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]

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

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

When they tested Centaurs and Minotaurs for Ravnica, a decidedly non-Hellenistic Setting, they billed the UA as "Hellenistic Options," which was true from a certain point of view, but also intentionally misleading.

 

[Parmandur]

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?

I thinkbwe won't see any new Subclasses, unless the Dragon Subclasses were for this book. Nothing else has been UA tested, and this is a late juncture for publication. Maybe some reprints from Tasha's, because WotC literally doesn't worry about reprints.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I agree Nenthir Vale should be opened in the DM Guild. What can WotC lose with this?

Strixhaven can be a new transitional setting. This means characters from the rest of the multiverse could appear here. Even we could find a future novel about a female kender who wants to be a spellcaster but she suffers all the predjudices about her race (compulsive collectors, not cleptomaniacs). We can't forget Hasbro's intentions is their new IPs have to be designed as "multimedia franchises", for different types of products. And Strixhaven sounds like enough kid-friendly but without the lose of interest by the teen and young adult audence. In Strixhaven there is enough space for the comedy, the epic and the drama.

Apperetly the module of the Feywild may something like a "pilot episode", something like the first adventure of the Castle Ravenloft. It is a succes, then they could develope more about this plane.

I wonder if the Feywild becomes a setting, at least being linked with Eldraine, how many creators in the DM Guild will "borrow" ideas from the faes by White Wolf/Onyx Path. The Feywild allows peaceful settlements for softer stories, even someones with children as main characters, or full of dangers and menaces likes the folk-horror stories. The lord faes may be interesting antagonists, mercyless but also full of a wicke glamour.

 

[Mercurius]

I have no (or little) doubt that WotC will eventually publish official coverage of the planes, nor do I think it is worthy of "blowback" if a person is upset that, seven years into the edition, there isn't adequate planar rules. Now how they do the planes is anyone's guess, whether it is old school Manual of the Planes or a revival or remaking of Planescape or maybe just a planar adventure with lots of rules (so an adventure/setting/splat hybrid, sort of like Tomb).

I'm not surprised that it isn't one of these two, as I think the planes are slated for 2022. Just a hunch, though.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

All the adventures have different sections. Usually 2-3 chapters, each with a different feel
TOMB OF ANNIHILATION had the Chult exploration, city exploration, then the tomb
DESCENT INTO AVERNUS had the Baldur's Gate section then Elturel then Hell

They're written so you can yank out a chapter and run it separately
This one likely has the circus chapter where you go through levels 1-3/4 so you can survive the Feywild
Then a chapter introducing the fey problem, then a sandbox where you wander about the Feywild visiting places of interest before a final dungeon or two
That way you have a reason to buy the book if you want a carnival OR a sandbox in the Feywild OR a dungeon crawl through the Witchlight Grotto or wherever

 

[Parmandur]

All the adventures have different sections. Usually 2-3 chapters, each with a different feel
TOMB OF ANNIHILATION had the Chult exploration, city exploration, then the tomb
DESCENT INTO AVERNUS had the Baldur's Gate section then Elturel then Hell

They're written so you can yank out a chapter and run it separately
This one likely has the circus chapter where you go through levels 1-3/4 so you can survive the Feywild
Then a chapter introducing the fey problem, then a sandbox where you wander about the Feywild visiting places of interest before a final dungeon or two
That way you have a reason to buy the book if you want a carnival OR a sandbox in the Feywild OR a dungeon crawl through the Witchlight Grotto or wherever

Exactly. Past covers do not tell the whole story of an Adventure book, they are hooks.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

unless the Dragon Subclasses were for this book.

One thing about Stryxhaven is it is a very new setting. That means it's not really pinned down, especially with regards what isn't in it. Not that I think it will be the first MtG world with gem dragons, but it could be.

 

[Kurotowa]

Exactly. Past covers do not tell the whole story of an Adventure book, they are hooks.

Exactly. Most book covers are advertising. Something intended to grab a person browsing a bookstore shelf and get them to open it up and take a closer look. The more artistic book covers are for special editions where you're not trying to grab the attention of a casual buyer, but get someone who's already aware of the book to pay a premium. See: the limited edition FLGS D&D covers.

The same market pressures are why, when visible shelf space is minimal or absent, the title will balloon into a full description blurb. Examples of that range from the 18th century (The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates.) to the modern day (A Former Child Soldier Who Uses a Magic Sword Wants To Live With an Older Sister Of a Former Enemy Executive.)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

This one likely has the circus chapter where you go through levels 1-3/4 so you can survive the Feywild

Given what it says in VGR the carnival is almost certainly the starting location. That leads to Zibilna's Feywild domain (don't know how, but I suggest you don't check out the Hall of Mirrors if you want to get home before your children are grandparents). Then through the witchlight barrier for a confrontation with the Wild Hunt.

Given that they seem to be going with the idea that the Feywild is Mirror Universe Ravenloft, that would make Wild Beyond the Witchlight Mirror Universe Curse of Strahd.

 

[Blue]

Or it's trying to make it clear that it's a DnD product and not a MtG product

It's published by WizCo. Written by WizCo and someone who helped write DnD 5th Ed
What more does it need to be official?

To actually be official. As already explained. You may not like the answer, but your liking it changes the truth of it not one whit.