People ignore the fact that pen and paper games are balanced around the fact that characters can permanently die. This is why the encounters need to be made easier compared to a computer game where 99% of players will just reload if their character dies. Good video.
I forgot to mention that in my video. I was going to point out that the fact that you can save and reload allows the games to be harder. Having said that most games have an "Iron" mode or similar where you only have 1 life. The Deaths Door option is what it is called in Pathfinder: Kingmaker, which I also did not really mention
Actually i got that wrong .The Last Azlanti Mode is what gives you a single save and even though it does not say it I assume that means if you die it is end of game
Part of the difficulty is that the game doesn't teach players through playable tutorial. There are just some massive text on encyclopedia mentioning things, but as the player doesn't see these things on gameplay, most of them doesn't get used to read it. Why would the player bother about paralysis if they never had a problem witht it? Spell resistance, mind control, confusion, paralysis, fear, and other conditions doesn't affect the player often in the game, but when it does, it's against Spawn of Rovagug, or the fey army near the end game, and so on. So the player doesn't expect to be crushed based on character's will saving throw, or based on one of many status effect that the game never even hinted that could become a barrier in some dungeons.
In my opinion, there is a design flaw in making various optional rules. I prefer games that have clear and *balanced* rule-set and then the difficulty is modified by the number of enemies, better AI, etc. Here, harder difficulties change the core rule-sets, giving the enemy sometimes +4 to hit, +4 AC, etc. It makes balancing your game and comparing difficulties almost impossible. I would have preferred they wisely choose the proper core rule-set and just modify encounters based on difficulty. Example: critical hits in PF are no joke (though they require two rolls), they can do huge damage as they multiple the whole damage (unlike D&D 5th which just multiplies the base dice). Kingmaker could have set critical damage to something more balanced rather than have so many options that do not allow the designers to really control the game balance (at best/worst, an option to activate the core PF Criitical Hit rule). But all these options with enemies having +4 to hit, +4 AC and so one, just becomes too chaotic and players then have extremely different experiences and feedback becomes just as chaotic.
Would you consider making wizard guide soon? I'm planning to start this game when i finish previous one and i'm really curious about spell and talent choices.
Hey I really wanted to build a Thassa Wizard focusing on either Necromancer or Evocation but the one I made seems REALLY bad in comparison to the melee character I made (Your Aldori Fighter) Any advice?
Firstly any pure spell caster will seem like a support class at lower levels. You just have to accept that they will have few spells that can do much real damage and they have very few HP. Secondly spell selection is crucial. Out of your choices of Necromancy or Evocation I would say always choose Evocation because Evocers have most of the big damage spells. Generally though you want to choose spells that are going to do damage at a distance. Pay attention the description of the spells too and pick ones that increase in damage as you progress in levels. There are some spells that just always do the same damage no matter the caster level and these are not as good as ones that do more damage as you level. Also check for what the max damage is on the spells, some will do 1d6 per level up to 5d6 while others may go up to 10d6 for example. Thirdly treat every since encounter as if it will be your last no matter what difficulty level you are playing on. It is all too easy to harbour your spells as a caster because you are always thinking that there might be a bigger enemy ahead that you will need the spell for. While sometimes that is true, a large number of locations in the game have only a single encounter. If you have used up essential spells then consider resting to regain them (but early game keep an eye on the mission timer as well) Fourthly don't forget you have cantrips, level 0 spells, that you can cast an unlimited number of times per day. They do not do much damage but they can sometimes be more effective that just standing around or shooting a crossbow. Finally just try to have fun with it. If you really want to play a spell caster do it. If you do not do as much damage as a martial character so what? Surround yourself with strong martial characters to protect you and do the hard hitting. You are there to command and lead and to use your spells effectively against the enemies that the meat shields cannot cut through (OK that is a bit much but you get the idea) Also do not be concerned if you have to drop the difficulty done a bit until you get used to playing your caster. (I think I have just written a script for a spell caster intro video :)
Well in most isometric/pen'n'paper games mages are very weak at the beginning and really strong in the late game and that is part of the charm of this classes - you feel the difference when you level up. I have a question though - in this game do yo only get spells from leveling up or can you effectively (as a wizard - i'm not talking about sorcs) learn spells from other sources (ie. scrolls,trainers)?
Any arcane caster who is not a spontaneous caster can learn new spells from found scrolls. This include Magus (excluding the Edritch Scion which is spontaneous) but I think Magus are not allowed to learn some spells.
@@rangertony Thanks Tony I appreciate it, I've leveled my mage 5 levels today and I think 7th level I finally feel like hes a star member of the team lol. I did have fun with it a bit and built a fire kin Aasimar the "only likes using fire" But now I keep blowing up my own front line xD. It's fun though thanks for the help.
I put the game on the absolute lowest difficulty settings on all sliders and when I get into a random encounter anywhere It's always CR 20+ enemies. Stop lying. By the way my party is level 5.
I would be interested to hear if you have applied any mods to the game and how far along in the story you are? I cannot see how a level 5 party is getting CR20+ enemies. I have only ever had one really bad encounter like that and it was very soon after the game was released and I was in Chapter 1 and I explored west of the old shack and found to massive giants. I have since tried going back there on other play throughs and have not see them. If you have modded the game I would recommend removing any mods to see if that helps. If you have not modded the game then either uninstall and reinstall, or also make sure it is up to the latest version Current version should be 1.1.6d as of today
Boosting stats, especially AC, saving throws, difficulty checks, and chances to hit, can lead to some impossible situations and it's a flaw in the d20 system that's been known since the game's inception. Both Dungeon and Dragons and Pathfinder rule-sets are very clear about how to handle mob difficulty and they do that for a very good reason. It's a shame the developers thought otherwise.
I have 2 playthroughs both on "Normal" difficulty. One a party of Sorcerers that died at the Stag Lords hands, the other is a party of Kineticist also on normal difficulty, just going through the Old Sycamore now. I have also gotten well into Chapter 2 as a party of Magus and that was having no troubles on Normal difficulty.
Very helpful. Thanks for doing this.
Thank you for the video. Love your content. Keep on keeping on!
People ignore the fact that pen and paper games are balanced around the fact that characters can permanently die. This is why the encounters need to be made easier compared to a computer game where 99% of players will just reload if their character dies. Good video.
I forgot to mention that in my video. I was going to point out that the fact that you can save and reload allows the games to be harder. Having said that most games have an "Iron" mode or similar where you only have 1 life. The Deaths Door option is what it is called in Pathfinder: Kingmaker, which I also did not really mention
Actually i got that wrong .The Last Azlanti Mode is what gives you a single save and even though it does not say it I assume that means if you die it is end of game
Part of the difficulty is that the game doesn't teach players through playable tutorial.
There are just some massive text on encyclopedia mentioning things, but as the player doesn't see these things on gameplay, most of them doesn't get used to read it.
Why would the player bother about paralysis if they never had a problem witht it?
Spell resistance, mind control, confusion, paralysis, fear, and other conditions doesn't affect the player often in the game, but when it does, it's against Spawn of Rovagug, or the fey army near the end game, and so on.
So the player doesn't expect to be crushed based on character's will saving throw, or based on one of many status effect that the game never even hinted that could become a barrier in some dungeons.
In my opinion, there is a design flaw in making various optional rules. I prefer games that have clear and *balanced* rule-set and then the difficulty is modified by the number of enemies, better AI, etc. Here, harder difficulties change the core rule-sets, giving the enemy sometimes +4 to hit, +4 AC, etc. It makes balancing your game and comparing difficulties almost impossible. I would have preferred they wisely choose the proper core rule-set and just modify encounters based on difficulty. Example: critical hits in PF are no joke (though they require two rolls), they can do huge damage as they multiple the whole damage (unlike D&D 5th which just multiplies the base dice). Kingmaker could have set critical damage to something more balanced rather than have so many options that do not allow the designers to really control the game balance (at best/worst, an option to activate the core PF Criitical Hit rule). But all these options with enemies having +4 to hit, +4 AC and so one, just becomes too chaotic and players then have extremely different experiences and feedback becomes just as chaotic.
Would you consider making wizard guide soon? I'm planning to start this game when i finish previous one and i'm really curious about spell and talent choices.
I will see what I can do. I am focusing on the Ranger class at the moment
I think the successor game is harder. I was fine with kingmaker but wotr is kind of tough after the first chapter.
Hey I really wanted to build a Thassa Wizard focusing on either Necromancer or Evocation but the one I made seems REALLY bad in comparison to the melee character I made (Your Aldori Fighter) Any advice?
Firstly any pure spell caster will seem like a support class at lower levels. You just have to accept that they will have few spells that can do much real damage and they have very few HP.
Secondly spell selection is crucial. Out of your choices of Necromancy or Evocation I would say always choose Evocation because Evocers have most of the big damage spells. Generally though you want to choose spells that are going to do damage at a distance. Pay attention the description of the spells too and pick ones that increase in damage as you progress in levels. There are some spells that just always do the same damage no matter the caster level and these are not as good as ones that do more damage as you level. Also check for what the max damage is on the spells, some will do 1d6 per level up to 5d6 while others may go up to 10d6 for example.
Thirdly treat every since encounter as if it will be your last no matter what difficulty level you are playing on. It is all too easy to harbour your spells as a caster because you are always thinking that there might be a bigger enemy ahead that you will need the spell for. While sometimes that is true, a large number of locations in the game have only a single encounter. If you have used up essential spells then consider resting to regain them (but early game keep an eye on the mission timer as well)
Fourthly don't forget you have cantrips, level 0 spells, that you can cast an unlimited number of times per day. They do not do much damage but they can sometimes be more effective that just standing around or shooting a crossbow.
Finally just try to have fun with it. If you really want to play a spell caster do it. If you do not do as much damage as a martial character so what? Surround yourself with strong martial characters to protect you and do the hard hitting. You are there to command and lead and to use your spells effectively against the enemies that the meat shields cannot cut through (OK that is a bit much but you get the idea)
Also do not be concerned if you have to drop the difficulty done a bit until you get used to playing your caster.
(I think I have just written a script for a spell caster intro video :)
Well in most isometric/pen'n'paper games mages are very weak at the beginning and really strong in the late game and that is part of the charm of this classes - you feel the difference when you level up. I have a question though - in this game do yo only get spells from leveling up or can you effectively (as a wizard - i'm not talking about sorcs) learn spells from other sources (ie. scrolls,trainers)?
Any arcane caster who is not a spontaneous caster can learn new spells from found scrolls. This include Magus (excluding the Edritch Scion which is spontaneous) but I think Magus are not allowed to learn some spells.
@@rangertony Thanks Tony I appreciate it, I've leveled my mage 5 levels today and I think 7th level I finally feel like hes a star member of the team lol. I did have fun with it a bit and built a fire kin Aasimar the "only likes using fire" But now I keep blowing up my own front line xD. It's fun though thanks for the help.
Glad I could help :)
I put the game on the absolute lowest difficulty settings on all sliders and when I get into a random encounter anywhere It's always CR 20+ enemies. Stop lying. By the way my party is level 5.
I would be interested to hear if you have applied any mods to the game and how far along in the story you are? I cannot see how a level 5 party is getting CR20+ enemies.
I have only ever had one really bad encounter like that and it was very soon after the game was released and I was in Chapter 1 and I explored west of the old shack and found to massive giants. I have since tried going back there on other play throughs and have not see them.
If you have modded the game I would recommend removing any mods to see if that helps.
If you have not modded the game then either uninstall and reinstall, or also make sure it is up to the latest version
Current version should be 1.1.6d as of today
Boosting stats, especially AC, saving throws, difficulty checks, and chances to hit, can lead to some impossible situations and it's a flaw in the d20 system that's been known since the game's inception. Both Dungeon and Dragons and Pathfinder rule-sets are very clear about how to handle mob difficulty and they do that for a very good reason. It's a shame the developers thought otherwise.
You clearly reload the game every time you can't avoid a random encounter if you claim the game isn't too difficult. Prove me wrong with videos.
I have 2 playthroughs both on "Normal" difficulty. One a party of Sorcerers that died at the Stag Lords hands, the other is a party of Kineticist also on normal difficulty, just going through the Old Sycamore now.
I have also gotten well into Chapter 2 as a party of Magus and that was having no troubles on Normal difficulty.