Party composition for first-time player

[granada777]

I have a bunch of questions really.

1) How's the writing for the companions? If it sucks or is just some minor flavor text, then just say so and you can ignore the remaining questions.
2) Who are the most memorable characters I should absolutely bring along? The Minsc and Edwins of this game, if you will.
3) I want to play a Lawful Evil character. Will Good companions abandon the party/attack me for doing something evil? If so, am I safe if I stick to Evil and Neutral companions?
4) What would be a balanced party to use, given the above restrictions (want to play LE, want fun companions)?

I intend to play on Challenging. I've played a few CRPGs before but don't know anything about Pathfinder mechanics.

[Invisible]

1) I like it more in Kingmaker than in Wrath. You have companion quests and interactions in every camping phase.

2) Nok-Nok and linzi for me.

3) There are companions for everyone. Some good charcters might leave if you do something they dont like on a regular base.

4) Oh, there are very differnt opinions around here. But some caster is always needed to hit touch ac instead of AC (if you know what I mean). I usually use different setups depending on the expected fights / skill checks. But going with fighter/rouge/priest/wizard + 2 extra you can't go wrong.

Pathfinder is a fork of dnd with very similar rules. If you played bladurs gate or icewind dale back in the days, you will have no problems.

[Leoscar]

1.Inequal, most of them are good, a few not so much. It's not difficult to fill your party with good ones.

2.Jubilost, Jaethal for their cynicism if that's your thing. Regongar for the puns. Depends what you like in a character.

3.Depends how you want to role play really. It's possible to keep all compagnions as a evil character, but that might require picking the occasionnal neutral or good option. Note that unfortunatly, picking a evil choice can often mean just failing a compagnion quest, which can have consequences.

4.Heavily depends on what your character will be, like I wrote above as a evil character you can manage to keep even the goodie goodie character around, so I wouldn't worry too much about who will stay or leave. I personally like to use three melees (two tanks, one flanker), three ranged (at least one caster, preferably two). Party should have one divine caster, one arcane caster to be able to buff as much as possible.

[Mork]

1. Some are good other are bellow average... but it's honestly just personal preference.

2. Jubilost the alchemist is generally seen as the one with best quotes but he is more acting like a good character even if his alignment say chaotic neutral.

3. For the most part no they wont leave but it's definitely possible for some of them to leave because of your choices.

4. In my opinion lawful Evil is one of the best alignment for the campaign and my party during my Lawful Evil playthrough was something like ->

- Main Character: 20 Sage Sorcerer (crown controller, very very high INT and DC)
- Valerie: 3 Towershield Specialist / 13 Bard (Heavy armor tank bard and buffer)
- Amiri: 2 barbarian / 15 Two-handed Fighter (Pure and simple steady DPS)
- Regongar: 20 Eldritch Scion (Almost perfect DPS duo with Amiri, boss killer)
- Jeathal: 19 Vivisectionist archer (I wanted a dps archer + the unique alchemist buffs + rogue skills so she was the perfect evil character for it. She start weak but she became a quite powerful archer)
- Harrim: 20 Cleric (Simple offtank cleric)

[jsaving]

BG/BG2 are all-time classics and I'd argue Kingmaker is their closest spiritual successor over the last 20 years. If you liked those games then you're very likely to enjoy Kingmaker as well.

There isn't a general reputation counter in Kingmaker above which good-aligned companions will automatically "break" from the party, as characters like Ajantis would in BG. So you don't have to worry that being LE will automatically preclude you from having certain companions in your party. But each companion does have a modestly sized personal quest arc over the course of the game whose resolution determines how much loyalty the companion will feel toward you. And if you were to eventually encounter a house in Kingmaker that roughly resembles BG2's Spellhold, characters with sufficient loyalty to you would be expected to persevere whereas others might crumple.

As to who is strong enough to be a decent contributor, the answer on normal or challenging difficulty is just about everyone. For an evil-aligned run, core party composition would include Nok-Nok as Yoshimo, Jaethal as Viconia, and Jubilost as Jan. Then you'd add either Regongar as Minsc or Ekundayo as Kivan. You'd wrap the party with a full arcane caster for the fifth slot and then a bard or cleric for the sixth, perhaps Octavia plus a high-charisma bard MC or Valerie/Linzi plus a high-charisma sylvan sorcerer MC. Good luck!

[Frostfeather]

The companions in Kingmaker are rather poor in terms of writing. It's one of the weaker points of the game, imo.

Wrath is a improvement in that area, so while I usually don't recommend skipping Kingmaker for Wrath... you may want to. You don't need to have played Kingmaker to play the sequel as it's a new adventure that starts from level 1.

[Invisible]

night4 eredeti hozzászólása:

The companions in Kingmaker are rather poor in terms of writing. It's one of the weaker points of the game, imo.

Wrath is a improvement in that area, so while I usually don't recommend skipping Kingmaker for Wrath... you may want to. You don't need to have played Kingmaker to play the sequel as it's a new adventure that starts from level 1.

As the op has no experience with Pathfinder Rules I disagree.

Wrath demands very specific class builds and feats to fight the demon hordes. Spell and elemental resistance, a lot of immunites to mind affecting abilities and spells, need answers. For Min/Max people it's great, but roleplayers who likes wonky class combinations have a hard time.

Babau's, Nasabu's, Succbi are overkill for a new player.

[Frostfeather]

Invisible eredeti hozzászólása:

As the op has no experience with Pathfinder Rules I disagree.

Wrath demands very specific class builds and feats to fight the demon hordes. Spell and elemental resistance, a lot of immunites to mind affecting abilities and spells, need answers. For Min/Max people it's great, but roleplayers who likes wonky class combinations have a hard time.

Babau's, Nasabu's, Succbi are overkill for a new player.

No, op's primary concern is companion writing, not combat mechanics/strategy. They can adjust the difficulty if they need to; that's what it's there for.

And I think you're overstating the difficulty of early Wrath enemies. They're just not that hard, especially with a ranged martial character or two - which the game gives you even if you're evil.

[Shoddyfrog]

Set it so that companions who are not in the party gain XP. You can swap party members in and out whenever you are at your capital. Then you are free to experiment and make up your own mind, about which ones work well with your main character and who's personalities you do or don't like.
Playing on challenging does not restrict which companions you need to use. they are all fine if you build them right.
Playing a RPG how you want to, and with companions that you personally like, is always the most enjoyable way to play, in my opinion. Rather than getting other people to make those decisions for you.

[Kaerius]

For party composition I'd go with something like this by default:
MC (Summoner or any melee)
Linzi (full bard)
Amiri (10 barb for greater beast totem, 3 two-handed fighter, the rest rogue or vivisectionist)
Tristian (full cleric)
Jubilost/Octavia (full alchemist Jubilost, wizard/rogue/arcane trickster Octavia)
Ekundayo (Ranger 10/Eldritch archer 2/sacred huntsmaster 8)

With mods, especially respecialization and call of the wild, it really opens up, and there's lots of good builds. Ones I've found especially good:
* Eldritch Archer magus 2/Vivisectionist alchemist(or rogue). Ranged DPS, lots of damage.
* Witchdoctor grave warden shaman. Full class. Life spirit. Wandering waves spirit. Best healer in the game bar none, great control. It's a shame the modders didn't add the best lore spirit hex(arcane enlightenment), or it'd also be the best caster, all categories. With favored class you want to be a human, half-elf, or half-orc to poach cleric spells.
* Ninja rogue with flying kick. Great easy way to get pounce, and also lots of sneak attack damage. 15+ strength so you can pick up the whole dazzling line, including dreadful carnage.
* Vivisectionist beastmorph alchemist. Pretty much same as above, slightly later pounce.
* Snakebite brawler. Pummeling style for the "pounce", and for the trip, toss in greater trip and vicious stomp. Slightly earlier pounce than vivisectionist, but not as early as ninja. More bab, free twf(brawler's flurry), but less sneak attack.
* Sylvan sorcerer. Great arcane caster, and companion.

You probably still want a bard or alternate bard alternative:
Exemplar brawler.
Oath of the people's council paladin.
Ocean's echo oracle.
Sensei monk.

PS: Most important teamwork feats: Bonded mind, share spells(for the casters). Buffbot mod recommended to save RL time. Give everyone the best buffs that are otherwise personal, such as sense vitals, and divine power.

[granada777]

Thanks for the advice, guys. FYI, I don't want to respec the companions, maybe on a future playthrough on a higher difficulty. I decided to go with a Bard MC (I always liked bard song passives), plus the following companions following the simple builds in https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/242460-pathfinder-kingmaker/faqs/78307/game-basics :

Valerie as tank (Fighter 9, Rogue 4, Stalwart Defender 7)
Jaethal as melee DPS, buffer, 2nd healer (Inquisitor 20)
Nok Nok as melee DPS (Rogue 8, Slayer 12)
Jubilost as debuffer/healer/ranged attacker (Alchemist 20)
Octavia as mage and ranged attacker (Wizard 8, Rogue 2, Arcane Trickster 10)

The 5 companions give me this number of maxed skills:
Mobility x2
Persuasion x2
Perception x5
Knowledge Arcana x2
Knowledge World x3
Lore Nature x1
Lore Religion x1
Trickery x3

So I think that about covers everything and I should be build my buffer/caster Bard however I want without having to worry about missing skills/abilities, right?