Solasta: Crown of the Magister

Solasta: Crown of the Magister

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Stormhold Arena
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28 Apr, 2024 @ 10:48am
18 Aug, 2024 @ 12:22pm
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Stormhold Arena

Description
Description

Your past finally caught up with you, and now is the time to pay the price. Only you know what you did and who your misdeeds might have angered.
After being ambushed and subdued by a shadowy group of mercenaries, you find yourself in a secret facility, deep in the Frostfall mountains, ran by a wealthy elite that can afford bloody spectacles of gladiatorial combat. You will have to best the opposition – whatever it might be, arm yourself with powerful pieces of magical equipment and brave the biting cold of Borealis, or die trying.

ATTENTION: The module is intended for either 7th or 13th level party. Characters below level 7 will automatically be leveled to 7 or 13, depending on the chosen starting point of the module. The player is given the freedom to import characters that are lower level than the aforementioned, although do note that balance revolves around freshly created parties.

Stormhold Arena is a higher starting level, combat-heavy, ‘roguelike’ module that is almost entirely randomized to offer unique experience on each playthrough. This includes maps, items, rewards, skills checks and enemies. There will never be two identical playthroughs.
The other aspect that is emphasized is economy and resource management, meaning you will be granted a set amount of gold and loot after each fight that can be used to slowly upgrade your party. Some items are gated behind randomized rewards, some are unique to skill checks, and some can only be bought.
You will be fighting three battles before being allowed to long rest, with the 3rd usually being more challenging than the previous two, so conserve your resources. Short rests on the other hand are completely free to be taken after each fight and are even encouraged. Succeeding to beat the 3rd encounter, you will be rewarded with a level-up alongside long rest.
The fighting encounters were crafted with meticulous care to offer the best balance between variety of enemies and fun/challenge. Same tactics will not always work, so you will have to oftentimes improvise.
It is also worth mentioning that this is a story-light module, with no direct quests or objectives, and simple NPC interactions.
Unfinished Business mod isn’t required but is highly recommended for maximizing character building options.

The gameplay loop for 1st part is the following:
1. Enter the fighting arena when ready from main hub. 2. Get loot for beating the arena + resolve a skill check for additional rewards. 3. Get back to the main hub, resolve social-related skill checks for additional rewards (+ spend gold on various vendors if you have just beaten 3rd encounter) and prepare for the next round.
The 2nd part is more linear than the first, the maps aren’t randomized and there are no out of combat skill checks. You will still be fighting three battles per long rest.


Features

  • A highly randomized module (as close as one can get to ‘roguelike’ within 5E system and Solasta DM tools) where most aspects are entirely random.

  • A higher-level module, starting at 7th or 13th level (depending on initial starting point), and will bring you all the way to 16th level (maximum of 19 with Unfinished Business mod).

  • Two starting points of the campaign. You choose if you wish to go through the module from the beginning, or start its second, even more action-packed point. The second point will grant the player a hefty amount of gold to spend in a variety of shops. Spend it wisely.

  • Milestone leveling – you will never be over-leveled or under-leveled.

  • Combat-heavy module, with light story elements and simple NPC interactions, of which most interactions are completely optional.

  • Highly tactical, challenging combat that will put your party building and combat skills to the test.

  • Works perfectly for parties of any size. Six-man groups will still have a lot on their plate with a bit of difficulty tweaking as the party will be outnumbered in majority of encounters.

  • Perfect for ironman runs and trying out different party compositions.

  • Emphasis on economy and resource management.

  • Dozens of powerful new custom weapons, and buffed versions of a few existing Solasta-original items.

  • Lots of skill checks yielding various powerful rewards, with all skills being used one way or another. There are a total of 123 skill checks, of which you will roughly see a third of.

  • Estimated playtime ≈ 15 hours.

  • 85 locations in total.

  • 163 custom monsters to challenge, split into 90 encounters in total, of which a party will battle 30 + a special final encounter that is even more random than the previous ones.

  • Those familiar with basics of DM can easily use the module for various combat tests by being able to insert a party on any stage they wish.


Notes & Tips

  • Do NOT have all party members flying after finishing/exiting arenas! There are area activators that require creatures to walk over them (game limitation) to activate. Without these, level ups will not be distributed properly!

  • Each skill falls into one of two categories: Combat and Utility. Combat skills are exclusively used in combat and have no other purpose. Utility skills are used in skill checks and can yield various rewards. Combat skills are: Athletics, Acrobatics, Stealth and Medicine. All other skills are Utility skills.

  • Press and hold ALT-key (Default) to easily find skill checks (glowing yellow areas). Being within 5 feet of any skill check will automatically give the player more information about it, including the skill that’s being checked and its DC, so you can buff your party members for better odds of succeeding.
    After every 3rd encounter, there will also be a special container that’ll allow the player to choose an item as a reward (Choice between two randomized items from the pool of three).

  • Stock up on potions whenever you can. You never know when you are going to need them.

  • Rushing into groups of enemies alone is oftentimes the best way to get "Game Over” screen. A combination of wearing your enemies down, applying difficult terrain and hard CC is the best way to approach most encounters.

  • Potions of Heroism/Speed/Giant Strength are purposely rare. Save them for more difficult encounters.

  • Always keep your HP high/full before getting into a new encounter.

  • Have at least one high AC party member that can take the heat and one AOE specialist.

  • Encounters are built to be as diverse as possible, which also means that it is possible to run into rare extremes (resistances to most non-physical damage specters for example). The more versatile your party is, the better your odds of making it through that encounter.

  • For those that wish to look into potential rewards tied with skills, you can check out the following table (Skill Distributions) https://1drv.ms/x/c/13c8e7369ea6fd02/EQL9pp4258gggBOFAAAAAAABqdArOKZw1R30rRGoMEjrpg

Found Bugs?

While I’ve personally extensively tested the campaign, slipups and overlooks are always a possibility. If you found something that seems like it isn’t intended/doesn’t work as it should, don’t hesitate to leave a comment describing the bug along with the location name for easier identification (you can save the game and inspect the save as it’ll show the location name there).
If you find typos or wrong use of grammar, feel free to report it so that it can be corrected.
76 Comments
HiddenHax  [author] 13 Apr @ 4:39am 
Yes.... These teleporting enemies can indeed sometimes teleport out of the map. I tried various test with various placements and map tinkering where the chance for those things to happen would be minimal or none (as it should be with the "General" enemy archetype with crossbow that teleports once), but it looks like it can still happen with that specific ghost unfortunately. I'd recommend installing UB and at least enabling cheats to teleport party anywhere/kill all enemies in case these bothersome scenarios indeed happen. I honestly don't have the intention of tinkering with the module further and redesigning fights further as I've moved to other hobbies and projects.
fluffytrain 6 Apr @ 9:22am 
The 3rd fight at character level 11, the one with the 2 teleports to enter the arena... the Dread Wraith, with a legendary action, often teleports OUT of the map, to the closed area North. If that happens, the whole fight needs to be done again, because it will not teleport back in the arena.

For now I just stay in the middle of the map to keep it out of the teleport range of that closed area, but that brings another difficulty to the fight... given the mechanics of the layout, I recommend putting non-teleporting creatures in the arenas.
HiddenHax  [author] 29 Mar @ 5:31am 
If you happen to use UB, you can also try the 6M version of the module.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3413578584

It is completely remade encounter-wise and offers a ton of new enemy types, items, as well as extended campaign length (new maps), new final final boss and level cap 20.
HiddenHax  [author] 29 Mar @ 5:26am 
Only the 'escape' sequence has 1 static fight (the initial fight) and other two encounters have 2 variants only instead of 3. But there are two ways (you get one chosen for you at random) you can go through the castle, so 2 variant maps for these two fights before you escape. The rest is as described below.
HiddenHax  [author] 29 Mar @ 5:23am 
Yes.
In first part, there are three possible "arenas" for each fight and three possible encounters total for each fight, so 9 variants between arena and enemy encounter for every single fight.

Second part doesn't have variable maps, but there are still 3 enemy encounters in pool, of which you randomly get one picked. And this continues for each fight until the end of the module.

The very last fight also has 3 stages, of which there is one encounter picked from pool of 3 for each stage.
fluffytrain 28 Mar @ 5:06pm 
Waitaminute... are the fights different the second time around? For both acts???

If so... I might just replay this adventure a few more times after this second playthrough!!!
HiddenHax  [author] 27 Mar @ 5:44am 
I'm happy to hear it was still fun despite the unfortunate outcome at the very end.
Really difficult to find a fine balance point for level 16 parties when only a single encounter is involved and high level of power is attained...
fluffytrain 26 Mar @ 6:51pm 
I had a BLAST!

However, the final fight was just too much for my party... oh well!

Time to make another run with a different party then!
Mox 1 Feb @ 3:02pm 
You can also bind a button in the settings (In solasta/settings/key bindings) if u have UB installed, to teleport everyone to the same location
(˵•ᗜ•˵✿) 1 Feb @ 10:22am 
Thanks!