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

[Spectacle]

I can't however help to feel that devs didn't really get all the mileage they could have from lighting and environmental interraction systems.

I think the worst offender here is the fact they left intravision in for elfs and dwarfs. This can trivialize/half trivialize the whole system for many parties.

Is there even a point in taking a race without darkvision?

Seems like a huge pain, either having to use an action to light something, or using an attunement/concentration slot for providing.

This certainly gimbs you characters, so not really.

Design that rewards outright avoidance of a main gameplay mechanic is not good. Solasta devs were too occupied with faithfully copying DnD rules so they haven't considered the context of their game.

Did you miss that the original demo had significantly nerfed darkvision that made tactical use of lighing important for all parties, but they changed it back to follow the 5E rules straight after there was too much fan backlash.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

I can't however help to feel that devs didn't really get all the mileage they could have from lighting and environmental interraction systems.

I think the worst offender here is the fact they left intravision in for elfs and dwarfs. This can trivialize/half trivialize the whole system for many parties.

Is there even a point in taking a race without darkvision?

Seems like a huge pain, either having to use an action to light something, or using an attunement/concentration slot for providing.

This certainly gimbs you characters, so not really.

Design that rewards outright avoidance of a main gameplay mechanic is not good. Solasta devs were too occupied with faithfully copying DnD rules so they haven't considered the context of their game.

Did you miss that the original demo had significantly nerfed darkvision that made tactical use of lighing important for all parties, but they changed it back to follow the 5E rules straight after there was too much fan backlash.

Yes I did.

 

[lukaszek]

had my high moment. Managed to push 2 elementals to lava during single mountaineer turn. Actually this dwarf used 3 pushes(1 as free action) to align them properly. With haste it could be possible to kill 5 enemies this way... is there achievement for that?

 

[Parabalus]

What's the verdict on killing vs diplomacy?

The rewards balanced, or stacked in favour of killing as usual? E.g. Dark Castle Talbuk (guy at pond), the fight in the courtyard etc.

 

[fantadomat]

What's the verdict on killing vs diplomacy?

It happens only in the undead castle and then never again. I believe you get more xp from dimplo but some bosses may drop good shit,for the vampire bitch you go for diplo then steal her shit and she attacks you,so both.

 

[Parabalus]

What's the verdict on killing vs diplomacy?

It happens only in the undead castle and then never again. I believe you get more xp from dimplo but some bosses may drop good shit,for the vampire bitch you go for diplo then steal her shit and she attacks you,so both.

Funny, the guy at the pond initially attacks you if get close to him, but if you pass the check you can rob him blind and he doesn't react.

What about that glowing skull guy at the entrance?

 

[fantadomat]

What's the verdict on killing vs diplomacy?

It happens only in the undead castle and then never again. I believe you get more xp from dimplo but some bosses may drop good shit,for the vampire bitch you go for diplo then steal her shit and she attacks you,so both.

Funny, the guy at the pond initially attacks you if get close to him, but if you pass the check you can rob him blind and he doesn't react.

What about that glowing skull guy at the entrance?

All of them!

 

[Tacgnol]

I wouldn't worry about extra XP anyway. There is more than enough XP in the game to hit the cap and plenty left over.

People using those level 20 mods are reporting being able to hit level 13-14 relatively easily by endgame.

Kinda feels like the level cap was originally slightly higher then got cut back.

 

[Lacrymas]

What's the verdict on killing vs diplomacy?

The rewards balanced, or stacked in favour of killing as usual? E.g. Dark Castle Talbuk (guy at pond), the fight in the courtyard etc.

Diplomacy your way out, then steal their shit to trigger the fight anyway. Someone says that doesn't always work, though. It works for Aksha 100%.

 

[Parabalus]

What's the verdict on killing vs diplomacy?

The rewards balanced, or stacked in favour of killing as usual? E.g. Dark Castle Talbuk (guy at pond), the fight in the courtyard etc.

Diplomacy your way out, then steal their shit to trigger the fight anyway. Someone says that doesn't always work, though. It works for Aksha 100%.

That's the first thing I tried, but didn't work for these two. Good to know for the boss, saves a reload.

 

[Lacrymas]

I think getting out of a fight with diplomacy is the worst possible use of diplomacy. You feel cheated out of a good fight and rewarded for nothing. Worrying about what gives more xp implies the game uses very outdated notions of xp gain that basically nobody uses in tabletop. Leveling up should happen at specific points in the campaign, not how much random encounters you are willing to grind and how much you can cheat the system by double dipping from diplomacy and then triggering a fight anyway.

 

[fantadomat]

What's the verdict on killing vs diplomacy?

The rewards balanced, or stacked in favour of killing as usual? E.g. Dark Castle Talbuk (guy at pond), the fight in the courtyard etc.

Diplomacy your way out, then steal their shit to trigger the fight anyway. Someone says that doesn't always work, though. It works for Aksha 100%.

That's the first thing I tried, but didn't work for these two. Good to know for the boss, saves a reload.

It works only for the vampire bitch,i would recommend you to just kill anyone. Xp is pretty worthless because you hit max levels halfway,yet they could drop some decent items. Also the combat is the only thing that the game could offer,and that part of the game have the only decent battles that offer some basic challenge.

 

[fantadomat]

I think getting out of a fight with diplomacy is the worst possible use of diplomacy. You feel cheated out of a good fight and rewarded for nothing. Worrying about what gives more xp implies the game uses very outdated notions of xp gain that basically nobody uses in tabletop. Leveling up should happen at specific points in the campaign, not how much random encounters you are willing to grind and how much you can cheat the system by double dipping from diplomacy and then triggering a fight anyway.

I disabled the random encounters after the second one and still got max level half way. Making the campaign only level 10 was retarded thing to do.

 

[Cryomancer]

Making the campaign only level 10 was retarded thing to do.

I had the same opinion but remember Temple of Elemental Evil? It had lv cap = 10 and was great.

"Is the level cap going to be level 10? Not level 20?
(...)here are quite a few reasons for that, as each additional level would require:

Development time to implement the new features, as well as animations, visual effects and sound effects for each class.
Time and money to design, create and implement new and higher CR monsters (who also need their own animations and effects), otherwise you would just demolish any encounter at higher level.
Time and money to increase the length of the campaign, meaning more work for the narrative and level design teams, as well as more recordings required. "

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1096530/announcements/detail/4709052254068756782

D&D 5E IS NOT 2E/3E. Is almost impossible to challenge a high level party and the combat lasts forever. I love high level D&D but don't wanna any 5E game above lv 13. I an not joking, a lich on 3E played by a good DM can easily kill a epic level party. A lich on 5E, probably can't kill even a lv 13 party.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

I think getting out of a fight with diplomacy is the worst possible use of diplomacy. You feel cheated out of a good fight and rewarded for nothing. Worrying about what gives more xp implies the game uses very outdated notions of xp gain that basically nobody uses in tabletop. Leveling up should happen at specific points in the campaign, not how much random encounters you are willing to grind and how much you can cheat the system by double dipping from diplomacy and then triggering a fight anyway.

What's worst is that diplomacy usually lets you avoid only boss fights, which are usually better designed than other encounters.

 

[Denim Destroyer]

Just finished and that last dungeon has to be the worst final dungeon in any RPG I have played. Just four straight lines and then a wave based final encounter. When the game ended I assumed I had gotten the bad ending just to find out that I had in fact gotten the only ending present! Fun game though just too bad it is stuck with 5E.

 

[lukaszek]

- paladin auras claim to be 2 cells aoe, but they are actually just 1. Only noticed that when fighting green dragon
- in diff options you can allow scrolls usage for anyone. I could have gone with my awesome thief after all

 

[lukaszek]

finished. doesnt feel much like rpg, nor tactical.

It was enjoyable until lvl 5, then it started getting meh. I guess they do have all the pieces to create cool modules now?

green dragon fight was hardest, mostly due to it not being quite fair. But then neither was paladin removing nearly half of his hp per round

my dworf was sitting at 32 ac while standing next to the wall.

 

[Denim Destroyer]

Solasta's late game would be so much better if health you receive on level up was halved. By the time you finish the Dark Tower you will become near impossible to kill unless you get extremely unlucky or are drunk. Death saving throws don't help with this problem either, considering the various spells that raise dead party members exist Tactical Adventures really should add an option to disable saving throws.

One thing I have yet to see mentioned in this thread is the overpowered nature of Hunter's Mark for Rangers. Casting it at a higher spell level and using high tier poison arrows allowed me to drain a third of the Orc chief's health in one my ranger's turns.

 

[Spectacle]

One thing I have yet to see mentioned in this thread is the overpowered nature of Hunter's Mark for Rangers. Casting it at a higher spell level and using high tier poison arrows allowed me to drain a third of the Orc chief's health in one my ranger's turns.

Hunter's mark doesn't do more damage at higher spell levels, it only has longer duration. It's a great spell but it's the only thing that lets Rangers try to keep up with Fighters and Paladins for damage, far from overpowered.

 

[Tacgnol]

Solasta's late game would be so much better if health you receive on level up was halved. By the time you finish the Dark Tower you will become near impossible to kill unless you get extremely unlucky or are drunk. Death saving throws don't help with this problem either, considering the various spells that raise dead party members exist Tactical Adventures really should add an option to disable saving throws.

One thing I have yet to see mentioned in this thread is the overpowered nature of Hunter's Mark for Rangers. Casting it at a higher spell level and using high tier poison arrows allowed me to drain a third of the Orc chief's health in one my ranger's turns.

In my experience it's the opposite. With my level 10 party, the ranger's damage is flagging behind everyone else badly.

Seems like half the enemies have resistance to pierce damage as well, which doesn't help matters.

 

[Parabalus]

The concentration system for spells seems extremely arbitrary, e.g. why does Spiritual Weapon require it?

Makes it a easy winner for that spell level.

 

[lukaszek]

not a fan of sustained spells mechanic. Is there any way to sustain more spells at once that ive missed? I usually play casters as buff/debuff bots so I dislike that mechanic quite a bit

In my experience it's the opposite. With my level 10 party, the ranger's damage is flagging behind everyone else badly.

my shadow tamer with proper favored enemy setup was the one outdamaging everyone in a long run - clearly nothing can beat paladin smites short burst.

Not sure I agree with hp bloat being marked as an issue. I think its rather AC. Most enemies do not seem to improve their hit chance? Best ones would have +12 to hit(same like my ranger) while my AC went all the way to 32. Basically only crits go through and you care little about disadvantage. My party was rarely doing rests or healing(no cleric or wizard, didnt have to replenish spells)
But then even my backline had little trouble staying alive even though their ac was not improving at all.

 

[jackofshadows]

Solasta's late game would be so much better if health you receive on level up was halved.

There's an option to increase all incoming damage, basically the same thing. It's +50% on Cata IIRC but you can raise it much higher than that. But even with max default I had this stituation:

Spoiler

I was ok with potential AoO, but didn't expect a damn one-shot.

 

[Thonius]

I might be misreading it but sounds like a new adventure campaign within the same game? DLC or something.

I hope same world, new classes/races and faces.