Pathfinder: Kingmaker

Character Creation

• Animal companions are amazing. If you have a class that can have one as an optional feature, that's the thing you want. The dog/wolf can trip, but the smilodon is probably your DPS king (it gets something like 5 attacks and can pounce after level 9ish or so). Another benefit is that if an animal companion dies, it'll respawn after your next rest.

• As for classes, a lot of 'prime' builds will do something like a level of Scaled Fist (the Charisma-based monk) to get +CHA to AC for a 1 level dip. If you're not a primary spell-caster and it's not otherwise a bad idea, 2 level of paladin for +CHA to saves stacks well too.

• You don't get a Sorc, Wizard, Druid, Paladin, or Monk companion

• Avoid specializing in exotic weapons. Magic variations are rare and are usually unimpressive.

• Your race is never acknowledged.

• There are trap choices for building characters. Most pure characters would be fine with synergistic feat and ability choices. Multi-classing should only be done if you have a goal planned out all the way to level 20. Follow a build guide otherwise: https://www.gog.com/forum/pathfinder_kingmaker/ineffects_guide_v2/page1

• The game NPCs are not well optimized for high level Pathfinder. The build guides listed above use them to their max potential and are completely fine for normal mode.

• For spontaneous casters, you can find spell recommendations per level, and you can probably figure it out yourself by midgame what will and won't be useful

Combat

• Enemies will have 1 weak stat of the 3 saves, fortitude, reflex, willpower

• Flanking works differently from PnP. A person is 'flanked' if two people are in melee with them. This means that a rogue can sneak attack people at range if there's two allies fighting his target in hand-to-hand. That makes ranged sneak attack damage way more viable than your PnP experience would expect.

• Trip effects are overpowered both against you and against the enemy since unlike in base PF you don't have the option to not stand up and provoke 9 AoOs from the surrounding wolves.

• Crowd Control is king for 90% of the game. Direct damage spells are somewhat less useful unless using feats that improve them (metamagic etc)

• Teamwork feats can become extremely powerful by midgame on enough party members

• Blindfight is OP due to the nature of enemies in the game

Game Overworld

• You can absolutely miss companions if you don't go to the right places at the right times.

• The standard difficulty isn't actually standard. It's the "Optimal difficulty for people who powergame in PF. Normal mode with characters from min-max build guides is completely playable

• Keep multiple save files. Some things may occur that have major consequences hours later that you may think are absolute bullshit game design choices.

• Perception is extremely important for finding map locations and hidden caches. Keeping a party member with the max skill possible is necessary for most of the game

• You will lose a party member via a cutscene when you finish a certain chapter. The next chapter starts with "make a choice who to help" as if you must pick one to save and one to lose, but if you pick Amari and rush the main quest to save her friend, you have plenty of time to then go regain the other party member. If you do the reverse you lose a party member permanently

Kingdom Mode

• This mode is bad in general due to possible failure spirals that can end the game 50 hours in. Play on effortless if it becomes a burden. Don’t set it to automatic as it may fail certain key projects

• City building is generally unimportant. Artisan buildings, warp gates, and Bulletin Boards are the only real useful options.

• If you anger an advisor and they leave there are no replacements for most positions, it will be a disaster

• The curse research does nothing but unlock an additional ending option/chapter

• The trade deals will not pay off until several chapters later if you get them at the earliest you can

• Place towns far away from the capital. You unlock fast travel between towns/cities at a point in the game

• Rush Arcane to level 3/4, where you will unlock teleport gates as a building feature. Simply building one in each location is enough to fast travel to and from there

• When you found a town, travel there right away and look for a named NPC. That will be one of your artisans.

Modding

• The main mod is Bag of Tricks and it can correct or fix 99% of the problems you would normally encounter in the game

• Useful settings are 2x character move speed, remove ration requirement, party moves at same speed, remove weight limit.

• Setting perception checks to always succeed solves a lot of issues, but enemies get the same benefit against your stealthed characters.

Metaknowledge

• There is a secret romance in the game that requires multiple “correct” conversation checks across the entire 100 hour game. It’s more of a hidden reward for a second play-through

• Any conversation agreement or deal with a Fae creature is almost certainly going to have unexpected results later. Save before making those agreements or before handing over any plot items to them

• The companion missions have a major long term outcome for the final chapter. All of them require specific “good” choices for the best outcomes regardless of player alignment.