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

[Nortar]

The problem it creates, however, is that you are only ever using a single buff that is the "best in slot" for basically any situation (Haste).

Or just design encounters where using ultra optimum solutions will bite you in the ass, like one of those boss thingies that get a free action(or two) for every action you take.

That will eventually get old and it will get old faster than you think.

There's more than one way to skin a goblin.

Enemies can use Slow to counter Haste's effects.
Or the encounter can be designed in such a way as to break party's casters concentration (anything goes from "ethereal tremors", "soulchilling shrieks" and "swarms of insects" to good old thump on the head) in the first couple of rounds when keeping Haste going would have been the most profitable.

Of course making this shit happen in every single encounter just wont be fun. Haste is a powerful buff and it should have it's uses.
But I don't think it's too hard to create a number of situations calling for a different tactical solution.
And it would be the icing on the cake, if the one-trick-ponyhaste players get cought with their pants down.

 

[Grunker]

Unfortunately, concentration only fixes the ridiculous amount of prebuffing you had to do in previous editions. The problem it creates, however, is that you are only ever using a single buff that is the "best in slot" for basically any situation (Haste). In the system I'm cooking up, buffs last for a very short amount of time (f.e. 3 rounds), so it's not feasible to cast them out of combat and to stack too many of them at once unless you commit multiple spellcasters to that.

The latter solution isn't exactly novel - it's very common in jRPGs and often lead to buffs being either not worth spending the turn on or ridicoulously OP to compensate for the low duration - and regardless of both, annoying to use because you have to recast them all the time. I'm playing Battle Chasers right now and it really highlights the latter problem because especially tanks are very reliant on low duration buffs so Red Monika's turns end up being just cycling through evasion buffs and taunts whereas Calibretto and Garrison can get much more creative with their turns.

I think the best practice solution is to make buffs impactful and long lasting but just limit your system to very few key ones, which has the side-benefit of enforcing strong class identity because you can make classes stand out by having access to one of the few buffs. Ironically MMOs were arguably first movers on heading in this design direction.

Another solution is to give characters "buff slots" - i.e. you can be affected by three at a time. That means casters still need to cover a variety off buffs and aren't as limited as with Concentration, so you can have many buffs in your system, but you still limit the tracking issues for individual characters.

 

[Lacrymas]

Does Battle Chasers feature limited spell slots? I don't think it would be viable to keep wasting spell slots on a buff in a Vancian system.

 

[Grunker]

Does Battle Chasers feature limited spell slots? I don't think it would be viable to keep wasting spell slots on a buff in a Vancian system.

What? No, it features the standard jRPG solution (your solution) of limited duration:

The latter solution (here I am refering to your solution of duration limiting) isn't exactly novel - it's very common in jRPGs and often lead to buffs being either not worth spending the turn on or ridicoulously OP to compensate for the low duration - and regardless of both, annoying to use because you have to recast them all the time. I'm playing Battle Chasers right now and it really highlights the latter problem (the latter problem = low duration buffs being annoying) because especially tanks are very reliant on low duration buffs so Red Monika's turns end up being just cycling through evasion buffs and taunts whereas Calibretto and Garrison can get much more creative with their turns.

 

[Roguey]

Buffs are way too powerful in past D&D editions and the fact that you are left feeling they are not worth casting is the whole point. You are actually forced to weight the tactical value of buffs vs other spells rather than to see buffs as free power. Look at the Owlcat Pathfinder games and players begging for Bubbles buff to be integrated to the games. Buffing has become a bunch of checkboxes, there is zero tactical consideration behind them. There's no "should I cast mage armor or grease?", only that you HAVE to cast mage armor and any leftover lvl 1 spell slots can be used for grease.

In the end what's the point of buffs existing? Since the only way Owlcat could challenge players stacked with buffs is to inflate the stats of the enemies. Buffs in earlier D&D editions exist only to drain resources from spellcasters and make them weaker.

I believe imposing a limit is sufficient. Make the buffs piddly and prone to just vanishing if the caster takes damage and I have very little incentive to use them. Josh Sawyer fell into a similar trap in the PoEs, where you have all those short buffs that can only be cast in combat that last a few seconds - I would much rather cast something that debuffs or damages an enemy and just rely on consumables and resting bonuses for buffs.

 

[Lacrymas]

Does Battle Chasers feature limited spell slots? I don't think it would be viable to keep wasting spell slots on a buff in a Vancian system.

What? No, it features the standard jRPG solution (your solution) of limited duration:

The latter solution (here I am refering to your solution of duration limiting) isn't exactly novel - it's very common in jRPGs and often lead to buffs being either not worth spending the turn on or ridicoulously OP to compensate for the low duration - and regardless of both, annoying to use because you have to recast them all the time. I'm playing Battle Chasers right now and it really highlights the latter problem (the latter problem = low duration buffs being annoying) because especially tanks are very reliant on low duration buffs so Red Monika's turns end up being just cycling through evasion buffs and taunts whereas Calibretto and Garrison can get much more creative with their turns.

Yes, I know, I'm asking whether it features both. From your answer, I'd say it doesn't, so it's not 100% like my solution because my system has Vancian casting.

 

[Grunker]

Does Battle Chasers feature limited spell slots? I don't think it would be viable to keep wasting spell slots on a buff in a Vancian system.

What? No, it features the standard jRPG solution (your solution) of limited duration:

The latter solution (here I am refering to your solution of duration limiting) isn't exactly novel - it's very common in jRPGs and often lead to buffs being either not worth spending the turn on or ridicoulously OP to compensate for the low duration - and regardless of both, annoying to use because you have to recast them all the time. I'm playing Battle Chasers right now and it really highlights the latter problem (the latter problem = low duration buffs being annoying) because especially tanks are very reliant on low duration buffs so Red Monika's turns end up being just cycling through evasion buffs and taunts whereas Calibretto and Garrison can get much more creative with their turns.

Yes, I know, I'm asking whether it features both. From your answer, I'd say it doesn't, so it's not 100% like my solution because my system has Vancian casting.

Ah, I see

 

[Stoned Ape]

Why not just only allow a limited number of buffs having a positive effect on a target at the same time? Call it magical interference or something. Once you exceed the value you start getting debuffed/take damage/get negative status effect. Higher powerd buffs could cause more interference if they are stronger, or have a similar effect to a lower level buff but cause less interference.

It could work a bit like the overheat threshold in BattleTech, the worse you exceed it the greater the negative effects.

 

[Infinitron]

While you wait for the next game: https://www.solasta-game.com/news/1...ed-campaign-sourcebook-preorder-available-now

3RD ANNIVERSARY & SOLASTA REVISED CAMPAIGN SOURCEBOOK PREORDER AVAILABLE NOW!​

Hey hey people!

It's been forever and a half since our last News, hasn't it? Sorry for the radio silence, the Tactical Adventures' crew has been toiling over the past year on our next game - which we still won't announce for quite some time.

But that's not why we're here today! No? No! We're here to celebrate the 3-year anniversary of Solasta's 1.0 launch! And what better way to do that than bringing back the much-coveted Solasta Campaign Sourcebook. You heard that right, we've partnered with Modiphius Entertainment & Rookery Publications to publish a Revised Campaign Sourcebook including all the new subclasses released post-launch, totaling a number of 41 subclasses all adapted to Tabletop!

We'll talk about all that more in detail below, but before that... It's dangerous to go alone, take this.

Look at those ferocious little furballs. That's at least 1d4-2 slashing damage per claw.

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Pre-order your Sourcebook here!



Don't need me to tell you more about the book itself before you start throwing money at the screen? Head over Modiphius' website to pre-order yours! But before you do so, here are a few things to keep in mind.

• If you already own a physical copy of the Solasta Sourcebook through Kickstarter, Modiphius kindly provided us with a discount coupon that you should have received by mail, be sure to redeem it when you checkout. Careful, this offer runs out on Sunday, June 16th!
• Pre-ordering gets you the PDF version of the Sourcebook immediately, for no additional cost.
• Shipping is estimated to start around September, to which you have to add a few weeks of transport depending on your country.
• Price: Approximately 35 GBP / 41 EUR / 45 USD
• Link: www.modiphius.net/pages/solasta

With that out of the way, let's dive into the specifics of the book!

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What is a Campaign Sourcebook?

Let's start with the basics because not everyone may know what a Campaign Sourcebook is! Solasta Revised Campaign Sourcebook is a collection of information and illustrations going over the lore of the world of Solasta, its timeline, its people as well as gameplay content such as subclasses and monsters that are specific to its setting. It even has a little art section at the end where you can see very early works from the team while we were doing research.

Here is the table of content below so you can have a better idea of what it offers.

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What's new in the Revised Sourcebook?

With all the classes and subclasses released over the years after the 1.0 launch of Solasta, we decided that simply reprinting the original Sourcebook wouldn't feel very complete as it was written during Early Access and only featured the 6 original 1.0 classes: Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue and Wizard.

Since then, we added the other 6: Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Monk, Sorcerer and Warlock - as well as an additional subclass for each with the Lost Valley DLC. So we went back to the drawing board, worked hard to adapt all of this new content to Tabletop with the precious help of some long time community members... and thus was the Revised edition born.

From 17 to 41 subclasses, all rebalanced for Tabletop, increasing the size of the book from 180 to 196 pages! Thanks again to Stunfisk, IlliteratePig, Lathaon, M.S. and Stardust for helping us in that long and arduous task. The process of making Solasta has always involved our community, and that shall remain true for the tabletop book as well.

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Making a Sourcebook - Behind the Scene

For so long, we've had many of you asking us where you could buy the Sourcebook - and every time we had to shake our heads in muted sadness, shaking our fist to the heavens and burying our silent screams inside our inability to give you an answer. Okay that may have been a little overdramatic. Fact of the matter is, Tactical Adventures a video game studio first and foremost - and a fairly small one at that. Between working on DLCs, fixing bugs, adding content for the Dungeon Maker, porting the game on Xbox and PS5, starting to build on our next title... We have very little time on our hands left.

And so, side projects like the Sourcebook (although much beloved by the team) are not the priority, especially when they are of that size. Even if we have the source files, we're talking about negotiating with printers, working out a deadline, finding a platform to sell the book, coordinating transport of goods to the warehouses, international shipping, dealing with customs, customer support when a package doesn't arrive.. And that's not our main line of work, so we are not experts on the matter. My work time be looking at me like, "that's a lot of damage"!

However, as the communication around Solasta slowed down with the release of our last DLC Palace of Ice, plus the fact that we haven't announced our next title yet, your favorite (right? right?) Community Lead Myzzrym suddenly had some spare time to start making that wish into reality. We started adapting the subclasses, Rookery Publications joined to help with the files and modifications, and finally Modiphius came in clutch to handle all the rest - printer, shipping, organisation... All of this making it possible for the Sourcebook to finally be available again, purchasable both online and in local shops like we always dreamed of, and both in physical and digital format!

And that would not have been possible without your support. To you, our faithful players who love Solasta no less than we do, we thank you from the bottom of our heart once again.



Drop by our Discord Server to discuss with other Solasta fans!



Article by Tactical Myzzrym

 

[Artyoan]

Worth an order from me. I should probably better know the lore since the wikipedia is scarce on details and I haven't replayed the main campaigns yet. Also, I got 2k hours out of this game so a little more financial support seems due.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Worth an order from me. I should probably better know the lore since the wikipedia is scarce on details and I haven't replayed the main campaigns yet. Also, I got 2k hours out of this game so a little more financial support seems due.

Just share them barbarian pages will ya? That's all I need out of the book really, though I will get it later.

 

[Robber Baron]

but as a vehicle for content creators...

Anything worth a mention though? Seems to be a number of user campaigns in workshop with good(?) ratings

 

[mediocrepoet]

but as a vehicle for content creators...

Anything worth a mention though? Seems to be a number of user campaigns in workshop with good(?) ratings

Sure, start here.

https://steamcommunity.com/id/aegisjas/myworkshopfiles/?appid=1096530

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Why the hell are crossbow bolts so damned expensive? Broke the bank just by selling looted bolts.

 

[Reinhardt]

archeotech

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Gotta say dudes, you lot might be stupid sometimes, but you're never so stupid you'd spent hours searching through a sewer because you forgot to loot the dude carrying the key right next to the door you had to go through.

Not that I know anyone like that, of course.

 

[Reinhardt]

keys are bad civilization

 

[NJClaw]

Mmmhhh... something tells me Weyne might be the infiltrator...

 

[Reinhardt]

cool it with antisemitic remarks!

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Mmmhhh... something tells me Weyne might be the infiltrator...

Lmao who reads journal entries unless they're resuming the game months later.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Mmmhhh... something tells me Weyne might be the infiltrator...

Lmao who reads journal entries unless they're resuming the game months later.

Lmao who reads?

Btw fuck Weyne. Goddamn traitor!

 

[Reinhardt]

what if the real infiltrator was friends we made along the way?

 

[NJClaw]

The subclasses they homebrew and the weapons they added are perfectly balanced. It's 100% normal for this to happen in a single turn:

 

[Lacrymas]

Solasta is bad. More news at 11.

 

[NJClaw]

Solasta is bad. More news at 11.

Wait, what? Solasta is bad???

Somebody should have told me sooner.