Pathfinder: Kingmaker is a game with a number of well developed NPC personalities. Not quite as many as BG/BG2, but still a decent array. There’s a special consideration in Kingmaker that some of them can act as Advisers/Ministers in charge of various aspects of your Barony as it develops. There are minister-only NPCs as well as traditional NPCs. Rather than doing all of them up-front as I did for BG 1&2, I will do them in groups as they are encountered in-game. So for the first set I will stick to NPCs that you meet in the Prologue.
Amiri (Wiki Entry)
Race: Human
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Class: Barbarian
“barbarian warrior woman;large,strong,barbarian-style leather armor;hide boots,intense determined expression;short dark hair. huge sword on her back“
Amiri is a rude, crude, over-the-top stereotype of a Barbarian warrior. Born in the nomadic Six Bears tribe in the brutal lands of the Mammoth Lords. She was cast out of her tribe for trying to be a warrior as a woman (or at least that’s how she tells it. The real story is a bit more complicated). She wields an almost comically oversized sword taken from a giant – which I usually replace almost immediately, because she can’t hit the broad side of a barn with it until much later in her career. And she is determined to prove herself as a warrior – almost to the exclusion of all other concerns.
I’ve used Amiri some at the beginning of the game – simply because you don’t have many options until early in Chapter 1. And I’ll take her along for special events/quests specifically involving her. Otherwise, she just doesn’t do much for me. She doesn’t care about anything but fighting. When she does have something to say about what’s going on its usually useless at best and downright unhelpful at worst. She doesn’t make a very good adviser IMO – even in charge of the military. So I largely park her at home base to keep her out of trouble.
Valerie (Wiki Entry)
Race: Human
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Class: Fighter
“young woman warrior in plate armor;age 30,short blond hair framing stern disciplined face;holding sword and shield,red cape,calm but alert demeanor“
Valerie is a more interesting character. She is a fallen paladin. Not fallen as in “evil”, but fallen as in “lost faith in her god and her order”. She was a paladin of Shelyn – goddess of art, love, and beauty. She was born into a noble family, and was a breathtaking, head-turning young woman. But she hated music and art, considering them a waste of time. She hated all the unwanted attention her looks brought her. She loved combat lessons more than anything else about her paladin-hood. And she valued Law far more than faith, love, and charity. Eventually she abandoned Shelyn and lost her paladin-hood. She cut her hair, adopted a more masculine look, and devoted herself to the military.
Valerie is distant and direct, but for the most part quite professional. She’s a stickler for the rules, but will generally defer to the Baron unless they egregiously flaut the Law. She can make a reliable Advisor – particularly as a Diplomat, as she has long experience with Nobility.
I’ve often used Valerie in the front-line anchor role – and she can be pretty good at that. But rather than a Fighter archetype I often use Call of the Wild to retrofit her into a “Vindictive Bastard”. Despite the name, this is a tailor built “ex-paladin” archetype which fits her to a “T”. Basically it gives up lay on hands, spells, and the like in favor of enhanced teamwork and extra oomph against opponents who have directly harmed team-mates. So she usually finds her way into parties, and even if she doesn’t she makes a reliable Advisor.
Harrim (Wiki Entry)
Race: Dwarf
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Class: Cleric of Groetus (Mad God of the End Times)
“short stout dwarf,stocky,age 40,bald,mace and shield,dark plate armor,weary smile,dark gray beard,scarred eyebrow;skull symbols“
Harrim is a rather odd duck. He’s friendly but gloomy. A steady companion, but not quite right in the head. And quite, *quite* bitter towards Torag – God of the Dwarves. He grew up dreaming of being a blacksmith, but proved thoroughly incompetent at it. Incompetent to the point of seemingly being actively cursed. As a result he eventually became a disciple of Groetus – mad god of the end times. Groetus isn’t really evil, per se. He doesn’t *cause* the end times. He doesn’t advocate for hastening its arrival. He merely patiently waits to consume the world when the time arrives. Many disciples of Groetus end up stark raving mad. For the time being, Harrim merely preaches accepting the inevitable and facing your doom with dignity.
I often take Harrim with me in Kingmaker parties. He’s an acquired taste, but he has a very interesting story arc over the course of the campaign. And he can be surprisingly perceptive if you avoid talking about Torag, dwarves, smithing, or religion. You can make him your Spiritual Advisor… but that’s not really healthy for your Barony. Keeping him with you as an adventurer allows him to vent his frustrations in a more constructive direction while keeping him far, far away from the populace in your capital.
Jaethal (Wiki Entry)
Race: Undead Elf
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Class: Inquisitor of Urgathoa (God of the Undead)
“pallid elf woman,age 40,dark complexion, athletic, gothic, cruel features,evil black eyes,thin straight black hair,black leather armor over dark red tunic,high black leather boots;holding a large scythe in both hands“
OK. Now this would be the absolute first companion on my list to bury in a hole if the option were available. She’s smart, ruthless, and an absolutely vile conneseur of “experiences” who would sacrifice her own mother to see what it felt like. I have no idea why any but the most Evil Baron would want her anywhere but in a deep, dark hole.
I love her *class*. Inquisitor (a bard-like sort of cross between a cleric and a rogue that operates as a sort of divine agent of the gods) is one of my favorites of the new Pathfinder classes. And her Undead status gives her many useful immunities – including being truly unkillable. She will always wake up afterwards with 1 HP if killed in battle. But her personality? Bah. You can semi-redeem her. A little. If you follow her quest line to the end. But why would you want to?
Linzi (Wiki Entry)
Race: Halfling
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Class: Bard
“short small halfling bard woman,irish,big wrapped feet,honey brown hair tied back with yellow hairband,enthusiastic,dark green leather vest,brown leather pants“
And now for someone *completely* different. If you tried to come up with a character who was the polar opposite of Jaethal in everything but gender, Linzi is what you would get. She’s a bubbly, enthusiastic, naive graduate of the Academy of Grand Arts. She is determined to write the ultimate story, and is actually the narrator of the game. She’s excited about anything and everything, and generally a tiny ball of enthusiasm.
Despite her winning personality, I somehow rarely end up with her in parties other than completing her quests. Her naivete sometimes just does *not* work with some of the places you have to go and things you have to do. And adventuring with her feels like taking a precocious 12 year old out into danger. She can serve as minister of the Arts or Diplomacy – but there are others better at both roles. She’s just generally too scatterbrained and flighty for my tastes to trust in a leadership role. So I just let her sit back as the official Chronicler, talk to her when in town, and bring her around to see things when her quests come up.
Kalikke/Kanerah (Wiki Entry/Wiki Entry)
Race: Tiefling
Alignment: Chaotic Good/Lawful Evil
Class: Kineticist (basically an Elementalist)
“split screen portrait of mongolian tiefling sisters;right sister friendly smile blue eyes water magic;left sister evil smirk red eyes fire magic;age 30,golden brown skin,red tunic,blue leggings,upright horns,tail,black hair,tattoos,glowing eyes,magic hands“
So this is a bit of a wild one. Basically these are twin sister tieflings that are cursed to only be able to exist one at a time. And they semi-randomly switch between the two. Kalikke is an absent-minded, good-hearted Chaotic Good Water Elementalist. Kanerah is a scheming and selfish but loyal and dependable Lawful Evil Fire Elementalist. And they typically introduce themselves as “Kaessi” and try to pretend they are a single individual unless they know and trust you well.
Despite the alignments, Kanerah makes an excellent Adviser as a Finance Minister. And she’s really more on the “Lawful Selfish” end than moustache-twirling “Lawful Evil”. She very much comes across as an “enlightened self interest” sort of character. Definitely selfish. Definitely willing to do things her sister would not. But also quite direct, straightforward, and reasonable for the most part.
Kalikke is more naive but also warmer and more caring. But they both come across as well-developed personalities – that care for each other despite how frustrated they can get with their polar-opposite viewpoints.
You can actually romance one or both of them, and even the friendship is interesting in that she can switch identities in mid-sentence. And one does *not* have inherent awareness of what the other was up to while they were out.
Kineticist is an odd sort of class that I have trouble wrapping my head around sometimes. In Kingmaker it can easily vary between underpowered and overpowered depending upon exactly how you build it. But “Kaessi” provides a very unique flexibility in that you can switch on-the-fly between Kalikke and Kanerah as your party member – without having to return to the capital as you would for any other character. Which means you can have Kalikke spec’d for healing and control and Kanerah spec’d for AOE offense and flip back and forth as befits the situation. I haven’t used her much in parties simply due to party makeup, but I’m hoping to find a place for her this time around.
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