Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous General Discussion, Playthroughs and Minimal/No Reload Thread

[Antimatter]

BTW, @Antimatter, I'm curious if you cleared the 100% of Shield Maze with your current Sylvan Sorcerer and if there is enough exp out there to get level 3 without 'XP sharing OFF' before leaving into the Gray Garrison?

So, the Shield Maze with a standard setting can get you at a ~1k XP distance from lvl 3. So you fight Hosilla while still lv 2. Then you fight the Water Elemental (and most likely use the glaive you found on Hosilla) while still lvl 2. Then you go through the Gray Garrison with allies and wake up at the inn, and that's when the level-up happens.

A creature's turn consists of a move action and a standard action. During a move action, you can move your full distance (30' for most characters) or take certain other actions which are specified as using the move action in the ability description. Moving up to 5' does not consume your move action.

As a standard action, you can make a single weapon attack or cast most spells. You can also take other actions which are specified as using the standard action in the ability description. Rather than taking a standard action, you can choose to take a second move action instead.

If you do not move, you can take a full-round action. During a full-round action, you can make multiple weapon attacks if you are able to or cast a spell that requires a full-round action (such as most summoning spells).

Thanks for this, it's exactly what I didn't realize. I never paid attention to whether a spell requires a full-round action, or how movement distance affected the number of attacks you or enemies make over 1 round. With RtwP, it didn't matter much.

On a side note, an amazing detail about the Heroism buff. Another thing I was not aware of - just didn't notice the decision had any consequences. Btw, how does Bully work with the Big Bird? Is it for that mega attack that the bird unlocks on lvl 7 or something?

 

[Serg_BlackStrider]

So, the Shield Maze with a standard setting can get you at a ~1k XP distance from lvl 3. So you fight Hosilla while still lv 2. Then you fight the Water Elemental (and most likely use the glaive you found on Hosilla) while still lvl 2. Then you go through the Gray Garrison with allies and wake up at the inn, and that's when the level-up happens.

Got it, thanks! With 'XP share OFF' you can get level 4 in the inn (if cleared 100% of Shield Maze) just after talking around and join with Woljif. The whole level difference!

On a side note, an amazing detail about the Heroism buff. Another thing I was not aware of - just didn't notice the decision had any consequences. Btw, how does Bully work with the Big Bird? Is it for that mega attack that the bird unlocks on lvl 7 or something?

Actually, on RP grounds I always take other responses, which grants you completely useless buff vs neutral opponents ahead, but this time just stepped over my nature to get quite needed buff.

As for Bully - I like this archetype more than any other for trip and evasion/improved evasion. Bullwak might be more suitable for tank, especially on Unfair (DR calculates before doubling the total damage - i.e. without it 10 damage will be 20 while with DR2 it will be (10-2)*2=16), but other than that it's not very interesting for me. Bully's trip works if Big Bird uses charge ability or regular attack, like any other trip pets (dog, wolf). Her flying attack with AoE prone at level 7 works even if she is not Bully.

 

[Serg_BlackStrider]

I never paid attention to whether a spell requires a full-round action, or how movement distance affected the number of attacks you or enemies make over 1 round. With RtwP, it didn't matter much.

Well, for Sylvan Sorcerer or any other spontaneous caster like Oracle all metamagic-infused spells take full-round for cast and that's a huge difference. You can't cast it during current round if you need to move even slightly to position it carefully, so if you move, then you can cast metamagic-infused spell only in the next round and it will take the whole next round and even in RTwP it matters (6 sec delay + 6 sec for cast isn't small). You can mitigate this somewhat riding your pet (using them for movement) but it also has their downsides.

 

[Antimatter]

I think I had to take about 10-12 battles in the Gargoyle Cave, half of them were RtwP, another half TB, with maybe a couple where I mixed the modes, to be able to figure out how not to get defeated, and what eventually worked for me was full RtwP. I can say with certainty that the way AI behaves and just how the combat flow goes, TB puts you in more difficult conditions more often than not. When you see an enemy cleric preparing an AoE attack (e.g. Channel Negative Energy), you can move outside of its effect. With TB, you just suffer big damage immediately. When you see enemies casting Hold Person, you can wait exactly for that and immediately cast Remove Paralysis if the save is unsuccessful. With TB, it's defined by the turn order, and you can't influence that much. When you see an enemy targeting one of your party members for melee combat, you can run around the battlefield kiting them and not allowing them to attack. With TB, it'll be a certain attack, so pray for the defense roll. What's more, with RtwP, you can maneuver so that this enemy will be the target of multiple AoOs. You can safely cast a spell and keep running around. That's why the Haste spell is so essential. Yes, the Sosiel area was impossible for me in RtwP, but that is an exception because of the layout of the fight and how you come there with 0 buffs. I also noticed party summons' AI is better in RtwP. Or maybe in RtwP, the targeting system for both the enemies and the party summons is different. In many attempts I made, with TB, the skellies kept getting killed with AoOs because of their stupid logistics. With RtwP, it just doesn't happen.

Overall, the Gargoyle Cave on Unfair, with all those extra summons, can turn into a mess quickly, and you need a plan. Where do you put your melee combatants and when. When do you switch positions. When do you cast your summons. Those few seconds of delay can be critical in certain cases. It reminded me of the Tavern Defense battle in this regard. Because enemies' saves are quite big, I decided not to risk it with Hideous Laughter, and do buffing/support instead, with occasional Glitterdust only. Instrument of Freedom in my case - this is the source of Holy Damage. And keep Haste active, so that it also affects new & new summons my witch doctor provided. Before the combat, I buffed fully, including Bless Weapon potions for the hunter, aldori defender, bard, and vivisectionist. I noticed the Outflank feat helped a lot, so I tried to attack the same enemy with characters who have the feat on purpose. At the end, the witch doctor could also contribute with the Evil Eye - AC hex to just allow others to hit easier.

Here is how the most successful attempt went. Last Stand saved my tank. Oh, and Regill was a hero as well. Not being able to die is a very important feature

Spoiler

 

[Serg_BlackStrider]

I was there several times (on Hard) but not once on Unfair yet. My usual approach with Sylvan Sorcerer is to get Corruptor on Mythic 1 and Stinking Cloud as first level 3 spell. I also let Nenio write it in her book, purchase Scroll Scribing Kit III and write Stinking Cloud scrolls with her at every rest (even in the inn or camp). With this all those Gargoyles and later swarms in Leper Smile are far less threatening. My main problem there was to kill those Gargoyles fast enough due to lacking of martial characters but that's what Bless Weapon for.

 

[Antimatter]

Yeah, in a way, a "vanilla" party can get things easier than my current custom one. Camellia is my Stinking Cloud girl in the Trickster playthrough (with Corruptor) to target Fortitude, Ember spams Hideous Laughter with the Best Jokes feat to target Will, and both of them use Winter's Grasp when needed to target Reflex.

There is also Nenio with her save/die Illusion spells, and Seelah with all the good stuff the Paladin brings (Mark of Justice, Smite Evil, Bless Weapon). In a way, these 4 characters can easily carry even on Unfair, I can see that.

But I wanted this party to feel different, so no Corruptor for me (yet?). I picked the Best Jokes and have Greater Spell Focus in both Conjuration and Enchantment. Probably, I was more afraid of enemies low on their Will saves than enemies low on their Fortitude saves. For Fortitude, my Witch Doctor has Greater Spell Focus in Transmutation for Baleful Polymorph, but we need to get there first. Enduring for now.

Funnily enough, with my Trickster party, I had nobody with access to Haste (as I don't use Nenio), I even picked it later with Daeran as Loremaster (at lvl 15... yeah...), so I'm enjoying this difference. So far, it's probably the most useful spell there is (and it works 100% of the time).

 

[Serg_BlackStrider]

Isn't it better to have second school (Enchantment) via Mythic Expanded Arsenal and spent those two feats on something like Dispel line of feats or more Metamagic feats? Personally I tend to spend main feats for (Greater) Spell Focus on one school and get more schools via Mythic progression.

My plan for current Magic Deceiver Azata is (they aren't particularly feat starved):

Spell Focus [Enchantment] (lvl 1) > Greater Spell Focus [Enchantment] (lvl 3) > Improved Initiative (lvl 5) > Ambuscading Spell (lvl 7) > Dispel Focus (lvl 9) > Greater Dispel Focus (lvl 11) > Dispel Synergy (lvl 13) > Destructive Dispel (lvl 15) > Spell Focus [Transmutation] (lvl 17) > Greater Spell Focus [Transmutation] (lvl 19);

Level 17/19 are not set in stone (mostly for Baleful Polymorph) but there are little interesting else out there. Maybe fit (Greater) Spell Penetration somewhere in between but I don't think it's nessesary as there are lot of means to beat SR even without Spell Penetration feats.

Mythic progression: Abundant Casting > Spell Focus, Mythic [Enchantment] > Second Mystery [Wind] > Expanded Arsenal [Illusion] > Improved Abundant Casting > Improved Initiative, Mythic > Ascendant Element - Electricity > Sorcerous Reflex > Impossible Domain - Nobility Domain > Expanded Arsenal [Necromancy]

 

[Antimatter]

I'd say it's the tempo factor. With Mythic progression being slow, and so many other Mythic feats having a priority (even looking at your list, the Arsenal comes 4th, so it's chapter 3, and depending on the Mythic choice, it can take a while (for other paths than Azata) to even unlock it. I got the second school to use it right away. Also, I might be wrong there, but with DLC stuff, there is so much XP in chapter 3 that you can out-level some of the hard encounters there by doing Midnight Isles or Ulbrig content. While there is no such option in chapters 1-2.

Also, lvl 15 is the highest I got in this game, so I'm kinda blind to what comes after that.

To end the session today, I fought the dreaded Unfair undead smilodons. Summon Undead x4 and Last Stand were just about enough to kill them (before they could start targeting non-summons, non-pets, and non-tanks). The screenshot below doesn't show any seconds left for Last Stand. That's because the time was ticking, and all 12 seconds passed when the last smilodon fell.

Spoiler

Did some reading about this encounter around the net afterwards. Yes, it's unfair. No, there is no reasonable way to handle beasts with 48 (!) Str and 5 APR at this stage. So you just feed cannon fodder to them and kill them with reach weapons.

 

[Serg_BlackStrider]

Make a lot of sense! My builds are mostly a theorycrafting via Inevitable Excess DLC at the moment since I've never been past the Drezen... All of them already suffered a lot of tweaks even in that state. And I'm sure there will be a lot more! No one can gain a perfection... I'm trying to make my builds in such a way that they gain needed perks in perfect moments so for example my Magic Deceiver will get his useful Illision spells at level 10 (Phantasmal Web, lvl 4), level 13 (Phantasmal Killer, lvl 5), level 16 (Phantasmal Putrefaction, lvl 6) and Mythic 4 (at least in theory) can be gained at character level 13 so there is little point to have Expanded Arsenal [Illusion] earlier. I need to decide when should I have Ember her dip in Cross-Blooded Sorcerer so her hexes/spells could be applied to Undead or if it worth it to spend Camellia's 3d level feat to pick extra hex Chant and then on 4th level get her Fortune hex so that she is set for early game (Protective Luck, Chant, Fortune). I've already restarted the game several times only to fine tune those early levels.

Sure thing real playthrough will have its own tweaks to builds but having at least a whole picture of a build in advance doesn't hurt.

 

[Antimatter]

While I have a plan for developing this or that feat, I don't have enough patience for ALL the details, preferring to deal with stuff as it comes.

Such as Leper's Smile. The fact I had tried TB made me think about opportunities, and here is what I came up with. Descari swarms have speed of 30. If I kept my hunter under Animal Aspect - Raptor (+20 speed), she could get to 50. Which meant that if she kept herself at a 45+ distance from the swarm, she could shoot without taking any damage at all. Bookwarm's Headband (bought at the camp) provides immunity to "compulsion effects", and that includes the Confusion area of the swarm. And Swarmbane Clasp (Ulbrig comes with it) enables full damage vs the swarms. So I kept the rest of the party stealthed and far away from fights, and slowly went through enemies right to the Queen with my hunter.

Here is how the combat log usually looked:

Spoiler

I took the shortest route to the Queen that didn't have any extra opponents, only swarms. I think there were 5 of them overall, 3 encounters.

Now, the Queen. Just seeing her extremely high AC (42) and extremely high saves (21 Fortitude, and even more for Reflex and Will), I figured my only chance here came via True Strike scrolls. Fortunately, I barely made it through, considering all the skeletons died and my tank was about to end his Last Stand stance. Seems this is the theme of Chapter 2 so far: rely on summons eating damage, then 2 pets, then one full life of my tank + temporary HPs, then 2 rounds of Last Stand, and keep hitting hard all the time (for this, I have 2 Enlarged melee characters, and the hunter doing pew-pew). I used the TB for the fight because there was zero need to kite. Everyone stood still, hoping for significant damage.

Spoiler

 

[Antimatter]

I've been reading this Reddit guide for Act 2 on Unfair: I'm seeing now what you meant about domains, considering the main advice that guide has is spamming Touch of Good or Bit of Luck on the character with the most critical damage in the party.

"The Vescavor side is just too frustrating for now so skip it" it says, regarding Leper's Smile Underground. Well, it's exactly one thing I try NOT to do, skipping content is not my way of doing things, at least, as long as there is another way.

Werglia, a streamer whom I've been following since the days of Divinity: Original Sin 2 release, seemed to get everything easy there, with Vital Strike spam:



No Vital Strike spam in my team either.

So I did it the hard way. Rested after the first group of Vescavor Swarm. Then rested after the group of Vescavor Swarm and Vescavor Royal Guard. What a combo btw. What solved it, was using RtwP and kiting them with the hunter (buffed with resistance to acid and protection from acid) and shooting the Guard. Then enabling the TB mode and doing the usual stuff against Vescavor Swarm.

Spoiler

The group of 2 Derakni... Using skeletons as fodder + Last Stand + tried Grease. It sometimes worked, and those few rounds were enough for my damage dealers to kill them. Rested again.

The group of Vescavor Swarm and 1 Derakni. Same approach. I felt I finally got the hang of it in this fight, when Derakni missed all 4 of his attacks against my duelist (AC 47, baby!) Everything before in that dungeon felt exactly as that guide says: "hardest fights of the game, at some point you will probably just want to give up". I'm fond of the class btw, it is not only tanky, it also doesn't decrease to-hit chances much.

Spoiler

3 Vrocks were easy. The power increase compared to Act 1 became obvious in this fight.

Spoiler

Now, the Hunter Retriever. I recalled what you said about Flat-Footed (especially the part where it prolongs to round 2). 2 rounds were enough (considering I also used True Strike on my main melee hitter). Shooting and hitting it twice before the battle even started set the tone (especially since the construct doesn't have too many hit points).

Spoiler

 

[Serg_BlackStrider]

Well done there! I'm glad my suggestions were somewhat useful

Since, as it seems, you are not against reading some guides (watching youtube) I would recommend you to check out this full Unfair playthrough with Sadistic Game Design (severely limited number of rests). He has so many useful information and explanations of game mechanics that it's really priceless. You'll also find there his written steam guide for easy Unfair run / builds which is also very informative. I've even intend to build my Ember with his Daeran Skald build (slightly tweaked of course, including some cruicial Witch hexes) - she is so much more useful and interesting this way, just about perfect!

 

[Antimatter]

Thank you SOOOOO much for that guide. Not only it offers a cool perspective on how I can do a damage caster on Unfair (something I wanted to do actually), at one point in the future, it does explain a few things. E.g. I just learned you can right-click (in TB) and change movement type to 5 ft retreat when you're next to the opponent, to evade AoO... I had no idea, this is a game-changer. But he did use the limited XP share option and leveled up after getting Lann and Wendu.

 

[Serg_BlackStrider]

You're welcome I agree, that guide and the whole run is what I was looking for for a long time. And also worth noting that your opponents in the game can't do a 5 ft. step, so by doing so you not only evade an AoO but your opponents need to use MOVE action to engage you again and thus can't apply a full-attack (unless they have pounce and charge). All this makes a TB mode even more appealing. Yes, he does use limited XP share option (seems it's a common notion for unfair players) but this doesn't diminishes the whole usefulness of provided information. And the whole impact of that option will fade away pretty soon anyway. You'll have to suffer the early game sure but after leaving Kenabres this will become less and less severe.

 

[Antimatter]

I probably would say that Act 2 is more difficult than Act 1, especially the Gargoyle Cave and the Vescavor Swarm parts. We'll see if it actually becomes a bit easier later. My reasoning is that in Act 1 (thinking about the hardest encounters) you need to handle 1 enemy (sometimes with their minions), while in Act 2, these are massive and long fights, so the odds of something going wrong increase exponentially.

My customized party, at least, made the camp attack section much easier, as it wasn't just one MC leaving the tent to fight the gargoyles, it was all 8 of us. Hideous Laughter worked for a change, that was another nice part.

Spoiler

Nulkineth wasn't a threat, even on Unfair. The fight would be memorable for my first-ever Dirge Of Doom song. Permanent Shaken on those enemies that are not immune is amazing! My party got lvl 8 in that area just on the way to the inner yard of the chapel.

Spoiler

And I found a risk-free way to handle Zacharius the Lich. Werglia did it over 2 rounds (before the lich casts Banshee Blast) thanks to Vital Strike on Wendu and lucky crits by his other party members (e.g. Seelah) with Sosiel's buffs, as well as Channel Positive Energy - Harm Undead. Juzamdj52 handled the lich over 2 rounds as well, mostly thanks to Lann's multiple attacks.

And me, well, I used the BG-inspired way to handle the lich. My summons ate his spells (well, as it turned out, not all of them, he still had about 2-3 Boneshaker spells left), while my party waited a bit further away. This time was also enough for his Displacement spell to end. The most important part was to run away with one character as soon as the fight started (so that he spent his first spells on skellies), and keep summoning them so that there was not a second without a fodder between the witch doctor and the lich.

Spoiler

Once I was sure it's safe to join the fight, I did it. True Strike casts (in particular, from the scrolls I bought at the camp, plus my Vivi's natural spells) and Channel Positive Energy - Harm Undead got him. Fortunately, Zacharius didn't kill anyone.

Spoiler

This was a test fight (but it worked), so I wasn't that buffed for it, I just wanted to try the concept. I didn't try Grease because it showed my DC for the spell is 21 (I don't have Heighten spell yet), while Zacharius on Unfair has a Reflex save of 17--I wasn't willing to bet on the lich rolling between 1 and 3.

 

[Antimatter]

I learned that a creature is also treated as flat-footed when it can't see an enemy (it might happen if it's blinded, or the enemy is invisible). It can happen right in the middle of the battle.

Here, my duelist is attacking a nasty opponent, Maugla the Nabassu, with Finnean the Talking Weapon. The attack roll is against the normal armor class. My "tank" hits through the AC of 44 with a roll of 17 (what a cool concept this Aldori Swordlord prestige class is, btw):

Spoiler

My character is buffed with Greater Invisibility (that makes him invisible, obviously; and the nabassu can't see through it). Now, once he hits, the opponent gets flat-footed, and this will last until its next turn!

Spoiler

It's still the same attack (attack number 3 out of 4, the previous one was attack number 2). Considering the enemy is flat-footed, and it's an easy target for my heavy damage dealers. I saw this happening a few times in the same combat. So THIS is the way to handle high AC enemies, nice!

Spoiler

As you can see, access to one lvl 4 spell is a deal-breaker. Hopefully, we won't have to suffer as much as we used to.

Another top opponent from the same area, Stringy Demodand, had a Blind Fight feat, so this trick didn't work. We had to go through its AC of 49 (!). With our buffs/debuffs, we could hit it at a roll of 18, which was just about enough. I also used 3 scrolls of Breath Life (purchased 8 of them from the Skeleton merchant) at the same time in order to save myself money and raise the duelist. And yes, the last hit came just at the right time, as the enemy broke through all our summons and the tank (who has AC of 52 now). That was the first time when I saw my character with True Strike actually missing (because of the low roll, even +20 from True Strike didn't help).

Spoiler

 

[Serg_BlackStrider]

Yep, Invisibily, Greater helps a lot vs those sky-high AC values. Or Glitterdust if it connects. I have Nenio write scrolls of Invisibility, Greater for my damage dealers (who in turn develop UMD skill). Later on you can protect it with Mind Blank spell which cancels True Seeing. It does not help against Echolocation (another great spell to have) but most of the enemies do not have it.

 

[Antimatter]

Out of my six characters, the only one I’d say is objectively weaker than her vanilla NPC counterpart is the witch doctor (the healer role), specifically, when compared to Daeran. She lacks several crucial buffs like Remove Sickness, Freedom of Movement, and Death Ward. I also miss the flexibility of being able to swap to a healing spell on demand.

That said, I wouldn’t replace her in the current party. Her hexes are irreplaceable, and no one else in my party can fill that niche. I’ll make up for the missing utility with Loremaster spells.

Here’s a quick rundown of my team (as of lvl 9):

• Aldori Defender/Swordlord: Excellent tank, and increasingly solid in damage output.
• Vivisectionist: Meta-defining, top-tier for both buffs and raw damage (thanks to ECB and Power Attack).
• Divine Hound: Ranged attacker with a powerful pet. Compared to Wenduag, she has an edge thanks to her spellcasting and the dog’s STR-based tripping.
• Bard: Unique support role with AoE Shaken via song, crucial for enabling Shatter Defenses for all my melee hitters.
• Main Character (Sorc): Naturally strong. Sorcerers are among the best classes, and I’ve got an extra pet.

Now, if we’re talking pure power on Unfair difficulty, a vanilla party might actually outperform mine:

• Seelah as a tank (not a damage dealer)
• Ember for Hideous Laughter
• Daeran for healing and buffs
• Camellia for Stinking Cloud
• Nenio for Greater Invisibility, Haste, and offensive illusions

That setup hits all save types and benefits from stacking shaman/witch hexes. It’s a very efficient composition for Unfair play.

In that case, the MC could flex into whatever role is needed: shooter, sorc, vivisectionist, or warpriest.

My plan is (probably) to return to my Trickster party after Drezen, tweak a few things, and push forward on Unfair with that setup.

I do miss the debuffs that come with having a paladin in the party. But at this point, Unfair difficulty feels like SCS (in BG) to me. I don’t think I’d want to play without it anymore.

Combat is more engaging, and enemies feel far more distinct. Sure, Chapter 1 was restrictive, and I’ve had to resort to some cheese here and there, but the overall experience really does echo the feel of SCS. Even the turn-based mode has grown on me.

Using summons to bait out enemy spells reminds me exactly of how you'd use them against early BG2 liches and planetars. It’s the same kind of tactical play, and honestly, I think I enjoy this challenge more than what BG3 offers (!!!)

Funny thing is, I never expected to come to this conclusion.

Here are a few screenshots of my journey through Drezen (still not over). I reached lvl 9 before setting up for Drezen (I guess, due to the Unfair number of enemies), so I'm enjoying using Heighten with my sorc, as well as Stinking Cloud (for humanoids), and now Baleful Polymorph with my witch doctor.

Spoiler

 

[Antimatter]

I'm inclined to continue with this party. At lvl 10, my witch doctor finally got access to the Loremaster prestige class, and I took Remove Sickness from the Cleric spell list. I chose Improved Abundant Casting for both my bard and my vivisectionist, so I have enough casts of Freedom of Movement (5 from the bard) and Death Ward (5 from the vivi) in the party now. I also took Corruptor for the main character at Mythic 3, so he can cover both Stinking Cloud and Hideous Laughter routes, depending on what I need in this or that fight. The main reason I don't want to switch to the Trickster party yet is that I'd like to see what the Blackwater area will be like on Unfair, and without Mark of Justice. And of course, I'm curious what the Azata quests/NPCs are, after all, I just reached the stage when I got access to them.

The Drezen siege was probably the first stage in the game where disabling spells were as useful as usual melee buffing ones. Heightened Grease worked against Zgur the Gnawbone and later Blightmaw, and they never got up.

Baleful Polymorph worked against a few Derakni and Theruk's Spawns, as well as the Elder Vrock!

Spoiler

Joran Vhane failed his saving throw against Heightened Hideous Laughter, and then we got him via Flat-Footed attacks.

Spoiler

Eustoyriax probably was the hardest opponent for me, probably because at that point my Corruption level was already 1, and I felt things were getting nasty because of limited resting. 3 Nabassu I summoned, and their Level Drain proved to be the key, as it helped decrease Eustoyriax's saves, which eventually allowed me to Hideous Laughter it. Considering we could only hit the demon on a critical (except for the Aldori Swordlord, that class is just so special that gets additional to-hit bonuses if successful in a Perception roll when being attacked), I felt huge relief the spell worked. And I kept recasting it during rounds the demon saved.

Spoiler

Yes, this is where we reached lvl 10. It's really quick (due to DLC extra XP and more enemies on Unfair). I think on Core, I reached lvl 10 after Act 2 final boss. Speaking about that fight... Well, I learned that AI of Minagho was changed (compared to some old videos by cRPG Bro, another channel I regularly watch), and Phantasmal Putrefaction is now the spell she casts during the FIRST round of combat. But the rest of the recommended approach still works. You just need to draw her attention to a pet (I used Bismuth in this case) first, and then HIT, HIT, HIT Staunton Vhane as fast as possible with everyone. As soon as you get him to low health, Minagho leaves. All this without the TB mode, of course.

This is not how I usually fought them on Core and below, but nothing else works on Unfair. On Core, I preferred to first deal with Minagho, and then survive the second stage of the fight vs fully buffed & healthy Staunton. Here, though, he was barely alive at the beginning of the second stage, and died quickly. Minagho's spells, AC, saves etc are just TOO high on Unfair. You can see my attacks in the combat log below:

Spoiler

 

[Antimatter]

Chapter 3 start is a very interesting moment in the game. I remember when I first played WotR on release, the amount of new information, quests, systems, etc. felt a bit too much, and it was clear the game switched to a more open version compared to Chapters 1 and 2, where everything was a bit streamlined in terms of areas you can access, the order of doing things etc.

Now I actually like Chapter 3 more, I think, and appreciate this extra freedom it brings. This freedom includes access to merchants with valuable items, some of which are extremely important and help tremendously, addressing all previous pain points of almost every party: spell penetration rates, DC checks for your spells, to-hit chances, better AC, and saves for your party members. To be able to buy these items, you need to sell almost all weapons and armor you got before, if you're not using them, of course. When I first played, I hesitated selling items and/or kept some of them "in reserve" for all the numerous NPCs.

Just look at this list:

• (for MC, any CC caster) Mindmaster's Eyes - increase the save DCs of Enchantment spells by 2, 25k gold from Jewelry Trader
• (for MC, any CC caster) Glass Amulet of Clarity - adds +2 to the DC for all saving throws against mind-affecting abilities used by the wielder (also grants a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against mind-affecting and compulsion effects), 32k gold from Jewelry Trader
• (for a shooter) Goggles of Maloccio - a +10 competence bonus on Perception checks; whenever the wearer confirms a critical hit with any bow, the target becomes disoriented for 1d4 rounds, suffering a –4 circumstance penalty to initiative checks, attack rolls, Athletics, and Perception checks, 34k from Jewelry Trader
• (for any Dispel Magic caster) Goggles of Pure Sight - allow their wearer to take 20 on their next dispel magic attempt once per day; they also grant a +1 bonus to caster level checks made to overcome spell resistance, 20k from Jewelry Trader
• (for MC, any caster) Ring of Pyromania - +2 bonus to caster level checks made to overcome spell resistance, plus additional 1d6 + 5 fire damage on fire spells (for later), 50k from Arsinoe
• (for duelist, or Lann) Robe or Order (requires 1 monk level) - if the wearer is of lawful alignment, it grants a +2 bonus on attack rolls against chaotic enemies, 34k from Arcane Weaver
• (for any damage dealer) Bracers of Animal Fury - a +3 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls whenever the wearer is polymorphed (easy to achieve with multiple Polymorph spells), 23k from Arcane Weaver
• (for any build that uses Persuasion checks) Gloves of the Ambassador - a +5 competence bonus to Knowledge (world), a +5 competence bonus to Persuasion skill checks, and a +2 enhancement bonus to Charisma, 21k from Arcane Weaver
• (for a tank, or a damage dealer) Boots of the Battle Herald - a constant effect of the heroism, greater spell (so a +4 morale bonus on attack rolls, saves, and skill checks, immunity to fear effects, and temporary hit points equal to your caster level), 30k from Wilcer Garms

Total is 269k(!)

And this is before we even looked at weapons suitable for certain builds (e.g. Mighty Blow of Good fauchard for 61k from Exotic Weapons Provider).

So for spells like Hideous Laughter, the jump between lvl 9 and 10 (if you get access to lvl 5 spells only on lvl 10) is: DC 26 (heightened lvl 4 spell) vs DC 31(heightened lvl 5 spell with the items mentioned above), an increase of +5.

My duelist now has a bonus of +37 modifiers if I want to go all-in (that is before we add a 1d20 roll), so with Evil Eye - AC he can hit AC of 50 if he rolls at least 9. That's impressive! The screenshot below shows what that bonus consists of, just take into account you can cast Invisibility Greater for another +2 (but you can't Charge (for +2) every turn, so it evens itself out).

Spoiler