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

[Antimatter]

This was supposed to be a post about my slow power grind in Chapter 3 as I managed to complete all (!) crusade battles (and capture forts) before my party reached lvl 11. I was about to get to that level after doing just Mythic quests, side activities, and exploring (not even entering any of the meaningful non-DLC locations). I got to Mythic 4 without problems (due to earlier access thanks to Azata) and felt I was on the right track...

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I can say Azata quests and interactions felt different from Trickster, and each definitely has a distinct tone. A few interactions in Areelu's lab for Trickster were richer. From the gameplay point of view, as a Trickster, I got to mythic 4 after I completed the majority of chapter 3, while for Azata, I barely started it. So, bonuses of the Azata path are more front-loaded; just the dragon pet with 7 apr when hasted alone is a major buff. The Midnight Isles DLC just unlocked for me, so I planned to further grind XP and gold there, thus substantially decreasing the crazy level of Unfair going forward.

I'd say the last "barely made it" moment for me on Unfair happened in Leper's Smile, and this was mid-Chapter 2. In Areelu's lab, I found a few impossible mobs for my 10th level now, but they were not on a critical path; I can come back later. And to think about it, they would have been extremely strong even not on Unfair, as I previously got access to that area at lvl 14 (as a Trickster). What I'm saying is, the further in the game, the more playable Unfair is, and I've got used to it.

And then I went to Kenabres to do Wenduag's quest. The quest involved a duel with Lann. In my Trickster run, I roleplayed and supported Wendu fully, and she killed him. Then I read there was actually an option to allow Lann to live. So, being an Azata, I figured I should try being a bit kinder, right? I picked the appropriate dialog option, a duel started between them, and before I could even click a button, Lann obliterated Wendu in 2 attacks, and the game showed a Game Over screen. My Last Azlanti save got deleted.

...

It was simply a consequence of choosing one of the five possible dialogue options. Any of the other 4 would have allowed the run to continue. This is brutal, and honestly, doesn't make any sense.

I got sad, but at the same time, I felt it was my definite answer to what I should do between these 2 runs. Now I'm returning to the Trickster playthrough and putting it on the Unfair difficulty. If I didn't have this option, I would have been devastated about losing weeks of progress just due to the dumb design and my own mistake.

But hey, after spending 2 hours recalling what was what and what setup/spells/items I had, and after tweaking stuff using my Unfair experience, I'm ready to continue. Getting NPC banter back during a rest right away was a good boost. Btw, when I went through my feat, spell, and item choices, I noticed a few mistakes, some little things I would have done differently with everything I've learned playing through Chapters 1 & 2 on Unfair. I managed to change some, but didn't respec via ToyBox, will just continue with some non-ideal choices. Also, not having ANY Invisibility, Greater, and just 2 Blur spells overall (and that thanks to my Mythic spellbook) would definitely make the experience memorable. It felt good to get back to high-level play, though.

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[Serg_BlackStrider]

That's definitely quite a rude way to get a run ended, feel sad about that. Nonetheless this was very valuable experience, thanks for sharing it!
Myself spent quite a number of days just to fine-tune my Crew builds (poring over a vast number of sources) and very little to play the game itself but it's still going strong. I'll post an update when the progress will be more or less meaningfull.

 

[Antimatter]

How should I handle spoilers going forward, @Serg_BlackStrider (considering you haven't played past Drezen)?

Ivory Sanctum reminded me why this game is not just good, it's very good. It is an excellent area full of interesting fights, but also intriguing stories, mysteries, and high stakes. There were a few trap mechanics present that I hadn't seen in the game yet, and which reminded me of Tomb Raider games. Well-done!

To not be too spoilery, I'll just include screenshots showing insane numbers my party can boast (we reached lvl 15!), be it AC, damage, to-hit chances, overcoming enemy SR, saves. It's just such a joy to be able to fight these higher-level fights and use damaging spells (Chain Lightning and Hellfire Ray) on top of CC ones, as well as one-shot enemies.

The boss fight there had a few stages and provided multiple challenges I had to overcome, I enjoyed it a lot. Probably that's the most interesting fight in the game so far.

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Know that there is a bug with a permanent Shaken status for your party members, which I had to manually delete via ToyBox.

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[Serg_BlackStrider]

How should I handle spoilers going forward, @Serg_BlackStrider (considering you haven't played past Drezen)?

Don’t think of it too much- I don’t mind them at all. And I’ve already followed a full run by Coredumped on YouTube so I’m more or less familiar with what to expect there

 

[Antimatter]

The end of Chapter 3 is full of intense, challenging, and diverse fights. The kind of fights that would have given me a scare when I was only starting to understand the Unfair difficulty.

Take Siabrae, for example. A lvl 20 druid that opens a fight (with no option of your party's first shot from the fog of war), and casts Polar Midnight. It's a lvl 9 (!) AoE spell that drains Dex as crazy. He proceeds with Plague Storm - Shakes effect, for even more Dex damage, during round 2. Then it becomes clear you either kill the druid during round 3 maximum, or the whole party dies because of attribute damage.

Solution? Well, I guess it depends on your Mythic path. I've embraced the crazy criticals Trickster provides. Here, you can see 3 crits in a row (from 3 characters) as a consequence of AoO, teamwork feats, and my Mythic. One click, the game did the rest, the enemy was dead.

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For fights in Midnight Fane where I could do a surprise round, I used Wendu with her 8 attacks, and (now my most favorite item, a crusade relic) Bane of Spirit ring. Here you can see I kill another lvl 20 caster before he could even react.

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A Deskari High Priestess reminded me of Siabrae, because she also opened up with Polar Midnight. Thankfully, 3 rounds were enough for us this time as well:

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I also need to cover how I handled Carnivorous Crystals, considering there is absolutely no way to resist their Subsonic Hum in the latest version (that is being spammed every round), unless you have Shield of Law. *** There is also a Martyr's Testament ring that can be a potential award during Regill's Chapter 3 quest, Watch Your Step, depending on your choice - if you allow the Angler of Vices to escape, you will receive Martyr's Testament. Killing the demon will not yield this item. The ring gives immunity to mind-affecting conditions.

Wicked Dope (Plaque of Madness crusade relic) staff that makes your spell Maximized and Empowered. Cast 3 same cantrips, get the buff, and attack the crystal with Hellfire Ray. If needed, support from afar with ranged attacks (mind your timing not to get stunned), should be enough for any of them.

Now, Playful Darkness on Unfair. Let's look at this enemy's stats:

This thing also started the combat with high initiative, immediately killing my pets. So, how could one even handle an enemy like that? I'd heard about Playful Darkness a lot, but I had always evaded spoilers, so these stats came as a surprise to me.

We managed to dispel 4 buffs with our +20 boost from the goggles, but that wasn't enough, obviously. The solution? Round 1: cast Stinking Cloud (heightened to lvl 8, with Great Spell Focus: Conjuration and Mythic Spell Focus: Conjuration). Round 2: cast Creeping Doom. Round 3: cast more Creeping Doom. All while you handle the minions and keep summoning undead skellies as a distraction. Then, you Evil Eye: Saving Throws. When characters have a lot of APR, there are some odds to roll a natural 20 and go through Playful's Darkness 50/50 concealment. Anything else, such as: Fortune hex (and Cackle), trying True Strike -> Hellfire Ray, can either work or not, there are odds anyway. Even a skelly hit once here, but I missed all 4 of my Hellfire Ray rounds (either due to not overcoming SR, or missing). Sooner or later, Stinking Cloud will work, and the swarms will hit every round (their damage is increased by Mark of Justice).

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[Antimatter]

Chapter 3 final boss fight against Dazzazand turned out to be more difficult for me than the Playful Darkness.

Probably because he wasn't alone, and 2 Marilith Conquerors next to him posed the biggest threat: Blade Barrier spell. On Unfair, it can hit for up to 150 damage as AoE and immediately kill your casters who stay behind. Not only that, the spell stays on the ground and is a pain to dispel. It doesn't allow your "crowd at the back" to reach the front lines. What I found is that if you put any character just next to each of them, they will attack in melee instead of casting. Yes, attacking in melee with multiple attacks and good to-hit chances, but delaying/deniying Blade Barrier castings is worth it. You need to kill them before they cast it. In my battle, I managed to finish at least one of them, and survived one cast of Blade Barrier.

Dazzazand himself hit like a truck, and eventually killed Seelah (as it's not that easy to kill 2 Marilith Conquerors and 2 Vrock's Votaries quickly). However, we continued attacking the demon for occasional criticals. Pests summoned by Creeping Doom spells work against Dazzazand just fine as well. There is a catch, though - eventually, the crusaders will join the fight and kill your own pests with Holy fire aoe spells (meh!). What I didn't know is that Dazzazand goes big boom-boom when he dies. Fortunately, my MC stayed at a distance.

Btw, deaths of party characters are not a problem now, between crafting Raise Dead scrolls when resting at the camp (with Sosiel) and using the crusade relic armor that gives 3 times of temporary Raise Dead. You just use the item, wait until the character dies again, and raise them with Breath of Life. Easy and cheap (Faultless Daybreak scalemail).

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I reached lvl 16 as soon as I entered Chapter 4. But look at how tight it was with the XP:

Now, I need to say Chapter 4 seems to me the most beautiful and intriguing place. It reminds me of a mixture between Ust-Natha and Athkatla at night from BGII: SoA. I like the vibe, the sense of danger everywhere, the whole concept of a town where demons live. I like that it's huge and consists of different parts (more Athkatla similarity). I like different banter lines I can have with the town dwellers. I have been slowly exploring the first part. I like how they made you turn the camera so that the town could change and reveal hidden paths and secrets. And then you need to use Dimension Door to reach a few roofs. The background music is great as well. And there are fights wherever you go, just like in the Underdark.

Honestly, I've been staying away from spoilers about the game, and I'm so happy to discover and explore Chapter 4 without any prior knowledge. Probably for the first time in both Kingmaker and WotR, they managed to impress me visually with how they designed these locations to the point of going "Wow!". The idea about the camera fits the location (because of secrets), and I don't remember seeing anything like that in other games.

From big(ger) fights, I only did one, against Minagho. I'm using the Fortune hex more and more (and it stacks similarly to Evil Eye, if cast by a shaman and a witch)! I like how easy it is to prolong the hex until the end of the fight with Cackle. It allows rolling a critical more often, and eventually, the AC of the enemy stops having any meaningful impact. You focus on minions first, use AoE CC spells, heal your party when needed, remove debuffs, keep tanking, and keep summons to distract enemies, and then finish the big boss with criticals. Also, Camellia now finally has Selective Metamagic, so Winter's Grasp is much easier to use (it only took me 16 levels to get my first Selective AoE spells, heh).

I was low on spells when I started the fight, and had 2 pets dead (because of other fights in the town), but was still quite comfortable. And yes, Daeran now has a wolf pet, I switched Bizmuth's owner to Ember (with ToyBox). The Bully showed himself very helpful during my custom run, so I figured I'd take the Nature revelation for Daeran.

Minagho wasted four rounds spamming Slumber hex at first. Seelah saved against it once, and then the demon kept targeting Camellia, but she was immune to Slumber. When Minagho approached the party, I had to distract her with summons (especially since Seelah's Last Stand ended).

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[Antimatter]

Still enjoying Chapter 4. Pretty much loving everything I see here, from story twists, to characters, to fights. Almost every fight allows me to inflict some crazy damage in melee with my main character. Here is the biggest (so far) critical hit - 346 vs Chivarro. This Minagho's "acquaintance" was a bit of a pain to deal with due to her AC, but a critical is a critical.

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And here is a screenshot of attacks made just from one mouse click. 2 numbers are obscured, but they were like 340 and 110, so the overall damage from just one round of my MC's actions was 1400+. That feels tremendously rewarding.

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Since I play not knowing spoilers, I had no idea what to expect from a "Pathetic Quasit". It was fun already to find him after he escaped first, and then the fight surprised me a few times. At first, it was Wail of the Banshee for 600 damage to everyone in the party (!). I reloaded and went in with True Seeing Communal, the spell I have from my Warpriest. Nobody else in this party can cast it. I dispelled Mind Blank thanks to Daeran. Then it was pretty straightforward. Having double Fortune on the MC, Seelah, and Wendu speeds fights a lot and provides a solution to situations where you can't allow the enemy to take too many turns. Being able to hit through concealment seems like a necessity at this point.

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From the story content, I'd probably say Camellia's personal quest was the best (even while provocative) part. But honestly, everything in chapter 4 is enjoyable for me. Probably, I've been missing an evil town like that in cRPGs for 25 years since Shadows of Amn. And Camellia is turning into one of the most interesting (for those who dare) characters from these games. A surprising revelation.

 

[Antimatter]

Continuing Chapter 4 and now also doing the Midnight Isles DLC, part 2. Lots of cool fights, excellent loot, and most importantly, story reveals. I enjoyed interactions with Nocticula and revelations by Areelu, looking forward to further events involving the two. My Trickster path allowed for some fun choices in this chapter, and I get a feeling it'll affect my relations with Nocticula going forward.

Ygefeles was the first enemy that died because we decreased his DEX to 0 faster than killing him naturally. Creeping Doom is such a helpful spell.

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I was low on spells there and lost Seelah, so I had to be creative about how to kill a high-AC enemy.

My party reached lvl 18, so their criticals continue to grow. Below are 3 screenshots showing the progress: 406 -> 423 ->489 damage, and also another screenshot where my main character critically hit 3 times in a row (thanks to Fortune, but still):

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My main character can get a +53 attack bonus fully buffed, while Seelah's AC can reach 69. Now that we've found Ring of Triumphant Advance in the DLC, these bonuses can be increased even further. E.g. AC can become 72 (as the +3 Morale bonus gets doubled), or I can increase the attack bonus to +57 (doubling the Heroism effect).

 

[Antimatter]

Soul Hunter, a distant relative of Playful Darkness, rolled a 1 and failed a Fortitude spell. That helped save our party members. But the battle was decided thanks to some new cool criticals anyway:

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Then we returned to the Midnight Isles and finally challenged the boss. I didn't know what to expect from this fight and again enjoyed the complexity of its different stages. When Nilkoth the Archpriest of Nahyndri showed up, I already had Seelah down. His immunities caught us by surprise - Stinking Cloud didn't work on him for some reason. I've looked online, and other people point out the boss might be bugged because some spells/abilities don't affect him.

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The Archpriest was one of the hardest enemies I faced, and his arsenal of lvl 9 spells quickly killed my party members. I replayed the fight twice, finally figuring out the strategy. What worked for me was to stay further away from his spawn point (during the end of the 3rd stage of the fight) so that he had to walk first before actually using his AoE spells. The fact this fight is long and involves a lot of killing made my MC an absolute beast, with an Attack Bonus of +62(!) Being able to hit one of the most powerful enemies at just 10 (from 20) is not something you see often. Two new shiny criticals ended the priest.

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The second part of this DLC was even better than the first one (as it had more distinct fights and was shorter overall). Now I'll get back to the main quest, leaving Alushinyrra behind. To leave the demon city, which I enjoyed so much, is a bit sad.

 

[Serg_BlackStrider]

Grim Face, Halfling (Hasty), Oblate - Acolyte, 5/18/10/12/10/20, Magic Deceiver (Living Deity, Wolf pet) fair Unfair. Part 2 (further in the Shield Maze).

O-okay, where were we? A-ha, there! While @Antimatter 's Crew already are storming the end game my sorry team just barely scrambled out of the Shield Maze and early part of the Gray Garrison. Truth be told it wasn't all that scary as I've feared. Sure, our resources are scarce - Protection from Evil, Protective Luck on Freya, Enlarge Person on Seelah, Magic Weapon on Lann, polished with Bless and Virtue/Resistance/Guidance party-wide for 2 (1) minutes - but this is mostly enough and we can rest literally after every single fight almost unimpeded. After the first Hand of Hosilla we dealt with Baphomet's Cutthroat:

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Cultist Champion:

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A group of 4 Fighters/Sharpshooters:

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Another big group of cultists:

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Second Hand of Hosilla:

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Dretches:

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and Cambions:

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And all this without a single reload. The next group of Cambions though forced us to reload twice in order to deal with them since they are quite spread around.
First time Grim Face and Cambion Ranger were the last ones standing while that Ranger has like 7 hp remaining but we had no means to revive all our fallen anyway.

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Attempt #2:

Attempt #3:

...

 

[Serg_BlackStrider]

...

Next there were those Monitor Lizards and we buffed Freya with Potions of Mage Armor and Shield of Faith since those animals are Neutral for 27 AC +2 (Fighting Defensively) and use Demoralize for Shaken (-2 AB and saving throws). Sleep+Color Spray took one Monitor Lizard off. Now we have the Amulet of Barkskin for Freya.

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Then we dealt with another Cultist Champion guarding Potions of Resist/Protection from Cold:

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Corrupted Mongrel Ranger/Guard:

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and Corrupted Mongrel Brute/Ranger. Used Incendiary Runes/Ray of Sickening vs Fortitude - failed 2 times but won nonetheless:

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For Hand of Hosilla I buffed Freya with Potion of Mage Armor, Blur scroll for Grim Face (Wendu likes to aim him for whatever reason), Resist Fear, scroll of Heroism for Seelah alone with our usual buff routine. Wendu missed her shot on Grim Face, Hosilla succeeded the first cast of Incendiary Runes/Sleep but failed the second one and was Coup de Graced by Seelah. Her summoned Quasits only managed to hit Seelah once and that's it:

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...

 

[Serg_BlackStrider]

...

The way out of the Maze is clear but we still have some unfinished business there. The group of Mongrels near the Large Water Elemental need two attempts to deal with:

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and there was a funniest Large Water Elemental fight I ever had. It has two attacks per round with a 20 AB and there is no way Freya could stand that long enough. So we proceeded with a turn-based kiting with her doing a 5 ft. step so Water Elemental needs to move first and thus can only apply one attack. Meanwhile enlarged Seelah armed with Marching Terror hit it with attacks of opportunity.

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What is left are Medium Earth Elementals and those are completely optional with a pitiful reward of 2*27 exp but my diehard completionist's nature can't allow to leave them behind. I tried them a couple of times in fair face-to-face fight but then ended up with luring them to the place where Cambions took a residence before and just kited them around with Freya while the rest of team shoot'em down (I was eager to end this damned Maze already):

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The Gray Garrison was pretty uneventful and we are finally in the Defender's Heart and at level 3!

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Current Crew state:

* Grim Face, Magic Deceiver (3), feats - Spell Focus [Enchantment], Greater Spell Focus [Enchantment], skills - Lore [Religion] (3), Persuasion (3), UMD (2); spells - level 1 3 casts/day;
* Freya, Bully (3), feats - Dodge, Fury's Fall, skills - Athletics (3), Mobility (3);
* Seelah, Paladin (1)/SCM (1)/Dual-Cursed Oracle (1), feats - Shield Focus, Boon Companion, skills - Athletics (3), Mobility (3), Knowledge, World (1), Perception (3), Persuasion (1), UMD (1);
* Big Bird, Bully (3), feats - Dodge, Diehard, skills - Mobility (3), UMD (3);
* Lann, Zen Archer (2)/Sacred Huntsmaster (1), feats - Combat Reflexes, Boon Companion (point-blank shot, precise shot, weapon focus - longbow, improved unarmed strike), skills - Athletics (1), Mobility (2), Stealth (3), Lore, Nature (1), Perception (3);
* Doggy Doggerson, Bully (3), feats - Dodge, Fury's Fall, skills - Athletics (3), Mobility (3);
* Camellia, Spirit Hunter (3), feats - Weapon Finesse, Extra Hex (Chant), hex - Protective Luck, skills - Mobility (3), Trickery (3);

Now, since we don't need to (ab)use exp farming we are going to assemble our core Crew asap (Ember, Nenio) and start a real adventure at long last.

to be continued...

 

[Antimatter]

Congrats! It's so exciting to finally read your reports! Pet names are funny! A very smart solution for the water elemental.

I completed chapter 4 without any big issues. The fight vs dragon Melazmera seemed scary as the first 2 rounds saw STR of all our characters drop to single digits (with 3 characters dying outright). However, double Fortune (first on Wendu, and then on the MC), still worked.

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I was happy to see a different Owlcat's take on the pile of gold from Larian. Not empty!

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Winning vs Hepzamirah wasn't difficult at all; she had low saves. Then I managed to hold on vs Baphomet, I had a hunch there would be a marvellous solution after the first action he did was removing ALL of our buffs and making our party useless with Overwhelming Presence and then Waves of exhaustion. I just kinda stood there watching him fighting what was left of our summons, and then Nocticula intervened.

Scorcher of Souls was the last enemy in Chapter 4, made me worry a bit because I was low on buffs and spells (yeah, I didn't rest after Hepzamirah), however, a critical is a critical.

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[Antimatter]

I’ve been enjoying WotR more and more as I continue, especially its writing. The Chapter 5 main story reveal was handled beautifully: the pacing, the character reactions, and even the voice acting all came together in a really satisfying way.

Then came the Trickster quest, which turned out to be even more fun. It offered at least three major choices that affect the ending, along with plenty of hilarious dialogue that kept things lively.

One of my favorite moments was seeing how each party member responded to the initial decision of whether to continue the Mythic path or give it up. Camellia, Daeran, and Wenduag all supported the path of power, which resonated with me since they’re my favorite companions.

For the genuine Trickster finale, I chose to go against Nocticula, leading to an absolutely wild fight. Next time, I’m certain I’ll try a Demon run instead: romancing her and siding with her against her brother. I love that Owlcat makes these kinds of bold narrative choices possible, even allowing romances with antagonists (WotR following Kingmaker). In fact, I’d argue they’re braver and more open-minded than Larian in BG3 when it comes to exploring unconventional romances and player freedom. Of course, it takes an open-minded player to embrace and experiment with those options.

The fight itself was intense. Nocticula’s spammable Seductive Presence (DC 59 on Unfair) essentially rendered characters uncontrollable, and her Wail of the Banshee could deal a staggering 1200 damage in the first round (DC 39). The only viable strategy was to unleash everything without turn-based mode, relying on multiple attacks of opportunity to bring her down mid-cast. And it worked.

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Now, with Mythic 9, I finally have Last Stand on everyone. Because starting from Alushinyrra fights, whenever an enemy caster gets to cast a blasting spell, it's 300+ damage. Last Stand trivialises this threat by providing immunity for 2 rounds, which should be enough for everything if the party setup is right. Here are the amazing stats and spells I now have access to:

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If you noticed, I now have Inspiring Command from the Nobility Domain and Guarded Hearth from the Community Domain. Yeah, only at the end of the game, I figured out that Lore 2 Mythic Trick allows me to pick 2 domains without restrictions. The earliest I could do that was Mythic 4, but then it seemed important to get Perception 2 Mythic Trick for Improved Improved Critical feats (for the whole party) first. Then on Mythic 6, I picked Athletics 2, for later Athletics 3, which gives me BaB of 19 (thanks to my high Athletics), essential for the Warpriest (a class with lower BaB). I also have access to UMD 2 now, and it means I can use the wand of Greater Invisibility as many times as I want (and my party had issues with access to this spell).

The following fight in the Midnight Isles (part 3) is a good illustration of how the end-game combat on Unfair usually goes. Enemy spellcasters had 2 rounds of Wail of the Banshee, each doing 300 or 600 damage, and between 4 save attempts, all my characters failed their SS at least once. With Last Stand, it is not a problem, you don't lose characters, you don't lose their buffs, you just carry on. The 2 rounds were enough to kill the big boss (dispel him twice by Daeran, the dispel specialist in my party, and hit (thanks to Greater Invis, the hits were against the Flat-Footed AC)) and his minions. The enemy casters had saves too high for my CC spells to work in time.

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Yeah, and if you're curious, this is Nocticula's Wail damage:

It makes your health rather unimportant. You just need to have Last Stand and have good to-hit chances, and all will be fine.

 

[Serg_BlackStrider]

The fight itself was intense. Nocticula’s spammable Seductive Presence (DC 59 on Unfair) essentially rendered characters uncontrollable, and her Wail of the Banshee could deal a staggering 1200 damage in the first round (DC 39).

Now I see why @juzamdj52 recommends to have Shake It Off TWF party-wide if you're intending to fight Nocticula. Don't know if it helps for all party members though. And does your Seelah has the whole set of Improved Criticals feats? Seems she doesn't...

 

[Antimatter]

Well, with Guarded Hearth (if you have it before the battle and savescum enough, you might get a second before the battle to use it), along with Fortune on everyone (would have been possible, not easy, but possible, to achieve, by using the hex and then Cackle, rinse and repeat) it would have been possible to save vs the Wail's 39 DC. Not sure there was anything to help vs Seductive Presence's 59, unless you roll D20 or close.

Feats are not unlimited, especially not on Vivisectionists and Bards, so Seelah got only the basics (now that I'm lvl 20, you can see the whole list):

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Just attacking Nocticular all-in should work in like 90% of cases, you need a good hitter though (similar to my MC) in the party, just Seelah and pets wouldn't be enough. Trickster feats will do all the damage party, you need to roll crits.

 

[Serg_BlackStrider]

There is an opinion, that wider critical range of the weapon is more valuable, than attack bonus itself. Vs high AC you need to crit anyway so skipping Dazzling Display and Shatter Defenses (and maybe Seize the Moment) will allow you to take the whole set of Improved Critical feats. Your main is a Trickster, so one might want to squeeze as much as possible of that. Just my opinion

 

[Antimatter]

I mean, maybe my choices weren't perfect, but the thing here is that I kept learning the game the more I played. I based the majority of my choices on what I had learned from Kingmaker. I also switched from Core to Unfair as you know, and that also was a learning experience. I can 100% confirm my party works even against the strongest possible enemies on Unfair, and works consistently, and that's the main thing. And I need to come back to what I said about Chapter 3 and DLC: once you do Midnight Isles, you start to overlevel the usual content. Which is totally fine, and that happens in every RPG. Midnight Isles DLC has excellent and challenging battles, but it gives you a ton of nice items, gold, and XP.

Speaking of XP, just look at these insane numbers (my party is already lvl 20 so it doesn't matter):

Half a million in just 30 minutes.

I didn't know there would be a ballistae there, so I did the fight the normal way. Reminds me of the BG3 forge fight, where I also preferred the usual (non-cheesy) way to defeat a strong opponent.

Here are a few screenshots (biggest damage yet, 662, an attack bonus of +74 that increases to +83 in-combat, just one round of combat vs Songbird thanks to the Trick Fate spell, my main attribute reaching 56 thanks to Conflagrant Taco food that Daeran can finally cook, the final boss being immune to crits and yet getting defeated, with the final punch by our Shadow Demon, and the glaive Songbird dropped becoming my VIP weapon because it decreases enemy's AC, and that effect stacks):

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