Before adjusting her face
So I finally re-installed there at the start of September and logged another 90+ hours and 33 more achievements. Only 10 left.
Smile!
But it was a slog. I have a half-finished blog post about Pathfinder:Kingmaker from last year where I tried to articulate some of my thoughts on the game but failed. Here we go again.
My physically weak Sorcerer. All in on Charisma and Persuasion.
Oh I played a Sorcerer lady this time, Sylvan so I could get a pet and stuck to Neutral/Chaotic dialogue choices because there was a trophy attached to that.
I named her Lena on September 4th, short for Elena which is myself and Cathy's favourite name and if Theo had been a girl that's what he would have been called.
Also I played on the absolute easiest difficulty, ‘Story’, and had ‘Last Azlanti Mode’ on so I only had an Exit Save and 1 save file. Tough but I was on the piss easy difficulty so it never really was an issue and there were some interesting workarounds later.
Starting out
My dialogue choices in the mansion netted me the Chaotic Neutral priest of Groetus, Harrim, as well as the mandatory Amiri and Linzi. In my previous playthrough I was a goody two shoes Lawful Good Paladin so got Valerie instead.
Ah, camp banter!
Hilariously I fucked up and failed to get Jaethal and Valerie out of prison at the start of the game so they were lost forever*. This locked me out of the ‘max loyalty with all companions’ achievement, just like last time when I ignored Jaethal’s quest and failed it as well as Amiri’s. Damn!
Picked Chaotic/Neutral a lot, but my inclination in most vidya is good. Evil will be tough but funny...
Anyway I conquered the Stag Lord and became Baroness once again. Made sure to get the troll boss you fight early on to walk into sunlight to net another achievement.
Lena looking very bearded...
Somewhere around here I loaded up my old Zachariah file and got two achievements - the kickstarter quest that everybody hates (it’s fine) and re-forge one (1) item for the Storyteller. Back to Lena the Sorcerer-Baroness…
Turn to stone you ass. Awkward 'fight'.
Story Mode was so easy. Nobody died, hardly ever needed to heal and enemies just died in front of your party. Once again, I can’t imagine playing this in turn-based mode, it must take even longer to finish.
BOW TO THE LEOPARD IN THE THRONE
Moving forward, Varnhold DLC
I got the ‘choose Chaotic dialogue three times’ achievement, Goblin Warsong, win the hunting and first DLC achievement. There were about 15 of them tied to the DLCs.
Rigidly stuck to the CN part of the Alignment spectrum. Just Evulz left for next playtime.
So after Varnhold Vanishing became available in Chapter 4 I switched to the DLC for it. You only have to make the General character who Maeger Varn falls in love with. So I made a simple melee gal and we cleared Lostlarn Keep together. Thanks to the Neoseeker site for their guide to that dungeon plus good old GameFAQs.
Paella the Paladin. Had to try it again after doing it before last year.
The murder mystery part of the DLC was the best part, probably.
Upon completion of that and getting all 6 achievements tied to that I swung back to Lena and her gang, I decided early on to max out all companion quests anyway, just in case the achievement popped. So I only had 9 out of the 11 potential companions for their achievement but alas spoilers it did not pop. Oh well. So lots of running around while trying to do Kingdom Management.
It was a nice segue but nothing too exciting.
Kingdom (Mis(s))Management
Tied up helping my stupid helpless advisors.
This is a major part of the game and cannot be ignored. It really feels like at the start you are fighting several fires with inadequate resources, then there is a sweet middle where everything goes swell then it all goes to shit in the end when the fey declare all out war.
Making your main character charismatic/persuasive etc not necessary but profitable.
This time I managed to complete Amiri’s story properly when resolving the barbarian invasion. Also I had gotten Tartuk, Armag and later Nyrissa on my side so I would later get the ‘Enemies to Allies’ achievement.
Good old Armag! Apparently he can be your General but he vanished on me. Oh well.
Bombed through all the Pitax stuff. Managed to get my throne back and make the Goblin merchant cry for another achievement. After running around and appeasing them all, I got my first artisan masterpiece for another achievement. Also the Goblins, Mite and Kobolds worshipped me for another. Also made that hermit mage finish his damn grimoire while near Pitax.
98 days until the stupid Hilltop causes problems again again again
I got all the Storyteller artefacts re-forged (mostly terrible I think) so that trophy was in the bag. I had once again realised I had failed to get my advisors to Rank X. No idea how to get it to work. So I sidetracked into the ‘Tenebrous Depths’ DLC.
Throne Room advisors. The merc ones make it quick and generic.
It’s actually really nice - a dungeon with 16 levels to it, each floor has 1 treasure and every 4 floors has a mini-boss. Collect all 16 treasures to confront the true endgame boss who has an unexpected ally. This is only worth one trophy BUT was a decent distraction from the main plot. I intended to save the actual DLC which is separate from your main save some other time but ended up playing it later, see below ‘Tenebrous Roguelike’.
Lena LOST the drunken brawl section of the tourney. Zachariah won it. Helps he had higher STR
Various Endgames
So I was locked out of max stat advisors and with it, the artisans won’t each give you a masterpiece so 2 achievements I could not get. Also, it was now Chapter 7 so the fey were invading and there are suddenly a billion problems that are almost unsolvable and a mysterious fog is gassing your people constantly.
This was a wacky but fun MAIN quest.
So off to the Castle of Knives, I did the wacky requirements for the mysterious fey order for an achievement. Once again, thanks to everyone who writes gaming guides. This was how I cleared the House on the Edge of Time so quickly, and with only an autosave, exit save and one save file to rely on.
You murdering POS.
I gave the chalice to Nyrissa or whatever and got an achievement for helping the Lantern King play an elaborate joke. Whatever. This is also where I got the prize for finishing the game on Last Azlanti Mode. On piss easy difficulty it was grand, I was never party wiped IIRC correctly. I think Irovetti managed to defeat me as he always does but I made one party member retreat and eventually returned and killed him. It made the game much more enjoyable, it was such a slog on Custom/Easy. I have to play through again someday on Challenging and Unfair, so that’ll be just swell.
Replaying the ending like 3 times was funny but profitable.
So anyway I spotted that I had an autosave. I was completely done with Kingmaker at that point but not really. I had closed the game and reopened it minutes later and sure enough there was an autosave just before the Nyrissa battle. Perhaps because the joke ending which skips Chapter 8 completely is so quick it does that? Not sure. I reloaded and made Nyrissa an ally for the aforementioned ‘Foes…’ achievement and spotted no opportunity to romance her. Damn! I had been following a guide (loosely) on how to romance her and get the ‘secret ending’ achievement but must have missed a step. Oh well.
Woohoo!
So I cleared Chapter 8, killing off the Forefather on the way to get ‘Patricide’. This was part of the two Tieflings “DLC”. There are two Tiefling sisters who share one body for… reasons. I did not follow their plot at all, it all felt so tacked on. 3 achievements attached: recruiting them, keeping their 3 brothers alive and killing their father. Cool. Finished the game again completely. I was still in a Pathfinder mood so prepared to do the ‘roguelike’ DLC.
Prepare to die, Daddy.
Tenebrous Roguelike
The dungeon from earlier with 16 levels, 16 treasures, 4 mini-bosses and a secret ending now has neverending floors, randomly placed 16 treasures, 1 boss per run (you must reset to get a different one to spawn). Fine initially but shit later.
Ah, why not.
Set the difficulty really high and died. There’s a trophy for that. Then reaching floor 10, floor 30, and floor 50. At this point I only had 2 treasures and 1 mini boss killed. So I re-loaded and did my second run. Oh and you can play this on Last Azlanti if you only want one save file (not advisable, no real benefits).
Fucking final boss was insane. Reminded me of Borderlands.
Played another third run and got two more treasures and killed another boss. You can select a ‘boon’ that passes down between your adventuring parties.
Gimar, made simply to die for an achievement.
Another fourth run, boss was a repeat, and only one treasure. Managed to get the achievement for knocking down an enemy 3 times bigger than you with an Alchemist’s Force Bombs and later the One Punch trophy for having a Legendary Proportions Monk do 150 damage in one punch.
I had Linzi again as Lindsay and the exact same build for picking locks and barding.
Another fifth run and managed to get the achievement for unlocking all merchant goods. Did not get any treasure however and the boss was a repeat again. Lost hope a bit here.
The top hitter of the group in the end! Amazing for a premade Ranger.
Sixth run and quickly decided to call it a day on Kingmaker. 5 full runs of the dungeon and around 100 floors of that dungeon my head was spinning. Good way to listen to podcasts and it’s a great way to trial character builds. Most of my characters were pre-made builds for speed after a while but initially I tried some stuff.
These rooms are INFAMOUS for slowing down anyones computer.
I have to get all 16 treasures and kill just one more mini boss (the Captor) to access the final boss and secret ending achievement. I decided that I would do this again on my next Kingmaker playthrough. Just too tedious and what’s the rush?
Hedwirg did retire peacefully but here he is dying horribly to those damn golems???
Companion re-assessment
Lena minus a staff throws up her fists.
Harrim I disliked more previously as a misery guts. I liked him a lot more here, also I made him a permanent party member in place of Tristian as this time I was playing on the easiest difficulty so only needed a little bit of healing. I specced him as a Cleric-Sorcerer Necromancer but he mainly just joined the shield wall and bashed stuff. He’s such an anti-Dwarf I liked him for that.
I made Harrim a Perception beast in this run. Someone has to do it.
Linzi still has plot armour and I still had her in my party until the death. Heh. Again I didn’t need buffs really so she mainly just disarmed the occasional trap, picked a few locks and shot her crossbow from the back. I found her less grating mainly because I was skipping dialogue I guess and took some pleasure in disregarding her opinion more. Can’t wait for the evil run…
The Storybook challenges can be tough or sometimes a joke with the right skill
Nok Nok is still fabulous. Again, the easiest difficulty made him stand out less. He was vital for DPS in my harder first playthrough last year. Now, everyone in my party was practically invincible and enemies stood no chance regardless. He’ll be essential in my Challenging, Evil run next year.
This I random stealth mission I auto-failed last year BUT followed a guide and got the best result.
Amiri and her Smilodon were here again and in my main party but like Nok Nok it didn’t really matter. She had a bad habit of getting KO’d in my first run so it was nice to see her just rage through everything here. She’ll probably be in my evil main party in 2025. Might switch the smilodon for something smaller though, they keep getting stuck in narrow hallways or behind doors.
I didn't really bother with retraining anyone in this run. Too easy no matter what.
Valerie was always in my last party and was the one I romanced as a Lawful Good Paladin in 2023. Here, I hardly had any interactions with her and she chose not to join my party because it was too chaotic/neutral for her. I saw her and Jaethal in a cage later but couldn’t free her without pissing off the Kobold King who I was trying to ally with for an achievement. Oh well. I can only assume she was eaten shortly afterward. Jaethal however…
Oops. I giggled because I have no idea ingame who she is really.
Jaethal I had recruited last year but fucked up her quest and left it too late. Last I saw her was being cut down by Tristian in the House on the Edge of Time. This time in 2024, she elected not to join my party at the start and later I saw her and Valerie in a cage. I left them there, oops. Never heard from Valerie again BUT Jaethal was once again cut down by Tristian at the end of the game??? Hilarious. The game made it seem like I had to care about this but my character technically had no idea who Jaethal was, and I barely took Tristian with me anywhere.
No Tristian! Don't kill... again!
Tristian I felt bad for last year. This time, I cared much less. I never had him in my party except to do his quests. And when he forces himself into the party while en route to Vordakai. Anyway he killed Jaethal again. Dick. She could easily kill him btw.
Just gimme the stupid grimoire for the achievement.
Jubilost I had replaced with Nok Nok who the guide recommended taking a few levels of Alchemist. Same deal here, never went anywhere with him except for his friendship quests.
Bombs are awesome. Will have to cheese them into a build next time.
Ekun I used a lot, what a legend. What more is there to say?
Ekun's dog went without a name in this run.
Octavia I used a bit but she mainly stayed home. I stole the whole sorcerer-rogue-arcane trickster for my character instead. Acid Splash ftw.
Octavia burning her mother's house down was new. Chaotic Neutral ftw! She was nicer in first run
Regongar the same, I’ve never seen the appeal unless they’re both re-specced. He’s an advisor!
Advisors and Mercenaries
The usual party on the left. It was much the same in my previous run honestly, minus Valerie
I didn’t have Valerie this time so Octavia was my regent and did a fine job.
Reggie once again was my general. Solid.
Jubilost was my treasurer for a while. I always rush to get him in Chapter 2 because there are few who can do this job.
On the way to being a mighty kingdom...
Harrim was my High Priest. I had Jhod do it for a little bit in a previous run but he sucked.
They took care to change the dialogue to she/her if female but not the pictures...
Tristan was my Councilor until he wasn’t, see below.
Why now Tristian? We're miles from home and I don't use you. Oh you're going to betray me
I completely lacked a Magister. Octavia was locked into Regent so I bought a mercenary who did it instead. I called her Smartass as she needed Intelligence to do her job.
My Magister, Smartass. Very Intelligent
‘Wisdoom' filled the role of my Councilor after Tristian fucked off for a bit. Another mercenary who was decent at their job. I didn’t bother changing back to Tristian.
Took several shots of this loading screen. Wisdoom the Wise.
Linzi was my charismatic High Diplomat again.
Ekun was my Warden again. ‘Nuff said.
Jubilost was the only person who could be the Espionage Master so I put him there and Maegar Varn became Treasurer. Both good people. I had Jaethal last year but… yeah.
Kingdom Management
It’s just so annoying. Like I want to enjoy it but it doesn't want me to.
12th of Ja-Abados is my birthday once again. Has no real effect but a nice bonus to stats
So I set my advisors as best as I can and see to a couple of problems and projects. The guides suggested prioritising problems over anything else so I did that. I was somewhat handicapped because two of my advisors had mercenary penalties (they have lower scores than the real companions).
I simply had no time to do the two week advisor rank ups at the start of the KM shenanigans. Also there are simply so many companion quests and main quests to keep tabs on plus artisans and whatnot… I had no time to spend two weeks upgrading advisors. They start at rank I and X is maximum.
I got a couple of breathers in the plot to do some kingdom management. By this I mean finding gaps to upgrade their ranks. I only got them all to around 5/V minimum in Chapter 6. A couple of them were close to max rank and sure enough I got some of them to X and even got an artisan masterpiece. In order to get all 10 masterpieces, you need to have all 10 advisors at rank 10. This was not to be.
Note the Loyalty at 154 but Rank is X. I must have gotten it high but it eroded from Problems
The problem for me I discovered is you need to have 200 or more points in say Divine in order to get High Priest to Rank X. It’s points / 20 = max rank you can attain. So if you have 100 points in Divine, the highest you can go is Rank V and so on.
278 days until the next development in plot and still didn't work out
This I realised was tied to settlements. There are 8 settlements in the 8 regions you can upgrade from City, Town and Village status. Pitax is a city and Varnhold is a town but the rest including your capital you have to upgrade in size. This is done via projects which again take weeks to do, plus waiting for buildings within them to build, plus actually conquering the various regions takes out both you and an advisor for weeks so you can be helpless to react to Problems in the meantime.
Got to download that mod that makes this quicker/less painful
How to get 200 points in a KM stat? I found getting some of them easier than others, say for example the first 5 advisors have more time to generate points. I always max out Military to Rank X for example in both runs because I have a general all game, plus it’s been Reggie both times whose Strength stat I can easily upgrade. So that’s getting points for passing Problems and the occasional Opportunity plus every rank up the advisor poses a dialogue choice in the throne room via dialogue which can affect the score.
Building mode. Fun but frustrating
The other way is via buildings. Walls in a town give Military for example, and Barracks. I knew I had low Espionage last game so I deliberately built loads of Taverns next to Barracks for a +1 synergy bonus to Espionage. That helped me rank up Espionage a bit but eventually it stopped giving me opportunities. So annoying. Then it was Chapter 7 and I never got the chance again.
Lot of selling useless crap. Especially on piss easy difficulty
Plus you lose points via Problems being failed (a total dice roll situation) and those throne room events - sometimes a choice you make for your advisor will give you extra Divine points but less Military points and so on. On reflection now, if I were completely focussed on getting this achievement save-scumming these events would be good. Save right before the Problem is resolved and reload if it is a Failure or worse a Disaster. Ugh.
Having mercs may have affected my attempt to max ranks
So I like the idea of it and I do briefly get excited about plopping down buildings in my various settlements but hate how it feels like fighting various fires constantly, with various quests also competing for your personal attention. Also it's been said elsewhere but it's somewhat egregious having a Baroness (and later, Queen) plus her top advisors slumming around adventuring instead of ruling the land. But it's more like you start slowly scraping across the overworld travelling and every 5 minutes have to open the KM tab notification.
Love the merc advisors, they show up and say nothing in their reports.
So next year I’ll try to sort that all out. Maybe.
Someday I'll have X in all these damn ranks.
Travel, game, story, music etc
Speaking of travel, it is annoying that it seems so slow and yet the icon for your party is on horseback. It’s fine, I always enjoyed optimising the Camp Management screen. Amiri or Ekun hunting, Nok Nok or Harrim concealing the camp with magic or abilities, Linzi the eternal main chef and my character usually sitting on their ass - I mean, on watch duty. Also, the dialogue/banter can be funny.
Harrim and Nok Nok. Weirdos
I find the story charming enough even on a second play.
Didn't see this last time. The CN advisor of Pitax switched to my side
I had the music muted for a long time this time but gradually allowed it to play again. Then I muted it again and listened to podcasts! It’s grand overall if overly repetitive. And constantly interrupted - if you change from the overworld to kingdom management the music changes tracks. Which is often.
Pathfinding: class race feats etc
I was a Sorcerer this time, mainly to have Charisma in order to rule but also a Sylvan Sorcerer to have an animal companion, woo! Not that I’m a huge fan of that normally but they are great as extra Strength for carrying loot and an extra body in combat. Which was a hindrance in this playthrough as it was so easy they just got in the way. Honestly other than Haste my gal hardly did anything.
The 5 items I managed to collect...
Race (sorry, Species to use modern 5e+ terminology) is as inconsequential as it ever is. I was a Human but again on ultra easy Story mode, a bonus feat meant little.
I got a little lazy with my Tenebrous mercs, see here the Dwarf named 'Dwarf'
I like the sheer number of feats and that classic 3e/Pathfinder “Feats unlock other Feats” deal. It takes me back to playing 3.5e in 2008. Much of it was wasted on me - IIRC I had various Team feats in my first playthrough as a Paladin - Shake it Off, Shield Wall etc. Him and Valerie were serious tanks. Here, it didn't really matter what I picked, it was all so easy.
I'm always fucking around with formations.
This will of course be of paramount importance in my Challenging and Unfair Runs so I reserve any comments on feats etc.
Animals keep getting stuck in doors?
Otherwise on gameplay: I can’t imagine playing this shit on turn-based. I always have it in real time. Again I’ll probably have more to say next time. I like it.
Final analysis
Overall a positive experience but oh god my eyes.
The ‘plan’ is to play it again in a year most likely and do an Evil run for that achievement, get all companion quests, somehow max advisor rankings, which is tied to the artisan masterpieces; I’ve never had 100 random encounters. Romance Nyrissa. Kill a bear on Hard difficulty. Challenging difficulty. Also need Unfair achievement. And need to somehow get to the bottom of the roguelike DLC.
10 achievements but at best 2, 3 more playthroughs required. Sigh.
I'll eventually give Wrath of the Righteous a go and of course, BG3.
Not sure what to play next. Might have a look into final few Civ 5 trophies, might play something else I did last year (Heavy Rain, Star Ocean 2 R...). Update 24/Sep/24 ATOP - played OUTER WORLDS for the first time and finished it quite thoroughly. See October 2024 post #1.
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