I finished Pathfinder: Kingmaker today.
I was right, yesterday. I was cleaning up minions before a big boss fight. The boss fight was good, although like most fights at this stage, I had no idea what was going on much of the time. Way too many spells, rolls, and effects going on at the same time. Most of the time I just didn't know what people were up to, or what spell affected who and why, or how to remove it.
I did find that Dispel Magic is stupid, though - the bag guys put an effect on my main guy, so my cleric tossed Dispel Magic on him, and it knocked off one of his friendly buffs instead and my guy was still incapacitated by the hostile effect. Seriously?
Still, good fight.
Trying to avoid too many spoilers here, though.
I was disappointed with the very end of the game. I won the last battle, made some decisions . . . and then got a storybook flip through of what happened. But none of it was really interesting. Blah blah this person good at job, this person bad, this country did some thing and apparantly my decisions affected that, blah blah. I didn't really care much. I just flipped through. I'm not sure why but I didn't feel invested in it at all.
I was also disappointed that I didn't get to keep playing at all. I had a couple of unfinished side quests and I'd have liked to have finished them. I even got some XP in the final battle - rather a lot - but it didn't really matter. I'd never get to realize the benefits, so it was meaningless. My character had a romance with one of his companions, but all we got was a "they lived the best life EVER!" thing . . . a conversation with the actual character would have had some meaning.
And then it dumped me to the main screen. That was that. It was disappointing. Why hand me loot and XP and all of that when it doesn't matter even a little bit? It just wasted time from my actual life and did nothing else. Hurrah, 61K XP for something, a few more K of gold, a +5 weapon . . . I don't get to do a thing with any of it.
I enjoyed the game right up until then.
I do plan to play again - maybe as a Lawful Evil monk. I like fighters more than casters in any case, and it might be fun to use some of the weird monk stuff I found. I think if I play very evil I might just get a worse ending or the same one. So I may need to take one of my earlier saves with my good guy, make some different choices, and then see if I can get an improved ending. We'll see. That's for later, much later.
Good game overall. Long, though, very long.
The dispel magic thing is a long-time D&D thing. You probably are aware since you were an AD&D player but you may just prefer GURPS and be frustrated at the lack of control. Dispel magic affects an area. All active spells in that area are checked individually to see if they are cancelled. 3 spells in place? 3 spells get checked to see if they are removed. It might be only the one you wanted to keep is removed and the rest stay. It's up to random chance and you don't get to pick which spells to target (in many editions there isn't even a way to KNOW which spells are in place, only that there is magic present using detect magic.)
ReplyDeleteIt's different Pathfinder, I think. I was able to target an individual, not an area. It's flat-out weird that it affects one spell at random - it didn't even check any others. It lists all effects, and only said, "Harrim dispels Remove Fear from Otto." That's it. It clearly targeted only one spell, presumably at random. That makes the spell junk, honestly, if you use any buffs. And if you don't, it's not much better.
Delete"It's different Pathfinder, I think. I was able to target an individual, not an area."
DeleteI don't know about whatever "D&D" (or more accurately "Pathfinder") rules they're using for this crpg (TOEE was notorious for changing "small" things like exactly how spells work, not sure about Kingmaker), buuuuut...
Dispel Magic works similarly in Pathfinder 1e as it did in D&D 3.5e, but there are some distinct differences:
Pathfinder's Dispel Magic only dispels one spell or spell-like effect (D&D 3.5 tries every spell in it's "area of effect"). Greater Dispel in PF can dispel 1 per 4 caster levels, in D&D3.5 it hits the "big stuff" that regular Dispel couldn't affect. In Pathfinder Dispel Magic may be cast on a singular target, an area, or against a singular spell; in D&D 3.5 it can be cast individually or on an area, but not discriminately against a singular spell effect.
Also, Pathfinder's Dispel Magic starts with the highest caster level effect and begins working it's way down until either it's dispelled one effect or all have passed. Optionally in the sitdown game you can target a single spell, and it will either dispel that one spell or do nothing.
Is there not ingame descriptions of how the spells work? A quick google check suggests that your complaint is one shared by many, in this game Dispel Magic is an "offensive" tool only to target buffed enemies with, it lacks the "target one spell" feature of the sitdown game.
The in-game descriptions wouldn't win any prizes for helpful information. I played until 19th level and won the game, but still don't know what spells remove what effects, except that "Heal" and "Greater Restoration" clear most things. But not all. And some "permanent" effects are removable with blanked removal spells, others with specific counters, and some I'm still not clear on. It's frustrating.
DeleteI was already going to skip ever bothering with the game, but you've put the final nails in that coffin. ;)
DeleteI mean ToEE already killed my interest in ever playing another game based on D&D rules (Neverwinter Night was the last good D&D based game I've played), but to find out they've gone even farther into that mold? Nah...