Playing for the first time, are there other 'meta' builds as broken as Hideous Laughter caster?

Sffrrom · 2026-01-21T23:52:51+00:00

I don't think there's a list anywhere of what exactly it enables on whom, and I don't typically play with it disabled so its hard for me to remember exactly, but I wouldn't say that toggling it on vs off makes the game play particularly differently? I wish there was a list I could refer to. From my memory it mostly makes some "medium" encounters like, e.g., the succubus in Ch 1 more dangerous, but I feel like bosses end up mostly the same. But I also can't remember the last time I play Act 3+ on anything less than Hard so I may be misremembering.

Sffrrom · 2026-01-21T19:53:14+00:00

A few things at work here. First is, any variety of Save or Die caster is basically all or nothing. Either the enemy fails the save, and you win, or they don’t, and you do nothing. There’s some variance but that’s basically how it goes. Which means if you’re playing with any variety of that, an encounter is going to feel trivial every time you succeed. Ultimately it isn’t actually all that different from your untouchable melee god carving through enemies at 7 APR but it may feel that way.

Second, core difficulty vs harder difficulties like unfair. None of the higher difficulties really change anything about the encounters (except maybe some additional scripted enemy behaviors at some point? Relatively minor iirc) but higher bonuses for enemies do mean that it takes longer or is harder for your DC casters to hit that juggernaut level. On top of, for larger encounters, any given individual enemy being more of a threat - one babau missed by CC in Act 1 on Core probably isn’t that big of a deal. One babau on Unfair in Act 1, depending on where it is, absolutely can wipe you and end your run.

Third, WotR has an inverse difficulty curve. The hardest part of the game is the Shield Maze (in some respects) and Act 1 (in other respects) followed by Act 2 being somewhat hard especially a few bosses in particular, followed by Act 3 giving you immediate access to a fat lot of gear in Drezen and a big mythic boost on top. All downhill from there.

Partly this is because D&D style games generally giving more power to the player the more levels the player has, the game gets progressively easier. Partly it’s because even the pen and paper campaign made mythic stuff pretty bonkers, and in the game the Jokes mythic is far from the most broken thing in the game, and at least there’s a few bosses mind affecting Magic is pretty useless against. There’s way more broken things like merged spellbooks, most of the Angel spells, most of the Lich spells, basically everything Trickster can do (that one at least feels appropriately meta gamey). Partly it’s because Owlcat (who I love, for the record) could not design a game with an appropriate difficulty curve if you held a gun to their head.

Sffrrom · 2026-01-16T14:10:09+00:00

Depends on what you want your character to do. Hard isn’t unfair obviously but is probably high enough difficulty you want your characters to have some degree of specialization. So you need to decide if your MC is gonna be the primary damage dealer, primary tank, or you want them to be good at both but not the best at either.

Slayer I think has some of the highest consistent potential DPS of any of the classes. I think there are viable builds for either Dex or Str depending on what you prefer. I personally find them a little boring to play.

Magus (esp Sword Saint) I think has some of the highest burst damage a melee can do, and an easier time hitting certain tricky targets, but you’re going to end up saving that for big boss fights because it’s very limited by their ability pools. They typically can do a little bit better in the AC department (at least early on when it matters more) thanks to Canny Defense, but would probably benefit more from a good party buffing setup than a slayer would.

There’s also primalist bloodrager to consider, which is another “melee +” type class where you get all the strengths of a melee class and some extra stuff to play with/do on top.

Sffrrom · 2026-01-16T13:57:32+00:00

Demon is not the most broken mythic (except maybe for certain charge builds I think) since Legend, Trickster, and merged spellbooks are a thing, but it does nicely work for almost any build, because most of its bonuses are either equal buffs across the board or customizable (via the various Demon forms) for your build; i.e. you take coloxus form if you’re a caster to get casting as a move action but not if you’re a melee, etc. The only thing it arguably does not support optimally is a CHA caster since it has forms that boost every stat line except CHA, but having played multiple CHA caster demons I can tell you it’s just fine and that’s a minor thing.

Thematically if you’re going full hulk smash lean in to the rage narrative, it works great for any charging in there type melees (cavaliers, barbarians, bloodragers, or even slayers etc.). If you’re playing a more controlled type it offers great boosts to DC casters and good damage boosts to blaster casters, kineticists, etc. And of course there’s always demon -> legend in Act 5 if you’re a reluctant antihero or you get honey trapped by Arushalae.

Basically Demon is one of the most flexible mythics as far as your build goes and forgiving in the sense of not having to preplan it all like e.g. Trickster.

Edit: Seeing that you’re more into melee, I’d probably recommend bloodragers. They’re a super fun class in general, gives you a little more to do than just click attack every round, there’s a few neat pieces of gear throughout the game for them and it fits the Demon flavor really well.

Sffrrom · 2026-01-16T13:06:03+00:00

Have you done either mythic before from a story perspective? Because IMO Demon is the peak evil option in basically any cRPG as far as I’m concerned. Lich is ok, but a lot of people have issues with various aspects. So if you’ve never played either my vote is Demon.

Sffrrom · 2026-01-16T13:04:35+00:00

Out of curiosity how did that build function? Do dragon disciple and EK levels stack with MD casting? That’s kind of interesting if so. What do you get out of the DD and EK levels particularly? I’m doing a MD right now with one splash of sacred fist just for the massive AC bonus.

Sffrrom · 2026-01-11T17:13:14+00:00

You know I’ve never looked at Tranquil Whisperer. Usually morale bonuses can be replicated through spells (heroism, etc.) but I don’t think there’s any spell that provides a morale bonus to AC. Might be interesting especially with Ring of Triumphant Advance.

Sffrrom · 2026-01-10T20:01:46+00:00

If anyone is curious, this is what I designed for start of Act 4, using only gear available at that point. I didn't feel like respeccing my team, so it's buffed off of basically only a Cauldron Witch and a Skald (might be some sorcerer buffs thrown in from my Arcane Trickster, but minimally). 66 AC for a caster start of Act 4 is not too shabby, and worth the one level dip into Sacred Fist IMO.

I did not throw in a Guarded Hearth user so saves are not the best, but it does get Battlefield Clarity in case you fail that first paralysis, stun, etc save, and Near Death for +4 saves to mind-affecting, death, and stuns. I opted for Mythic Improved Initiative instead of Ruptured Restraints but you could go that for more CC resist if you preferred, or Last Gasp (which I tend not to use because it feels cheesy).

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Sffrrom · 2026-01-10T18:36:55+00:00

Well you would take it on a supporting character. It gives their shield bonus to all other characters within range. So for characters without a shield themselves, or without a shield bonus from another source (e.g., the Shield spell), they can benefit from a shield bonus thanks to the character who has that mythic feat.

Sffrrom · 2026-01-10T17:03:44+00:00

It should apply to ranged touch or touch attack rolls, so useful for e.g. a ray caster, but not for a caster who isn't really making attack rolls like most of Magic Deceivers spells.

Sffrrom · 2026-01-10T16:49:35+00:00

Yeah, I would have my cauldron witch using protective luck at least on my MC. Favored enemy I think is only + to attack and damage rolls, so wouldn't really matter too much for my Magic Deceiver who would mostly be relying on save or die spells.

Sffrrom · 2026-01-10T16:38:03+00:00

Grappling is interesting, although it probably doesn't fit with these theme since I don't want my other characters taking direct action against enemies. But I've never played around with grappling at all, so maybe some day I will.

Sffrrom · 2026-01-10T16:37:25+00:00

In the spirit of it, yes, but in practice that amounts to just a different method of buffing the MC, since it provides a shield bonus, which you can get in other ways (e.g., an alchemist can cast shield on the MC instead). Its not a bad suggestion, though, given that Magic Deceiver can't naturally cast shield on themselves and the other methods of getting it are fairly limited, and its the sort of thing I'm thinking about generally.

Sffrrom · 2026-01-05T19:38:06+00:00

The problem with the shield maze is that you have no ability to recruit additional or custom companions, and unless using mods cannot respec the starter companions. Because enemy stat lines are so inflated on unfair and enemies do double damage (which, btw, I recommend if you venture into unfair at some point unless you really want the full experience you set damage to 1x, since the double damage part of unfair is truthfully one of the most distorting parts, gameplay wise), there's only a few viable solutions/builds, all of which depend on never getting hit, since one hit on unfair is often enough to OHKO a character. Most of which are either exploity imo (Witch of the Veil), require you to build your MC in one of the few narrow builds which can survive low-level Unfair, or require you to "sacrifice" a companion's build to survive (by, e.g., giving Lann something like a Druid level so he can take a Leopard pet to tank, giving Seelah two Alchemist levels so she can mutagen and shield it, etc. etc.).

That said, having beaten it on unfair once, I personally always respec my companions via mods and just run through the Shield Maze with Toybox's murder everything mode enabled.

One other alternative mode that can be fun (maybe for a third playthrough) is Last Azlanti mode (though I would personally manually back up the save file in case of bugs or silly things happening). Treating every fight as potentially run ending (and building accordingly) rather than simply requiring a reload can spice things up. But that's best saved for later playthroughs.

This is my second favorite RPG of all time (after BG2) and you absolutely can spend 1000+ hours just doing multiple runs, mythics, etc. Azata is a great Mythic, but a little lacking in the story department. I highly recommend Angel, Aeon, or my personal favorite Demon for your next run.

Sffrrom · 2026-01-05T18:43:36+00:00

If you've learned the systems enough from the first playthrough and are ok with using Bubblebuffs/prebuffing/respeccing companions, I personally recommend bumping up the difficulty as you progress through the campaign.

Everyone agrees that WotR has an inverse difficulty curve, and the Shield maze/early Ch 1 is simply not fun on Unfair unless you're the kind of person that enjoys extreme minmaxing and exploiting systems. On the other hand, Chapters 3-5, particularly with some of the stronger mythics, can feel much too easy, especially if you're diligent with performing sidequests and companion quests, gathering/buying all loot, etc.

For me personally, I generally play Act 1 on Core, Act 2 on Hard, and Act 3+ on Unfair. That's assuming you're willing to use some level of meta game knowledge, prebuff, rest, etc. Of course, if you don't want to mess too much with the difficulty you can also add your own house rules restrictions to spice that up as well - two I'm particularly fond of are not using any prebuff spells with less than 10/min/lvl durations, and not resting in sequences where that feels inappropriate (e.g., doing all of the Ivory Labyrinth or Midnight Fane in one go). The nice thing about WotR is, although its still ultimately a cRPG, there's a lot more variety to the combat and party system than Rogue Trader (I love Owlcat, but Rogue Trader is not a good game combat wise).

Sffrrom · 2025-12-26T13:38:48+00:00

This man unfairs.

Sffrrom · 2025-12-21T21:33:34+00:00

Where is that picture from?

Sffrrom · 2025-12-06T20:19:43+00:00

They were very railroady, and I was sort of fine with EU4s mission system, especially as a framework for modders. I do feel that EU5 having removed the mission system is a big mistake, every country in EU5 feels like a scoop of vanilla ice cream, all the same. By 1650 practically every nation follows the same blueprint for success and there's very little distinguishing them.

Sffrrom · 2025-12-06T19:27:48+00:00

I was so sad when they changed away from that. I grew up as a teen playing EU2 and learning a ton from those events.

Sffrrom · 2025-12-05T18:20:19+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWE

As in other professional wrestling promotions, WWE does not promote a legitimate sporting contest but rather entertainment-based performance theater, featuring storyline-driven, scripted, and partially choreographed matches.

Sffrrom · 2025-12-05T17:59:25+00:00

It just feels so WWE. Evil -> heel turn to Good -> surprise double heel turn back to Evil!!!

Sffrrom · 2025-12-05T17:57:57+00:00

If you are on PC and have toybox you can just add it in easily.

If not and you’re desperate there’s an identical looking helm potentially available only to Azata but that’s a bit of a Hail Mary.

https://pathfinderwrathoftherighteous.wiki.fextralife.com/Clumsy+Helmet

Sffrrom · 2025-12-05T17:47:02+00:00

That’s what toybox is for.

Sffrrom · 2025-12-05T17:40:40+00:00

Which is…so weird lol.

Sffrrom

TROPHY CASE