guess it's back to story mode ^^

[snuggleform]

I just tried Core and got wiped in the tutorial dungeon in the room with the berserker + 2 mongrels + archer.

Don't know how you guys do it. Yes I'm fighting defensively with both seelah and camelia, I prebuff fights with the angel's light and virtue on my cleric for the extra temp hp, and I start fights at full hp but I'm getting wiperinoed and I can't even rest to change or refill spells since there are "enemies nearby."

Back to story mode for me ^^

[.O.]

if you move far away enough you can rest. But yeah I would definitely say play a difficulty mode that is fun for you. For some people fun is about minmaxing so they enjoy the higher difficulty, for me and many others that is not the case so I play on easier difficulties.

In saying that, if you struggle on Core, that doesn't mean you will struggle on Normal, so may be worth trying Normal before going all the way down to story mode.

[SmallGespenst]

that checks out for an inexperienced player on Core, it's basically the hardest difficulty that Owlcat expects to be used (Unfair is for turbo munchkins to have some kind of challenge)
Light of the Angels and Virtue are trash, they be effectively nothing. the buffs you should be using are stat boosters and things like Mage armor and Barkskin so you're actually landing more hits and avoiding more attacks.
it's also worth noting that the prologue and act1 are some of the hardest parts of the game because you have limited spell-slots for buffing, no access to mythic powers and limited enough offensive presence that you can't just delete enemies before they get a chance to act.

[snuggleform]

Hmm maybe I was supposed to give Camelia "sleep" in her spell slots and savescum until it sleeps them all then coup de grace? Is that what they intended for us to do?

[SmallGespenst]

Originally posted by snuggleform:

Hmm maybe I was supposed to give Camelia "sleep" in her spell slots and savescum until it sleeps them all then coup de grace? Is that what they intended for us to do?

Sleep the spell or Slumber the Hex are both options for cheese-ing the difficulty, but you really shouldn't be playing on Core if you can only deal with this kind of stuff through save-scumming checks. just switch to Normal or Daring and change from there if it's too easy or hard. (and be aware that the game is almost certain to devolve into rocket-tag before long, by late act-2 you'll run into cleric enemies that'll slap you with 110 damage on a failed save.)

[Agrael-]

Originally posted by snuggleform:

I just tried Core and got wiped in the tutorial dungeon in the room with the berserker + 2 mongrels + archer.

Don't know how you guys do it. Yes I'm fighting defensively with both seelah and camelia, I prebuff fights with the angel's light and virtue on my cleric for the extra temp hp, and I start fights at full hp but I'm getting wiperinoed and I can't even rest to change or refill spells since there are "enemies nearby."

Back to story mode for me ^^

Preparation is key. Use every single buff avaliable. Put blur on Seelah, bless on everyone. Start the fight by charging the berserker first. Everyone should hit him first, including Lann. Archer is the next one. After the first hit, Seelah goes on defensive mode, keep the wand on Carmelia and her close. Plus, use enlarge on Seelah, so she will hit more. Use smite on the berserker so that even on defensive, she will still hit hard. Use potions and lay on hands to keep Seelah alive long enough so you can kill the berserker. And then the rest should be easy. Lann can wipe them out easy enough.

To rest, you just fall back to a area you have already wiped, then rest there. You can't rest when there are enemies nearby, but in another area you can. I don't know how far is the radius, but 1/4 of the map should do it.
Also, don't forget to make Lann drink a mage armor potion. He will need the extra AC in case one of the enemies start targeting him.
That should get you through it. And if you are still having trouble, start by charging, then after the first hits, you switch back to turn mode and go from there.
The thing is, this game is waaaay harder than Kingmaker and on Kingmaker you don't even survive without the buffs and micro management. And i've came from DND. The micro, spells and buffs alone made me dazzled by the work one has to put before every major fight. But after you survive the prologue, you will be fine.

[darkholyPL]

If you are not familliar with Pathfinder 1e/DnD 3.5 ruleset, then 'Core' is really not for you.
And it doesn't mean you're 'bad at teh vidogamez' or anything like that, it even says it I think in the description, that it's designed for players that are already familliar with the system.
Just pick whatever difficulty you can manage and still have fun.

I play on Core because I know the system, but when Rogue Trader comes out, I will not play that on 'core' since I don't know that system well enough. You can be sure I'll go for 'normal' and then adjust as needed in that game.

[canuck250]

Are you starting the fight with a charge? And as many have mentioned, using defensive buffs? Charge is key to getting first hit in on their flat armour instead of their normal ac. Evil Eye is super huge for early game. Taking away their ac helps land hits which means they have less time to swing on you. Starting with a dog or wolf really helps with core, that trip is so handy.

[ProestUnicorn]

Originally posted by darkholyPL:

If you are not familliar with Pathfinder 1e/DnD 3.5 ruleset, then 'Core' is really not for you.
And it doesn't mean you're 'bad at teh vidogamez' or anything like that, it even says it I think in the description, that it's designed for players that are already familliar with the system.
Just pick whatever difficulty you can manage and still have fun.

I play on Core because I know the system, but when Rogue Trader comes out, I will not play that on 'core' since I don't know that system well enough. You can be sure I'll go for 'normal' and then adjust as needed in that game.

Pretty much that, I have never played D&D except few games based on it like neverwinter nights years and years ago and although I have beaten the game 1st time on unfair it was a ride through hell and probably would call it the most difficult game I have played. 2nd unfair playthrough was much, much easier after learning the ropes.

[MjKorz]

Start as a Wizard with 20 INT and double spell focus in conjuration. Get Grease as your starting spell. Tactical application of basic Grease alone is enough to solve virtually any encounter against non-flying humanoids, assuming you can scale its spell DC later in the game.

Turn xp share off.

By the time you reach the water elemental you should be level 3. Pick selective spell metamagic and apply it to Grease. Dump selective Grease on top of the enemy and fight while staying in your own puddle. It works against the water elemental as well.

Also consider taking Evil Eye as Camellia's first hex so that you can debuff enemy saves and make them more vulnerable to Grease. You can make Lann your main tank by turning him into a Mutation Warrior or Shadow Shaman (and taking Iceplant on Lann who makes a superior tank to Camellia anyway due to his unique Mongrel racial AC bonus and the ability to pick lizard as a Shaman familiar).

[Agrael-]

Originally posted by MjKorz:

Turn xp share off.

By the time you reach the water elemental you should be level 3.

Out of curiosity, what does taking the xp off do for the party as a whole? Would there be characters with less lv and others with more lvs or does that just means that they get the xp of what they kill?

[Chester]

You're going to learn a lot of things about the game as you progress through it. People could give you a some good tips (which they have so far) or a huge hour long video guide to help you learn more, but just by playing the game on a lower difficulty you're going to naturally learn more about good ways to approach the game's challenge.

Don't feel bad about turning down the difficulty in a game with some complicated systems you may just now be learning to navigate. At the end of the 1st Act you could bump it up if you want to, or restart, or just save it for another run after completion - the game has some good replay value.

[IlluminaZero]

You will want to enable experience share before a party member joins to sync all character levels. If you forget to do this you will have characters join at lower experience - But its not too critical as there are certain points in the story where shared exp will "reset" the party's exp to all be the same. I know the Gargoyle ambush is one such event.

I usually give Seelah a Glaive and have Camellia tank. Going Wenduag early on can be doubly beneficial due to the Masterwork Javelin + being assured that both Lann and Wenduag will fight together in at the end of the Shield Maze regardless of character choice.

This is doubly significant if you want to do some kind of Divine caster Lann build. Early multiclass Lann won't have Precise shot and have less BAB. Which will make the early game significantly harder.

If you REALLY want to power through the beginning with minimal difficulty a class that starts with a mount / pet will make things a lot simpler - And make looting less a PITA.

[RandomDude2018]

That is the toughest encounter in the maze on unfair for me. Helps if you have 2 attacks on a single character (fists) and pets (i play without pets as default though). The berserker has to die during the first round. Going for the ranger as second is very risky due to AOO from the other two mongrels. Not worth it. I kill him last. If i remember correctly the ranger has more AC than those two other mobs.

Anyway if you are having problems here you shouldn't be playing on Core. There will be more difficulty spikes in the future and you'll be making more threads like this.

Pro tip. You can farm random encounters in the maze to level up a bit. That requires time and patience. There is no corruption and no time limit. Make sure you have people watching for enemies but put no one on camouflage. There are 2 types of encounters: spiders/bees (you don't want the diseases/poisons on you, reload if you get any of those on your party members) and a single cultist with a masterwork glaive. You want to farm the cultist. Why? He's always alone and has that glaive and you want that gold :) In theory you can reach level 20 there... It's risky though if you want to go for mercenaries like me. They will cost fortune. I bought 5 on my first visit to the Tavern. Paid 8000 for each...

Another pro tip. The last boss before you leave the maze. I was the only survivor before killing the boss (the companions died). The game will resurrect them (you don't have to reload your game, i didn't have to). Don't leave the maze. You can sell your stuff to the mongrel vendor there and farm even more random encounters if you need... Again no time limit and no corruption.

Kingmaker was much harder at the start to be honest. Owlcat did it right this time around.

[Malaficus Shaikan]

I find that a big part of core is knowing what will happen and prepear for it.

For example in my current core build i said:
♥♥♥♥ roleplay friendly builds.
Mounts for everyone.
Carminila and wendaug ridding a horse and avoiding encounters i know i can not beat.
I am sure there are even better builds but for the most part i stop looking at my companions as characters and start seeing numbers.
Wendaug got a +1 in glave(Holsa blade is nice that fear affect)
I turned wenaug into a hunter who is my third biggest damage dealer.
The biggest is riggell(Turned into a cavalier) and second biggest is sheela(Mounted paladin with blessed blade is nice)

As a rule i move slowly and buff myself with communal protection from evil(bless and prayer for harder fights) haste.
Sheela, wendaug and regill hit 2(wenduag) 3(sheela) 4(regill) when hasted.
In combination with turn based they take out the biggest threat before they can even start there turn.
I also always try to get a suprise round in using an attack before the seen me.

I also play on ironman(because i am insane) and yeah not a moment doesnt go by where i dont think:
How can i make sure the enemy can not hit me and i can hit them really hard.
I dont want my characters to die.

Where if i play on the fun difficulty i can get away with not putting +1 into characters and turn them into 1 trick ponies.

[mk11]

Really helpful early is to take Protective Luck Hex on Camellia. That with one tankish character drawing aggro with a charge and then fighting defensive can avoid taking hits.