D&D 5E Two New D&D Books Revealed: Feywild & Strixhaven Mage School

Amazon has revealed the next two D&D hardcovers! The Wild Beyond the Witchlight is a feywild adventure due in September, and Curriculum of Chaos is a Magic: the Gathering setting of Strixhaven, which looks like a Harry Potter-esque mage school, set for November.

Amazon.com: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight: A Feywild Adventure (Dungeons & Dragons Book) (9780786967278): Wizards RPG Team: Books

Amazon.com: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight: A Feywild Adventure (Dungeons & Dragons Book) (9780786967278): Wizards RPG Team: Books

www.amazon.com

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight is D&D's next big adventure storyline that brings the wicked whimsy of the Feywild to fifth edition for the first time.

The recent Unearthed Arcana, Folk of the Feywild, contained the fairy, hobgoblin of the Feywild, owlfolk, and rabbitfolk. UA is usually a good preview of what's in upcoming D&D books.

Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos (D&D/MTG Adventure Book) (Dungeons & Dragons): Wizards RPG Team: 9780786967445: Books

Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos (D&D/MTG Adventure Book) (Dungeons & Dragons) [Wizards RPG Team] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos (D&D/MTG Adventure Book) (Dungeons & Dragons)

www.amazon.com

Curriculum of Chaos is an upcoming D&D release set in the Magic: The Gathering world of Strixhaven -- a brand new MtG set only just launched.

Strixhaven is a school of mages on the plane of Arcavios, an elite university with five rival colleges founded by dragons: Silverquill (eloquence), Prismari (elemental arts), Witherbloom (life and death), Lorehold (archaeomancy), and Quandrix (numeromancy). You can read more about the M:tG set here.

You will be able to tune into WotC's streamed event D&D Live on July 16 and 17 for details on both, including new character options, monsters, mechanics, story hooks, and more!

D&D 5E - Here Is The Full & Alternate Cover Art Of The Wild Beyond the Witchlight

Here is the cover art for The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, the hardcover D&D product revealed this weekend. Cover art by Tyler Jacobson Alternate cover by Hydro74 https://www.enworld.org/threads/two-new-d-d-books-revealed-feywild-strixhaven-mage-school.680500/

www.enworld.org

D&D 5E - And Here Is Strixhaven's Cover Art!

It's not just The Wild Beyond The Witchlight's cover art being revealed today! We also have Magali Villeneuve's cover art for Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos! Strixhaven is an upcoming D&D setting based on the recently released Magic: the Gathering world, and features a mage school -- as Theros...

www.enworld.org

 

[Parmandur]

D&D is vastly more flexible than you seem to be suggesting here, and there are...5 arcane spellcasters, and 4 more non-arcane spellcasters, in 5e. And every class has highly magical subclasses.

Strixhaven has roles for non-Mages built in, even for the card game:

 

[Kurotowa]

D&D is vastly more flexible than you seem to be suggesting here, and there are...5 arcane spellcasters, and 4 more non-arcane spellcasters, in 5e. And every class has highly magical subclasses.

I'd put decent odds that Strixhaven comes with Magical Gifts in the vein of Dark Gifts and Supernatural Gifts. It's a useful game mechanic and a good way to ensure that every subclass has a justification for being at magic university.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I'd put decent odds that Strixhaven comes with Magical Gifts in the vein of Dark Gifts and Supernatural Gifts. It's a useful game mechanic and a good way to ensure that every subclass has a justification for being at magic university.

Yeah, and probably some magical or counter-magical subclasses, if there are any subclasses in it.

 

[Marandahir]

For anyone hankering for some Strixhaven-style Magic school madness in their games right NOW, there's a nigh-purely fluff series of 4e. Dragon articles on magic schools you can drop straight into your campaign. Back issues can be purchased on DM's Guild.

Dragon #374's article "White Lotus Academy" does a deep dive on a single magic school. At the end are some 4e-related mechanics which you can ignore or adapt into a 5e game (4e feats, 1st-level daily spells for Artificers, Bards, Sorcerers, Swordmages, Warlocks, and Wizards, and a Paragon Path - a sort of higher-tier background layer you can add akin to getting a supernatural or dark gift later on in your career; in this case it's being an Academy Master). Minus the 4e-mechanics, it's a good 8.5 pages of flavour on the academy.

Note that there's an associated adventure published in Dungeon #165 - "Secrets of White Lotus Academy." I think adventure adaptation can be tricky because of balancing power level designs with narrative designs, so I'd take a look for the fluff only.

And then Dragon #403 has the article simply titled "Academies" and goes in lighter detail on 5 different academies. No mechanics in this article, so it's fully usable in 5e. In the related issue of Dungeon (#194) there was also an article called "The War College" which does a 13 page dive on a military academy (more like Fire Emblem: Three Houses than Strixhaven - closely related tropes but not quite the same genre). As this is Dungeon in the time when it harboured more than just adventures, it's not an adventure per say but more a miniature setting with adventure hooks. It does have some 4e-related mechanics (mostly monsters) scattered through the article, though.

 

[Marandahir]

Yeah, and probably some magical or counter-magical subclasses, if there are any subclasses in it.

I'd bet a fair penny that they'll reprint the Arcana Domain from Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

For anyone hankering for some Strixhaven-style Magic school madness in their games right NOW, there's a nigh-purely fluff series of 4e. Dragon articles on magic schools you can drop straight into your campaign. Back issues can be purchased on DM's Guild.

Dragon #374's article "White Lotus Academy" does a deep dive on a single magic school. At the end are some 4e-related mechanics which you can ignore or adapt into a 5e game (4e feats, 1st-level daily spells for Artificers, Bards, Sorcerers, Swordmages, Warlocks, and Wizards, and a Paragon Path - a sort of higher-tier background layer you can add akin to getting a supernatural or dark gift later on in your career; in this case it's being an Academy Master). Minus the 4e-mechanics, it's a good 8.5 pages of flavour on the academy.

Note that there's an associated adventure published in Dungeon #165 - "Secrets of White Lotus Academy." I think adventure adaptation can be tricky because of balancing power level designs with narrative designs, so I'd take a look for the fluff only.

And then Dragon #403 has the article simply titled "Academies" and goes in lighter detail on 5 different academies. No mechanics in this article, so it's fully usable in 5e. In the related issue of Dungeon (#194) there was also an article called "The War College" which does a 13 page dive on a military academy (more like Fire Emblem: Three Houses than Strixhaven - closely related tropes but not quite the same genre). As this is Dungeon in the time when it harboured more than just adventures, it's not an adventure per say but more a miniature setting with adventure hooks. It does have some 4e-related mechanics (mostly monsters) scattered through the article, though.

I think you just gave me a nice idea of incorporating Stryxhaven and the White Lotus (and maybe the Spiral Tower?) as competing military/mercenary mage schools like the Gardens in Final Fantasy VIII.

I already use the monasteries of the Realms like this, it would be awesome to have some more.

 

[Faolyn]

Strixhaven makes a LOT of sense. D&D has dabbled into Potter-esque fantasy before but it's never given it front and center.

It has? With what? Genuine ignorance here; I hadn't heard of anything like that. ('Course, I'm not a Potterverse fan so it's not like I actively looked for it either.)

 

[Nellisir]

I know next to nothing about Harry Potter and even less about MtG but what I briefly perused about Strixhaven after Googling it this morning gave me the same impression. I could be very wrong but seems like a finite concept for a campaign insofar that it seems the players will always have to be affiliated with or members of one of the colleges to make it worth playing in the setting. Definitely seems like a game Id rather play in than DM. I'm sure there's more than enough stuff to mine for ones own campaign in these books to make them worth buying.

WotC has HEAVILY emphasized bounded settings and defined campaign styles for each settings with 5e. A Potter-esque school of magic is totally in line with that.

Yeah. I guess I'm at that place where I am getting diminishing returns the more products I get. And I really don't know what I'd need in the vein of the books they're releasing. Adventures? Class options? Monsters?
I don't use campaign settings. Fey are not interesting to me.

That's...part of the cycle, I guess. Not to be blase about it, but Placescape and Dark Sun didn't interest me much when they came out and they don't interest me now. I just shrug and move on. I can see inklings of WotC's strategy, and it's not particularly aimed in my direction - which isn't really surprising. I make do with what I can. I'm excited to have a Feywild SOMETHING, and I'll poke at Strixhaven.

The circus thing is a super-turnoff, though. It keys into my dislike of the current trend of "modernizing" fantasy (moving away from "medieval" inspiration, and yes I'm aware of how stupid that is) AND the "races are humans with pointy ears" thing. Both of those are strictly personal quirks, though, and probably not WotC targeting me personally.

As far as what's upcoming...I'm not up-to-date on who said what, but I feel like we're due another Volo's Guide/Mordenkainen's Guide-style book that's 50% monsters. A Dragonlance book also makes a LOT of sense (established setting that hasn't been utilized in quite some time; strongly themed; different from other recent releases; it's totally in line with the other 5e products).

Could the "close out the year" project NOT be a book? Some new method WotC is exploring to get content out, maybe stuff that's not a full book but more than a UA article? Could it be tied in to the new FR drow? (I honestly don't know; I've heard of these new drow but nothing more.)

Edit: I just realized (per a comment here) that both of these are billed as adventures, not settings. That makes me think there's room for another setting book. I'd put money on a classic Dragonlance setting.

 

[Yaarel]

I mean how Strixhaven is a school and schools tend to try to keep students out of danger.

Most magical school settings in tend to involve chosen ones, training for war, or leave the school quickly. Because it's school.
And it's not just fantasy school. Strixhaven is magic school with heavy use of full casters. DMing or designing an adventure for all full casters isn't for the newly inducted or faint of sanity.

Dont forget the adult faculty at these schools. They are the equivalent of military technology, multinational crisis experts, etcetera, and invite dangerous challenges. The ROTC will have enlisted personnel and so on. Plenty of design space for adventures. Not everyone is 8 or 14. Some are 20 or 60 or 3000 years old.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

4e Goblin wasn't fey, but they were featured prominently in depictions of the Feywild in Heroes of the Feywild and I believe also in Manual of the Planes. That book was like the Player's Guide to a Feywild Campaign Guide that was never published, but it had a lot of juicy player-oriented details about the 4e assumed Feywild setting.

I've been looking at the Feywild lore recently (mostly Heroes of the Feywild and Underdark, which details locations in the Feywild's Underdark).

Basically, hobgoblins once tried to lead goblinoid armies to conquer the Feywild, but failed. Now the major goblin presence in the Feywild is Nachtur, a kingdom hidden in caverns beneath forested hills and ruled by a hobgoblin mage called the Great Gark, who has an alliance with the greatest of the fomorian lords, First Lord Thrumbolg, and sends goblins to reinforce the defenses of Thrumbolg's Underdark portal-filled fortress of Mag Tureah.

The fact that Feywild Hobgoblins was one of the races in a recent Unearthed Arcana has me hopeful that Nachtur may be making a return to D&D lore. I hope a good deal of 4E's Feywild details are reintroduced, seeing as 4E paid much more attention to the fey and developing their plane of existence than any other edition before it (where the Plane of Faerie was a barely mentioned afterthought).