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

[Parabalus]

• Added a Wand of Identify that costs 500 GP for those poor parties of adventurers who don't have access to this all so important spell.

Really nice, great addition. Makes many comps much less tedious.

 

[Dorateen]

But if the party is poor, how can they afford 500 gold pieces?

 

[Late Bloomer]

But if the party is poor, how can they afford 500 gold pieces?

Depending of the race / pigmentation of your party memember, you may be due up for some reperations.

 

[Mortmal]

Pay extra for 2 classes is bullshit. At least the new campaign is cheaper than expected.

2 classes dlc was too expensive, this one is a whole new campaign and good so far, wont change anyone's mind, it's the same with more monsters and new tilesets.

 

[Lacrymas]

Everything depends on the encounter design. If it's shit like base game, it's not worth it even if they offer it for free.

 

[NJClaw]

Can't wait to try the new campaign. I'm also curious about some of the subclasses, especially the fighter, wizard, sorcerer, and ranger. Sadly, I'm back home for the holidays and apparently in my hometown they still haven't discovered the internet:

• Added a Wand of Identify that costs 500 GP for those poor parties of adventurers who don't have access to this all so important spell.

Really nice, great addition. Makes many comps much less tedious.

This really is a game-changer for me. So far, I've always felt almost forced to have a Wizard in the party.

 

[Sacibengala]

how many core classes that are still missing and that we'll for sure have to pay to get them in future dlcs? Is it just warlock and monk ?

 

[Cryomancer]

This DLC seems interesting. The creatures seems cool but honestly I din't liked any subclass.

 

[The_Mask]

Is it just warlock and monk ?

Nobody cares about monks anyway...

 

[Sunri]

Is it just warlock and monk ?

Nobody cares about monks anyway...

Is monk not worth trying?

 

[The_Mask]

Is monk not worth trying?

I was being very sarcastic, because I like roleplaying martial artists, and lately it seems to be the one "class" that is overlooked.

 

[V_K]

Is it just warlock and monk ?

Nobody cares about monks anyway...

Nor warlocks. Nobody needs more charisma-based casters.

 

[zapotec]

Bard is missing also

 

[Angelo85]

Short Review for the DLC campaign from Turnbased Lovers

Solasta: The Lost Valley is a completely self-contained DLC campaign for Solasta: Crown of the Magister. In it, four characters, designed by the player, get cut off from the outside world in a secluded valley.

Overview and Evaluation
Solasta: Lost Valley doesn’t feature too many new mechanics. However, each class from the original and the previous DLC – Primal Calling – now gets a single subclass. These are well-made and add a lot of replayability. I particularly like the Commander, which revolves around team buffs; the Hoodlum – a bulkier type of rogue; the Swift Blade, which turns dual wielding rangers into hurricanes of destruction; and the Path of the Claw, which gives a dragon flavor to the barbarians, expanding their capabilities in interesting ways.

The main attraction, of course, is the campaign the DLC is named after. It is… okay. My biggest complaint about Crown of the Magister was its weak story and final levels’ design. Lost Valley really, really doesn’t improve on either of these. Dialogue is poor, the plot is transparent; there is nothing to draw you in. In a way, it’s even worse than the original. There, I found myself at least somewhat interested in the plot and where it was going. Not here.

Talking about level design – many fights are just quick encounters with two or three enemies on a mostly level battlefield. These are fine when used sparingly, but not the way it’s done here – especially in the early game. Some stages seem almost identical, like two forts with the same layout and enemies. The random fights are dull (12 thugs!) Compared to the engaging levels of the original, this truly exemplifies a decline in craftsmanship. Still, if you enjoy the battles and core gameplay loop of Solasta – at least here you get more of it.

Finally, Lost Valley adds tools for making Solasta content. That’s cool, but doesn’t benefit most buyers. As such, assessing their value is beyond the scope of this review.

Summary
I can’t recommend Solasta: Lost Valley to everyone. Still, there may be a fair number of Solasta fans who’ll like what it offers. Whether you are replaying the main story or enjoying some custom levels, having access to the additional subclasses will add some interesting variety to the characters. The campaign, however, is mostly for those who’d like more Solasta content, even if it’s not quite as strong as in the original.

Summary
The Lost Valley DLC doesn't add much to the game. The new subclasses are definitely its main feature, and these do add replayability, being overall well-made. However, the campaign itself is weak, even when compared to the original - lacking in both story and level design.

Good

• Interesting subclasses, which add replayability
• A new official campaign

Bad

• Weak story, even compared to the original
• Level design is not up to par with the core game

6/10 Fair

 

[Jinn]

Wow, those two "Bad" points seem like things they should have focused intently on this time around. Seems Tactical Adventures isn't much of a learning animal, which could spell some tough times ahead for them. Really expected them to take the weakest aspects of the original campaign and do a 180. What a shame.

 

[Acrux]

Does the new campaign use any of the skills that weren't included in the original?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Does the new campaign use any of the skills that weren't included in the original?

They do differentiate on the extra languages, the tooltip for giantese for example says it's not used in the Crown of the Magister campaign but it is used in the Lost Valley campaign. Given that I'd say it's safe to assume animal handling and performance and shit still has 0 impact on anything.

 

[NJClaw]

Myzzrym, I get what you're trying to say, but what is "a free action" supposed to mean? If it doesn't take either a bonus action or a regular action, it isn't an action at all. The wording is supposed to be something like:

"At the start of your turn, you can enter a heightened state of battle focus (no action required) [...]"

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Myzzrym, I get what you're trying to say, but what is "a free action" supposed to mean? If it doesn't take either a bonus action or a regular action, it isn't an action at all. The wording is supposed to be something like:

"At the start of your turn, you can enter a heightened state of battle focus (no action required) [...]"

You got 3.5e in my 5e!

 

[Mortmal]

Short Review for the DLC campaign from Turnbased Lovers

Solasta: The Lost Valley is a completely self-contained DLC campaign for Solasta: Crown of the Magister. In it, four characters, designed by the player, get cut off from the outside world in a secluded valley.

Overview and Evaluation
Solasta: Lost Valley doesn’t feature too many new mechanics. However, each class from the original and the previous DLC – Primal Calling – now gets a single subclass. These are well-made and add a lot of replayability. I particularly like the Commander, which revolves around team buffs; the Hoodlum – a bulkier type of rogue; the Swift Blade, which turns dual wielding rangers into hurricanes of destruction; and the Path of the Claw, which gives a dragon flavor to the barbarians, expanding their capabilities in interesting ways.

The main attraction, of course, is the campaign the DLC is named after. It is… okay. My biggest complaint about Crown of the Magister was its weak story and final levels’ design. Lost Valley really, really doesn’t improve on either of these. Dialogue is poor, the plot is transparent; there is nothing to draw you in. In a way, it’s even worse than the original. There, I found myself at least somewhat interested in the plot and where it was going. Not here.

Talking about level design – many fights are just quick encounters with two or three enemies on a mostly level battlefield. These are fine when used sparingly, but not the way it’s done here – especially in the early game. Some stages seem almost identical, like two forts with the same layout and enemies. The random fights are dull (12 thugs!) Compared to the engaging levels of the original, this truly exemplifies a decline in craftsmanship. Still, if you enjoy the battles and core gameplay loop of Solasta – at least here you get more of it.

Finally, Lost Valley adds tools for making Solasta content. That’s cool, but doesn’t benefit most buyers. As such, assessing their value is beyond the scope of this review.

Summary
I can’t recommend Solasta: Lost Valley to everyone. Still, there may be a fair number of Solasta fans who’ll like what it offers. Whether you are replaying the main story or enjoying some custom levels, having access to the additional subclasses will add some interesting variety to the characters. The campaign, however, is mostly for those who’d like more Solasta content, even if it’s not quite as strong as in the original.

Summary
The Lost Valley DLC doesn't add much to the game. The new subclasses are definitely its main feature, and these do add replayability, being overall well-made. However, the campaign itself is weak, even when compared to the original - lacking in both story and level design.

Good

• Interesting subclasses, which add replayability
• A new official campaign

Bad

• Weak story, even compared to the original
• Level design is not up to par with the core game

6/10 Fair

Disagree on the level design part,it's not that bad , the random encounters on map can be two or three enemies but have a look at their challenge rating, met a shambler ,cr 5, at level 3, it was an ok challenging fight for that level. The twelve thugs encounter may surprise you during your sleep and half of them get high ground in the dark while the campfire put you into light. It's like temple of annihilation random encounters in the jungle , nothing more or less.
I have not seen any dungeon crawl worthy of the name yet, you still have unlimited rests and the encounters are set at Deadly, which means in fact trivial as you have all your resources and do them one by one . No change at all in this area, that's not how you are supposed to run 5E , if you think solasta was too easy , this wont change your mind.
The plot is indeed extremely weak and predictable everything is obvious from the beginning, i have not finished it yet, but at this point i am not expecting any surprise. Still some good things, it had new monsters and tiles, more ammo for the modders.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamesn.com/solasta-crown-of-the-magister/lost-valley-dlc-dnd-rpg

The perfect DnD RPG exists thanks to Solasta: Lost Valley
The addition of co-op multiplayer in Solasta: Lost Valley turns the Dungeons & Dragons inspired RPG romp into an open ended adventure with great results

If there’s one feature the Solasta community has been clamouring for since the Dungeon Creator DLC dropped last year, it’s multiplayer. The ability to take this DnD RPG on with a group of friends to get as close to the tabletop experience as a game has ever gotten is finally here, thanks to the Lost Valley DLC. After several hours with the multiplayer, as well as the new campaign, I can confidently say that this is Solasta at its best.

My multiplayer Lost Valley session with developers at Tactical Adventures focuses on two encounters, one of which features a new enemy type, the spritely dryads. There’s nothing functionally different about the combat in co-op compared to single-player, outside of the fact that you can’t make decisions for other characters. You can, however, see what they’re thinking about doing, thanks to a tooltip that reveals what they’re hovering over or which menu they’re digging through, but the decision is always theirs.

The communication between our party was solid since we were in a voice call, but without native voice or text chat, this mystery can be far more consequential. TA are hoping to add a ping system so you can signal your intentions to other players, but without a robust in-game way to communicate, you’re really just relying on trust or a third-party program like Discord. This decision was made out of necessity, community lead Emile Zhang tells us – there are so many restrictions tied to console certification that the studio had to omit the feature altogether.

There’s also no matchmaking in co-op Solasta, meaning you’ll need to come to a lobby with your own premade party, open a lobby up for randoms (which is mayhem), or venture into Discords or Reddit to find members for pick-up games. As Zhang put it, it’s a very “Warcraft 3 custom servers” approach. The benefit of all this is that it’s very reminiscent of old-school DnD, where your gaming group either consisted of tight-knit friends or an ever-changing table of relative strangers united by a common interest.

You’ll be able to play co-op in any of the new and original campaigns, like the base Crown of the Magister story, from start to finish. Custom campaigns, which are adventures made up of several custom maps put together in the Dungeon Creator, can also be played in co-op, so despite there being no real GM role it’s still possible for one person to create a tabletop style funhouse to trap their friends in.

Spoiler

Speaking of being a good pal, DLC goodies sync with the host player of a game. So if the host has all the DLC, then players who play with them in their sessions have access to all of that content for as long as they’re playing together.

The Lost Valley campaign itself boasts roughly 20 hours of fresh adventuring for your favourite characters to sink their teeth into from level one, especially with the addition of nine new subclasses, which add plenty of extra layers when it comes to honing your character builds. For instance, the new Swift Blade subclass makes my ranger stronger when fighting with a weapon in each hand, giving them added protection in close-quarters brawls and letting them slip in and out of combat without getting walloped.



Beyond the new subclasses, locations, and enemies, Lost Valley is also a very different type of adventure. The story sees your party getting trapped in an isolated valley ruled by a charismatic tyrant, with the ultimate goal being to find a way home. After an exposition-filled opening hour, the rest of the campaign is as nonlinear and sprawling as the best RPGs, especially as you start interacting with the various factions of the valley, who are each vying for control and require your help to secure it.

Each faction, like The Rebellion, can help you meet your goals in different ways, so long as you don’t mind doing their dirty work, and many of them are in direct opposition, so you have to choose your allegiances carefully.

There are many more opportunities to wander away from the critical paths and into spontaneous adventures. Oftentimes, I find myself just choosing a direction and seeing what stones I can turn over. By open-world game standards, this might seem rudimentary, but it’s a massive change compared to the subterranean confines that make up most Solasta adventures.



It’s also designed to make the most out of some of the RPG’s underutilised mechanics, like interpreting foreign languages – I’ve already cast the Comprehend Languages spell twice in a few hours of play, whereas I hadn’t used it all during my 20-hour run of Crown of the Magister.

If you’ve been waiting to drop into Solasta, then now is the perfect time to make the jump. Multiplayer makes the prospect of tackling the tricky main campaign a lot less intimidating, and getting groups together to play around in community created adventures is a great game night activity. For those already invested and looking for more, the open-ended structure of the Lost Valley campaign lets you plumb the depths of your spellbook to find solutions that feel truly unique, imbuing the dungeon crawling experience of the main game with the creativity encouraged by its tabletop inspiration.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Multiplayer makes the prospect of tackling the tricky main campaign a lot less intimidating

Let's ignore that calling the main campaign tricky is silly, having other party members be controlled by someone else, will make playing efficiently more difficult, even when other players are competent.

 

[Mortmal]

Kinda a waste of development time that multiplayer thing, if i could gather a group like that on a whim, anytime, then i would not need any CRPG and just play the real thing.

 

[Jinn]

Multiplayer is the only reason I'm considering ever playing this again, honestly. Doesn't say the best about the game, but I understand why they chose to do it.

 

[Reinhardt]

"again"? if they fixed portraits i would at least try it for first time.