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

[NJClaw]

yeah but paladins are gay

Paladins are very much not gay. The fact that Lacrymas has two of them in his party doesn't mean anything.

 

[Alienman]

Any suggestions on party composition? I'm completely new to 5E and do not get this "no tanks" system. So I don't need a frontliner with defensive capabilities?

I went with a paladin and cleric for righteous smiting, with the backup of a mage and spy rogue. Fairly standard I guess, but seems to cover everything so far.

 

[Larianshill]

Somewhere between levels 5 and 8, my ranger became utterly useless. I really need a snazzy magic bow to fix that.

 

[V_K]

I really need a snazzy magic bow to fix that.

The lady at Manacalon ruin sells recipes for a few nice ones.

 

[Nortar]

Any suggestions on party composition? I'm completely new to 5E and do not get this "no tanks" system. So I don't need a frontliner with defensive capabilities?

If you're in doubts, just go with the classics: fighter - cleric - rogue - mage.
One of the fighter martial archetype is designed to be the tank.
As often the case, offense is the best kind of defense, but depending on the difficulty you're playing you would be needing someone who can hold the front.

 

[Cryomancer]

Yeah, instead you killed dragon on lvl 8.

I said that is a BAD thing. And I have no experience with 5E, maybe the CR of creatures are lower on 5E and a lv 8 party can kill a dragon. BTW, on NWN1 I killed two ancient dragons at lv 14. Note that the dragon is handicapped on solasta.

See what LAcrymas said :

RE: Killing adult dragons at lvl 8 even though the CR is 14 - This is not uncommon to 5E. There are three (four) reasons why that is. First of all, like I've said before, the CR in the base Monster Manual is very off-base, as in the mobs are easier than their CR would indicate. Second of all, it very, very much depends on the party's composition, levels, and subclass choices. The infamous example of the Moon Druid destroying campaigns at level 2 is apt. Third of all, bounded accuracy and AC make it so that the to-hit chances compared to AC aren't wildly different a few character levels apart. Lower level characters can hit higher level ones quite reliably and that's one of the biggest contributors of defeating higher level enemies. The bonus fourth thing is how well the party is geared and what rules you use for healing potions. If quaffing healing potions is a bonus action, it's obviously going to make the encounters easier.

As you can see, Dragons can be reliable defeated by a lv 8 party on 5E. Because 5E is vastly different than previous editions. I would prefer if Dragons was out of league even for high level parties and defeating a dragon would require coordinate efforts of many high level nobles and a pretty good plan, but is just my preference. Some people enjoy dragons as larger fire breathing lizards.

NO AWESUM BUTTON! CAN'T KILL GOBBO AND SPIDERS! HP BLOAT!

You said that you prefer low level D&D due the fact that the game has higher lethality. And hp bloat made even low level D&D lacks high lethality. IMO you should't include dragon army VS mindflayer spelljammer ship battle in anything but a epic level campaign. Nor Netherese Magical nuke artifacts in hands of a lv 1 Wizard...

Any suggestions on party composition? I'm completely new to 5E and do not get this "no tanks" system. So I don't need a frontliner with defensive capabilities?

A balanced party.
- Wizard(Shock Arcanist)
- Cleric(Lightning or Ice)
- Paladin with shield and one handed weapon or a two handed fighter
- Rogue but not pick a manlet race for your rogue.

 

[Larianshill]

The lady at Manacalon ruin sells recipes for a few nice ones.

I have the recipes, I don't have the stuff to craft it with.

 

[fantadomat]

I have no words to describe how much a of a bitch-ass motherfucker Razan is.

Yeah that second fight was annoying,he constantly just warped outside of the light spell. Which have a retarded effect,should have been 10 damage when they enter it or start the turn in it,now it is only when they start the turn in it. Thus making them run around like retards.

 

[fantadomat]

Guys can someone tell me to whom shall I give a crown to wear? To wiz, rog, cleric or fighter? What bonuses/penalties from wearing a crown would be in future?

LoL it seems like it gives you some bonuses and spells. Haven't even noticed it lol. I just gave it to me main character,the rogue,don't care about bonuses.

 

[fantadomat]

I think the only other item that occupies the head slot is the Headband of Intellect, which gives INT 19. It can be useful for an Eldritch Knight or a Shadowcaster.

EDIT: there's also an elm that allows you to understand any language, but I still haven't found any way to use it.

Thanks, you mean headband that sets any int to 19 and not average bonus? Thats rather unusual.

Yes, magic items in 5E instead of giving a bonus to your ability scores usually set a fixed value. They brought this back from older editions to avoid situations where the player could stack many different bonuses to reach absurdly high values.

You might want to check the inventory of all the factions' contacts as soon as you can in order to learn what items you will be able to buy in the future. One of the first merchants you interact with sells a Belt of Giant Strenght (Fire) which sets your Strength score to 25, which means that you can ignore that ability to increase the other main ones on your frontliner.

Yeah,it is pure decline.

 

[fantadomat]

Somewhere between levels 5 and 8, my ranger became utterly useless. I really need a snazzy magic bow to fix that.

Good luck finding one,there is no magic loot,you have to craft it,and for that you need high rep with the arcanum faction .

 

[Fedora Master]

I understand that some people enjoy low level DnD but holy shit.
5e removed the difficulty curve from leveling anyway so playing at level 5 is barely different than level 15.

 

[V_K]

The lady at Manacalon ruin sells recipes for a few nice ones.

I have the recipes, I don't have the stuff to craft it with.

I see only two explanations: either loot is partly randomized, or you haven't been thorough enough in your looting. I've found way more primed items in my playthrough than I had use for. Ingredients may be somewhat rarer, but they are often offered as side quest rewards, and antiquarians have a few in their inventory.

there is no magic loot

There's a ton of magic loot (mostly +1 and +2 items, but also some uniques), you just have to identify it. Unidentified, it's described as "magnificent" or somesuch, and doesn't show its real stats. And yes, it took me half the game to figure that out.

 

[Mortmal]

Yeah, instead you killed dragon on lvl 8.

I said that is a BAD thing. And I have no experience with 5E, maybe the CR of creatures are lower on 5E and a lv 8 party can kill a dragon. BTW, on NWN1 I killed two ancient dragons at lv 14. Note that the dragon is handicapped on solasta.

For a party of 4 level member hard encounter is 5600XP deadly 8400XP , again deadly means characters MAY die .A green dragon is cR15 , 13000xp so it's not even a 2X deadly encounter. Indeed a complete dumbfuck more interested in posting is character commisionned art on r/dnd with no strategies whatever, may die, and not even sure...A group of veteran neckbeard ? codexer ubermenchs ? Its possible to up to 6x deadly .It will be a breeze .
Solasta is extremely generous on rest , far too generous, so full resources when engaging, then when you dm a little you know by experience with the action economy you never put a boss fight without a few minions. Luckily first part of the fight has minions else it's way too easy. A dragon alone is no chalenge to a group of level 8.

 

[TumblingTorin]

There's also the fact that you can only attune to 3 magic items that requires attunement. There are only a handful of items that doesn't which limits how much power you can have. It's nice that you can't get crazy high modifiers like 3e, but it also sucks because of how limiting the the 3 attunements is. If it was something like 5, it would be a bit better.

 

[jungl]

This my first time playing 5e I didn't really play baldurs gate 3 cause I hate early access stuff. Its interesting that everyone has the same accuracy what this means even a wizard can be useful when out of spells. While there is less disparity between trash and good classes then 3.5e some subclasses still seem op like shock arcanist is basically having your character one level higher. So far 5e is whatever and I don't see anything unique about it.

 

[Thac0]

some subclasses still seem op like shock arcanist is basically having your character one level higher.

This is 5.1, all subclasses are homebrewed. Official subclasses are notably better balanced, although there are some outliers aswell. Particularily in expansion books like Tasha.

not even a 2X deadly encounter. Indeed a complete dumbfuck more interested in posting is character commisionned art on r/dnd with no strategies whatever, may die, and not even sure...A group of veteran neckbeard ? codexer ubermenchs ? Its possible to up to 6x deadly .It will be a breeze .

Took me a while to figure out, but the recommended daily XP limit (3x deadly roughly) is a much better threshhold for an actual deadly encounter. Deadly by the book is more like moderately challenging with like 5% odds of one character dying, but total party wipe unlikely.
Also take me off ignore already, salty Frenchman.

 

[Cryomancer]

Yeah, instead you killed dragon on lvl 8.

I said that is a BAD thing. And I have no experience with 5E, maybe the CR of creatures are lower on 5E and a lv 8 party can kill a dragon. BTW, on NWN1 I killed two ancient dragons at lv 14. Note that the dragon is handicapped on solasta.

For a party of 4 level member hard encounter is 5600XP deadly 8400XP , again deadly means characters MAY die .A green dragon is cR15 , 13000xp so it's not even a 2X deadly encounter. Indeed a complete dumbfuck more interested in posting is character commisionned art on r/dnd with no strategies whatever, may die, and not even sure...A group of veteran neckbeard ? codexer ubermenchs ? Its posible to up to 6x deadly .It will be a breeze .
Solasta is extremely generous on rest , far too generous, so full resources when engaging, then when you dm a little you know by experience with the action economy you never put a boss fight without a few minions. Luckily first part of the fight has minions else it's way too easy. A dragon alone is no chalenge to a group of level 8.

IMO, Dragons should be far more powerful than 3E and 2E counterparts. For example, a adult dragon should be powerful in spellcasting as a lv 20 sorcerer and a ancient like a epic level sorcerer. All spells of his element, maximized, empowered and able to bypass DR/immunity and the monster manual should put some hints on how to counter some tactics made by players. Eg - If the player tries to stack too much buffs and magical gear, cast disnjunction on then. Obviously a DM can't "act" as a supra genious with over 20 INT legendary monster, but he should be encouraged to at least try.

Dragons should have powerful servants and never be alone, his eggs should be protected by really nasty traps and constructs made by the dragon itself. Fighting anything above a "teen" dragon should require coordination of many high level nobles and a pretty good plan and the humanity should lose a lot of mercenaries and conscripts. Legendary creatures should be more legendary IMO.

Same with other legendary creatures like a Kraken. A Kraken should't be a monster in a random encounter. Should be a monster which requires merchant guildes of the costal cities to get enough founds to hire archwizards and mercs to defeat then, put siege weapons on the port to try to hit the creature and so on. A Kraken should cause massive impact in the world around him, for example, cutting supplies to a island and making people starve there cuz nobody wanna to navigate in a sea where a kraken is attacking, or making the prices of trade extremely higher since people needs more profit to be motivated to put their lives in risk.My S&W DM did Krakens right. Our party failed to defeat one and we had to flee and lose a pretty expensive ship. This at lv 11. The merchant gave the ship at heavy discount and we suspected that something was not right, then after the battle with the kraken(which we used fly, shapeshift and etc to escape), we interrogated the ship merchant and learned that we wanted us to hurt the kraken and used us as bait, because his ship manufacturing company could go bankrupt thanks ot this kraken and he has no money to buy high level mercenaries, he said that the entire city is at risk of bankrupt thanks to this creature. He knew that we had almost no chance.

------

As for resting, Solasta is generous on resting except on end game. I hit ex to lv 10 on end game and could't level up. Also had to reload a save and save scum a lot to save my spell slots for the long final battle.

still seem op like shock arcanist is basically having your character one level higher.

Shock Arcanist seems OP at low levels. 8d6 damage at lv 3... However, at mid levels, when you are lv 8/9/10, the benefits of shock arcanist lacks in relation to how much hp enemies gain.

 

[Alienman]

That Sorlak boss, early on. He was flying, and I'm not sure how I did it, might have been a crit from a bow... but it interrupted him and he almost got wrecked from one shot crashing into the ground headfirst and knocking himself unconscious. Was pretty funny.

 

[The_Mask]

- no mouse edge camera scrolling? Wtf is this you have to use keyboard to move camera? It's like 1993!

This is actually really cool imo

It's not about light, but about constantly running away like a complete bitch. My paladin couldn't keep up.

Cast Daylight, or any similar light spell. Ready action. Let them come. You're not stuck in there with them; they're stuck in there with you.

 

[Larianshill]

Cast Daylight, or any similar light spell. Ready action. Let them come. You're not stuck in there with them; they're stuck in there with you.

I've already beaten him when I was complaining about him. His fight was just annoying as shit.

 

[Thac0]

That Sorlak boss, early on. He was flying, and I'm not sure how I did it, might have been a crit from a bow... but it interrupted him and he almost got wrecked from one shot crashing into the ground headfirst and knocking himself unconscious. Was pretty funny.

Fly is a concentration spell. Every instance of damage taken triggers a concentration check to keep the spell up. The roll is constitution saving throw against DC 10 or half of the damage dealt, whatever is higher. Multiple instances of damage trigger multiple rolls. Throw a magic missile at him. Three guaranteed hits, three saving throws against DC 10 which he almost has no chance to make.
Really cool that they implemented this faithfully. Even cooler that they gave him counterspell to counter this. I baited out his counterspell with a MM by my spellblade, and then went in for the kill with my wizard.

 

[fantadomat]

yo watch out,there is a game breaking bug in the fire forest dungeon,or what ever its name was.

Sooo there is a door that you have to open by stepping on to two glowing tiles,the red/orange one in the picture. In this area you have to fight 3 waves and then step on it,but i fought a fourth one and now it can't be activated. Don't know if it is because i fought a forth one or what,but be careful,make a save before starting the fights.

 

[Cryomancer]

Yep. Magic missiles + shock arcanist is amazing on breaking enemy concentration. 4 saves, he will probably fail at one.

 

[jackofshadows]

Wasn't that lizard mage immune to magic missle?