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

[Thac0]

To be fair, between backgrounds and archetypes, you can achieve much of the same build customization that you do with more classes and multiclassing in 2E.

Nah, this is a combatfag game. Backgrounds, languages, skills barely matter, especially as you can be proficient in everything with your party through minimal planning.
The only things that do matter for gameplay are class > attributes > race in order of importance. Both 2E and 5E attribute system have about the same impact, for 5e put mainstat and con to +3 and rest to whatever, for 2E put mainstat, dex and con as high as you can and rest whatever.
Icewind Dale has significantly more classes, and higher gameplay diversity among the classes. Solasta does not even have a druid, let alone something like a shaman.
Claiming Solasta has more customisation than IWD borders on trolling.

 

[V_K]

Nah, this is a combatfag game. Backgrounds, languages, skills barely matter, especially as you can be proficient in everything with your party through minimal planning.

Backgrounds can give you non-class proficiencies though. Through backgrounds, you can have a wizard who can wear scale armor, for example, or a cleric who can wield a greataxe.

 

[HoboForEternity]

So what's generally the best weapon enchantment? I tried lightbringer greatsword with my paladin, it was nice and give 1D8 extra radiant damage roll. I guess on the list of complain is the system isn't really transparent with the crafting effect.

 

[V_K]

So what's generally the best weapon enchantment?

Greataxe of Sharpness, which is probably bugged.
Of non-bugged, probably Doomblade Greatsword - 2D6 + 1D6 nectotic + recurring 1D4 poison.

 

[Strange Fellow]

You can hover over the descriptions of enchanted items to see what the stats are before making them. The Greataxe of Sharpness is leaps and bounds ahead of the rest, which is silly since you can get it early. Would be better for progression if it were a late-game thing. The Doomblade Greatsword isn't great since it has no accuracy or damage bonuses at all, and the extra effects aren't very good.

 

[NJClaw]

So what's generally the best weapon enchantment? I tried lightbringer greatsword with my paladin, it was nice and give 1D8 extra radiant damage roll. I guess on the list of complain is the system isn't really transparent with the crafting effect.

I used the lightbringer items (sword, greatsword, and longbow) for most of my playthrough, but as soon as you unlock the greataxe of sharpness (+2, 1d10 lightning) it's time to switch, unless you keep the +3 greataxe from the orc questline which acts like a +6 weapon (it's probably bugged but, as LannTheStupid teached me, it's a feature until the developers say it's a bug).

The bonuses you get from items aren't something to die for (well, apart the Strength 25 belt, I guess), but I still enjoyed the scarce and grounded items progression.

 

[Anonona]

You can hover over the descriptions of enchanted items to see what the stats are before making them.

I wish you could see them without needing to have the necessary ingredients to make it just to know if its worthy to go out of your way to get them.

 

[jackofshadows]

I wish you could see them without needing to have the necessary ingredients to make it just to know if its worthy to go out of your way to get them.

You can now, actually. But you still cannot see any of that info before reading a recipe (which include shops).

 

[Antigoon]

I got the head, I got the crown, what now? How to return that quest? According to some walkthrough I either need to go to the council or talk to Lord Carran, both isn't working for me.

 

[Strange Fellow]

orc questline

Speaking of which, does anything you do here actually matter?

Spoiler

I got two out of the three tribes to join (I'm assuming the last one always ends in surprise betrayal). I think cockney Orc said something about the guards surrendering before the final boss fight, so would there have been another fight if I hadn't bothered with reuniting the tribes? Same question applies to the lava forest end location. Does freeing the prisoners, stealing from the chest etc. do anything? It didn't seem like it.

I got the head, I got the crown, what now? How to return that quest? According to some walkthrough I either need to go to the council or talk to Lord Carran, both isn't working for me.

This sounds like a bug to me. IIRC, you go to the tavern to turn the quest in, but don't quote me on it.

 

[NJClaw]

Speaking of which, does anything you do here actually matter?

Spoiler

If you fail one of the quests (for example by deciding to keep the holy greataxe), you have to face a very simple encounter at the gate before the final boss. Said encounter, funnily enough, gives more experience points than the greataxe quest, so by giving it to the orcs to complete the quest you're effectively cucking yourself out of the best weapon in the game and don't even gain XP in the process. A rare case of based French developers.

The dialogue lines with which you decide to fail the quest are also pretty funny, with one of the characters just saying that after the fight with the spider the axe is rightfully his property and the orcs can go fuck themselves.

I got the head, I got the crown, what now? How to return that quest? According to some walkthrough I either need to go to the council or talk to Lord Carran, both isn't working for me.

Try to track the quest in your journal and then follow the indicator in the minimap.

 

[V_K]

orc questline

Speaking of which, does anything you do here actually matter?

Spoiler

I got two out of the three tribes to join (I'm assuming the last one always ends in surprise betrayal). I think cockney Orc said something about the guards surrendering before the final boss fight, so would there have been another fight if I hadn't bothered with reuniting the tribes? Same question applies to the lava forest end location. Does freeing the prisoners, stealing from the chest etc. do anything? It didn't seem like it.

Spoiler

The easiest way to do it is actually passing a dialog check with the ghost emperor - you don't have to fight him nor Urka, bypass the gate guards and get a surprise round over Arrok

What's really interesting is what happens if you go guns blazing all the way - kill the shaman gal and the rest of them.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Spoiler

If you fail one of the quests (for example by deciding to keep the holy greataxe), you have to face a very simple encounter at the gate before the final boss. Said encounter, funnily enough, gives more experience points than the greataxe quest, so by giving it to the orcs to complete the quest you're effectively cucking yourself out of the best weapon in the game and don't even gain XP in the process. A rare case of based French developers.

The dialogue lines with which you decide to fail the quest are also pretty funny, with one of the characters just saying that after the fight with the spider the axe is rightfully his property and the orcs can go fuck themselves.

Spoiler

I did decide to keep it initially upon seeing that it was worth twenty hundred million thousand dollars. I already had the Greataxe of Sharpness at that point, and with only one character who can wield that type of weapon I wasn't going to be using it, but I figured I could use the money. Anyway, turns out that lol, fuck the player, you can't sell quest items. So I reloaded -- so as not to waste inventory space

 

[Antigoon]

I got the head, I got the crown, what now? How to return that quest? According to some walkthrough I either need to go to the council or talk to Lord Carran, both isn't working for me.

Try to track the quest in your journal and then follow the indicator in the minimap.

There are no markers anymore. The crown quest tells me to go back to Caer Cyflen (but no markers there), the explore the ruined tower quest actually never updates. Guess it's really a bug. I even replayed that fight, still the same result. Not sure how far back I need to go

 

[Thac0]

A rare case of based French developers.

Fucking hell, even if everything was working properly in this game, a +3 Greataxe would be the best weapon to use in the two handed slot. Same as the Longsword of +1d8 Lightning +1 from the other quest is tied for the best one handed STR weapon.
So pretty much every quest item you transport and are supposed to give back for quest completion is best in slot by design?
This game would be a lot better if it wasn't so French

 

[Strange Fellow]

Plain +3 greataxe better than +2 greataxe with an extra 1d10+2 radiant damage? I don't buy it.

 

[jackofshadows]

What's really interesting is what happens if you go guns blazing all the way - kill the shaman gal and the rest of them.

You can't kill her. Line "let's kill her" when you meet the shaman gal does nothing

You can kill some of the redsomething orcs but not the second shaman so you have to drag on and on with the uniting tribes and it seems utterly pointless because

Spoiler

in the end you kill Urka (in case keeping the axe) then fighting that fire gem orc with his elementals w/o any other tribe's orcs, just with the two shamans on board. And then they die in the fire anyway, convenient I guess

 

[oldmanpaco]

/vrpg/ tells me this game is shit because they made all the female models ugly. And pronouns.

Is this true or is it shit for other reasons?

Or is it OK?

 

[Thac0]

Plain +3 greataxe better than +2 greataxe with an extra 1d10+2 radiant damage? I don't buy it.

The Greataxe of Sharpness is bugged, all other "of sharpness" weapons are plain +2 weapons and it has the same extra +1d10 lightning as the Stormbringer Greataxe which is directly next to it. The second best weapon should probably be just that Stormbringer Axe, but the random +1d10 extra make the Sharpness Axe OP. But funnily enough the +3 axe is bugged aswell so the power balance stays the same.

/vrpg/ tells me this game is shit because they made all the female models ugly. And pronouns.

Is this true or is it shit for other reasons?

Or is it OK?

/vrpg/ is a jrpg board, all WRPG discussion going on there is magnitudes more retarded than on the codex.

 

[NJClaw]

Wow, some of these custom dungeons get NASTY (NSFW):

Spoiler

 

[NJClaw]

Just finished the custom module Temple of Evil on Witch Mountain. It's a 3-levels dungeon, but 95% of the content is in the first one. You go from level 1 to level 5 (but you can only use your level 3 spells for 3 very underwhelming encounters), and the whole thing lasts about 2-3 hours. The first area has some fun encounters that are interesting mostly because you're heavily outnumbered and have to use the structure of the environment to your advantage (you almost always have a chokepoint to control while dealing with distant unreachable enemies, and if you fail to do one of those two things you're dead). I don't know how you're supposed to survive without Grease and Silence, and, honestly, I'm too scared to try. It's a good module, especially considering the very limited tools with which it was realized.

I'm immediately going to download Secret of the Black Flame, a module designed to be played with the character exported at the end of Temple of Evil on Witch Mountain. It's cool that you can export characters to use them in future modules, but I don't see why the game doesn't let me keep unleveled copies of my characters. Creating the same Wizard, Cleric, Paladin, and Rogue over and over gets old fast.

 

[and 8 others]

Yeah I bet that extra +1 to hit and damage is just incredible

+2 to hit and damage, AND it's magical, and therefore bypasses the slashing resistance that many enemies have. That sword is worth way more than the quest reward.

 

[Lacrymas]

Considering a +3 is the highest enchantment in 5E, +2 is a lot.

 

[Crispy]

More Notes From Crispy's Desk (actually some pics this time):

Regarding the much-talked-about character portraits, I wanted to submit some evidence to support the position that, specifically after the first patch, they're not nearly as bad anymore, at least from what I can see.

Here is a picture of my party standing in the Council's chambers, trying to explain why my paladin put on the crown of an apparently evil god:

As you can see, things don't look too bad. Of particular note should be my dwarven cleric's face; at chargen, it seemed okay, but after seeing her participating in conversation in the game's opening vignette, it was so bad -- distorted, almost grotesque -- I considered either restarting the game or just waiting for a fix. Lo and behold, it's more than acceptable now, although I will say there are certain angles of her face and in certain lights or circumstances when the Down's Syndrome comes back. Alas.

Here's a pic of the party exploring a part of the city:

Obviously I'm zoomed way in here, but the point is that, in actual gameplay, her and their face(s) look(s) just fine. My elf looks a little weird, too, but I actually like the odd look of him.

And lastly, here's a pic of the way you typically view your party about 95% of the time in the game:

It's an attractive game, isn't it? Is the face thing really that big of a deal?

 

[anvi]

Is this game worth a play?