Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous (2024)

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is a CRPG by Owlcat Games based on the Adventure Path of the same name published by Paizo, and a follow-up to Pathfinder: Kingmaker. The game tells the same general story from the tabletop campaign but done within the confines of it being a one player game. Owlcat also took the chance to add in a bunch of new content and characters which range from fairly good to rather mediocre, and to add more support for playing as an evil character since the original adventure path kind of assumed all the players would be good-aligned.

The Basics[edit]

You play a character built using a modified Pathfinder system. You character can be of one of the following races: Aasimar, Dhampir, Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Half-elf, Half-orc, Halfling, Human, Kitsune, Oread or Tiefling. And any of Pathfinder's core classes as well as Alchemist, Arcanist, Bloodrager, Cavalier, Hunter, Inquisitor, Kineticist, Magus, Oracle, Shaman, Skald, Slayer, Warpriest, or Witch. Each class has six archetypes. You pick from a curated selection of feats, design a player avatar and choose or upload a picture of them.

Once you're done with the first city, you also get to play a set of Crusade management minigames in parallel with your normal adventuring, whether you like it or not. It's full of skub and busywork, but isn't hard, as long as you've played a TBS game in your life. If you still don't like it, you can just turn it off entirely. This does keep you from getting the good endings for the crusade and the secret ending, so consider whether it's worth it for you.

The Mythic Paths[edit]

The game has a modified version of the Mythic Path system used in the adventure path, using new paths with different rules to the tabletop. Only the player character can get a Mythic Path, with your companions only getting the "Mythic Companion" path which offers only Mythic Abilities and Mythic Feats, but none of the unique sh*t specific to the player's Paths. You choose your path fairly early on in the game and which choices are available to you depends on whether you have unlocked them through certain character interactions. Each path also has alignment restrictions, and choosing a path with an unsuitable alignment has the game give you a quest that shifts your alignment to something acceptable. Once chosen, the path gives you a spellbook that goes up to level 6 spells as you increase in Mythic Rank (except the Angel and Lich, which go up to ninth level spells) and a grab-bag of powers. All of them also give you the power to summon some thematically-appropriate minions, such as the Azata summoning more benevolent fey and nature spirits or the Aeon summoning various constructs.

Six paths are available when you choose a Mythic Path.

• The Aeon is unlocked when you find the remains of a destroyed Aeon, and requires that you be lawful in some way, or True Neutral. Its main abilities are Enforcing Gaze, which allows you to buff allies and debuff enemies in an area around you, and Aeon's Banes, which are pretty much just Inquisitor's Banes but much stronger and they stack with Inquisitor's Banes. They also become immune to many different status effects as they increase in rank.
• The Angel is unlocked early on in the main quest and requires you to not be evil. It offers some powerful divine spells and players with levels in a full divine caster class can merge their Angel and class spellbooks. Their main abilities are Sword of Heaven, which makes their weapon attacks deal holy damage as well as making their healing and damaging spells more effective and can later be upgraded to grant various other bonuses, and Angelic Aura, which buffs allies within 50 feet and can be upgraded to grant various other bonuses. It also shows up quite a bit in dialogue, since taking on the aspect of goodness personified tends to be a good way to convince people you're trustworthy.
• The Azata is unlocked by helping some people and then singing with them, and requires you to not be Lawful or Evil. They get Azata Perfomances, which are pretty much just Bardic Performances but much stronger (and their uses per day stack with those of Bardic Performances), and a list of Superpowers (powerful passive buffs) to choose from at certain levels. Some of the Superpowers include All-Skilled, which grants a bonus to all skill checks and proficiency in all equipment; Supersonic Speed, which grants a permanent Haste effect and 20% chance to dodge all melee and ranged attacks; and Zippy Magic, which makes all single-target spells also hit another valid target within 30 feet of the original as well as making damaging single-target spells deal bonus damage. They also get a free animal companion in the form of a Havoc Dragon named Aivu, who will interject in conversations and interact with NPCs much like your humanoid companions.
• The Demon is unlocked early on in the main quest and requires you to not be good or lawful. Its main mechanic is the Demonic Rage, which is like a Barbarian or Bloodrager rage but it also improves spellcasting, and Demonic Aspects, which let you pick between various aspects that give you a bonus both in-combat and out of it.
• The Lich is unlocked when you find an evil wand and keep it with you until you get to a basem*nt in a particular chapel. It offers some powerful arcane spells (mostly necromancy, of course) and players with levels in an full arcane caster class can merge their Lich and class spellbooks. Its main mechanics are the Skeletal Champion, a permanent undead minion that can be upgraded in various ways as you increase your rank and equipped with whatever magic swag you and your companions don't need, and Lich Powers, which are similar to the Azata's Superpowers in that they let you pick between various powerful bonuses. Some of the Lich Powers include Decaying Touch, which lets your natural weapon attacks deal bonus unholy damage and reduce the target's Strength; Withering Life, which makes all of your spells deal ability damage; and Indestructible Bones, which grants DR10/- and make it so enemies that hit you get a penalty to attack rolls until the end of combat. They also get a few passive abilities that buff spellcasting in general and Necromancy in particular, and are unable to romance any of the companions due to one of the steps on the path of Lichdom involving killing your ability to feel love.
• The Trickster is unlocked by playing a trick on some enemies early on in the game, and requires that you be True Neutral or some kind of Chaotic. It grants sneak attack dice and lets you sneak attack with healing spells, as well as allowing you to pick a few Mythic Tricks which let you use skill checks to do things like automatically demoralizing every enemy at the start of combat or identifying magic items so well that they inexplicably become more powerful. On a more PnP powergamer note: Trickster also allows you and your companions to ignore requirements to picking feats, allowing you to do silly things like giving aasimar wings to animal companions. Graduates to making enemies insta-kill themselves as soon as you enter combat while swinging with 11-20 crit ranges.

On top of these six options, there are four that the player can switch over to later in the game.

• The Devil can be accessed by either choosing the Aeon path and being both evil and competent enough that hell offers you a job, or by picking the Azata path and being so terrible at being Chaotic Good that you become Lawful Evil.
• The Gold Dragon is unlocked by giving the Storyteller a scale and a claw (which can be found right next to the wand that unlocks the Lich path) of Terendelev, investigating her lair, meeting her gold dragon mentor and being very Sarenrae-like about one of the cultists squatting there. If everything is done right, the dragon shows up at the beginning of Act 5 to fry some demons and say you have what it takes to be cool and shiny too, if you want to.
• The Swarm-That-Walks is accessed by interacting with what's left of a Vescavor Queen and doing some research into swarms. It allows your character to become a ravenous humanoid swarm of locusts, devouring crusader and demon alike and generally being such a menace that the crusaders have to put the crusade on hold so they can fight you instead. Switching over to this path causes all of your companions to abandon you, but you make up for it by being able to split your swarm up into copies of yourself, being able to create more copies the more corpses you devour.
• The Legend is accessed by choosing to cast away any extraplanar influence and instead draw only on your own personal might for your mythic power. This removes all but one of your Mythic Abilities and Feats, but gives a massive boost to XP gain and doubles the level cap, allowing you to go up to character level 40. Note that becoming a legend lets you keep some mythic path elements like angel/lich exclusive spells.

The Companions[edit]

• Arueshalae the Succubus Ranger is a Chaotic Neutral succubus who got her empathy switched back on by a goddess and has since been working to redeem herself. The player can help her in this goal, causing her to turn Chaotic Good, or they can cause her to fall back into Chaotic Evil. She's extremely useful in this game due to having evil outsiders as her favored enemy in a game full to bursting of the things, as well as the ability to share her favored enemy bonuses with the rest of your party (Word of warning: Causing her to become evil changes her favored enemies to Humans, Dwarves and Elves. This effectively makes her useless in endgame where you are exclusively fighting demons, so if you want an actual usable character, don't make her evil). She can be romanced regardless of gender (which is actually one of the ways to redeem her), but if she's turned evil she can only be romanced by a player going down the Demon Mythic Path.
• Camellia Gwerm the Half-Elf Shaman is the True Neutral bastard daughter of a nobleman. Though she's also wearing a magic necklace that conceals her true alignment. It's revealed to be Chaotic Evil after you finish all her loyalty missions and take it off. A sad*stic serial killer whose depravity gets fewer and fewer excuses as the game goes on. She can be romanced by male characters.
• Daeran Kael Arendae the Aasimar Oracle is a Neutral Evil asshole nobleman who joins your party mostly just because he thinks fighting the demons would be entertaining... and later because his cousin, Queen Galfrey, 'graciously' assigns him a position in the crusade he can't turn down without losing face. Has some of the funniest lines in the game and is a fan-favorite. His oracle 'patron' is a horrific mass of extradimensional undead heads called The Other. If you help him deal with his issues, he can become a (somewhat) better person. He can be romanced regardless of gender.
• Ember the Elf Witch is a Neutral Good young girl (young by elf standards anyway, she's actually as old as the Worldwound) who came to the Worldwound with her parents many years ago, who were wrongly accused of treason and burned at the stake. She's got a special Witch archetype created just for her that turns her into an Oracle/Witch hybrid, replacing her patron with an Oracle's Curse and making her a Charisma-based spontaneous caster. Is sort of mirror-counterpart to Daeran, both of them being atheistic blonde divine-casting trauma survivors, but with radically different morals and coming from opposite social stratas. Being nice to her gives her a nice stat buff, being stern/mature with her gives her a gamebreakingly powerful Fire spell, while being abusive breaks her sanity.
• Greybor the Dwarf Slayer is a True Neutral mercenary who really only follows you because you pay him to. If you stop paying him, he leaves. However, you can earn his respect in the Abyss, when you refuse to take payment from an Assassin guild leader that was using you. Pretty forgettable, but has a cool goatee.
• Lann the Mongrelfolk Monk is a Lawful Neutral archer. Loves spouting dad-jokes, acting unphased by anything, and generally behaving like a character Chris Pratt would play. He's also Wenduag's ex-boyfriend who shares a mutual hatred with her, and picking one to join your party will mean you'll need to wait a while before you can recruit the other. Assuming you don't let Wenduag kill him, that is. He can be romanced by female characters.
• Nenio the Kitsune Wizard is a True Neutral Scroll Savant Wizard who serves as the game's Comic Relief. Is generally regarded by players as being either pretty funny or extremely annoying. Has the distinction of (outside the literal zombies) being the only party member to undergo almost no character development over the game's 100+ hours of story until the very last act. And there's still not much even at that point.
• Regill Derenge the Gnome Hellknight subverts the general gnomish stereotypes by being joyless, stoic, brutally pragmatic, and Lawful Evil. However, he is loyal to the player regardless of alignment, as long as the player gets sh*t done. This is impressive, considering the utterly insane sh*t an Azata or Demon player gets away with. Tricksters will drive his patience to a breaking point, requiring a persuasion check to convince him to not leave in a huff. Still makes him the most loyal party member so long as you kick demon ass and aren't a Swarm.
• Seelah the Human Paladin of Iomedae is Pathfinder's iconic paladin. She is friendly and easy-going for a paladin, but these traits can bite her in the ass in her quests. Is an absolute bro who loves kicking demon ass... unless you're a Lich/Demon, then she'll probably leave.
• Sosiel Vaenic the Human Cleric of Shelyn is a friendly man who is very good at killing things with a glaive. In the adventure path he had a boyfriend, but here he's single and available to be romanced by male players. Has a weirdly complicated series of loyalty missions to find his brother, and an even stranger series of requirements to keep his brother alive when you do find him. Speaking of...
  • The Lost Brother: Trever Vaenic the Paladin/Hellknight/Barbarian/Fighter was originally a paladin of shelyn, fell from grace and became a Hellknight, then was kidnapped by demons, had his mind broken and became a barbarian/fighter gladiator in a demon arena. His build is 100% Fluff and 0% Crunch who nobody in their right mind would seriously use without mods. Mostly just a bragging rights reward for getting Sosiel's best ending.
• Wenduag the Mongrelfolk Fighter is a Neutral Evil cat-spider-woman who only cares about getting stronger, and joins the player because they've proven themselves very strong indeed. She's also Lann's ex-girlfriend who shares a mutual hatred with him, and picking one to join your party will mean you'll need to wait a while before you can recruit the other. This big difference compares to the original adventure path, where she was just a minor antagonist who fought the players and then died. She can be romanced by players regardless of gender. Is considered to be Stupid Evil by many fans due to constantly trying to betray people who could easily crush her with a thought, including the player.
• Woljif Jefto the Tiefling Rogue is a Chaotic Neutral Eldritch Scoundrel who is a member of a group of tiefling thieves, and joins the player if they choose to have him released from jail. In gameplay terms, he's absolutely terrible in his default class. If you take levels in Vivisectionist or Magus, and make sure he has some defensive buffs, he can kick a serious amount of ass. You eventually find out that he's not just any tiefling, he's descended from the Demon Lord Baphomet. Depending on your choices, he can become evil and embrace his demonic heritage, or embrace his humanity instead.

DLC Companions[edit]

• Ulbrig the Shifter is a companion who comes with the Last of the Sarkorans DLC. Notable for introducing the Shifter class to the game and for being voiced by Mike Pollok, aka Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog. He also gives access to the Swarmbane Clasp, A necklace which lets you murder Swarms extremely easily. (HALLELUJAH!) A man out of time, he's been stuck in a stone statue for about 100 years and needs some help getting accustomed to this newfangled crusading business the youngins' are talking about. He used to be a chief of the old Sakoran clans and shaman of one of their wild gods, and thus has a surprising amount of insight into the setting of the game prior to the opening of the Worldwound. Turns out to have some mythic power of his own, as his god merged with him while they were both being killed by their demon-worshipping brother, sealing both in stone to save them until the time was right. Can be romanced by characters of any gender.

Lich Exclusive Companions[edit]

• Staunton Vhane the Undead Dwarf Warpriest is an antagonist who you eventually kill and choose to raise as your undead thrall. He was so damn miserable in life and did so many evil things that the dwarven pantheon refuses to take him, so you might as well put him to good use. Like Sosiel, has an infamously bad build because Owlcat has no idea how to build clerics or warpriests who aren't healbots.
• Ciar the Undead Cavalier was a leader of the Everbrights that you just continuously screw over if you go down the Lich path, until eventually you effectively bait him into attacking your ziggurat so that you can kill and raise him. Unlike the other undead companions, he isn't much of a talker after his resurrection, probably because he absolutely hates your guts. Thanks to starting as a level 10 Cavalier with a horse, several defensive feats, and being undead which makes him immune to several status effects, he's arguably the best tank your party can get.
• Delamere the Undead Ranger was an insanely fanatical priestess of Erastil in life, devoted enough that her remains were preserved as holy relics. A lich player who finds these remains can choose to reanimate her as an undead minion. Despite her current circ*mstances and inability to disobey you or end her own existence no matter how much she wants to, she remains loyal and devoted to her god. Considered by many to be the best archer in the game, yes even moreso than Arue.
• Kestoglyr the Undead Fighter was once a devoted follower of Sarenrae until he got reckless and got his whole party captured trying to raid Baphomet's labyrinth (including his wife, who you can later find as a tortured shade). He sees the torture of undeath as his penance for his mistakes.
• Queen Galfrey the Undead Bard is the ghost of your queen that you can raise if you either kill her yourself in Act 5 or choose not to save her from Deskari's priests. Despite being a paladin in life, she becomes a Thundercaller Bard when she joins you to show how she's basically become a Banshee.

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