1y ago

Solasta as a platform for solo DnD?

So this may be a silly question. Long time ago I played D&D with friends. We had a good DM, and had a great time as a party of friends roleplaying an interesting adventure. Fast forward to now, where life, family, work and all not easily allows to currently play with a great roleplaying group.

So, looking to fill in a bit of the fun, I was looking at doing some solo RPG with FoundryVTT and the Mythic Game Engine. However, focusing more on D&D 5E mechanics in combat I discovered the game Solasta: Crown of the Magister. It looks like it provides a great environment to do some 'quick' D&D combat sessions with some light roleplaying. Also, it allows people to create their own adventures and share them. So, on paper it should tick many of the boxes of solo D&D.

Has anyone played with Solasta? What did you like from a D&D perspective? And what not?

BTW, I'm also playing BG3 (100hrs currently into the game).

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Me and a friend played it side by side, we thought it was an absolute blast.
Character creation is probably the most D&D aspect of the game. You get almost every race and class from the PHB, although Variant Human is unfortunately not there, and many of the subclasses are unique to Solasta. There are 12 backgrounds, most of which add side quests to the main story, and all of which give some benefit to the character. Stats are determined with either 4d6 drop lowest, or point buy, and there's an option for unlimited points. The game won't punish you for choosing 18s in every stat, but that's kinda boring. Character customization is kinda barebones. There are a few faces to pick from, like 30 hairstyles, and a wide color palette for skin and hair colors. Imagine Skyrim, but only preset faces.
Your background and personality traits determine your character's attitude, and what dialogue they say. The game is almost entirely voice acted, which is really nice.
From a D&D perspective, it takes the combat rules directly out of the SRD, and it plays explicitly RAW. No bending the rules for the new guy because he didn't know he couldn't make a bonus action attack after drinking a potion. No scooting someone's mini one more square over so they can do something cool.
Also worth noting, thanks to the strict adherence to the rules, rangers are actually viable!
There isn't a ton of roleplay, as your dialogue options are usually just "which character says something right now?" There are a few points throughout the campaigns where you have to make choices, and those choices do matter to an extent, but they don't make an impact on the overarching story. The main campaigns are pretty much linear, you just decide how to kill the enemies the game throws at you. The side campaign has a lot more in the way of role playing, because you do have to pick a faction to work with.
The game is a lot harder than typical D&D, thanks in part to the strict adherence to the rules, and in part to the fact that they have to balance out the insane amount of loot you get. Seriously, by the end of the second campaign, we were leaving +2 weapons and Winged Boots on the ground because we had that Tier 4 drip. Everyone had 24 for their main stat. The paladin had 28 AC, and a Cloak of Displacement. The sorcerer could fly, and had a +like 15 to hit. The rogue had two daggers each dealing 4d4 damage, so them sneak attacks were crisp. The cleric... could heal, when the party needed it.
All in all, it definitely scratched the D&D itch for me and my friend. I recommend buying the game and the DLCs.
- Thanks for sharing your experience! Seeing some gameplay footage I also noticed that Solasta shows all the dice rolls explicitly on screen, which gives it a nice touch of feel like playing D&D. The game sticking closer to the D&D rules actually is something I'm looking forward to, and it makes the mechanics of D&D combat indeed more explicit.
  I'm going to give Solasta a try, and will pick up some DLC from the get go. Any DLC in particular recommendable? There are many packs available. Or should I just try to get them all.
  
  For the DLC, it really depends on what catches your fancy.
  Inner Strength gets you Warlocks, Bards, and Monks, all extremely fun classes to play, along with the Dragonborn race. Just like 5e, the breath weapon is a bit underwhelming, but the class makes for a fantastic Paladin.
  Primal Calling gives you the Half-Orc race, along with Barbarians and Druids. Barbarians can be overpowered at times, especially the Path of Stone subclass, which was very fun to play. Druids are basically walking health potions–their only really viable subclass (at least that I could tell) is the Circle of Balance, which is an extremely strong healer.
  The Lost Valley is a side campaign that's somewhat shorter than Crown of the Magister, but has much more replay value because of the different factions. It also gets you one new subclass for most classes.
  Palace of Ice is a sequel campaign to Crown of the Magister, where you play with the same characters as before. It also gives you the Tiefling and Gnome races.
  I would recommend Inner Strength over Primal Calling, and Lost Valley then Palace of Ice, unless you really want to play a Tiefling or something. If you're more interested in making characters, get the race/class DLCs first. If you're more interested in playing through the stories, get the story DLCs first. But also, there's nothing wrong with playing the main campaign before buying any DLCs. That's what I did!
  
  Thanks! I'll probably start with the main campaign first. Unless there is a certain class or race that may be more fun to play, then I'll maybe consider that as the first DLC.

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