Pathfinder - Kingmaker had a couple of core mechanics which were somewhat rough. I'm wondering if there's similar stuff in WotR.

First, the titular kingdom building - which is both obtuse and rather punishing if you don't understand it's mechanics.

Second, the time limits. Even if they're not all that punishing in the end, it really does feel like I get pushed to move as fast as I can, to rest as little as possible. How does WotR compare?

Third, weapon availability. In Kingmaker, certain weapons such as the estoc or elven curved blade almost never appeared throughout the game - to the point where you'd be using a plain +1 or +2 weapon until near the end of the story. Does WotR have better availability or an actual crafting system?


And as a minor thing - is WotR based on the same pathfinder 1st edition rules (aka 3.75) or is it pathfinder 2nd edition?

I haven't played that much of these gsmes, but perhaps I could give some partial answers:

Instead of kingdom building, there's a crusade mechanic: During some parts of the game (Acts 2, 3, and 5, in a 6 act game), you have to manage some armies that have to battle demon armies. This has some similarities, but differs in that you apparently have tactical turn-based battles that, reportedly, aren't well balanced (I hear mage generals are overpowered). Note that I haven't played far enough to actually see this system (I've only played through the prologue).

There is a time limit in Act 1: After 3 days, there will be a major battle to defend a place, and some things will have changed afterwords (so some quests need to be done first). To my understanding, that is the only time constraint in the game. There is, however, a corruption mechanic; if you rest too much, you'll accumulate corruption which will cause penalties and a spell failure chance, but that can be eliminated by going back to your base, or reduced by activating the various sacred relics that you'll find during the game.

As for your third weapon:
* I believe you get a masterwork cold iron weapon of a type the main character is good at right at the start of the game.
* There's apparently a talking weapon which can be changed into the form you desire, so you'll at least have that weapon available.
* At the start of the DLC, there's someone who sells +5 weapons of what looks like every type. This won't help you for the main game, but at least means you have at least this base line for the DLC.
* There's a spell called Greater Magic Weapon, which will temporarily (1 hour/level) enchant a character's weapon; at level 12, for example, you can make any weapon a +3 weapon this way. (+5 is possible if you reach caster level 20 or higher.) Hence, if you can find even just one weapon of a type, you're guaranteed to be able to get a decent enhancement bonus on one, even if the game doesn't give you a decent weapon of that type (or if you prefer the special properties of a named weapon with a lower enhancement bonus). (This spell is level 3 or 4, depending on class, and seems to be available to the majority of casting classes, including both clerics and wizards.)
* There is a crafting system, but it's only for potions and scrolls.
* Again, I haven't played through that much of the game, so I can't give a good answer here, though some say that weapon availability is better here.

For your "minor" thing (which actually feels more significant than your other questions to me), the game is still using Pathfinder 1st Edition, not 2nd.

Thanks for the response.


It's good to hear that non-adventuring stuff and time limits aren't as omnipresent.


As for more exotic weapon availability, I remember those temporary weapon enhancement spells being a thing in NWN2, though Kingmaker dropped them in favor of a number of class abilities (limited uses per day, with most having a fixed duration of 1 minute, though they can apply a few different additional effects like keen).

Still, that's not really what I had been looking for - Instead, let me use an example from Kingmaker - the rapier 'Deadly Grace', with the following properties: +1 enhancement, agile (applies dex bonus to damage instead of str), Keen (doubled critical threat range), Unfair Advantage (fort save vs extra acid damage). Against these extra properties, those spells merely increase the enhancement modifier and seem a bit lackluster.


As to your thoughts on the ruleset stuff - if you've ever played a game and there's one thing about it that just sours the overall experience? That's kind of what the kingdom building was like to me, with the time limit admittedly being the most reasonable way to limit doing everything.

Whereas this being 2nd edition would have been different, but it's not something that would be inherently better over 1st edition.

What I don't care for is that, if you turn off the Crusade function in options, it "breaks" a number of quests. Instead they should have absorbed those quests into the storyline with generic results.

On the other hand, you ask about weapon availability before you ask which edition the game uses. I'm pretty sure that your concern about weapon availability relies on the fact that there are feats like Weapon Focus that require you to choose a specific weapon type to focus on, which is something that isn't present in every game; in particular, it looks like Pathfinder 2e has moved away from it; with a quick look, it appears that the only time you need to choose a specific weapon type is if you want to spend a feat to gain proficiency in an advanced weapon. It's not like 1e where you may be spending a lot of feats to become really good with one weapon type.

There is a pretty good spread of unique magical items (both in variety and strength), including the more exotic types such as Earthbreakers and dueling blades.

For a (somewhat) comprehensive list (beware of minor spoilers):

https://www.neoseeker.com/pathfinder-wrath-of-the-righteous/guides/Unique_Items

Do note that not every item listed there is available in the game. In particular, any item labeled "Kingmaker" is most likely not possible to obtain in Wrath of the Righteous.

Also, some items may require certain quests, or even certain outcomes on certain quests. There are relics that require the crusade mechanic (so not available if you disable it), and each one can only be changed into one final form. There are also certain weapons that have separate "good" and "evil" versions, with different stats. There's also even a few items that can only be obtained in the Inevitable Excess DLC, though I don't know if such items have made the neoseeker list yet.

I believe the DLC items have made it into the article, though the latest update added (at least one) more items to the DLC; at the moment of writing such items have not been added.

items that should have made a return from Kingmaker (through the Trickster path) have been marked as such; an unresolved bug has made such items unobtainable.

That said, The game has a good (wide) selection of weapons from the PnP and you can obtain more powerful variants that not only increase in power but offer various abilities besides stacking of enchantment bonuses.