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

[gurugeorge]

I really like the battles, it's so good. Kinda like TOEE but more 3d and more verticality, and a lot more refined. Looks nice too apart from the camera angles.

It looks rather nice and detailed when you zoom in on the action - except then those honking great bright blue squares are gigantic and even more intrusive.

 

[Dorateen]

What makes the combat enjoyable is how crisp the communication is to the player. In addition to the movement grid, the lines for sighting enemies that can be targeted, as well as quickly showing if an attack is made with advantage or disadvantage. In a dynamic environment the battlefield is marked clearly, including squares that are highlighted to show where destructible objects will fall.

 

[Mud']

I seriously hope they bet all their eggs into the modding basket, seriously just add a way for players to add new types of textures or enemies + simple dialogue options / NPCs and watch how some autistic guy remakes the entire The Tales of Yawning Portal into the game.

This game is the perfect platform for D&D 5th edition shit, it just need a way to add more content to it like what happen with Neverwinter Nights.

 

[gurugeorge]

I seriously hope they bet all their eggs into the modding basket, seriously just add a way for players to add new types of textures or enemies + simple dialogue options / NPCs and watch how some autistic guy remakes the entire The Tales of Yawning Portal into the game.

This game is the perfect platform for D&D 5th edition shit, it just need a way to add more content to it like what happen with Neverwinter Nights.

IIRC they've always said that while they don't have the resources to make the game mod-friendly in the Steam one-click sense, they're well aware of the modding potential, and have consulted modders re. how to make it moddable short of that, which I presume is why there's an "API" mod for UMM and stuff like that. I think they will probably, hopefully, keep going in that direction. After all, the main interest will be from people who are at least savvy enough not to be fazed by UMM modding anyway.

It could be a very long-lived game if people can make assets and play online together like NWN (and there's already a mod that's making inroads into that). And as I said up-thread, even the fairly rudimentary user-made dungeons - without verticality and much in the way of interactivity, dialogue or even shops, are pretty good so far. If modders can eventually make levels that are more full-blown like what TA makes, it's gonna be great!

 

[Vincto]

The user content has exploded in Solasta over the last few months. There are hundreds of hours of really well-produced adventures and entire campaigns to take a party to max level (currently level 10, 12 is in the current development stream). You've got people there with decades of experience in D&D crafting tabletop adventures who then added a decade of crafting user content on top of that. I've been enjoying them even more than the 'official' Crown campaign, which was fun, but the combat encounters were not challenging, which was a shame as that is the strongest part of the game imo. I'm a particular fan of what Silverquick is putting out, it just gives me such authentic vibes from the moment I start.

Solasta for me is the red box D&D Basic I had as a kid, and the user content is all the modules we bought for only a few $ each. If you haven't played user content please give it a go. Everything is one click through steam.

The Dungeons wiki has been collecting the most popular and has links to Steam or Nexus where appropriate. It takes about 2 minutes from browsing the dungeons to actually being in game with your party and rolling dem dice.

https://solasta-dungeons.fandom.com

 

[underground nymph]

Everybody praise combat which I fully agree with, but I am also surprised how competent dialogs, story and voice acting are. I am double surprised because these were the aspects of the game I wasn’t expecting to deliver much.

What’s the point in letting a player to abuse the re-roll initial stats mechanic? There’s always a temptation to roll an uber party isn’t it?

 

[Atlet]

Is this game good to play now, or should we still wait a bit when more classes and DLC's are updated?

 

[V_K]

Is this game good to play now, or should we still wait a bit when more classes and DLC's are updated?

Yes.

 

[Abu Antar]

It depends on if you want to play user made classes. There are mods for alchemist, barbarian, bard, druid, monk, tinkerer, warlock, new subclasses, mods that add new feats, a multiclassing mod, a mod that restores sleight of hand, and actually makes it usable.

 

[Atlet]

It depends on if you want to play user made classes. There are mods for alchemist, barbarian, bard, druid, monk, tinkerer, warlock, new subclasses, mods that add new feats, a multiclassing mod, a mod that restores sleight of hand, and actually makes it usable.

This is great news! Do you know if they are well implemented mods?

 

[Abu Antar]

It depends on if you want to play user made classes. There are mods for alchemist, barbarian, bard, druid, monk, tinkerer, warlock, new subclasses, mods that add new feats, a multiclassing mod, a mod that restores sleight of hand, and actually makes it usable.

This is great news! Do you know if they are well implemented mods?

I don't know, to be honest. I stopped playing when I got sick, and I haven't gone back to the game. All these mods were released after I stopped playing.

https://www.nexusmods.com/solastacrownofthemagister/mods/

In general, people seem to like them.

 

[Contagium]

Just finished this about an hour ago. Man did it seem like they gave up on the story around 70% of the way through. I agree with the other posters about the community being the source for better content. Looking forward to delving into what the fans have done

 

[Denim Destroyer]

Hopefully their next game will have better pacing towards the end. Despite the issues this game was a lot of fun and a better representation of Dungeons & Dragons than what most games can claim.

 

[anvi]

I think everything about this game is terrible, except for the combat which is not bad. The story, the characters, the world, exploration, items, questing, etc. all super shitty. Really bad. And I dread to think how many hours people spend looking at loading screens because of this stupid ass game. And it is so unnecessary too. I can't believe they would do such a neat job of the combat and then cover it all this amateur shit that they clearly have no experience of making. I also can't believe so many people think it is ok.

Also the combat which is this games only good thing, has a bunch of problems too. The encounter design is weak, but D&D itself is under developed shit. Spamming cantrips is not fun. At low levels you don't get many spells and with the one dimensional battles it forces you to use specific spells. And when some of them are not balanced well it means you really are only using the same few spells in most fights. The way light works is more of a chore than it is a challenge. And it just makes half of what you do to be lighting things up instead of actually battling. Stuff like Turn Undead is shit because it doesn't work on most stuff and undead are usually either easy to smash skellies or super deadly legendary enemies that it wont work on anyway. Fighters are still kinda plain. They get second wind now which is basically just lay on hands... Why have fighters and paladins if they are same. Action Surge and Close Quarters are pretty cool, but if you can have those why not have several more cool and useful and fun to play with abilities? Instead every fight is the same 2 abilities on him. And he can't taunt so he plays benny hill most of the time and because I built him to focus on tanking (dex and con) it means his str is lacking so he rarely lands a hit. Really shit to play is my point.

My Cleric has a million spells which are useful 0% of the time. The Attunement thing is shit too. I have all these empty gear slots on my characters because they can only attune 3 things. And it's not enough to cover you for anything, I have a ring of posion resists and some other thing which is useless in 90% of fights. And I have not much to switch to and even the stuff I do have requires a long rest which is waste of time. And you can't tell what you need for upcoming fights anyway, you have to try, lose, then try again. etc.etc. This game is another Kingmaker to me, an ok RPG core with a bunch of gimmicky jank stuck on top of it. If you removed all of that and left it as a dungeon crawl it would be better. But if you spent those resources on tidying up D&D's weak design, it could have been excellent.

 

[Lacrymas]

Use finesse weapons on your high Dex tank. But yeah, the game isn't good. D&D's weakest design is RNG, it has nothing to do with the classes or their choices. Don't get me wrong, if I were WotC I'd remove half the classes and improve the others by a lot, but that's neither here nor there.

 

[anvi]

Yes! You could consolidate a lot of the abilities to focus them into more interesting classes. And yeah RNG sucks.

Most of this smells like lack of budget and caring at WOTC. I mean Counterspells are such a shit design, and they know it has been controversial in MTG for 20+ years, so shoving that into D&D as a staple seems obnoxious and lazy. The whole point of playing out a battle is for people to deal with things that happen... Counterspells remove all the interactions and replaces it with an instant resolution. It is anti-gaming. Lots of other questionable stuff too. I wish more devs would just use it as a basis and then make their own game.

 

[Dorateen]

Man did it seem like they gave up on the story around 70% of the way through.

With regard to the story, I think what I would have done is design the content for the eight gems and masters of the schools of magic first. Then I would loose the player to tackle that content in any order they want. It would cut down on the linearity and force-fed directions. The adventure would then be focused more on exploration and the hunt for the gems.

 

[Mud']

Why have fighters and paladins if they are same. Action Surge and Close Quarters are pretty cool, but if you can have those why not have several more cool and useful and fun to play with abilities?

Such a shame to hear that, Fighters can be pretty fucking OP low levels with the right Feats and the Battle Master Maneuvers they get are pretty good.

If you removed all of that and left it as a dungeon crawl it would be better. But if you spent those resources on tidying up D&D's weak design, it could have been excellent.

Maybe give the user content a try and then give a final score? I saw some videos on some dungeon stuff and its looks pretty damn good, i will let this one bake a little more in the oven before it buy it, the day they give stuff to make NPCs dialogue and more complex stuff is when i will consider it buying it full price.

 

[Vincto]

If any of you know who SIlverquick is from NWN, he has already made 3 amazing 1-10 campaigns inspired by classic D&D modules, and the first module from his next campaign dropped last week.

https://solasta-dungeons.fandom.com/wiki/Slave_Lords_Campaign

That is my personal favourite I've played. The Against the Slavers series, re-imagined in Solasta.

 

[Larianshill]

https://www.nexusmods.com/solastacrownofthemagister/mods/

Ten pages of mods, and nobody implemented battlemaster into the game.

 

[Vincto]

Can you use Battlemaster with SRD?

 

[Larianshill]

Since when copyright has been a problem for modders?

 

[Shrimp]

Since when copyright has been a problem for modders?

It can quickly become a problem if you want to publish the mods through official channels like the game's own Steam workshop page. It only takes one loony to report the page to trigger an investigation.

 

[anvi]

Why have fighters and paladins if they are same. Action Surge and Close Quarters are pretty cool, but if you can have those why not have several more cool and useful and fun to play with abilities?

Such a shame to hear that, Fighters can be pretty fucking OP low levels with the right Feats and the Battle Master Maneuvers they get are pretty good.

If you removed all of that and left it as a dungeon crawl it would be better. But if you spent those resources on tidying up D&D's weak design, it could have been excellent.

Maybe give the user content a try and then give a final score? I saw some videos on some dungeon stuff and its looks pretty damn good, i will let this one bake a little more in the oven before it buy it, the day they give stuff to make NPCs dialogue and more complex stuff is when i will consider it buying it full price.

I completed it the other night, I couldn't wait to finish by the end. I can see why some people like it but for me it is pretty worthless, even as a scenario maker. D&D is shit.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.solasta-game.com/news/136-wishing-well-update-taking-a-look-at-the-submissions

WISHING WELL UPDATE - TAKING A LOOK AT THE SUBMISSIONS!

Hey there folks!

It's been a bit more than a week since the Wishing Well Event ended, and we received so many submissions that we're still going through them all! No I mean seriously, we have several thousands of class features to read through, so that's going to take some time. In any case, thank you so much for your participation - we're super happy about how many of you took the time to send us your awesome ideas. But we aren't about to keep everything for ourselves! Today, we'll be presenting the main themes behind the subclass designs we received. But first...

Kitty! It's been a while, I know some of you only read our news for that fluff factor.

Barbarian Paths

Barbarians are an interesting bunch. Mighty warriors driven by their rage, overpowering their enemy through pure physical prowess and innate combat senses where Fighters shine through training and skills. You could draw similitudes to what Sorcerers are to Wizards: it's in their blood.

Most submissions we received can be regrouped in the following themes, here is a little breakdown of the most common ones (with some comments):

• Mountain / Stone: Unbreakable Barbarians who stand in the middle of the fight, taking blows left and right without a care. Just imagine that scene with Boromir from Lord of the Ring, but instead he doesn't die and keeps fighting (although that would be the Zealot from Xanathar's Guide - the features here are a little different) .
• Blood / Sacrifice: Barbarians who grow stronger the more injured they become, the epitome of high risk high reward.
• Strength / Might: Strength is everything to these Barbarians, who can break the ground with a stomp and throw enemies around like wet towels. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.
• Dragons: Dragon Blood does not only produce Sorcerers, and these Barbarians use their Draconic features to heavily enhance their combat abilities.
• War Paint: Blessed by the shamans of their tribe, these Barbarians covered in magic war paint and tattoos often surprise enemies with strange curses and protection that one would not expect from a savage warrior.
• Leadership: Some are warriors, others are leaders - these Barbarians are both. They lead by example, jumping first into the fight, empowering and rallying their allies through their rage and powerful war cries.
• Spirits / Ancestors: Barbarians whose powers are linked to the tribe's Guardian Spirits or Ancestors. Unfortunately this theme skirts a little too close to the official Ancestral Guardian subclass featured in the Xanathar's Guide, so we had to discard the proposals linked to it.
• Pirates: Some people suggested Barbarian pirates, sailing the high seas! While the idea could be fun, Solasta: Crown of the Magister's campaign takes place far away from any ocean, and most features wouldn't work in consequence.
• Vikings: Similarly we also had some submissions for Barbarian Paths taking inspiration from the Vikings. Not a bad idea, but it just doesn't work in the current setting, sorry!
• Death: We had a few submissions for Barbarians that would grow stronger each time they would kill, with some features even giving them a little bit of Necromancer vibe.
• Brawler: What happens when you don't have Monks in your game? People submits Monk-like subclasses instead. More seriously though, this is something that could be very cool - and that we've seen a lot of homebrew out there. Some people just want the punching and kicking without the whole peace of mind and supernatural Ki package bundled with it, and I personally agree! But fighting barehanded would require a lot new set of animations, not to mention a lot of features included grappling which is just not in Solasta.
• Craziness: Barbarians whose rage goes incontrollable and unstable, leading to very strange consequences.
• Hunting: So, here's the issue with this theme - very often I found that the features submitted were pretty much Ranger features (or could be). It's not that Barbarians can't be close to nature, but here they retained very little Barbarian identity and went full Ranger-but-strong-instead-of-dexterous. Also, a lot of focus on thrown weapons - we don't have a lot of those in Solasta
• Animals: Unfortunate, chief. Path of the Beast is already a thing in Tasha, and the features are looking awfully similar.
• Half-Demon: This could be interesting, but we haven't introduced any demons to the Solasta setting yet. Does that mean there are none though? Who knows.
• Elements: A lot of features received there were very close to the Storm Herald (Xanathar Guide), so we had to scrap them.
• Focus / Clarity: A twist on the usual rage-fueled warrior, these Barbarians turn their rage into pure focus instead.

Spoiler

Druid Circles

The Clerics of Mother Nature have arrived (though don't let them know I called them that, I don't think they'd appreciate it). Druids are full on spellcasters who trade the ability to wear metal and to shoo spooky skeletons away with the ability to turn into animals - and large ones at that.

Most submissions we received can be regrouped in the following themes, here is a little breakdown of the most common ones (with some comments):

• Sky / Space: Although both Circle of the Moon & Circle of the Stars already exist, we found a lot of interesting submissions within that thematic which strayed away from those official subclasses.
• Nature / Balance: It was obvious, everyone was expecting it, the Druid was going to get submissions with nature-related features. And some good ones at that, there were a lot of great ideas there!
• Cycle of Life: These Druids protect the cycle by nurturing life but also combatting those who keep to remain alive after their time has come. Thematically it's the creed of Maraike in Solasta, so there might be conflicts with her Clerics.
• Healing: Druids whose powers revolve around healing the land and its inhabitants, blessed by Nature herself.
• Shapeshifting: As with Nature, we know Shapeshift-enhancing features were going to be a thing. That said, a lot of them are skirting a little close to the Circle of the Moon!
• Fire: Sorry chief, Circle of Wildfire just came out in Tasha recently!
• Death / Decay: A little close thematically to the Circle of Spore from Ravnica, and also a little too close to Necromancy. We found that theme getting a little far from what we think Druids are in Solasta, not to mention our campaign is ill-suited for really evil characters.
• Spirits: Flying a little close to the Circle of Dreams!
• Dragons: Now that's interesting. While Dragons are a huge thing in Solasta, and the notion of Draconic Barbarians sounded cool - Draconic Druids don't resonate with us as much. First of all, Dragons already grant Arcane powers (Sorcerers) so having a divine spellcaster with links to Dragons must mean they worship them. But Druids, unlike Clerics, aren't really drawing power from a single deity - but rather nature itself (which is why they are a separate class from Clerics). As you can see, it gets a little complicated lore-wise when it comes to Draconic Druids.
• Martial: Druids who've been spending time at the gym getting those gains and punching fools.

How will I know if my submission is selected?

Before releasing the DLC (date not yet revealed), we will announce which ideas we selected (and some personal favorites as well) in a news post just like this one – and the name or nickname you put in the Google Form will also be added to the in-game credits as Community Designer.

The Vinyl Disks are starting to arrive!

Some of you in France may have already received theirs! For all the others, our audio partner G4F gave us the following estimates:

• France: About a week
• Europe: 2-3 weeks, maybe more depending on the country
• USA: Around a month
• Others: 1-2 months

Also, some of you have been asking us about changing addresses. Unfortunately, that's already too late for the Vinyl Disks - but you still have a tiny bit of time for the Sourcebook and the Adventure Box! Just head to CrowdOx, log in and change your address there.

Alright folks, this is the end for today! Hope you enjoyed getting a glimpse of all the submissions we received! Also, check out our Forums and our Discord Server to chat with other players!


Article by Tactical Myzzrym