Solasta: Crown of the Magister – Community Archetypes Revealed

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Written by ValH on September 2nd, 2022

Following their recent developer livestream, Tactical Adventures now brings us this article detailing the community-designed archetypes for the new classes (Bard, Monk, Warlock) coming to Solasta: Crown of the Magister with its next DLC.

Hiya folks!

We’re here today with the results of the Wishing Well Event. Three community archetypes have been created and implemented for the upcoming DLC featuring the Monk, the Bard & the Warlock classes. What are they? Who are the lucky winners? You’ll find everything below, bundled with a couple of other runner ups we really liked. We’ve also saved the VOD of the Wishing Well Community Stream if you missed it yesterday and wanted to watch it!

Wishing Well Stream Archive

Didn’t manage to catch yesterday’s stream? No worries, you can watch the session here. Witness my flawless mastery of the ancient tool named Powerpoint (which is part of the character background Computer Nerd in case you’re wondering where I got the proficiency from) as I talk you throw the different themes that caught our attention before revealing the winners. If you prefer text, read on!

Wishing Well – And the Community Archetypes are…

Before we get into the results, we just wanted to thank you all again for participating to the Wishing Well Event. We’ve received more than 1,000 submissions – with a lot of them being absolutely fantastic. For those who may not remember the Wishing Well Event rules, we picked up themes and features that we loved the most to put together a Bard, Warlock & Monk Archetype from all the great ideas you submitted.

Without further ado, here are the members of the community whose submission we took inspiration from: Tristan Townend, William Swedin, Silvers, ADHDTV, Christine Price, Nathaniel Wheatley, Vylantze, Scifive. If you are one of the winners, please reach out to us either through Discord (if you had your Discord Account info in the submission form) or by mail at contact [at] tactical-adventures.com with the following information: The name of the archetype you submitted, the name of the features and what those features did (as best as you can remember).

And before jumping into it, we want to give our warmest thanks to Li’Hild for providing us with fantastic and colorful artworks to illustrate our Community Archetypes and three of the runner-ups for each class. If you like her illustrations, make sure to follow her on Twitter or Instagram!

Bard Community Archetype – College of Heroism

Bards from the College of Heroism aren’t content with just telling the stories – they must be part of it. Their thundering voice ensures their allies are always at their best, and at their side even the most cowardly soldiers become stalewart combatants. Even at times most dire, the tale will not end with a Heroism Bard in your party.

College Features:

• Level 3: Bolster Morale – When an ally uses one of your Bardic Inspiration dice, they roll twice and pick the highest result.
• Level 3: Heroic Tale – Use an action to bolster an ally you can see within 30′ (6 cells) for 1 minute. They gain advantage on all Saving Throws and immunity against Frighten & Fear effects. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
• Level 6: Thundering Voice – Whenever you grant a Bardic Inspiration to an ally, the closest enemy within 60′ (12 cells) must make a WIS saving throw or take 1d8 + CHA mod. Thunder damage and have disadvantage on their next attack roll (half damage on save).
• Not currently planned (Design Only) – Level 14: At Road’s End – When an ally you can see within 60′ (12 cells) is reduced to 0 hit points, you can use your reaction to make them fall to 1 hit point instead. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
• Contributors: Tristan Townend, William Swedin, Silvers

Bards Runner-Ups

• Sound Theme: Examples include College of Roars, College of Mayhem, College of Dissonance & College of Screams. This theme mostly focused on nuking enemies with heavy Thunder damage and various conditions through its features.
• Debuff & Control Theme: Examples include College of Lethargy, College of Minds, College of Elegies & College of Discord. As the name implies, this theme mostly focused on controlling and debuffing enemies through its features.
• Battle & Martial Theme: Examples include College of War Chant, College of Savagery, College of Skalds & College of Dueling. This theme almost made it into the game as it was a very close vote between College of Dueling and College of Heroism. College of Dueling had a feature similar to Bladesingers, unlocking an Extra Attack and being able to use their Bardic Inspiration to temporarily increase their AC to make an instant riposte if the enemy missed their attack as a consequence.

Monk Community Archetype – Way of Light

“Stay in the light, friend”. Such as simple expression, yet most forget its origin. After the Cataclysm, many struggled to survive in the dark times that loomed over Solasta. The Way of Light appeared around that time, with its practioners helping to keep isolated settlements safe from the many creatures of the dark that lurked around.

Tradition Features:

• Level 3: Luminous Ki – You learn the Light & Shine cantrips. Whenever you hit a creature with one of the attacks granted by your Flurry of Blows, they automatically start emitting bright light until the end of your next turn.
• Level 6: Radiant Strikes – Any time you strike a target affected by Shine or Luminous Ki, you deal an additional 1d4 radiant damage.
• Level 11: Blinding Flash – As a bonus action, you can spend 2 Ki Points to generate a blinding burst of light. All creatures within 3 cells of you must roll a CON saving throw or take 3d6 radiant damage and become blinded until the end of your next turn (half damage on success).
• Contributors: ADHDTV

Monks Runner-Ups

• Artistry & Craftsmanship Theme: Examples include Way of the Pen, Way of the Dancer, Way of the Polished Glass & Way of the Herbalist. This was one of the most varied theme in terms of features, many of which were mostly suited for Tabletop and not Solasta due to how complex (though fascinating!) they were.
• Magic Theme: Examples include Way of Attunement, Way of the Sacred Talisman, Way of the Spellweaver & Way of the Magister. Most of the proposals revolved around turning the Monk into a half-caster, which although interesting made it very complex in terms of resources due to the Monk getting access to both Ki and spell slots.
• Meditation & Balance: Examples include Way of Balance, Way of the Perfect Strike, Way of Patience & Way of the Free Wind. Way of Balance made it pretty far internally, with a focus on shoving and getting bonuses against prone targets – but was deemed to situational against larger creatures that would be immune to shoves.

Warlock Community Archetype – The Timekeeper

Timekeepers are strange and mysterious entities who exist beyond the fabric of time and space – and you’ve made a pact with one, allowing you to make small adjustments in endless flow of the river of time, as unnatural as it may sound.

Patron Features:

• Level 1: Curse of Time – Whenever you damage an opponent with a spell, they become afflicted with the Curse of Time. Enemies under the Curse of Time take half your proficiency bonus (rounded up) force damage at the start of their turn for the next minute.
• Level 6: Time Shift – After you take damage, you can use your reaction to revert time. You briefly disappear in a time rift and heal back the damage received. You are considered banished until the start of your next turn. After you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you complete a long rest.
• Level 10: Accelerate – You can use a bonus action to briefly accelerate an ally other than yourself within 30 feet. They gain the effect of Haste until the start of your next turn; however they do not suffer from lethargy when Accelerate ends. You can use this feature a number of time equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest.
• Not currently planned (Design Only) – Level 14: Time Warp – On your turn, you can take one additional action. Once you use this feature, you must finish a long rest before you can use it again. Contributors: Christine Price, Nathaniel Wheatley, Vylantze, Scifive

Warlock Runner-Ups

• Darkness Theme: Examples include The Shadow, The Spectre, The Eclipse & The Nightmare. These Patrons often played with the Light & Dark system, drain health from enemies and inflict a lot of very annoying debuffs to deal with.
• Various Concepts: Examples include The Puppet, The Clockwork, The Archive, The Paradox. As Warlock Patrons are singular entities, most did not fit into singular themes like most archetypes for other classes would. There were plenty of very interesting ideas, but often very hard to implement because they were so unique.
• Ancient Heroes Theme: Examples include The Great Ancestor, The Fallen, The Heroic Soul, The Legend. Wake up Great Grampa it’s time to go kick some ass! This theme also nearly made it into the game as it was very cool, making a pact with a powerful hero of yore (possibly your own family tree) who would oversee your growth as a hero – a nice balance to all the more sinister patrons from the official Warlock archetypes. With their Patron looking over their shoulder, their design allowed them to never be surprised, have a bonus in iniative rolls, be able to regain a Pact Magic spell slot once per long rest, use their reaction to remove most conditions several times per day and at higher level have 6th level instead of 5th level spell slots for their Pact Magic.

Solasta: Crown of the Magister – Community Archetypes Revealed
Source: Hopefull Philippines