History VideoGame / PathfinderKingmaker

* UselessUsefulSpell: Taking the Spell Focus: Universalist feat seem amazing. This would increase the DC of all your spells. At least until you realize that they are NO spells in the game are considered universal, making this feat a complete waste.

* BalefulPolymorph:
** [[invoked]] The TropeNamer is implemented as a 5th level spell on the druid, sorcerer, wizard, and magus lists.
** In one of Jubilost's companion quests, another gnome casts a spell on the rules for a contest run by fey, turning anybody who reads it into a frog. The gnome's own siblings both got hit by it by accident, and Jubilost potentially can, too.

* EvenTheLovingHeroHasHatedOnes: Tristian, the party cleric, is a sweet-natured follower of Sarenrae ([[spoiler:one of her angels under a BalefulPolymorph curse in fact]]), and in keeping with her philosophy of redeeming evil will almost always press the PlayerCharacter to spare the lives of defeated enemies. But even he will occasionally tell the PC to just deliver a CoupDeGrace if he believes them unrepentant and irredeemable.

* AutomaticCrossbows: Due to the video games design, crossbows function exactly like shortbows and longbows when it comes to additional attacks due to Base Attack Bonus or additional attacks from feats and status effects, instead of tabletop where they have to be reloaded between attacks. This makes crossbows optimal for ranged builds that don't rely on using a composite bow with a decent strength score, relying on the crossbow's improved critical threat range on a attack roll of 19 or 20 (17 to 20 with Improved Critical feat) and improved damage dice to keep pace with composite bows.

* BeingGoodSucks: Striving to always make the Good, or at least least-Evil, decisions will result in you missing out on ''three'' extremely powerful artisan masterpieces while gaining you nothing. Additionally, while both Good and Evil barons get buildings that help them resolve problems, the Evil one is both much better and much cheaper. Good guys can be a Paladin, but the mandatory Lawful Good alignment is notoriously slippery to hold onto as the game goes on.

* VendorTrash: Gems, trinkets and various household items have no purpose other than being sold in bulk for some profit (the vendor dialogue helpfully provides a single button to select all of these at once). Non-magical weapons and armor become this as well later in the game.

* MoralDissonance: One of the more common complaints about the game is that the implementation of CharacterAlignment,[[invoked]] specifically alignment shifts based on dialogue choices, comes off as quite wonky at times. For example, making peace between the mites and kobolds or between House Surtova and House Aldori, or trying to bring Sartayne to justice, arguably ought to be Good-aligned choices, but they are respectively Neutral-restricted, and marked LawfulEvil. To say nothing of the problems paladins often face with maintaining their LawfulGood status, especially paladins of Shelyn or Sarenrae (NeutralGood goddesses whose teachings emphasize redemption of sinners): it's possible for them to choose too many Good options and lose their class features, which shouldn't be possible by rules-as-written.

* AdultFear: Lake Silverstep Village has Ivar, [[spoiler: whose children died from falling off a cliff after he'd told them a fanciful tale about how they could see a Silver Dragon from it during a new moon]].

** There are two companions who will obliquely refuse to leave your party rather than asking why you want to kick them out. Linzi, the narrator, and [[spoiler: Tristian.]] One would think that [[spoiler: he's]] just particularly dedicated your cause, but the reality [[spoiler: is that he is integral to the plot.]]

* LawfulStupid: The game's portrayal of the [[invoked]] LawfulGood alignment has a few issues at times. In particular, the Nazrielle-Sartayne sidequest regards arresting Sartayne for [[spoiler:sabotaging Nazrielle's magical weapons to ruin her reputation, in order to get revenge on her for ruining his father's]] as a LawfulEvil action for some reason, even though a lot of innocent people were endangered by this. You'll also find yourself commonly taking NeutralGood or ChaoticGood actions for lack of a LawfulGood counterpart.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: When you run the game on early chapters things goes smoothly. However, as you progress further and further, loading between areas will slow down to a crawl. Saved games that just took a couple of MB rise up expansionally to several GB. It's highly recommended to play the game on a SSD.

* IKnowYourTrueName: Can bite you in the ass in the Valley of the Dead. [[spoiler: Every time you reveal your or one of your companion's names within earshot of Horagnamon (who constantly attempts to taunt you into doing so) a Soul Eater, which must be fought alone by that character, is summoned right before the confrontation with Vordakai. Unfortunately, your companions grab the IdiotBall Horagnamon tosses them and reveal their own names if you don't. Your best bet is to voluntarily name companions who can hold up against ability damage--notably Jaethal, who once again [[YouCantKillWhatsAlreadyDead is immune to it because she's undead]].]]

* StupidityIsTheOnlyOption: In Vordakai's Tomb, even warned as you are by the tooltips and possible in-game knowledge (such as speaking to Kaessi about it), it is impossible to [[spoiler:make your companions keep their mouths shut and avoid spawning more Soul Eaters during the halfway point. The smartest option is for the PlayerCharacter to pick the characters best suited for dueling a Soul Eater whenever prompted by Horagnamon (Jaethal in particular is completely immune to ability drain because she's undead). [[ButThouMust It is also impossible to avoid giving Horagnamon the player character's name]] thanks to one of The Nameless Sisters.]]

* BaitAndSwitch: Depending on your choices, an encounter with some cultists can turn into this. Menacing robed figures approach you on the road, the high priestess in charge telling you that "Lamashtu herself has called upon us to track you down and deal with you as you deserve". If you dealt with the cult of Lamashtu peacefully earlier, what she actually means is offering you a very handy permanent buff. Of course, if you decided against tolerating the cult, the encounter plays out a lot more like you'd initially expect...

* MuggingTheMonster: A CannibalClan comes to a sticky end when they try to kill some seemingly hapless travelers...who turn out to be disguised lycanthropes.

* DudeWheresMyRespect: No matter how high your position is, You're still asked to go out and fix the problems of your country by hand, though you can dictate some issues to your advisers to deal with instead.

** The Stag Lord unknowingly but clearly outlines Nyrissa's entire modus operandi when he dies, making it obvious she's doing the same thing to you. [[spoiler: And Irovetti]].

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: The final stage of Valerie's companion questline has her put through a church trial over the circumstances of her quitting the Church of Shelyn. Should you talk your way through to the "good" ending [[spoiler:where Shelyn forgives Valerie and removes her scar]], the paladin leader will lose his temper and attack you. On tabletop this probably should have cost him his class features on the spot for violating [[https://aonprd.com/DeityDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Shelyn Shelyn's paladin code]] and/or ceasing to be LawfulGood,[[invoked]] but since this is the only situation in the entire game where such a mechanic would be relevant, Owlcat probably didn't consider it cost-effective to write code for it.

* IKnowYourTrueName: Can bite you in the ass in the Valley of the Dead. [[spoiler: Every time you reveal your or one of your companion's names within earshot of Horagnamon (who constantly attempts to taunt you into doing so) a Soul Eater, which must be fought alone by that character, is summoned right before the confrontation with Vordakai. Unfortunately, your companions grab the IdiotBall Horagnamon tosses them and reveal their own names if you don't.]]

* LudicrousGibs: Big hits cause enemies to explode. Useful in the case of trolls, since they need to be either damaged by fire or acid or be gibbed like this to stay dead. Counterproductive with many magical and non-magical beasts, which can be skinned for their valuable pelts if they aren't gibbed.

** Prior to this, dealing with the cult behind it has [[spoiler: you decide whether or not Olika, the widow [[ChekhovsGun of a merchant whose body you'd found during Troll Trouble]], should be allowed to receive Lamashtu's "blessing" to save the life of her unborn child, knowing full well what a blessing from [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Mother of Monsters]] could entail. If you let her, the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue states she was killed by an angry mob.]]
** The end of Jaethal's companion quest line, especially for non-Evil players - [[spoiler: either pull a GrandTheftMe on her daughter, or kill her and raise her up as an Undead.]] While she ''can'' TakeAThirdOption depending on prior choices, [[spoiler: this option kills ''Jaethal'', as she effectively tells Urgathoa to go pound salt - and Urgathoa responds with a BoltOfDivineRetribution that makes Jaethal KilledOffForReal]].
* SaveScumming: ''Highly'' encouraged by the community to the point it warrants a mention here. While a human DungeonMaster can choose to be merciful in the interests of keeping the game going and making sure the players have fun, the game cannot do this and thus relies entirely on the fickleness of the RandomNumberGod. Most infamously, getting the secret ending requires passing a Knowledge Arcana skill check in a conversation you can only have once - If you fail to get this prompt you're locked out of that ending unless you do this, or the next level of editing the save file manually.

* DiscOneNuke: The unique longbow Devourer of Metal you can find during the "Troll Trouble" chapter. Despite being only a +2 weapon, like Amiri's bastard sword it hits with the force of a Large weapon and has a powerful acid damage enchantment, and remains competitive even into the endgame.

** Kingdom Management. You can also set it to Auto, but you wont be able to disable it once the game starts. This also locks you out of all artisans, their sidequests and their gift rewards including [[InfinityPlusOneSword their masterpieces]].