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

[Cryomancer]

If they got the license they'd probably have to give wotc a portion of their sales. Better off sticking to the SRD and homebrewing in the gaps.

You are right. Lets be real, Wotc has made a total of zero interesting settings. Solasta is a bit interesting. I would't put in the same tier of Dark Sun, but Solasta is far more interesting than sword coast.

"but what about eberron" "Eberron was created by author and game designer Keith Baker as the winning entry for Wizards of the Coast's Fantasy Setting Search, a competition run in 2002 to establish a new setting for the D&D game. Eberron was chosen from more than 11,000 entries, and was officially released with the publication of the Eberron Campaign Setting hardback book in June 2004" from wikipedia

BTW : DDO is based on Eberron and a decent mmo. Would be cool if we get more video games set there.

 

[lukaszek]

BTW : DDO is based on Eberron and a decent mmo. Would be cool if we get more video games set there.

lord of blades came to be when ddo was on top. Then forgotten realms portal happened...

 

[Thac0]

You are right. Lets be real, Wotc has made a total of zero interesting settings.

The sad thing is they have it in them. Magic the Gathering, their card game, has some sets which are genuinly good. Sure those have degraded strongly over the years aswell, but there are still some talented people dreaming those up. Even very recently I liked Kaldheim, their viking spinoff plane.
Just for DnD all they do is rehasing the functioning settings of the past, like Barovia and Icewind Dale. Sure it makes sense financially as a close to risk free approach, with a massive influx of new players who do not know these settings yet, but it is a tad boring and cowardly.

 

[Whisper]

cant recall mage on enemy side that would cause me trouble. But then I was having 2 ranged acrobat characters.

Enemy AC and hit chance deviates rapidly from party past first soraks. This is why you end up playing on autopilot

Yes, enemy have few mage enemies.

Also AC can be easily upgraded to very high levels, which make enemy hit only on 20s.

 

[cr0mag]

This game has so much potential for a sequel. The GUI is spaced out nicely so it could be skinned up to be more fancy, more classes added, more spells etc.

I really enjoyed this game and I found the straightforward story refreshing and focused. It is the first RPG that I can remember in ages which made me laugh out loud - at the end of the volcano when it collapses and my paladin has gone what's happened to our orc friends? And my cleric responded they're just orcs who cares.

The dark castle vampire fights are probably the best part of the game because the combat, light system and verticality system all mesh together really well.

Although the fact you have to hold down alt all the time is really annoying, there are way too many random crafting components, the faction system doesn't make much sense and the game needs an option to speed up the combat. Besides the niggles this game punches way above its weight just out of sheer competence by its devs

 

[Shrimp]

Based on what I've read on the Steam forums and the developers' own forums it was significantly easier to raise your reputation with the different factions during the alpha. I guess they must've reduced the amount of reputation you get for handing in relics in the final release, because currently you need to do all the side quests and dump almost every relic onto a single faction if you want to gain the highest rank with them. The amount of relics you come across also significantly decreases the further into the game you get.

 

[Vault Dweller]

... currently you need to do all the side quests and dump almost every relic onto a single faction if you want to gain the highest rank with them. The amount of relics you come across also significantly decreases the further into the game you get.

I maxed rep with 2 factions (4 overall), which seems reasonable.

 

[nyjsu]

After 50-60 hours the game is still fun even though way too easy. I think they should've seriously limited the amount of magic items the game gives to you as the characters get ridiculously powerful anyway around level 6-7.

 

[Spectacle]

... currently you need to do all the side quests and dump almost every relic onto a single faction if you want to gain the highest rank with them. The amount of relics you come across also significantly decreases the further into the game you get.

I maxed rep with 2 factions (4 overall), which seems reasonable.

Which ones? Maxing reputation with the Scavengers doesn't really do anything.

 

[Vault Dweller]

The Circle of Danantar and the Antiquarians. The other two are the Principality and the Scavengers.

 

[Thac0]

After 50-60 hours the game is still fun even though way too easy. I think they should've seriously limited the amount of magic items the game gives to you as the characters get ridiculously powerful anyway around level 6-7.

You are pretty slow dood, I was done after 47 already.

I don't think scaling down the amount of powerfull stuff you get would be beneficial, after all finding that +2 shield in the volcano was one of the highlights of that area. They should definitly have added more and stronger enemies however.

But 5e set a trap for them here. It is an inherent design point of 5e that characters become close to immortal after level 7. It is made for cr*tical role type campaigns, where only one character every few dozen seasons dies. Total party wipes are more theoretical than an actual threat. They certainly have escalated the threat against this inherent mellowing out of the rule system on higher levels, numerically some of the later encounters are quite ridiculous. But the problem is 5e's challenge rating as a system of threat measurement is not only heavily flawed, it also factors in literally zero magical items.

So while their balance might have worked out for either the flood of magical items or the inherent power of a medium level 5e hero both together broke the camels back - especially as those things amplify each other exponentially. A +X magical piece of equipment is much more effective with bounded accuracy.

 

[nyjsu]

After 50-60 hours the game is still fun even though way too easy. I think they should've seriously limited the amount of magic items the game gives to you as the characters get ridiculously powerful anyway around level 6-7.

You are pretty slow dood, I was done after 47 already.

I restarted after the 1.0 launch.

And yes the power creep is built into 5e, I've had the same issue with multiple campaigns as the DM. It's easier to "fix" on the table but Solasta really shows how the system might not fit very well into traditional crpg progression as the threat is basically non-existent after a certain point.

 

[NJClaw]

After 50-60 hours the game is still fun even though way too easy. I think they should've seriously limited the amount of magic items the game gives to you as the characters get ridiculously powerful anyway around level 6-7.

You are pretty slow dood, I was done after 47 already.

I restarted after the 1.0 launch.

And yes the power creep is built into 5e, I've had the same issue with multiple campaigns as the DM. It's easier to "fix" on the table but Solasta really shows how the system might not fit very well into traditional crpg progression as the threat is basically non-existent after a certain point.

You can still create threatening encounters, you just need to basically ignore monsters' challenge ratings. Once they reach level 9+, characters can easily face anything in the Monster Manual with CR <= 20.

 

[Mortmal]

After 50-60 hours the game is still fun even though way too easy. I think they should've seriously limited the amount of magic items the game gives to you as the characters get ridiculously powerful anyway around level 6-7.

You are pretty slow dood, I was done after 47 already.

I restarted after the 1.0 launch.

And yes the power creep is built into 5e, I've had the same issue with multiple campaigns as the DM. It's easier to "fix" on the table but Solasta really shows how the system might not fit very well into traditional crpg progression as the threat is basically non-existent after a certain point.

You can still create threatening encounters, you just need to basically ignore monsters' challenge ratings. Once they reach level 9+, characters can easily face anything in the Monster Manual with CR <= 20.

You need to exhaust their resources, after a full rest they can face that, but not after a few encounters. Then if you want it to be lethal , you focus fire and keep attacking downed characters. Problem is not the powercreep , yes they are a bit too generous with magic items, +str items far too easily and far too good but lot worse is unlimited rest. Even 9+ you can keep things challenging, they can still fail their save, be charmed, disintegrated, petrified , feeble minded and so on.
The exact opposite is kotc 2, even using 3.0 OGL its comparable , not only the cr is way above the party but you get several of those deadly encounters in a row and very few rests.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Probably I am in minority here, but I actually liked the UI. Better than many other RPGs. I would have preferred text based dialogs with a proper text interface, instead of cutscenes. While in general the graphics is good, the character graphics is terrible, in particular in cutscenes.

 

[cr0mag]

I restarted after the 1.0 launch.

And yes the power creep is built into 5e, I've had the same issue with multiple campaigns as the DM. It's easier to "fix" on the table but Solasta really shows how the system might not fit very well into traditional crpg progression as the threat is basically non-existent after a certain point.

I'm ok with the last bit of the game being a victory lap after all my characters come online

 

[lukaszek]

I restarted after the 1.0 launch.

And yes the power creep is built into 5e, I've had the same issue with multiple campaigns as the DM. It's easier to "fix" on the table but Solasta really shows how the system might not fit very well into traditional crpg progression as the threat is basically non-existent after a certain point.

I'm ok with the last bit of the game being a victory lap after all my characters come online

victory lap starts after black castle...

 

[V_K]

I don't know, I thought Lava Forest had some pretty challenging sequences, when you're cut off resting for a time.

 

[lukaszek]

I don't know, I thought Lava Forest had some pretty challenging sequences, when you're cut off resting for a time.

my party was geared towards attrition(as usual). Can go through without rests.

in kangmaker my party made it through black castle without rests, was quite happy with myself

 

[cr0mag]

my party was geared towards attrition(as usual). Can go through without rests.

in kangmaker my party made it through black castle without rests, was quite happy with myself

I did point buy builds which I think is definitely the go so you don't get completely OP early. I agree that the game does get far easier after the dark castle but there are a few challenging encounters after

 

[Larianshill]

I don't know what you people are talking about when you say that challenge is non-existent after a certain point. All it took for me to begin shitting my pants in an encounter is a couple of zealots.

 

[lukaszek]

I don't know what you people are talking about when you say that challenge is non-existent after a certain point. All it took for me to begin shitting my pants in an encounter is a couple of zealots.

whats your AC?

 

[Larianshill]

I don't remember, I've long beaten the game. But they always went for the squishies and got them down very fast, yes.

 

[Crispy]

Always have a Paladin (with a good shield), and ALWAYS position your squishies adjacent to said Paladin.

Enjoy the wonders of Disadvantage for any first strike on them by any adversary.

 

[Raghar]

I looked at MarkGFL play, and well. Frankly do you remember about that TV show where aliens are basically just homo sapiens, just with different forehead? When solasta shows elves dwarves and other species, it looks like that.

It looks like authors of Solasta don't have clue about basic things. Things like genetics, psychology, genetic caused behavior.
Frankly, if I'd be asked to do some editor stuff, or at least story review, I'd make it more consistent and well less "we put modern terms, terms used by hypocritical society, into the game". (NGO? Like in Solasta? C'mon next time they would start talking about cell phones.)

User interface is basically smart phone level.