- Class: Fighter
- Archetype: All, but especially the Champion and Mountaineer
- Feature / Spell / Whatever: Sellsword Background, and backgrounds in general
- Power: NA, Conceptual/Mechanical Dissonance
- Feedback: The Mercenary background is arguably the best conceptual 'fit' for the fighter. And yet, the fighter doesn't benefit mechanically from the best feature of the mercenary background (armor proficiency) because the fighter class already gives them proficiency in medium armor. In fact, the fighter doesn't benefit as much as other classes from just about any background (excepting the spy and lowlife, which I think are just fine). Another great conceptual fit for the fighter is the Lawkeeper. And while the perception proficiency is nice--as is the athletics proficiency for Sellswords--again, they do not benefit from what is arguably the best mechanical feature: Martial Weapon Proficiency (again, as they already have it). It is quite the opposite for (e.g.) the wizard (and the academic) or the cleric (and the acolyte). In the case of the wizard that picks the academic, they gain proficiency with the Manacalon (sp?) rosary, which is generally most useful to wizards, as they (probably) have the best spell selection for enchanting items. But, a wizard that selects Sellsword (or Lawgiver) gets medium armor proficiency (or martial weapon proficiency). As such, not only do they benefit mechanically from a background that is a conceptual fit for them, they also benefit better than the fighter when selecting backgrounds that are (arguably) better suited conceptually for the fighter. Now, don't get me wrong: I like that they benefit from taking 'counterintuitive' backgrounds. But, what I don't like is that the fighter doesn't as much of a mechanical benefit from it, relatively speaking.
- Suggestion (if any): Maybe increase the max dexterity bonus when wearing armor by 1 if you are already proficient with medium armor. So, for example, chain mail, which normally grants a max of +0 dexterity bonus to AC grants a max of +1 dexterity bonus to AC. Or, perhaps worn armor counts as lighter for the character, effectively increasing their carrying capacity, or something similar.
In Solasta... Fighters and Cleric's suck. Elves are by far the best race. If you like power builds (I do) here's a good one.
Half Elf - Philosopher - Paladin-Devotion, Str16-Dex10-Con12-Int8-Wis14-Cha16 Most used spells (Heal and Shield); Proficient in Athletics and Diplomacy. Take armor +1 and use a shield. By level 5 your AC should be 21. Level up Strength.
Sylvan Elf - Philosopher - Ranger-Hunter-HordBreaker, Str12-Dex16-Con14-Int8-Wis16-Cha8 Most used spells (Heal & Hunters Mark); Proficient in all Wisdom skills. Level Up Dexterity.
High Elf - Spy - Rogue-Darkweaver, Str11-Dex16-Con12-Int16-Wis12-Cha8, Cantrip=Dancing Lights; Double proficiency in investigation Level up Dexterity.
High Elf - Achademic - Wizard-Arcanist, Str11-Dex16-Con12-Int16-Wis12-Cha8, Most Used Spells (Firebolt, Dancing Lights, Shield, Magic Missiles, Scorching Ray); proficient in all intelligence skills except Investigation. Level up Intelligence.
Make sure you speak all the languages (not difficult considering the selections above). Paladin wears the crown.
Cast dancing lights before a battle, surprise the enemy, and you will destroy them with arrows. In the mean time your Paladin is in front drawing fire (that usually misses). Most battles can be won while taking minimal damage. Some battles can be won before the enemy gets one single attack.
Any suggestions on improvement would be appreciated.
In Solasta... Fighters and Cleric's suck. Elves are by far the best race. If you like power builds (I do) here's a good one.
Half Elf - Philosopher - Paladin-Devotion, Str16-Dex10-Con12-Int8-Wis14-Cha16 Most used spells (Heal and Shield); Proficient in Athletics and Diplomacy. Take armor +1 and use a shield. By level 5 your AC should be 21. Level up Strength.
Sylvan Elf - Philosopher - Ranger-Hunter-HordBreaker, Str12-Dex16-Con14-Int8-Wis16-Cha8 Most used spells (Heal & Hunters Mark); Proficient in all Wisdom skills. Level Up Dexterity.
High Elf - Spy - Rogue-Darkweaver, Str11-Dex16-Con12-Int16-Wis12-Cha8, Cantrip=Dancing Lights; Double proficiency in investigation Level up Dexterity.
High Elf - Achademic - Wizard-Arcanist, Str11-Dex16-Con12-Int16-Wis12-Cha8, Most Used Spells (Firebolt, Dancing Lights, Shield, Magic Missiles, Scorching Ray); proficient in all intelligence skills except Investigation. Level up Intelligence.
Make sure you speak all the languages (not difficult considering the selections above). Paladin wears the crown.
Cast dancing lights before a battle, surprise the enemy, and you will destroy them with arrows. In the mean time your Paladin is in front drawing fire (that usually misses). Most battles can be won while taking minimal damage. Some battles can be won before the enemy gets one single attack.
Any suggestions on improvement would be appreciated.
The first statement is arguable. Fighters honestly have to make it to about 15th level before their late-blooming benefits really start to kick in. The Cleric is the cleric for a reason and the absurdly powerful ones that have access to lightning bolt, slow, and fireball as domain spells are going to be a force to be reckoned with when combined with a wizard.
Elves are only the best race when there aren't soft-lock reasons to have other races in the party. Otherwise you'd only be situationally wrong. After all, if you go up against a green dragon (i think those are the ones with the chlorine breath), I think you'd prefer to have a dwarven fighter on hand to soak up it's poison breath. Yes, i know protection from poison might work in a pinch, if it doesn't use Dispel Magic on you.
Chances are high, though, that a power build set that doesn't have all different backgrounds will miss some stuff that otherwise can't be replaced. just pointing that out.
Don't know why everyone is so focused on the wizard having the academic background. It says in his/her list of abilities that they are proficient in the thing (i could understand it if they got expertise, though).
I don't know why you're going darkweaver over thief with the spy background. you can already handle poisons, so turning the ability to use magic missile wands and potions into a bonus action is way more useful than situational bonus damage.
There are several ways to read all languages, so that's only a little useful.
Your party seems built on setting up surprise through stealth, and I'm not good at that so no comment. Well, no comment beyond the fact that light should be visible from a great distance in the dark and actively draw enemies to fight. I still think it's stupid that in some of the caves I can literally move up and light up the torch sconces around the enemy and they'll 'lah dee dah' around off guard until I actually shoot them.
Half Elf - Philosopher - Paladin-Devotion, Str16-Dex10-Con12-Int8-Wis14-Cha16 Most used spells (Heal and Shield); Proficient in Athletics and Diplomacy. Take armor +1 and use a shield. By level 5 your AC should be 21. Level up Strength.
This guy can be a DEX build using rapier, He can then use a bow too and join in the arrow storm. Probably lower AC as he'll give up STR and maybe struggle with heavy armour, until he gets a haversack. Divine Favour is a ghetto Hunter's Mark for archery.
The wizard could be Greenmage which is strong at low levels with Hunter's Mark and more arrows. but maybe not at higher.
You probably should make sure everyone has a crafting skill and that all of them are covered but you will not really need what you can craft.
I agree that fighters are in a bad place. Well melee is and I think bow fighters are worse than rangers and even bow paladins which means fighters are.
Clerics can bring Spirit Guardians and at the moment that seems broken. They can also do a bit of supporting though you are probably better off with more DPS. The battle (magic missile and fireball) cleric could play like a wizard, I am not sure the languages and INT skills actually do anything.
- Class: Wizard
- Archetype: Greenmage
- Feature / Spell / Whatever: Feature
- Power: Too weak after lvl 5
- Feedback: As others have said, the ranged attack becomes less relevant after 5th level, but giving them an extra attack would be too much.
- Suggestion (if any): Several suggestions have already been made. Personally, I would suggest giving them permanent Advantage to attacks with the bow at level 6 - or, mechanically, something like "you may cast True Strike as a bonus action whenever you make an attack with your bow."
That would allow for a tactical decision depending on circumstances (i.e. prone target, in darkness, etc) - do you use a higher-powered cantrip that may or may not hit, or do you go for a bow shot that is more likely to hit? Seems more interesting than just giving the bow more damage IMO.
--- - Class: Fighter
- Archetype: Champion
- Feature / Spell / Whatever: Feature (Remarkable Athlete)
- Power: Hot garbage
- Feedback: Everyone and their mother knows the Champion sucks. This is a problem in 5e tabletop as well. Remarkable Athlete particularly sucks, but I think it could be interesting in this game with some tweaking.
- Suggestion (if any): First, reverse the order of Improved Critical and Remarkable Athlete (RA at 3rd, IC at 6th or whever).
Second, change RA to say:
"You may use your Proficiency bonus for any Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution check in which you are not already proficient.
In addition, you gain Expertise in either Athletics or Acrobatics.
When performing a long jump..."
It's a slight bump in skill power, but given how many physical skills this game uses, I could see it being useful. Put it at level 3 because players will have just finished Caer Lem and will probably think "damn I could really use someone with better Athletics" and then BAM, a subclass all about useful physical prowess. This makes Champion an actual enticing choice instead of hot hot garbage.
- Class: Ranger
- Archetype: Shadow Tamer and Marksman
- Feature / Spell / Whatever: Class features
- Power: too niché
- Feedback: As it stands right now, both Shadow Tamer and Marksman seem to be worse than Hunter. The extra damage/attacks from Colossus Slayer/Horde Breaker is overall a lot more useful than what we get from the Solasta style archetypes.
- Suggestion (if any): If you don't want to make the Solasta specific Ranger subclasses more generally useful, maybe you can do as the Ranger archetypes in D&D did and give them a set of spells known on top of their chosen Ranger spells otherwise not available to the class.
Typos happen. More so on the phone.
Hi guys! Little bit of feedback here after several hours tooling around (MAN I was so hyped to finally hit 3rd level!):
- Class: Rogue
- Suggestion (if any): Maybe just a magic missile or a thunderwave? The shield spell is super nice, but mage armor/identify/detect magic seem kind of like throwaways . . .
At this point of the game I think it is important to note that Detect Magic and Identify are far from throw away spells. Without Detect Magic you won't know an item is magical in many cases and when you do you won't know what it does. Perhaps it my years as a nefarious DM, but equipping unknown magic items is a good way to get a cursed item stuck to you. If find Detect Magic and Identify invaluable. Having them available to the Rogue makes for good options, imo.