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

[Larianshill]

Some say that his hair is made of plastic, and his beard - of jotun excrements. All we know is he's called the Stig.

 

[NJClaw]

"However, magic gear is very scarce in Solasta"

You kiddin' right? The game is ph@t lewt center. It has stores that sell multiple strength boosting items including one up to 25. Why lie? Do you even play pnp? If you play pnp, no way you should be getting even a 1/4 of the loot you get in the game. I don't hate on it because Solasta is computer game and shouldn't be held to the same standards as pnp but 'magic gear is very scarce' is pure bullshit.

Compared to any other D&D videogame in existence, magic gear IS very scarce in Solasta.

 

[Volourn]

No, no it isn't. STOP FUKKIN' LYING.

 

[fantadomat]

No, no it isn't. STOP FUKKIN' LYING.

You are the one lying. Magic shit is almost never found,at best you will found +1 weapon and two-three trinkets.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I like the attunement system, in principle, it gives another strategic dimension to character building. However, magic gear is very scarce in Solasta - which I also like a lot in principle, but it does make attunement largely a non-issue.

What? You're practically drowning in magical gear in Solasta, at least in the late game.

I mean properly magical gear - the kind that actually requires attunement - not just +x items or weapons dealing elemental damage.
Also, if that is "practically drowning", how would you describe DOS games?

By the end of the game, you should have far more magic items requiring attunement than the 12 slots available from your 4 party members, even if you never purchase any magic items requiring attunement. Granted, the game is slow to dole out these sorts of magic items in the early stages, so attunement might seem not to be an issue until the rate of acquisition ramps up. It's quite a ludicrous restriction, that the same character can't make use of good magic items in every possible equipment slot because most of the better magic items require attunement and this artificial limitation of 3 attunements per character is in effect.

Contrary to the spirit of D&D.

 

[NJClaw]

Granted, the game is slow to dole out these sorts of magic items in the early stages, so attunement might seem not to be an issue until the rate of acquisition ramps up. It's quite a ludicrous restriction, that the same character can't make use of good magic items in every possible equipment slot because most of the better magic items require attunement and this artificial limitation of 3 attunements per character is in effect.

I remember the first time I had to end the attunement with an item because I wanted to equip something else: it was at the very end of the lava forest, and I think I was just about to reach level 10.

You find very few magic items in this game compared to any other D&D adaptation (or RPG in general), and I can't understand how anyone can say otherwise. You get like less than 10 magic weapons and a couple (each) of shields, armors, rings, cloaks, amulets, and boots. Without relying on crafting or buying stuff from a merchant, you can probably finish the game without ever seeing a magic two-handed sword. I mean, you probably loot more magic equipment in Durlag's Tower alone than in the entirety of Solasta (sure, that's an exaggeration, but if you extend it to the entire Tales of the Sword Coast it's probably true).

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Granted, the game is slow to dole out these sorts of magic items in the early stages, so attunement might seem not to be an issue until the rate of acquisition ramps up. It's quite a ludicrous restriction, that the same character can't make use of good magic items in every possible equipment slot because most of the better magic items require attunement and this artificial limitation of 3 attunements per character is in effect.

I remember the first time I had to end the attunement with an item because I wanted to equip something else: it was at the very end of the lava forest, and I think I was just about to reach level 10.

You find very few magic items in this game compared to any other D&D adaptation (or RPG in general), and I can't understand how anyone can say otherwise. You get like less than 10 magic weapons and a couple (each) of shields, armors, rings, cloaks, amulets, and boots. Without relying on crafting or buying stuff from a merchant, you can probably finish the game without ever seeing a magic two-handed sword. I mean, you probably loot more magic equipment in Durlag's Tower alone than in the entirety of Solasta (sure, that's an exaggeration, but if you extend it to the entire Tales of the Sword Coast it's probably true).

Level 6, just defeated Goblins at monastery entrance. The only magical equipment I found so far is a lame ring granting a single vampiric touch per day. If this was a BG I would dump the thing to the nearest merchant.

 

[HoboForEternity]

No, no it isn't. STOP FUKKIN' LYING.

You are the one lying. Magic shit is almost never found,at best you will found +1 weapon and two-three trinkets.

Lmao i found tons of magic items. I have more rings than i cam attune. Belt of giant strength, hell i have 2 intelligence headband. Not bought. Found.

 

[Crispy]

A Walk Among Shadows

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I have more rings than i cam attune.

That's probably because they give you 30 fucking rings of poison resistance. Admittedly 29 of those were from a quest reward. I'm also in the "Magic items are scarce compared to other CRPGs" camp though. It's still not rare enough to be what I'd consider a low magic setting, but it's relatively low. +1 items feel like the norm nearing level 10 and anything better than that feels fairly special. Crafting sorta throws that out of whack especially if you were to buy the materials, but even without buying mats you can get a few powerful goodies out of that. It's kind of odd for me because I normally detest crafting in RPGs, but the crafting system in Solasta is pretty simple and good (Namely the material-clutter isn't too bad), but in Solasta SPECIFICALLY I kind of don't want it just because I think the game would feel better powered-down.

I think probably my favorite thing about 5e after playing Solasta is the sense that 5e tries to chop off the peaks of higher levels and build up lower levels, so your big bads aren't as comically powerful and your level 1 nobodies aren't as weak. Kind of correcting the old D&D issue of a high level character presumably able to kill hundreds/thousands of peasants/soldiers/etc without breaking a sweat barring house rules for insta-kill crits and shit. Having a fairly low-magic setting and/or making magic items scarce plays into that well since it's just another way where a high power character won't be AS ridiculously powerful and a low power character that gets his hands on a magic item feels like he gets a noticeable bump. I'm not a huge Dark Sun nerd but to my mind 5e seems like a really fucking good system to play Dark Sun in, with the possible exception of psionics (Since I don't know if there's a splatbook for that in 5e yet). Still, almost all the mechanics of 5e feel like they'd lend themselves well to Dark Sun. Gaining levels giving you noticeable bumps in power but you're still never Big Dick Adventurer that can shrug off all the threats of the world, the "Legendary action" system so you can super power your evil sorcerer kings and/or high-tier minions (Though that still feels fucking weird and gamey. For a tangential rant, actions in D&D are supposed to roughly equate to time. Even though everything's turn-based all the actions are supposed to be happening at roughly the same moment, initiative just gives someone that split second edge over someone else. Something like a haste spell giving you increased movement and extra attacks is because you're moving at supernatural magically-enhanced speeds, and legendary actions have someone moving even faster than that because "Well he's the boss" even without the specific in-lore reason of a haste spell) and so on. And having shitty chitin or bone weapons gives you an obvious upgrade into metal, let alone magical, so scaled back itemization would fit well too. 5e's fucked up skill system even works decently for Dark Sun just because of the nature of the setting, and the speed that I assume 5e plays at in tabletop (Since it does look like the bookkeeping would be really quick) would likely work for a lethal campaign and fairly easily rolling up new characters if someone gets got.

All that isn't much related to Solasta of course, but I was yammering with a buddy about Dark Sun while I was playing Solasta the other day and then the two were bubbling in my mind together and I'd think it would work. IIRC WotC actually put out a campaign book for Dark Sun for 4th edition but since I never read/played anything with 4th edition I have no idea if it would gel in the same way I think 5e would.

 

[Harthwain]

Regarding the scarcity/abundance of magical items - could this be tied to loot being randomly generated? Because this would explain the difference.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Regarding the scarcity/abundance of magical items - could this be tied to loot being randomly generated? Because this would explain the difference.

i am starting to get the feeling the people saying "no magical items" doesn't know you have to constantly use detect magic to know if something can be appraised

unlike weapons that usually have prefixes like "remarkable" or "magnificent" accessory doesn't have them and appear just as regular rings or brooches

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Combatfag PROOFS

i am starting to get the feeling the people saying "no magical items" doesn't know you have to constantly use detect magic to know if something can be appraised

unlike weapons that usually have prefixes like "remarkable" or "magnificent" accessory doesn't have them and appear just as regular rings or brooches

That's true, but unless I've been horribly misled by my experience thus far in the game they have consistent "Loot item" icons. I've zapped detect magic over my trash a fair few times without incident and I've gotten a few rings/gem of seeing/bracers of fabulousness/etc the generic amulets/rings/broaches/etc are all the same icons. So if you don't get suspicious when you see something that looks different then you've got worms.

 

[Tacgnol]

"However, magic gear is very scarce in Solasta"

You kiddin' right? The game is ph@t lewt center. It has stores that sell multiple strength boosting items including one up to 25. Why lie? Do you even play pnp? If you play pnp, no way you should be getting even a 1/4 of the loot you get in the game. I don't hate on it because Solasta is computer game and shouldn't be held to the same standards as pnp but 'magic gear is very scarce' is pure bullshit.

Magic gear is always way more common in CRPGs than tabletop. I've often pointed this out in the Kingmaker thread, that you get nowhere near the amount of gear in the AP that the game throws at you.

As you say, different mediums at the end of the day. Loot can be tailored a lot more carefully by a DM on the tabletop. DM can always add or remove items based on party needs, much harder to do that intelligently in a CRPG.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Level 6, just defeated Goblins at monastery entrance. The only magical equipment I found so far is a lame ring granting a single vampiric touch per day. If this was a BG I would dump the thing to the nearest merchant.

Just checked my save from the monastery entrance, and at level 6 I already had seven magic items requiring attunement, and perhaps another two dozen or so non-consumable magic items (i.e. not potions or scrolls). Might have sold some by this point, too.

I remember the first time I had to end the attunement with an item because I wanted to equip something else: it was at the very end of the lava forest, and I think I was just about to reach level 10.

You find very few magic items in this game compared to any other D&D adaptation (or RPG in general), and I can't understand how anyone can say otherwise. You get like less than 10 magic weapons and a couple (each) of shields, armors, rings, cloaks, amulets, and boots. Without relying on crafting or buying stuff from a merchant, you can probably finish the game without ever seeing a magic two-handed sword. I mean, you probably loot more magic equipment in Durlag's Tower alone than in the entirety of Solasta (sure, that's an exaggeration, but if you extend it to the entire Tales of the Sword Coast it's probably true).

Before starting the final series of battles, I had six magic items that solely boosted attribute scores and required attunement, which were already occupying half the available slots, and that would be a majority of the slots if I included the Belt of Dwarvenkind that has several different effects. In total, I had over twice as many attunement-requiring magic items as slots, after having sold I'm not sure how many. Of course, each individual character is limited to three attunements, and I had already run into the issue of not being able to have one character use all the attunement-requiring items I wanted even before I acquired a dozen of such items. It's a ridiculous restriction that forces you to leave equipment slots vacant because the magic item you want to place in them requires an extra attunement slot that isn't available.

And, again, I didn't purchase a single magic item requiring attunement. If you boost your faction reputation with the Antiquarians, you can buy such trivial items as a Belt of Fire Giant Strength or the Cloak of Arachnida, not to mention consumable manuals/tomes that permanently increase an attribute by two points.

 

[Elex]

Loot is overtuned in solasta, they put in all the items that all DM know is a bad idea because add extreme power to players.
Campaign end at 10 but the items are more fitting for a 16-17 level group.

the new class of 5e the artificer is based around having more attunement slots.

 

[HoboForEternity]

another minor ish complain: environment damage doesn't really do anything especially after you hit level 3 or 4. except for lighting. i think it can be fixed by giving status effects if you drop a stalactite on enemies, like prone, or bleeding or whatever instead of just flat damage. i don't think i have used the environment after caer cyflam sorak fights. dropping a stone on your enemy last i check deal like 12 damage on direwolf In the orc storyline. my cantrip does more than that + hindered status effect.

 

[lukaszek]

you can use environment pre combat to deal some dmg without engaging

 

[Spectacle]

Regarding magic items, it's worth noting that 5e has a more old-school philosophy to magic items than 3rd and 4th edition. In those previous editions the balance math assumes that characters will have a certain amount of magic items per level, and PC stats will fall behind compared to level-appropriate monsters if you don't have enough items.

5e on the other hand is balanced around the players not having any magic items, so having any magic item at all simply makes the for a more powerful character. It's a very anti-Sawyerist approach.

 

[Elex]

another minor ish complain: environment damage doesn't really do anything especially after you hit level 3 or 4. except for lighting. i think it can be fixed by giving status effects if you drop a stalactite on enemies, like prone, or bleeding or whatever instead of just flat damage. i don't think i have used the environment after caer cyflam sorak fights. dropping a stone on your enemy last i check deal like 12 damage on direwolf In the orc storyline. my cantrip does more than that + hindered status effect.

Bg3 is the game where envirment is the weapon.

 

[Mortmal]

Regarding the scarcity/abundance of magical items - could this be tied to loot being randomly generated? Because this would explain the difference.

i am starting to get the feeling the people saying "no magical items" doesn't know you have to constantly use detect magic to know if something can be appraised

unlike weapons that usually have prefixes like "remarkable" or "magnificent" accessory doesn't have them and appear just as regular rings or brooches

Merchants are super nice and honest as they give you high prices for non identified items, so you know before hand if you are doing a mistake.Even if you have no way to cast detect magic they will do it for you.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Just checked my save from the monastery entrance, and at level 6 I already had seven magic items requiring attunement, and perhaps another two dozen or so non-consumable magic items (i.e. not potions or scrolls). Might have sold some by this point, too.

Maybe the loot is randomly generated?

 

[Anonona]

Maybe the loot is randomly generated?

I get the impression that it is, specially after restarting 3 times because I wasn't happy with my class choices. I would say not all of the loot is random, but a great majority of the containers generate random loot.

 

[V_K]

It's not impossible - the editor has this functionality - but for the quests/levels I've retried, the content of containers remained the same. I would assume that magic items of the caliber that requires attunement would all be hand-placed.
What you get does depend on some of the choices you make though - avoiding boss fights can leave you without the rare items that the bosses were carrying.

 

[Alienman]

I restarted the fallen over tower for the side-quest 3 times and I got different loot on the dead body each time.