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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9376101" data-attributes="member: 6750502">Chapter 8: MonstersThis chapter not only talks about what sorts of monsters are common and rare in the world of Solasta, it also provides new ones organized into specific groups. The Sorr-Akkath are prominent enough to get a chapter of their own. Basically, the Rift cut off access to the outer planes, meaning that celestials, elementals, and fiends are almost unheard of save for the ones that have been already summoned here. Fey predominate in the eastern forests of the sylvan elves, while dragons are rare and live in remote volcanoes. All other types of monsters can be found in the Badlands save for vampires. The book doesn’t say why as to this last part, but I imagine they prefer large population centers.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/YSiIoSt.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Fallen are undead created from renegade priests of Maraike who turned to forbidden necromancy in order to better fight the Sorr-Akkath. Their goddess disapproved and cursed them to be harmed by sunlight as a warning to others not to fight evil with evil. Sorr-Tarr in turn granted the Fallen powers, even though they were unwitting of its source, to make them powerful and able to make more undead. That they were also killing some of his followers was of little consequence: they also victimized the living of Solasta to bolster their ranks.There are only 12 Defilers, all once-respected priests and paladins whose names have been stricken from their old orders out of shame. Defilers look exactly as they did in life save for their glowing red eyes, and tend to live lives of luxury in lairs filled with undead minions. They are CR 11 monsters with Legendary Resistance (but no actions) and have some pseudo-vampiric abilities such as turning into mists, innate Spider Climb, and a hit point draining bite and paralyzing claw attacks. They are not harmed in sunlight, but suffer disadvantage on rolls and cannot regenerate hit points while so exposed. They also have the ability to impose a Constitution-draining curse on humanoids, turning them into Sorrow Zombies when they die from this. Said Zombies are basically a modified version of regular zombies, but explode into necrotic liquid upon death and those humanoids they kill turn into more Sorrow zombies.Broods are the shock troopers of the Defilers, those who willingly choose to obtain unholy powers in order to better serve their masters and fight the Sorr-Akkath. There are three different kinds of Broods: Brood of Flesh are cannibalistic CR 5 undead who if they go without feeding long enough begin to starve and lose hit points. Brood of Blood and Brood of Dread are CR 4 and 3 undead respectively that must feed on blood. Their three stat blocks share a lot in common: multiattack paralyzing claws and life-draining bites, disadvantage on rolls when in dim and bright light, innate Spider Climb, and regenerate hit points while in darkness. Brood of Blood have rechargeable ranged spitting blood attacks that deal necrotic damage and the Blinded condition, while Brood of Dread has a gaze attack that causes the Frightened condition.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/OCsaspb.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Giant Spiders of all kinds can be found in the Badlands. Badlands Spiders are our most mundane and least powerful, CR ¼ animals that are basically weaker versions of the core CR 1 Giant Spider. Deep Spiders are CR 1 monsters, and what makes them different from Giant Spiders is…well actually, their stats are identical but they take radiant damage in sunlight and have disadvantage on rolls while in bright light. Fire Spiders are CR 2 monsters who are basically tougher versions of the prior monsters but their webs also automatically set restrained targets on fire. Lastly, the Spider Queen is a Huge-sized CR 5 monster who has sunlight weakness like the deep spider and their web attack is an AoE cone.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/a1Mjkye.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Redeemers are giant insects bred by the Manacalon Empire. They got their names for their use in eating slaves as a form of capital punishment, for such slaves would be “redeemed” upon death. Due to generations’ worth of eating magical waste, Redeemers developed an intuitive sense for magic, being able to immediately tell if a target is a spellcaster who they prioritize eating. There are three types of Redeemers and they all share some common features: a burrowing speed, darkvision and tremorsense, resistance to nonmagical physical damage, high Armor Class values due to their thick carapaces, the ability to sense spellcasters, and claw and bite attacks; the latter of which can cause a spellcaster to lose a random spell slot on a failed Wisdom save, and the drained magic heals the Redeemer.Redeemer Pilgrims are the weakest of the lot at CR 4, and they have a Pheromone Spray ranged attack that deals acid damage and allows other Redeemers to automatically sense the target within 60 feet. Zealots served the Manacalon Empire in war, and in addition to bite and claw has a stomp attack that can crush foes or be used as a distress call to communicate to other Redeemers within tremorsense range. They also have a rechargeable lightning discharge attack, and their Hive Discipline is akin to Pack Tactics but only for Redeemers. Finally, the Redeemer Juggernaut is the most powerful species of them all and was made to dig vast tunnel networks. They can reflect any spell cast at it on a 5-6 on a d6 roll, automatically uses Dispel Magic on anything that comes into contact with it, can use its normal burrow speed through solid rock and metal, and has a rechargeable AoE roar that can stun and deal “sonic damage.” I presume they meant thunder damage, as sonic damage is a 3rd Edition term.Thoughts: As the Solasta video game heavily borrowed from the OGL for much of the opposition, it makes sense that the bestiary is rather small on account that there aren’t many totally original monsters. As for what we got here, a lot of the monsters heavily copy off of each other: the Deep Spider being virtually identical to the Monster Manual’s Giant Spider is wasted page space, and the different Broods could’ve used some more details to make them feel distinct.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/9qu8jkm.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Chapter 9: The Sorr-AkkathPart lore and part mechanics, the final chapter of this book that contains game information details the primary antagonists of the setting. The Sorr-Akkath originated as a species of shapeshifting frog-like beings of animal intelligence, using their powers to overcome predators and overwhelm prey. The god Sorr-Tarr wasn’t their patron deity yet, instead being revered as a god of battle among lizardfolk. It was when the lizardfolk came into contact with the frogs did things change. By shapeshifting into lizardfolk, the monsters managed to attain a level of sentience over time. Sorr-Tarr saw promise in these animals: abandoning his original followers, he helped them destroy the lizardfolk, and they adopted their reptilian forms as their default state from here on out. They adopted the term Sorr-Akkath, “beloved of Sorr-Tarr,” and their god had a long-term goal in mind: destroy all other intelligent civilizations to eliminate any competition, and from that derive the other gods of worshipers and thus power. In time the Sorr-Akkath would become an existential threat to the humans of Tirmar, and when the existence of Solasta was discovered they were all the more eager to explore and conquer this new world as well.In Solasta, Sorr-Tarr and the Sorr-Akkath have specific long-term goals: use their telepathic and shapeshifting powers to infiltrate societies, gaining political power to spread strife and discord. Sorr-Akkath set up hatcheries in the eastern marshes and other out of the way areas, slowly building up their numbers to eventually wage all-out war against the remnants of the societies they seek to bring to ruin from within. Additionally, the Sorr-Akkath have great interest in exploring the Badlands, both to obtain its magical treasures for themselves and to reopen the Rift so that reinforcements from Tirmar can be sent through.All Sorr-Akkath have innate abilities gifted to them by their god: telepathy with their own kind, shapechange into creatures of equal or lower level/Challenge Rating, and a once-per day Soulgaze ability to learn a target’s secret desires if they fail a Charisma save. The shapechange isn’t instantaneous, as the Sorr-Akkath must observe their target over a period of days to better learn about their target in order to take on their form. The shapeshift and Soulgaze abilities only work on humans at this point: this is less due to any inherent weaknesses on the part of humanity and more due to the fact that time and research is required for the Sorr-Akkath to learn how to exploit other races in the same manner. This does contradict the video game, as there are Sorr-Akkath who can take on the forms of dwarves in the town of Coparann.As a race, Sorr-Akkath are humanoids of lawful evil alignment, but oddly don’t have the shapechanger subtype. They all have 60 feet of darkvision, all but the Abomination type has innate Spider Climb, and they tend to have natural armor and claw attacks albeit a few have more natural attacks such as ranged spines by Warriors or none at all for some of their spellcasters. Their last universal feature, Child of Darkness, grants them +1 to AC, saves, and attacks and can regenerate hit points while in dim light, and these values are doubled if they’re in darkness. Warriors are CR 1 creatures who are straightforward in that their main method of offense is either a melee claw or ranged spine attack. Skirmishers are CR ½ and focus on ranged combat, where their spine attacks are also poisonous and they can short-range teleport once per short or long rest. Skikkath are heavily-armored CR 3 divine spellcasters, casting spells as a 1st-level paladin, have a rechargeable AoE shriek that inflicts the frightened condition, and a once per short or long rest Dark Prayer that restores their own hit points and extinguishes nearby non-magical light sources. Acolytes of Sorr-Tarr are CR 2 Clerics who can cast up to 3rd level spells. Their Soultwist power can be used once per long rest: if a target fails 3 Wisdom saves they become permanently cursed to have the Charmed condition in regards to all Sorr-Akkath and other followers of Sorr-Tarr. Fully Soultwisted targets can be subject to Geas by said Acolytes, where they become a willing cultist of the evil god.Saboteurs are CR 1 creatures who focus more on debuffs, such as shoving enemies prone, a poisonous bite, can douse non-magical light sources and magical light spells lower than 2nd level, and can emit a laugh as a bonus action that causes adjacent targets to take additional necrotic damage whenever they’d be hit. Assassins are CR 3 creatures who have Roguish features such as Sneak Attack and Cunning Action, Pack Tactics, and once per day as a bonus action can turn invisible. If they Sneak Attack a target while so concealed, they roll damage dice twice and take the better result. Finally, Abominations are CR 6 hulking brutes who are immune to the charmed and frightened conditions, have powerful claw attacks as well as a charge attack that deals additional damage with their claws and knocks enemies prone, and can do 2 legendary actions which are either a Shove or an additional Claw attack.I did notice that the Sorr-Akkath stat blocks weren’t appropriately formatted in places. Notably, there’s no separate entry for bonus actions, which are instead listed under actions. They signify their bonus action status in the descriptive text itself. This is counterintuitive for Dungeon Masters juggling a lot, who in glancing at a stat block quickly may end up having such a monster waste a regular action.Thoughts: The Sorr-Akkath have an appropriate array of abilities and roles: you have your standard warriors, your sneaky types, and your mages. In terms of Challenge Rating they’re quite low, meaning that campaigns that go Tier 3 and above will quickly outclass them unless the DM homebrews new variants. Additionally there are more errors here than in the prior chapter’s stat blocks, such as the lack of a shapechanger subtype and bonus actions being grouped under the Action tag. In terms of new lore not present in the game, we don’t get much besides the Sorr-Akkath’s origins and their god’s reason for wanting to destroy other civilizations.Chapter 10: The Art of SolastaThe final chapter of the rulebook showcases concept and key art for Solasta, both released and unreleased. Each piece has text from the design team, explaining what they were going for and the development process behind them. As I can’t really review this section in detail without basically posting the core content, I’ll leave off with showing but a few illustrations:<img src="https://i.imgur.com/CPK3qfp.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/QFzkuCv.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/NkWIeaw.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Final Thoughts: As a TTRPG setting, Solasta is rather average. The elements that make it different from generic Tolkien fantasy aren’t enough to carry the setting as a whole, with only the new subclasses being the strongest draw. When it comes to Caer Cyflen and the Badlands, the core places for adventure, there’s not enough hooks for material beyond broad concepts. The DM is still saddled with having to make up plots wholesale. As a lorebook for the game setting, it does its job in filling in mission gaps, but not covering the DLC material such as the Lost Valley region (or in some cases contradicting itself like religion in the New Empire) doesn’t do it any favors.As a product, I can only recommend it to those Solasta fans who want to know as much as they can about the world beyond what’s in the video games, and people who really liked the subclasses. For all others, there are better settings out there to choose from.</blockquote>

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