In this Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous – The Lord of Nothing DLC Impressions article, we’ll be going through our thoughts on the game’s fifth DLC. What’s new in this adventure, who do we meet, and what kind of challenges can we expect to face? Let’s find out here!

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous – Lord of Nothing DLC Impressions

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Lord of Nothing DLC is an expansion for the CRPG based on the Pathfinder tabletop game. It is also the fifth and final DLC for the game.

Lord of Nothing picks up the unfinished story of Through the Ashes DLC, where you lead a group of Kenabres survivors into the realm of Sithhud. This time, you have a higher level cap (yet still retain the vibe of a small folks’ story), more class archetypes, more powerful weapons, and a charming new companion.

Just like its predecessor, Lord of Nothing features a standalone survivalist adventure, which only connects to the main campaign after you beat it while also potentially adding an extra encounter for your commander in the main campaign. The team of Kenabres survivors (the group you controlled in the previous DLC) continues its focus on a smaller scale, mid-level range adventure compared to the main campaign. You can import your characters from the end of Through the Ashes DLC, or create a group of new ones (in that case, you can choose the ending of Through the Ashes DLC). 

The Lord of Nothing

The DLC is divided into several mini-campaigns (or areas), and you face different enemies and environments in these areas. You must conclude the story in one area in order to advance to the next.

In the Lord of Nothing DLC, there are no endless demon hordes to slaughter, but several smaller yet well-crafted battles and encounters with very limited resources. This forces you to carefully plan, strategize, and calculate your next moves. You need to make your potions, items, and spells count. You will really need to plan your moves beforehand, otherwise, the whole team is doomed. The experience is challenging and entertaining at the same time. 

However, this might require a lot of saving and reloading due to the minimal number of rests and the composition of story companions (1 bard, 1 thief, and 1 sorcerer, with no tanks). Additionally, spell-casting builds feel a bit underwhelming. It’s best to play your main character with a tank or melee-focused build or rely on hirelings. The downside is that hirelings cost gold, and the resource is far more valuable in this DLC than in the main campaign. 

A Different Approach

Another issue is that magic weapons are much rarer in the DLC. If your character or build happens to rely on certain types of equipment, or you prefer certain types of weapons but there’s no good drop, then you will likely have some tough times.

Lord of Nothing encourages you to sneak past enemies to conserve your supplies in certain areas. However, placing a six-member team in these spaces feels frustrating. Luckily, only a part of the new areas have this issue. You can mostly just choose to focus on excellent combat strategies instead. 

Three’s Company, and a Story

The DLC also introduces a lovely new companion – Penta, a charming Android who accompanies you in the realm of Sithhud. Honestly, I wasn’t aware that androids were a thing in medieval high-fantasy settings, but the writers clearly nailed it. She’s really vivid, and detailed, and the voice acting is top-notch. In the end, you wish there could be more of her even in the main campaign.

Lord of Nothing’s story is also overall quite good. The cliffhanger left in Through the Ashes is resolved with a satisfying end. Without delving too deep into spoilers, one extra thing worth mentioning is that although your characters are still capped at medium levels (Level 10-11). 

Depending on how you play the DLC, you can have up to five endings. Some of these endings lead to very satisfying and complex fights for your main game characters in Act 5.

Puzzling Powers in the Lord of Nothing

This time you gain a story-related power called Shard Powers, which adds more flexibility to your character builds, and it does have an impact on the overall narrative. They function like the mythic powers in the main campaign, but each time you pick a shard, you need to decide which team member to take it. Also, absorbing shards brings your character debuffs. The more you take, the more debuffs you get which adds a nice way to balance things if you can really afford to get new powers. 

Also, there is good news for the players who hated the puzzles in the main game. There are still secrets here and there, but only one really difficult puzzle and you can skip it if you’d prefer not to wrack your brain over it. So no more mind-boggling experiences like exploring the Enigma. And there are no game-breaking bugs I encountered in my playthrough, which is a good improvement for Owlcat studio.

The new 15 archetypes (or subclasses) also add an extra layer to the already rich combat systems of the main game. Some of these archetypes come from official Pathfinder materials, while others are homebrew but still interesting to test. Now you can have more builds to explore for the enthusiasts.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the DLC feels satisfying. It provides a good quality of 10 to 20 hours of playtime and lets you experience the fight against demons from a different perspective than the commander. You certainly don’t want to miss this DLC if you are into CRPG games, especially if you have already played Through the Ashes.

Lord of Nothing was released on November 21, 2023, for PC and consoles. It retails for $12.99, and will of course require you to already own the base game.