Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Mages of Strixhaven

An Unearthed Arcana playtest document for the upcoming Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos hardcover has been released by WotC!

"Become a student of magic in this installment of Unearthed Arcana! This playtest document presents five subclasses for Dungeons & Dragons. Each of these subclasses allows you to play a mage associated with one of the five colleges of Strixhaven, a university of magic. These subclasses are special, with each one being available to more than one class."

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It's 9 pages, and contains five subclasses, one for each the Strixhaven colleges:

• Lorehold College, dedicated to the pursuit of history by conversing with ancient spirits and understanding the whims of time itself
• Prismari College, dedicated to the visual and performing arts and bolstered with the power of the elements
• Quandrix College, dedicated to the study and manipulation of nature’s core mathematic principles
• Silverquill College, dedicated to the magic of words, whether encouraging speeches that uplift allies or piercing wit that derides foes
• Witherbloom College, dedicated to the alchemy of life and death and harnessing the devastating energies of both

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I think the Idea is intriguing, but the subclass structure of some classes are very different.
Bards usually get 2 features at level 3 and none at level 10.
Sorcerers usually get 2 features at level 1.
So it is possible that you have less features than you had in a regular class.

I think the solution for the bard could be gainig 2 features at level 3. And they might get the option to forefeit magical secrets at level 10 to gain the level 10 feature. I have always seen magical secrets at level 10 to be the replacement for no subclass feature (because it can always help your subclass because the options are so good).

I also see this as a playtest for the next edition as well as this book.
Sand we see, the general structure will remain, and it will stay comparable, but some features will be simplified/unified/improved to make the system a little bit more adaptable.

 

[the Jester]

Usually in 5E, they have had a number of things that when it treated a Damage Resistance was downgraded to Regular damage, Immune Damage was downgraded to Resistant.

Oh, I don't recall seeing those. Can you specify where one or two of them are? I'm intrigued to see how they word those.

 

[Weiley31]

See, people complain about getting another MtG Crossover book, but every time we get one, it's updating an aspect of 5E in someway from subsystems to even the entire Edition system now!

 

[TwoSix]

As a 4e fan, I do feel a little bit of schadenfreude at noticing how much easier these concepts would be to implement if they had just homogenized subclass progression.

 

[Parmandur]

As a 4e fan, I do feel a little bit of schadenfreude at noticing how much easier these concepts would be to implement if they had just homogenized subclass progression.

Just because something is harder, doesn't mean it isn't worth doing.

 

[Rikka66]

See, people complain about getting another MtG Crossover book, but every time we get one, it's updating an aspect of 5E in someway from subsystems to even the entire Edition system now!

I have no problem with this book, but let's not act like those are things that only could been done with MtG setttings. People complaining about crossovers have other reasons.

 

[TwoSix]

Just because something is harder, doesn't mean it isn't worth doing.

If you're arguing that the heterogeneity of 5e class design is better, we'll have to agree to disagree. Necessary for the needs of the 2014 playtest audience, sure, but I don't think it's better.

Water under the bridge now, unless it affects the development of a hypothetical 6e. More importantly, it's nice to see the current designers are willing to get a little more radical. Should be a lot of interesting homebrew with the concepts this UA opens up if it makes it to press.

 

[Kurotowa]

Cleric might not have been as cross-compatible with this scheme.

Clerics are both off-theme and difficult to fit because of Channel Divinity. Every Cleric subclass offers a use for CD, and how do you square that with a subclass that isn't class specific? Also the level ranks that Clerics get subclass features are a bit different, and would be harder to align with these subclasses.

 

[Aldarc]

As a 4e fan, I do feel a little bit of schadenfreude at noticing how much easier these concepts would be to implement if they had just homogenized subclass progression.

SotDL, which is arguably 5e-adjacent, shows that it could have been done albeit across 20 levels instead of 10.

 

[Weiley31]

Oh, I don't recall seeing those. Can you specify where one or two of them are? I'm intrigued to see how they word those.

Hold on let me see: Well there is

Pyromancy - DND 5th Edition

dnd5e.wikidot.com

(Kaladelsh Plane Shift PDF is the origin source)

I would've put Poisoner down, but it seems like it is ignoring resistance to Poison.

Poisoner - DND 5th Edition

dnd5e.wikidot.com

(oh what the sam goody.)