D&D General Solasta: Crown of the Magister reaches 1.0!

[Chryssis]

i've put around 100hrs into it since the beta, and am almost done my first full playthrough, restarted i dunno how many times to make new characters. I haven't checked out the dungeon maker since it was first released as beta (it was pretty bare bones but they apparently added more to it already) my only complaint really is the linearness of the story, there are side quests but you still very much need to follow the path laid out for you. and the newly added ability to level up your characters before you start a campaign, but not the ability to unlevel them so if you create a really cool character if you level it up to see what it looks like at lvl 10 sorry you wont be using that until someone makes a lvl10 dungeon. However, definitely worth the money i kickstarted all those months ago.

 

[cbwjm]

I've restarted the game and sunk a few hours into the game last night, Now at level 6 as I just burnt through the content that I'd already done in previous playthroughs during beta access. Other than my archer, my mage, fighter and battle priest all have magical weapons which makes some battles much easier. Fought some enemies and that lack of magical weapons was really telling. I think I also need to get my fighter a warhammer since things like skeletons are resistant to slashing but vulnerable to bludgeoning damage.

For this run through I've gone with the following:
My mage is a shock mage (I think that's the name) that casts certain combat spells at 1 level higher for free and can use arcane fury to add her intelligence + proficiency bonus to damage of her evocation spells. She demolishes most enemies with her magic, but my reliance on scorching ray became problematic when facing off against fire elementals.

My fighter is a champion, he's also the face of my party with all 3 interaction skills, 20 charisma, and now expertise in all 3 skills thanks to a feat (I was already proficient so I gained expertise instead of proficiency).

My ranger is a low-life which makes her my lockpicker, I haven't got her the feat to grant her expertise yet though since I made her a marksman I instead picked up a feat that lets her ignore half and three quarters cover. She's deadly with a bow and I'm loving her reaction ranged attack when she herself is targeted with a ranged attack.

My cleric is a battle priest. They have a channel ability which I think deals additional damage when you hit with an attack but, more importantly, they stun the target which has turned a difficult fight into a ridiculously easy fight. They also have spells like magic missile, haste, and fireball so I have a little more spell power during combat.

Really enjoying the game.

 

[Gladius Legis]

Welp, thanks to this thread I bought the game today and played it for a couple hours. Too early to make a judgment but I'm getting heavy Neverwinter Nights vibes.

In terms of story, writing, and dialogue, yeah. It's serviceable, but not exactly inspired on that front.

Solasta, however, is an utter blast to actually play, which I absolutely cannot say for NWN.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Solasta, however, is an utter blast to actually play, which I absolutely cannot say for NWN.

NWN is more than the lousy original campaign. Hordes of the Underdark is a very enjoyable adventure. SoU aint bad. NWN2: Masks of the Betrayer is excellent.

Solasta reminds me more of Icewind Dale, in terms of a player created party, emphasis on combat, and relatively linear story.

 

[Gladius Legis]

NWN is more than the lousy original campaign. Hordes of the Underdark is a very enjoyable adventure. SoU aint bad. NWN2: Masks of the Betrayer is excellent.

Yeah, I meant the combat and mechanics with NWN more than anything. Those are just unbearable nowadays. But yes, all of those expansion campaigns you mentioned are good as far as story, writing, and structure.

 

[GreyLord]

I have it, I just need to install it at this point...but I'm still playing ME:LE which is going to take me awhile I think...

 

[Gladius Legis]

I have it, I just need to install it at this point...but I'm still playing ME:LE which is going to take me awhile I think...

Come, join us in Solasta.

Literally none of what you do in Mass Effect matters in the end, anyway.

 

[Ogre Mage]

I got Solasta and have spent about 15 hours playing it. I enjoy the game a lot. Solasta shines as a turn-based, tactical combat game using 5E mechanics. In some ways the game is a throwback to an old-school dungeon crawl but using 5e rules. We didn't worry about "character development" in those days, lol. My party looks somewhat similar to cbwjm's: a half-elf paladin of Tirmar, sylvan elf battle cleric, a sylvan elf shadow tamer ranger and a high elf arcane shock wizard. IMO you definitely want a cleric, a wizard and a lock and traps person in the party. That could be a rogue or a character with the lowlife background. The opening tutorial and UI are good too. I tend to be slow to catch on to CRPGs, but between my familiarity with 5e and the tutorial I got up to speed faster than usual.

If you are looking for high-quality character graphics and an open-world setting where your decisions have a major effect on the storyline, I would look elsewhere.

 

[Azzy]

I've had this game since it went on sale during early access. I restarted the campaign with new characters when the v1.0 came out and have beat the game (though I've gone back to an earlier save point so that I can do some side quests that I missed.

I will shill for this game—it's great. The downsides are the character models look... bad. Also, at certain points in the main story quest line, there are rails you can't get off. So, if you want to do all the side quests (mostly the late game ones), you'll have to do them before you do things on the main quest or else its railroad to the end. Unfortunately, there's no option to keep playing after the end (to do side quests you missed, explore, or whatever).

Still, I'd easily give this game a 4.5 star rating. The game-play is excellent, combat is intuitive and follows the rules of 5e, the maps are gorgeous and fun to explore, and the game is just fun. I hope the game does well enough that we get sequels. I'd love it, too, if the were able to get the rights to use more options from the PHB and MM.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I'd love it, too, if the were able to get the rights to use more options from the PHB and MM.

Apart from War domain cleric. Battle domain is so much better!

 

[cbwjm]

When I restarted I went with a battle domain cleric, that channel divinity stun attack is amazingly good. It locked down a legendary enemy turning a hard fight into an easy one.

I'm hoping the game expands beyond 10th level, I'm also excited to see what additional campaigns the community comes up with, at least I'm hoping that there will be community campaigns, it will help immensely with the longevity of the game.

Thinks I've found out about spells when playing. Evards black tentacles is incredible which shouldn't be a surprise since I've seen entangle lock down my awesome boss monster (not sure if the damage was triggering each round, but the lockdown really helped in the final battle). Lightning bolt is a lot better than people give it credit for, the line is often just as good or better as the fireball radius.

My only wish for my last game is that I found a primed longsword to craft a frostburn longsword. Got the recipe and ingredients early on but no primed longsword for enchanting and the guy that sells primed weapons didn't seem to have one.

 

[Gladius Legis]

If I have one complaint about the classes, it's that Fighters really get the shaft in this game. Since Tactical Adventures didn't have the full D&D license, they couldn't include the Battle Master and Eldritch Knight. And the subclasses they came up with to replace those aren't the best. On top of that, they had to come up with their own feats, and the lack of the -5/+10 feats in this game also hurts the Fighter more than anyone. Without such feats, that Action Surge doesn't have nearly the payoff it does in a 5e game.

The Paladin and even (gasp!) the Ranger are both just much, much more effective than the Fighter in Solasta.

It doesn't help that while the Fighter's new subclasses kinda suck, one of the Paladin's new Oaths (Tirmar) is hilariously overpowered.

 

[cbwjm]

Part off that is how the favoured enemy system works in the game. As you learn more about certain creatures that match your favoured enemy, the ranger deals more damage, I thought that was quite a cool addition, though I wouldn't want to track that in a regular game.

 

[Gladius Legis]

Yeah, I like what they did with Favored Enemies.

 

[Ogre Mage]

If I have one complaint about the classes, it's that Fighters really get the shaft in this game. Since Tactical Adventures didn't have the full D&D license, they couldn't include the Battle Master and Eldritch Knight. And the subclasses they came up with to replace those aren't the best. On top of that, they had to come up with their own feats, and the lack of the -5/+10 feats in this game also hurts the Fighter more than anyone. Without such feats, that Action Surge doesn't have nearly the payoff it does in a 5e game.

The Paladin and even (gasp!) the Ranger are both just much, much more effective than the Fighter in Solasta.

It doesn't help that while the Fighter's new subclasses kinda suck, one of the Paladin's new Oaths (Tirmar) is hilariously overpowered.

I agree. I also found humans to be lacking as a race. That is because the variant human is not an option. Somewhat odd since feats are in the game. You can only play the basic human. Which is, well, basic. Light and vision are a big issue in the game so the human lack of darkvision is also a problem.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

If I have one complaint about the classes, it's that Fighters really get the shaft in this game. Since Tactical Adventures didn't have the full D&D license, they couldn't include the Battle Master and Eldritch Knight. And the subclasses they came up with to replace those aren't the best. On top of that, they had to come up with their own feats, and the lack of the -5/+10 feats in this game also hurts the Fighter more than anyone. Without such feats, that Action Surge doesn't have nearly the payoff it does in a 5e game.

The Paladin and even (gasp!) the Ranger are both just much, much more effective than the Fighter in Solasta.

It doesn't help that while the Fighter's new subclasses kinda suck, one of the Paladin's new Oaths (Tirmar) is hilariously overpowered.

The Mountaineer is okay if you don't mind being locked into sword-and-board style, but the Spellblade has no spells that synergise with fighting. What the Solasta fighters are good for is picking up out of combat feats like Lockbreaker and Manipulator which let them be a rogue-replacement or party face. The champion's bonus to jumping and climbing makes it slightly less useless than it's PnP counterpart.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I agree. I also found humans to be lacking as a race. That is because the variant human is not an option. Somewhat odd since feats are in the game. You can only play the basic human. Which is, well, basic. Light and vision is a big issue in the game so the human lack of darkvision is also a problem.

Half elves are horribly overpowered, and if I had been in the position of inventing a couple of new subraces I would have made sure I included a "strong guy" and "smart guy" in the mix. Instead we have a whole bunch of dex guys.

 

[Ogre Mage]

Half elves are horribly overpowered, and if I had been in the position of inventing a couple of new subraces I would have made sure I included a "strong guy" and "smart guy" in the mix. Instead we have a whole bunch of dex guys.

I had the urge to make a party of four half-elves in Solasta, lol. But I resisted and only had one in the party.

Of course, in 5E tabletop half-elves are one of the strongest races. So I suppose Solasta is being faithful to the 5E source material.

 

[GreyLord]

I"ve started it. My impressions thus far...

I'll say this is the game that recreates 5e the BEST on computer yet. It will be hard to beat. It is GREAT for a 5e CRPG (even if it's only based off the SRD).

Are there any plans to have any more classes (or is it just me that can only access Fighter, Ranger, Paladin, Cleric, Wizard and Rogue) added?

What they've done is TERRIFIC. I'd say anyone who likes 5e and Computer games should try this one out!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Are there any plans to have any more classes (or is it just me that can only access Fighter, Ranger, Paladin, Cleric, Wizard and Rogue) added?

Sorcerer is apparently intended as DLC. I have to admit, I dunno why. I can't think of a less-important or meaningful class when they've already got Wizard. Maybe it's because it's basically just a spin-off of the Wizard? It'll be easy to code.

Personally I've found Solasta a mixed bag. The race/class choices are uninspired, for the most part. I have no idea why they felt the need to add more DEX options to the base races lol but apparently they did. The subclasses range from the OP to the dubious-as-hell. The way they did skills is a bit confusing but maybe works better than normal D&D in some ways? Their implementation of Disengage is even worse than BG3. I don't accept that I can't "push" something that I can melee attack because it's "too far away" when it's clinging to a cliff edge in front of me.

But the UI is a lot better than BG3, and generally the combat seems to work in a much cleaner and more precise way which feels more like D&D, and there are a lot more "straight fights".

I don't think it's stellar, but... it's on Xbox Game Pass (on PC), so if you already have that, definitely try it out.