How To Rule A Barony or A Kingdom

[ericsaxon35]

Your Pathfinder Kingmaker Domain has a case of the stupids so you must run with it, and adjust your game play accordingly. The Pathfinder Kingmaker design team, made a conscious decision to design Domain Management to be counter intuitive. I will give you an explanation of the mechanics, so that you don't have trouble with it.



1. You begin your Barony with the single province of Shrike (River Valley.)

2. Claiming more provinces gives you NOTHING. I don’t mean it gives you little benefit, no, no, I mean it gives you NOTHING. So, if you are going to spend those precious Build Points (BPs from now on) then you have to understand this.

3. Expanding your Domain to include more provinces means you are about to sink between 50-500 BPs into something that gives your Domain NOTHING. (I mentioned that your Domain had a case of the stupids, right? Good, I just wanted to make sure you don’t feel you’ve been lied to.)

4. Domain strength is based on BP production. The more you earn, the stronger you Domain is.

5. Your main goal is to increase you BP production, size doesn’t matter. Having 14 provinces generates exactly the same amount of BPs as 1 province. See above, about the game having a case of the stupids. (Yes, I said it was counter intuitive, this is what I meant. 1,000 sq miles and 14,000 sq miles have exactly the same income base of ZERO, don't be bothered by it, just accept it and move on with your life.)

6. Increasing BP production is your only objective. You can’t afford to research curses and you can’t afford Domain improvements without the BPs to pay for it.

7. Your BP Income, is based on your Domain Strength + Base Income.

8. Your Domain Strength should be your number one focus, since Base Income is unstable and trashy, and you lose parts of it, for no apparent reason, because you know, the Developers didn’t put much thought into it... Every Domain statistic starts at (I) and can go up to (X,) using Roman numerals. (I)(II)(III)(IV)(V)(VI)(VII)(VIII)(IX)(X)
9. Your Domain Strength is your main income. Your Domain Strength, is based on the combined scores of all your Domain Statistics.

10, There are 10 Domain Statistics. NOT all Domain Statistics are created equal. ECONOMY LEVEL is the HEART. It is the ceiling of all your other statistics, for the purposes of calculating BP income. Your LOYALTY can be level (IX) if your ECONOMY is only level (V) then your LOYALTY is ONLY level (V.) Got it? Say it with me again... ECONOMY is KING, all other statistics are limited by its strength or its weakness. It is your job to make sure your ECONOMY is always the highest value of your Domain.

11. Each month is divided into two phases. The first 2 weeks and the second 2 weeks. (You should adventure, during either one phase or the other, but don't do a 5 day adventure and then go back to running your Domain. Either spend the whole 2 weeks doing adventures, or don't bother.)

12. You are attempting to first and foremost increase one of your Domain Statistics, each month, twice if at all possible. Each statistic requires you to have the Support your (Advisor's) Endeavors, card which takes 14 days to complete. Increase Economy first if possible.

13, Each card should only be undertaken if you have an advisor who gives you a 55% chance of better at succeeding. Otherwise, you need to chose the IGNORE option. (A FAIL is better than a DISASTER, trust me.)

14. Take the DC (Difficulty Check) and subtract your advisor's total score. if the result is 10 or less, you have a 55% or better chance of having a success, definitively attempt the DC.

15. If the result of the DC-Score is 11 or more, just ignore the event. Better to have a fail than a DISASTER.

16. Cards should be begun on the 14th of the month, so that they end on the 28th, or they should be begun on the last day of the month. This will give you a higher chance of multiple successes.

17. IF Domain Statistic increases are not available, then resources should be invested in Trade Agreements. (However many of their benefits are suspect, as some simply vanish.) An example of an agreement that simply went poof for me, was my Trade Agreement with Varnhold, or so I believe. Varhold eventually becomes absorbed by your Barony, however no actual province income replaces your loss of the Trade Agreement. (Again, there's that DESIGN of Domain Management, coming to bite us in the rear.)

18. If you are desparate to increase some base Kingdom Stat, you can expand into other provinces and then spend more BPs to claim the resources. For a small amout of growth. (I don't recommend it, unless you've got BPs spilling out of your pockets.)

[A lot of this is tongue in cheek and some still needs to be adjusted and refined, please add or correct what I need to correct, and I'll eventually post a final product in the Guides and Hints part of the forum.]

[dwarfpcfan]

expanding your domain gets you resourcer locations to flag, which give anywhere from a +1 to a +5 to a stats. Given that some secondary stats (arcane being the most notable) are painfully slow to increase, yes you should expend your domain to get those bonuses to increase arcane so you can finally have a worthwhile magister which can do the same missions as the priest, missions which usually have very high dcs and carry the heftiest penalties for not succeeding. Yes economy is the biggest stat and your primary stat to increase but you need all advisors and you need them as strong as possible. This necessitates capturing additional domains.

[Propsken]

Increasing your domain by adding new regions also gives you the opportunity not only to place building and increase your kingdom stats (even though these are quickly overshadowed by completing events), but also other benefits. For instance, there's a project that halves travel time in your kingdom, just to name one.

Other than that, not too bad comprehensive list of kingdom management hints and tips.

[Grifta]

A lot of these points are misleading. Having a BARE province gives you no NET income. Once you build a city and some economic buildings, it generates NET positive income.

[Grifta]

Also, look at your DP income near the start. Your whole kingdom is in the hole. You're getting 30DP per week from Restov just to keep you a float.

[ericsaxon35]

Originally posted by Grifta:

A lot of these points are misleading. Having a BARE province gives you no NET income. Once you build a city and some economic buildings, it generates NET positive income.

I'm not sure what game you are playing but that's almost never true in Pathfinder Kingmaker.

Other than a Tannery and a Hafling Brewery 10%, there are no buildings that give you any +BP. So please explain how getting economic buildings generates even a wooden penny... please, I'm all ears.

[ericsaxon35]

Originally posted by Grifta:

Also, look at your DP income near the start. Your whole kingdom is in the hole. You're getting 30DP per week from Restov just to keep you a float.

I'm aware of what you get as a Barony and what you get as a Kingdom.

And that 30 BP goes away after you become a Kingdom, so don't count on it being there forever.

[RhymeBubbles]

Expanding gives you access to artisans who make items for you. Those items are worth a lot and sometimes a single item will sell for enough to give you back the BP use on the region claim and their workshop. After that every item they give you is pure profit.

[Nibroc810]

I just want to read this later without searching for it.

[Winterclaw42]

1. I kind of wish there was more benefit to townbuilding. It seems like events are the main way to increase your kingdom statistics.
2. BP seem to be high in demand, rare in supply.
3. I have a ton of projects backing up because of 2.
4. I hate doing long projects because an advisor I need for an event might be tied up for 2 months.
5. I wish custom characters could be advisors.
6. I hate the hellknights quest, the devs should have never added it.
7. It takes a lot of economy to get any BP.
8. Kingdom building makes me wait around for too long and frankly it's nowhere as good as a simcity/civ game. It's only slightly better than Thea.

[BoriSama]

I've just upgraded from barony to kingdom and I'm really, really frustrated!
It suddenly appeared 15 projects (1 for every companion to level up to my lvl, and they are on my level + some trade agreements). It lags and I can't select the one that I want, cause now I have 1 billion projects on my screen
My BP income went from 45 to 27.
Everything needs A LOT of BP.
The time management make my anxiety go crazy.
A lot of failing events.
This is worse than real life problems
And I don't have any Counselour anymore

[BoriSama]

I think the worst part is that you keep thinking that you are doing something wrong. Seeing that insane amount of projects that just can't be done/ignored/deleted... It drives me insane

The rest of the game is awesome, really good.

But the kingdom management only infuriate and frustrate me

[ericsaxon35]

Ok folks, you need to be doing TWO rounds of projects one set around the 15th and one set to begin around the 30th. And the +1 to Kingdom Stat needs do begin on the 1st of the month.

[Marcos_DS]

Originally posted by ericsaxon35:

2. Claiming more provinces gives you NOTHING. I don’t mean it gives you little benefit, no, no, I mean it gives you NOTHING. So, if you are going to spend those precious Build Points (BPs from now on) then you have to understand this.

Instant benefit:
It gives you access to kindom management while traveling in the province. This alone makes it worth it.
Long term:
- 50BP for village -> get another merchant which adds good to great items. Price of items alone will soon recover the invested BP
- Squares to build in village/town allows raising specific stats, useful for initially hard to raise stats like espionage. Also buildings that improve advisor rolls
- more provinces = more villages to town upgrades
- accss to kindom resources and province projects (e.g. faster travel speed in Kamelands)

5. Your main goal is to increase you BP production, size doesn’t matter. Having 14 provinces generates exactly the same amount of BPs as 1 province. See above, about the game having a case of the stupids. (Yes, I said it was counter intuitive, this is what I meant. 1,000 sq miles and 14,000 sq miles have exactly the same income base of ZERO, don't be bothered by it, just accept it and move on with your life.)

Not my main goal. My goal is to maximize merchant production, advisor strength and project boni. If i can choose between BP production and any of those goals, BP looses (i can always trade gold to BP if needed). However since increasing rank also increases BP production, income will also increase over time.

[Caldori]

I agree with Marcos_DS getting a functional network in your kingdom is very beneficial. i mostly buy my BP from my spoils of adventuring. personally im trying to limit my time spent on facebook and get outside and play with the monsters :)