KickStarter Solasta: Crown of the Magister Thread - now with Palace of Ice sequel DLC

[J1M]

Given the marketing of the expansion, the very limited time I spent delving in a demon palace was disappointing. Lost Valley is still the best official Solasta module.

 

[Crispy]

Holy crap the mandatory fight you have to get through on the route to Turvaamalinn (in the cabin) is fucking tough!

Minor spoilers:






---





Five young black dragons and a dragon knight against my level 15 party: 1/2 orc barbarian, marsh halfling druid, sorcerer of the rift and my dwarven hoodlum.

Took me three tries to get through it, and the trick wound up being using the one Greater Invisibility scroll the sorcerer had on him to hide and snipe from distance while the barbarian and dwarf held their own. The druid had to keep playing hide-and-seek with the damned leaping dragons, and if she AND the sorcerer died, I'd get the game over screen.

I absolutely *love* the combat in this game. So much so that I can *easily* forgive the wonkiness with character faces and other minor bugs. I'd even venture so far as to say that its combat is even more entertaining than ToEE's. YES I SAID IT.

If Tactical Adventures doesn't make a full-fledged sequel to this game I'm going on a hunger strike.

FUN!

(Please tag me for any replies since I'm avoiding spoilers, thanks)

 

[gurugeorge]

I'd even venture so far as to say that its combat is even more entertaining than ToEE's. YES I SAID IT.

See I said that after playing the demo, but people laughed at me

Solasta is the closest thing we have to a spiritual successor to ToEE.

 

[0sacred]

What's with the weird 'choose a spell to forget' thing on my Ranger?

I had picked Cure Wounds and the one that you mark an enemy with, and I didn't feel like letting go of either but I had to. Is this how it works for Paladins too?

 

[Crispy]

I think the ability to optionally choose to forget a spell at level-up, which then allows you to replace it with another one, exists for many of the spellcasting classes.

Just decline the option if you don't want to.

 

[0sacred]

it... didn't look optional

Is the spell I forgot gone for good or can I re-choose it next time?

 

[Crispy]

I think you can re-learn it, but I've never been so... mistaken... as to actually choose to forget a spell when not really wanting to.

 

[Bara]

Welp finished the last dlc last fight was fun but was still pretty easier than I thought it would be.

Spoiler

Like I get the idea, multiple fights and you can't rest so its a whittling down of resorces but even on scavenger difficulty the first time fighting the final boss was the only difficulty part. The Guardian mace and the Sovereign light sword doing extra damage to demons allowed me to nuke the boss quickly in phases two and three.

The fights between phases two and three without rest were all pretty easy and I didn't even have to use spell slots for that with the amount of potions and scrolls I never touched till this fight. I was hoping for something more. It was tricky at the start but after that your on a track to win if you have the resources pretty handily.

Would have prefered one longer climatic battle.

Overall if Tactical Adventures does another Solasta game I hope they do something better with exploration and fix their random encounters from just being combat all the time.
Feat selection was also really boring yes limited to the SRD but they could have done something more interesting.

Though I think they'll probably move on to other games now rpg or otherwise since BG3 releases in less than three months.
Or maybe just pause anything Solasta related as being off brand 5e vs the actual thing when its out may be weighing into their calculations.

Also, is unfinished business and custom campaigns worth checking out now?
I've read that every time Tactical Adventures pushes a update it breaks the mods/saves.
Figure I'd just wait till they announce they're officially done updating Solasta and finally get around to playing wrath of the righteous before BG3.

 

[Artyoan]

Also, is unfinished business and custom campaigns worth checking out now?
I've read that every time Tactical Adventures pushes a update it breaks the mods/saves.
Figure I'd just wait till they announce they're officially done updating Solasta and finally get around to playing wrath of the righteous before BG3.

TA has been giving the main mod author early access to testing builds so they can smooth over patches. I don't expect any major downtime for the Unfinished Business mod anymore. This was the last dlc and its really only the dlc initial patches that caused issues.

For now, there are a few bugs or changes in custom campaigns that are causing issues but they aren't due to the mods.
-Some dead body props have snow cover in the forest locations
-an activator for dialogue that is not on an NPC, but does involve NPCs, are currently not showing the correct text. I think the functions still work but this could affect a lot of campaigns.
-seems to be some reported issues with some custom campaigns not allowing door transitions to work right, though that seems extremely rare, and saying 'no' when prompted to enter the door seems to work
-TA changed the base prices on nearly everything and that could wildly change inventory prices in custom games

I have no idea how the economy is working in my own campaigns at the moment. I patched them to set all prices to 0% so everything should be the base price TA set themselves. Selling to custom merchants in Forsaken Isle is set at 25% and Morrows Deep is 22%. Hopefully thats not too much or too little gold but I won't know til I get a chance to play them again myself.

I think custom campaigns are fine to play at the moment. Just might have some oddities. Broken saves shouldn't be much of an issue though.

 

[Nortar]

I don't expect any major downtime for the Unfinished Business mod anymore. This was the last dlc and its really only the dlc initial patches that caused issues.

I think custom campaigns are fine to play at the moment. Just might have some oddities. Broken saves shouldn't be much of an issue though.

Good to know, thanks. I wanted to finish my Morrows Deep run before starting the Palace of Ice.

 

[J1M]

What's with the weird 'choose a spell to forget' thing on my Ranger?

I had picked Cure Wounds and the one that you mark an enemy with, and I didn't feel like letting go of either but I had to. Is this how it works for Paladins too?

The ignore button is in the top right. Don't feel bad. Flat UI is a fad that shouldn't be applied to fantasy games. Yes, Paladins and other casters work the same.

It's useful for dropping something like cure wounds or hunter's mark for goodberry or summon animal.

 

[J1M]

Holy crap the mandatory fight you have to get through on the route to Turvaamalinn (in the cabin) is fucking tough!

Minor spoilers:






---





Five young black dragons and a dragon knight against my level 15 party: 1/2 orc barbarian, marsh halfling druid, sorcerer of the rift and my dwarven hoodlum.

Took me three tries to get through it, and the trick wound up being using the one Greater Invisibility scroll the sorcerer had on him to hide and snipe from distance while the barbarian and dwarf held their own. The druid had to keep playing hide-and-seek with the damned leaping dragons, and if she AND the sorcerer died, I'd get the game over screen.

I absolutely *love* the combat in this game. So much so that I can *easily* forgive the wonkiness with character faces and other minor bugs. I'd even venture so far as to say that its combat is even more entertaining than ToEE's. YES I SAID IT.

If Tactical Adventures doesn't make a full-fledged sequel to this game I'm going on a hunger strike.

FUN!

(Please tag me for any replies since I'm avoiding spoilers, thanks)

Try using a summon to harry the HP sponges.

Not sure how anyone could say 5e combat is more interesting than 3e. Concentration and lack of things like reach weapons for martials really limited Solasta variety.

 

[J1M]

My final thoughts on the most OP party. Interesting how different this is from the traditional recommendations I read about Shadowcasters, Clerics, Fire Paladins, and Wizards.

Considerations:

-in-combat healing is garbage in 5e unless we are talking about a (ranged) heal to pick someone off the floor.

-only play races with Darkvision

-the important spells are: Hypnotic Pattern, Spike Growth, Conjure Elemental, Counterspell, Fire Wall, Detect Magic, Identify, Knock

-less important: Goodberry, Heal, Summon Celestial, Fireball, Pass Without Trace

-trap spell choices: Haste, Cure Wounds, Sleep, Hunter's Mark, most damage spells

-probably want more than one caster due to concentration spell limit

-many good spells like Bless are less useful because of concentration

-ranged damage doesn't waste turns getting into position

-between giant belts and weapon enchantments you don't need to boost strength scores after character creation

Party:
1) Half-Elf Lore Bard (use the wildcard spell choices to pick up spells that allow the Bard to replace a Rogue and Wizard) Sellsword background gives access to medium armor.

2) Ranger with a bow (covers the most important Druid spells, Spike Growth and Goodberry)

3) DEX Commander Fighter (Invigorating Shout is one of the best bonus actions in the game, Archery and Defense fighting styles, weapon swap with shield, enough STR for plate)

4) Another DEX Commander Fighter or a DEX Champion Fighter (more shouts or more crits) Consider lowlife background for thieves' tools proficiency.

Good Feats: Uncanny Accuracy, Forest Runner, Flawless Concentration, Eager for Battle, Take Aim, Armor Master, Enduring Body, +2 CHA

Note: since you will likely get Enduring Body, try to end character creation with an odd number for CON. This is counterintuitive. Also, the Fighters don't need to be a race with +2 DEX. They get extra feats that can be used on +2 DEX if you want to use a Snow Dwarf or something.

Remember: Opportunity attacks shouldn't be scary for someone in plate armor. You don't need a fancy disengage ability to back up and start firing arrows.

TLDR: 3 archers plus the ability to cast the important spells. Have someone with Perception and Survival.

 

[gurugeorge]

I've found there's a bit of tactical interest in thinking of the concentration spells as something you switch between quite frequently, rather than (as it were) toggles (like buffs, etc., are in earlier D&D iterations and in Pathfinder).

It's a good solution to the "prebuffing marathon" thing that everyone (not me) seems to hate so much.

 

[0sacred]

^^ noob questions:

1. is spellcasting failure due to armor a thing in 5E?
2. how do you get a DEX bonus in plate armor?

anyways, bows are OP? So we're back at BG1 :D

 

[J1M]

^^ noob questions:

1. is spellcasting failure due to armor a thing in 5E?
2. how do you get a DEX bonus in plate armor?

anyways, bows are OP? So we're back at BG1 :D

No spellcasting failure.

Heavier armor will have a limit to how much of a DEX bonus it grants. Scale armor only grants up to 2 AC from DEX, for example. For some armor the limit is zero. But that restriction only applies to AC, not attack/damage/save rolls.

The reason for DEX is so you can hit with ranged attacks. Due to ability score limits, AC will generally still be higher in plate than with light armor and a DEX bonus. But it does open up more options if there's a magical effect you like on another armor type.

 

[J1M]

I've found there's a bit of tactical interest in thinking of the concentration spells as something you switch between quite frequently, rather than (as it were) toggles (like buffs, etc., are in earlier D&D iterations and in Pathfinder).

It's a good solution to the "prebuffing marathon" thing that everyone (not me) seems to hate so much.

Maybe you need to elaborate, but I can't see how this makes sense when combat is decided after 3 rounds. Better to conserve the spell slots by using something worth maintaining.

 

[gurugeorge]

I've found there's a bit of tactical interest in thinking of the concentration spells as something you switch between quite frequently, rather than (as it were) toggles (like buffs, etc., are in earlier D&D iterations and in Pathfinder).

It's a good solution to the "prebuffing marathon" thing that everyone (not me) seems to hate so much.

Maybe you need to elaborate, but I can't see how this makes sense when combat is decided after 3 rounds. Better to conserve the spell slots by using something worth maintaining.

I think there are quite a few fights that take longer than 3 rounds.

 

[Artyoan]

"Hey there folks,
We're here today with a much larger update than the previous times! Including a healthy dose of bug fixes, but also some balance changes and adding some previously missing stuff!"


Changelog

• Added new faces for Tieflings without the facial marking and fixed several existing bugs.
• Tiefling marks can now be selected as Body Decoration.

Every codex complaint has now been rectified.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Every codex complaint has now been rectified.

Not until the final boss fight is just a fist fight atop a high structure it isn't.

 

[Corrin]

I absolutely *love* the combat in this game. So much so that I can *easily* forgive the wonkiness with character faces and other minor bugs.

I'm not *super* far through the game yet but hard agree on the combat King Crispy. I'd been having trouble deciding what to play so when a few things irritated me at first I uninstalled it ready to move on but went straight back and enjoying it since.
It is just really fun.

 

[Abu Antar]

I absolutely *love* the combat in this game. So much so that I can *easily* forgive the wonkiness with character faces and other minor bugs.

I'm not *super* far through the game yet but hard agree on the combat King Crispy. I'd been having trouble deciding what to play so when a few things irritated me at first I uninstalled it ready to move on but went straight back and enjoying it since.
It is just really fun.

Okay, Crispy.

 

[Tony]

I wanted to import a party so finished the original campaign. I have the Unfinished Business mode installed and my party was level 15 and it wouldn't let me import the save. I found the issue - the players have to be level 12 or lower. Thankfully, the same mod lets you redo characters, so tonight I start this expansion in earnest.

Anyone know if a any Neverwinter Night style persistent servers are planned for this game? Or Baldur's Gate 3? Rogue Trader? Anything down the road?

 

[Nerevar]

Is this good? Might get it on the steam sale all the DLC and game for $20 not bad...

 

[RPK]

It's not amazing but it's worth a play.