Hmm, what kind of 4 character party would you create in this situation?

Going to play Solasta: Crown of the Magister

Conditions:
1) You get to make 4 characters
2) You will get to add 3 characters who you find along the way (but there's no idea of who or when you get to add them)
3) Character classes are the generic: Fighter, Paladin, Cleric, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, Wizard

My first thought was to make a well-rounded team of a fighter, a fighter who can heal (Cleric or Paladin), a rogue (because some games include a lot of locked doors and chests) and a magic user of some type. Pretty boring stuff.

But while I was driving this morning, I thought about how most cRPG games are, where the vast majority of the fights are against easily defeated enemies and don't last very long, but there are also boss/mini-boss fights that last a long time. In a long battle, your characters, no matter how many skills or spells they have, will spend most of their time either swinging or shooting their primary weapon. And who has the advantage then? Fighters and, to a lesser extent, other melee focused characters. So my second thought was to create a party of 2 fighters, 1 paladin and 1 cleric. Then I would just hope to fill the rogue and magic slots with the characters I find along the way. Of course, I have no idea what these characters will be.

For the record, rangers have some animal/nature focused spells, but I usually ignore rangers, apologies to Aragorn.

So how would you play this? What would your four created characters be?
 

Frindis

Dominar of The Hynerian Empire
Moderator
I would probably do something similar to what I did in Divinity: Original Sin 2. I made 4 classes of Conjurers who all would summon minions and wreck havoc. It got tedious after a while (A LOT of totems and buffs) but it was also fun at times. So in the game you mentioned, I would probably make a team of 4 Paladins. Not the best healing ability, but they would probably have enough defensive synergies to withstand a lot of damage. I have no idea if that would be the case, but I would definitely try something like that out.
 

mainer

Venatus semper
I've had Solasta: Crown of the Magister on my wishlist since it came out in early access, and it's still near the top of said wishlist, so let me know what you think of the game. I haven't taken the plunge yet, but it seems very much in the vein of the Icewind Dale games: more focused on the combat aspect, than on character interactions like the Baldur's Gate games. The combat seems more akin to what Larian did with the Divinity OS games, as well as the upcoming BG3.

Anyway, as to your question. In the D&D world, having a party of 4 instead of 6 makes your choice of companions all the more critical. Is there multi-classing or dual-classing in this game? That could be a huge benefit if there is, as it would give you many more options, especially late game. Much depends upon what skills/spells/abilities are allotted to each character type.

Basic rule for me in D&D games: gotta have a beefy front line fighter, a healer, an arcane spell wielder & a lock picker/trap finder. So much depends upon how they've set the game world up, and if you can multi-class or not.

Ranger or Fighter
My character is almost always a Ranger (Hey! Don't ignore me or Aragon either!) Specialized in archery, but can also duel wield small weapons, some spells later on, and in some cases have an animal companion (that was the Pillars of Eternity games, not sure if that's possible here). Rangers also (usually) have a stealth ability. With only a party of 4 though, my Ranger might have to be a Fighter instead).

Cleric
You'll have to have some type of healer, and clerics have access to the best spells. Heavy armor, shield & mace, can fight in the front if needed. Especially good against undead. Paladin is an option, but Priest would be my choice.

Mage
Would be my choice, although sorcerer is an option, a lot depends upon how the developers handled the spells and abilities. But you need that arcane spell ability in your party. Squishy at early levels, but devastating at later levels. Mob control.

Rogue
You have to have the ability to pick locks and detect/disarm traps, assuming that's a game mechanic. Also the sneak & backstab skills can be devastating. The Bard is an alternate option, but it doesn't seem like Tactical Adventures included that option.

Those would be my choices without having seen how they implemented the rules and general gameplay. I'll be interested to hear of your game experiences, as I'm really looking hard at getting this one.
 
Is there multi-classing or dual-classing in this game?

That would be good to know, but I'm not sure. I think that there is later in the game.

Normally, I would basically do what you suggest. I'd have a Fighter, Cleric, Rogue and Wizard. In fact, when I first started the game, that was the first thing I did. But I didn't actually have time to do anything but create a party this morning and all day I've been wondering about trying something different. If I knew who the companions were and where/when you would find them, it would be an easy choice, but I don't think I can take a chance at wandering off without a Rogue because I'm the kind of person who comes across a locked door with no Rogue and decides to start the whole game over. Surely there will be magic users to recruit soon enough. A balanced 4 person party just seems kind of flimsy to me at the start of a game. I'm going to have to rely a lot on the cleric. BUT, he did get a special skill during character creation that lets him wear heavy armor, so I dunno...
 
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mainer

Venatus semper
but I don't think I can take a chance at wandering off without a Rogue because I'm the kind of person who comes across a locked door with no Rogue and decides to start the whole game over. Surely there will be magic users to recruit soon enough.
I've started over so many times in games like, this when finding that my chosen or created party just wasn't going to cut it; especially those times I tried to skimp and not have a Rouge-type character for locks/traps. I can't stand to leave a chest or door unlocked. There is a 2nd level mage spell called "Knock", but I never really found it useful early in-game, as mages have so few spell slots to memorize.

Surely there will be magic users to recruit soon enough. A balanced 4 person party just seems kind of flimsy to me at the start of a game. I'm going to have to rely a lot on the cleric. BUT, he did get a special skill during character creation that lets him wear heavy armor, so I dunno...
So the way I'm understanding this, is that you create a party of 4, but can then swap some of them out for characters you meet in your travels (as opposed to having your created party for the entire game, like Icewind Dale)? That would make a huge difference in who you created, especially if you knew what type of companions you would meet, and when. Solasta does sound like a game that I'd start over a couple of times.
 
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Zloth

Community Contributor
I think I read an article years back that called this "the impossible choice." You're being asked to prepare for a world you've never seen before! How badly is lockpicking going to be needed? Can the Sorc just do knock spells so a rogue isn't needed? What NPCs are going to show up, and how interesting/compatible are their characters? Is play going to revolve around the Everquest tank/healer/dps trinity?

On the plus side, developers are on your side. The characters they hand you will have a strong role to play and should fill in any holes you've left. I still tend to look up just what characters are going to be showing up so I can try to make some sort of vague plan for my party, though.
 
Four bards, dude, and as soon as you can multiclass, add monk to each of them.

Back in the day, I was reading the Neverwinter Nights instruction manual, and it said to be careful not to make a multiclass character of classes that obviously wouldn't work well together. It said, for instance, that you wouldn't want to have a sorcerer-monk character.

So naturally I made a sorcerer-monk. I completely owned that game, too. My sorcerer-monk breezed through.
 
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I looked at the wiki a bit and it seems the game is based on D&D rules. Which means the only natural choice is a party of 4 clerics. Use backgrounds and subclasses to specialize each one.

For example, the lowlife background gives you proficiency with thieves' tools, meaning you no longer need a rogue. Battle domain subclass gives you martial weapon proficiency, some bonus HP and allows spells being cast while wielding a sword and shield, so that's your fighter. Life domain gives extra healing and proficiency with heavy armor, so that's your tank. Insight domain gives a bunch of utility spells and abilities, to make up for your limited skill selection. Then the last cleric you can choose between debuffs (Oblivion), buffs (Law) or damage (Sun). I'd personally go for Oblivion, as the Peaceful Rest feature will help prevent you getting caught without spell slots while resting, while the Law domain's Channel Divinity requires a melee weapon (and you already have two front fighters) and the Sun domain gives you more radiant damage, but every cleric can already turn undead, so you're probably not going to need that often anyway.
 
I forgot how much fun it is to make character builds. Now I really want to play, but I don't have the time or money to do so :(

I've already started the game with a distinctly amateurishly put together party, but I'm just putting my toes in the water and plan to restart. Unfortunately, there's a big intro where you have to play each character individually. Not to sound too much like @Brian Boru but that's kind of annoying to have to do that when you want to start fresh with new characters. Maybe the second time around it will let me skip it.
 
I've already started the game with a distinctly amateurishly put together party, but I'm just putting my toes in the water and plan to restart. Unfortunately, there's a big intro where you have to play each character individually. Not to sound too much like @Brian Boru but that's kind of annoying to have to do that when you want to start fresh with new characters. Maybe the second time around it will let me skip it.

From what I've read there's no way to skip the tutorial, though it's expected/hoped to be added in a later patch and there is a mod already, though it may not work with the latest version.

I suppose it's not that bad if I need to wait a few months before I can play this if it means this kind of stuff has been patched.
 
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So I ended up making my entire level 1 team:

Attributes are in the order Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma.
I used point buy for the attributes.
An asterisk by a spell name means it's granted by the cleric's domain.

Human Cleric (Battle domain)
Attributes: 16, 14, 15, 9, 14, 10
Cantrips: Sacred Flame, Light, Guidance
Level 1: Magic Missile*, Shield of Faith*, Burning Hands, Thunderwave, Protect vs Evil & Good, Healing Word, Inflict Wounds
Equipment: Warhammer, Shield, Scale Mail, Priest's pack
Background: Sellsword
Skills: Athletics, Intimidation, Insight, Persuasion
Role: main front fighter with highest armor

Human Cleric (Elemental(Lightning) domain)
Attributes: 11, 14, 14, 10, 16, 14
Cantrips: Shocking Grasp, Sacred Flame, Spare the Dying, Light
Level 1: Thunderwave*, Fog Cloud*, Burning Hands, Shield of Faith, Healing Word, Inflict Wounds, Cure Wounds
Equipment: Shield, Scale Mail, Priest's pack
Background: Philosopher
Skills: Medicine, Persuasion, Insight, Religion
Role: secondary front fighter. Uses Shocking Grasp as main attack so we can move some points from strength to charisma to be better at persuasion

Human Cleric (Oblivion domain)
Attributes: 12, 16, 14, 10, 16, 9
Cantrips: Chill Touch, Sacred Flame, Spare the Dying, Resistance
Level 1: Sleep*, Inflict Wounds*, Bane, Healing Word, Cure Wounds, Thunderwave, Detect Magic
Equipment: Shield, Scale Mail, Priest's pack
Background: Lowlife
Skills: Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Deception, Insight, Medicine
Role: Debuffer. Main attack is Chill Touch, which prevents healing. Has extra points in dexterity and the lowlife background to help disable traps

Human Cleric (Insight domain)
Attributes: 12, 14, 14, 14, 16, 9
Cantrips: Sacred Flame, Sparkle, Acid Splash
Level 1: Detect Evil & Good*, Identify*, Thunderwave, Bless, Guiding Bolt, Cure Wounds, Healing Word
Equipment: Shield, Scale Mail, Explorer's pack
Background: Academic
Skills: Arcana, Nature, Insight, History, Religion
Role: Utility. Has higher intelligence to boost knowledge and crafting skills.

I ended up switching out the Life domain cleric for the Elemental (Lightning) cleric because you need a free hand to cast spells, so the life cleric would have had to ditch the shield, which kinda negated the advantage of being able to wear heavy armour. So the only bonus the life cleric would have had is slightly better healing, which isn't that great in a party where everyone can heal. The Elemental (Lightning) domain grants access to a melee ranged cantrip which makes a melee weapon unnecessary, allowing us to move points from strength to charisma.
 

mainer

Venatus semper
@ZedClampet - So I see Solasta is currently on a "Mid-Week Madness Sale" on Steam until November 11th for 50% off @ $19.99. Plus, it seems that there is a new DLC called Primal Calling for $9.99. I'm pretty tempted, at least for the base game, as it seems kind of like a blend of Icewind Dale and the Divinity OS games; at least in terms of combat with the Divinity games. What's your opinion of the game so far?
 
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@ZedClampet - So I see Solasta is currently on a "Mid-Week Madness Sale" on Steam until November 11th for 50% off @ $19.99. Plus, it seems that there is a new DLC called Primal Calling for $9.99. I'm pretty tempted, at least for the base game, as it seems kind of like a blend of Icewind Dale and the Divinity OS games; at least in terms of combat with the Divinity games. What's your opinion of the game so far?

Thanks for reminding me I need to play that now that I've finished the intro. Give me a few hours, and I'll tell you what I think of the beginning of the game. Off to Solasta...
 
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@ZedClampet - So I see Solasta is currently on a "Mid-Week Madness Sale" on Steam until November 11th for 50% off @ $19.99. Plus, it seems that there is a new DLC called Primal Calling for $9.99. I'm pretty tempted, at least for the base game, as it seems kind of like a blend of Icewind Dale and the Divinity OS games; at least in terms of combat with the Divinity games. What's your opinion of the game so far?

Sorry, I'm not much help. I ended up re-rolling some characters, starting over, preparing for the first journey, etc. Only got in one fight, was surprised during camping.

I don't see any reason you wouldn't like the game if this is your thing. One cool thing is that there is a syndicate you can do business with who will come to wherever you mark and grab all the loot for you and sell it (they keep a percentage, obviously), but I think that's a great convenience.

Long travel is done automatically for you, but you can set a number of parameters. If an encounter occurs, you are brought back into the action. You can also have it stop during rests or if a character can go up a level. Your characters do things during travel, like hunting and searching for crafting components, and you can see a list of their activities on the left. You can interrupt it any time you like.

As far as the combat being like DOS, I really didn't get enough combat to tell you. You can interact with things in the environment during combat, though, which reminds me a bit of Divinity.

The dialogue is mediocre at best. It's your standard, somewhat obnoxious adventurer stuff.

The only thing I've found so far that I would like to be different would be the ability to move the map with the mouse.
 
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After all that character creation, starting, restarting, more character creation, and everything else, I went into the game after having already played the tutorial a couple of times, and the game continued to prepare me, making me go to the various shops, giving me tutorial tips on preparedness, etc. I finally got into the big wide world and there was a tutorial fight. *eye roll* And then, after all that, there was a real fight and I was completely unprepared. *pats self on head*

I had forgotten to set up my alternate weapon loadout, and no one, not even my rogue, had ranged weapons ready, and I was fighting hit and run goblins who were scrambling all over the dang map. After getting that sorted, things went a little better, but my idea of sending my tanks in first was completely delusional. Apparently I need to play more RPG's these days. What happened to everyone getting in line and fighting in an orderly fashion? I'm going to need some Fall Out power armor for my wizard...
 

Brian Boru

King of Munster
Moderator
no one, not even my rogue, had ranged weapons ready
Playing a little indie Tower Defense / RTS kinda game last night, and had my brave robots outfitted with cannons & plasma guns & machine guns & … & …

Enemy sends over air power as one of its 3 attacker types—I didn't even have a belligerent pigeon, so wiped out in a jiffy or two 🥴
 

mainer

Venatus semper
@ZedClampet - I just purchased it today while it's still 50% off. It looks like a very old-school type RPG, not big on dialog or story, but interesting enough to be a fun D&D adventure. I like these little indie RPGs that pop up here & there, I often end up enjoying them as much (or more than) some of the AAA releases.

There also is a public beta branch, v1.2.11, that you can opt into, though Tactical Adventures warns there may still be bugs. A hot fix for that was just released today, 11/9.


I went into the game after having already played the tutorial a couple of times, and the game continued to prepare me, making me go to the various shops, giving me tutorial tips on preparedness, etc. I finally got into the big wide world and there was a tutorial fight. *eye roll*
Apparently you can skip the tutorial if you want, as of the 11/4 free update, which also included a level cap increase.. I'm assuming it's something you can set in the options screen.
  • Level cap increased from level 10 to level 12
    , unlocking new class features as well as level 6 spells
  • Scars and Facial Paints
    customization options in character creation
  • Tired of playing through the tutorial? You can now skip it!
  • Rebalanced (harder!) fight at the end of the campaign
    - prepare for a challenge!
  • New Campaign Creator Feature
    , allowing custom dungeons to be bundled together into a campaign with custom monsters, custom NPCs & merchants and custom items!
  • New Town Exterior & Town Interior Environments
    for the Dungeon Maker
Long travel is done automatically for you, but you can set a number of parameters. If an encounter occurs, you are brought back into the action. You can also have it stop during rests or if a character can go up a level. Your characters do things during travel, like hunting and searching for crafting components, and you can see a list of their activities on the left. You can interrupt it any time you like.
This reminded me of the old Realms of Arkania games from years ago: characters with herb lore would gather herbs/plants as you traveled, characters with hunter skills provided food and pelts, die of thirst, die from cold weather if not properly equipped, were just some of the things that could happen, depending upon your character builds. As well as random encounters, both good & bad.

The first 2 games have remasters on Steam: Blade of Destiny & Star Trail; and use rules from The Dark Eye pen & paper games rather than D&D.
 

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