Pathfinder - Wrath of the Righteous; A Kingmaker follow-up that supports turn-based gameplay now!

Man. Kingmaker runs a full 20-25 degrees C cooler on my 3070. Whatever Wrath is doing, it sure thinks it needs to thrash my card.

My game bogged down to barely 5fps again. Could barely make it through the battle I was in, it was horrible. Went to blow out those files again and saw:

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I just blew these out yesterday. There is no way multiple log files should be so big already. I could see them not being smart in how they’re opening and writing to those files not to mention the absurd amount of stuff they appear to be writing into them.

Maybe it’s a bunch of errors occurring in the game and the log is full of them? I couldn’t see because they were too big for notepad++ to open and I couldn’t be bothered to load Visual Studio or Code.

EDIT: I’m worried I’m going to have to put the game on hold until they fix this. Almost every battle now one character gets “cursed” to grind the game down to a crawl every time its their turn in tactical combat and it just gets worse and worse as I play. :(

I finished it, ~160 hours. The slowdown bug occurs both in TB and RTwP, but if I don’t select my main character it doesn’t happen… So I just switched to RTwP and lowered the difficulty to Storymode and blew through the last dungeon without ever selecting my main character.

Very minor spoilers.

I found the ending to be disappointing. Act 8 in Kingmaker is fantastic and revisits all the main locations and villains you encountered throughout the game and the friends you made along the way show up and help. It’s probably too much to ask for Wrath to possibly be as good as Kingmaker’s ending, and it’s not. In addition, there were at least 1/3 less ending slides than Kingmaker, if not half as many. The Kingmaker slides went on forever. It was – and remains – the best CRPG ending I’ve ever seen.

I didn’t like the Wrath companions as much as the Kingmaker companions, and I also felt their quests were slightly inferior. Sadly, unlike (again) Kingmaker, there were no rewards for completing someone’s personal quest. I also didn’t like how there were so many evil companions, but I guess they did it to accommodate all the evil mythic paths. Unfortunately I won’t be changing my forum avatar. Here’s hoping the DLC companion(s?) are good - in multiple ways.

Kingmaker had a huge dearth of longswords, and this time it was greatswords – my weapon of choice, of course. I finished the game with a +3 greatsword and my bags were FILLED with +5 holy/axiomatic/whatever longswords. The Finnean kick in the nuts didn’t help.

I thought the Crusade aspects were decent and certainly better than the kingdom management in Kingmaker. I missed the artisans, though. The Crusade relic system that replaced them is disappointing. You don’t know what you’re going to get, you’ll still be researching them in the end-game and they’ll be producing +2/+3 items that are useless.

Kingmaker had the terrible Fey / First World shit and thankfully there’s nothing like that in Wrath. I also really enjoyed Act 4 of Wrath, it was very reminiscent of certain locale in Baldur’s Gate 2.

Ultimately I feel Kingmaker is the better game, though Wrath is certainly excellent and I can’t wait to dive in again. Just really, really need to hold off until they drop a big patch…

SMALL UPDATE / PATCH NOTES

POSTED

Fri, September 17

Update 1.0.4d - September 17, 2021

Beware of possible plot spoilers below!

Quests and companions

  • It was impossible to find Chivarro during the Grudges to Settle quest - fixed;

  • During ‘Once in Alushinyrra…’ quest the player was considered dead after teleportation to the House of Silken Shadows - fixed;

  • After the completion of Morevet’s quest, some options related to it didn’t disappear from the dialogue - fixed;

  • It was impossible to interact with Shamira during the Ultimate Joke quest - fixed;

  • A dialogue with Ramisa at Flesh Markets could start again after you’ve already decided her fate - fixed;

  • Sosiel will not try to break up with a character on a good Mythic Path anymore;

  • Sosiel could get stuck painting in different areas, blocking some quests from completion - fixed;

  • Sometimes you were unable to exit the location if you turned down Sosiel - fixed;

  • Deep-Rooted Derangement quest in Wintersun could break after skipping the cutscene that started it - fixed;

  • Weary Guardian: fixed a Trickster’s option;

  • Bad Blood: sometimes the reinforcements in Savamelekh’s Mansion forgot to join the battle, and were waiting in the corridor - fixed;

  • Conspiracy in Shadows: Yozz wouldn’t teleport you to Alushinyrra if you wanted to do it after some preparations - fixed;

  • Durability Test wasn’t failing after completing chapter 3 - fixed;

  • It was impossible to enter the Bloody Trail location while you were on the dragon hunt - fixed;

  • Burrowed Dreams quest completion wasn’t triggering - fixed;

  • Lann and Wenduag’s quests could disappear from the journal - fixed;Lann sometimes didn’t receive the correct epilogue - fixed;

  • Echo of Deskari was using an incorrect dialogue line in Palara Falls - fixed;

  • Seeking Forgiveness quest wasn’t starting correctly - fixed;

  • There was a way to duplicate Arueshalae - fixed. No more evil twins!

  • On the Summit sometimes nothing was visible due to fog of war - fixed;

  • Successful Diplomacy check with Mielarah wasn’t triggering the 50.000 discount - fixed;

  • Woljif’s shop sometimes didn’t trigger when clicking the appropriate dialogue line - fixed;

  • Forn Autumn Haze was appearing in Drezen after being killed - fixed. No ghosts allowed!

  • Fixed Areelu and Swarm dialogue in the epilogue.

  • Ramien could disappear after the combat with Halran started, blocking the quest from completion - fixed;

  • Fixed amount of XP gained in dialogue with Storyteller.

  • Shadow Dance quest sometimes didn’t complete after killing shadow demon leader - fixed;

  • Dialogue wasn’t appearing when talking to the Hand of the Inheritor - fixed;

Areas

  • Threshold: it was possible to start the final dialogues with the companions multiple times - fixed;

  • Midnight Fane in chapter 5 has been visually improved;

  • The entrance into The House of Wicked Knowledge wouldn’t show up on the map until you come close enough - fixed;

  • Iz: crusaders and NPCs wouldn’t get devoured by Swarm-that-Walks in the crusaders’ camp - fixed;

  • Cyborgs in Blackwater were stronger than intended - fixed;

  • Gates weren’t opening in Blackwater - fixed;

  • In some cases you could get a Game Over message after the third battle in Battle Bliss arena - fixed;

  • It was impossible to exit Sevalros’ Cave - fixed.

  • Door visual has been fixed in Heart of Mystery.

  • You can no longer be forever locked in Ivory Sanctum.

  • Sometimes attackers would get stuck on the gates during the attack on Defender’s Heart - fixed;

Crusade

  • Added 2 additional difficulty levels for the crusade;

  • Added more UI texts for the events of the crusade;

  • Aeon’s Call event could get stuck in some circumstances - fixed;

  • Removed the crusade buffs stacking after character retrain;

  • Fixed empty glossary links and various tooltips in the crusade mode;

  • It was possible to buy the resources only in the city building mode. Now it has been moved into the crusade resources window;

  • Delaying a fort upgrade after finishing the corresponding decree could interrupt the whole upgrade chain - fixed, all missed upgrade opportunities should become available on loading the save;

  • Added clarifications to the description of the morale banner.

  • Fortress upgrade decrees would appear before actually building enough bastions - fixed;

  • Lich that transformed into a Swarm, continued to get Lich units from killing enemies - fixed;

  • Sometimes an event wouldn’t happen in Drezen despite a notification about it in the crusade interface - fixed;

  • Prudent feat now works according to description;

  • Bless now works according to description;

  • Incubi ability Crushing Despair had zero uses - fixed;

  • Prices of mercenaries for the crusade have been fixed;

  • Sometimes an extremely powerful enemy army with 1000+ units would spawn in chapter 5 - fixed;

  • When setting Crusade on auto in chapter 5, all garrisons were getting destroyed instantly - fixed;

  • Loading into settlement to build buildings from crusade management could trigger an endless loading screen - fixed.

  • It could become impossible to rank up diplomacy level in Crusade - fixed;

Classes & Mechanics

  • When creating a Zen Archer, you didn’t get any bow as a starting equipment - fixed;

  • Gold Dragon Mythic Path was working incorrectly with the effects which increased ability scores - fixed;

  • Gold Dragon was gaining double level after rebuilding Kenabres - fixed;

  • Gold Dragon didn’t receive correct bonuses for entering dragon form - fixed;

  • Vavakia’s breath no longer deals occasional Wisdom drain after the first time. This will fix the situation with companions dying from wisdom drain in chapter 4;

  • Last Stand no longer receives another use after a save-load;

  • When switching from Lich to late game mythic paths, Lich abilities would sometimes remain available - fixed;

  • The secret mythic path was not getting Mythic Feat or Mythic Ability selections during level ups - fixed;

  • You could sometimes be judged again mid-combat on the secret mythic path - fixed;

  • Corruption stacked on some companions - fixed;

  • Some weapons weren’t applying their effects on hit, if the character had only one attack - fixed;

  • Crushing Offence wasn’t working - fixed;

  • Vampiric Touch and Vampiric Shurikens didn’t work correctly - fixed;

  • Ice Storm’s slowing effect didn’t work - fixed;

  • Hell’s Decrees which limit the ability to use magic schools, now cancel the previous decree, if cast on a target with one decree already being active;

  • Hell’s Decree ability could be used an unlimited number of times - fixed;

  • Favored Enemy — Flying and Favored Enemy — Large didn’t work correctly - fixed;

  • Arcanist’s Icy Tomb no longer has a permanent duration and no longer applies all accumulated damage after entering the zone from the global map;

Turn-based mode

  • The cursor’s state was incorrectly reset to default in TBM at the start of the turn - fixed;

  • Charge ability was getting interrupted randomly before starting - fixed.

Items

  • All relics now appear identified;

  • Items from the Commander Pack did not appear in the chest when playing the game in Epic Games Store - fixed;

  • The Robe of Water was being equipped in the wrong slot - fixed;

  • The Robe of Air had a wrong enchantment - fixed;

  • Fixed the visuals of Duality of Conjuration and Summoning;

  • Game could freeze when using the Lexicon of Paradox - fixed.

  • Francest’s Charming Voice was giving -2 penalty instead of -5 - fixed

User Interface

  • Fixed the displaying of the left action bar;

  • When cancelling the level-up, the game would pause until opening another interface - fixed;

  • Fixed resting on the global map;

  • A tooltip for some checks in the dialogues was showing incorrect numbers - fixed;

  • A ‘Show all spells’ checkbox could break the spell book - fixed;

  • Fixed the ‘Dominate Person’ effect on the main character;

  • Multiple improvements for mythic retrain UI;

  • Commander’s appearance wasn’t properly changing in the mythic level up UI - fixed;

  • Bear’s endurance in some circumstances could use a wrong icon - fixed;

  • Spellbook had minor graphical issues with scrolling - fixed;

  • Gold Dragon didn’t have a description on the character screen - fixed.

  • Swords of Gorum feat was lacking a description - fixed;

  • Linnorm’s ability didn’t have a correct name and description - fixed.

Misс

  • The game could freeze after talking to Finnean - fixed;

  • Skipping a cutscene of getting a mythic power in chapter 5 could lead to an endless black screen - fixed;

  • The epilogues have been improved for Demon and Lich;

  • Some achievements for fighting on Core difficulty level and higher couldn’t be unlocked - fixed;

  • Fixed another case where the loading screen would not disappear if loading directly into turn-based combat;

  • The summit scene in chapter 5 could not play out correctly if the Commander was mounted - fixed;

  • The behaviour of numerous enemies have been improved;

  • Mephisto no longer floats in the air.

  • Looting a dead companion could trigger an endless loading screen after leaving location - fixed;

  • Deskari no longer uses Areelu’s voice for one of the dialogue lines in Iz;

  • Companions that were dead when a cutscene loaded another location, could disappear from your party forever - fixed.

  • Multiple minor fixes in epilogues for consistency;

  • A soldier in Drezen no longer leans to air as if a wall was there;

  • Cutscene with Minagho and Staunton didn’t start in some circumstances - fixed;

  • Cayden Tankard was cosplaying a familiar, flying randomly in the air around the party - fixed

Supposedly this fixed my demon mythic path progression - hope it works! Also - added 2 difficulty settings to the crusade - wonder how that works. I’d be happy to just get rid of enemy mages that can 1-hit nuke each of your stacks per turn.

That frame rate glitch reappeared today (before the above patch), so selecting Nenio during combat still has the effect of stuttering the game until I select someone else in the party. Not going to apply the fix of deleting files again. I’ll just hope that a patch will eventually fix it since I can, for the most part, work through it.

They call these small patches, but that’s a pretty extensive list. I like that they are working hard at fixing the glitches as they can and aren’t holding out for big patches. As long as they don’t break something critical because they are getting them out so quick.

That has been driving me bonkers, glad it’s fixed. I had stopped using it.

Nenio is my current culprit. Before that it was another character. Given the density of combat encounters in the game its really starting to drag on my enthusiasm. I’m pushing through for now because I know me and if I set the game aside I likely won’t come back to it (“I don’t remember what was going on or what I was doing so I should restart… but I don’t want to go through all that story again”).

The perf issue appears to be fixed with today’s patch.

I thought I was doing something wrong with it with my cavalier, should’ve guessed it was a bug.

Oh man, I hope so!! Looking forward to trying this evening.

Yeah I kept thinking I was doing something wrong as well. So matter how I tried to make sure the path was clear I kept getting stopped a step or two into the charge and I thought I kept missing something, heh.

Game is still running like total crap for me after the patch, unfortunately. Now it’s Ember that causes the massive slowdown. Every time she has a turn, the overall performance of the game degrades a little bit more. This is really frustrating.

EDIT: One more delete of the temp folders and it hasn’t come back… fingers crossed. :)

Haven’t yet had that many performance issues, but the fight with Staunton and his demon squeeze, and the traitor halfling or gnome or whatever she is…I am finding that impossible so far. Staunton just heals up and lets loose like four or five hits with his pole-arm which pretty much wipes out any of my crew. Meanwhile, most of my spells do middling damage, and my melee stuff mostly plinks off of him. Not fun.

I didn’t find that fight to be enjoyable either. It helps if you roll crits and they don’t, though! ;)

I’m starting over with a ranger focusing on dual wield rather than bows. So far so fun. But can someone just tell me where the crypt raider armor is? I looked everywhere my first time thru and never found it. And all the hints I find online are pretty vague.

And it’s still broken, at least for me. Had a charge with a very clear line to the target hiccup and my cavalier basically loses the turn.

I believe its in the Shield Maze, in the basement, after you cleared out the Hand of Banana and those Crazed Mongols.
There is a small side room next to the crazed mongols that has it. I think.

Happened to me as well. It seems like it works a little more often but it bugs out enough I don’t know if it’s worth losing a round right now.

I found it thanks. I know I searched this room a few times with my first character and it wasn’t there or I took it and didn’t realize what it was and dropped it later due to weight considerations. But this time I found it once I got in the room. Sweet!

Mythic Vital Strike is fun.

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I don’t even have the last Feat.

Cool, they added new bugs! Now Seelah keeps getting stuck in a state where I can’t get her to attack anything. It’s not a spell, there’s no negative effect on her, it’ll just happen randomly in battles ever since the patch. She can walk, cast spells, whatever she wants. Except attack. If I try to Charge it lets me, but then the game stutters like crazy for a second and then it just fails silently.

EDIT: Phew, thought my save was hosed but found turning back to Real Time mode, letting her attack once, and then switching back to turn-based fixed it. For now.

Question: Is there a way to speak to companions in the field? I thought I’d read something upthread but search is letting me down.

@KevinC I’ve had characters get locked in TB mode since Kingmaker. A quick flip to RT usually fixes it; I just double-tap the key. Suboptimal but usually beats loading a save.