Ruleset differences with D&D 5e

[Myzzrym]

Hello there folks,

We've noticed that we haven't put up a list of what is different between our game rules and the D&D 5e Ruleset, which have confused a fair amount of experienced players into thinking that some design decisions where bugs. Note that most often than not, when there are variations between the tabletop Ruleset and Solasta, it's not on purpose (it is a bug), but on a few occasions it's by design.

Let me share with you the differences:

Vision & Light

On Tabletop, when fighting against heavily obscured creatures (for instance in a thick fog or in total darkness without darkvision), you are effectively considered as "Blinded" - meaning you should not even be able to target them. Many DMs will accommodate with Perception rolls to allow you to fight by sound, smell or whatever it is that better fits your character roleplay-wise in a case by case scenario, but there is no clear and definite rule for that (RAW you are blinded and that's all).

In Solasta, there is a clear separation between the player and the characters, as you see everything from above like an observer - meaning you as the player clearly see the creatures on screen, but your characters don't. And that it would create a lot of frustration if we didn't allow blinded characters to attack at all.

Which is why in Solasta, even while blinded (be it in a thick fog, total darkness or even when affected by the Blindess spell), characters (and creatures!) can still attack and trigger opportunity attacks - although with disadvantage.

Advantage & Disadvantage Stacking

On Tabletop, the rule is very clear and simple - not matter how many sources of advantages / disadvantages you have, they cancel out. This is notably great because it makes it easier on the players and the DM to avoid having to track how many advantages / disadvantages are involved, making every roll faster.

However, in Solasta as the computer's the one doing the heavy lifting, we opted for a system where if you have more advantages than disadvantages, you will still roll with advantage (and vice versa). Think of it as a simple system of +1 and -1, with one advantage and one disadvantage the score goes to 0 and you roll normally, otherwise you will roll with advantage or disadvantage depending on the balance.

Dancing Light

On Tabletop, Dancing Light produces 4 different lights that you can move around certain conditions (no light can be further than 20' from another light, etc etc). On Solasta, Dancing Light produces a single ball containing the 4 different lights merged together. Also, on Solasta Dancing Light produces 10' of Bright Light + 10' of Dim Light instead of just 10' of Dim Light.

Why the change? First, micromanaging 4 additional units (light source) and adding all the rules and restrictions made the spell very tedious to use, which is why we switched it to a single (bigger) light. As a result, we increased the brightness of that light - which also make it useful to non-Darkvision characters (since having only 10' of Dim Light would do nothing for them otherwise as they need Bright Light).

Proficiency & equipment

On Tabletop, you can technically use any equipment you want even if you're not proficient with it - you just don't get any bonuses and proficiency modifier. On Solasta, we've currently disabled equipment you're not proficient with, preventing you from equipping the item.

This one is more to help the less knowledgeable players to avoid frustration when they don't understand why their character doesn't have the bonuses they should - it might change in the future, but for the moment we think it's for the best.

Weapon swapping

On Tabletop, depending on your DM you may or may not be able to swap weapons on the fly - for instance, according to the rules donning on / off a shield takes quite some time! In Solasta we allow to swap weapons once per round (free action).

Considering how often you may need to swap between melee / ranged weapons and/or get a torch out, we felt like it would slow down the pace of the fight a bit too much if we went with the actual Tabletop Rules there.

Homebrew Archetypes

We often have people asking "why aren't you adding Battlemaster / Forge Domain / Bladesinger instead of your Homebrew archetypes?"

Keep in mind that we're using the SRD 5.1 license, not the full D&D 5e license - meaning we simply can't. We're not allowed to, that's how copyright goes. We are allowed a single SRD archetype for each class (such as champion, or life domain).

Additional Spells

Similarly, some people are asking about Green Flame Blade, Toll the Dead or Word of Radiance - those spells are not SRD.

Long story short, spells that are not in the Player Handbook are not SRD (and even some that are in the PHB aren't SRD, such as Hex) - so we can't use them. As for spells like Friend or Zone of Truth, they simply aren't there because we haven't implemented anything to use them on. As you know the entire game is voiced, and creating special lines of dialogue for every "social" spell isn't possible for our budget :(

Proxy Spells and Line of Sight

Alright this one is a lot less clear, since not everyone agrees on Tabletop either. Proxy Spells are what we call spells like Spiritual Weapon, or Flaming Sphere - spells that create a new unit that you can move around as the caster (so different from summoning a wolf for instance).

In Solasta, you can't attack with your Proxy Spell if your caster doesn't have line of sight on the target - meaning you can't move your Spiritual Weapon around the corner to attack an enemy you can't see.

Casting multiple Proxy Spells

Although some Proxy Spells such as Spiritual Weapon do not require concentration, Solasta only allows one active proxy spell per caster. This means you can't have both Spiritual Weapon and Flaming Sphere active at the same time - casting one will remove the other.

Some Spells have minor adjustments

You may have noticed Spiritual Weapon does not deal damage on the first turn after being cast. This is currently due to a technical limitation, as both summoning the Spiritual Weapon and attacking with it takes a bonus action, with the exception of the turn it is summoned. This exception has not been implemented.

If you find anything that deviates from Tabletop Rules that is not mentioned above, please make sure to post here so I can either add it to the list - or add it to the Bug List :p

[Cormellion]

There is facing in 5e if you chose to use it, and the other rules are just more tactics. I disagree with the concept that flanking trivialises these. Knockdown can give prone/ advantage when on your own. Pack tactics means 5ft engaged not diagrammatically opposite and only for specific pack animals.

[Cormellion]

I'm always going to disagree on flanking being an issue; simply as a the two groups I'm with have realised that it is powerful and try to use the ability when they can and at the same time employ disadvantage skills/ spells when they can. Like I say it is just another tactic in the game making combat more complex and sometimes quicker - nothing worse than repeated, you miss, rounds with 10 mobs to make the game grind to a halt.

[Jeined]

Spells not on concentration vanish when the spellcaster is downed/dying. They must NOT. Spells in 5e don't stop just because you are dying or even dead (unless they are on concentration). You mustn't recast Daylight just because you dropped.
Light should be castable on allies. On their current weapons? If this is mechanically possible, it's worth doing.
For all (?) striking 'proxy' spells it must be possible to first move the effect and then strike with it. Definitely for Flaming Sphere and Spiritual Weapon. It's very bad that the action ends when you only move the effect.

[Jeined]

There is some limit on visibility in bright light. It basically must not exist: the rules say that 'characters can see about 2 miles in any direction on a clear day' and even more in some cases. But in this game you can't even use the full limit of longbow, because 'you can't see' the target.

[michaelstylesjr]

For my Rogue (Archer), I have noticed that the gloves of archery is not adding the +2 dmg.

[DiceWrangler]

Ursprungligen skrivet av michaelstylesjr:

For my Rogue (Archer), I have noticed that the gloves of archery is not adding the +2 dmg.

Did you kill your target? If so you likely killed it before the extra damage was applied so it does not appear in the combat log. The real problem is that Solasta "layers" damage, which forces multiple Concentration checks among other issues, instead of adding-up the individual sources and applying it at once. Layering does make sense for certain damage types that the target may be resistant to but its implementation is flawed.

[Cartesian Duelist]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Jeined:

Spells not on concentration vanish when the spellcaster is downed/dying. They must NOT. Spells in 5e don't stop just because you are dying or even dead (unless they are on concentration). You mustn't recast Daylight just because you dropped.

I can get behind this. Non-concentrations spells shouldn't end when the character that cast them is downed.

[Little Diddlo]

Fix daylight vs. dark veil. The only way you can tell me that dark veil can't be dispelled by daylight is if your defiler is literally firing ink out his chesticles. If that is so, please tell me where the ink sack is on the defiler. It is the whole point of the daylight spell to dispel magical darkness.

[Jeined]

Different types of damage from one effect must be counted as one damage event for the concentration checks for spells: so Flame Strike would demand one concentration check, not two with one from fire and one from radiant damage. Though different darts from Magic Missile and rays of Scorching Ray should count as different damage events.

[Jeined]

Potions must NOT remove their effects when characters drop to dying.

[Jeined]

Invisibility spell MUST NOT END when you don't use attacks or spells. Meaning in particular it must not end when you use a potion.
This game is a terrible buggy mess >:-(

[Cormellion]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Jeined:

Different types of damage from one effect must be counted as one damage event for the concentration checks for spells: so Flame Strike would demand one concentration check, not two with one from fire and one from radiant damage. Though different darts from Magic Missile and rays of Scorching Ray should count as different damage events.

Agreed.

[Cormellion]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Jeined:

Invisibility spell MUST NOT END when you don't use attacks or spells. Meaning in particular it must not end when you use a potion.
This game is a terrible buggy mess >:-(

No it isn't but there are a few issues that over time will be resolved. If you play D20 or FGC/FGU they are both still updating years later...

But thanks for noticing 3 things only...

[Jeined]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Cormellion:

No it isn't but there are a few issues
But thanks for noticing 3 things only...

Yes, it most definitely is. And it's not three things even in this topic even from me (try to scroll a couple posts higher). And also there are bugs in bugs forum (and not only from me). And there are a lot of things that I haven't even reported: line of sight bugs, randomly unclimbable walls, a lot of script bugs in campaign, frequent desynchronizations in MP, terribly done synchronization in general which leads to always jerky characters movements in MP, clunky pathfinding when giving commands to several chars at once when they freeze, chars regularly freeze for several seconds after jumping down, a lot of invisible walls (that mostly messy not buggy but still), clunky wall climbing interface which sometimes refuses to work, badly optimized graphics and so on. It's definitely below the average experience for now. So don't even start.

[Cormellion]

I personally think it's a great game - get your money back. It's the best 5e experience right now. so please do have fun continuing. All these things you mention are minor to the 5e core experience.