Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous

Isometric rpgs almost always seem to need guides! It's a bit stressful, but I'll keep that in mind.

I still haven't tried the first game, but I don't think I  will since even though the gay/bi option is interesting I don't like that his ex has to die in order to date him. Meh. If I saw it on a really good sale maybe...

I bought this on sale and saved it until now, I finally finished a giant work project that ate my life, but I am trying to play on “hard” difficulty as it’s basically what I am used to in TT pathfinder but hooooo boy it’s much harder cause you can’t pick your own gear, you can’t start with x gold worth of stuff you buy at character creation, and the first merchant I ran into sells trash. So my level 2 angelfire apostle (god that cleric variant has zero good things and only negatives until like level 5, even if they improved it from TT) and crew are getting wrecked in the maze lol. I’ve spent hours trying to restart, save potions/ spells but nope. I think you’d have to an over the top optimized build to have a chance or skip content I guess.

but I am enjoying myself, even if I really wish these games would let you pick gear at CC and I can’t figure out if I can take a 5 foot step to avoid AOOs while casting. 

I started with the setting below core, but I thought it was weirdly easy, so I read the difficulties and core basically is true to TT rules I was used to but it still felt kinda easier than what pathfinder is like at the table and it looked like they lowered the Challenge Rating of certain enemies by removing their abilities like poisons and diseases. So I went one step up but they increased a lot of other difficulties but I think with the custom difficulty I could tweak it to be what I am used to.

But it does look like they removed the “guarded step” move action or at least it’s a keyboard press I don’t know. In TT you can use that action, move five feet, not trigger an AOO, and safely cast or range fire with out AOO unless the enemy has reach. The negative is no full round action, and no move action after. But the interface does have the five foot icon segment of your move your speed action but I can’t figure out if that actually means you can guarded step. And I’ve noticed even if you cast a standard action spell you aren’t always given a five foot step, but sometimes you are. So something is different. 

also I don’t see a “full withdrawal” action, which uses all your actions to move far away with out AOO. Which is standard in TT but maybe it has something to do with AI cheesing that these were removed but it’s making ranged/casters waaaaay tougher than they should be. 

I guess you can guarded step by shift clicking, managed to use that, turning off the setting that increased enemy AC but kept the enemies having unique abilities setting, and I cheated and “bought” my character a wand of magic missile. Made more progress.

I also just read that right clicking is full withdrawal but I have not tried that and won’t for a while. I have a work trip this weekend. Ugh.

You have no choice but to be the most special of special in WotR but you can give the Mythic path up later and go Legend. (Though whilst it's not Mythic you do get to keep levelling past the default that normal Mythic paths get so you do become stronger either way.) But your character is pretty special in the game regardless even as a Legend. Though Legend is fun for annoying a certain npc on your path to become 'Legend.' It's also a really good roleplaying path for 'redeeming' yourself from more evil Mythic paths.

I've finished the game as an Angel, and Demon-Legend, I did get like 95% of the way with a Trickster which was also super fun. I do plan to try Azata when I play next to test out a romance mod but I've not gotten around to it yet.

That universe sounds like a dumpster fire. yikes. Is the game that bleak? 

I love Pathfinders universe tbh. It’s not bleak in that even when this universe ends it technically doesn’t. There is a multiverse aspect. And Starfinder is the same universe, the universe still exists thousands of years later. It’s just the explanation for why Pharasma is a neutral goddess who does some troubling things. She is playing a game of chess against the demons that keep popping up whenever her predecessors desperately hit the reset. Her goal is the preservation of life, this universe is like a seed vault grown from the death of her entire world. She cherishes it. It’s a sci-fi and fantasy setting so Pharasma is kinda like if ME:A’s pathfinders were run by a goddess and they recolonized the Milky Way after the reapers won. And just cause the god Grotius believes Pharasma will fail, cause he’s seen it happen endless times, does not mean this Pharasma will fail. There’s actually evidence this Pharasma is kicking ass. 

but like even in the micro level the world is more textured than say DnD. Elves in pathfinder are aliens who travel the universe by star gate. Where as in DnD they are maybe sorta fae spirits trapped in the prime material realm and their ancient history doesn’t actually fit in with the established time line. Like in DnD there’s this whole plot of ancient elven empires almost destroying the world but it literally does not fit into the timeline offered by wizards of the coast. Where as pathfinder clearly explains why elves are advanced, why they act the way they do, and even the Drow make tons of sense (they missed the evacuation off world and went underground where a demon lord corrupted them). In DnD Drow are just “born bad” cause the evil elf lady goddess wanted to be queen. 

and there’s cool stuff like golarion, the planet it is set on, was hit by a meteor which was foresaw by the dwarves god (and the Orc gods) and that is why they lived underground and the burst to then surface afterwards. So all the societies are post apocalyptic societies. There’s also weird stuff with ancient human empires, the Azlanti, which is what society Aroden was (he’s the last Azlanti) and like… weird reality warping prophecies. 

there’s also literally Earth in the setting. It’s in its own pocket dimension safe from everything. But you can visit it and you can roleplay mortals from earth. Also ancient aliens brought humans to Golarion. So both elves and humans are aliens. Dwarves and orcs are native to Golarion. 

abd the Starfinder premise is that Golarion and Earth are missing after time lept forward and no one has any memory of what happened to Golarion. They know it’s still around they just have no idea where in the vastness of space it moved to. 

it’s a charming setting but on a metaphysical level, divinity is a burden. You don’t want to be a pathfinder god. And I love that it keeps power level in perspective. If you fight a god, it’s gonna be really, really hard. Pharasma herself has fought other gods and lost body parts doing so. There are consequences. In pathfinder all gods have stats and mechanics. In DnD god fights are avoided and vague. 

and Desna is awesome. On the surface she’s just the cutesy goddess of luck and travel! But she also might be an eldritch goddess outside time and space! And I like the eldritch stuff. Literally things like Cthulhu exist in pathfinder. There’s the demons vs devils eternal war, theres the Pharasma vs rovagugg and the end times, and then there’s this mysterious intervention of the dark tapestry which is theorized to be past Pharasmas warped by ending realities influencing (and saving, this universe is stable cause Pharasma and an outer gods teamed up) the shaping of reality. 

also there’s literal lgbtq representation in the adventure paths both characters, cultures, gods, and all races/species have diverse sexualities. Plus when you travel faster than light in a spaceship it’s in a beautiful rainbow. Plus there are sentient bears in space! And goblins in space that scrap derelict starships!

like my TT character is basically a Celtic druid touched by cosmic forces. My form periodically warps into animals like from the book/movie annihilation, I channel cold cosmic night powers, and I glimpsed the end of the universe and can bring forth that power in terrifying blackfire to stop my enemies who are unwittingly threatening existence itself in their anti devil zeal. I think that’s much cooler than my vanilla DnD story characters.  And my character isn’t a druid, they are a cleric, but my feats I chose, my background, my class kit, and my race (secret aasimar, my party doesn’t know yet lol it’s been a year), all tweak my character enough I can sort of shapeshift and summon eldritch monsters in a burst of reality warping energy and literally channel the void of space. DnD isn’t that cool. 

I don’t think so?

Me and my friends are deep in the lore cause we’re running a local pathfinder play night at our local lgbtq bar. Mostly no one cares about the lore but we use the official APs so some people wanna know this shit, especially when I DM. Someone always asks something I don’t know. 

I've played Bloodrager twice and it was a lot of fun both times. I guess it depends on how you wish to play them but they always hit like trucks for me. I had one that went Angel Mythic, and another that went Demon-Legend.