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BisbyWorl posted:For comparison, how much gold did you have coming out of Kenabres? About 56k. It's a hefty chunk of change to be sure, but I also don't have a whole lot to spend it on so far because I haven't been buying magic gear from vendors.
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Mar 24, 2024 18:08
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Cythereal posted:
Just to contextualize this for people who don't know the system: overcoming spell resistance is a D20 roll plus caster level, so this thing is effectively adding two to the entire party's levels for the purposes of beating spell resistance, and a depressingly large number of enemies in this game have it. If you fail the roll, the enemy just completely ignores your spell as if you never cast it, and that's on top of the normal kinds of failures and saving throws spells can have. Not only does it do that, making attacks cold iron bypasses a lot of physical damage resistance, and making them good-aligned bypasses even more. Basically, this item is going to take a bunch of fights that would be enormous pains in the rear end normally and simplify them a lot; not granting you instant victory or anything, but removing a lot of obstacles that you would otherwise have to even hurting the things you're trying to fight.
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Mar 24, 2024 19:26
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Are you going to use the black dragon lady in your party or is she there just to show the audience it could be done?.
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Mar 24, 2024 19:32
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Kanthulhu posted:Are you going to use the black dragon lady in your party or is she there just to show the audience it could be done?. She's just to show off that it can be done, and I may mention her in fiction I write going forward. I have no plans to actually use her in the party because that would prevent actual game NPCs from chatting.
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Mar 24, 2024 19:33
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Cythereal posted:Ember Level 6: +1 Stigmatized Witch (Stigmatized Witch 6) So, to harp on Ascendant Element just a little bit more... You may be surprised to learn that Demons in Pathfinder are typically immune to electricity. For those who aren't familiar with Pathfinder's setting Golarion, there are three distinctly different delineations of the "Evil beings from hellish realms that like to gently caress with mortals" - Devils, Demons, and Daemons. Devils are your classical "We'll make a deal with you and uphold it to the letter of the agreement" types who really, really like to gently caress mortals over in their deals. Devils are the ones most concerned with corrupting and torturing mortals, and are Lawful Evil - these are the ones immune to Fire (and poison) as you'd expect from these entities. Daemons are what edgelords think of when they think of hellish afterlives - mortal souls twisted and corrupted by their own evil. The very first daemons came from the first cataclysm, where too many mortal souls died and overflowed out of the Boneyard (the post-death, pre-afterlife judgment) and into Abbadon, a plane noted for being a depressing place, and the first daemon was one of those souls so twisted by their own evil that their soul warped into a creature that would be called a daemon that set about consuming its fellow souls that didn't also twist into daemons. Daemons are Neutral Evil, seeking out Evil for Evil's sake above all else, and have immunities to acid, death effects, diseases, and poisons, and Daemons want nothing more than the extermination of the entire multiverse. Demons are ravening fiends seeking chaos and death. It's worth noting that the daemons created the demons by combining larvae (the basest form of a chaotic evil soul) with other chaotic entities known as qlipphoth, which are the opposite of the Aeon people have discussed. Instead of being concerned with Order over everything else, qlipphoth were the purest form of chaos and evil, concerned only with causing as much death, destruction, and absolute batshit insanity as they could. It should come as no surprise then that Demons are raveners that want to cause death, suffering, and chaos as much as possible, and are rarely, if ever, interested in the goings-ons of mortals beyond how much damage they can wreak on them. Demons are immune to electricity and poison.
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Mar 24, 2024 20:58
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RelentlessImp posted:Daemons are Neutral Evil, seeking out Evil for Evil's sake above all else, What's the difference between them? A daemon will honour a bargain if it causes pain, a demon can't honour one to save it's life?
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Mar 24, 2024 21:03
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Gun Jam posted:Similar names, similar thing they want... Not a bad way to summarize it, really. Daemons came originally out of the "need" for a type of fiend for each of the evil alignments in D&D, and when D&D was trying to distance itself from terms like demons and devils (tanar'ri and baatezu), the daemons got called yugoloths. The big deal then was that they were the ultimate mercenaries in the forever war between demon and devil, constantly taking contracts and manipulating events to make sure they kept profiting eternally while also pursuing their own schemes. Everyone knew they'd betray you if they saw advantage in it, but also could not entirely do without them, either. Their desire to destroy everything is an active principle more than the demons' tendency to break everything just because. A premeditated murder versus a crime of passion. If I recall, it came from the early days of D&D when Gygax wrote in a god of entropy and omnicide, Tharizdun, and attached the daemons to him so he had minions with a positive desire to see his goals to fruition rather than just dupes or cowed slaves.
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Mar 24, 2024 21:26
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Yeah, lightning bolt will straight up not do anything to most enemies in the game. The enemies mostly being demons means blasting - and elemental damage in general - is way, way less potent then it otherwise might be, and blasting isn't that great in PF1e / D&D 3.x in general to begin with. It's also had a weird knock down effect where large swaths of itemization just isn't that good, because doing an extra 1d6 fire damage to an enemy that resists up to 10 fire damage is pointless. This also connects to our favorite horrible psycho, Camellia, who is increasingly not that useful. Most of her extra damage comes from those weapon enchants, and right now, they are 3/4ths useless against our enemies. In general, weapons that deal fire, cold, or acid damage are simply less useful, and lightning damage is entirely out. The two ways around the blasting problem are to either naturally focus wholely in one element - the Ember style, where you just take all the fire mage spells, and ONLY fire damage spells, no other element, and then grab Ascended Element. There's even a ring we can now buy to give us a few of those spells for free, that's extremely worthwhile. The other way about it is what we saw with our mercenary there - some sorcerer bloodlines allow you to convert all damage to a singular element, so you take that AND Ascended Element to allow a wider range of spells to work. "But what about weapons, how do I fix those?" You don't. Wrath has...unfortunate itemization when it comes to weapons. Stick to non-elemental weapons when you can, and generally value elemental or element bust weapons lower. And, again, lightning is entirely out.
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Mar 24, 2024 21:47
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Gun Jam posted:Similar names, similar thing they want... Essentially it's the difference between causing bad things to happen to get what you want (Neutral Evil) and causing bad things to happen because you want to make bad things happen (Chaotic Evil). A daemon might honor a deal if it doesn't get in their way while a demon probably would never honor a deal to anyone not stronger than them (and even then would go out of its way to get out of the deal/kill the dealmaker). RelentlessImp fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Mar 24, 2024 |
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Mar 24, 2024 22:13
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This is something that I feel like transcends any specific version of the game, and just kind of permeates all of DnD/Pathfinder. Some damage types are just bad, because everything and their mother resists it. The classic example of this is poison. Poison is the worst damage type, because constructs, undead, and plenty of high-level monsters of any type are straight-up immune to poison. Most of this is logical, an iron golem won't care if it gets a little bit of wolfsbane between its joints and skeletons don't even have blood or any organs for the poison to target. Even some humanoids resist poison! Dwarves most famously. Fire, Cold, and Lighting are all much better but still tend to be resisted quite frequently. It usually seems to push spellcasters to either diversify their spell list with alternate damage types or get some kind of resistance/immunity piercing feature. Which is why people want Ascendant Element so much
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Mar 24, 2024 22:30
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The only real shame with Ascendant Element is that the game launched with and advertised a fancy new prestige class not in Kingmaker whose defining feature is being able to pierce elemental resistance/immunity - an extreme rarity in Pathfinder (even accounting for splatbooks) - ...and then made it an option anyone can just pick. Hell, Ascendant Element is actually better than what the PRC gets, because it wholly ignores resist/immunity rather than simply making 50% of your damage irresistible. I'm referring to the Winter Witch, a specialized prestige class for Witches (duh) that revolves around, unsurprisingly, cold damage. There's still a few unique benefits, but unless you're dedicated to cold damage, playing a witch or shaman, and somehow can't fit Ascendant Element into your build then there's no real reason to take it given the tradeoffs. On the whole Ascendant Element was a good addition, since it's not like the above helps any other element or class (without shenanigans) and cold is hardly a great blasting element anyways, but it's still a shame to introduce and then undercut such a unique class like that. RelentlessImp posted:
Unless the lore has changed, larvae being combined with qlipphoths to form demons was only true for the very first ones, and came about due to a Daemon getting intrigued about the combination idea and trying it out. Afterwards demons have been pretty self-sustaining, with new demons basically being collections of larvae mashed together. It'd be kind of hard for that to be how all new demons come about, given they very quickly drove qlipphoths to near extinction. For simplicity, qlipphoths were the original inhabitants of the Abyss, naturally formed when it came into being. On the other hand demons are formed from mortal souls, so when they came into existence they rapidly started multiplying and basically drowned the qlipphoth in sheer numbers. A number of Qlipphoth Lords managed to transmute themselves into Demon Lords, and some yet remain in the deepest, darkest areas of the Abyss, but otherwise they're basically gone. The caveat to this is that the greatest threat to Golarion (yes, even moreso than the Worldwound) also originated from the qlipphoths. The god Rovagug was originally a Qlipphoth Lord before his ascension, and he was imprisoned on Golarion through the combined efforts of gods from ALL alignments.
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Mar 24, 2024 23:34
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glwgameplayer posted:This is something that I feel like transcends any specific version of the game, and just kind of permeates all of DnD/Pathfinder. Some damage types are just bad, because everything and their mother resists it. Yeah, this was an issue when I was trying to get a 5e game together recently. Someone had wanted to play Descent Into Avernus as their introductory campaign but so much of it is against devils and other enemies with major elemental immunities resistances that it was going to shut down whole classes of spells and abilities before halfway through the campaign. I don't hate it, as such, but it's absolutely an issue that players really need to be informed about when doing a tabletop game or a video game where those immunities are common and character respec'ing isn't.
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Mar 24, 2024 23:48
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Drakenel posted:Aw. Tease us with the other leading vote more, why don't you? Its based on your level and since you can do it as soon as you get to the tavern after the prologue, if you have an idea of what you're going to want (brownfur transmuter, skald, whatever), you can pick them up pretty cheap then.
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Mar 25, 2024 00:05
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glwgameplayer posted:The classic example of this is poison. Poison is the worst damage type, because constructs, undead, and plenty of high-level monsters of any type are straight-up immune to poison. Most of this is logical, an iron golem won't care if it gets a little bit of wolfsbane between its joints and skeletons don't even have blood or any organs for the poison to target. Even some humanoids resist poison! Dwarves most famously. The straight immunity to poisons made a lot of WotR significantly harder then Kingmaker in of itself, because the 1-2 combo of having a priest give you immunity to poisons, then lay out Stinking Clouds to control enemies, was such a strong option in Kingmaker. Just make an encounter go away. Thankfully, they did a content patch with the last DLC and it included a new Mythic Ability that allows your fart clouds to bypass enemy poison immunity, but not your own, so stinking cloud very happily retakes its position as control spell extraordinaire. Between it, selective grease, and the later spell Phantasmal Web, it's much easier to shut down problematic groups without worrying about friendly fire, especially since there's a lot of ways to increase both spell penetration and DCs - and like, a TON of those for illusion specifically. Suffice to say, Nenio joins my team early on and simply never leaves.
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Mar 25, 2024 00:14
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There's a reason so many spellcasters switched almost wholly to battlefield control with the advent of 3E and later. Between the HP bloat and the liberal sprinkling of resistances and immunities, "I throw fireball" stopped being a useful contribution. There's ways to make it useful - Mailman Sorcerers for 3.5, Orb Wizards in 4E, Crossblooded Sorcerers (Orc+Draconic/Solar) with Blood Havoc and Blood Intensity and Empower Spell for Pathfinder - but it involves pigeonholing yourself and dedicating all your levels to making it useful instead of it just being something else you can do.
RelentlessImp fucked around with this message at 02:38 on Mar 25, 2024 |
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Mar 25, 2024 02:34
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For what it's worth, I don't believe daemons appear at all in this game. Devils play a very small role - their mortal worshipers play a larger role, but actual devils are vanishingly rare in this game - but the NE daemons I don't believe are ever seen beyond loading screen info.Drakenel posted:Aw. Tease us with the other leading vote more, why don't you? To be fair, my initial plan to show off the mercenary system (and indeed a demonstration of Ascendant Element) was a cameo by T'Kara from my Star Trek Online LP as a lightning kineticist in a fit of self-referential wankery, given that her iconic weapon was a wrist-mounted lightning gun. 
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Mar 25, 2024 02:44
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And that's not even getting into delmons and demoniods.idonotlikepeas posted:Just to contextualize this for people who don't know the system: overcoming spell resistance is a D20 roll plus caster level, so this thing is effectively adding two to the entire party's levels for the purposes of beating spell resistance, and a depressingly large number of enemies in this game have it. If you fail the roll, the enemy just completely ignores your spell as if you never cast it, and that's on top of the normal kinds of failures and saving throws spells can have. Not only does it do that, making attacks cold iron bypasses a lot of physical damage resistance, and making them good-aligned bypasses even more. Basically, this item is going to take a bunch of fights that would be enormous pains in the rear end normally and simplify them a lot; not granting you instant victory or anything, but removing a lot of obstacles that you would otherwise have to even hurting the things you're trying to fight. 
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Mar 25, 2024 14:04
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The other demon-adjacent enemies we'll see a lot of (and indeed have seen, not that I've specifically shown them off) are 'fiendish' and 'half-fiend' enemies. Fiendish enemies, usually animals, represent people and animals who have been tainted by the nature of the Abyss. They're not full demons, but they're Chaotic Evil, usually show visible physical mutation to be more demonic (sharper claws, bigger teeth, scaly skin, red/black features, etc), and have a suite of minor demon-like bonuses like minor elemental resistances. Half-Fiends are the direct offspring of demons or other Abyssal entities and mortal creatures that don't qualify for a more specialized type like a Cambion. Like fiendish enemies, 'half-fiend' is a template that's applied to a base creature to make them stronger, nastier, and more demon-like.
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Mar 25, 2024 14:37
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idonotlikepeas posted:Just to contextualize this for people who don't know the system: overcoming spell resistance is a D20 roll plus caster level, so this thing is effectively adding two to the entire party's levels for the purposes of beating spell resistance, and a depressingly large number of enemies in this game have it. If you fail the roll, the enemy just completely ignores your spell as if you never cast it, and that's on top of the normal kinds of failures and saving throws spells can have. Not only does it do that, making attacks cold iron bypasses a lot of physical damage resistance, and making them good-aligned bypasses even more. Basically, this item is going to take a bunch of fights that would be enormous pains in the rear end normally and simplify them a lot; not granting you instant victory or anything, but removing a lot of obstacles that you would otherwise have to even hurting the things you're trying to fight. Just want to echo this, the Covenant of the Inheritor is stupidly good. Any additions to bypassing spell resistance is huge when every encounter you run into will have at least a handful of enemies with spell resistance so it is basically a required item at least for chapters 2 and 3. The weapon property stuff just makes it even better and I wonder how many people accidentally gave it to Queen Galfrey without realising it.
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Mar 25, 2024 23:26
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Testekill posted:Just want to echo this, the Covenant of the Inheritor is stupidly good. Any additions to bypassing spell resistance is huge when every encounter you run into will have at least a handful of enemies with spell resistance so it is basically a required item at least for chapters 2 and 3. The weapon property stuff just makes it even better and I wonder how many people accidentally gave it to Queen Galfrey without realising it. Isn't it required for Galfrey's romance? I never bothered with it, because A) lol Galfrey, and B) as everyone has said, the Covenant is just too good to pass up, especially since it takes up a belt slot and doesn't need an activation.
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Mar 25, 2024 23:49
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CommissarMega posted:Isn't it required for Galfrey's romance? I never bothered with it, because A) lol Galfrey, and B) as everyone has said, the Covenant is just too good to pass up, especially since it takes up a belt slot and doesn't need an activation. It's not required, but it's a huge boost to her hidden relationship meter. Well, may as well tell all y'all now: I'm giving it back to Galfrey in the next update even though Yua won't be romancing her. It belongs to her, comes up much later if you do give it to her, and I'm on Story difficulty so I can do what feels right to me rather than what's optimal.
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Mar 25, 2024 23:52
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It always seems better when these choices involve something you actually want to keep rather than something you might hang onto just to be a dick.
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Mar 26, 2024 00:25
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Cythereal posted:It's not required, but it's a huge boost to her hidden relationship meter. Its good our heroine is getting in Galfreys good graces even if theyre not going to smooch.
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Mar 26, 2024 00:31
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Even on Angel I hung onto it if I recall because lol galfrey
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Mar 26, 2024 00:42
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I've said it before and I'll say it again: I genuinely like Galfrey and think she's an interesting character for all that I think she's one of if not the most poorly handled characters in the entire game, and I'll be giving her a detailed character analysis within the next three or four updates.
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Mar 26, 2024 01:16
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idonotlikepeas posted:It always seems better when these choices involve something you actually want to keep rather than something you might hang onto just to be a dick. Yeah. Returning it is a nice gesture, but you're the vanguard of the crusade and this is a very powerful item. Even lawful good characters can easily justify it as you being the one to have salvaged it and restored it to full function. Admittedly, she is a very good sport about it if you decide to keep it.
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Mar 26, 2024 03:26
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You can also return it later.
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Mar 26, 2024 04:25
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Cythereal posted:For what it's worth, I don't believe daemons appear at all in this game. Devils play a very small role - their mortal worshipers play a larger role, but actual devils are vanishingly rare in this game - but the NE daemons I don't believe are ever seen beyond loading screen info. Yeah, think Kingmaker had some daemon cultists I recall (one of Pathfinder's ideas was to make the daemon equivalent of demon lords and archdevils the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, these guys served Charon AKA Death if memory serves), but not this game. I did kind of like Pathfinder differentiating the various fiends a lot more than by alignment only like D&D does. Demons are all basically expressions of various sins for instance and formed from the appropriate souls; the fire throwing brimoraks we've seen are from arsonists for example, succubi are pretty obviously expressions of lust, and so on. Actually resisting their sin tends to actually screw them up; showing self control in the face of a succubi's temptation makes them literally take damage, and brimoraks don't like getting soaked or even worse fully immersed in water. Don't know that Wrath goes into that detail though, sadly.
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Mar 26, 2024 04:38
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Call to Arms, Part Two   (Daeran pauses, then suddenly adds in a more serious voice,) "You know, I am genuinely sad to see you go. If it sounds like mockery, forgive me I cannot switch off my venom gland on a whim, you see. But you... intrigue me. If only we could have spent a little more time together. But of course..." (Daeran grimaces.) "...not under these conditions. Let the crusaders and the demons have at each other. With any luck, they'll take this entire sanctimonious spectacle down with them!" "I'll be blunt. You don't 'intrigue' me. Not in the way you obviously had in mind. But you are a valuable companion. You could have stayed in my party." "Who me? Where in this traveling cir pardon me, in this army?" (Daeran offers a doubtful smile.) "You must be joking. Of course I won't stay. Who in his right mind would trade a luxurious and carefree life for this crusade? In any case, I intend to wait until the army departs. I do love a good send-off. Especially when it is I who is staying and someone else who is heading off to meet a dreary and hopeless end. Sometimes it does one good to ruminate on the unfairness of life. Well then, farewell, Commander! I assume I shall be your most precious memory on this most disgusting and exhausting road to the pointless slaughter of battle. Or, if not the most precious memory, then at least the most stirring..." (Daeran smirks before instantly losing all interest in you or at least he pretends to.)Daeran remains intent on being a useless twat.    "Of course, the crowd scenes are difficult. We can't find the people to play the hordes of demons. And we decided against using a ritual to summon real demons. Luckily, we have Master Kemh he's invented a way to solve this problem using sound!" "We caught a pig and some piglets who ran away from a burned-out village," (the glum and husky half-orc mumbles softly.) "We put the piglets in a box and scare them a little, and the sound they make is just like an approaching demon horde." "But the most important question is, of course, choosing the lead actor who will play the great Knight Commander! We had a right barney over it, breaking a number of lances as well as a shovel, a rolling pin, and a set of back scratchers. But we just couldn't decide no matter what! Maybe you can help us? We have two candidates that are most suited to the role. One will have the honor of conveying your heroism upon the stage, Commander!" "Uh... a cyclops actor?" "He's completely tame, believe me! Has a few issues with articulation, but what a powerful physique! We'll make him a nice costume, wash him up, brush his hair... Truth be told, in our show you mainly just make short heroic exclamations at the fateful moment. Like 'Onward!' or 'We'll never give up!' or 'My heart burns with courage!' Lambkin can definitely handle the script." "You think I should be played by a gnome?" "Not a gnome! Two gnomes! Rubbledum and Harifant are twins. One of them sits on the other's shoulders, and puts on a long coat so they can play tall characters! They switch places every so often, so each gets their moment of fame. And that way they each only have to learn half of the script!" "I will be played by Lambkin, the cyclops." "Wonderful! Sorry we took you away from all the important things heroes and commanders do. We're off to rehearsal. I mean, first we'll wash some pots, then we're off to a rehearsal. Let's go, you lazy lumps, don't embarrass old grandma now!"My mother taught high school theater and English, and acted in a local community theater, for most of my life growing up. Trust me, if this sounds unrealistic - minus the non-human races - you haven't spent enough time around school and community theater people.  The base camp has a small communal chapel, with altars to Iomedae, Torag, Erastil, Desna, and Saranae. Followers of some non-evil gods can have dialogue with the priest here about your god not being represented. The one I've seen, Pharasma, notes that her altar is at the local graveyard as you might expect.  And now, on with the plot.  This is the command tent, with the PC's bed to rest off to the side along with a chest to store excess items in.   "Commander." (She gets quickly to the point.) "I am satisfied with the troop review, but I do not expect they will be sufficient for the task. You will have to prove yourself a shrewd leader and hire the necessary troops with the provided funds. I have chosen a target for your campaign, and that target is Drezen, our lost outpost within the Worldwound. The Sword of Valor was kept there, a banner that was once carried by Iomedae herself. Our greatest relic was lost when the city fell. I should make one thing clear from the start: the Sword of Valor is no mere symbol, but a powerful weapon against demons. The holiness of the banner weakens them, and robs them of one of their most dangerous abilities teleportation. A forced march to Drezen awaits you. The Sword of Valor is kept somewhere within the citadel. The demons probably think it's a hunting trophy. Its recovery is just as important as retaking the city itself. I hope the task is clear. I'm sending two specialists to help you, along with the soldiers a historian, Nurah Dendiwhar, and a cleric, Sosiel Vaenic." (The Queen nods to the human man and the young halfling woman standing next to her.) One of the famous inquisitors of the church of Iomedae also wants to talk to you the honorable Liotr, whom everyone calls Hawkblade." "I do not wish to keep you, Commander. The matter I must discuss with you is extremely important, but it is not directly related to the crusade. You no doubt wish to meet your new comrades and speak with Her Majesty. Therefore, I shall leave you now, but I ask that you seek me out in the camp at your earliest convenience." "Hi! Listen, it's amazing here! It's like I'm in a ballad! There's knights in shining armor, deadly dangers, glorious feats... We're going to show those demons! I'm so tired of sitting in a library reading books about history. It's time I took part in it!" "I'm glad to help our cause, Commander. If you have some time later, I'd like to speak with you further." "You'll have plenty of time to talk. You're the Knight Commander's people now, her trusted advisors and companions. Now then, will you please leave us. Irabeth, you can go too." "Why did you choose to name me Knight Commander and give me this mission?"So yeah, all the talk about Drezen wasn't just establishing backstory, it was setting the stage for the next leg of the campaign: retaking the lost stronghold of Drezen. Recall that Drezen didn't outright fall because of invasion, Drezen fell because Minagho tempted Staunton with pride and ambition to carry the Sword of Valor out of Drezen in a march deeper into the Worldwound. As soon as the Sword of Valor was no longer protecting Drezen, a legion of demons teleported en masse into the fortress who weren't aware they were now vulnerable to that, and wiped out everything. But Galfrey believes that the Sword of Valor is being kept somewhere inside Drezen, its protective abilities either somehow deactivated or the demons are just living with it.  "However, you cannot blame me for putting you in charge of the crusade. I only formalized what had already happened in the hearts and minds of many. People spoke of the power that descended upon you and helped you save the Wardstones from corruption and total destruction. Word of this feat quickly spread far beyond the borders of Mendev. There was no other person who could better fit the role of Knight Commander of the Fifth Crusade." "You should know I received an unusual gift in the caves beneath Kenabres. In a vision I saw the death of an angel called Lariel. Somehow he was able to grant me the ability to reveal the Light of Heaven." "Lariel! I knew him. He disappeared shortly before the Worldwound grew and Drezen fell into the enemy's hands. In the chaos, we had more important concerns than investigating the fate of a single angel. Even one so righteous and beloved as Lariel. And afterward... matters took a turn for the worse. The angels left us to go on their special mission. (A smile, kind and sad, crosses the Queen's face.) "It is so strange to hear the names I used to hear when I was young. Like getting a message from the past. It is sad news, but it brings me back to the times when we strongly believed in our victory and we rushed headlong toward it without fear. Could it be that such times have come again?" "And what will you be doing?" (Galfrey arches her brow.) "Overlooking a spot of insubordination just at the moment. However... I shall answer you. I shall prepare the defenses at Nerosyan, and all the other border cities, and plan the future of the Fifth Crusade. Does that satisfy your curiosity, Knight Commander?" [Show the Covenant of the Inheritor] "Do you remember this?"Note that when you ask Galfrey what she'll be doing, you can get Galfrey to stick around for the rest of the chapter using Angel and, if you still have it available, Aeon options. This is critical if you want to romance Galfrey, but I have chosen not to, and hence this LP won't see a whole lot more of her. The romance branch of her dialogue can be kind of great if you enjoy making fun of her, you can flatly tell her in front of everyone that you think she's hot and you want to gently caress her brains out, leaving everyone speechless while they process what happened and then decide to studiously ignore it. And no, that does *not* terminate the romance path.  "I had a vision of Iomedae giving her Covenant to you." (The Queen's lips flatten into a hard line.)"I was young and did not fully understand the magnitude of the duty that had been entrusted to me. Iomedae gave me hope and strength to see me through the trials ahead, and in so doing she won my everlasting loyalty." [Hand over the Covenant of the Inheritor] "Please take this gift. The Covenant of the Inheritor should belong to you." (Inclining her head, the Queen reverently takes the relic from your hands.) "Let the Covenant's restoration into my hands be a good omen for this war. I thank you, Yua. I shall ask the priests to offer prayers for you, that Iomedae may send you strength and fortitude in the coming battles."If you decide to keep the Covenant, Galfrey accepts it but asks for the chance to touch it one last time. Honestly, that's the moment in my first game when I decided I liked Galfrey. I personally have a very hard time accepting help and nice things from other people, always telling myself that I should be selfless, I neither need nor deserve nice things. And this resonated very much with me.  "Count, there you are. You received my instruction?" "I did, though I did not have time to read the thing before I was dragged before Your Majesty. In truth, I was readying myself to depart..." "No matter. I trust you will forgive your sovereign for the rather brusque summons. Especially when you learn what prompted it." (The queen makes a stately gesture in your direction.) "As you are aware, Yua has recently been appointed my Knight Commander of the Fifth Crusade. I spent a long while pondering whom to appoint to the highly sensitive post of Commander's Field Attachι and Advisor Plenipotentiary Without Portfolio. Congratulations, Count." (Daeran's cool expression wavers, but he seems not to be fully cognizant of what is happening that, or he is holding himself tightly in check.) "It is a great honor... I suppose..." [Chaotic] "What a wonderful gesture, your Majesty! I imagine our dear Count would have been inconsolable if you hadn't given him this chance to serve the common cause!" "I knew you would approve, Commander." (The queen bestows a smile on you, then brings her gaze to rest on Daeran once more.)The thread's talked about how Daeran is a great friend if you enjoy making fun of Galfrey. If you get close with Galfrey, though, she gives as good as she gets at Daeran's expense.  "Especially since word of your appointment, Count, will reach the court at any moment. All of Mendev's nobility will be following your successes in service to the nation. Including all of your devoted admirers. I even heard that one bard with whom you are particularly friendly has already begun composing a ballad to honor your heroic participation in the crusade and your faithful service to the Commander here..." (The count offers a bow, either as a sign of respect or in order to hide his flushed face. Only the barest quaver can be heard in his voice.) "Your largesse truly knows no bounds, dear cousin. I am most, most gratified by the honor you have shown me."  "I saw you talking to the girl hiding her face. Who was she and what did she want?" "I don't know, Commander. She never introduced herself, but I bet she's not a part of our army. I know all our soldiers by name and by sight."I don't actually know what triggered that, but the girl is the drow lady from Kenabres. This is Wilcer Garms, even if his initial introduction dialogue seems to have bugged and he acted like he's already met Yua. He's the quartermaster for the army, and the main merchant vendor for this chapter. Woljiff also acts as a vendor from here on out, if you kept him from getting kicked out of the thieflings.  Nurah, the halfling historian, doesn't actually have anything to say at the moment besides 'Hi!' so let's talk to Galfrey's other assignation, the priest Sosiel.  "It's a pity I wasn't there at the Gray Garrison to witness your feats of strength with my own eyes. The flash, however, could be seen miles and miles away. Some people were frightened of it, thinking that the demons had blown up the remains of the keep. I, for one, knew immediately that it was a good sign. The light above the city showed us that there was still hope." "What are you painting?" (The cleric's eyes linger mournfully on the canvas. The unfinished painting depicts a temple crowned with a rainbow-tailed bird, the symbol of Shelyn. Five people dressed in robes stand before the temple. Men and women, young and old they all gaze back at you with radiant happiness and joy in their serene eyes.) "My brothers and sisters in faith. They sent me for help and then..." (The cleric shakes his head in sorrow.) "They saved my life, Commander. If the prioress hadn't ordered me to escape the city and seek help, I would have died right along with them. Instead, I met Queen Galfrey on my way to Nerosyan and hurriedly returned to Kenabres only to find my friends dead on the steps of our desecrated temple. (Sosiel touches the edge of the canvas gently, as if patting a friend's shoulder in consolation.) "I want to draw them the way they live on in my memory. Wise, beautiful, and loyal to their goddess and their city to the very end." [Good] "I'm sorry for your loss." "Thank you. I will never forget that I owe them my life. Every minute of it, every breath that I take, is a gift they gave me. Now it's my duty to make sure my friends and tutors did not die in vain. I will honor their sacrifice by making this world a bit more beautiful and kind." "There was something you wanted to discuss with me, right?"Sosiel, in case it wasn't clear, is a priest of Shelyn, the goddess of love and beauty. From what I understand in the game, it's expected for Shelynite clergy to take up some form of art as a hobby.  "I know that you are burdened by many cares right now, so I understand if you can't find the time. But if you could, I would be sincerely grateful." "It was nice meeting you, Sosiel." "You must be rather busy indeed. Leading a crusade all by yourself is no joke! I still believe that you are up to the task. This war has been raging for a hundred years, but you've given us a chance at victory."By the way, meet our newest party member!  Character Overview: Sosiel Beauty is seen with your heart, not your eyes. Neutral Good Male Human Cleric (Plain Class) of Shelyn Romance: Men Can I Fix Him: No (and doesn't need fixing anyway) Incompatible Paths: Demon (long-term), spoiler Sosiel is that unusual RPG specimen known as an exclusively gay romance option, the only one of his kind in any Owlcat game to my knowledge, and he fits what I've seen of the pattern: he's a sensitive, caring guy with a strong will to fight for a better future. In Wrath, Sosiel is one of the easier characters to overlook if you're not romancing him, most of the time he presents a rather mellow, low-key personality compared to other companions. That said, there's more to Sosiel than meets the eye, his tendency to be pleasant and shy is a deliberate mask over a seething rage at the evil and injustice of the world that Sosiel knows is unhealthy and a source of temptation, so he tries to avoid putting himself in situations where his anger might get the better of him. Sosiel is very aware of his personal flaws as a man, and works hard to overcome them in favor of his better nature, even if some people might think him weak for preaching the virtues of love and beauty in a war against the hordes of the Abyss. If you ask him, though, Sosiel sees himself as fighting for the things that everyone's fighting for, surely everyone is fighting for a reason beyond a simple love of fighting. Can you really be said to be victorious in battle if you don't even know what you were fighting that battle to achieve? Mechanically, Sosiel is further unusual in that the Definitive Edition actually updated his stats and feats because he was notoriously bad before. In his modern state, Sosiel is both a capable front-line fighter in heavy armor and a full divine caster, ready to do the classic Dungeons and Dragons cleric thing of buffing himself up, then wading into combat. As a cleric of Shelyn, Sosiel is specialized in Shelyn's holy weapon: the glaive. You know, that weapon that's all over this game because Baphomet's cult also favors it. Sosiel will be joining the main party from here on out.   "I felt the same thing, but I somehow got through on stubbornness and the vague hope that if nobody found Anevia's body, she might by some miracle have survived. And that miracle was you. You returned my beloved to me when I'd nearly lost all hope of seeing her alive again. Then you went on a suicide mission to the Gray Garrison and won the city back for us. You turned a defeat into a victory. I know it wasn't easy, but you make everything seem so effortless. You do everything just like that!" (she says with a snap of her fingers.) "The Queen believes in your powers too. But for me, they're just more proof of what I felt that day when I saw Anevia alive, standing next to you. You're the miracle we've been waiting for. You're the one who will finally put an end to this terrible war, and in spite of everything, deliver us the victory we so desperately need. With you, I'm sure this crusade will achieve what the others could not." "I found a scabbard with your family's name on it in the Gray Garrison." (Irabeth looks down.) "This scabbard held the Solemn Hour my family sword. My father once fought with it, and I took it when I left home to become a paladin. Alas, it was not stolen. I parted with my heirloom willingly, to help someone dear to me. Anevia needed expensive healing, and, having no other way to procure the money, I pawned my father's sword. I think he would have understood I'm sure he would have given up everything to help the family. I hoped to redeem the Solemn Hour eventually, but there was never enough money, and soon the sword disappeared from the pawnshop altogether. I have no idea who took it. Seems like I'll have to part with my father's sword forever." "Is Anevia sick?" "You'll forgive me if I don't go into detail it is a private matter. Suffice to say, everything is fine now. The treatment was costly, but it was worth it." [Good] "I can see that you truly love her."This is as close as you'll get to finding out that Anevia is transgender if you don't find and pass that DC 50 Persuasion check near the end of the game. Irabeth sold her family sword to buy a potion of sex change for Anevia so she could physically transition.  (Irabeth lovingly traces the name imprinted in silver on the scabbard's leather.) "My parents were loyal servants, yet it wasn't enough to earn them a title or a coat of arms. Still, however humble our name might be, it is worth something. I don't know if I'll ever see the Solemn Hour again... but at least I have its scabbard back. Thank you." "We need reinforcements. Can you get us more soldiers?" (Irabeth frowns.) "When we began the march on Drezen, we chose speed over numbers. If I order more volunteers to be recruited, they simply won't arrive in time. We could pay mages to deliver the troops to the camp, except I doubt that our army's coffers could afford it. If you can spare seven and a half thousand gold coins, I will see to our reinforcements." [Pay seven and a half thousand gold coins] "You have your orders." "Consider it done!"Now what this part means, we'll see in the future. Yeah, there's yet another update to come that's just talking to people in camp and getting sidequests for the chapter.
Cythereal fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Mar 28, 2024 |
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Mar 28, 2024 01:15
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I like Sosiel as a character a lot. He's a few archtypes that games tend to not use too much. For starters, in a genre largely filled with "player-sexual" romance options, he is straight up gay - and there is, honestly, something to be said about not only having a gay man as a character, but also as being able to identify your own character as explicitly gay by romancing him. Beyond that, while "guy who seems sensitive but is secretly very angry" isn't unheard of, it's not exactly common, nor is the game's take that his anger is a vice, something that's not good for him to delve into. In most games, especially ones focused on the sort of "good vs evil" large scale conflict of Wrath, you'd be far more likely to see a super angry dude, full of bad masculine postering, with the narrative constantly rewarding that archtype and pointing you towards it. To top it all off, I personally think Sosiel's writing as a cleric is fairly well done. Again, tabletop games and video games and especially their intersections rarely do religion right - and this game is no stranger to that - but Sosiel has a very personal faith that guides him, positively influences his actions towards others, and there's a lot on how it reflects on his choice to be a soldier despite following a goddess of beauty. There notably is no Shelyn shrine in the camp shrine room - he very much stands out amongst the clergy for his choice to do this. Also, well. Clerics are really strong! There's a few domain abilities in particular that are exceptionally potent, and you absolutely want a divine full caster in your party; they provide some very useful (and sometimes near mandatory) buffs, and later cleric spells are no slouch on blasting enemies. For Sosiel, I typically spend nearly all his mythic powers and feats on bulking up his domains and his spellcasting; he's good enough at melee early on that I don't need to overly buff it up, and by end game he transitions very nicely to a full time spellcaster and domain buffer. And also, I want to reiterate, goddamn are some of those domain powers strong. Is it out of character to give him Madness? Yes. Does that stop me from giving him a swift action ability that lasts three rounds and gives someone half his cleric level as an attack bonus? Absolutely not. ProfessorCirno fucked around with this message at 01:33 on Mar 28, 2024 |
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Mar 28, 2024 01:27
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MadDogMike posted:Yeah, think Kingmaker had some daemon cultists I recall (one of Pathfinder's ideas was to make the daemon equivalent of demon lords and archdevils the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, these guys served Charon AKA Death if memory serves), but not this game. I did kind of like Pathfinder differentiating the various fiends a lot more than by alignment only like D&D does. Demons are all basically expressions of various sins for instance and formed from the appropriate souls; the fire throwing brimoraks we've seen are from arsonists for example, succubi are pretty obviously expressions of lust, and so on. Actually resisting their sin tends to actually screw them up; showing self control in the face of a succubi's temptation makes them literally take damage, and brimoraks don't like getting soaked or even worse fully immersed in water. Don't know that Wrath goes into that detail though, sadly. If I recall correctly, some Daemons do show up in Act 4 of Wrath. They just aren't called that. I'll point them out when we get there. I recognized them because they re-used a character model from Kingmaker. Sosiel is a cool dude. I like his character arc, ability set, and personal quests. The romance isn't bad either- I have heard you can spin it multiple ways if you are Good or Evil though I've only played it out on the Good path. I approve of him as our primary party healer. Nurah really should have been a party member IMO. She's more of a presence in the Wrath Adventure Path as one of six recurring NPCs. Sosiel, Irabeth, Annevia, Aravashniel, and Horgus are the others. Maybe Owlcat thought she'd be too similar to the prominent Halfling Bard in Kingmaker. Lambkin would have been a cool party member too. Cyclops did rule large portions of Golarion once, you know. In some Pathfinder tabletop games they are a viable player race. As it is, I like the Next Door Theater's Comic Relief. Don't miss the Blacksmith who hangs out next to Wilcer Garms in the Camp. He is also a Vendor, though his weapons and armor aren't as good as the quartermaster's or as expensive.
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Mar 28, 2024 02:11
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Cythereal posted:
This is actually when I decided I liked Galfrey (and I still do, for that matter). Daeran desperately needs more people taking the piss out of him at all times. idonotlikepeas fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Mar 28, 2024 |
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Mar 28, 2024 02:39
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I liked Galfrey until, you know  Sosiel I refuse to take because he's just so boring
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Mar 28, 2024 03:04
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Slaan posted:I liked Galfrey until, you know Sosiel is not a bad character, but he's just kind of there. yep, priest of a good god struggling with bad things happening to good people. while it's nice to have him onboard he does not exactly bring a lot to the table, particularly given Daeran and Ember have his casting niche covered and Seelah has his "be a generic voice of Good Alignment" niche covered. if you're chomping at the bit to get rid of Daeran he'll cover you as far as a dedicated healer goes, I guess?
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Mar 28, 2024 03:59
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Mechanically speaking, Sosiel is better then Daeran in sincerely every way that matters (note: healing does not matter), and Ember's not a divine caster  .
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Mar 28, 2024 04:52
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achtungnight posted:Nurah really should have been a party member IMO. She's more of a presence in the Wrath Adventure Path as one of six recurring NPCs. Sosiel, Irabeth, Annevia, Aravashniel, and Horgus are the others. Maybe Owlcat thought she'd be too similar to the prominent Halfling Bard in Kingmaker. I thought she was specifically supposed to be reminiscent of Lindi in Kingmaker actually. I'm pretty sure why she's not a party member, but of course can't really go into it until we learn more about her later.
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Mar 28, 2024 05:04
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I like Sosiel but yeah he was dogwater until the enhanced edition, couldn't fight on the frontline and was a mediocre cleric. I also do like Galfrey because she's clearly struggling under the weight of four crusades that either ended in stalemates or failures. She never gets to let her hair down and there's probably nobody alive except for maybe Daeran that has ever seen what Galfrey is actually like. It's all tragic and then she fucks up big time later on.
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Mar 28, 2024 08:56
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Testekill posted:I also do like Galfrey because she's clearly struggling under the weight of four crusades that either ended in stalemates or failures. Her character analysis post is coming once I finally finish talking to everyone in the base camp and seeing what happens next so the thread has context for the Thing Galfrey Does.  I think it's kind of a shame that you can't romance her on the Azata path, her courtly romance thing would fit the Azata's romantic fantasy, but I suppose Azata already has one romance option very closely aligned with that mythic path. I romanced her in my Aeon campaign, and the two of you only get together physically after you've potentially completed your mythic ascension. Which meant Galfrey in that game slept with this:  something something heavenly body
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Mar 28, 2024 12:29
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I'm a bit curious why the speech check is at 50, it seems way too ludicrously high. There are far more "significant" things with much lower thresholds. That's higher than you need to persuade old dragons or demonic princes. Heck it probably exceeds some, or most, deities dice checks?
Poil fucked around with this message at 14:07 on Mar 28, 2024 |
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Mar 28, 2024 13:38
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I was going through the IMDB page for this and there's actually quite a few names that I recognised. I bought up Amelia Tyler before who plays Wenduag but has gotten more famous as the narrator from Baldur's Gate 3, Erika Schroeder plays a character we haven't met yet and voiced the 4kids Monkey D. Luffy, Minagho is played by the woman who played Linzee in Kingmaker, Irabeth is played by Lisa Ortiz and Deskari is played by Major Attaway who played Queen in One Piece. edit: lotta people that were on 4kids projects, I would guess that Owlcat mostly had the voice actors recording in New York. Poil posted:I'm a bit curious why the speech check is at 50, it seems way too ludicrously high. There are far more "significant" things with much lower thresholds. That's higher than you need to persuade old dragons or demonic princes. Heck it probably exceeds some, or most, deities dice checks? It's personal poo poo that Irabeth has no reason to need to tell you nor does she want to tell you. Testekill fucked around with this message at 14:22 on Mar 28, 2024 |
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Mar 28, 2024 14:16
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