Meet the Warlock, the Newest Class of Solasta II

Hello there adventurers,

As you may know by now, we are bringing the highly anticipated Warlock class to Solasta II on September 10^th!

Beyond being an iconic class with signature features many D&D fans already know and love, the Warlock brings a distinct set of tactical options to the battlefield. With their unusual approach to spellcasting and plenty of character-building possibilities, Warlocks can become a serious menace both at range and in close combat.

Today, we’re taking a closer look at their gameplay, their role in the party, and the unique mechanics that set them apart, including their subclasses. Patrons, Pacts, Eldritch Invocations... sign here, adventurers. Let’s discuss it all.

Sign at the Bottom and... You’re a Warlock!
Developer Insight: The vision behind the class and its place among the existing roster

The Warlock is a class capable of dealing consistent magical damage from a distance without relying too heavily on limited resources such as spell slots.

Warlocks also have access to light armor and other defensive tools, making them more resilient than most spellcasters. Combined with their offensive options, that extra sturdiness gives players room to build a character capable of standing their ground in melee combat.

On the battlefield, the Warlock’s role can feel somewhat like the Ranger’s. Both can deal damage from a distance or in melee depending on how you build them. The key difference is that Warlocks rely on magic to excel at either approach.

Tougher Than You’d Expect!
Defensive Class Tools for All Warlocks

Warlocks are spellcasters, but they are tougher than your average magic user. They have access to light armor and gain 1d8 HP per level.

In addition to those, Warlocks can pick Hellish Rebuke to burn attackers by engulfing them in green flames. This deterrent in combination with the other defensive tools can increase the class’s survivability in combat.

But survivability is only one part of what makes the Warlock tick.

Hex!
The spell which makes Warlocks deadly foes

Another signature spell available to Warlocks is Hex, and it deserves a closer look as one of the class’s major tools.

Hex is a Concentration spell that Warlocks can cast as a Bonus Action. Each time your character hits the affected target with an attack roll, the target suffers additional necrotic damage. That makes Hex a great option whether you rely on physical attacks or cantrips such as Eldritch Blast.

If your character can make multiple attacks in a single turn, Hex applies to each successful attack. At higher levels, Eldritch Blast fires several rays, allowing each successful hit to benefit from Hex’s additional damage.

When your target drops to 0 HP, you can use a Bonus Action to move Hex to a new target. This allows you to smoothly switch from one enemy to the next without sacrificing your main action nor a new spell slot to do so. Efficient, elegant, and very unpleasant for whoever is standing opposite you.

Into the Fray!
Build Your Warlock for Close or Ranged Combat

The Warlock’s gameplay is also defined by the variety of offensive options available when building your character.

You can choose a set of close-combat options to increase your character’s physical damage and turn them into a serious threat in melee. If that is the path you want to follow, you will probably want to consider the Pact of the Blade that allows you to add your Charisma bonus to physical damage, alongside Eldritch Invocations such as Fiendish Vigor.

Alternatively, you can focus on ranged spellcasting and choose the Pact of the tome. With the Eldritch invocations Agonizing Blast and Repelling Blast, your Eldritch Blast’s damage benefits from your Charisma bonus or you can push enemies back. Combined with other bonuses, Eldritch Blast can become one of your primary sources of damage without requiring you to spend a spell slot every turn.

Whichever path you choose, the Warlock offers enough options to specialize in the style of combat you prefer without tying that choice to a particular subclass.

Choose Your Patron
Warlock Subclasses: Different Paths to Shape Your Character

A Warlock’s powers do not come from nowhere. Their choice of Patron further shapes their abilities, granting them new tools and opening different ways to approach combat.

The Dreamer
From Dreams to Nightmares

The Dreamer is a new subclass introduced in Solasta II.

The Dreamer is a terrifying Patron that reaches mortals through their dreams, connecting them to the strange powers of its alien realm, where it reigns supreme. Learning to use and control these powers allows Warlocks to manipulate reality, invade the mind of others and feed them with dreams of their own creation, or if needed, nightmares.

At level 3, the Dreamer grants its followers additional versatility. Warlocks gain an additional Eldritch Invocation as well as the ability to change one of their prepared spells after a Long Rest, rather than having to wait until they gain a level.

At level 6, you can use your bonus action to transform into a nightmarish figure for 1 minute. In this form, you can inflict psychic damage when you hit a creature with an attack roll. You can also react to a successful attack by casting Sleep on an attacker you can see. Doing so requires neither Concentration nor the expenditure of a spell slot.

The Timekeeper
It’s About Time

This subclass first appeared in Solasta: Crown of the Magister and is now returning in Solasta II.

Timekeepers are strange and mysterious entities that exist beyond the fabric of time and space, and whose powers defy the laws of many worlds. By choosing one as their Patron, Warlocks gain the ability to manipulate the flow of time itself and change the course of battles, wars, and possibly History.

At level 3, when a Warlock deals damage to a creature with a spell of level 1+, that target cannot take Reactions until the start of its next turn.

At level 6, Warlocks can literally escape the consequences of an attack by jumping through time and reappearing later in the battle. When you’re about to take damage, your character briefly vanishes from the battlefield before reappearing on their next turn where they previously stood negating the effect of what caused you to jump.

How Will You Build Yours?

With their unique approach to spellcasting, powerful Eldritch Invocations, Pacts, and the abilities granted by their Patron, Warlocks offer plenty of opportunities to shape your character around the way you want to play.

Whether you prefer blasting enemies from afar with Eldritch Blast, manipulating their position on the battlefield, or getting into the thick of the fight yourself, the Warlock offers a different take on spellcasting and plenty of room to experiment.

The Warlock joins Solasta II on September 10th.

So, adventurers: are you ready to sign?

Hello there adventurers,

Yes, you guessed it, we’re here to discuss everything related to Multiplayer and what to expect from it when its first version releases on September 10^th!

Playing with Friends in Solasta II

For us at Tactical Adventures, RPGs have always been about sharing an adventure. We love video games, of course, but we are also tabletop RPG players at heart, and some of the best moments around the table come from experiencing the journey together: discussing what to do next, coming up with a plan before a tough fight, debating which option to choose... and sometimes watching everything go completely off the rails!

Bringing that tabletop feeling to our games has always been part of our DNA, and multiplayer is a natural extension of that. It is also something you, our community, have been asking for since Solasta: Crown of the Magister, where online co-op was eventually added after launch. With Solasta II, we wanted to bring multiplayer to you much earlier in the journey, during Early Access, so that you can experience the campaign together with your friends and help us refine it along the way.

We’ve been playing multiplayer internally for some time now, and it has been a joy to see those familiar party moments emerge naturally. A combat encounter quickly turns into a discussion about positioning and tactics. A dialogue choice becomes a proper party debate. And, just like around the table, sometimes the most memorable moments come from seeing how your party reacts when things don’t quite go according to plan.

That’s why we didn’t want multiplayer to simply be about having several players in the same campaign. We’ve added features designed to help recreate that feeling of sitting around the same table, even when you’re playing online: making decisions together, communicating with your party, and sharing the adventure as a group.

So, ready to gather your party? Below, you’ll find an overview of the main multiplayer features coming to Solasta II in a couple weeks.

“We Are Family”
How to invite players to your game

To make joining your friends easier, we’ve added a new multiplayer interface. There, you can see all publicly visible sessions, along with their names and status.

Simply find your friend’s session and select it to join the game. You can also create a new session directly from the multiplayer interface and decide whether to make it either public or private sessions will work through invitations or session code sharing.

“Who Will You Be?”
Choosing and assigning characters

Once you’ve joined a session, the host can assign one of the available characters to you. You can also choose to create a new character for the session or pick one from your existing characters.

You can also decide who will control the companions that you’ll meet during your adventures.
 

“Adventure Together, Fight Together…”
Exploring and fighting as a Party

Outside of combat, you can move your character freely around the level or location you’re in. Stick together as a group or venture off on your own. The choice is yours. The only exception to this is the World Map, where the host will control the party and lead them through the tiles.

Loot goes to the character who interacts with containers first. Since each character has their own carrying capacity, remember to spread the loot around before one party member gets overloaded. And keep an eye on that friend who always checks every crate first!

Once combat begins, the game switches to turn-based mode, and each of you takes control when one’s character’s turn comes up. During another player’s turn, you won’t be able to move or act, but you can still follow the action and plan your next move.

 
“…and Decide Together”
Making choices as a group

Fighting isn’t the only thing you’ll have to handle as a group. When talking to NPCs, you’ll also have to agree on what to say or at least try to!

Whenever dialogue choices are available, every player can cast their vote for the answer they prefer. The option with the most votes becomes the party’s choice.

But don’t take too long to make up your mind! A timer starts as soon as the dialogue options appear. When time runs out, the winning answer is selected and the conversation continues. Democracy, but with a countdown.
 

“Look There!”
Communicating through pings

Spot something the others shouldn’t miss? You can ping a location or a character to quickly draw the rest of the party’s attention to it.

Pings can be used both in and out of combat. By default, use Ctrl + Middle Mouse Button on mouse and keyboard, or Up on the D-pad on gamepad.

“Sometimes, a ping just isn’t enough…”
Using voice chat with your party

If you’d rather talk things through with your party, keep in mind that Solasta II does not include built-in voice chat. You can use the voice communication platform of your choice while playing.

Just like Solasta: Crown of the Magister, our official Discord server provides an easy way to set up a voice channel for your party.

Head to the Multiplayer section, then join the “Join to Create VC Room” channel. This will automatically create a temporary voice room for your group. Once it is ready, you can customize its status and invite your friends to join.

You can also use other options, such as Steam Voice Chat or any other voice communication software you prefer.

Ready to play together?

Ready your party, adventurers: Early Access Update 1 brings online co-op multiplayer, the Warlock class, new character customization options, 30 new World Events, and more to Solasta II on September 10!

 

Online co-operative multiplayer

Gather your party, because online co-op multiplayer is coming to Solasta II. We set out to recreate the tabletop feeling of playing as a group: exploring, fighting, and negotiating together in the same campaign.

One player hosts the game, starting either with a new party or an existing save, then invites up to three friends to join. You can also find your friends' sessions in the multiplayer interface and join them directly thanks to the Hot Join feature.

Sometimes, the group will need to talk to NPCs and choose dialogue options to progress through the campaign. Each player will be able to see the available choices and vote for one. The option with the most votes will be considered the group’s decision. Careful though: once a dialogue vote begins, a timer starts ticking... When it reaches zero, the selected answer is applied.

To help everyone stay coordinated, we are also adding a new Ping system, available both in and out of combat. Use it to highlight a character or a location on the map and make tactical communication clearer when it matters most.

Warlock class and its two subclasses

The Warlock class will be available as a new option in character creation, with two subclasses to choose from: The Time Keeper, and The Dreamer. These powerful spellcasters can pledge allegiance to a mighty patron in exchange for exclusive class features and signature spells.

Whether they are blasting enemies from afar or stepping into melee, Warlocks are formidable combatants with plenty of ways to make their pact everyone else's problem.

Rest assured that all information on the upcoming Warlock class, including details on the two subclasses will be shared before the release of Update 1, so stay tuned!

30 new World Events

Following the “Happy Little World Events” community contest, we have integrated the 15 winning submissions alongside brand-new events, bringing the total number of new World Events to 30. The ones crafted by the Tactical Adventure’s team make sure to include some challenging combat, and cool loot!

New Character customizations

Character creation enthusiasts, rejoice! Update 1 adds more ways to shape your heroes, including new hairstyles, beards, tattoos, and warpaints available to all characters.

Community requests

On top of all this new content, we have also implemented several features requested by the community:

Dice Rolling for Character Stats

You will (finally!) be able to roll your character’s ability scores instead of assigning them. Roll 4D6 and keep the best 3 results to generate each score.

Spell Component Rules

We have included an option to remove the requirement for spell components.

Cloud Saves

Game saves will be synchronized via Steam. Steamdeck users rejoice!

New Controller Shortcut

We have added a new controller shortcut for Cautious Mode during exploration, making it easier to sneak around when subtlety is the wiser choice.

And these are only a glimpse of the many additions, fixes, and stability improvements coming with Update 1.

That’s it for now, as always, we look forward to reading your feedback as we continue refining Solasta II throughout Early Access and beyond.

Join us on our official Discord server to share your experience, tell us what you think, and let us know how your party fares once Update 1 goes live, on September 10^th!
 

Keregald

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Well folks, you didn’t make it easy for us to make a selection - your submissions were plentiful and your imagination limitless! But at the end of the day we were rightly reminded by our Producer that we couldn’t add them all, especially if we wanted to do more Community Contests in the future.

Without further ado, we present to you the 15 winners!

• Unexpected Guest, by Peter Maguire
• Ominous Cave, by Erik Paulsen
• Glamour Pool, by Sabrina Arnold
• Songs from Below, by Kaiden Sterling
• Bard Song, by Frankie Bayak
• Mysterious Nest, by Joe Cladingboel
• A Curious Boy, by Gaz
• Silent Guardian, by Emery
• Bones of Darkness, by Troodon Master
• The Grounded Sailor, by Hotenshi
• The Strange Prism, by Delettre Alexis
• Lover’s Rest, by Riahla
• Wandering Scammer, by Cat Overlord
• Gilded Trick, by Andrew Pratt
• The Sickly Father, by Matthew B

Hoi hoi good folks!

It’s been a little less than a week since our Character Creator Update, we sure hope you’re enjoying diving into the new functionalities of the tool. In fact, we’re interested to see what you’ve cooked up!

Community Stream - Friday June 19th