Planning and Guides (Spoilers Welcome)?

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Now that the final DLC and Enhanced Edition for Pathfinder: Kingmaker are out, I'm making plans of attack for my playthrough. I'm the kind of guy who likes to strive for 100% completion of quests and seeking the best endings for the game, barring specific mutually-exclusive stuff like romances or alignment-based branches, and so I like to do research and seek out spoilers and walkthroughs. Unfortunately, it appears that Pathfinder: Kingmaker doesn't really seem to have a lot of guides and stuff written for it the way games like the Baldur's Gate series or Neverwinter Nights games. Even the game's wiki has a lot of unfinished articles and dead links.

As a result, I'm at a bit of a loss as to where to begin, especially since there's a lot of moving parts with this game right from the start (Neverwinter Nights 2 for example, has Crossroad Keep but not really until the middle of the game's second act, whereas in this game you've got your kingdom right from the get-go after the "prologue" of dealing with the Stag Lord). In addition, alignment definitely seems to have MUCH greater impact on the storyline in this game than in any previous one, given how a lot of enemies can become allies only if you're Chaotic, which is kinda hard for me as a roleplayer, as my username implies. Add to that the DLCs and I'm not sure what to play first. Do I play Varnhold's Lot like a prequel, or can I start in with the base game and do it as I move along in-game? How do I utilize Beneath The Stolen Lands, since it's clear you're not necessarily meant to get the whole experience of that with your main character, and characters in that DLC are EXPECTED to die at some point?

So, how do I begin to approach this? How do I design my character to be best equipped to get as close to "the full Pathfinder: Kingmaker experience" as possible in a single playthrough? How do I build proper cities so I don't just impulsively build myself into a corner? Am I overthinking things the way I do for my play-by-post gaming? Thank you all in advance for your help and advice!

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I'm starting to wonder if maybe I should be asking more specific questions.

• How much "Chaotic ally" content am I going to miss if I play something like a paladin, i.e. allying with Tartuk, Armag, etc.? Should I ditch the paladin concept and just play something like an Inquisitor or Cleric who can be Chaotic Good?
• Is there any particular magic items/weapons/armor I should be keeping an eye out for aside from Briar, which I'm not likely to keep, instead giving it back to Nyrissa? Are there essential items that necessitate building your character around them like the Silver Sword of Gith in Neverwinter Nights 2?
• When I asked about the Varnhold's Lot campaign, I was asking more about how it figures into the Main Story: if you start in the Main Story, do you suddenly get a new Character Creation screen when you reach the Varnhold's Lot content in it, and then jump back and forth between the Main Story and Varnhold's as thing progress, or do you need to play through the entirety of Varnhold's Lot separately on its own, and then import its results into your Main Story?
• Is there any "penalty" for beelining straight for quest objectives to avoid running out of time anytime I get a quest, or are there solutions that can only be reached when certain times are hit? What worries me in regards to the timers is the overall time-limit for whatever chapter I'm in getting eaten up while I'm running around making sure all the sidequests are done. Plus, my understanding is a lot of quests are "tangled" together, and I'm concerned the optimal solution for one sidequest will guarantee an unoptimal solution for another (for example, if I romance and save Nyrissa, does that mean I can't save both Octavia and Regongar and thus one of them is doomed?). Are there scenarios like that?
• While the fact that skill challenges always use that of the companion with the highest score is a relief, meaning my character doesn't have to do everything themselves like in Neverwinter Nights 2, are there any MUST HAVE skills or ability scores to max out or at least keep in mind when building my main character if I want to get the optimal results for each quest?

[grandpoobah]

Lots of good Questions Archpaladin. I'll answer what I can.

I played the main game through 6-7 times with different builds and alignments, with different consequences. I have not done a playthrough on the new Enhanced Edition, so I cannot tell you how the DLCs interact with the main game.

Also, there have been changes to the main game with the Enhanced Edition that might make any guides or advice obsolete (such as item rarity).

That Said, here are some pointers:

1. Any polarized (not True Neutral) alignment will have consequences to options, both in terms of Kingdom options and NPC interactions. The playable NPCs are all accessible for all alignments, though later in the game alignment differences will come into play with consequences.

2. There are no critical items in the game. There are lots of +X stat items, weapons and armor. It is hard to find EXACTLY the weapon and armor you want, but there are a lot of options - and the new EE is supposed to have better shopping selection.

3. The only must-have skill for the main PC (IMHO) is Persuasion. I also take Skill Focus Persuasion at First level for this reason. The #2 skill is Perception/Trickery for Traps, hidden doors/items and locks. I always have a "Spotty McRogue" Mercenary in my group with these two maxed out. From there, make sure your party has all skills covered - as they come up in game. The only skill I have NEVER seen needed is Use Magic Device.

4. Timers and quests are odd. The only way you run into trouble for this is if you do a kingdom thing that fast-forwards the clock 14-28 days, especially when close to the Season of Bloom Event that happens every chapter. The new EE is supposed to have a better documentation of when quests expire.

5. There are a handful of times when you will choose one NPC over another (their goals or urgent need of help are in direct conflict). No way around that.

6. There are some side-quests that you may find unsatisfying, (the Hellknight Quest and Val's Redemption come to mind) as they don't (IMHO) give you the options you should have. But that's a writing choice.

7. the game follows a strict timer of when events happen relative to each chapter, and you can plan for it. I usually quickly solve the main-quest of a chapter, then finish exploring/doing sidequests and doing kingdom setup/management last. This is because some Kingdom events force the clock forward, which can auto-fail quests. In addition, you'll want kingdom features that facilitate fast-travel, and plan your "quests" to minimize travel time.

In Summary, I've generally beaten the game and gotten the "best" ending (you have to do all the Curse Researches for this to work) multiple times, with multiple alignment/choices, so don't fret your Lawful tendencies.

Playing through the game 2-3 times honestly made it better for me, not sure if that is meaningful advice (you may not have the time or patience for that). It would take a thorough guide/walkthrough to explain all the details of the game and how best to manage your Kingdom/Adventuring time.

[CorvusMask]

This is definitely game to play multiple times through with different alignments.(and maybe gods if you want to see god specific dialog options)

From what I remember, all of alignments allow you to ally with mutually exclusive characters. Chaotic allies tend to be ones who used to be your enemies, evil alliest end to be the really nasty villain ones, good is the merciful option of course, neutral allows you to make peace between several different factions in conflict with each other and lawful allowed you to avoid combat with few characters too but I don't remember everyone.

Varnhold's Lot is its own seperate thing, i'd actually recomend playing it with lower difficulty because of certain... Reasons. Anyway, good timing to play it would be when your character gets to become baron. So save game, start Varnhold's lot, import your main game, finish Varnhold's lot and then import it back when main game asks you to at start of Varnhold Vanishing(you don't honestly need to import same game :p Like I had imported my firstplaythrough save from final boss, which resulted in Varnhold's Lot intro cutscene having my character with end game gear which was silly, but thats only part where main game import matters. The Varnhold's Lot being imported to main game unlocks a dungeon at least, but there isn't enough information on internet on rest of things)

I'm bit unsure of how to answer question, but you CAN romance Nyrissa and save every party member. It does however requier you to complete every character's personal questline.(also there are other factors, like if you romance Octavio and Regongar without romancing both of them, the one you didn't romance dies)

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Okay, it's been a while since I last paid attention to this, but now I'm starting to think more about getting back into this now that all the DLC for the game is out.

I'm thinking that to take advantage of CG benefits, since from what I'm seeing Lawful characters get the short end of the stick, I'll make my protagonist a CG Transmuter/Aldori Defender/Eldritch Knight! They'll have reasons to be interested BOTH in Brevoy's politics and studying the magical goings-on in the Stolen Lands, and their alignment will allow them to make friends with the unlikeliest allies. Does that seem like a good idea?

[CorvusMask]

I mean, if you want to game the system, you can use retrain option to change your alignment :p Lawful characters do get some nice choices, no alignment option has all the best choices. Just do whatever you want or play game through multiple times

[Archpaladin Zousha]

...You can DO that?!

[CorvusMask]

Yaeh, because they didn't design the game around the retrain option they added as result of requests by players in later patches :p I probably wouldn't recommend using it in normal playthrough because such things are often buggy in rpgs

(note: I could be wrong since I have never tried it myself, but I heard someone comment that its possible. It sounds annoying though because presumably you'd have to rebuild character completely each time)

[Papa-DRB]

Yes, you have to rebuild the character from scratch each time.

I had a Sylvan Sorcerer with a boar companion, and wanted to change his spell focus. Rebuilt and ended up with two boar companions and could not get rid of one. Other than that, it seemed to work fine.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Huh.

Now I'm not sure! Do I wanna do the CG Transmuter/Aldori Defender/Eldritch Knight, or maybe the LG Paladin/Aldori Swordlord? There aren't any paladin companions, so I wouldn't be stealing a companion's thunder (Octavia in this case, since she's a wizard/rogue and potential Arcane Trickster)...

And I can't decide what ancestry to pick. Everyone feels a little redundant with one or more companions.

Heck, what colors should I make my character's clothes?! Are your clothes colors reflected on your kingdom's heraldry?

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Something else I was wondering: Are the best spells the same as they are on the tabletop? The only spell I know I need is glitterdust for that one quest (the missing kid), but other than that I'm not sure what spells a wizard SHOULD pursue in-game, especially one looking to gish.