First Playthrough. What should I know first for a good experience?

The piece of advice that helped me the most was to approach the main quest in the opposite way as most other RPGs.

There's a generous time limit on thing so if you run around doing side content while delaying the main quest you will lose. So in Kingmaker you want to do the Main Quest first and then use the lengthy time before the next one starts to explore and do the side quests

1. Being a Monk or Paladin is a bit difficult RP wise if you want to play a good guy, since there's a lot of Lawful Asshole choices and if you pick too many good or chaotic options, you'll veer off and won't be able to take Monk levels anymore. So keep that in mind.

2. Start on the lower difficulties and turn it up as you feel comfortable, since the game can be really hard, especially if it's your first rodeo.

3. The game operates on timers, so you always have a certain number of days to complete a task before you get a Game Over. If that's too much for you, or you'd just prefer to focus on adventuring over kingdom management, you can turn on both Invincible Kingdom and Auto-mode for Kingdom management.

Some of ghe companions are unavailable at certain points of the game. I will, without Spoilers, list their names and when they are unavailable. This should help you decide which companions you want:

If you see small spiders burn them to the ground. Flamethrower is advisable.

Do main quest first, then side content until the next main quest shows up.

Get a mod that lets you activate multiple buffs with one click. Saves so much time.

By about level 15, get Blind-fighting and/or a bunch magic items that give Freedom of Movement. Makes the last dungeon tolerable.

Edit: Alignment is implemented weirdly. Helpfully, the devs let you buy scrolls of Atonement to reset alignment back to where you started.

Dont choose the unaffiliated councilor during the party (you will know, you get 3 choices, one for each faction and one who appears neutral)

Any class is viable really, just need to build em right.

Worst case scenario, you can turn auto-management and invincibility for Kingdom management if you completely screw it up. You can still get a decent ending, but you won't get the "Fairy Tale ('Best') Ending" without manually controlling your kingdom management. (Don't stress out about this because the requirements are so taxing that you simply won't get this ending on your first run.)

I will offer one bit of a small spoiler that will save you a lot of trouble from one instance where the KM thing can really screw you over: >!When you go on Nok-Nok's quest, do not let the ogre get away. !<

As far as monks, I think a fun monk class to play for newcomers are Zen Archers because you are almost always absolutely strong from beginning to end and you can learn how the feats work with your build a little more easier than say a magic build.

Emphasize being able to hit enemies more often instead of doing more damage in the beginning. Pick the damage ones a bit later.

Monk is solid. The best monk build, is either str, or a dex monk with a rogue dip for dex training

Something that hasn't really been mentioned is that Pathfinder: Kingmaker assumes that it's only audience would be people familiar with the table top rpg, and thus doesn't really spend a lot (or any) time explaining the underlying mechanics.

So if you are not a veteran from either the 3rd edition of Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder it self I would suggest spending some time familiarizing yourself with the ruleset

Monk is solid. My preferred version of monk is a dexterity tank using crane style. This gets great AC later and solid damage. Monk does take a little bit to get going. Also get the bark skin ability on your monk as soon as possible if you chose to go fist as those need the neck slot for amulet of the fist.

For the 2nd chapter be sure to do the region grab and advisor upgrade kingdom events first as that takes the exact amount of time you need for the main story to start. Be sure to collect the 2 miss able companions in chapter 2 before you end the main story quest. One you will almost assuredly see if you do what I said the other can be missed but you will probably find just doing story stuff.

Swarm enemies are brutal. You will fear mandragora swarm more than any Demon Lord.

Like other said, do main quest first, artisan quest second, companion quest third, everything else after that.

All main quests start in general after the repeatable quest Curse of Hilltop battle (The only exception is finishing Varnhold Vanishing quests immediately start The Twice-Born Warlord quests and the first Act of the game). So unless you do areally poor job exploringa nd losing time, after completing all quests of the Act including side quests, you should have some months to manage and advance your kingdom.

Tip to not loose time while exploring is to have 12 or 18 rations to not need to pass the nature check of hunting that can make you lose hours. Always give priority to buy Bag of Holdings. There is one lesser bag in Oleg costing 2k gold, one Great Bag in your capital on act2 and forward and a final lesser bag with Bartholomew, unless you ignore main quests and new regions to explore you'll meet him. This bag is missable if you take too much time to complete Troll Trouble main quests. Bag of holding allow for you to carry more 100 or200 pounds kilo/pounds of weight before getting over cumbered (over cumberedmake your characters fatigue quickly)

Build your settlements in the middle of crossroads in the middle of their respective regions. Why? Because by reaching Divine rank 4 and Arcane rank 3 in your kingdom stats allow for you to build teletransportation circles between your settlements and citys.

That's another tip, try to give some priority to raise Divine to unlock Arcane and rank both of them to unlock teleportation early.

Kingmaker on gamerguides.com Here you have a page, that allows for non-spoilery guidance, if you haven't played crpgs in years, you may want to keep it close

Kingmaker on Neoseeker Here you have a whole page with different guides, tips and tricks, begginer advice, walkthrough, optimal choices, item locations, builds for every difficulty, both for your party and you, keep this one too

In other rpgs, I'd suggest going blind, but in Pathfinder one should do some research before playing, because without some exp with hardcore rpgs or a lot of dedication, you can get frustrated, there's no hand holding and game punishes mistakes, Normal difficulty is harder than in other games, but when you do get a hold of it, it's much more satisfying. I'd suggest reading up builds and figuring out as who you want to play, and then play the first act (well, Prologue + Stolen Lands) with that non-spoilery guide from the first link, it'll teach you a lot of what you need for all the later acts (about 100 hours with DLC after that), don't be shy with the guide, it's easy to get lost or screw up, so it might be better to swallow your pride and check something up

>What should I know first for a good experience?

Don't listen the cope-crowd, and install mods, imminently, both games are barely playable otherwise. Auto-buff mod is mandatory, especially if you play on anything above normal, which means you will be buffing a lot. Second mod you need is one for inventory, so you can use search, in inventory. And ofcouse you want to install toybox immediately, for fixing inevitable bugs, or removing bugged de-buffs.