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

 

[overgeeked]

The world is Exandria. Critical Role season one was on the continent of Tal'dorei, season two was on the continent of Wildemount. There are two more continents and a large island grouping for potential seasons 3-5, and that would mean three more sourcebooks for the world before Mercer would be done there.

And that's assuming he doesn't expand or reshape the world at all from its present size and shape. To say nothing of the past or future.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Nope. Cause none of the psionics fans could agree on what kind of psionics they needed... and you can already play Planescape by using all of your 2E material, you don't need a 5E book. So they're making other stuff instead.

You could already play Eberron by using all your 3E material, and you could already play Ravenloft by using all your 2E material...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Feywild works best when you don’t fully define it because then you steal away some of its magic by shrinking it into something that reflects your defined spatial boundaries.

Almost as if it was a less evil mirror of 5e Ravenloft...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

And guess what, in that other thread, I don't think a single person guessed either of these.

@Parmandur guessed Strixhaven as soon as the cards started to leak, and there is a whole big thread about the Feywild.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Hey nothing is guaranteed. They just need to realized how Strixhaven will be played.


I'm not saying D&D isn't flexible.

I'm saying "Roll Initiative. Fireball Fireball Fireball Counterspell Fireball Fireball I attack Fireball " "Barry Hotter You are EXPELLED!" is a type of campaign you really have to prepare a DM to run.

The main villains are terrorist black mages. The PCs will be students and teachers. It likely won't be a standard D&D campaign.

That's the point. Have you not noticed that the recent setting books are all about "how to do genre X in 5e" rather than gazetteers and faux history?

And In this case I suspect the point of Stryxhaven is to tone down the gratuitous death and violence normal to D&D in order to make it more accessible for the pre-teen/early-teen market. Moving the conflict from the battlefield to the playing field, as it where. And with lots of emphasis on interpersonal relationships. The "villains" are the class bully and the rival house's sports team.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

They Fey UA stuff is probably for either the Feywild Adventure or Strixhaven, I'd wager. It really fits Strixhaven like a glove, as noted when the UA came out.

Apart from minor details, such as the title...

I'm expecting to see owl people in both books.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Hmmm interesting that the feywild book is using a Carnival - I wonder if there will be a Ravenloft crossover (and how much the a new Feywild book will reflect the Van Rcihtens format)

The whole Carnival domain backstory looks like foreshadowing for this adventure to me. It's even called out in the studio blog.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I haven't heard much speculation on what "Witchlight," means. It's not a term I've heard before.

I believe it's another name for a Will-o-the-Wisp, It crops up quite often in fantasy novels, but I've not been able to track down the folklore roots of the term yet.

Also see: "Ghostlight".

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Well, the carnival certainly implies liminal space, socially and cosmically, which is the bread and butter of Fey things.

Literary symbolism does not pass over my head. My reflexes are too quick. I would catch it.

Jokes aside, some things to check out: The Worst Witch - a 1974 novel by Jill Murphy. Adapted for TV a couple of times, the latest version is currently on BBC/Netflix. Not magical, but the inspiration for both The Worst Witch and Harry Potter: Mallory Towers (1947) by Enid Blyton. Also has a recent BBC adaptation. The Night Circus - 2011 novel by Erin Morganstern. Goblin Market - 1862 narrative poem by Christina Rossetti.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

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

That would also explain it not being reprinted in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything with the Bladesinger.

Spoiler: Side Note

That would then leave the Battlerager Barbarian, Purple Dragon Knight, Way of the Long Death Monk, and Undying Patron Warlock as the only subclasses from the SCAG that hadn't been reprinted in another book. The Battlerager sucks, Purple Dragon Knight is absolute garbage, the Long Death Monk is actually pretty okay, and the Undying Patron is both mechanical garbage and almost completely invalidated by the Undead Patron Warlock subclass from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft.

I would expect them to do one subclass for each house in Strixhaven, most of them (if not all of them) being reprints from other books. I'll do some speculation below for what they could be.

Lorehold: Arcana Domain Clerics
Quandrix: Order of the Scribe Wizards (even though I hate them)
Silverquill: College of Eloquence Bards? Or they could make a new subclass that could animate an ink companion/familiar?
Witherbloom: Circle of Spores all the way
Prismari: I have no idea. Maybe a new Bard Subclass that summons elementals?