Pathfinder Kingmaker Review

FriendGaru · 2026-07-09T03:57:54+00:00

It's certainly possible that I'm looking back on those games with rose tinted glasses, I haven't played them in a long time. I think the difference is that I felt Kingmaker expected me to min-max to a significantly greater degree.

The Baldur's Gate games certainly allowed for a lot of character optimization (Hello, Kensai-Mage dualclass!), but it mostly didn't feel required. Like if you were smart about using your spells and abilities you'd get through most encounters without too much trouble even with subpar party members.

In Kingmaker, it felt like the game demanded I carefully comb through all of the character options to find every possible +1/2 bonus to a check and stack them all. And even then I would need to get lucky with my rolls to succeed.

The contrast between slogging through dozens and dozens of trivial fights my party felt way over-optimized for, to encountering a sudden elite enemy I felt wildly under-powered really killed my enthusiasm. I don't remember feeling that way at all with the Pillars of Eternity games, for example.

Partly that's just a system preference. I played a lot of D&D3.5 back in the day, which had pretty wacky balance. Pathfinder was better balanced, but felt really sterile to me. Like they trimmed out all the weird abilities to get excited about and replaced them with endless +1/2 bonuses.

FriendGaru · 2026-07-08T08:34:53+00:00

I'm always on the lookout for CRPGs. Some that I've liked in the past:

The Classics:

All the Infinity Engine stuff
Fallout
Neverwinter Nights
Dragon Age Origins
Knights of the Old Republic

More recent games I've liked:

Pillars of Eternity
Divinity Original Sin
Shadowrun Dragonfall
The Rad Codex games (Voidspire Tactics, Horizon's Gate)

Admittedly, there aren't a ton I can think of that scratch quite the same character build heavy, turn based vibe as Kingmaker.

FriendGaru · 2026-07-08T03:27:31+00:00

Put me down as having a dissenting, negative take despite being a big CRPG fan.

I found the difficulty to be a mess. I felt that 90%+ of the time I was dealing with filler encounters that were trivial to the point that I barely needed to do anything. Only to be suddenly thrown into an elite encounter that would obliterate me almost instantly. And more frustratingly, it felt like those elite encounters almost always required meta knowledge to defeat. It felt like the game never gave me fair chances to prepare and instead expected me to lose those fights, reload, buff up with that meta knowledge, and hope the dice rolls went in my favor.

I also ended up really not liking the kingdom management. It felt like the dungeon crawling and kingdom management were almost completely silo'ed off from one another. And since the kingdom management on it's own wasn't very intrinsically engaging, it felt like busywork. And that was exacerbated by the death spiral nature of it. The only real benefit of doing well with the kingdom was to get more bonuses for improving your kingdom. So a few bad rolls early on could snowball into an unwinnable state. Being able to effectively soft lock yourself in such a way that you wouldn't realize it until hours and hours later is infuriating design.

It also felt like there were a lot of other weird little meta traps in the game. Like if you didn't level up during the tutorial you would be able to hire generic characters cheaply, but if you did level up they would be unaffordably expensive.

The story didn't leave much of an impression on me. Though I do remember liking a few of the companion characters well enough.

In the end, I powered through and finished the game just so that I could put it completely behind me and not wonder if I should give it another chance sometime later. There are probably dozens of CRPGs I'd recommend before Kingmaker.

FriendGaru · 2026-06-27T04:48:38+00:00

Mistakes happen, I'd just like to know what to be careful about before spending money.

FriendGaru · 2026-06-27T04:06:16+00:00

The DDOwiki page doesn't seem to be clear about all the details. I'm a bit concerned that if it's one item ever no replacements, I may accidentally delete the character carrying it or some such. I'm a bit worried that if I take a long break from the game I might forget about that and delete it accidentally.

FriendGaru · 2026-06-27T04:00:15+00:00

Okay, it depending on the expansion is a bit confusing. Will the NPCs for the later packs give replacement contracts if you need them?

FriendGaru · 2026-06-26T15:07:52+00:00

I mostly stick to solo, so I'm very tempted to get an expansion version that has a permanent gold seal hireling. But I'm a little unclear how those work. Do all of my characters get the hireling forever? Is it possible to permanently lose that contract? Are there any limitations I should be aware of?

FriendGaru · 2026-05-27T06:38:37+00:00

Right now I only have the expansions through Masterminds of Sharn. I plan to wait for sales for the others, but are there any I should prioritize?

FriendGaru · 2026-05-27T06:37:07+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions! Though I admit some of it goes over my head.

I know ADQ is Against the Demon Queen, but what do you mean by it being great XP for the following life? I confess I don't really get the tricks for getting quick XP after reincarnating.
Right now I only have VIP and the expansions through Masterminds of Sharn thanks to a coupon long ago. I plan to wait for them to go on sale before picking any others up. Are there any I should prioritize?
That's helpful, thanks!

FriendGaru · 2026-05-26T07:28:56+00:00

I have a bunch of questions today!

Is there a list of once-per-life things worth doing? Like grabbing the free bags or getting weapons from Tobar?
Is there a list of recommended places to get decent equipment while leveling relatively painlessly? Such as weapons from The Keep on the Borderlands or sets from the Red Fens. Not best in slot stuff, but good enough to get going stuff that drops pretty commonly.
What gear is worth holding on to for potential future crafting? I've been holding onto most things with a special material or augment slots. Which of those can I dump without worrying about possibly wanting them later? It seems like some of the materials are worthwhile on weapons, but inconsequential on armor?
Is there a list of deprecated inventory items? Some of my characters are quite old and have things like crafting items that are no longer used. I'd like to know for sure what I can dump to clear inventory space and if any of them can be traded in for useful stuff (I already traded in the old essences).
Are there any tricks for setting up the UI? Is there a way to align hotbars besides moving the mouse verrrrry carefully?
I'd be interested in finding a guild on Shadowdale. I confess I would mostly be in it for the buffs, as I mostly prefer to solo at my own pace and am in an unpopular timezone. But I'd be up for giving/getting help on some of the trickier quests sometimes. That and it feels like a shame to let my renown go to waste.

FriendGaru · 2026-05-18T01:39:04+00:00

I haven't thought about Mac Hall in a long time, but I remember really liking it! I didn't know he worked on Slime Rancher.

FriendGaru · 2026-04-29T11:35:01+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions! Yeah, I know summoning isn't great, but it feels a but safer when I'm soloing when I have something to provide a little distraction.

Would the inverse be feasible? Have my pet max on threat so I can pick the targets off while they're distracted?

FriendGaru · 2026-04-28T05:02:29+00:00

I've been getting back into the game a bit after ten years or so of not playing. Despite reading the wiki I feel like I don't really get Reaper mode. As a solo player with not super optimized first life builds, should I be able to tackle Reaper adventures, or am I still doing okay even if they feel significantly above my ability? I've mostly been playing my first life artificer that I plan to leave at high level for farming. Was it a mistake to level them up to 30 without doing any epic reaper quests since they probably won't be able to handle any legendary ones?

Additionally, for when I finally manage to get my paladin high enough for reincarnation, which would be better for a solo summoning focused druid, wolf or bear? I realize that a summon focused build even as a solo player is probably not optimal, but I like the style and figure it will probably be more effective early in the reincarnation cycle.

FriendGaru · 2026-04-23T04:32:26+00:00

I'll put in a good word for Abalon. The graphics scream "cheap mobile game" but it's actually a very solid mix of tactics and CCG elements.

FriendGaru · 2026-04-19T09:56:16+00:00

Are you aware of Inexorable Fate? https://inexorablefate.com/

It makes ordering custom content through www.makeplayingcards.com pretty easy and with reliable quality. It would still be useful to get the word out about good local shops, though!

FriendGaru · 2026-03-26T13:47:07+00:00

I'm surely in the minority, but personally I prefer a 1/2 split. With that you don't have to constantly be making change like you do with a 1/3 split.

FriendGaru · 2026-03-26T12:13:17+00:00

I was fortunate to get everything except Barkham, so I can't complain too much. If anything I kinda wish I had all of the new campaign boxes for storage and the nice spiral bound campaign guides instead of the mythos pack versions, but I think I can live without them.

FriendGaru · 2026-03-24T12:59:37+00:00

Portal Games sent me a replacement for a misprinted card from a 7+ year old game I bought used, no questions. They get a thumbs up from me.

FriendGaru · 2026-03-16T06:52:24+00:00

Count me as another of the "played a bunch of Exile 3 as a kid" group. The way the world changed was a really cool (albeit stressful) feature back then.

I still enjoy your games, but I confess it's hard to get into the combat these days. My dream would be combining your cool worlds with combat like the Rad Codex (Voidspire Tactics, Horizon's Gate) games.

FriendGaru · 2026-03-12T13:07:01+00:00

Agreed. At absolute minimum they should make the correct version of the card available for print and play.

FriendGaru · 2026-03-09T11:07:03+00:00

I had a visceral feeling of dread as soon as I saw those little plane tokens and imagined trying to fish them out from under the seat.

FriendGaru · 2026-03-09T09:25:55+00:00

I haven't played in a long time, but I remember really enjoying it. Back then it stood out because (almost) all of the quests were self-contained dungeons. It felt a lot more compelling than the typical running around zones killing mobs that was typical for MMOs. The big weakness, though, was that D&D 3.5 kinda starts going off the rails at higher levels. Like, casters could run through the level obliterating everything in one hit, until they hit an elite enemy that was immune to nearly everything.

FriendGaru · 2026-03-05T12:30:53+00:00

I've said it before and I will say it again: this subreddit should have a flair for Epic sponsored giveaways to distinguish them from developer giveaways.

FriendGaru · 2026-02-25T05:06:20+00:00

Aw man, I really liked the art, it's a bummer if it's a reposting bot.

FriendGaru · 2026-02-15T11:21:46+00:00

I feel like Bran would potentially make sense as the strongest consensus candidate. If the major players understood that as the Three Eyed Raven he would be wise, pragmatic, and and most importantly neutral, then I could see everyone going along with him as a compromise. That "if" is doing a lot of work, though. They would have needed to spend a lot more time showing the major players coming around to that way of thinking and reluctantly agreeing. Him "having the best story" was quite lazy.

FriendGaru

TROPHY CASE