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Cythereal posted:I haven't asked Achtungnight to outright stop posting in this thread like I did in my last LP, but yeah. And I hope you will not. I’m honestly not trying to backseat you in any way, just encouraging with enthusiasm. Perhaps it is a bit excessive and not concentrated in the right direction. I will scale it back. I am enjoying the LP. Hope you are also, even the parts you don’t like. Owlcat is known for its memorable gnomes. Kingmaker had a snarky jerk gnome too. Chaotic Neutral, not Lawful Evil, but nonetheless memorable and annoying IMO.
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Apr 22, 2024 13:22
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drat, I want to take Regill and give him a nice pair of cement booties, and then toss him in a lake.
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Apr 22, 2024 13:31
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God, I hate Regill so much. Straight up my least favorite character in the game and I find his bit to be so insufferable. Yes, you made some salient points about how ineffective the crusade is, shut up!! I got IRL annoyed at his questline too. Idk, I guess I just dislike his character archetype at base. It would be fine if his backstory lent a little more sympathy to why he's such an rear end in a top hat, but no, that's just how he is all the time. Also, I did all the Nenio quests but I swear the big reveal was just a blur and I missed a lot of context about why she is the way she is. Also, I just used a guide to solve all the puzzles because Nenio's final dungeon was EXCESSIVE.
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Apr 22, 2024 14:12
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TLM3101 posted:
I wager at least part of it is sincerely his voice.
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Apr 22, 2024 14:47
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Camelia and Daelan both need the macroculture of civil society and its norms. Their respective modi operandi hinge on transgressing against said norms, whether secretly or openly. They know that what they are doing is wrong and revel in getting away with it. Neither of them want their behavior to become the universal law. Their behavior is driven by their uniquely personal combinations of disorders, traumas, compulsions, and bad choices. They are minor threats, a danger only to their direct victims, and their evil shall die with them. Regill, on other hand, stands in opposition to the macroculture and wants to subvert and replace it in accordance with his faction's vision. In Regill's eyes, the Hellknights' actions are correct and necessary; it is the rest of the world that is wrong, and must be made to conform. He is a product of the ideological machine that is designed to mass-produce people like him and eradicate or subjugate everyone else. He is a part of a large existential threat, a temporary ally against a different existential threat, and if he dies, another blackplate will take his place. He is different, yes, but that difference does not make me like him. Rather the opposite, in fact.
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Apr 22, 2024 15:10
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TLM3101 posted:When he's a literally a fascist gnome! He's three feet tall and wearing spiky armor! He's a fascist hedgehog! He's not cool or badass, he's sad - at best - and ridiculous at worst. No-one ought to be able to take him seriously on that basis alone, and it mystifies me that people apparently do.
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Apr 22, 2024 15:14
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Regill IS cool. Sorry to any lamers who think otherwise. It's good to have characters in your stories that are designed to be disliked and their flimsy arguments easy to dismantle. That makes them more interesting to me than someone like Paladin With A Non-Owlcat Idea of Lawful Good Seelah.
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Apr 22, 2024 15:15
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I find Seelah incredibly boring while Regill is really interesting despite being an infinitely worse person.
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Apr 22, 2024 15:22
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Seelah is fine. Just the generic babyface ally who doesn't 100% line up with expectations of a paladin.
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Apr 22, 2024 15:25
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There is also another problem with Regil, at least for me - as it was already mentioned, he is openly asexual. At first I liked it, because openly asexual characters in videogames are almost nonexisten (Regil, Parvati... and that's it I guess), but then I realized something: Regil, like all "hard people picking lesser evil for Greater Good", is supposed to by cold, emotionless, and inhumane, almost robotic. Him being asexual is mostly writers way to tell "look how unnatural he is, cold professional, he rejected so much of his humanity (gnome-ity?)". Intentionally or not, it's another case of queercoding asexual people as cold and inhumane because not having sexual attraction means you are a robot. (Sheldon Cooper from TBBT and Sherlock from BBC TV show would be another examples of such "dehumanization")
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Apr 22, 2024 15:29
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Szarrukin posted:Well, there are people who believe Super Earth from Helldivers (think Starship Troopers but even more over the top) are good guys. I remember watching Starship Troopers in theaters when it came out and laughing my rear end off... Only to realize that quite a few people apparently didn't get the satire/point of the movie. So I am not shocked at all that some people believe Super Earth and 'Managed Democracy' ( I mean, Jesus loving Christ, there's a phrase to run the gently caress away from for a start! ) is peachy keen. Or that Regill is a cool, correct dude. I'm just mystified as to how they get to that conclusion when Regill in particular is just so patently loving absurd. ProfessorCirno posted:I wager at least part of it is sincerely his voice. Though in Regills case I suspect this is a large part of it. If he didn't have that voice, he'd be a lot more obviously ridiculous. To me it just adds to the comedy of the character.
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Apr 22, 2024 16:57
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TLM3101 posted:
I think it's mostly because what Cythereal has already mentioned - writing everyone around Regil as even more stupid to make him look smart in comparison. That and gamers being loving stupid.
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Apr 22, 2024 17:08
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He would have been a cooler character if they actually leaned in on him Bleaching and made that his companion quest arc or something. Though I understand some mythic paths actively gently caress with Regill in that regard.
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Apr 22, 2024 17:16
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TLM3101 posted:When he's a literally a fascist gnome! He's three feet tall and wearing spiky armor! He's a fascist hedgehog! He's not cool or badass, he's sad - at best - and ridiculous at worst. No-one ought to be able to take him seriously on that basis alone, and it mystifies me that people apparently do.
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Apr 22, 2024 17:17
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Szarrukin posted:There is also another problem with Regil, at least for me - as it was already mentioned, he is openly asexual. At first I liked it, because openly asexual characters in videogames are almost nonexisten (Regil, Parvati... and that's it I guess), but then I realized something: Regil, like all "hard people picking lesser evil for Greater Good", is supposed to by cold, emotionless, and inhumane, almost robotic. Him being asexual is mostly writers way to tell "look how unnatural he is, cold professional, he rejected so much of his humanity (gnome-ity?)". Intentionally or not, it's another case of queercoding asexual people as cold and inhumane because not having sexual attraction means you are a robot. (Sheldon Cooper from TBBT and Sherlock from BBC TV show would be another examples of such "dehumanization") I'll be honest, that's a perspective I didn't see. I honestly just view him as repressing anything that didn't serve the Cause.
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Apr 22, 2024 17:24
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He probably learned to repress all his feelings, evil bootcamp style.
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Apr 22, 2024 17:42
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his being a gnome does add a fun extra degree to the character, aside from the comedic value of What If A Lawn Ornament Was A Fascist. i mentioned Tyranny earlier, and Regill's a fun riff on a character who appears there too. Barik is a metaphor played completely straight. he has been a loyal soldier of the Disfavored, who are a hypermilitarized, hyperdisciplined, ethnic supremacist cult of personality around their leader, Graven Ashe. Barik went on a mission for his boss that involved walking into, essentially, a magical nuke. He survived, but just barely, his fine armor now mangled and inextricably fused to his body. He is described repeatedly as "a walking midden," because his unthinking loyalty to the man who sent him to die for stupid reasons has literally trapped him inside his armor and stewing in his own poo poo. unsurprisingly, his personal quest is about finding a way to get him out of his armor. barring some very specific choices being made by you, it is going to conclude with "you'd have to get him to forsake his beloved god-commander, and that will not be happening." soldiers who are very, very literally being killed by the thing they believe in, and the only way to save their lives is to get them to stop believing it, and if you try to do that they will fight you every step of the way. nice way to introduce the concept of the fascist death drive to You The Audience without having to spend a couple of hours on interbellum continental philosophy
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Apr 22, 2024 18:00
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Pathfinder gnomes have a genetic reason to fulfill the wacky stereotype that gnomes are known for in DnD, and it is extremely funny in of itself that one of your party members is a joyless cold hardass gnome expressly to defy that stereotype.
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Apr 22, 2024 18:36
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Bleaching either kills you outright or turns you into a Bleachling which is like some kind of statis nihilist being. Regill's character would actually be really cool if he was a bleachling and his whole demeanor was a result of that.
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Apr 22, 2024 19:47
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Vargatron posted:God, I hate Regill so much. Straight up my least favorite character in the game and I find his bit to be so insufferable. Yes, you made some salient points about how ineffective the crusade is, shut up!! I got IRL annoyed at his questline too. The part that annoys me most is that Yes, The Crusades Are A loving Mess, but that's because we're being forced to fight with whatever we have on hand, unlike you and your troops, who were extensively trained and handpicked to go on this expedition into the Worldwound to Do Your loving Job. Imagine that, people who are trained to do a job and dedicated to doing it are going to be more effective that the army made up of peasants and conscripts, IMAGINE THAT. How about instead of bitching at me about the sorry state of the crusade, you haul your rear end down to the training field and teach my soldiers how to hold a loving sword so they can stab the demons good., because last I checked, you can't do your drat job without us.
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Apr 22, 2024 19:49
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I've always recruited Regill for the gameplay benefits: namely, he eventually gives access to a very strong unit for the crusade mode. I think there's a few useful items that drop during his sidequests too, though I can't actually remember any and I might be mistaken. As far as personality, bleh, I just find him tiresome. He's almost never in my party except for when he's required. All he does is bitch about how only he is willing to make the tough calls or muse over which jackboots are better for goose-stepping, and I never feel like you're able to say anything particularly intelligent or interesting back. Can I point out the glaring contradiction he just made, game? No? I can either agree with him, troll him, or plead with him to stop being so mean like it's Sesame Street and he's Oscar the Grouch? Cool. Riveting stuff. Maybe his commentary in the main quest is more interesting, but I kinda have a feeling it isn't.
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Apr 22, 2024 22:43
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Kanthulhu posted:Those are very cool, thanks. If I ever play tabletop pathfinder I'm doing a "gnomish weapon master" that only uses weird rear end weapons and looks down on people that wield swords or axes as simpletons. Can't wait to spend a million feats on exotic weapon proficiencies. Fun fact, if you're a gnome, they count as martial weapons, so no excessive feat spending there, just need a class with "all martial weapon proficiencies".
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Apr 22, 2024 23:03
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Many of the races in WotR get bonuses with cultural weapons. Gnomes only get the hooked hammer, I think, but elves have bows and special curved blades. Dwarves meanwhile have war axes and special double hammers called urgroshes. Half-orcs get double sabers akin to Darth Maul’s lightsaber and double-bladed greataxes also. Halflings get the sling staff. Nothing special for tieflings, humans, aasimar, or kitsunes, unfortunately.
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Apr 23, 2024 00:46
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Rorahusky posted:The part that annoys me most is that Yes, The Crusades Are A loving Mess, but that's because we're being forced to fight with whatever we have on hand, unlike you and your troops, who were extensively trained and handpicked to go on this expedition into the Worldwound to Do Your loving Job. I mean, in fairness even beyond the conscripts you've got stuff like your Mendev-provided advisors in the near future being a PTSD-ridden survivor with survivor's guilt issues whose decision-making is definitely compromised by that, a snake entirely in service of the royal council, someone being actively treacherous and undermining your position, and... actually the logistics person is cool and sensible. And these are supposedly the best Mendev could provide.
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Apr 23, 2024 01:40
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A spiky little zealot to complete our trio of evil early companions. He's good at sounding reasonable, and puts aside his horrible, horrible convictions to stand alongside those diametrically opposed to him and his worldview in the name of beating a common enemy. Usable.
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Apr 23, 2024 03:58
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RelentlessImp posted:Fun fact, if you're a gnome, they count as martial weapons, so no excessive feat spending there, just need a class with "all martial weapon proficiencies". Forget gnome martial weapons, I want to see gnome marital weapons.
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Apr 23, 2024 09:17
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Golarion Drop This is in Regill's cave. Presumably one of the first mongrels.  For saving the Sunrise Swords, and not sending them to the hellknights, you do indeed recruit them for the crusade as a free stack of clerics who immediately join Ageboya's army.  And for allying with the hellknights, I get a stack of them. Hellknights are legitimately elite units compared to everything else we've seen so far, but seven high-quality shitheads aren't worth one of the four deployment slots in Ageboya's army over the individually weaker, but far more numerous troops I have already.  I'm on about 90k gold right now, but I seriously consider splurging on this for Seelah as a huge upgrade over Radiance's current state. I ultimately demur out of caution.   "It was incredibly interesting, the power you and your companions received during the fight at the Gray Garrison. And now my interest has been gratified. The power your companions received has passed on to me as well. It manifested after my usual evening reckoning. I believe I now present a true threat to the creatures and initiates of chaos. The imprisoned cultist we kept for certain observations experienced this firsthand." (Regill's voice is unemotional, almost bored, but leaves no doubt as to the cultist's fate.) "Striking, isn't it? Divine intervention at a critical moment is rare, but not beyond imagining. But in this case, part of the power that you received through this intervention has passed to someone who joined you well after the fateful moment had passed." [Good] "I believe this power has been given to me and others for a good cause, to protect this miserable world from the demons." "I am afraid that your definition of a 'good cause' might be very different than your companions', Commander. In any case, this is shallow philosophizing. You must have some questions for me?" "Do you have a plan or strategy for the war against the demons?"So, we do in fact already know that Yua's mythic powers weren't just a one-off deal from the Gray Garrison - Sosiel only joined later and immediately got the juice, while people who were at the Garrison but not part of Yua's strike team like Irabeth and Anevia have received no such benefit. As soon as Regill joined, Yua's power flowed into him.  "Once the problem of Drezen is solved, I shall direct some of my knights to prepare an outpost for the party. We have already scouted a suitable location — the ruins of an old shrine, which still holds the remnants of an ancient power and is thus a lure for demons. An excellent foothold for honing our skills and studying the enemy. That is my next goal." "Who do Hellknights answer to?" "Only to the heads of their orders. In my case it's Lictor Resarc Ountor, head of the Order of the Godclaw. As a rule, the Hellknights do not submit to the jurisdiction of any state. The same is true of local laws. We are happy to help local governments bring order, if we consider their request lawful, and if those who ask are worthy. But we do not serve them, and have every right to refuse their demands." "So what do you value most?" "The law. And only the law." "If you care so much about the law, how can you ignore the authority of the lawful rulers of the lands in which you operate?" "We cannot call it law just because some foolish local prince thought it up or a council of demented elders deems it wise now can we? You see, one of the main principles of our brotherhood is that no one — no one — is immune from prosecution. A 'lawful' ruler may be a criminal that poses a threat to society. We must be able to punish them as well. This is why Hellknights only honor 'the Measure and the Chain,' the doctrine shared by all our orders. And why Hellknights serve only their officers and the aim of transforming this chaos-torn world and leading it to a brilliant and ordered future. We are the main bastion of order in Golarion, no matter how much some naysayers try to refute it."So, this right here explains everything you need to know about Regill's relationship with the concept of the law, and by extension that of most Hellknights: they have no respect for the rule of power of law whatsoever and every respect for their own power. Regill's explanation is couched in terms that, honestly, make some degree of sense: witness the classic dilemma of a knight who swore an oath to obey her king only for her king to order her to commit evil acts. Hellknights come pre-packaged with an explicit 'We answer only to ourselves' clause in the foundation of their philosophy, paired with a 'Our take on the law is always correct when contradicted by other laws' clause. The Hellknights hold themselves accountable to no one, but assert that everyone should be accountable to them. It's the kind of arrogant, self-centered thinking dressed up as selflessness that we've already seen with Regill, and it's the main reason why he's impossible to argue with. No matter what you say, he can turn back to the Measure and the Chain to say no, he's right because he's a Hellknight and that's the end of the argument. He's right because he's a Hellknight and he's a Hellknight because he's right, and his answer to every counterexample of things not working the way he says they do is 'It only failed because people didn't do what we said.'  Moving on, Ageboya cleans out another army.  With the only other path being guarded by a demon army that Ageboya can't handle right now, it's time for the next major hurdle: Leper's Smile. (please ignore the combat log showing my attempt at fighting that army regardless, I reloaded when I realized I was hosed)  quote:hold true for long. Maybe if we retreat quietly... (...And find out what else is known about the enemy.)We haven't been told what a vescavor is yet, an odd case of Wrath dropping a stitch, but I'll tell you: they're demonic locusts, Deskari's favored minions.  Alternate titles I considered for this update: "Buggy Game" "It's an Ugly Map! A Bug Map!" "Heart, Liver, Spleen, and Kidneys of the Swarm" "Who Ordered the Sugar Water?"  If crusade mode isn't turned on, then these choices are all fluff. Since crusade mode is on, however, your choices here will affect the crusade mode armies - and they can matter significantly.  This is one of the reasons why I've recruited everyone, because even characters I'm not using in the active party come up in situations like this. There's only one path, in this choice and the next, that keeps the crusade going with no losses, and it might not be what you'd expect.  quote:The squad leader decides to...  ...hold position and fight for the soldiers' lives.Different characters have different permutations of what to do here, but the path to bring everyone through with no losses is to pick Sosiel and have him stand his ground.  For all that characters in the game like to rag on the gods, and on Sosiel specifically, Wrath can provide a pretty good case for 'The gods of good only looked weak because you were looking for the giant obvious miracles, not the little miracles.'   (With a tired gesture, Anevia wipes the sweat and dust from her forehead. There's anxiety in her eyes.) "Commander! The beast we've come for is on the other end of the main corridor. There's a lot of burrows, and plenty of beasts in them, but you better not delve too deep. Our people won't hold out long enough for us to clear the whole area. On the other hand, I saw the bodies of some poor caravanners down one of the side holes. They have some valuable stuff on them. The bugs will eat anything we don't grab. They can't tell the difference between flesh and steel." "Did you manage to find out where these beasts came from?" "I'm not sure, but there are clear signs of a ritual closer to the queen bug's lair. And they're fresh. Maybe somebody summoned the scum specially for us. The demon filth figured out that we're never going to let Kenabres go. Too bad we don't have a magic specialist who could figure out what those runes mean." (The words "magic specialist" bring Nenio out of her reverie.) "Huh? What? I am a specialist! I'll get to the bottom of this! What happened?" "Can you tell me anything useful about the monster?"If you pick a companion for the suicide squad, you can't use them for this part. Woljiff has rejoined the main party temporarily.   "Well, great. Huge, hungry, head-spinning, acid-spitting bugs. And I thought the crusades were all about the pretty armor and the tasty rations, and sometimes saving beautiful maidens in white dresses from dumb demons!" "Oh, how interesting! Sounds like a vescavor queen! An exceedingly rare creature, I must say! I'm looking forward to an encounter to conduct the experiment. The world must know what is more dangerous — mandibles snapping shut on one's hand or acid eating away at one's skin." "Sometimes I wonder how you're still alive." "Let's move!"Now, you aren't actually on a ticking clock here per se, but there's a nasty trick to make it feel like you are.  Namely, this map is filled with corpses to loot. And every corpse you loot costs you crusade morale and damages every stack of units you have in the entire campaign map. I get through this with no losses to crusade mode at all, but I'm told it's easy to lose the game in this map because the crusade gets wiped out off-camera while you're looting. And the game only tells you about the damage to the crusade when you loot the second corpse. There's no getting cute with it, either, all the loot is gone after you kill the queen.  Vescavors themselves are fairly dangerous, note the high magic resistance. But after killing a few swarms, it's level up time!  Yua gets better at dodging all manner of effects and now simply cannot be caught flat-footed or denied her DEX bonus, and Rapid Shot is a significant improvement to her damage output.  Seelah now hits things harder (and her horse also picks up Power Attack) and has a new tier of spells.  Lann gets better at shooting and no longer triggers attacks of opportunity when shooting his bow if there's an enemy in melee range of him.  Ember gets better at setting things on fire.  Nenio picks up two iconic illusion spells - Phantasmal Killer is her first save-or-die spell, while Shadow Conjuration lets her summon minions.  Woljiff shares Ember's growing pyromania and gets better at stabbing as well.  (Jump over the crevice and keep going) "We don't have time for this. Our people are dying up there!"This pops up over a crevasse in the ground and marks the path to the queen. If you look into the crevasse you can save a civilian at the cost of a hit to the crusade. The poor sap will repay you much later in the game with a very nice magical quarterstaff, good if you have someone using one.  There's a handful of royal guards around in addition to the swarms.  The queen herself would be a pretty serious fight if I wasn't on story mode. As it is, I think it's Seelah's horse that gets the killing bow with a bite attack.   "Ugh, ugh, I can't breathe! I need some fresh air — get me out of this disgusting hole!" (Lann looks askance at the queen's carcass.) "The mongrels in the caves under Kenabres could eat that, I guess..." (Anevia approaches the queen's body and grins.) "That's it, you filth. No more flying. It's good we got rid of her without suffering more losses. Just a little longer and we'd have been forced to bury lots of our fighters in this cursed land." (Suddenly, Anevia stops. Her nostrils flare and her eyes scan the floor and the walls of the canyon. She squats, pokes at some lumps of slimy substance, lifts some up to look more closely, smells them, and cringes.) [Perception check passed!] "You smell it too, right? A suspiciously familiar stink."Anevia's reaction here changes based on how much damage the crusade suffered while you were looting and/or rescuing that one poor bastard. This is the no losses version.  "By the way, did you know that smells are extremely effective in attracting attention not only in the insect world? For example, a tavern keeper in Kenabres can, for ten minutes, purposefully and doggedly search for a rotten fish that turns out to be in the pocket of his apron." "Let's see if we can find the source of that smell among my equipment..." (You and Anevia search through your things and quickly find the source of the smell: a thin handkerchief. Looks like it's been soaked in something like the swarm queen's slime.) "I'll be damned! When the queen was spraying this sweet-smelling goop around, the swarm flew to it like flies to jam. The chewed-up bodies of the caravanners smelled like this too, I checked. Commander, I think some rat planted that handkerchief on you, to ensure that the vescavors would find you." "The demons did this. They placed this swarm in our way and made sure I couldn't avoid the ambush."The other option here is to assume that someone in Mendev planted this.  "Anyway, we need to keep our eyes open. That handkerchief could have been planted here by magic, but take it from a professional paranoiac — I think we've got a rat in our camp. In Kenabres, we squashed the cultists time and time again, but they were like maggots in a dead hog. Some could have infiltrated our forces too. We have to keep our eyes open and our guard up. It's time we got back to our people. I say we destroy the queen's body. I've heard the little bugs who eat the flesh of their mother can be reborn as swarm queens themselves. That's kinda the last thing we need, right?" "Fine, Anevia. Get rid of that thing's body!" "Great! Cleaning up after a fight is just what I like. We'll start here, and little by little we'll... clean up the entire Worldwound!"By the way, rather than destroying the queen's body, you can take some of the slime and contemplate using it as a weapon at Drezen, luring the vescavors against the demons. Anevia is horrified that you'd even suggest it (but a few evil gods, if you worship them, send you divine signs that they like what you're doing and certain non-evil gods will make their disapproval known) but obeys, and doing this is important to unlocking one of the late-game mythic paths.   (Sosiel wipes the sweat from his brow.) "My squad handled the assignment. I healed everyone I could, but my warriors have had quite a fright. It's not very pleasant to be eaten alive, then healed, then eaten, and healed again." "I knew I could rely on you." "What happened up there can't be described in words. But you were the one who carried the day, Yua. Luckily, our losses are not as great as we feared. Not many are even wounded. But if you'd been a moment later, I'm afraid to imagine what might have happened to us! Unfortunately, the insects' acid ruined what was left of the caravan. Of course I sympathize with those who perished, but we could have used their gear!" "Yeah, what a waste — we could really do with some supplies! If only they'd died on the road somewhere — of thirst, or after meeting some wild animals — we'd be sitting pretty right now!" [Good] "I couldn't let my people die while I was looting corpses that the bugs left behind." "What matters is that everything's over and we won! What are we going to do now?" "Since you're here, please take a look around. I found some painted runes and the traces of something that seemed like a ritual. We need to figure out what this is."By the way, there's an [Evil] response to the no-losses dialogue, and it's asserting that the crusade is your most powerful weapon and you won't sacrifice it for mere trinkets.  "I can guess who carried out the ritual. Handwriting is unique, even when it comes to runes. I examined the Gray Garrison after your success, documenting everything I found for Queen Galfrey. And I'm sure that the hand that drew the rune circles was the same in both instances. It's the work of the same spellcaster!" "Clever. Setting a trap to exhaust us instead of fighting openly." "We shouldn't be afraid of demons. We lived through this little trap, didn't we? We'll overcome the next one too! We just need to keep forging ahead!" "Well, since we've finished off the swarm and we know someone is giving us trouble, I suggest we get out of here. I'm done with bugs." I thought about mentioning Deskari. I thought he had to still be out there in the Worldwound somewhere, and I don't think he appreciated us killing his pets. Sosiel rejoins the party and levels up. He gets a new tier of spells, and a feat that gives his pet some free levels - useful if you take Impossible Domain or another perk that gets a character a pet later in their career.  But there's more yet to do here, next time. The Crimson Path (this update) Vescavor Queen 1 Vescavor Royal Guards 2 Vescavor Swarms 11 Brimorak Hordes 27 Cultist Platoons 67
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Apr 25, 2024 02:16
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Vescavors are a LOT nastier when you're not playing on Story, because they all have an aura that can cause confusion if you don't make the save.Cythereal posted:Golarion Drop This side section of the cave is actually a double easter egg. The one related to this game is that one, but the guy sitting in the bottom right there will stand up and do a "Praise the Sun" Dark Souls reference if you interact with him.
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Apr 25, 2024 02:27
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quote:There's no getting cute with it, either, all the loot is gone after you kill the queen. There is a way to get cute with it: The crusade damage triggers on the loot windows closing or being emptied. So, you can open the loot window, take all but the one cheapest bit of vendor chaff, quicksave, and quickload. A loaded game doesn’t start with loot windows open, but the loot window was never closed so the trigger never occurs.
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Apr 25, 2024 04:51
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There's really only one piece of treasure that you desperately want and that's only if you're playing a monk. Other than that it's all nice magical items but stuff you replace by Drezen.
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Apr 25, 2024 07:53
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Quackles posted:Forget gnome martial weapons, I want to see gnome marital weapons. Perhaps a hook married a hammer for Regil’s weapon? Welcome to Level 7. New demons- Veskavor Locusts- abyssal insects detailed in the update. Come in three variants- swarms, man-size royal guards, and the queens. If you have Galfrey with the Crusade, she shuts down the entire “use vescavor slime against the demons” plan. Otherwise you can do it, never mind Anevia’s complaints.
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Apr 25, 2024 08:27
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Cythereal posted:
If I recall, that quarterstaff is actually one of the best weapons for a fire focused Ember, since it actually grants a bonus to spell attacks.
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Apr 25, 2024 09:02
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Yeah, those vescavors are an absolute nightmare to fight against in higher difficulties. Being swarms makes them way more resilient to damage, and that constant, every-round confusion check can spiral out of control fast. This is where you realize how valuable the level 1 spell, Unbreakable Heart, is. It's also the first time I can think of where something can become substantially easier because of DLC - namely, the DLC NPC you get comes with an item that allows him to do fantastic damage to swarms while in animal shape.
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Apr 25, 2024 09:51
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I believe one of the Pre-Order Bonus items you get after reaching the inn during Chapter 1 also helps against swarms.
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Apr 25, 2024 13:41
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Lotta people got tilted by the swarms in the prologue of Kingmaker, where they operate by the book on all difficulties. Changing it to where they only work that way on Core+ here is such a relief.
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Apr 25, 2024 14:00
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In retrospect, "I will go, I have a plan to survive this" will win against "I will go, 'cause I have issues" (does Irabeth, "a knight's gotta do what a knight's gotta do" count as an issue? probably not)Cythereal posted:If crusade mode isn't turned on, then these choices are all fluff. Since crusade mode is on, however, your choices here will affect the crusade mode armies - and they can matter significantly.
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Apr 25, 2024 14:03
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Gun Jam posted:Anything interesting from the paths not taken? Not really. Irabeth and Regill try to just take the swarms in a head-on fight and learn that swarms don't work like that, Wenduag and Lann try to set an ambush with guerrilla tactics and learn that swarms don't work like that, and Nurah tries to distract and evade without engaging and learns that swarms don't work like that. Sosiel works because he's the one equipped to actually deal with the constant low-level damage the swarms inflict on the crusade, heal tanking his way through the fight. As anyone who has played an MMO can tell you, a good healer covers a multitude of sins.
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Apr 25, 2024 14:09
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SettingSun posted:Lotta people got tilted by the swarms in the prologue of Kingmaker, where they operate by the book on all difficulties. Changing it to where they only work that way on Core+ here is such a relief. I wondered why they seemed so much easier this time. I hated that drat spider cave in Kingmaker
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Apr 25, 2024 14:10
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Slaan posted:I wondered why they seemed so much easier this time. I hated that drat spider cave in Kingmaker
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Apr 25, 2024 14:15
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Yeah, for people not familiar with 3.5/Pathfinder swarms, the way they work is that they're immune to things that target individuals, which includes a bunch of spells, but also normal weapon attacks. This does make some kind of sense; waving a sword through a cloud of flies is not going to be as effective as you might hope. They also attack by entering their opponent's space and crawling all over them, so if you want to use AoE attacks to nuke them, you're also potentially hitting your own people. The best way of dealing with them is weapons that do energy damage, since the energy damage works normally and they don't tend to have a ton of HP. Of course, the early encounter in Kingmaker comes when the only weapon you have that's capable of doing energy damage is an everburning torch, which a) does almost no damage and b) is in extremely limited supply at that point. Your casters can use cantrips, but cantrips in this version are jokes damagewise outside of certain special situations. So it's very easy to get your entire party killed by tiny spiders, especially if you weren't expecting to run into them and didn't prepare appropriately. (Getting some AoE consumables can help, for instance.)
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Apr 25, 2024 14:24
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