If Baldur’s Gate 3 is the game to recommend to your friends who aren’t into RPGs, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is the pinnacle of freaking out the normies. This game embraces and celebrates the stinky, crusty, CRPG weirdness Larian (understandably) left behind.

Semi-permanent status ailments, save-or-die spells, fear effects that send your party running for the hills, and 232 individual subclasses to choose from⁠—I counted 26 base classes, 193 subclasses under them, plus an extra 13 prestige classes you can unlock for good measure⁠—I don’t know if it’s better than Baldur’s Gate 3’s elegant character building, but it’s thrilling in its own way.

The subclasses can’t all be winners. The “Defender of the True World” Druid, for example, is a real stinker⁠—not in a vacuum, just in this campaign. What use is a guy specialized in killing fairie creatures in a game with little to no fairie creatures?

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, the “Demon Slayer” Ranger almost feels like wearing the band’s merch to the concert in a game where at least 60% of the enemies are a demon of some extraction. Yeah buddy, we’re all kind of demon slayers here by necessity, but you’re special too.

There are some delightful odd ducks: The halfling-exclusive, hound-riding “Order of the Paw” Cavalier has always tickled me, and I’m also charmed by the “Separatist” Cleric who derives special powers from being a schismatic dissenter from their religion’s mainstream.

It’s an amazing system, but also kryptonite to a serial reroller like myself. I’m not alone, either: RPG forums are awash with heated buildcrafting discussions and tales of people starting over after anywhere from five to 50 hours of playtime, all in search of the coolest possible guy to play as.

Noble Steed

Wrath of the Righteous also has some quirks distinct from the sub- and prestige class-obsessed tabletop Pathfinder or 3.5 Edition Dungeons & Dragons before it. Animal companions, especially mounts, are one of the strongest features a class can have in WotR.

Mounted combat is pretty much the way to go at higher difficulties. You get a ton of extra movement per turn, and enemies will almost exclusively target the mount instead of the rider, letting you spec your mount as a guaranteed tank and your rider as a glass cannon. That’s something I’ve struggled with as a lover of sneaky boys⁠—dual daggers, studded leather armor, crouch walking, you get it.

It’s always felt weird to ride a horse into a dungeon, but Wrath of the Righteous is a hard game, and my desire to roleplay and drive to minmax have clashed here in the past. I love this game, but I really limped across the finish line when I completed my first playthrough back in 2022.

I’ve been meaning to replay it for years, to partake of all that juicy post-launch DLC, but what really set me over the edge was finding out about a Ranger subclass added by WotR’s final expansion, A Dance of Masks. The game boasts all sorts of exotic pets and mounts, but the “Sable Company Marine” gets a rideable griffon companion from level one.

Technically it’s a “hippogriff,” but that’s a distinction I refuse to respect. I don’t know what the difference is even supposed to be: DLC companion Ulbrig’s whole thing is that he shapeshifts into a griffon⁠—it’s explicitly called a griffon⁠—and they’re both retextures of the same exact model. If you’re not going to take your own fantasy taxonomy seriously, I certainly won’t.

Anyway, my griffon, who I’ve named Griffin, is very strong as far as mounts go, but he’s got a real ace up his feathers: A flying dive bomb that can strike anyone onscreen at any time, unshackled from charge attacks’ usual terrain restrictions. Mounted charges can get all kinds of bonuses to damage in WotR: Spears make them do double damage, a feat can increase that to x3, and there’s an extra attack on kill ability that will carry the bonuses to your next target (and the next one, and the next one).

Griffin and Balanok⁠—my cool Orc who’s good at everything⁠—are a missile on four legs (two claws, two hooves). I laugh at fights that devastated me in my first playthrough, one-shotting bosses and wiping out entire enemy back lines before they can say “Hold Person.”

There’s this knockout early fight where you have to defend a courtyard from enemies streaming in from multiple directions⁠—it’s simultaneously an amazing tactical set piece, and also a potential exercise in frustration.

Where previous playthroughs saw me struggling to keep up with each new wave, my Sable Company Marine was just zig-zagging back and forth across the battlefield, turning dudes into pink mist. The capstone was an aerial charge against the minotaur boss who comes in with the last wave. I scored a critical hit worth 232 damage⁠—he only had 70 hit points total.

This is the strongest I’ve felt in WotR, and that’s even with things bumped up to the Rules Lawyer+ “Core” difficulty. I also dig the class fantasy: Everybody make way for Mr. Protagonist and his cool flying mount.

It still feels a bit weird to ride horses or flying beasts in a cave or somebody’s house, but I’m finding that a small price to pay. If this has inspired you to mount up yourself, you can check out Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous on Steam or GOG⁠—it’s on sale on the latter storefront until April 3.