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Solasta: Crown of the Magisterhas the blood of fifth editionDnDrunning through its veins but takes several of the classes in new directions that better make use of its position as a video game. You’ll want to plan your team and character builds accordingly.
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Synergies between the classes will matter far more in your four-person band than individual abilities.A single player controlling all four adventurers can make strategic decisions that aren’t as viable or fun in a normal Dungeons & Dragons game such as building an entire party to complement a single character’s abilities.
Certain builds that are staples of fifth edition DnD (polearm master being a significant one)have no equivalent in Solastawhile others havenew options opened by the game’s unique subclasses.
Application
Rogue
The linchpin of this team composition is the two rogues.Sneak attacks offer a powerful boost in damageand having full control of the party allows you tomake use of positioning and buff spells to activate it with incredible consistency.
Hoodlum Rogue
Using the new hoodlum subclass canallow one of the rogues to wear medium armour and sneak attack with non-finesse weapons. This can keep the two characters fromoverlapping in the equipment they needand skills they cover.
War Cleric
A war cleric can join the front lines,soaking damage and providing flanks for the rogues to leverage.Being in the front lines allows them to make the best use of spells likeSpirit Guardians, providing some much-needed Area Damage.
This is the character most likely to be targeted by enemy attacks soprovide them with your strongest defensive gear, which should also reduce how often he needs to make concentration checks.
Sorcerer
The sorcerer will gain powerful buff spells such ashaste and greater invisibilitythat can be further empowered with metamagic, twin casting it to affect both rogues at once.
Against weaker enemies,haste offers greater utility, providing more attacks per turn as well as movement to maneuver between them.
Against stronger fights,greater invisibility offers supreme amounts of defenceand provides advantage on all attacks. In both cases, you’ll want this caster to keep as far from the combat as possible to avoid concentration-breaking effects.
Be careful with twin castinghaste. If you lose concentration or the duration expires, the whiplash from the spell ending willstun both rogues for a turn.
Having two rogues means thatexpertise proficiencies can be applied to all the most important crafting tools and skill checks, and that they can scout ahead without being entirely alone if discovered.
The weak point of this team is thelimited availability of utility casting.A sorcerer does not learn enough spells to pick up utility optionslike detect magic or identify, while the cleric will be too focused on keeping everyone alive to spare spell slots outside ritual casting.
Ritual casting can still cover some of the main utility areas, but a cleric will need to have the spells prepared before ritual casting them.
A War Cleric is also able to cast haste, meaning that, instead of a twin casting sorcerer, you could bring a spellcaster with stronger utility coverage,such as a wizard.
Barbarian Of Stone
The barbarian of stone is able to endure an incredible amount of damage with thetemporary HP they generate each turn while raging. This allows them totie up enemies in melee very effectively.
Court Mage Wizard
The court wizard is able touse their reaction to protect adjacent allies. Standing in the middle of a formation, they can impose disadvantage onany snipers trying to pick off the squishy archersbehind them orheavy hitters that could bulldoze the barbarian in front of them.
They can alsoprovide a powerful shield to an ally that provides temporary HP.Temporary HP is wasted on the Stone Barbarian, who generates their own, butcan allow the rogue to dive into melee more readily as needed.
Thief Rogue
Without a dedicated healer, you may want to double up onpotion crafting proficiencies and spread healing potions evenly between party members for emergency use.
The Thief Rogue can use theirFast Hands ability to feed people potions as a bonus action.This keeps their main action available for performing sneak attacks, preferably using a bow from behind the court wizard.
They won’t be able to use their cunning action to hide after using Fast Hands, so you’ll want toprioritise targets that you may activate sneak attack on in other ways.
Ranger
The ranger acts as anothersource of both healing and ranged damagewhile not quite matching the efficiency of a dedicated cleric or rogue. When potions aren’t available they cankeep the thief supplied with Goodberriesthat heal one HP each.
You couldsubstitute the stone barbarian for a heavily armoured fighter, complementing theCourt Mage’s defensive style with a higher Armor Class.
This team makes use of positioning tomaximise the survivability of its two back-linecharacters, therogue and ranger.
The weak point of this team isenemies that either break up the formation or pummel you with area-of-effect attacks. Be willing to adjust your strategy againstenemies that seem likely to do either, such as dragons.
Ambushes will also start you out of formation, so invest well into perception and avoid traveling at a fast pace.
Warlock Of The Hive
This warlockspecialises in combating other spellcasters. Their subclass features allow them to resist magical effects and strip opponents of their own magical defences.
Weakening pheromones forces the enemy they damage tomake their next saving throw at disadvantage. This canset up the monk to make a Stunning Strikeor enable the other warlocks to inflict a powerful debuff.
Warlock Of The Timekeeper
The most abstract of the new warlock patrons, this one is focused ondealing damage over time, and that makes them effective at clearing large groups.Open fights by using magic missile to tag every enemy and apply their unique affliction, Curse Of Time.
Warlock Of The Tree
This Warlock is the most defense oriented.Conjure animals can create a wall of minions to fend of melee attackers, whilefog cloud can block line of sight against snipers. Their first-level abilitypiercing branch allows them to reflect small amounts of damage whenever they take damage.
Way Of Survival Monk
A fourth warlock would probably be excessive. Whilethe game does have exactly four patrons available and three are new to the setting of Solasta,there will be a lot of overlap and treading on each other’s toes with four of the same class. This party is rounded out instead by theother class that gains the most from short rests.
Monks regain all ki pointsat the end of a short rest, and can make decent frontline tanks with that steady supply ofki points to activate Patient Defence every turn. A Way Of Survival Monk canalternate powerful defence from Patient Defence with bursts of offencewhen theygain advantage on all attacks the turn after.
One of the biggest drawbacks of the warlock in typical Dungeons & Dragons is that they can’t dictate the pace at which the party progresses and rests:Martial classes and other casters have enough steam to go for longer without feeling the need to short rest, and that means a warlock asking for one is liable to get outvoted.
Solasta doesn’t have this issue. Not only do you have full control over when the party stops and rests, butyou can take any number of short rests. you may bring a party of four warlocks andgo into every battle with a full battery of spell slots, all fired out at maximum level.
Other classes gain less from short rests, but many still have some related features. These include themana painter sorcerer’s mana tap, thedruid’s wildshapeand thewizard’s arcane recovery.
The weak point of this party is in the skill coverage it can provide. While monks perform well on perception,warlocks have little to offer outside social skills. When it comes time to pass alock-picking checkorenchant an item using the Manacalon Rosary,you’ll wish you had brought a rogue.
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Darkweaver Rogue
The Darkweaver rogue shouldhandle poison crafting.They get proficiency for free once their subclass comes online, andexpertise allows for a high level of consistency. You may also want them to pick up enchanting with their second expertise.
Wizard
The wizard will be yourenchanting machine and utility caster. Their high intelligence should keep them competitive with the rogue on intelligence-based crafting.
Wizards also havethe strongest range of utility spellssuch as comprehend languages, knock, and spider climb.
College Of Lore Bard
The bard willcover your main skill checks outside crafting. College of Lore provides additional proficiencies, while Jack of All Trades means that, for any skills they aren’t higher specialised in,they will still perform strongly at, and they also gain an expertise at third level.
Aproficiency in the herbalism kitis well suited to them, as the skill checks required aren’t high, so they canreserve stat investments and expertise for the skill gapsin the rest of the party.
Marksman Ranger
The rangerrounds out the party’s utility in and out of combat. In melee, they can provide flanks for the rogue, or supporting fire with a bow.
While traveling they help with evading ambushes.The first-level spell goodberry allows you to generate infinite food, giving you all the time needed to forage ingredients and craft useful items from them. In the early game, it is also anefficient source of healing.
TheMarksman hunter gains proficiency with the herbalism kit, giving you another source of potion crafting.
Solasta makes heavy use of crafting as a mechanic. Most magic weapons you’ll finddo not already have enchantments but instead are primedand can be used to quickly craft any of several magic weapons from a recipe.
Additionally, the resources for crafting healing potions are plentiful and canreplace a healer on a team able to mass produce them.
Creating a party focused on leveraging the game’s economy and crafting systems doesn’t have to require a dedicated build, but this one cantake the most advantage of it.
It also boastsa broad range of skill proficiencies for passing checks, ensuring that no side quest goes failed or lore undiscovered. In this team, you’ll be taking three ofthe most important crafting skillsand giving them to as many people as possible.
The weakness of this party composition is thatnone of the characters will perform amazingly at strength checks. This is partially mitigated by other utility powers: The Darkweaver can climb easily despite a low strength, and the wizard can pick up spells such as fly to compensate for poor jump distances.
Make careful use of the storage vault you are providedas Solasta inflicts heavy debuffs for carrying more than your strength would allow.
