2024 19:46
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Torrannor posted:The mythic path themes are all really good, but we actually went with the path that has by far the best of them. I can't wait until we get to the point Cythereal can post the Azata theme. The themes for the first six are all linked in the mythic path overview on the first page.
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Feb 17, 2024 19:48
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Cythereal posted:The themes for the first six are all linked in the mythic path overview on the first page. I missed those! People should definitely give them a listen. And imho, Azata is the second best piece of music in WotR, behind only the personal theme of a major character we will meet much later.
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Feb 17, 2024 20:17
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Cythereal posted:Our first cannibalistic serial killer for the party is a rapist besides, Cythereal posted:Alas, Terendelev. Party members dying isn't actually a concern on this difficulty, but hang on to this scale. It's used for something special much, much later in the game. Flametongue was a sword in older d&d editions (at least in 3) Cythereal posted:Lariel (going to Wikipedia : Larry, derived from Lawrence or Laurence, meaning "bright one, shining one". French.) Cythereal posted:Our second cannibalistic serial killer for the party Vargatron posted:I appreciate the "Can I fix her?" category inclusion. Lemme guess: nobody gets a "no fix needed" here.
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Feb 17, 2024 20:20
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Gun Jam posted:Wait, so how the game handles party members dying in combat (unless "deliberately getting her killed by demons" is possible, but you're not doing that?" People can die for real if you're on higher difficulties. There is a way to get more party members later in the game that I'll show later.
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Feb 17, 2024 20:24
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