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Mokinokaro posted:That's really neat but you can really tell she was a darling of the devs with the amount of love she gets in the story. Yup, no argument there. All the same, I like her and I'm fine with being pandered to now and then. Even though I do have some significant criticisms of her romance (Owlcat tries with LGBT characters and representation, but they have some issues) that I'll bring up when we meet her.
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Mar 18, 2024 16:43
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Cythereal posted:Not so much a coding mistake as just unfinished and inactive material that's present in the game's files. That's always a bummer. Will you point that character out when we get to them? I have honestly no idea who this could be referring to, but I'm really curious to know.
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Mar 18, 2024 16:44
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RevolverDivider posted:I mean becoming a Lich isn’t a weapon like a sword or basic spell like magic missile. You are intentionally embracing and wielding one of the most evil cosmic forces in the universe. You can mitigate it to a degree, but if you want that full power you have to dive into it. Nothing makes death or undeath inherently evil
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Mar 18, 2024 16:58
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Slaan posted:Nothing makes undeath inherently evil Not the case in the Pathfinder setting unfortunately.
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Mar 18, 2024 17:08
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Mokinokaro posted:That's really neat but you can really tell she was a darling of the devs with the amount of love she gets in the story. To be fair, she was a major part of the AP as well, so it's not all on Owlcat. Cythereal posted:Even though I do have some significant criticisms of her romance (Owlcat tries with LGBT characters and representation, but they have some issues) that I'll bring up when we meet her. Serious question, not trolling or anything, but have you played other Owlcat games before? Because if not, it might not be all their fault (see my statement re: my quoting Mokinokaro).
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Mar 18, 2024 17:24
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Death is itself not evil. Undeath involves *enslaving souls*, so yeah, it's pretty evil! Consider: the horror of the original zombie myth was not that they ate brains or whatever. The zombie mythos we are all familiar with was born in the Haitian suger plantations, which were, to put it lightly, the most hellish experience the plantation slavers could make it. Hellish enough that they had the horrifically unique problem of their slave labor choosing to kill themselves rather then continue existing in such a miserable state. Enter the belief of the zombie. Many - I daresay, most - cultures already had a severe taboo against disrupting the rest of the dead. While not all cultures had the option or idea of a positive afterlife, it was still considered wrong in the extreme to interrupt or interfere with the dead. But in the Haitian colonies, this was taken to a more horrific extreme. Voodoo priests - often hired by plantation owners or slave drivers themselves - used the fear of zombification to stop their slaves from committing suicide. The horror was simple - even in death, you aren't free. Not even dying could save you from the horrors of slavery. There would be no heaven awaiting you - just endless slavery. It's from this idea that a lot of fantasy necromancy, somewhat unwittingly, comes fun. Undeath isn't just evil because disrupting the rest of the dead is a severe taboo, or D&D's own weird usage of "negative energy." It's also, at least in much fantasy, forcing the souls of the dead into servitude and slavery. And hey, guess what, slavery's real loving evil, even if (and maybe especially if) the person in question was dead before you pressed them into service.
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Mar 18, 2024 17:38
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CommissarMega posted:have you played other Owlcat games before? I have not, nor any since, but I read extensively about both Kingmaker and Rogue Trader when researching both games to decide if I should buy them. I paid particular attention to the LGBT characters and romances. I like Wrath, but I have developed a very strong aversion to buying games I'm on the fence about just because I enjoyed a previous game by that company. Been badly disappointed by that one too many times. I do my homework before I buy nowadays.
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Mar 18, 2024 17:39
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Cythereal posted:I have not, nor any since, but I read extensively about both Kingmaker and Rogue Trader when researching both games to decide if I should buy them. I paid particular attention to the LGBT characters and romances. Fair enough; I didn't finish Kingmaker and while I enjoy RT I didn't really explore the LGBT aspect of it myself. Just saying that Paizo had their own issues with representation and gender, and some of it did carry over into Wrath, at least from my perspective.
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Mar 18, 2024 17:46
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CommissarMega posted:Rank 3: Living creatures are also just complex devices and can also be easily disabled. You can try to disable them, forcing them to make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 15 + your ranks in Trickery). If the target fails it, it dies. this is Fist of the North Star as gently caress
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Mar 18, 2024 18:07
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biosterous posted:this is Fist of the North Star as gently caress Though, with the Trickster path, it's more kind of Fist of the Nose Hair.
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Mar 18, 2024 18:21
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ProfessorCirno posted:Death is itself not evil. Undeath involves *enslaving souls*, so yeah, it's pretty evil! In universe there is probably a soul enslavement aspect, which is obviously evil. But outside the PF universe, there are many other variants that don't require that. Some where people volunteer to have their souls and bodies used to defend others for certain periods of time, some where the soul doesn't go into at all so it's just moving some decayed bones from 100 years ago around, etc. I'd even say that using dead people to fight demons instead of putting the living in harms way is a net good, instead of a net bad under any system that doesn't torture enslaved souls
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Mar 18, 2024 18:54
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Pharasma gets super aggro if you make undead.
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Mar 18, 2024 19:00
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CommissarMega posted:Fair enough; I didn't finish Kingmaker and while I enjoy RT I didn't really explore the LGBT aspect of it myself. Just saying that Paizo had their own issues with representation and gender, and some of it did carry over into Wrath, at least from my perspective. Noted. This game is the only meaningful exposure I've had to Pathfinder and Paizo.
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Mar 18, 2024 19:01
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 Slaan posted:In universe there is probably a soul enslavement aspect, which is obviously evil. But outside the PF universe, there are many other variants that don't require that. Some where people volunteer to have their souls and bodies used to defend others for certain periods of time, some where the soul doesn't go into at all so it's just moving some decayed bones from 100 years ago around, etc. Jokes aside, sure, you could create a universe where you have concepts such as the "hallowed dead" who return to fight such as numerous myths of sleeping kings, those oath-bound who cannot rest until their oath is fulfilled a'la Dead Men of Dunharrow, or simply "bone golems" (although if you're just animating inanimate objects, the only reason you'd choose skeletons is to be an edgelord about it, so I think you're still being a dick on that example). PF is none of those universes, and while the first two ideas have some grounds in fantasy, that's absolutely not the case of what the lich is doing.
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Mar 18, 2024 19:01
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Kingmaker had some problematic romance paths, including the F/F one where you have to be in a poly relationship or else somebody dies at the end. As for Paizo, they have had the same issues as D&D did regarding poor representation/inclusiveness, however the most recent rules release includes a lot of inclusive features and lore (even rules to play characters with mobility issues if you wish). They're making a good effort, even if it's not perfectly consistent across all products.
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Mar 18, 2024 19:05
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ProfessorCirno posted:
Yup. Eberron comes to mind as a case where undead and making them don't have to be evil, both in forms of positive energy animated 'Our hallowed ancestors still walk among us and guide us' and traditional undead who believe they're morally right to cling to existence because that setting knows exactly what happens when you die and it isn't great so one major religion says you have an affirmative moral duty to cheat the normal cycle of life and death. I get the impression that Lich in Wrath met with a lot of conflicting expectations. The path primarily caters to MUHUHAHAHAHAHA! BOW BEFORE MY ENDLESS EMPIRE OF DEATH! and does so with great enthusiasm, but a lot of people seem to have expected more... nuance.
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Mar 18, 2024 19:05
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The lich mythic path is interesting, but it is by no exaggeration an evil path. You can't be a good lich here. Either you commit or wash out, perhaps into the very good legend path.
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Mar 18, 2024 19:18
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I mean, you absolutely can play off your lich as someone who is tempted into dark powers for a greater good, believing they're doing this for the aforementioned reasons of using the dead to serve against a greater evil. It's a legitimate path in the game. It's just that, by the end of the game, you've almost certainly lost those pretenses, because every step into more power is also a step into greater profane evils to get that power. No matter how good your initial reasons are, no matter how much you tell yourself that you're doing this to stop the demons, you're stlil doing increasingly horrible things to achieve more and more personal power, and that inevitably tips you over. The more time you spend around other slavering ghouls and slaves to your will, the more the living start to look like so much unused meat. In other words, the Lich has two possible narratives - the full skeletor, and the descent and temptation into evil. There is no path where you remain a good person. Good people don't butcher the innocent and enslave their souls, regardless of their good intentions.
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Mar 18, 2024 19:21
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D&D Forgotten Realms elves had baelnorns, elves who willingly underwent the ritual to become powerful undead spellcasters in order to protect certain sacred places or important artifacts.
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Mar 18, 2024 20:21
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ProfessorCirno posted:I mean, you absolutely can play off your lich as someone who is tempted into dark powers for a greater good, believing they're doing this for the aforementioned reasons of using the dead to serve against a greater evil. It's a legitimate path in the game. well at that point all you have to do is take up the issue with the arbiters of good and demonstrate their faulty reasoning. admittedly this -will- involve storming the gates of their so-called heavens and laying waste to the blinkered fools who are so eager to die on their behalf, but once that preamble is dealt with the rest is just a matter of reasoned debate and several million heavily armed skeletons.
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Mar 18, 2024 20:27
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Yeah, unmodified Kingmaker is not the best game for romance or queer representation. I’ll let people do their own research into how this is so. It does have its merits, but the writing wasn’t completely great. WotR has improved on general writing and romance but there are still issues here and there. I’m not into authoritarianism and the Lich path in this game runs pretty hard on that. Same for the other Evil paths, though Demon and the spoiler one do have some compensation. Angel gets kudos for including some independence and promotion of self-determination along with the whole Light of Heaven blessing the world. Azata is similar but more so because Chaotic Good is all about freedom of choice and from oppressive power in addition to helping people. Aeon and Trickster are fun, but I found some of their writing in bad taste. More so Trickster than Aeon. I’ll have more to say about the endgame mythic paths when we get there. I’ve been reading Pathfinder game books I find interesting since the company was founded. I’ve also sat in a few games. More exposure to D&D, but this game is also fun. achtungnight fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Mar 18, 2024 |
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Mar 18, 2024 20:34
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Yeowch!!! My Balls!!! posted:well at that point all you have to do is take up the issue with the arbiters of good and demonstrate their faulty reasoning. admittedly this -will- involve storming the gates of their so-called heavens and laying waste to the blinkered fools who are so eager to die on their behalf, but once that preamble is dealt with the rest is just a matter of reasoned debate and several million heavily armed skeletons. Ahhhhh, a fan of the origins of the dumb image I used above!  Also very fitting given how much this game adores the HoMM series. You wanna make jokes about this game being Slavic, there's your actual source.
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Mar 18, 2024 20:45
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Cythereal posted:Yup. Eberron comes to mind as a case where undead and making them don't have to be evil, both in forms of positive energy animated 'Our hallowed ancestors still walk among us and guide us' and traditional undead who believe they're morally right to cling to existence because that setting knows exactly what happens when you die and it isn't great so one major religion says you have an affirmative moral duty to cheat the normal cycle of life and death. Pretty much. I don't know why I expected anything more than the bog standard impression of undeath in the game, but I'd more chalk that up to my unfamiliarity with pathfinder's setting. Came fresh off a game where necromancy was little more than a macarbe form of using golems. Except you know, bones and flesh cause it's already there and assembled mostly. So, my bad.
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Mar 18, 2024 21:03
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ProfessorCirno posted:Ahhhhh, a fan of the origins of the dumb image I used above! IIRC some of the devs worked on HoMM 5, so there's that  Also only cheap weenies used Necropolis in HoMM 3. REAL MEN WHO ARE REAL GAMVRS™ ran Fortress and liked their victory wine 
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Mar 18, 2024 21:22
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CommissarMega posted:IIRC some of the devs worked on HoMM 5, so there's that Fortress or Dungeon forever  Never knew Owlcat had HOMM veterans in it, though it makes sense
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Mar 18, 2024 21:25
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CommissarMega posted:IIRC some of the devs worked on HoMM 5, so there's that The enemies will fall before my legion of mighty gorgons and they'll like it.
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Mar 18, 2024 21:52
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ProfessorCirno posted:I mean, you absolutely can play off your lich as someone who is tempted into dark powers for a greater good, believing they're doing this for the aforementioned reasons of using the dead to serve against a greater evil. It's a legitimate path in the game. Yeah this is a better worded way to put it then I could do. Lich is about one of two narratives, and if you don't want to engage with those narratives it's not a path you want to play. There isn't a story there for the special hero who can become a Lich with all the perks and none of the downsides. Demon into Legend is the closest you can get to that sort of narrative and is actually pretty cool to do, though it still requires you to make the Legend choice which urgh.
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Mar 18, 2024 21:55
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Drakenel posted:Pretty much. I don't know why I expected anything more than the bog standard impression of undeath in the game, but I'd more chalk that up to my unfamiliarity with pathfinder's setting. Came fresh off a game where necromancy was little more than a macarbe form of using golems. Except you know, bones and flesh cause it's already there and assembled mostly. I mean, it's not the "Undead Path," it's the "Lich Path." I legitimately struggle to find an example of non-evil Liches as a general rule across the vast, VAST majority of fiction outside of Baelnorns (who aren't really liches anyways, but are referenced as that for simplicity). You can absolutely write a story where undeath isn't evil, but Liches almost always are for very good reason.
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Mar 18, 2024 22:29
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Slaan posted:Nothing makes death or undeath inherently evil Okay but there's a reason why the goddess of death is Lawful Neutral while the goddess whose domains include undeath is neutral evil. Pharasma is stern but wants people to know that death is nothing to be scared of but bitterly hates anyone that would cheat death or pervert the dignity of someone who dies by raising their body.
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Mar 18, 2024 22:33
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Ultimately, every mythic path story in this game is a specific story, not a build-a-bear open ended storyline. I appreciate very much that Owlcat included a wide range of options. There is an 'ends justify the means, and it's truly nothing personal as I do whatever I must to beat the Worldwound' mythic path story. It's just not the Lich path that so many people seem to have expected it to be.
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Mar 18, 2024 22:43
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achtungnight posted:Yeah, unmodified Kingmaker is not the best game for romance or queer representation.
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Mar 18, 2024 23:01
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Szarrukin posted:Polyamorous representation in Kingmaker was absolutely disastrous. LGBT+ representation in Rogue Trader... exists and that's all I know about it but I really like queer representation in WotR and I don't even mind that "Anevia is trans" revelation being hidden behind the hardest skill check in the game (because to be fair it really isn't your business and Irabeth is very clear about that) Oh wow, I never even found that out with Anevia. That's awesome.
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Mar 18, 2024 23:05
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Vargatron posted:Oh wow, I never even found that out with Anevia. That's awesome. I noted it when we first met Anevia.  In Act 5, if Irabeth is still alive and sane (which is, uh, not guaranteed), there's a DC 50 persuasion check to learn that Anevia is trans.
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Mar 18, 2024 23:08
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Cythereal posted:I noted it when we first met Anevia. You can react to passing the check in various ways. One is “That’s unnatural!” I imagine Annevia and Irabeth don’t react well if you pick that one. I wouldn’t call the poly representation in Kingmaker disastrous, the Wild Cards dlc did bring some improvements, but yeah, it needed work. I have bigger objections with locking the best ending behind a certain monogamous romance.
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Mar 18, 2024 23:13
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Cythereal posted:I noted it when we first met Anevia. It was actually part of Anevia's backstory in the AP, and I admit, I was curious how they'd handle it in the game. achtungnight posted:You can react to passing the check in various ways. One is “That’s unnatural!” I imagine Annevia and Irabeth don’t react well if you pick that one. I wonder how many people took that choice. Honestly, I was kind of surprised it was in there, not just because it's horrible, but also because Golarion is such a magic-rich place I'd be surprised transitioning, or at least coming out as trans, didn't happen more often.
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Mar 18, 2024 23:37
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CommissarMega posted:I admit, I was curious how they'd handle it in the game. Like the trans characters in Siege of Dragonspear and Mass Effect Andromeda, they only bring it up if you go prying into her backstory. I've never seen that persuasion check because I don't feel the need to obsessively click on every dialogue option.
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Mar 18, 2024 23:42
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Cythereal posted:Like the trans characters in Siege of Dragonspear and Mass Effect Andromeda, they only bring it up if you go prying into her backstory. I mean, that's honestly how it should be. All that matters is that she's a woman now, not what she was born as. Of course Andromeda managed to gently caress up their trans representation to a horrible degree, so nobody should get pointers from that game. And I think there were hints before the 5th chapter reveal? It's been a while since I played, but I think I recall getting some trans vibes before that point. But I could be totally wrong.
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Mar 19, 2024 00:06
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Taking the Gray Is my update pace unsustainable? Probably. But this is what I'm like when I'm LPing a game I enjoy for a change.  Wrath's journal isn't the best, but I've seen worse. Green marks are for quests I've completed. Red marks are for quests that are limited to this chapter. And we are ready to go.  When you talk to Irabeth, the game confirms that this is the point of no return. When you move to attack the Gray Garrison, you are committed.   And now, to battle!I get the reward for beating the clock. You do get exactly the same amount of experience points for beating the clock that you'd get for killing everything during the battle, so you don't lose anything that way.  Recruit the mages from Blackwing  Haste is rightly regarded as one of the most powerful buffs in almost any DnD based game, and just so here. And the entire party has it, for the entire dungeon if you don't pause to rest.  A representative of each group you recruited will accompany the party and do things throughout the dungeon. The Blackwing mages cast the haste spell and support the party as wizards. The thieflings will auto-pass perception checks to spot traps and hidden goodies, and automatically disarm or open some of them. The Desnans will crowd control certain enemy groups and support the party with buffs and healing. If you recruited Hulrun, he sends one of his henchmen to fight alongside you as a decently high level paladin, and Hulrun himself will periodically barge into enemy groups with the rest of his entourage to join the fight.  This is Irabeth's. We'll discover what this is for later.  Most of the Gray Garrison is a dungeon crawl filled with cultists and demons. I have to wonder what the cultists think when they see Crichton barreling down the hallways towards them, especially the small size gnomes and halflings. More so given that the party's pets get the haste buff, too. One day you're just wreaking mayhem in the name of your demonic masters, the next a velociraptor is pouncing on you and ripping your guts out. Don't go into the long... furniture?  This is what the Desnans do, periodically casting superpowered sleep spells to knock out demons.  And this is what Seelah does to sleeping demons. Since she's mounted, Kelai joins in the coup de grace as well - a horse's default attack is their bite.  Irabeth moves in through the main entrance...   Uh, should we be concerned about Seelah riding her horse around here? This place isn't in great shape... Nonsense. It is amply proven by practical experience that a structure deemed safe and bear any weight limit no matter how many people with how laden packs stand upon it.  Don't come near me! Get back! No need to be so rude, my love. Let's leave this place so we can have some privacy...  drat, she teleported Staunton away! Our objective is the Wardstone, Seelah. If Minagho is toying with him, she won't be defending the Wardstone. Whether that's true or not, we can't help him right now. Keep pushing! The Gray Garrison looks more complex than it is. While there are multiple stairwells up and down, the first part is basically just a straight line as you go up to the second floor, come down to the first, then go up a second staircase to bypass a collapse on the second floor. After that just keep going up, killing everything in your path.  From here on out you'll periodically encounter holy spaces in dungeons and wilderness areas. These mark safe places to rest - there's actually one at the Defender's Heart if you care to look, implied to be an altar to Iomedae, Cayden Cailean, or both.  Keep an eye out for the magic essences that the Storyteller asked for. You can find three elsewhere in Act 1 (in Blackwing  I also notice that this appeared in my inventory. It's probably nothing to be concerned about.  More importantly I find these 'boots.' While they can be useful to certain character builds that go for natural weapons (like Yua's bite attack she has in her fox form), animal companions can equip certain item slots and this goes right on Lann's raptor.  Both Kelai and Crichton level up. I won't give their level ups much detail beyond noting that Combat Reflexes here is gold on any melee character with a decent dexterity bonus. Enemies have a tendency, even on high difficulty levels, to not respect that your party can make attacks of opportunity and march right past melee characters, getting a sword in the flank for their trouble.   If you allied with Hulrun, he'd kool-aid in through the left wall here, wipe out this enemy group, and leave, presumably making choo choo noises as he goes.   At least there weren't any mimics this time? He drops this, which I immediately put on Lann.  The thieflings do their stuff on an otherwise very irritating trap.  This is the living quarters area, and full of loot.    (With melodramatic flair, the demon sweeps a clawed hand over the heads of the knights and gives a mock blessing.) "And I love you, my children. All of you together, and each one separately!" "Goddess! I... I must confess a shameful sin. My thoughts about you... They are impure. Forgive me for my blasphemous words and base thoughts, but I can't help it. You are the most desirable of all women, no other goddess comes close to your beauty! Next to you, Sarenrae is a dull lamp, and Shelyn dust beneath your feet! Will you forgive me for loving you... and not only in the way a true believer should love his deity?" "I forgive you, my knight. I forgive you and I accept your love... But I see that you cannot forgive yourself. Your flesh craves punishment. So punish yourself, wash away your sin with blood — and earn my love, the divine and the carnal!" (With trembling hands, the knights brings his blade to his face.) "These eyes, which dared gaze upon you with lustful intent... Take them, my goddess!" (The knight cuts out his eyes with a muffled moan and holds the two bloody lumps out to the succubus.)  (Seelah's face turns gray and she grips her weapon tighter.) "Sacrilege... She's making a mockery of what is most noble and good in us..." "She's evil, but she made them think that she's good and kind, and that they must protect her. But that's just what the real gods..." "Be quiet. Please, in the name of all that's holy — stop talking." (Ember claps a burned hand over her mouth.) "Is this some kind of holy sacrament for you, beast? Playing with other people's minds? Mocking their faith? Come a little closer, I'll give you a blessing you won't forget!" [Use dispel magic] "Snap out of it! You've been bewitched!"Yup, the game noticed that Yua (and Nenio for that matter) has dispel magic loaded and ready to go.   "My faithful children, annihilate the heretics! (The succubus meets your gaze, her blood-stained lips stretching into a sweet smile.) "Are you really going to raise your weapon against me? I am Iomedae, after all!" "Hey, don't listen to her! Don't give in! Remember how you scared the crap out of that demon in the Shield Maze? This beast is nothing compared to that one!" (For a brief moment, the demon's wanton features transform into the goddess's radiant visage, but the illusion immediately dissipates. The succubus's spell didn't work! Scowling, she enters the fray.)Normally you have to pass a Will save to fight the succubus immediately. Lann or Wenduag will auto-pass it for you if they're in the party, and if the PC worships Iomedae, the Green Faith, or is an atheist, you auto-pass it. The latter two get offended rants, an Iomedae worshiper lights up with a buff direct from Iomedae as your goddess gives you the thumbs up to kick this imposter's rear end.  Two other gods who can intervene by this point in the story with direct power-ups are Torag and Cayden Cailean. If you worship either and have to fight the Defender's Heart siege, Cayden hands out a buff in the form of a mug of magic ale, and Torag hardens everyone's armor as you swear an oath to hold this ground to your dying breath.  These statues are a puzzle. Each depicts something different, and produces a tone when clicked. You can find items nearby with hints, or simply arrange the tones in an ascending scale. The order: Statue of a human with sword and shield Angel statue with shield and sword Angel statue with sword Angel statue with a hammer Statue of a human with a staff Statue of a human with a sword  The only relevant loot for this party is some barding armor for an animal companion.  Who's a good boy? To thine own self be true, I guess. This is another point where Hulrun would show up. This guy holds a key you need to reach the top floor.    If you took the Trickster options at the library, this happens when you reach the dungeon's library.   You won't find out who these people are unless you commit to the Trickster path when the time comes.  This very important item is in the library. The Storyteller will want this the next time we see him.  In one of the side rooms is a strange, demonic woman who makes a cryptic remark before teleporting away. This is surely nothing and nobody of consequence.  The last thing of note in this level is the first minotaur of the campaign! Baphomet is called the Lord of Minotaurs so it's hardly surprising that they're going to be a common enemy from here on out - interestingly, baseline minotaurs here aren't considered demons.  Juicy. If you recruited either Hulrun or the Desnans, they'll come along and cleanse this once you kill the last enemies in this area, creating another safe point to rest. And just past the door...  "Staunton, light of my life, don't be so silly! I could never hurt you!" (The lilitu) caresses his face, and the soft glow of a healing spell closes his wounds.) "I brought you away from the battle to save you. My love, you don't belong in this grubby city where everyone hates you. Come away with me! You know I have always loved you!" "You lying filth, you have the gall to say that to my face? When it was you, it was all you... You're the reason I lost everything. You're the reason why everyone despises me." "So it was me who brought shame upon you in front of the people you called friends? It was me who mocked you year after year, spat on you, forced you to do dirty, demeaning work like you were a drudge, and not the bravest of knights? No, it was all of them, the crusaders, and their witless queen. If you remember, the day Drezen fell, I asked you to be its new ruler. You refused, of course, you and your principles... But look what's become of you!" "They talk about love... But they are really talking about a terrible disaster. Like an earthquake, or a hurricane, or a shipwreck." "I'm sorry to say that there is truth in the demon's words. The crusaders really have treated him terribly. I say this as a criminal who has been forgiven by other knights of Iomedae. But like all demons, she has built a mountain of lies and deception upon this one grain of truth!" "My offer still stands. Come away from here, my love! You will rule Drezen as a king, and I will be your queen!" (Good) "What are you hoping for, demon? Staunton is loyal to the crusader cause. He won't succumb to your lies!" "There's no bigger lie in all Golarion than your beloved crusades! It's a century-old delusion encouraged by your disgraced queen. The only thing that is true... is my love for you, my darling!"I'll reserve a proper analysis of Staunton Vhane for after his character arc concludes, but there's an interesting degree of ambiguity to him, how much of what has happened to him is what other people have genuinely done, and how much of his suffering exists only in his own mind. For one thing, Staunton claims that Torag has abandoned him... but Staunton himself is still a fully powered up paladin. You can see him using his powers in cutscenes and if you fight the siege at Defender's Heart.  "Dearest, it's all right. I'm here. We'll never be parted again. Let's go. Come!" "Get back!" (Grasping his weapon, Staunton slashes at Minagho's eyeless face and, with surprising agility for one of his stature, flees up the stairs.) "Curses!" (The lilitu runs a hand over her face, staining her delicate fingers with blood.) "Stubborn as a mule... Never mind, my pet, never mind. You won't get far. You will kiss this scratch and beg for forgiveness. You will be mine — wholly, eternally, and willingly."Continuing to show an excellent sense of priorities, Minagho runs off after Staunton.  Leaving the Wardstone's last defense a miniboss who is by himself and thus goes down quickly.  Oh Minagho, you hosed up bad. So bad that a music track called Mythic Power starts playing when you enter this room. The Crimson Path (this update) Abrikandilu 8 Babaus 2 Brimorak 1 Cambion 15 Charmed Crusaders 3 Cultists 43 Dretches 10 Ghoul 1 Minotaurs 2 Schirs 6 Succubus 1 Vermeleks 6
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Mar 19, 2024 01:45
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The confrontation with Minagho is great, the finale in the Grey Garrison just works. And gets even better in hindsight when we understand more. I hope you recognize when you can't sustain the update pace anymore, Cythereal. But for now I enjoy the rapid flow of updates, and I'm very much looking forward to the next one in particular.
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Mar 19, 2024 02:07
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In my (incomplete, ended up trailing off in the dungeon climax to act 2 because of repeated technical issues, some of my own making) playthrough I had no idea this was optional and found it weird that there was this mandatory siege that took me over 90 real time minutes to get through.
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Mar 19, 2024 02:33
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