Pathfinder Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition - now with turn-based combat

[Litmanen]

I prefer the Elk. Get it in position and open with a charge and you basically chunk a bad guy straight off the bat.

They really do a good job making each pet (a little too) good in its own distinctive way. Even Centipede is mind-immune.

Leopard should have the highest survivability. Make sure to let it drink Mage Armor potions Litmanen and give it 3 Mobility to get an extra 3 AC from fighting defensively and it should be your best tank.

Shield of Faith and Barkskin will also be regulars for it once you can cast and keep them up.

I'm playing on hard (and I haven't gone so far, as I said, I'm still in the Outpost) and have choosen the jaguar. It's nice, very prone to death but effective when alive. Then we'll see

Just like Yosharion says, it's precisely because harder difficulties are so lethal that more targets who even deal damage and control the battlefield are so good. In essence:



As Desi says, Leopard is the best for survival (can get ridic AC), while Smilo can deal fucktons of damage

Thank you both for not underlining I've called it "jaguar".

I don't know when and were I can give it 3 mobility, but for sure I'll cast Shield of Faith on him everytime

 

[Cael]

The little guy has a problem as he is Dex based but will be forced to go to Str based later. I don't recall him getting the huge size bonuses the big boys gets. That said, he does get to zip around a dungeon far easier.

 

[Yosharian]

Yeah Leopard AC is fucking nuts for the hardest part of the game (early).

Well, hardest unless you use my mods!

 

[Litmanen]

Yeah Leopard AC is fucking nuts for the hardest part of the game (early).

Well, hardest unless you use my mods!

You mean the builds?

 

[Beans00]

That's because you sucked at it so badly your ranks were too low to unlock shit.

Git gud and you won't be bored but the opposite.

I'll be honest I beat that game and I legitimately have no idea what you're talking about with 'ranks'?

What ranks were too low and what did I miss out unlocking?

 

[Max Damage]

Nothing of importance besides artisans, but I don't remember those requiring high ranks either. The whole system is much more meaningful and intuitive in WotR.

 

[Grunker]

That's because you sucked at it so badly your ranks were too low to unlock shit.

Git gud and you won't be bored but the opposite.

I'll be honest I beat that game and I legitimately have no idea what you're talking about with 'ranks'?

What ranks were too low and what did I miss out unlocking?

Desi is intensely focused on defending even the worst parts of Owlcat's design unless he has a personal vendetta for it. That includes the idiotic minigames (which I beat blindfolded on the hardest difficulties and still hated)

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Kingdom Management was fine, it just needed to be more transparent with its mechanics. There are tons of gates and restrictions invisible to the player for improving ranks and expanding your territory. If the game wasn't time sensitive, that would have been tolerable, if still annoying. Players could have at least stumbled through it. My first run I just did OK on the kingdom management end. It wasn't hurting me, but the benefit was questionable. Once I understood what the gates were on my 2nd playthrough, my kingdom became an asset before I was even done with Troll Trouble.

Owlcat did a much better job of handling the mini-game in WotR, I just didn't care for it. It still took less of my time than kingdom management though. KM felt like mini-game first, adventuring second. At least up until Varnhold.

 

[Yosharian]

Yeah Leopard AC is fucking nuts for the hardest part of the game (early).

Well, hardest unless you use my mods!

You mean the builds?

No I mean the mod list I suggest using

 

[Litmanen]

Yeah Leopard AC is fucking nuts for the hardest part of the game (early).

Well, hardest unless you use my mods!

You mean the builds?

No I mean the mod list I suggest using

Never seen that list, sorry! Can you link it?

 

[Stoned Ape]

Never seen that list, sorry! Can you link it?

He has a Kingmaker link to his builds in his sig. In amongst them there is a list of the mods he recommends, it's listed on the right side of the page in the menu. (It's under EXTRA: Recommended Mods)

 

[Yosharian]

This is the setup I'm using currently

Recommended Difficulty Settings:

• Install my recommended mod list
• Choose 'Challenging' as the base difficulty
• Set Enemy Difficulty to 'Insane'
• Set Enemy Stat Adjustments to 'Much Tougher Enemies'
• Set Enable character retrain to Checked
• Ensure Kingdom Management is set to 'Automatic'

Recommended Mod Settings:

• Scale XP With Level
  • I have personally tested the following values on the 'Exponential' setting, and they result in your party reaching level 20 at the end of Act 6, if you do all available content:
  • Base XP Multiplier: 1; Divider: 15; Exponent: 2.5.
• Toy Box
  • Go to 'Enemy Statistics' and set the HP multiplier setting to a value between '2' and '3'.
  • This value only changes the base HP of enemies so it's not exactly a 2-3x multiplier. A value of 3 works out to about double vanilla HP values, and is strongly recommended especially after Chapter 3.

I haven't completed the game with these settings yet, it's my hope that the game will continue to be challenging all the way through, though.

(NEW) PathfinderAutoBuff*:
https://www.nexusmods.com/pathfinderkingmaker/mods/231
A fantastic buffing mod that is easy to use and quite smart. Its one failure is that it cannot understand metamagic spells properly, so you cannot use Extended spells with it. That aside, it's a phenomenal mod and I highly recommend trying it out.

Arcane Unleashed*: Go to the Steam store and find the DLC for Kingmaker on its store page
Not a mod, but a free DLC that you can install from the Steam store. I just put it here because people might not know about it and it adds some extremely powerful spells.

No History*:
https://www.nexusmods.com/pathfinderkingmaker/mods/190
A great new mod by Hambeard that helps reduce save file bloat.

Save Perfecto (Varnhold's Lot)*: https://www.nexusmods.com/pathfinderkingmaker/mods/154
Not a mod, exactly. Place the savegame file in your Kingmaker save game folder (located within Users/<username>/AppData/LocalLow/Owlcat Games). It will not appear in your savegame list in-game, but when the time comes to select your Varnhold Lot savegame for import, you'll be able to choose it. This is perfect for people who have lost their DLC save, or just want the DLC items.

Craft Magic Items**:
https://www.nexusmods.com/pathfinderkingmaker/mods/54
This gem of a mod has been updated by another user and can now be used safely since it's being actively bugfixed. It allows you to craft new magic items and also upgrade old ones, so for example if you find a +3 weapon you like, you can upgrade it to +5. Ultimately this mod is too powerful and destroys the game's balance, if you use all of its features - the main issue is that Kingmaker throws far too much gold at you, so enchanting your own items with insanely powerful effects is just too easy. I still use this mod to enchant weapons up to +5, though, since the game is missing the Magic Weapon spell.

Loot Checklist*:
https://www.nexusmods.com/pathfinderkingmaker/mods/170
A mod that lets you view the loot that is in the Area you are currently in, including enemy/ally inventories. It is a simple list of what you are missing at that moment, it doesn't however tell you where the items are. This mod is a godsend, frankly.

Scale XP**:
https://www.nexusmods.com/pathfinderkingmaker/mods/24
Allows you to set an exponential XP scale that means you can reach level 20 by the end of the game. Check the discussion tab for some good advice. I have personally tested the following values on the 'Exponential' setting, and they result in your party reaching level 20 at the end of Act 6, if you do all available content: Base XP Multiplier: 1; Divider: 15; Exponent: 2.5.

Hambeard's Better Vendors*:
https://www.nexusmods.com/pathfinderkingmaker/mods/173
Includes a variety of features, not least of which is the Vendor Injector: this remarkable mod allows you to instantly (as in instantly, on the fly, without even restarting the game) add any item to a Capital Square vendor, so that you can purchase it. It's a very lightweight and should be safe to use, as well as safe to uninstall after use. It's technically a cheat, but it's a palatable one for items which are proving hard to obtain, or have been missed. It's a nice way to solve Artisan RNG, for example - if you know you've unlocked a certain tier but the game keeps diddling you on RNG, you can just sell the item you actually received and buy the one you wanted. There are also items which exist in the game's files but not in the campaign, such as Twin Serpents. Another thing would be the Changestaff spell which requires a non-magical quarterstaff as a resource, which, oddly enough, is quite a rare item, but not with this mod. Many thanks to Hambeard for creating this mod at my request.

Bag of Tricks***:
https://www.nexusmods.com/pathfinderkingmaker/mods/26
I previously recommended Cheat Menu, however Bag of Tricks is constantly being updated and is by far the better choice now. It allows you to modify an astounding number of things, such as experience, gold, and so on. This mod is basically part of the base game, for me.

Cleaner***:
https://www.nexusmods.com/pathfinderkingmaker/mods/39
This mod does a few different things, but the principal thing I like is that it adds a 'clean' button to the loot window when you leave a zone. It removes all loot and NPC corpses from the zone, which reduces the size of your saves. I think this will help prevent the issue where loading times for saves begin to get longer and longer. Be careful when using this mod, so as not to 'clean' important items you haven't picked up yet, you can screw up your game! Notably, the screen pops up when you leave your throne room if you have things stored in your stash, so be careful that you don't clean your stash by accident.

Difficulty Modifiers Scale With Level**: https://www.nexusmods.com/pathfinderkingmaker/mods/193
Changes the way that difficulty works so that the modifiers applied to enemies depend on your level. This makes the game a lot more managable on unfair in the early game and makes the game more difficult at the end. This is a must-have for my builds as otherwise the lategame will become trivial, even with Insane monster stats.

Respecialization***:
https://www.nexusmods.com/pathfinderkingmaker/mods/7
I now use this mod with all my builds (well, except for the Baron). There are some known bugs when you use this mod with certain characters, such as Regongar (portrait sometimes breaks - I can't confirm this because I use a custom portrait for him) and Ekun (can break his companion quest - just revert him back to vanilla for the quest (the party thing) and you'll be fine). Back up your saves before respeccing, and check the mod's description page for more details. Overall this mod is a must-have since it allows you complete build flexibility while using companions.

NOTE: I have noticed a bug with the Respec mod that can be easily fixed. When you respec a character that has levels in Sword Saint, the Chosen Weapon feature can fail to be removed properly. This causes problems if you respec into SS again and choose a different chosen weapon. You can fix this by respeccing to level 1 (not SS) and then using Bag of Tricks to remove the Weapon Focus feat - this should resolve the issue and you can then continue levelling as normal.

 

[Desiderius]

Yeah Leopard AC is fucking nuts for the hardest part of the game (early).

Well, hardest unless you use my mods!

You mean the builds?

No I mean the mod list I suggest using

Never seen that list, sorry! Can you link it?

I wouldn’t use mods (other than a buff manager) until you get a good feel for the base game.

 

[Desiderius]

That's because you sucked at it so badly your ranks were too low to unlock shit.

Git gud and you won't be bored but the opposite.

I'll be honest I beat that game and I legitimately have no idea what you're talking about with 'ranks'?

What ranks were too low and what did I miss out unlocking?

Community, Loyalty, Military, Arcane, etc…

The only timed element is the Curse that marks chapters passing. It’s a little tricky to learn how to avoid screwing yourself with that, but the rest of the challenge is getting the ranks up to unlock shit to do, the best items, etc and there’s a LOT more play there than there initially appears to be.

If you suck at it, as is natural when you’re new, the game will appear to suck because you haven’t unlocked most of it yet. There’s so much slack built into it due to the natural vicious cycle that causes (game sucking removes incentive to suck less yourself -> player sucks -> dev makes game easier so player can still complete game) that you can “win” the game without ever getting the feel of playing it well, at least when it comes to the Kingmaking part.

 

[Average Manatee]

Its pretty hard to significantly mess up kingdom management unless you are literally passing days doing nothing. Even taking very inefficient paths through chapters and resting multiple times will generally only cost 1 week, maaaaaybe 1.5 weeks of game time more than an efficient path with limited resting. So that's like 8-12 weeks of time you'd save over the course of the whole game. Which is a good amount, but when I played fairly efficiently I had to pass time at the end of the game with nothing to do. Maybe not that much but it's hard to not end with most stats fairly high.

 

[Desiderius]

Its pretty hard to significantly mess up kingdom management unless you are literally passing days doing nothing. Even taking very inefficient paths through chapters and resting multiple times will generally only cost 1 week, maaaaaybe 1.5 weeks of game time more than an efficient path with limited resting. So that's like 8-12 weeks of time you'd save over the course of the whole game. Which is a good amount, but when I played fairly efficiently I had to pass time at the end of the game with nothing to do. Maybe not that much but it's hard to not end with most stats fairly high.

Totally. I had to skip 237 days.

The point is that if you take the loan, rush Community, etc you can get *way* ahead of the curve in a way that changes the game you're playing in combat significantly by the end of Ch2. It also gives you a ton of shit to do and not enough time to do it in making the game much more interesting.

 

[Desiderius]

I don't know when and were I can give it 3 mobility, but for sure I'll cast Shield of Faith on him everytime

Mobility is one of the skills. When you level up you choose where skill pts go. Leopard will naturally have high Mobility so you may want to put pts in it every level up to pass Mobility checks for your team. If you don't you can put three in to get the extra AC and leave it there. Stealth is another skill that's very good for Leopard.

Leopard will always have higher DEX than STR even after it grows from small to medium. It does pick up DEX to damage so that's not a big issue.

Smilo is the one where those invert when it grows from Medium to Large and benefits a lot from buffing its damage since it gets a ton of attacks.

Shield of Faith is shorter duration than Barkskin, which is shorter than Mage Armor. Early in the game easier to keep up the latter two.

 

[Daidre]

Leopard will naturally have high Mobility so you may want to put pts in it every level up to pass Mobility checks for your team.

Pets level up on auto in unmodded Kingmaker, Desi You can't choose where their skill points will go.

 

[Haplo]

Its pretty hard to significantly mess up kingdom management unless you are literally passing days doing nothing. Even taking very inefficient paths through chapters and resting multiple times will generally only cost 1 week, maaaaaybe 1.5 weeks of game time more than an efficient path with limited resting. So that's like 8-12 weeks of time you'd save over the course of the whole game. Which is a good amount, but when I played fairly efficiently I had to pass time at the end of the game with nothing to do. Maybe not that much but it's hard to not end with most stats fairly high.

I guess.
Except some events can scew you pretty badly if unattended (Curse, obviously, though you do know its timing - but also some others, like Grey Rebellion, maybe the Pitaxian propaganda if you waste too much time). So it sucks if they trigger while you're busy on the other end of the map (happened to me with the Grey Rebellion, while I was busy entering Vordakai's Tomb).

Also you may have enough time to max most stats anyway, however getting there sooner and pampering the right artisans gives you some great equipment early, that can really make a difference, for example in Act 2 (otherwise you'd have to wait till Act 4 for comparable stuff).
And then, past coronation, its a race to create as many Masterworks, as possible. Since there is a % risk of failure, you want to have multiple attempts before the final end game begins.

 

[Yosharian]

Its pretty hard to significantly mess up kingdom management unless you are literally passing days doing nothing. Even taking very inefficient paths through chapters and resting multiple times will generally only cost 1 week, maaaaaybe 1.5 weeks of game time more than an efficient path with limited resting. So that's like 8-12 weeks of time you'd save over the course of the whole game. Which is a good amount, but when I played fairly efficiently I had to pass time at the end of the game with nothing to do. Maybe not that much but it's hard to not end with most stats fairly high.

I guess.
Except some events can scew you pretty badly if unattended (Curse, obviously, though you do know its timing - but also some others, like Grey Rebellion, maybe the Pitaxian propaganda if you waste too much time). So it sucks if they trigger while you're busy on the other end of the map (happened to me with the Grey Rebellion, while I was busy entering Vordakai's Tomb).

Also you may have enough time to max most stats anyway, however getting there sooner and pampering the right artisans gives you some great equipment early, that can really make a difference, for example in Act 2 (otherwise you'd have to wait till Act 4 for comparable stuff).
And then, past coronation, its a race to create as many Masterworks, as possible. Since there is a % risk of failure, you want to have multiple attempts before the final end game begins.

It's not that it's hard per se, although it can be at times, it's that it has no redeeming qualities whatsoever

 

[kangaxx]

I came to appreciate the kingdom management a lot more after playing WOTR. Not sure what Owlcat were smoking when they implemented the crusade management there.

 

[Grunker]

You didn't appreciate kingdom management more, you simply found out it could get even worse

 

[Haplo]

Yeah, if you copy HoMM combat, at least try to make it somewhat good.

 

[Cael]

Its pretty hard to significantly mess up kingdom management unless you are literally passing days doing nothing. Even taking very inefficient paths through chapters and resting multiple times will generally only cost 1 week, maaaaaybe 1.5 weeks of game time more than an efficient path with limited resting. So that's like 8-12 weeks of time you'd save over the course of the whole game. Which is a good amount, but when I played fairly efficiently I had to pass time at the end of the game with nothing to do. Maybe not that much but it's hard to not end with most stats fairly high.

I guess.
Except some events can scew you pretty badly if unattended (Curse, obviously, though you do know its timing - but also some others, like Grey Rebellion, maybe the Pitaxian propaganda if you waste too much time). So it sucks if they trigger while you're busy on the other end of the map (happened to me with the Grey Rebellion, while I was busy entering Vordakai's Tomb).

Also you may have enough time to max most stats anyway, however getting there sooner and pampering the right artisans gives you some great equipment early, that can really make a difference, for example in Act 2 (otherwise you'd have to wait till Act 4 for comparable stuff).
And then, past coronation, its a race to create as many Masterworks, as possible. Since there is a % risk of failure, you want to have multiple attempts before the final end game begins.

The worst one is the stealth "lose 500BP" event that you can't do anything about, and f you don't have 500BP lying around, the kingdom's happiness just emulated a russian Black Sea ship and just as permanently.

 

[Litmanen]

Yeah Leopard AC is fucking nuts for the hardest part of the game (early).

Well, hardest unless you use my mods!

You mean the builds?

No I mean the mod list I suggest using

Never seen that list, sorry! Can you link it?

I wouldn’t use mods (other than a buff manager) until you get a good feel for the base game.

I wasn't gonna use it. I wanted to be kind and look interested!

I love to lose because I'm bad at games.