For @timjames who may not know better, the near religious divide between TB and RTwP does not apply to the Pathfinder games, because you can switch between them on the fly. At any time. In the middle of a swing. It’s awesome. Why would you use TB near the end of an encounter when the challenge is over and you’re just mopping up adds? Switch to RTwP and take a sip of coffee.
First story DLC, Inevitable Excess coming February 15th, so if you’ve held off playing, there will soon be another reason to start. Also has a new free DLC and console release date pushed to Fall 2022.
I am waiting for the controller support - I really enjoy playing Kingmaker on bigscreen tv. But, it probably won’t arrive until fall now, with the console release.
I keep trying this and keep getting frustrated by the complexity of the builds, and the way my builds tend to either take hours and hours before they get to the good stuff or start out good but by mid-game turn into turds. I hate having to reference an online build guide every time I level up, but my attempts to do it myself have resulted in boxing myself into a corner where I can’t win any fights after a certain point.
On normal difficulty you can just level everyone up in the class they start with.
I didn’t do any special builds and didn’t have a problem with most encounters. Some encounters were total BS no matter what my builds were, but most of them were quite easy.
Here is a simple build that is very strong. Just give everyone wolf pets as much as possible. The paladin lady can get one early by taking a cavalier level that lets her pick a wolf pet, daeran can get a wolf pet through one of the additional secret choices (nature I think), make your main and Lann a demon hunter ranger who can get massive bonuses vs demons and both can get a wolf pet. I think in my party, only woljiff and nenio were the ones without a pets. The whole party was a wrecking crew.
Despite all that, there were some encounters that would still destroy my party and Id have to turn the difficulty level way down to beat them.
I guess I wasn’t very clear, which is on me. What I mean is, I don’t have problems creating builds that will actually work, I have problems creating the builds I want to play that will actually work. In both this and the first Pathfinder game, for instance, I tried a Sword Saint. I love the idea, and it’s something I’ve played in in-person role-playing games (not Pathfinder rules, but the same basic archetype). Cannot get it to work here. Ditto with a classic offensive mage; too weak early on, and boring as hell for a third of the game as everyone else gets to do all the cool stuff. What I’m describing is not a flaw in the game by any means–and I have quite a few hours in this thing so far, so I must like it well enough!–but more of my own inability to really grok the nuances of this system well enough.
I enjoyed my SS, but I wasn’t a fan of casting Touch of Fatigue at the start of every round – even if it did give me an extra attack. It was fine at the beginning of the game, but by the end it just slowed me down.
DEX builds by default just take longer to come online. Makes the prologue and most of Act 1 a bit of a drag. Meanwhile STR builds are over there just wrecking shit.
Blurred for boobies because I’m 12.
You can friend me on Steam if you want and I’ll be happy to provide assistance. :)
I haven’t tried the Sword Saint, but my understanding is that it’s very good when you have Turn Based Combat turned on.
Titzie? lol
Oh, I only play with turn based combat. My issue is that early on, I can’t seem to do any damage, and later, I tend to die way too fast and still not do any damage! I am sure I am not doing something right.
Well, the boost is the extra attack and the ability to channel a touch based spell. I think in PnP, the goal is Shocking Grasp, and later Vampiric Touch, and using meta magic versions to power them up through the levels.
And the other goal is to use a Rapier, because your touch spells gain the same threatening range as your weapon.
At least that was my take on the class. A vehicle to cast Shocking Grasp with expanded Critical Range.
And of course buff with as many defensive boosts.
That’s a prefectly good name for a gnome!
That sounds doable. It also sounds not at all what I want, sadly, I was thinking more along the lines of a samurai type dude, someone who uses the sword (a real sword, not some namby-pamby rapier!) as the primary damage dealer, doesn’t wear armor (or at least not heavy armor), and has spells to supplement combat. Sort of a battlemage sans the heavy armor and quasi-knight sort of vibe. I’ve found a monk type class works closest in some ways.
Ah, that build can be accomplished as well.
One way would be 5 Levels of Wizards, taking the Martial Weapon Feat, and then 10 Levels of Eldritch Knight. That will give you a BAB of 12, and a spell casting level of 14.
I have toyed with the idea of taking one of the Warrior Backgrounds for Light Armor, because then you can grab the Hell knight Signifier, and gain access to Heavy Armor.
Actually, forget all that. Have you thought about an Arcane Bloodrager? Casting is limited to 4th level, but you don’t wear much armor, can cast decent protection spells, and carry heavy weapons.
A sword saint build might work for you. Plenty out there if you want to Google around.
Edit: here’s one: Arcane Agent's Sword Saint Vivisectionist Mythic Trickster Legend Build - Google Sheets
The trickster route looks like an effort to max out the critical range and the bardiche for increased range on attacks of opportunity.
Thanks for all the advice! I’ve tried a few different builds, and I’m sure many work in the end. It’s just that most seem so anemic and boring for at least half the game. Part of this is the way the Pathfinder rules work with magic I guess. Much of it is probably my own lack of skill. I’ll futz with these a bit when I try it again.
Honestly, I can think of 2 classes that might meet your needs without doing anything tricky with classes.
The Skald takes bard spell casting, and gives you access to all weapons, and light, medium armor, and shields and the ability to apply Rage to all your party members. Bard spells aren’t flashy, but you get 2nd level Heroism, Haste, Healing spells, all to support your fighting, with the biggest downside of not having full BAB.
The Bloodrager gives you Full BAB, Light Armor, and the ability to Rage. You get the faster movement, and a bonus saving throw against allies spells (that is very useful for charging into a Pit or some other spell cast by your allies), damage reduction but the coolest thing is their bloodline ability.
I prefer the Arcane Bloodline because it at 4th level, when you rage, you get Blur or Resist energy while Raging, and at 8th level, you get displacement or haste.
Sword Saint can be Strength based as well. A lot of people even recommend that path since it does better damage than Dex builds.
So you could pick a Bastard Sword or Falcata and be pretty much where you want out of the gate.
There is always the Eldritch Knight path, but that’s far more a “I suck for a long time till everything comes online” type of build.
Always go for the bigger crit or crit range. Bastard swords are junk.