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

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

I can't understand how someone could enjoy BG3 and complain about this much better 5E adaptation...

because there's a lot more to an RPG that just adapting a rules system.

...which Solasta didn't even fully adapt. Classes are part of it, and they skimped heavily. Offering basic classes as DLC feels needlessly greedy, too.

Yeah, seeing classes as DLC didn't give me any hope either.

You get a limited refund window with these games. I had to make a choice of whether or not I wanted to suffer through this thing in the hopes that Kickstarter cultists weren't lying their asses off yet again about how great the game they invested in is, or whether or I would just get my $16 back and call it quits.

And the more I see the usual defensive Kickstarter fits in this thread, the better I feel about my decision to cash out and spend my time elsewhere.

 

[Thac0]

HOw is the DLC is? I din't bough the DLC

I admire what it tries to do, nonlinear campaign in a death dealing jungle, with warring factions going at it fall of the Aztecs style. The problem is that at the end the six factions or so boil down to a single big choice: Are you with the emperor or not? Disobeying him turns all the guards hostile and locks you out of a few factions, while staying with him earns you a lot of disfavour with a bunch of other factions, so the more complex faction system is a bit wasted.

The DLC has a more healthy mix of long dungeons and single even locations. It also has more alternative solutions. As an example you need to visit a prison complex and need to bailout a criminal if you side with the revolution. It is just one small map for the fort, and you can either just kill all the guards, or I used invisibility powder to sneak past them. The scripting and writing for quests also felt a bit more interesting in general.

Fights are a bit more varied, because you face way more hostile spellcasters. This also makes cataclysm difficulty unplayable as a side effect, as that difficulty doubles all incoming damage. Some of the bosses WILL oneshot your entire party on a successfull save against their empowered Insect Swarm if you play on cataclysm, so if someone really wants to beat this on cata he needs to load up on counterspell opportunities. It makes normal and scavenger better experiences tho. I still play on a hybrid difficulty between cata and scavenger, although I needed to do some finetuning for this game, decrease the enemy damage modificator because of all the unavoidable aoe spells and increase some other stuff.

There are some mild systems improvements, crafting is more fun because they got their shit together with primed items and the like, and you get actual magic loot much rarer, making your oil of sharpness +1 magical crafted weapons actual upgrades.

Overall it is a mild improvement over the base game, but the increased complexity comes with an exponential increase in bugs. Last time I checked some faction routes were still unwinnable because of critical bugs.

 

[Lagole Gon]

I bought Solasta, played a bit.
I just escaped the fort dungeon, the part when it turns out David Icke was right all along.

I appriciate the DnD purist autism, but... it feels like there are "holes" in the tacticool logic.
I would expect a wall climbing enemy to have some serious penalties or risk fall after a hit.
Half cover gives you +2AC? Wow, this will stop being relevant around level 3.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

I would expect a wall climbing enemy to have some serious penalties or risk fall after a hit.

They risk fall after the hit, if you looked at the combat log you would notice that enemies just won their fall check roll.

Half cover gives you +2AC? Wow, this will stop being relevant around level 3.

2 AC is a noticeable improvement. It is noticeable even in editions with higher power curve than 5 ed, especially on low levels. TBH I don't remember using cover that much in Solasta, but 2 AC makes a difference.

 

[Fedora Master]

SORAKS!?!?!

 

[Alienman]

SORAKS!?!?!

Soraks.

 

[IDtenT]

The cover AC is enough for me to pick the avoid cover feat for my thief / ranger.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

SORAKS!?!?!

Soraks.

Sivaks:

 

[mediocrepoet]

SORAKS!?!?!

Soraks.

Sivaks:

Auraks.

 

[Imrahil]

Solasta is not a bad game. Considering how dumbed down 5e, is, Solasta is quite good.

I think this a good assessment. It's fun, good even, to the extent that I've played through the main campaign & Lost Valley a couple times & enjoyed it. But what it lacks is any feeling of "I achieved something!".

To illustrate what I mean, I'll use BG2 references: there is really no Firkraag battle: OMG! I just beat a Dragon, after figuring out strategies & trying again (which, yes, we all know what to do by now). There is no "wow, that Bodhi fight was super hard, but I finally beat it!!" Not to even mention Irenicus.

There's nothing like that - nothing memorable. I mean, I like the game, I enjoy playing it, but there's no event where I feel like "hey, let's talk about various strategies during *X* fight..

Or, to switch to Planescape: there's no Ravel. It's *mild* fun. Fun, sure, but not memorable.

 

[Larianshill]

I will never get over how soraks are supposed to this mythological enemy that nobody believes in, but they are literally the second enemy that you fight, and even a drunk in the bar knows that they're real. Also, there's a whole quest to bring a sorak head to the council as a proof, even though you just killed a million soraks in the last quest, and you could have easily decapitated one of them. It's like being attacked by the men in black flying black helicopters, and not snapping any photos once you manage to kill them.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

even a drunk in the bar knows that they're real

To be fair that drunk is supposed to be an old, famous adventurer, but I strongly agree with the rest of your points.

 

[Alienman]

I will never get over how soraks are supposed to this mythological enemy that nobody believes in, but they are literally the second enemy that you fight, and even a drunk in the bar knows that they're real. Also, there's a whole quest to bring a sorak head to the council as a proof, even though you just killed a million soraks in the last quest, and you could have easily decapitated one of them. It's like being attacked by the men in black flying black helicopters, and not snapping any photos once you manage to kill them.

I found that whole thing hilarious. I don't think it was intended as comedy, but I treated it as it was when it came to this thing.

 

[NJClaw]

I will never get over how soraks are supposed to this mythological enemy that nobody believes in, but they are literally the second enemy that you fight, and even a drunk in the bar knows that they're real. Also, there's a whole quest to bring a sorak head to the council as a proof, even though you just killed a million soraks in the last quest, and you could have easily decapitated one of them. It's like being attacked by the men in black flying black helicopters, and not snapping any photos once you manage to kill them.

That council scene is more fun the more you think about it: since soraks drop their horns, you already have their body parts in your inventory.

"Show us proof that soraks exist!"

Me, a French adventurer with a piece of soraks' body in my backpack: "HOW?!"

 

[V_K]

I will never get over how soraks are supposed to this mythological enemy that nobody believes in, but they are literally the second enemy that you fight, and even a drunk in the bar knows that they're real. Also, there's a whole quest to bring a sorak head to the council as a proof, even though you just killed a million soraks in the last quest, and you could have easily decapitated one of them. It's like being attacked by the men in black flying black helicopters, and not snapping any photos once you manage to kill them.

That council scene is more fun the more you think about it: since soraks drop their horns, you already have their body parts in your inventory.

"Show us proof that soraks exist!"

Me, a French adventurer with a piece of soraks' body in my backpack: "HOW?!"

To be fair, it'd be easy to explain away with two lines about the council dismissing the horns as probably belonging to some other reptile. Especially given that some of them would have reasons to dismiss the evidence, wink-wink. But yeah, the way it is, it's quite funny.

 

[Acrux]

Especially given that some of them would have reasons to dismiss the evidence, wink-wink.

What? Are you suggesting that one of the council members might be hiding a major secret about the soraks? What a shock! None of them telegraph that at all - it would come as a complete surprise!

 

[Lagole Gon]

I'm starting to enjoy this more and more.
This janky "placeholder the game" is a really good antidote after the WotR MUH EPIC STUFF overload.

Luv 'ardcore PnP adaptation.
Luv killin' gublins.
Simple as.

 

[Lagole Gon]

The game just casually dropped two big remorhazes on me, so I decided to buy some new gear.
I luv me +2 armor more than any +6 shit pozzfinder throws at me.

 

[NJClaw]

Playing the DLC campaign I just got wiped by a random encounter with dire wolves and berserkers despite using ALL my resources during the fight.

 

[Lagole Gon]

I've just played through 90% of the game without realizing "magnificent" items are magical and need identification.

 

[Thac0]

For your convenience: this is like the only crpg where I ever used detect magic because it makes all magical stuff shine with a blue hue in your inventory. Really nifty and immersive feature. Also usefull because some stuff doesn't register as magical on first look, like some oddly named robes and rings. Should you play the DLC this will come in handy.

 

[jackofshadows]

Unless you're playing on the highest difficulty or even more tuned up it's whatever. Additionaly, isn't the best gear comes mostly from vendors/crafting anyway?

 

[Thac0]

don't you get more cash for selling an identified magic item? this way you can make some of the powerspike purchases like the strength belts sooner

 

[NJClaw]

I gave the DLC campaign a serious try for the first time and I can say that, despite the simplicity and straightforwardness imposed by 5E, the game now has enough classes and archetypes to allow a bit of creativity in building your party. My current party is: fighter (commander), ranger (swift blade), wizard (court mage), and sorcerer (haunted soul), and I have been positively impressed by the amount of interesting interactions that can come up between these classes.

For example, the Commander archetype works well with the Haunted Soul, since the free spammable advantage given by Rousing Shout allows the Sorcerer to reliably hit his Twinned Inflict Wounds. Inflict Wounds deals massive damage, but I usually avoid it due to its unreliability: this combination greatly improves its effectiveness, allowing you to deal 20-30 damage to 2 targets at level 3.

However, using Inflict Wounds puts the Sorcerer in a dangerous position in melee range... which isn't really a problem thanks to the Court Mage's Spell Shield and Protection fighting style. Spell Shield might be a bit broken, though... between this and the Shock Arcanist it's clear someone at Tactical Adventures really likes Wizards (is it you, Myzzrym?). Anyway, Spell Shield also offsets the biggest flaw of this party composition (the lack of Healing Word).

But my favorite interaction so far has been that between the Sorcerer's Twinned Haste and two melee fighters that heavily benefit from having more attacks. At level 5, giving Haste both to a fighter with a greatsword and a ranger with Hunter's Mark is bonkers. With Action Surge and Follow Up Strike, the Fighter can spam 6 attacks in a round, while the Ranger fighting with two weapons 4, which is great for Hunter's Mark and becomes absurd at level 7 with Battle Focus.

tl;dr: the game is still simple and straightforward, but the new classes and subclasses add a lot. The upcoming updates can only make things even better with bards, warlocks, and (sigh) monks.

 

[IDtenT]

Admit it NJClaw, you're in love with this game.