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Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos - First Party Review
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<blockquote data-quote="Sparky McDibben" data-source="post: 9156928" data-attributes="member: 7041430"><p>Very much agreed.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Yeah, but it shouldn't be. Hell, <em>Drakkenheim</em> told them how to do it with their own system! Why are these later adventures so bad?</p><p></p><p></p><p>It was the last book I bought from WotC, and will probably be the last book I buy from them for the foreseeable future (due to both quality issues and the OGL debacle).</p><p></p><p></p><p>That's great! If you've got any reviews you want to link to, or subreddits you want to drop in here, feel free!</p><p></p><p>Alright friends! Let's keep it going with Chapter 2: Character Options!</p><p></p><p>This chapter covers a lot in only 12 pages. The first character option is a new race: the owlin! They're adorable owl people with Stealth proficiency, 30' fly speed, and 120' of darkvision. The owlin are, broadly, inoffensive. My only complaint is that we don't get any socio-cultural background like we do for elves or dwarves, so they feel very <em>tabula rasa</em>. Meh.</p><p></p><p>The next section talks about how choosing a college impacts your character. It includes this delightful prose:</p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/6kJkMo9.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>Choosing a College, Step One: Choose a College</em></p> <p style="text-align: center"></p><p>I'm honestly not sure if this was an intentional tautology, or just happened through sloppy editing. Either way, not great. The colleges express themselves mechanically through backgrounds; each college has a unique background. Each one gives you two skill proficiencies, language or tool proficiencies, the Strixhaven Initiate feat, and ten extra spells on your spells known list. Each spells added list has a unique spell for that school (so <em>silvery barbs</em>, as an example). </p><p></p><p>I have three broad issues with this as a design decision. First, the backgrounds only have personality traits and trinkets. There are no ideals, bonds, or flaws. So it's less of a background and more of a "One Fun Quirk!" I hate this; if you're going to have backgrounds in your game, for God's sake make them interesting to players. This is low-hanging fruit. My second issue is that the spells chosen are not very thematic to the college's aesthetics. For example, Witherbloom has the first level spells <em>cure wounds </em>and <em>inflict wounds. </em>OK, that should be fine for the college that's all about growth and decay, but what does <em>cure wounds</em> have to do with growth? Why not <em>entangle</em>, or <em>goodberry</em>? It's kind of baffling when you're reading this; it's like they made choices that deliberately screw up the aesthetics they're working so hard to set up. Finally, my third issue is that these extra spells only add to what you can cast if you have the Spellcasting or Pact Magic features. So if you're playing a battlemaster fighter...good luck?</p><p></p><p>I have no problem with a magic school helping students learn magic; I simply think that magic needs to be better focused toward the school, and I think everyone should gain the ability to use it. Rather than add spells onto a spell list, I'd almost prefer an invocation-like system, where you got additional benefits from the school as you level up. </p><p></p><p>Alright, onto Feats! There are two: Strixhaven Initiate (which everyone is expected to have via their background), and Strixhaven Mascot. Initiate gives you (in addition to the 10 extra spells known) two extra cantrips from a list of three and a first level spell known (by college - hilariously, <em>guidance</em> is an option for Quandrix, rendering almost every other Student Dice bonus you get later completely moot). This might be salvageable if it gave you the Spellcasting feature, but it doesn't, so no thanks. </p><p></p><p>Strixhaven Mascot lets you summon a mascot (which all have statblocks in the book) as a familiar. These guys are all about 1/4 CR, significantly higher than most regular familiars, and all have special abilities they can use. I don't think it's terribly interesting, but you do you.</p><p></p><p>After this, we get into the new spells. These have mostly been discussed to death, especially <em>silvery barbs</em>. In broad terms, I don't actually have a problem with any of these, including <em>silvery barbs</em>, but I'm significantly less focused on mechanical balance than most other DMs. I also haven't seen these in actual play, so I can't really make a determination. So this gets a shrug from me.</p><p></p><p>Alright, we're keeping this train a-moving with Magic Items! There are eight new magic items, including the <em>bottle of boundless coffee</em>, a magic item that can magically give you arrhythmia (OK, it doesn't do that in the game, just in real life). Then there are the various college primers. Each primer has three charges. Spending a charge will let you add 1d4 to one of two specific skill checks (so Lorehold, the history college, gives you +1d4 to History and Religion checks). Alternatively, you can choose a 1st level spell to cast without spending a spell slot. Hooray! Free <em>shield </em>spells all around! I mean, you could use it for other stuff, but we all know that <em>shield</em> is what it's actually going to be used for. </p><p></p><p>And finally, we get this little thing:</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/A7nJVPs.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/MgXmj74.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>Here, have a plushie in case you get scared at this elite magical college!</em></p> <p style="text-align: center"></p><p>Every character here should be a grown-ass person. Personally, I would find this ferociously infantilizing. Like, seriously? Come the hell on, you utter douchenozzles. </p><p></p><p>Alright, y'all, next time we're going to get into the actual adventures at Strixhaven with Chapter 3: School Is In Session!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sparky McDibben, post: 9156928, member: 7041430"] Very much agreed. Yeah, but it shouldn't be. Hell, [I]Drakkenheim[/I] told them how to do it with their own system! Why are these later adventures so bad? It was the last book I bought from WotC, and will probably be the last book I buy from them for the foreseeable future (due to both quality issues and the OGL debacle). That's great! If you've got any reviews you want to link to, or subreddits you want to drop in here, feel free! Alright friends! Let's keep it going with Chapter 2: Character Options! This chapter covers a lot in only 12 pages. The first character option is a new race: the owlin! They're adorable owl people with Stealth proficiency, 30' fly speed, and 120' of darkvision. The owlin are, broadly, inoffensive. My only complaint is that we don't get any socio-cultural background like we do for elves or dwarves, so they feel very [I]tabula rasa[/I]. Meh. The next section talks about how choosing a college impacts your character. It includes this delightful prose: [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/6kJkMo9.png[/IMG] [I]Choosing a College, Step One: Choose a College[/I] [/CENTER] I'm honestly not sure if this was an intentional tautology, or just happened through sloppy editing. Either way, not great. The colleges express themselves mechanically through backgrounds; each college has a unique background. Each one gives you two skill proficiencies, language or tool proficiencies, the Strixhaven Initiate feat, and ten extra spells on your spells known list. Each spells added list has a unique spell for that school (so [I]silvery barbs[/I], as an example). I have three broad issues with this as a design decision. First, the backgrounds only have personality traits and trinkets. There are no ideals, bonds, or flaws. So it's less of a background and more of a "One Fun Quirk!" I hate this; if you're going to have backgrounds in your game, for God's sake make them interesting to players. This is low-hanging fruit. My second issue is that the spells chosen are not very thematic to the college's aesthetics. For example, Witherbloom has the first level spells [I]cure wounds [/I]and [I]inflict wounds. [/I]OK, that should be fine for the college that's all about growth and decay, but what does [I]cure wounds[/I] have to do with growth? Why not [I]entangle[/I], or [I]goodberry[/I]? It's kind of baffling when you're reading this; it's like they made choices that deliberately screw up the aesthetics they're working so hard to set up. Finally, my third issue is that these extra spells only add to what you can cast if you have the Spellcasting or Pact Magic features. So if you're playing a battlemaster fighter...good luck? I have no problem with a magic school helping students learn magic; I simply think that magic needs to be better focused toward the school, and I think everyone should gain the ability to use it. Rather than add spells onto a spell list, I'd almost prefer an invocation-like system, where you got additional benefits from the school as you level up. Alright, onto Feats! There are two: Strixhaven Initiate (which everyone is expected to have via their background), and Strixhaven Mascot. Initiate gives you (in addition to the 10 extra spells known) two extra cantrips from a list of three and a first level spell known (by college - hilariously, [I]guidance[/I] is an option for Quandrix, rendering almost every other Student Dice bonus you get later completely moot). This might be salvageable if it gave you the Spellcasting feature, but it doesn't, so no thanks. Strixhaven Mascot lets you summon a mascot (which all have statblocks in the book) as a familiar. These guys are all about 1/4 CR, significantly higher than most regular familiars, and all have special abilities they can use. I don't think it's terribly interesting, but you do you. After this, we get into the new spells. These have mostly been discussed to death, especially [I]silvery barbs[/I]. In broad terms, I don't actually have a problem with any of these, including [I]silvery barbs[/I], but I'm significantly less focused on mechanical balance than most other DMs. I also haven't seen these in actual play, so I can't really make a determination. So this gets a shrug from me. Alright, we're keeping this train a-moving with Magic Items! There are eight new magic items, including the [I]bottle of boundless coffee[/I], a magic item that can magically give you arrhythmia (OK, it doesn't do that in the game, just in real life). Then there are the various college primers. Each primer has three charges. Spending a charge will let you add 1d4 to one of two specific skill checks (so Lorehold, the history college, gives you +1d4 to History and Religion checks). Alternatively, you can choose a 1st level spell to cast without spending a spell slot. Hooray! Free [I]shield [/I]spells all around! I mean, you could use it for other stuff, but we all know that [I]shield[/I] is what it's actually going to be used for. And finally, we get this little thing: [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/A7nJVPs.png[/IMG] [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/MgXmj74.png[/IMG] [I]Here, have a plushie in case you get scared at this elite magical college![/I] [/CENTER] Every character here should be a grown-ass person. Personally, I would find this ferociously infantilizing. Like, seriously? Come the hell on, you utter douchenozzles. Alright, y'all, next time we're going to get into the actual adventures at Strixhaven with Chapter 3: School Is In Session! [/QUOTE]
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