Game News Solasta: Crown of the Magister Dev Diary - Combat & Action Economy

[Infinitron]

Tags: Solasta: Crown of the Magister; Tactical Adventures

Looks like we're going to get more Solasta: Crown of the Magister dev diary videos. The topic of this month's video is the game's combat action economy. In Solasta's implementation of the 5th Edition ruleset, there are four action types that a character can perform during their turn in combat - movement (which varies by race and terrain type), regular actions (which also include maneuvers such as dashing, dodging and disengaging), bonus actions (such as off-hand attacks by dual-wielders) and reactions (eg attacks of opportunity and readied actions). There are also free actions that can be performed at any time, usually related to interacting with the environment.

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Very informative. What's nice about these videos is that much of what we learn in them will also be useful for Baldur's Gate 3.

 

[Thac0]

Almost tempted to clear the game with a fighter 4stack now.
Sword and board fighter
Polearm Fighter
Archer 1
Archer 2

Should be able to gun everything down the game throws at the player unless they go really high in difficulty. Fighters have plenty of self healing in 5e and healing is not that good in the first place.
The archers should be able to act as a pseudo AOE since they reach ridiculous accuracy values and can snipe off two small threats per turn.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Almost tempted to clear the game with a fighter 4stack now.
Sword and board fighter
Polearm Fighter
Archer 1
Archer 2

Should be able to gun everything down the game throws at the player unless they go really high in difficulty. Fighters have plenty of self healing in 5e and healing is not that good in the first place.
The archers should be able to act as a pseudo AOE since they reach ridiculous accuracy values and can snipe off two small threats per turn.

Depending on how their Paladin archetype features turn out, I'd rather have a team of 4 polearm master paladins that each have Eldritch Blast from the Magic Initiate feat. Have each picked up the Skilled feat and you've really got all bases covered.

 

[Silly Germans]

The game looks good except the interface. Modern ui's designs really lacks any charm at all. I'd wish developers would stop going for that crap or at least offered an alternative.

 

[Calm]

Depending on how their Paladin archetype features turn out, I'd rather have a team of 4 polearm master paladins that each have Eldritch Blast from the Magic Initiate feat. Have each picked up the Skilled feat and you've really got all bases covered.

That wouldn’t work since Warlocks are not currently one of the classes being implemented, and no feats, save one, are included in the SRD 5.1 (though they are brewing their own).

Better luck with BG3 maybe.

 

[Elex]

Paladin/sorcerer then.

 

[Thac0]

Almost tempted to clear the game with a fighter 4stack now.
Sword and board fighter
Polearm Fighter
Archer 1
Archer 2

Should be able to gun everything down the game throws at the player unless they go really high in difficulty. Fighters have plenty of self healing in 5e and healing is not that good in the first place.
The archers should be able to act as a pseudo AOE since they reach ridiculous accuracy values and can snipe off two small threats per turn.

Depending on how their Paladin archetype features turn out, I'd rather have a team of 4 polearm master paladins that each have Eldritch Blast from the Magic Initiate feat. Have each picked up the Skilled feat and you've really got all bases covered.

Its about the challenge! Dev said that they will balance around a well rounded party and playing with 4 wizards or 4 fighters will change balance and make it much harder.
Not as bad a statement as by the BG3 lead designer who thinks you need a dedicated combat healer in 5e, but 5e is not balanced around having a healer. With short rests and heals on full rest the combat pacing needs to be severely fucked for a dedicated healer to be necessary.
4 wizards still scale quadratically so rough early game and fireball razed warzone after level 5. But 4 fighters are stronger than the dev thinks. Fighters are good in 5e, especially Battlemasters.
Although I dont think I saw an option for variant human in the demo, which solo class fighters can really utilise to become a T1 class.

 

[Falksi]

This looks groovy.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Calm Oh right. Then Firebolt from the Sorcerer list. Less desirable damage type, but works all the same.

Thac0 I like the idea of a 4 person wizard party, but I'm not sure how well it would actually execute in 5E. Your early game would be easier than prior editions, but your whole party will be miserably fragile without a fighter dip later on. 5E gives mages no real protection spells against damage, and the concentration requirement prevents layering the most effective spells. You could theoretically get by layering offensive AoE, but endurance of that party would be very poor.

 

[overly excitable young man]

This might actually be fun compared to the retardation Larian is working on.

 

[Elex]

This might actually be fun compared to the retardation Larian is working on.

It’s exactly the same ruleset with identical implementation (just the reaction is different).

 

[overly excitable young man]

Just as if ruleset isnt everything and Larian sux completely at encounter design

 

[Thac0]

Calm Oh right. Then Firebolt from the Sorcerer list. Less desirable damage type, but works all the same.

Thac0 I like the idea of a 4 person wizard party, but I'm not sure how well it would actually execute in 5E. Your early game would be easier than prior editions, but your whole party will be miserably fragile without a fighter dip later on. 5E gives mages no real protection spells against damage, and the concentration requirement prevents layering the most effective spells. You could theoretically get by layering offensive AoE, but endurance of that party would be very poor.

If you use Bladesingers its obviously easy peasy but that subclass is ultra broken. With just PHB material I would do it like this:
1x Abjuration Wizard http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/wizard:abjuration 16 dex 16 Int 16 Con at creation, 9 8 8 for the rest. Achievable as a half elf. The ward is actually much stronger than it looks on paper and 16 Ac early with Mage armor makes this the dedicated tank.
1x Necromancer http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/wizard:necromancy after level 6 takes over the tanking job with a swarm of skeletons.
1x Evoker https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/School of Evocation#content sulpt spells and potent cantrips is very good in a primarily wargame setting
1x Diviner http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/wizard:divination generally the strongest option for a 5e wizard next to illusion, scales much better than an Illusionist for a wargame with fate altering powers. Will obviously never cast diviniation magic but act like a controller.

This is however assuming that all subclasses are in, which they will not be. Anyway its the much more interesting challenge than 4 fighters.

 

[Dr Schultz]

Very clear explanation

 

[Calm]

I can understand the sentiment of a 4 Fighter party. Performance would even be decent due to the damage output, despite lack of AOEs.

4 Wizards is completely doable, especially if PHB subclasses like Abjurer are on the table etc. at 1st/2nd level you could just Sleep everything for example, so good initiative would be the important thing.

 

[Elex]

All 4 stack is doable, some are easier orher a little tricky.
All caster are fine the only class that can have problem is the rogue if the game don’t give a good stealth/ambush approach to the fight.

rogue/fighter also need magical/silver weapons if they have to face certain immune enemies.

 

[Tom Baker's Arse]

This might actually be fun compared to the retardation Larian is working on.

It’s exactly the same ruleset with identical implementation (just the reaction is different).

.... sorry mate, the whole bloody game is different as well, nice try

 

[Goldschmidt]

I rather play a tabletop game in real; more tits and beer.

 

[FeelTheRads]

I rather play a tabletop game in real; more tits and beer.

Yeah, but man-tits.

 

[Serious_Business]

What's nice about these videos is that much of what we learn in them will also be useful for Baldur's Gate 3.

Getting that flaccid cock ready that Baduelaire Gate 3. Can't way for the dual wielding feats

 

[Thac0]

What's nice about these videos is that much of what we learn in them will also be useful for Baldur's Gate 3.

Getting that flaccid cock ready that Baduelaire Gate 3. Can't way for the dual wielding feats

Sorry to disappoint the Best Poster on the Codex but dual wielding is absolute ass in 5e. Almost less dps than a sword and board approach while being 10% easier to hit due to 2 AC less.
It's only good for rogues since those are balanced around hitting one huge attack per turn with sneak attack. Dual wield gives you a second chance to hit if you miss the first attack. You can only proc the extra damage once per turn tho.

 

[Thac0]

All 4 stack is doable, some are easier orher a little tricky.
All caster are fine the only class that can have problem is the rogue if the game don’t give a good stealth/ambush approach to the fight.

rogue/fighter also need magical/silver weapons if they have to face certain immune enemies.

Going by all classes for BG3 4 monk might be harder than 4 rogues since all monks have to basically be the same build. However maybe they just stunning strike every encounter into oblivion, it's an odd class.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Thac0]

What's nice about these videos is that much of what we learn in them will also be useful for Baldur's Gate 3.

Getting that flaccid cock ready that Baduelaire Gate 3. Can't way for the dual wielding feats

Sorry to disappoint the Best Poster on the Codex but dual wielding is absolute ass in 5e. Almost less dps than a sword and board approach while being 10% easier to hit due to 2 AC less.
It's only good for rogues since those are balanced around hitting one huge attack per turn with sneak attack. Dual wield gives you a second chance to hit if you miss the first attack. You can only proc the extra damage once per turn tho.

what about dual wielding wands? thats paladin Crispy wet dream

Wands generally dont exist in 5e. Magic weapons are super fucking rare and you cant use a wand as a main weapon since it will crumble to dust under heavy use and there is no way to magically refill them.
Even if the game gives you an infinite magic item supply no class can continously activate a wand more than once per turn. You would need two actions for that and the only class that gets two actions per turn is the fighter once per fight. You could theoretically start combat on a fighter dual wielding wands, action surge, activate both, drop both and swap to a two hander, but thats some grade a bullshit. All dual wield feats dont apply to wands since its not a weapon.

 

[Gyor]

Calm Oh right. Then Firebolt from the Sorcerer list. Less desirable damage type, but works all the same.

Thac0 I like the idea of a 4 person wizard party, but I'm not sure how well it would actually execute in 5E. Your early game would be easier than prior editions, but your whole party will be miserably fragile without a fighter dip later on. 5E gives mages no real protection spells against damage, and the concentration requirement prevents layering the most effective spells. You could theoretically get by layering offensive AoE, but endurance of that party would be very poor.

If you use Bladesingers its obviously easy peasy but that subclass is ultra broken. With just PHB material I would do it like this:
1x Abjuration Wizard http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/wizard:abjuration 16 dex 16 Int 16 Con at creation, 9 8 8 for the rest. Achievable as a half elf. The ward is actually much stronger than it looks on paper and 16 Ac early with Mage armor makes this the dedicated tank.
1x Necromancer http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/wizard:necromancy after level 6 takes over the tanking job with a swarm of skeletons.
1x Evoker https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/School of Evocation#content sulpt spells and potent cantrips is very good in a primarily wargame setting
1x Diviner http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/wizard:divination generally the strongest option for a 5e wizard next to illusion, scales much better than an Illusionist for a wargame with fate altering powers. Will obviously never cast diviniation magic but act like a controller.

This is however assuming that all subclasses are in, which they will not be. Anyway its the much more interesting challenge than 4 fighters.

None of the PHB wizard subclasses, are in, not even evoker, all 3 Solastas Wizard subclasses are custom designed for Solasta and seem interesting.