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

[Crispy]

Oh shit I hope I kept my save games...

 

[Infinitron]

The Kingdom of Gallivan is where this asshole came from: https://solastacrownofthemagister.fandom.com/wiki/Iolair_Faisech

 

[Artyoan]

Gonna replay the main campaign just to refresh all the lore. I only remember war being the ending issue. No memory of the Kingdom of Gallivan.

 

[Spectacle]

This gon' be GUD!

 

[Infinitron]

We never did catch that bastard Halman Summer, though! Maybe in the sequel?

And oh yeah I'll be pissed if they don't let us kill this psycho: https://solastacrownofthemagister.fandom.com/wiki/Halman_Summer

 

[DemonKing]

Sign me up.

Still not a fan of how they paywalled certain races/classes though.

 

[Fedora Master]

So are they gonna fix the faces?

 

[Dorateen]

Solasta does Icewind Dale? With the new races and expanding roster of classes, we need an official six character party option now!

 

[Kedar]

I haven't even gotten around to playing the original campaign, and here they are with a second meaty expansion. I'm looking forward to getting into Solasta eventually, but my RPG backlog is enormous, so it may be a while.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Sign me up.

Still not a fan of how they paywalled certain races/classes though.

At this point half of the things that should've been included in the full release have been paywalled...

 

[Artyoan]

Solasta does Icewind Dale? With the new races and expanding roster of classes, we need an official six character party option now!

Lots of people seem keen to adapt old modules to Solasta. Not my thing but I'd bet at least one person will be working on that within the first week of release. Maybe multiple people. A temple of elemental evil module is the second most subscribed module right now.

If they ever make an official six man party option it'll probably be DM only. They don't seem to want to revisit old official campaign's for any changes. They'd need more voice work too.

 

[Mortmal]

Published a six man party version of The Forsaken Isle. Cuz why have only four when you can have six:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2942835978
https://mod.io/g/solasta/m/the-forsaken-isle-six-man-party-version

Made a lot of changes to accommodate this. Custom monsters went from 43 to 163. Lots of areas had layout and prop changes since there are way more enemies per encounter. The witch hut is entirely new, the old one was scrapped. Some battles were combined into one, some areas have new encounters. Only one extra custom weapon, didn't want to go overboard on item/economy changes, so not much of those. I had a lot of fun with it. More than the four man version. Wasn't sure how the difficulty would hold up but at least for me, it was better.

Module is very good so far, but i think some encounters might be overtuned at level 1, the first chest you find and trigger an ambush for exemple, as soon you click it enemies appears out of thin air. It should have been possible to detect them before moving steathily to the chest.They can easily wreck an optimized party, hard encounters are fair later after leveling but at level 1 its die and reload galore.

 

[Artyoan]

Published a six man party version of The Forsaken Isle. Cuz why have only four when you can have six:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2942835978
https://mod.io/g/solasta/m/the-forsaken-isle-six-man-party-version

Made a lot of changes to accommodate this. Custom monsters went from 43 to 163. Lots of areas had layout and prop changes since there are way more enemies per encounter. The witch hut is entirely new, the old one was scrapped. Some battles were combined into one, some areas have new encounters. Only one extra custom weapon, didn't want to go overboard on item/economy changes, so not much of those. I had a lot of fun with it. More than the four man version. Wasn't sure how the difficulty would hold up but at least for me, it was better.

Module is very good so far, but i think some encounters might be overtuned at level 1, the first chest you find and trigger an ambush for exemple, as soon you click it enemies appears out of thin air. It should have been possible to detect them before moving steathily to the chest.They can easily wreck an optimized party, hard encounters are fair later after leveling but at level 1 its die and reload galore.

If I could make enemies hide in stealth I would do that. But I can't for now, and that fight could wreck level 1's in the original 4 man one too. As it is its far too easy to see any enemy behind a bush by pressing a button to show highlighted objects. You can catch the orcs out by maintaining stealth when you get to the treasure too. As long as you recognize you're being set up. For a level 1 its iffy but I don't think it crosses a line too far. If I get more complaints I might either lower the damage or push some of them back farther.

Edit: I should add that I chose to keep most fights true to how they originally were. But many of those early fights are how I made them when I was learning how the DM works. So as the game goes on I do the 'ambush out of thin air' shit less often but still occasionally. I also feel the need to have less mid-fight adds with six than with four man. Might change several of those in Morrows Deep.

Edit 2: What other ones are iffy for early fights? I lowered Orcling damage, ac, and health very slightly and removed one spawn from that encounter. Not patched yet tho.

 

[Mortmal]

Published a six man party version of The Forsaken Isle. Cuz why have only four when you can have six:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2942835978
https://mod.io/g/solasta/m/the-forsaken-isle-six-man-party-version

Made a lot of changes to accommodate this. Custom monsters went from 43 to 163. Lots of areas had layout and prop changes since there are way more enemies per encounter. The witch hut is entirely new, the old one was scrapped. Some battles were combined into one, some areas have new encounters. Only one extra custom weapon, didn't want to go overboard on item/economy changes, so not much of those. I had a lot of fun with it. More than the four man version. Wasn't sure how the difficulty would hold up but at least for me, it was better.

Module is very good so far, but i think some encounters might be overtuned at level 1, the first chest you find and trigger an ambush for exemple, as soon you click it enemies appears out of thin air. It should have been possible to detect them before moving steathily to the chest.They can easily wreck an optimized party, hard encounters are fair later after leveling but at level 1 its die and reload galore.

If I could make enemies hide in stealth I would do that. But I can't for now, and that fight could wreck level 1's in the original 4 man one too. As it is its far too easy to see any enemy behind a bush by pressing a button to show highlighted objects. You can catch the orcs out by maintaining stealth when you get to the treasure too. As long as you recognize you're being set up. For a level 1 its iffy but I don't think it crosses a line too far. If I get more complaints I might either lower the damage or push some of them back farther.

Edit: I should add that I chose to keep most fights true to how they originally were. But many of those early fights are how I made them when I was learning how the DM works. So as the game goes on I do the 'ambush out of thin air' shit less often but still occasionally. I also feel the need to have less mid-fight adds with six than with four man. Might change several of those in Morrows Deep.

Edit 2: What other ones are iffy for early fights? I lowered Orcling damage, ac, and health very slightly and removed one spawn from that encounter. Not patched yet tho.

So far everything else was doable at level 1 with a bit of strategy,i think the balance is fine, not sure my party is as optimized as it should , used 1 paladin 1 monk one dual wield ranger, 1 bladedancer wizard, 1 battle priest. So its melee heavy. At level 3 i encountered much trouble in the orc final fight. I see you can use the palisade to cheese more or less the fight, problem is the shaman cast lightning through cavern walls and thats devastating nothing you can do against that. Unless i had a dedicated counter character.

 

[Cryomancer]

I know that people will think that I got replaced by someone else by saying it but I really wish that they had increased the party size instead of increasing the lv cap... Anyway, does this ice palace DLC will include new wiz subclass? And a underwater dungeon? That seems interesting. I don't see underwater levels since Eye of the Beholder 3;

 

[mediocrepoet]

I know that people will think that I got replaced by someone else by saying it but I really wish that they had increased the party size instead of increasing the lv cap... Anyway, does this ice palace DLC will include new wiz subclass? And a underwater dungeon? That seems interesting. I don't see underwater levels since Eye of the Beholder 3;

Is it just so you can have 6 wizards instead of 4? And 4*16 = 64 caster levels, but 6*12 = 72 caster levels, so a bigger party = maximized casting?

 

[Artyoan]

Published a six man party version of The Forsaken Isle. Cuz why have only four when you can have six:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2942835978
https://mod.io/g/solasta/m/the-forsaken-isle-six-man-party-version

Made a lot of changes to accommodate this. Custom monsters went from 43 to 163. Lots of areas had layout and prop changes since there are way more enemies per encounter. The witch hut is entirely new, the old one was scrapped. Some battles were combined into one, some areas have new encounters. Only one extra custom weapon, didn't want to go overboard on item/economy changes, so not much of those. I had a lot of fun with it. More than the four man version. Wasn't sure how the difficulty would hold up but at least for me, it was better.

Module is very good so far, but i think some encounters might be overtuned at level 1, the first chest you find and trigger an ambush for exemple, as soon you click it enemies appears out of thin air. It should have been possible to detect them before moving steathily to the chest.They can easily wreck an optimized party, hard encounters are fair later after leveling but at level 1 its die and reload galore.

If I could make enemies hide in stealth I would do that. But I can't for now, and that fight could wreck level 1's in the original 4 man one too. As it is its far too easy to see any enemy behind a bush by pressing a button to show highlighted objects. You can catch the orcs out by maintaining stealth when you get to the treasure too. As long as you recognize you're being set up. For a level 1 its iffy but I don't think it crosses a line too far. If I get more complaints I might either lower the damage or push some of them back farther.

Edit: I should add that I chose to keep most fights true to how they originally were. But many of those early fights are how I made them when I was learning how the DM works. So as the game goes on I do the 'ambush out of thin air' shit less often but still occasionally. I also feel the need to have less mid-fight adds with six than with four man. Might change several of those in Morrows Deep.

Edit 2: What other ones are iffy for early fights? I lowered Orcling damage, ac, and health very slightly and removed one spawn from that encounter. Not patched yet tho.

So far everything else was doable at level 1 with a bit of strategy,i think the balance is fine, not sure my party is as optimized as it should , used 1 paladin 1 monk one dual wield ranger, 1 bladedancer wizard, 1 battle priest. So its melee heavy. At level 3 i encountered much trouble in the orc final fight. I see you can use the palisade to cheese more or less the fight, problem is the shaman cast lightning through cavern walls and thats devastating nothing you can do against that. Unless i had a dedicated counter character.

The shaman can be harassed at range and then he'll do little but heal. Also never casts lightning if he can't hit two or more so not lining up for him means he'll cast that weak ass acid arrow.

 

[Cryomancer]

6 wizards instead of 4?

Nope. I only played with a pure wiz party once. My first time in this game was with wiz/cle/rog/pal. And suffered a bit cuz I made my rogue a manlet ie - slow moving speed/only 20 "squares"/turn instead of 30.

Is that 5e removed many iconic defenses and offensive abilities from monsters and hence, at high levels, things become too boring.

 

[Artyoan]

I know that people will think that I got replaced by someone else by saying it but I really wish that they had increased the party size instead of increasing the lv cap... Anyway, does this ice palace DLC will include new wiz subclass? And a underwater dungeon? That seems interesting. I don't see underwater levels since Eye of the Beholder 3;

If you're on pc just use the Unfinished Business mod and you can have six party members as an option. It may not be officially supported but it works.

 

[lukaszek]

Oh shit I hope I kept my save games...

might not be optimal anymore... Already with previous dlc lvl cap increase, rogues started to fall behind

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Oh shit I hope I kept my save games...

Nix, I'm just gonna warp my dudes to lvl 10 at chargen. Not like there's any extremely noteworthy loot to lug along.

 

[lukaszek]

Nix, I'm just gonna warp my dudes to lvl 10 at chargen. Not like there's any extremely noteworthy loot to lug along.

looks like new dlcs raised lvl cap for original campaign, when I loaded save during endgame fight, all my dudes lvled up. Possibly you miss not just loot, but also lvls this way? Also certain added subclasses are strong.

nothing that cant be fixed with console i bet

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Possibly you miss not just loot, but also lvls this way?

Maybe, but I suspect the campaign may have some restriction in importing saves if your dudes are higher than lvl 10.

 

[Myzzrym]

Sign me up.

Still not a fan of how they paywalled certain races/classes though.

At this point half of the things that should've been included in the full release have been paywalled...

That's because we're 20 not 200

We couldn't include everything in 1.0 simply because we don't have enough people and money. So we're doing it as we go, but doing so also takes time and money so we have to sell them as DLC. The other option would simply be to say "screw it Solasta is complete enough" and move to another project without adding more content, but we didn't really want to do that either.

Trust me, if we could have had everything from the start we would have done so - game would have been much better to start with, and DLCs could have been simply focused on making new campaigns. That'd been much easier for us.

Maybe, but I suspect the campaign may have some restriction in importing saves if your dudes are higher than lvl 10.

Nah you can import any save below level 12 and it should work. Characters below level 10 will start at level 10, but characters level 11 and 12 just get a small headstart.

 

[IDtenT]

New characters will have to be lvl 10?