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

 

[Marandahir]

No, but you also didn't need a WotC-designed artificer class to play Eberron. The artificer and psionics for the kalashatar are just two out of dozens upon dozens of character options you could select from to play an Eberron game. You wanted to make a campaign for Eberron and you didn't have those two things? Play with all the other options instead. And if by some chance you felt like you just HAD to have an artificer class in your Eberron game... the DMs Guild had quite a number of artificer-like classes and subclasses you could have used., or you just made up one for yourself.

Anyone who really wanted to play in Eberron could do so from the beginning, even without having to wait for Rising From The Last War.

Sure, but the story of Eberron and the way it views magic is strongly tied with that of Artificer. Kalashtar and Psionics are less important to the game as they're from Sarlona and the story is focused on Khorvaire. Shifters and Changelings a bit more so. Warforged absolutely so.

Without certain playable elements, it feels like you're avoiding them for the sake of avoiding them. It starts to get very awkward. Sure you can play into the bunch of other sandbox elements, but the argument for not needing an Eberron Campaign Setting for 5e starts getting thin really fast.

Oh, completely. Given WotC's effort at cultural awareness, I'm surprised they're still using "Shaman" as a term, frankly. Just thinking "brand synergy"; the Strixhaven cardlist is full of cards with the Shaman type. Of all of them, it's the most obviously mis-used term on the iconic spellcaster types list.

Magic: The Gathering is more beholden to past terms than D&D is, by virtue of being a card game rather than a roleplaying one. The rules are more important, and harder to change.

See how even when they created Tritons for Theros, they still subtitled the cards as Merfolk because Merfolk is a key word with game mechanics. I don't play M:tG, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a game mechanic related to the keyword Shaman. D&D at least can change terminology without breaking various supplements in the process, especially as they switch from edition to edition. Of course, they're culturally beholden to sacred cow terms, it's just that Shaman is really not a sacred cow the way Paladin or Druid is.

 

[Mind of tempest]

the fey seems meh to me.

strixhaven is everything I hate and I hoped it would never crossover, I hate strixhaven.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Sure, but the story of Eberron and the way it views magic is strongly tied with that of Artificer. Kalashtar and Psionics are less important to the game as they're from Sarlona and the story is focused on Khorvaire. Shifters and Changelings a bit more so. Warforged absolutely so.

Without certain playable elements, it feels like you're avoiding them for the sake of avoiding them. It starts to get very awkward. Sure you can play into the bunch of other sandbox elements, but the argument for not needing an Eberron Campaign Setting for 5e starts getting thin really fast.

So you have every single other element available to Eberron except an artificer class... a class where there's a pretty strong chance none of your players would even necessarily select one to play... and yet because that one single element is missing the entire setting gets thin really fast?

Sorry, but that's just silly. And like I said, if it REALLY mattered to the DM that much... they could just find one online or make one up to use. Cause quite frankly... if they aren't doing that because they don't trust their own DM skills to have one that is playable... they probably shouldn't be playing in ANY setting that isn't already a default. Don't go looking outside your wheelhouse if you aren't able to drive.

 

[Marandahir]

the fey seems meh to me.

strixhaven is everything I hate and I hoped it would never crossover, I hate strixhaven.

Great! You don't have to buy it and you can take solace in the fact that D&D doesn't do more than one book and a handful of DM's Guild Adept tie-in articles with any given "Magic: the Gathering" setting. It's not going to have a lasting impact on the game as a whole, it's just an option for folks who want it. Seven years in now, we've got so much 5e content that you don't have to buy every book WotC puts out; there's plenty of material to choose from between official books, DM's Guild, 3rd party publishers like Morrus' Level Up, etc.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Great! You don't have to buy it and you can take solace in the fact that D&D doesn't do more than one book and a handful of DM's Guild Adept tie-in articles with any given "Magic: the Gathering" setting. It's not going to have a lasting impact on the game as a whole, it's just an option for folks who want it. Seven years in now, we've got so much 5e content that you don't have to buy every book WotC puts out; there's plenty of material to choose from between official books, DM's Guild, 3rd party publishers like Morrus' Level Up, etc.

I do not hate it for being mtg is has made a far greater sin.
also, I would have liked something more to my tastes this year as buying books is the closest I get to playing these days and my year sucked.

 

[Marandahir]

I do not hate it for being mtg is has made a far greater sin.
also, I would have liked something more to my tastes this year as buying books is the closest I get to playing these days and my year sucked.

Sorry, I hear ya there. I've lost my group too and have had to focus on buying and reading up on the books and retooling my campaign setting so that it'll be more ready for my next campaign. :/

 

[eyeheartawk]

Oh good.

I figured having the number of actual D&D setting books equal to the number of Magic books was too good to last.

If there was any doubt these get published for cross promotional purposes only here's your proof. This is a brand new Magic setting, skipping over many more well known and popular Magic settings to get published.

Can't wait for the Battleship campaign guide.

 

[Marandahir]

So you have every single other element available to Eberron except an artificer class... a class where there's a pretty strong chance none of your players would even necessarily select one to play... and yet because that one single element is missing the entire setting gets thin really fast?

Sorry, but that's just silly. And like I said, if it REALLY mattered to the DM that much... they could just find one online or make one up to use. Cause quite frankly... if they aren't doing that because they don't trust their own DM skills to have one that is playable... they probably shouldn't be playing in ANY setting that isn't already a default. Don't go looking outside your wheelhouse if you aren't able to drive.

It's not just the player options. It's the lack of Artificers, Magewrights, Warforged and Shifters in the Monster Manual (Changelings at least can be modeled pretty solidly by their cousins the Doppelgängers). Telling DMs to homebrew content is assuming DMs have the time to homebrew and playtest options that haven't been professionally balanced, let alone letting them risk throwing their game off the deep end if it's unbalanced. There's a reason people play published modules more than homebrew games: it's less work! Being a DM is HARD and TIME CONSUMING. When you want to just get to the fun, especially if you're playing in someone else's sandbox - like Keith Baker's - you want the Legos already built for you, not requiring a 48-hour construction project ahead of the fun and games with said Legos.

Well, except for the people who like to do that, but the point is that the Setting books exist to streamline the process and let people get to the fun.

 

[Arnie_Wan_Kenobi]

Magic: The Gathering is more beholden to past terms than D&D is, by virtue of being a card game rather than a roleplaying one. The rules are more important, and harder to change.

See how even when they created Tritons for Theros, they still subtitled the cards as Merfolk because Merfolk is a key word with game mechanics. I don't play M:tG, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a game mechanic related to the keyword Shaman.

Oh for sure. Not so say that M:tG has not, on several occasions, dropped, changed, or revised card types. Saying "From this point onward, all cards that read 'Shaman' actually mean 'Sorcerer', so when you see 'Shaman' read it as 'Sorcerer,'" is completely possible, even probable. And any reprints going forward would have the same revisions. (And please, apologies for nerd'splaining if you already knew that.)

And while I'm assuming some sort of "Shaman-as-a-name-for-a-class," to be published in the book, given how "Shaman-as-a-card-type" are grouped in the Strixhaven card set, some sort of sorcerer with scroll-as-implement would probably be a better match, given they fall into the history nerd college and the theatre kids college. (ETA: For the non-M:tG folk, Strixhaven University is divided into five colleges based on opposing colors of magic. Shaman are the iconic "Red" class. Red is shared by Lorehold College--the history nerds--and Prismari College--the theatre kids/"Art School").

Actually, now that I type that out, just changing/errata'ing/updating Shaman TO Sorcerer in M:tG would solve the "cultural appropriation" concerns, provide that assumed brand synergy between D&D and M:tG, and make more sense to the card type flavor. Also, I'm a fan of D&D sorcerers, so pending what this book looks like, that may be what I do anyway for those two colleges in my setting! Thanks for the idea!

 

[Marandahir]

Oh for sure. Not so say that M:tG has not, on several occasions, dropped, changed, or revised card types. Saying "From this point onward, all cards that read 'Shaman' actually mean 'Sorcerer', so when you see 'Shaman' read it as 'Sorcerer,'" is completely possible, even probable. And any reprints going forward would have the same revisions. (And please, apologies for nerd'splaining if you already knew that.)

And while I'm assuming some sort of "Shaman-as-a-name-for-a-class," to be published in the book, given how "Shaman-as-a-card-type" are grouped in the Strixhaven card set, some sort of sorcerer with scroll-as-implement would probably be a better match, given they fall into the history nerd college and the theatre kids college.

Actually, now that I type that out, just changing/errata'ing/updating Shaman TO Sorcerer in M:tG would solve the "cultural appropriation" concerns, provide that assumed brand synergy between D&D and M:tG, and make more sense to the card type flavor. Also, I'm a fan of D&D sorcerers, so pending what this book looks like, that may be what I do anyway for those two colleges in my setting! Thanks for the idea!

Oh definitely, I've seen M:tG do that too. But they want to tread lightly and not do that very often at all, because errata is very much not preferred as it creates jargon and rules that are not clearly defined on the cards themselves. While the old Shaman cards are in circulation at tables, new cards that refer to affecting all Sorcerer cards would not be easily interpreted as inclusive of Shaman cards without someone knowing to pull up their Errata file and cross reference it. This is SLIGHTLY easier at a D&D table where you can sticky note your books or make markups or comment tags in a digital book you're referencing, but even then was a bogging down and problematic feature of 4e (where they published hard and fast and errata'd their books almost as soon as they were released to fix key word errors etc that fundamentally changed mechanics). M:tG has even less time to afford errata because you're playing a card game and sitting on your turn not acting because you're cross referencing rules documents is not anyone I know's idea of fun.