WotR Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - Tips & Tricks & Help

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous

Alrik Fassbauer

TL;DR
Original Sin Donor
Original Sin 2 Donor
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Joined
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I am never very good with things like this as a lot of the useful stuff is already done in-game in the tutorials or tips you read. Things like setting abilities/spells to auto-trigger, tab to highlight items, etc. Or they are specific to a class build (like I have one character who is very high in stealth and trickery, with the fast stealth trait and the expeditious retreat spell ... which means exploring while stealthed, or invisible, to take out traps and see what is around is very fast).

COMBAT TIP:

GREASE SPELL (and related):

The best combat tip I have picked up so far is to use grease and other crowd control spells. Granted they don't always work, and can also effect your own party, so I usually avoided them in games. However, in this game, as well as BG3, I am finding carefully placed grease spells are ultra handy to how slow down attacking enemies.

ACID/FIRE THROWING:

Not sure why but the fire potions you thrown include friendly fire but not the acid ones. Useful if you want to throw things and not worry about hurting friends.

DIALOGUE/INTERACTION:

Many classes have the guidance spell, its a cantrip, that lasts one minute. The creature gets a +1 competence bonus on a single attack roll, saving throw, or skill check. That one extra point is worth the small time cost to cast it, if you want to get that little extra edge on passing a skill check. I always hot key this spell to case before a skill check or dialogue.

If I think of anything else will come back.
 
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Don't miss the auto-assign on the rest interface. It wasn't there in the beta, or at least not before beta 3. It's very handy! The interface keeps the configuration as long as you don't change the party composition (same as the combat formations).

The corruption get nasty very quickly, so avoid it at all cost. I'd rather assign a 2nd character at the expense of the other posts, just to increase the odds of passing the check.

Cooking is usually worth it when you're going to a new place, make sure to select the dish that corresponds to the buff you'll need (I know, it's a bit speculative).
 
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Chapter 1

Those two have annoyed me in the past, so I'm giving a few hints. I'll add more later.

I need to find 5 Magic Essence items.
You can find 3 of them in the city, before going at the last place that closes the 1st chapter. One in the Library, one in the Tower of Estrod, one … I don't remember :p but maybe in Gwerm's Mansion (let me know).
You will find 3 others at that last place. As well as another item the Storyteller is asking you to find.
I cannot enter a room in Gwerm's Mansion!
The room on the right, up the stairs to the 1st floor.
You cannot open it until chapter 5, no need to search everywhere :)

Chapter 2

There's an altar down there at Lost Chapel, with something in it. What do I do?
You only see the altar if you have unlocked the Azata path.

You need 3 items: harp, map and sextant.
The map is in the altar.
The sextant is on the East side of the map, to loot from a dead body.
The harp is in a cave NE of the map.

Place the items in the correct order, you will meet Arueshalae in a dream, that allows to recruit her a little earlier, at the end of chapter 2.
(copied from joxer's post) You do put all three items on (in) the altar, but their order is irrelevant. When you put them, three buttons appear (hands) and you need to play a song, hint: MRLM.
After the cutscene check the altar again, a fourt nifty item will appear in (on) it.
 
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I've just used both grease and pits in the Grey Garrison where a lot of enemies had to pass through a choke point. Worked like a charm!

Of course after that you have to be cautious around those areas, grease remains quite long. There is a Skip Time command, the icon is a rotating hour glass (bottom left of the screen), you can use that to wait until the spells wear out. Very handy, I remember going for a coffee in Kingmaker when I had no solution but to wait.
 
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I've just used both grease and pits in the Grey Garrison where a lot of enemies had to pass through a choke point. Worked like a charm!

Of course after that you have to be cautious around those areas, grease remains quite long. There is a Skip Time command, the icon is a rotating hour glass (bottom left of the screen), you can use that to wait until the spells wear out. Very handy, I remember going for a coffee in Kingmaker when I had no solution but to wait.

You don't have to wait. Just use "dismiss spell". I assume the character who cast it needs to be the one to dismiss it, but I don't know that for sure.
 
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None of my characters has Grease yet … And I'm still within the Prologue …

It was hard for me to find out how to access the items on the belt … I rather accidentally cliked on that capital B and then I found it out ! Same goes for changing weapons …

Now at least know how to use items from the belt, and spells and scrolls, too …

"I've just met that Water Elemental and have severe problems getting it down … Any tips ?"

When I'm after the story line resting place (journal entry), will additional resting hurt the story line ?

Apart from that, the game reacts rather sluggish ... Is this because my PC is so slow, or because the game isn't optimized yet ?
 
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Aye clicking around is useful!

Resting is good but it comes with the cost of corruption unless in a safe place (like a home base or friendly tavern or city) as each time you sleep corruption builds up and after a while has harsh penalties. You can slow it down by having a party member, or two, perform a ritual around the camp. You do this through the resting interface that comes up when you rest. Along with setting guards, camoflage, and cooking meals - find recipes and cooking food at camp adds some nice bonuses for the following day. You can find recipes for companions that are there favorite food as well.

You can also use camp time to make potions and scribe spells onto scrolls. Need to get an alchemy kit (they come in different levels for making better potions) and scroll kits (different levels for different spells). Only need to buy once though as they then become permanent and don't weigh anything. So make the investment and then done. You do, however, need ingredients for cooking, potions, and scrolls. You find that stuff while exploring and can also buy some.

I don't think resting will hurt the story as far as finishing a main quest. BUT resting can cause time to go by which in turn can have consequences.

Let me give a vague example:

You might get an optional quest where you have to find some people and do X so you later can have them later on in the story. If too much time goes by maybe those people won't be around anymore or maybe some of them die. I can think of a few examples in the first chapter where if you let a lot of time go by you can still do certain parts of the quest but it won't be the optimal solution/result.

It isn't really a timed quest, where it fails if you don't do it in X time. Instead life goes on so if you spend time doing other things well some things in the world will go on there own and change.

No different then if you approach a quest and solve it with option B but if you had solved it with option C there would be another outcome.

So sleep/time does have some impact in that sense. Also the corruption issue I mentioned. Beyond those two things I don't recall finding any other serious repercussions of sleeping too much in BETA which I made to chapter 5 (or whatever chapter was the end of the BETA as I got that far).

Role play wise you also may not want to sleep if you have a quest that feels urgent even if it isn't timed. But that is just for RP.

Sluggish - It can be at times and I have a beast. I found it most of that was because I was running Discord and some other apps at the same time. I found getting out of discord, FRAPS, browsers, and not ALT-TABBING really improved the smoothness of the game.

It can be demanding and I don't know your PC. You might want to consider lowering some graphic settings (read them - some indicate in the help text it can cause slow downs and to only use if your computer can handle it, like the option to improve load times). Also disable any other things running on your PC you don't need.

Now on that spoiler:

That is a hard one! On what I call fair difficulty (which means your party and the enemy all deal equal damage to each other with no plus or minus adjustments, no reduction in criticals, etc. - basically putting both on par) I usually need to give it a few tries.

The water elemental has resistances you need to pay attention to. Still even with out fire spells I can do it. I mainly buff my tanks with everything I possibly can - enlarge, bless, armor spells - try to find a good weapon that will damage the thing, have lots of potions and heal spells ready - and use any magic I can find that works against it.

With a little luck, and trying to keep folks healed, I can get it down. Somewhat depends on who your PC is - some fire magic is useful for sure.

It can also hit hard so even though I waste a few turns sometimes I try to keep my two main tanks always fully healed.

You can set Seelah to be defensive and tank - and hold its attention. Have Lann (or Wen) hitting it with arrows - not sure if the cold iron ones work better but I always buy them from the one mongrel merchant as they are also very useful against the demons. The Shaman lady can heal and I give her a crossbow so she isn't directly in melee - that way she can shoot and cast spells from the back.

Anyhow that is how I do it - I rest right before the battle, max out on every buff spell I can get my hands on, and potions and scrolls, and try to use my best weapons. Also try to limit who is in direct melee and space out my characters.



Might be some others I am forgetting or not thinking about - its a huge game and I also might not be aware of something simply because I only did it once, or always did it X way.
 
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"I've just met that Water Elemental and have severe problems getting it down … Any tips ?"

I play on normal difficulty and it took me a few tries - its considered a tough optional boss in prologue.

I used angel light to blind(?) it first. Seelah went in first to keep its attention then other melees (Camellia and me) started to attack from behind (flanking). Lann was positioned behind Camellia and me with his bow.

Apart from that, the game reacts rather sluggish … Is this because my PC is so slow, or because the game isn't optimized yet ?

The game runs fine on my PC but I'm not sure how powerful my PC is.
 
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I've been told I need to complete certain quests in chapter 1 before a major Demon attack. What's the trigger for that attack so I know when to expect it. I tend to be a SLOW completionist, plus I use TB!! :)
 
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The first demon defense fight is awful, awful, AWFUL design. For a game ending battle it would be okay. But for a fight 2% into the game. Utterly ridiculous. I can see that Owlcat still has no idea of what a fun challenge is. There are ENTIRELY too many enemies in this STUPID battle.

I've played far too long to return the game, but I'm hot right now. I have zero desire to fight this again. I went 22 rounds into it and they were still coming in waves and waves. For all I know, I''m halfway through this STUPID, STUPID battle.
 
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The first demon defense fight is awful, awful, AWFUL design. For a game ending battle it would be okay. But for a fight 2% into the game. Utterly ridiculous. I can see that Owlcat still has no idea of what a fun challenge is. There are ENTIRELY too many enemies in this STUPID battle.

I've played far too long to return the game, but I'm hot right now. I have zero desire to fight this again. I went 22 rounds into it and they were still coming in waves and waves. For all I know, I''m halfway through this STUPID, STUPID battle.

I agree this is a very hard fight and my dogs got very upset when I first did it as I was yelling at my computer and hitting my desk and they think I was mad at them. That always calms down my temper lol.

That being said I really like this battle and think it is vital to the game and glad they have it, although I know your temper is hot and so probably don't want to read that.

I think it is important because its before your character becomes epic, a mythic player, and hence helps provide some contrast to future battles - which can also be just as hard (the gargoyles come to mind) - because at this stage you are sill a bit of a nobody who happens to show promise. You are a smaller cog working with everyone else to protect the home base. And I felt all the enemies really sent the message that this was a final stand and conveyed how dire the situation is.

I also like that it helps give the feeling of going from rock bottom to the top as you slowly move along in the game. This is that first big step, the first big fight, and hence important.

Another reason I think it is vital is it slams home the story - the city is taken over by demons, this is the last safe base, and it makes sense they would launch a major attack to take you down.

You can gain allies to help improve the odds but it is still very hard. I did it once on hard/fair difficulty with Lobo (my feral warpriest) in Beta. I wanted to know I could do it on equal standing with the enemy. It took me many tries and my best fight only got a moderate approval from Irabeth (versus a full victory).

Since I know I can do it, if I spend the time and effort, I did it this time on story telling mode and literally breezed through it. I had no desire at all to go through it again with the same character. I don't like stressing in a game.

Doing the same with Wulver, my Sacred Huntsman. In Beta he also did it on hard/fair difficulty and he got a full victory but he was a bit easier to manage than Lobo as he had his wolf and wasn't as directly in melee. When Wulver gets to it this time I will most likely lower it again.

I like knowing I can conquer something but once is really enough. There are also some fights I did in Beta I was just like, hell no and put it on easy mode :p I play to have fun and if combat is stressing me I lower the difficulty.

Now and then I do get in the mood of "I am going to WIN this no matter what" and will put in a lot of time and usually I can do it on hard. But I have to be in the right mood.

Anyhow sorry it was frustrating. My only advice is to lower the difficulty and play on RtwP mode as it will be very fast and over with.

EDIT: Combat can wear me out at times so when I get tired with combat I will simply lower the difficult. I am one of those odd players that tends to get less enjoyment out of lots of combat in games. I like it for the story, the lore, the music, the companions, everything else. I also enjoy some combat but not like others do who see it as the main focus. So when in the mood for combat I tend to play on hard and when not in the mood I put it on easy.
 
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I've been told I need to complete certain quests in chapter 1 before a major Demon attack. What's the trigger for that attack so I know when to expect it. I tend to be a SLOW completionist, plus I use TB!! :)

A few things you should do before Defender's Heart battle:

1. Clear Estrod Tower and bring back information to Irabeth at Defender's Heart - this reduces difficulty of the encounter + I heard it gives you an extra day or so before the attack happens.
2. Clear market place ASAP - you can get additional party members (Ember + Daeran's quest before he joins the party) + unlock some mythic paths (Aeon and Azata)
3. Rescue Storyteller at the Blackwing library before the attack.
4. Recruit Woljif who's at the basement of Defender's Heart.

I don't usually rest and soldier on by drinking potions until DF's attack.

The first demon defense fight is awful, awful, AWFUL design. For a game ending battle it would be okay. But for a fight 2% into the game. Utterly ridiculous. I can see that Owlcat still has no idea of what a fun challenge is. There are ENTIRELY too many enemies in this STUPID battle.

I've played far too long to return the game, but I'm hot right now. I have zero desire to fight this again. I went 22 rounds into it and they were still coming in waves and waves. For all I know, I''m halfway through this STUPID, STUPID battle.

I disagree - I thought it was a fun combat, at least in RTwP.

You don't need to focus on everyone - just kill arsonists ASAP. You can also let some pass through to Irabeth's group - they can kill most of enemies pretty quick, except the minotaur guy at the end.

In addition, it is not a game over if you lose that encounter - it just puts you in a worse situation (from what I heard, I never lose this battle).
 
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I tried it again. 42 turns this time and no sign that there's an end to the enemies. Am I missing something here? Please tell me that I am and that it's not just a matter of beating X number of enemies (with X apparently equalling 666 because FUCK). If there's no trick to this I'm going to quit. It's not fun. It goes on fucking forever. The only thing I can imagine doing at this point is setting everything to super easy.

Btw. I supposedly got the assistance of the Thieflings when I helped one out from under some rubble and mentioned Irabeth's name but that seemed to make zero difference in the fight. I got no help from anyone. The invisible dwarf guy showed up but all he did was take out a few plot demons, no actual combatants.
 
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I don't know if they help out much in this fight (more for a later battle) but:

There are three main recruits. The Thieflings are one but they barely do anything and are the least useful. The most important ones are the ones tied up with the Storyteller at the library. You can only save them if you get there in time. In a later battle they give you an hour and a half haste spell (one time). Not sure if they help in the tavern fight though. The third are the followers of Desna if you save them.

What do you have enemy set at for in difficulty? Sounds like you might have the extra/enhanced which adds more. I only play on standard. Adding in more enemies to me isn't a fairness issue so I always leave that at standard. Unlike say damage - which you can set so player does more and enemy does less. I only use that if I want to breeze through a fight.

I just did the battle last night but don't hold me to my faulty memory - oh and only masochists would do this battle in TB mode IMO :p I always do it RtwP.

Here is what I can think of that may help or outline:

I make Wolfjif have all grease spells. He casts one at the main gate and at the rear gate, where the final boss demon comes through. I sometimes also cast it at the bottom of the ladder in the middle area where enemies climb over the side to enter. But that can also impede your side as well, more so than the gates IMO.

Another tip - make sure everyone in your party has at least one ranged attack - keeps them out of the grease or pit or webs.

You can hide behind the guards sometimes if you need safety to catch your breath. Talking about the guards by the door into the tavern itself. Shoot arrows from there.

Acid bottles can be thrown and only hurt the enemy.

Buy up some potions and scrolls from inside the tavern to use for the fight. Good to have a lot of healing and things to help with armor - displacement, blur, mirror image, etc.

Focus very hard on taking down the alchemists with the fire. The less fire they do the better your victory. Let the guards (well much as you can) worry about the rest (not always easy depending on aggro).

First Attack - First wave from main gate. There are a bunch of rounds of cultists and alchemists who come through. Protection from fire is very useful. Don't recall how many, a lot though.

Second Attack - After a few waves, maybe 5-7 (??) you get a cinematic camera showing them climbing over the wall to the fort. They also continue from the front gate but not as intense if I remember right. So I shift some focus to the wall. Mainly archers and try to let the guards take them down on the ramp/ladder area as it's tight to move your melee there.

Third Attack - After the second attack starts I try to use my tanks in the middle area to protect my ranged folk taking down arsonists/alchemists. I think this is a slightly shorter set of "waves" and at this point I make sure I have grease cast at the back gate where the final demon boss comes through.

When that demon breaks through I pepper with whatever arrows/bolts/spells/acid I might have left. I try to have my folks near where Irabeth is. When the demon comes over there you then have some help from the guards and possibly Irabeth. Once the demon goes down thats the end, assuming most of the other cultists and arsonists are down (some may flee after that, can't remember).

Victory depends a bit on how much fire damage there was and I guess how many soldiers got killed.

Get as much gold as you can. I usually make about 12K in gold by battle time which I use for potions and scrolls and a decent weapon and armor.

That is all I can think of at the moment.
 
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Some more tips:

Haste spell is your friend. I max out on that whenever I can in scrolls and magic. Super useful and IMO one of the strongest spells. I was using it even in the very high levels.

ANIMAL COMPANION TIPS:

These are things I totally missed initially and I think many players may not be aware of ???

- Animal companions can drink potions IF you put them in their belt slots. So they can heal themselves that way

- Animal companions can wear bracers, so boost their AC with bracers of armor (if not conflicting with barding)

- If you want to play a Dhampir or other negative energy character you can have an undead-touched animal follower that also heals by negative energy.
 
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Thanks for all the help Wolf. I just beat it. I didn't end up lowering the difficulty (mine is set to slightly easier than core). It seemed like they were endless so I decided they probably are, and focused on killing the arsonists faster. It still took a long time...40 turns... but only one of my characters was down this time. I didn't want to give up, nor did I like the idea of making it a cakewalk, so I decided to try once more. Whew.
 
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