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

[Lacrymas]

I got to the island and there's a bunch of stuff I want to talk about. First of all, Solasta's second biggest problem outside of crappy official campaigns is ironically 5E. The RNG is your biggest and toughest enemy, characters have almost 0 tactical options, including spellcasters due to how many spells require concentration, so your only recourse most of the time is praying to RNGesus. It makes the game tedious, especially since most combat encounters can be overcome with a single Spike Growth cast, but those that can't are an RNG fest through and through. At least with the party I've chosen. Solasta's RNG feels especially malicious because the characters are constantly rolling sub-10, even sub-7 and having trouble hitting mobs even with relatively high stats, while it's incredibly rare to see an enemy roll lower than a 10. I have karmic dice turned off, so maybe I just have very bad luck. However, even if I rolled everything well, the RNG problem would still be there. I already have an idea of how to mitigate the RNG in the combat system I'm brewing up, so we'll see how that turns out. Oh, and how to mitigate 5E's issue of only a few spells being viable and everything else beyond trash due to opportunity cost.

Second of all, in the Forgotten Island specifically there are too many fights, even identical ones (bunch of spiders, bunch of orcs, bunch of similar undead). Your tabletop party would hate you for it. The enemies depend on swarming you rather than being composed well with fewer but tougher mobs. This becomes a tiny little bit better just after you get out of the crypt and onto the island proper, though, so we'll see how that goes. The crypt itself had room for more story, like some foreshadowing or vague hints at why there are undead there at all.

Third of all, the AI loves to focus fire a single character while most characters are unable to withstand such an onslaught in 5E unless you are metagaming or using specific builds with specific subclasses with maxed out stats. Even the barbarians with their resistance to all forms of physical damage are easily felled, let alone everyone who doesn't have this. Again, there isn't a way to mitigate this with the tools you are given because melee characters need to be in melee to be effective, the moment you start running away you are in a death spiral. Healing is weak even with characters specifically made to heal. The Ranger is almost dead weight too, dealing half as much damage as the barbs.

TL:DR - 5E, at least at lower levels, lacks effective tactical options to deal with tougher encounters and requires specific classes/builds to circumvent that.

 

[Abu Antar]

I started the first DLC with a party of barbarian/monk/warlock/sorcerer.

Immediately, I am hoping for bigger maps in the sequel.

 

[A-Minish]

Now lvl9. Still enjoying it. My strategies thus far revolve around wall of fire, spiked growth, wind wall(for projectil cover), insect plague, entangle, fear, confusion, bombarding them with whatever I can combine with baleful scion while retreating, evading or by starting the fight on an already very defensible position. Surprisingly I made a good use of lightning storm too when I could.

I MUST stay under cover, kill quickly or push back martial enemies as much as possible or I am done for(even more so than before).

My clerics do the jobs rather well. They have only 22 ac with Warcaster feat but their Turn Undead, Charm Animal(domain) and Dampen elements has been very useful. Same about damages with spiritual weapon, spirit guardian, inflict wounds, guiding bolt, etc.

My warlock are still useful. I just find their resource pool to be rather small.

BUT

Sadly shapeshifting has gone from alright and useful a few times to useless most of the time. I only wished I could respec(My Unfinished Buisness/UMM seems to be bugged or something and does not allow me to do it). Summons are fairing no better when they were useful distraction 2 or 3 level ago, now they die too fast(generaly in just a single turn).
The only ones I use are the flying type, to trigger a fight from afar, to have a better mobility or to simply harras spell casters or archers when I can(I still have to test 5th level elemental summons though).

In one word : Concentration. I will spare you the fucking details. I do not dislike the concept at all, I even like it, but its execution is just sad. The only good thing about it for me is that it made me want to replay IWD1.

Re : Martial foes are now seriously hitting like trucks(or minotard if you prefer). I am starting to meet more and more dangerous casters(I have a bug and their lightning bolt go through anything). I think my party will hit the wall very soon(I have the bad feeling it will be a vampire or a dragon).

I will still try to finish the module because I enjoy it. Though, I might not do the next one because of the Conc. mechanic.

Oh and happy new years folks.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I am starting to meet more and more dangerous casters(I have a bug and their lightning bolt go through anything).

Not exactly a bug, it's the way the game was coded. They actually mention this in one of the Solasta 2 Q&As as someone asks if they'll change that.

 

[mediocrepoet]

As an aside, I've been playing Palace of Ice lately after re-running the OC. I picked it up on release, but had never gotten around to it before.

I actually like it a lot. There are some ways it could be improved such as larger areas or more interesting fights in some cases, but they also have some interesting fight set ups. As far as the official modules go, I think this one is my favourite.

The main thing is that if you import your OC party, you hit level cap well before the adventure is over and you're pretty insanely OP and start steamrolling everything very early on. For instance, most enemies need to roll a 20 with disadvantage to hit my Paladin making him effectively immortal. He can also go nova and one round pretty much anything, and has even blown up some legendary enemies.

I think if I redid this I'd just build new characters or level up the OC party from level 1 in the selection rather than using the import, despite it being nice for continuity. I don't love the standard difficulty options because of the hp bloat and the way that messes with the game's balance. It's probably worth looking at custom difficulty more and leaving hp the same or up a little but mostly pumping up their stats a la Pathfinder.

Knocking people off the edge of cliffs is never not funny, even when it's not the optimal play (because your weapon hits for ~5x as much damage on a single hit).

 

[ERYFKRAD]

As far as the official modules go, I think this one is my favourite

Tell me if that holds up all the way till the end, will ya.

 

[mediocrepoet]

As far as the official modules go, I think this one is my favourite

Tell me if that holds up all the way till the end, will ya.

Sure thing. I'm reasonably close to the end now. Have you finished it and weren't impressed with the end or you haven't played it and are curious?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I'm reasonably close to the end now. Have you finished it and weren't impressed with the end or you haven't played it and are curious?

I have finished it, and I thought it was alright. These games really oughta restrict resting a lot more, honestly.

Just wanna know how it shakes out for ya.

 

[Artyoan]

For anyone who wants to try six man combat with restricted long resting (and essentially no storyline): https://mod.io/g/solasta/m/grave-rush-6-man-party

 

[A-Minish]

Just did one of the fights under the stockade. Bloody good fight.

I was expecting a fight, I was expecting a vicious fight even, I expected a wave or two, but not THAT showing its ugly head with another batch of its pals when I was almost at the end of my rope.

Le THAT in question

And finaly, after countless reloads, an hour of fight, 4 dead earth elementals(one renegade I had to put down myself)and nearly no spell left, I managed to put down those bastards and get out o-

OH

Also, the 5th level elementals have shown they can pack a few good punch and tank during 2, 3 or 4 turns for now.

 

[NJClaw]

That sequence under the stockade is perfect, on par with the best content in Knights of the Chalice 2 IMHO. It requires you to squeeze EVERYTHING out of your poor characters, using optimally every resource at your disposal. I couldn't have done it without my beloved Circle of Balance Druid, absolute MVP with Gift of Life.

 

[A-Minish]

Did it. The bastards are dead. I tried to flee/avoid the fight entirely at first but had not enough dimension door for the whole party. Then I fucked up by getting detected too early, the combat started and I had to improvised. I tried to run around the whole level to dodge them but one of the fat ass blocked me too early.

Fear and the pushing effect of my eldritch blast + flame elems blocking the way were essential to avoid being eaten. The rest was only a matter of grinding them with the usual tactics and lucking out.

That sequence under the stockade is perfect, on par with the best content in Knights of the Chalice 2 IMHO.

Good to know. I have yet to do both. If they are similar to what I am playing right now but with a diffrent ruleset(D&D-3rd edition or something ?) then I realy should give them a try.

 

[mediocrepoet]

As far as the official modules go, I think this one is my favourite

Tell me if that holds up all the way till the end, will ya.

Yeah, still does. The end sequence was fairly easy, but I expected that with how I'd been steamrolling everything else. I think to some extent this can be mitigated with the difficulty and AI settings and rules around chargen (e.g. standard array only).

Other than that, it had an epic ending that felt earned and consistent with the setting and like a proper conclusion to a traditional campaign. Feels to me like TA kept putting out better content with each release, so hopefully Solasta II will continue that trend.

 

[A-Minish]

Alright, now lvl13 and I think I am at the final boss but I do not have what's needed to beat it. I think I lack some damages dealing capacities or better healing ways. Or both. I have a way or two in mind to get out of this mess but if I am pretty sure this party is as good as dead. Though, I shall attempt to beat those assholes again in the next weeks while starting something a little less hard.

I have rarely seen such a well balanced EXP distribution in a campaign. Itemization was great, loot was not lacking. More than half of the fights made me think and forced me to adapt. The RNG can be a true pain in the ass, maybe the basic version is more forgiving. At last I could try a 6 man party with the 5E but the more I played it, the more I regretted Pillars and Pathfinder.

Still, despite not being a great combat enthusiast myself and RNG being a bitch, I enjoyed your module enough to continue well past my expectations as I thought I would die sooner or abandon due to frustration. So, thank you very much Artyoan

 

[Artyoan]

Alright, now lvl13 and I think I am at the final boss but I do not have what's needed to beat it. I think I lack some damages dealing capacities or better healing ways. Or both. I have a way or two in mind to get out of this mess but if I am pretty sure this party is as good as dead. Though, I shall attempt to beat those assholes again in the next weeks while starting something a little less hard.

I have rarely seen such a well balanced EXP distribution in a campaign. Itemization was great, loot was not lacking. More than half of the fights made me think and forced me to adapt. The RNG can be a true pain in the ass, maybe the basic version is more forgiving. At last I could try a 6 man party with the 5E but the more I played it, the more I regretted Pillars and Pathfinder.

Still, despite not being a great combat enthusiast myself and RNG being a bitch, I enjoyed your module enough to continue well past my expectations as I thought I would die sooner or abandon due to frustration. So, thank you very much Artyoan

Thanks A-Minish. Most feedback has been that the six man versions are harder than the four man originals. For the final fight, if you have any potions of speed and/or bless then I'd suggest quaffing all of those right before the pull. They can make a huge difference.

I was satisfied with how six man combat turned out enough to prefer it over the four man default. Very easy to convert in the dungeon maker too.

 

[A-Minish]

For the final fight, if you have any potions of speed and/or bless then I'd suggest quaffing all of those right before the pull. They can make a huge difference.

I had some in store. Same with some of my magical items. I went back in town to prepare a bit more. I spent 80% of my gold but it will surely be worth it. Now I have 24 lightning ball, two new staff, two new wands and nearly 3 times the numbers of pots I had. My party being dead or alive after that, only one thing is sure, one of the merchant in town is going to be rich

Also I forgot to add :

1. My Moon Circle druid, the one with advance shapeshift form(swift action), can turn into elemantals(ice, wind, earth, fire) since lvl10 thanks to UB. Those forms gave me a small resistance to damages, an alright HP pool and occupy 4squares, unabling me to block tight corridors. Unfortunately it was also a double edge sword as some environments where too tight to move easily or the celling was to low too fly properly, also I could shapeshift slightly into walls.

Illustration

My second druid, of the Forest Guardian Circle, does not fare so well. Most of its Circle spells were not very useful and its shapeshift are still very basic.

Clerics still doing their job right. Their turn undead is still useful in urgent cases but useless against vampires.

Warlock are more of the same except I chose to give them more mobility with mass teleportation(Scatter) and a personnal teleportation each(free action each turn). Scatter in particular was a free ticket out of certain predicaments(I ambushed the ambushers at the chapel thanks to it).

EDIT : The deed is done, now, only chared bones of my former foes remain.

Stats

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

So I abandoned my wilderness themed party. It was kicking ass, but just wasn't my style. Now I've got a Dwarven Battle-cleric, Human Paladin, Half-Elf Bard (Lore), and Gnome Wizard (Loremaster). It's much more conventional. I decided to do an ironman run on my first pass of the game for the thrill of it. I've also turned on merciless and deadlier AI. It's certainly increased the difficulty but I'm glad I did it. Otherwise I'm core rules. I'm enjoying the combat a lot. My wizard thus far has been MVP with sleeping creatures that are flying or climbing. It feels really good being able to do stuff like that.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

So I abandoned my wilderness themed party. It was kicking ass, but just wasn't my style

Crom laughs at you from his mountain.

 

[NJClaw]

My wizard thus far has been MVP with sleeping creatures that are flying or climbing. It feels really good being able to do stuff like that.

Casting sleep on that first goblin climbing the mountain is what made me instantly fall in love with this game. That and also the first spellcaster casting fly and actually flying away from my paladin. I remember going "wait... are computer games allowed to do this?!"

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Some of these kits are absolutely busted. Consider the Battle Domain for the cleric. It gets martial weapons, a second attack, and can cast using a shield or weapon as a focus. Its domain spells give some of the best wizard spells. It's practically an omnicharacter. The Greenmage kit on Wizards gives you practically every spell from the Druid spell list except cure. While I still went with the Lore Bard, the College of Hope is particularly good since short rests aren't limited. This kit gives you massive amount of healing through Song of Rests bonus from CHA, as well as Inspirations also imparting Song of Rest.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

My party wiped on the sorak battle at the end of the wizard tower, lol. I didn't use the campfire before the encounter because I didn't know that door would trap me in a boss fight. I guess my gaming instincts are getting rusty. I had some bad rolls, and my party got divided. I was going to hole up in the room at the top after the surprise round, but I guess you can't travel through a crawlspace during combat. I got most of them, but after they killed my bard and wizard the game told me that I lost. I wasn't allowed to keep fighting with my paladin and cleric. There goes that ironman run.

PS How is the Mountaineer kit for Fighter? I'm thinking of making a fighter who bashes with their shield, then uses ready attacks to trip when the enemy reapproaches.