KickStarter Solasta Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Stormcrowfleet]

From the official 5th D&D FAQ with regards to surprise:

Does surprise happen outside the initiative order as a special surprise round?
No, here’s how surprise works. The first step of any combat is this: the DM determines whether anyone in the combat is surprised (reread “Combat Step by Step” on page 189 of the Player’s Handbook). This determination happens only once during a fight and only at the beginning. In other words, once a fight starts, you can’t be surprised again, although a hidden foe can still gain the normal benefits from being unseen (see “Unseen Attackers and Targets” on page 194 of the Player’s Handbook). To be surprised, you must be caught off guard, usually because you failed to notice foes being stealthy or you were startled by an enemy with a special ability, such as the gelatinous cube’s Transparent trait, that makes it exceptionally surprising. You can be surprised even if your companions aren’t, and you aren’t surprised if even one of your foes fails to catch you unawares. If anyone is surprised, no actions are taken yet. First, initiative is rolled as normal. Then, the first round of combat starts, and the unsurprised combatants act in initiative order. A surprised creature can’t move or take an action or a reaction until its first turn ends (remember that being unable to take an action also means you can’t take a bonus action). In effect, a surprised creature skips its first turn in a fight. Once that turn ends, the creature is no longer surprised. In short, activity in a combat is always ordered by initiative, whether or not someone is surprised, and after the first round of combat has passed, surprise is no longer a factor. You can still try to hide from your foes and gain the benefits conferred by being hidden, but you don’t deprive your foes of their turns when you do so.

 

[NJClaw]

From the official 5th D&D FAQ with regards to surprise:

And from page 189 of the Player's Handbook:

The DM determines who might be surprised. If
neither side tries to be stealthy, they automatically notice
each other. Otherwise, the DM compares the Dexterity
(Stealth) checks of anyone hiding with the passive
Wisdom (Perception) score of each creature on the
opposing side. Any character or monster that doesn't
notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter.
If you're surprised, you can't move or take an action
on your first turn of the combat, and you can't take a
reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can
be surprised even if the other members aren't.

Right now, there's no stealth check at the beginning of combat.

 

[Cryomancer]

On the maze of the dark castle. How I solve this AWFUL puzzle? Why I can't just blow up this dan door with a fireball???

 

[Jermu]

On the maze of the dark castle. How I solve this AWFUL puzzle? Why I can't just blow up this dan door with a fireball???

Read scroll with directions and follow arrow teleports

 

[Cryomancer]

Read scroll with directions and follow arrow teleports

I never saw an "arrow teleport". " down, then up. What? "after that she told us to turn right, go up and thengo down one more time". WTF???? I an reading the right journal? This is so confusing.

There are 3 plates in a area, one of then which open a iron door and 4 in cardinal positions. What I need to do? I don't have IRL divination magic to solve this bullshit!!!! Seriosly. The game was magnificent until this complete retarded bullshit, i hate it. I wanna just cast fireball on this dan wooden door and escape this torture room!!!

 

[Ontopoly]

There are 4 buttons in each direction on the floor. Stand a character on each button and the things on the walls will activate and a green square will apear on the floor around them. pressing on the wall symbol with stairs on it will teleport you to a room. Use the teleport with a down arrow, then the up arrow, then follow the rest of the journal, which I can't remember.

 

[Cryomancer]

There are 4 buttons in each direction on the floor. Stand a character on each button and the things on the walls will activate and a green square will apear on the floor around them. pressing on the wall symbol with stairs on it will teleport you to a room. Use the teleport with a down arrow, then the up arrow, then follow the rest of the journal, which I can't remember.

How I even put my 4 party members in that area of that torture room? I need one in a press plate to open the door and even moving the box to the left and crawling, I can't open any door to have the four in that place.

The game doesn't let me just burn this wooden doors. I HATE IT!!!! I need to be stuck on this torture room by no good reason!!!

EDIT : COULD finally open the door. Now there are 2 green things flashing nad no clue about what to do...

EDIT 2 : Found what to do. Now teleported to another location. Probably I just need more 666 hours of torture to end this nightmare...

 

[Strange Fellow]

Once again the puzzle is mightier than the munchkin

 

[Cryomancer]

Once again the puzzle is mightier than the munchkin

I can kill an vampire lord of a castle, but can't blow up an dan door...

This is SOOO annoying. If they had putted this TORTURE on the first two hours of gameplay, I would have refunded. Seriously. This is not fun, not engaging. Is just a endless torment

 

[Sunri]

Once again the puzzle is mightier than the munchkin

I can kill an vampire lord of a castle, but can't blow up an dan door...

This is SOOO annoying. If they had putted this TORTURE on the first two hours of gameplay, I would have refunded. Seriously. This is not fun, not engaging. Is just a endless torment

I think you rolled 1 int in real life this puzzle is so easy

 

[V_K]

Majestic incline!

 

[Cryomancer]

I think you rolled 1 int in real life this puzzle is so easy

Nope. I din't saw how to open a dan door which would allow me to put all 4 into the circles.

This puzzles aren't indication of someone's IQ. They demand far more patience and perception than int. If i had't missed an single "press", I would't had the same trouble.

 

[Ontopoly]

I got stuck in that same area because I didn't notice there was a hole my characters could crouch through for like 10 minutes. I need to get my eyes checked

 

[Cryomancer]

Yep. I don't get why so many people believe that this puzzles demand intelligence. They demand far more perception and try and error. I found the hole after 5 minutes but opening the door, was a nightmare of trial and error. This puzzles are just trial and error and a boring drag.

But finished the EA in about 12 hours. Here is screenshots https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/screenshot-thread.72409/page-1112#post-6979489

Only reached lv 5 on very end

My firebolt seems to be dealing 2*d10 damage. Fireball is pretty dope and had't much time to mess with fly. But my warrior is getting only one attack per round. Why?

 

[V_K]

If you have to use trial and error to solve a puzzle, you're doing it wrong.

 

[Cryomancer]

If you have to use trial and error to solve a puzzle, you're doing it wrong.

Depends the puzzle. Some demands far more try and error like the lever puzzle on prologue of pfkm and some just observation like this.

But both sucks. If I wanna solve puzzles, will go play Portal. I wanna blow up orcs with fireballs on D&D games.

 

[V_K]

If you wanna blow shit up, go play Fortnite.

 

[Ramnozack]

I don't suppose there are any SCAG cantrips like green flame blade or booming blade are there?

 

[Anonona]

I don't get why so many people believe that this puzzles demand intelligence.

I think the issue is quite the opposite

 

[Cryomancer]

If you wanna blow shit up, go play Fortnite.

I don't like battle royale, nor cartoonish artstyle. But Puzzles and Gimmicky bosses are the two worst things on RPGs. I love dark souls but don't wanna re play DS1 just cuz Bed of Chaos. IMO puzzles and gimmickies should be optional. For eg, on tutorial of DS1 if you miss the jump attack, you still can kill the boss. The dragon boss on DS3 is different. You need to wallk for long minutes to try again... The puzzle of the prologue on pfkm only gives optional additional items.

Solasta IMO was pretty easy. I finished without an single party member dying once. Only had problems in a puzzle since I missed some pressure plates

 

[Ranarama]

Anyone else mentioned the contrast between the potato faces and the lovely PBR armour textures?

You need to wallk for long minutes to try again...

That's the core mechanic of dark souls, dummy.

I finished without an single party member dying once.

Honestly, I agree that it isn't hard (and it is only the first chunk after all) but it's very satisfying.

 

[Lawntoilet]

I don't suppose there are any SCAG cantrips like green flame blade or booming blade are there?

No, they aren't part of the SRD.
Feats are all different in Solasta too, they're also not in the SRD. The Solasta feats are a mixed bag IMO, no must-haves like GWM or Warcaster or the like.

 

[Mortmal]

The feats aren't too sexy either, only srd stuff , so like BG3 , no good build theory crafting. But at least its not their fault.

 

[NJClaw]

Just finished my second playthrough. The game is amazing, despite being a bit too easy. You absolutely have to self-impose a limit on long rests though, otherwise you might as well play with an invincibility mode on. I see why they need to give the chance to inexperienced players to rest multiple times, not every game can (or should) be KotC 2. My only serious complaint is that the encounter where you play as the high-level hero against the endless horde of enemies goes on for too long, but maybe that's because my hardware doesn't satisfy the minimum requirements (the flying not-orcs take very long turns). That's the only encounter I'm not excited to face again in my next playthrough (that I'm starting right now).

If only they hadn't felt the need to waste resources on aspects that range from completely pointless to actually detrimental to the enjoyment of the game, it would be a 10/10 in my book. Sometimes the "exploration" just translates to pressing ALT, clicking on the shiny object, and then staring at the characters while they traverse an environment full of pointless jumping and crawling. It's not like anything can happen during this process, it's basically a mini-cutscene that you have to sit through periodically. The zoomed in hit/miss animations during combat are useless, just let me disable them (it that's what disabling the option "Focus camera on battle actions" is supposed to do, it's not working for me).

Other (very) minor complaints:
- sometimes the Rogue doesn't correctly apply sneak attack damage on AoOs;
- where the fuck is the "loot all" button?
- Cunning Action requires an extra click without any comprehensible reason;
- every time you interact with an object you have to stare at that dumb animation of the guy moving his hand forward, WHY?
- the inventory is a bit bugged, and clicking on the "on the ground" slots selects items in your own inventory (they forgot to set the bottom part of the inventory as non-interactable in Unity);
- after every level up the game sometimes changes all your prepared spells;
- identifying items is needlessly complicated and time-consuming, just give me the option to identify everything with a single click;
- certain features (the ring of protection, the Paladin's Channel Divinity: Sacred Weapon) don't work as intended, but that's to be expected from a game in early access. All in all, most of the game works surprisingly well.

This might sound like a very negative rant, but I really love this game. The story is what it is, but the adaptation of the ruleset is so fucking good. I bought it with no expectations whatsoever, and it surprised me so fucking much. Being 5E, the system obviously is very simple, but it works incredibly well. In previous D&D videogames, Protection from Evil was a spell that you threw on your characters without even thinking about it; here, it's a spell that solves an entire encounter.

 

[Cryomancer]

That's the core mechanic of dark souls, dummy.

But restarting cuz you are dead is ok. Restarting cuz you missed a jump is just awful. Mainly considering how atrocious DS is for platforming.

No, they aren't part of the SRD.

Solasta has a lot of homebew stuff. Shock arcanist is the most iconic example.

- after every level up the game sometimes changes all your prepared spells;

Yep. It loves to take out Guiding Bolt from my cleric