New Player Help for Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous features an index of quick guides for new players to help them kicks start their unique journey in this hardcore RPG. Players can upload questions and update this page to lend each other a helping hand. There are many factors that players might need guidance in throughout the multifaceted universe of Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, so feel free to find support here to complete your understanding of its innovative mechanics and rulesets.
New Player Help for Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
This Beginner Guide for Pathfinder WoTR will take you through the basics to get ready for the game. Since this is a getting started guide, we focus on key concepts that players must understand in order to succeed. Please see Character Creation, Builds and Companions for in-depth tips. And for game progression, visit the Walkthrough and Combat pages.
What format does the combat in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous follow?
Like certain existing DND-based RPGs, combat in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous follows a turn-based format, where players and enemies take turns initiate actions against each other, such as attacks, skill checks, and maneuvers. However, the difference is each turn is actually a "round", where all combat actions take place simultaneously in real-time for 6 seconds. . The outcome of each action largely depends on the result of each dice roll. The effectiveness of the outcome is affected by a combination of many other factors, such as Stats, Bonuses, Conditions, etc.
At what rate does the in-game time pass during Combat?
Combat will take place in real-time, but players may pause the game, and hold down the respective buttons to play the actions in slow motion to allow for longer timeframe to to respond and strategize.
How does a "Saving Throw" work?
When you are under certain supernatural or magical attack, you often get a chance to make a saving throw (also called a save) to avoid or reduce the effect. This a one-time dice-roll that can save you from the effects, if luck is on your side and your dice-roll provides you with a favorable outcome.
What is is the "Crusade Mode"?
The crusade mode is a new feature in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous where it switches the game to a battlefield POV Real Time Strategy game. Throughout the narrative, players shall continuously recruit forces such as Infantries, Archers, Paladins, and pay them for their allegiance - this is also known as Army Management. During specific points in the story, players will command troops with military leaders, utilizing their unique abilities to grant buffs over their forces. Unlike the usual combat system, combat in this mode will be fought over a grid-based battlefield.
What do I have to consider when creating my Character?
First and foremost, players must go through the process of Character Creation before they embark on their journey in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. The two primary aspects to consider during Character Creation are the character's Race, as well as the Class.
There are a total of 12 Races, 25 Classes, and 10 Prestige Classes in the game. The decision of which ones you want your character to be largely depends on your combat playstyle, and role play preferences. Races determine the basic unique attributes of your character, such as its size, which will dictate its Threatened Area, Combat Maneuver, rideable Companions, and so on. Classes largely determine the types of Skills and Abilities that the character possess in his/her arsenal, as well as the type of damage to specialize in. The available Prestige Classes, which are to be chosen when reaching higher character levels, will also be decided by this.
Players shall identify the classes they prefer before confirming their character's race, as certain race synergize better with various classes, resulting in a better foundation for efficient Builds.
What's the difference between Classes and Prestige Classes?
Prestige Classes are expertise classes that players choose to specialize in after they have reached a certain threshold in character level and other requirements. When deciding which Prestige Class to specialize in, players shall also consider its synergy with their character's race and basic class. They each have their own unique playstyle and features.
What are Mythic Paths?
A Mythic Path is a character progression system separate from the ordinary leveling system. The character will reach milestones throughout the story to eventually ascend into a divine being. There are 10 types of divine beings in the game, ergo 10 different Mythic Paths. Mythic Path itself is a system to be unlocked some point early on in the narrative, and each milestone on these paths are unlocked by beating story beasts in various main quests. The player's choice of Mythic Path will affect the loyalty of certain armies in the Crusade Mode as well as Companions in the story, and will even influence the outcome in latter parts of the story.
What are Companions? How do they differ from NPCs?
Companions are a specific set of NPCs who join the player's party at certain points of the story, and assist their character from that point onwards. They all have their own Races/Classes and equipment they begin with. While being in your party companions will react to words you say to them or other NPCs and decisions you make during the crusade.
If a player completes the respective Mythic Path to ascend the character into the Lich, he/she may choose to have special undead companions.
What are these "Illustrated Book Episodes"?
Illustrated book episodes refer to parts of the story that play out as cutscenes in elaborate illustrations. These usually occur in key points of the plot, where the player must make an important decision to determine the game progress route. Often times, the player must also pick an action for one of the Companions, or the companion of the highest rank will automatically perform an action.
How fast do characters travel in this game?
Speed is measured in the amount of feet that character can move in 3 seconds (or half its turn). When out of Combat, the party always moves with the speed of the slowest party member. The Speed of which the main character can travel alone can be drastically enhanced by the use of Animal Companions, aka Mounts.
How do parties travel across the map?
To set out for a location, click on one of the arrows near your party token. You can learn the whereabouts of significant locations by talking to characters or happening upon them during your journey. After learning about a location, you must find the way there yourself. Along the way, random encounters await. You may be attacked by monsters, or you may meet new acquaintances. After exiting the location of a random encounter, you will not be able to return there.
What are Alignments?
Alignments can be thought of as the "ethical attributes" of characters, which only affect their decision making during the story. It represents the basic moral attitude of the creature. Alignments affect two main things - the compliance of a character - whether he/she is lawful, natural, or chaotic, as well as the moral code - whether he/she is good, neutral, or evil.
What are Animal Companions?
Animal Companions are creatures players can acquire throughout the story, but only when player certain Classes. When acquired, animal companions can act as the character's mount. However, characters may only mount animal companions of at least 1 size larger, resulting in a much higher variety of mountable animal companions for smaller Races. Thus, players shall take this unique mechanic into consideration early on when going through Character Creation.
When mounted, animal companions provide the rider with a far superior form of transportation compared to being on foot, as mounts transverse across all types of terrains much more efficiently. Mounts also have unique attacks during Combat, and certain classes, such as the Cavalier, possess Abilities that allow them to execute special attacks when on a mount, resulting in great synergy.
How do Ability Scores work?
Ability Scores are the basic numerical values used to measure your different Attributes. These are, respectively: Dexterity, Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, Intelligence, Charisma. Different Classes specialize in different Ability Scores as they are experts at different types of damage, and these scores cannot be improved after Character Creation, however certain wearable and consumable Items may provide bonuses.
What are the different types of damage in this game?
The three types of damage in this game are:
- Physical damage: Typically dealt with weapon melee attacks, ranged attacks, unarmed attacks and natural attacks. It can be negated or minimized by Items, Abilities, or Spells that provide damage reduction.
- Energy Damage: Dealt by spells. A creature must have energy resistance to reduce the amount of damage it takes from one of those sources.
- Ability Damage: Inflicted by diseases, poisons, or spells, it directly damages your ability scores. This damage temporarily reduces an ability and applies a penalty to the skills and statistics that are based on that ability.
When any of a character's Ability Scores get reduced to 0, the character becomes unconscious. If the affected ability score is unfortunately Constitution, that character will die on the battlefield.
What is an Attack of Opportunity?
Some actions performed close to an armed opponent can provoke an additional attack upon your character without waiting for the opponent's turn (and vise versa). Such actions include, among other things, casting spells, attempts to move away from an opponent, and shooting ranged weapons.
How do Bonuses work in this game?
Different Bonuses are granted via equipment such as Weapons and Armor, as well as consumable Items, and also via the Attack Roll mechanism. An attack roll is basically an attempt to attack another unit during Combat. When rolling the d20 dice, the outcome of the roll will determine how much damage that attack deals; based on the result, each Class will receive different attack bonus on that specific attack.
How does the Armor Class mechanic function in this game?
The Armor Class (AC) represents how hard it is for opponents to land a solid, damaging blow on you. It's the attack roll result that an opponent needs to achieve to hit you. Other bonuses, such as the Armor you are wearing, and your Dexterity score, will also affect your total AC.
What are Feats in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous?
Feats are special capabilities that characters can acquire through various methods. Feats represent Abilities outside of the normal scope of a character's Race and Class. Many of them alter or enhance class abilities or loosen class restrictions, while others may apply bonuses to statistics, or grant the ability to take actions otherwise prohibited by the rules.
What does it mean to be "Flat-Footed"?
Flat-footed is a pre-applied condition to all characters that have not yet performed actions in Combat. This causes them become vulnerable, unable to react to situations normally, temporarily losing bonuses such as their Dexterity bonus AC and Combat Maneuver Defense (CMD). They will be unable to perform attack of opportunity.
When encountering Enemies for the first time, how do I find about about their current Stats, Skills and Abilities?
During the first encounter with a creature, every party member makes a check of an appropriate Knowledge or Lore skill. The greatest check result determines how much information the party learns. If the checks were unsuccessful, you get another chance to inspect a creature after you kill it, or after you increase the skill rank after levelling up.
Does the party ever set up camp to rest like in other DnD-based games?
The "fatigue" and "exhaustion" condition on characters will slowly build up over time, affecting their ability to cast spells, attack, and perform other tasks. Take note of the fatigue and exhaustion icons on their portraits to decide when to set up camp and replenish their powers.
During a rest, all characters restore a portion of their lost hit points. Spellcasters also replenish their spells.
The rest also helps you get rid of some of the negative conditions. Resting takes at least 8 hours.
During Combat, what does it mean to initiate a "Surprise Round"?
If you initiate an attack on an enemy that didn't see you before the attack, for example in case of attack from invisibility or ranged attack, a surprise round happens before regular rounds begin.
In initiative order (highest to lowest), combatants who started the battle aware of their opponents each take a standard or move action during the surprise round. You can also take free actions during the surprise round.
How exactly do Spells work in this game?
Spells are a one-time magical effect casted by certain Classes. Both powerful and versatile, they can do a multitude of things, such as deal damage, restrict movement, buff allies, etc. However, due to its raw power, most spells at higher levels can only be casted a set amount of times per day. There are two main type of Spells - Arcane spells and Divine spells, and although their mechanism slightly differ, many of them share similar effects.
Since Spells offer so many advantages, what are some of the cons in heavy reliance on the usage of spells?
Each spell can only be casted a limited number of times per day. Furthermore, the efficiency in casting Arcane Spells are affected by Arcane Spell Failure Chance. This is because Armor interferes with the gestures that a spellcaster must make to cast an arcane spell that has a somatic component. Arcane spellcasters face the possibility of arcane spell failure if they’re wearing armor. A character who casts an arcane spell while wearing armor must usually make an arcane spell failure check.
What is a Difficulty Class?
Any initiated actions apply effects that are not guaranteed to succeed are required to pass some form of skill check. To succeed the result of that check must meet or exceed the Difficulty Class (DC) - a specific number appointed to the action. Higher DC means a harder check.
How do Checks/Skill Checks work? What are they for?
Any actions performed to achieve a result that is not guaranteed (i.e initiating attacks, climbing a ladder, protecting yourself from effects) are required to go through "checks". That means that the result, whether it be a success or failure, effective or ineffective, are decided by a d20 dice roll.
For your check to succeed the check result (sum of d20 roll and all the bonuses and penalties) must meet or exceed the Difficulty Class (DC) of this check.
What is this Concealment mechanism in Combat?
Concealment is a combat modifier that certain classes have and specific abilities provide. When a character is concealed, they are granted Concealment Miss Chance, where attacks launched at them have a 20% chance of missing. If a character is under Total Concealment, then there will be a 50% chance for an attack to miss them when fired. However, certain Spells such as Echolocation can deny concealment effects.
How to recover spells?
Like DND games, in Pathfinder: Kingmaker, your spellcaster needs to rest to renew their spells.
How does healing work in the game?
Characters may heal after taking damage through two ways: Natural Healing or Magical Healing. Natural healing refers to the natural recovery of a character's hit points with the passage of in game time - specifically, at the rate of 1 hit point per character level with a full night's rest (8 hours of sleep or more). On the other hand, Magical Healing refers to the use of Spells or Abilities to restore hit points, such as cure light wounds, heal or lay on hands. Alternatively, outside of these two main methods, characters may also heal through the consumption of Items such as Potions.
Are dead teammates out of the battle for good?
A character is dead when its negative hit point total is equivalent to or beyond your Constitution score. When character dies for the first time, he revives after the battle, but gains "at death door" effect. Next time such character will die for real and will have to be revived. This happens only on Daring or lower difficulty or if special option is turned on.
Dead characters can be revived with some Spells or Scrolls like raise dead or resurrection. If you don't have a character who can cast the required spell, you can find an NPC in a safe place, i.e camp or city, who will cast it for you.
Are unconscious character the same as dead characters?
Unconscious occurs when character's current number of hit points is 0 (or negative), but the number of negative HP is less than its Constitution score. It is one of the Helpless conditions when you can take no actions. After a battle, unconscious characters heal some hit points, gain consciousness and stand up.
How to remove the ability drain?
Some enemies can damage your Abilities (like Strength, Dexterity), ability drain has a permanent duration, you need lesser restoration to cure it. (either Spells, scrolls or potions)
How to remove blinding sickness?
You can use Heal/mass heal spell or scrolls to remove it.
How do army and battles work?
In Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, you need to fight the demonic forces with your crusader army. You can recruit units to strengthen your army, or earn army EXP by winning battles. Army can acquire different upgrades to further increase their Strength, for more information, please see our Army Management page.
