1748

Can’t pick something large like a smiledon? I really wasn’t planning on riding it, don’t want to waste feats on mounted combat stuff, but I did want the smiledon just for an extra party member.

1749

You do get a Smilodon. But, its medium until you PC reaches Level 7 in terms of Druid Levels.

The Bloodrider is considered, for animal companions, to have a Druid Level equal to Animal Companion - 4. The Boon Companion Feat (which you can grab at Level 5) gives you +4 levels, up to your Character level.

For some context - the Animal Domain from a cleric makes you a druid -3 levels. The Ranger is Druid -3 Levels, the Paladin/Sohei/Cavelier/Hunter is equal to your Druid Level, in terms of animal Companion.

In any case, the Bloodrider starts with the Smiledon no matter what, but the Smiledon is considered Medium.

That being said, the Bloodrider does give a few perks that make its animal companion a bit better.
First, if you mount the thing, it goes faster. And if you rage, it gets a +1 morale boost to attack and damage (as long as you are mounted).
Its supposed to give you other benefits at level 9, but I don’t know if those are in the game.

Right now, I’m only level 6 with my Halfling Bloodrider. I decided that I didn’t want to wait, and since the Bloodrage just gives +2 Morale Bonus to attack and Damage, I just went with my midget rager. Personally, I’m looking forward to Level 7, when the Smilodon gets Pounce. I have no clue how that will impact my midget rager.

Oh, for bonus points, Halflings gets bonuses to mobility checks, so, I will take Mounted Combat… eventually.
Two-Weapon Fighting is a real Feat Sink. As is Boon Companions. But you do get a bonus feat at 6th level, and 12th and 18th… I think.

1750

Got it, thanks for the info. I had no idea my pet would be -4 levels, so that Boon feat is definitely going to be used.

1751

Glaive-cleaving the inn attack is as hilarious and awesome as you want it to be. Reaching 4 should be easy; 5 isn’t all that hard. One thing that helps a TON is to go do Woljif’s thing right away, because ol’ Finnean makes a yuge difference early on, especially against those three encounters with incorporeal jerks in the market.

Speaking of jerks: the Light of Heaven or whatever ability will reveal invisibles and trigger combat. Helpful!

1752

In three serious starts now I’ve been level 4 at the inn defense twice and level 5 when I was alert to the share experience trick prior to and in the shield maze. I’m sure you can get to 5 without that trick. Similar to your idea of cleaving I loved my Rowdy 1/Primalist Bloodrager 4 (with a glaive) during the inn defense. No AoO but move+kill and repeat.

Very slight spoiler request - I’ve hired Greybor to do a dragon hunt before noticing that it is a long ways off through some areas that will need demon armies cleared. How long can I stall him before I actively do anything about that quest?

1753

My guess is with Greybor you can wait until the end of the act.

Minor Defender’s Heart Inn battle spoiler

Mechanically you have 72 hours before the event is triggered. If you clear the tower you get another 72 hours so you may want to rush that and avoid sleeping. If you do that you can easily get to lvl 5 and you can skip it all together if you wish.

1754

I tried to clear the tower, but Greymor told me to wait… So I did. I think I was able to complete every other quest before that time and make it to level 5, but I rested infrequently at best.

1755

Phew. Second playthrough done.

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There were a couple of fights I needed to get myself some gourmet cheese to win. I went Trixter as an Eldritch Font (Arcanist) and it didn’t sync well… but it was fine. I chose Eldritch Font because the guy on neoseeker rated it “A+,” because of its level 20 ability. Now, that ability did save my ass during the Threshold outdoor area, because Owlcat won’t let you rest and it’s hard as hell. But for the other 150 hours it sucked. I’m also pretty sure I had even less spell slots than Eldritch Font is supposed to have, which are already low. I didn’t get a second first level spell slot until level 3 or 4. At level 20 I only have 2 slots for levels 6/7/8/9.

There were a fair amount of narrative differences during this playthrough versus my first one which was Angel / Gold Dragon. But I was a little disappointed that the Hand of the Inheritor is still your sidekick throughout Act 4. I guess replacing him was too much of a stretch.

The Enigma remains a terrible dungeon, worse than HatEoT. While suffering through it I was dead set on skipping it on all future playthroughs and just use mercenary in place of Nenio. But sadly I missed the achieve, so I guess I’ll be back… Ugh.

In the end I got a better ending, saved more people, and probably saw more cards. Maybe almost as many as v1.0 of Kingmaker.

Ultimately my opinion of the game has improved and I think it’s taken Kingmaker’s crown as the best RPG. Looking forward to future patches and DLC.

Next I’m gonna play a Slayer, I think, because OP. Go Demon and try to romance Noticula. Definitely enabling this option in ToyBox, though -

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1756

I got really bogged down in Drezen. My healer died and I had no way to revive them, and while there was a vendor, he didn’t sell any scrolls. I ended up resorting to ToyBox to resurrect them, and cheat my way through the later battles.

1757

Just finished the inn attack with my Bloodrager. That final scene when the camera pans around a bit after you win showed this massive pile of bodies at his feet (I parked him in front of Irerath and her ranks of soldiers). He hit 5th level, I took Boon Companion as advised and made Mr Bigglesworth an aggressor build.

1758

I tried this but was unsuccessful. Clearing the tower had no effect. I avoided sleeping as much as possible but just moving around the damn city takes forever, even with Light encumbrance.

1759

So, at level 7, when your cat becomes big enough to mount, do you just straight up admit to being He-Man?

Also, Mr. Bigglesworth is an excellent. I just went with Hobbes (but failed to name my own Character Calvin, much to my regret.)

1760

What kind of cat was it? The leopard or the smildion? What do you think make the best combat pets?

1761

Everyone insists it’s dog and wolf because Trip is so OP. There’s a lot of debate about what’s best after dog and wolf. And most people agree that dinosaurs are the worst.

1762

Trip is hugely OP, but it’s worth noting that murderkitties get trip too. They’re just not quite as good at it as dogs or wolves (they’re smaller and have less strength).

1763

The Bloodrider only gets the Smilodon, so that’s the cat he has.

It does get pounce at level 7 though. I have no clue how that impacts mounted combat, but I want to find out.

1764

Hmmm strange… I just did this again on day 19 on the in game calendar. I rested 2x for 9 hours each and when I finally teleported to the inn from the library I took a 21 hour rest (for whatever reason that is what was the minimum) and was able to bypass the siege. I know failed athletic checks also move the clock forward somewhat.

1765

Pounce is an upgrade of charge where IIRC you get to do your full attack at the end without the -2 to AC penalty that a charge normally has.

1766

Also the rider, iirc, gets pounce as well if they’re mounted.

1767

With Fury Fall they are about equal. I know you can use gigantic proportions but unless you get Nenio to pump out scrolls for those they don’t have many dino bones in the game to actually cast that spell all that often. Large size creatures would benefit from this more than medium but medium gets bonus dex that helps mitigate incoming damage as well as trip. I don’t think the dog is cut and dried best until very late game. In the early game the leopard hits harder, with more attacks, with a better AC than the dog so its a trade off.