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

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I like those.

I think I'd let any class with the spellcasting/pact magic features takes those, in my games.

Sure it removes a lot if the weight behind the classes, but it moves it to the subclasses, making it the important part of the character's theme.

Want to be a Witherbloom paladin? Go ahead, make sense of it in game!

 

[Weiley31]

And as an add on to my Bard as Shaman thing, my refluffage went into another train of thought.

If you have a Warforged Quandrix Subclass character: congrats you have an Inevitable now.

Inevitable

Inevitables were lawful intelligent constructs whose single purpose was to enforce the fundamental laws of nature and morality and punish those who violated them. Inevitables varied in form according to their purpose, yet one feature they had in common was a clockwork nature, with gears and...

forgottenrealms.fandom.com

And if you have a Silverquill subclass, you can refluff it as Onomancy/Lite True Naming.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I'm feeling this is more of a 5.5e continuation of 5e. I'm guessing that there'll be like a 2024 Rules Cyclopedia that remixes the core rules with the various dials added over the past 10 years, but it's not a replacement for the PHB/MM/DMG. Then in 2034 we can get a true 6e.

maybe. I guess if one considers Essentials to be 4.5, then this combined with Tasha's would be 5.5 of sorts. I just don't see either as anything but a new set of options for the same game.

 

[Marandahir]

I like those.

I think I'd let any class with the spellcasting/pact magic features takes those, in my games.

Sure it removes a lot if the weight behind the classes, but it moves it to the subclasses, making it the important part of the character's theme.

Want to be a Witherbloom paladin? Go ahead, make sense of it in game!

I'd be cautious with that just because some subclasses work differently than others. We're already breaking subclass level progression (a problem created by the asymmetry of progression design in 5e), but more than that, some subclasses are built around different max spell levels and other features to make up for them. Witherbloom Paladin would be INCREDIBLY strong due to access to 9th level spells.

 

[Weiley31]

Also: Silverquill is a Psionics character now due to Infusion of Elegance and you just have your spells stick as strictly Psychic damage.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Witherbloom Paladin would be INCREDIBLY strong due to access to 9th level spells.

The levels in the extra spells table are class level, not spell level. So that paladin would not be able to cast 9th level spells.

But yeah, at 9th level he would add 2 5th level spells. Yet, at that level he does not have the spell slots to use them. He'll have access to them later when he gets 5th level spell slots.

 

[Marandahir]

maybe. I guess if one considers Essentials to be 4.5, then this combined with Tasha's would be 5.5 of sorts. I just don't see either as anything but a new set of options for the same game.

I didn't consider it at the time, but my friends said that it was, and now in hindsight I know that it was. It wasn't as BIG a shift as 3.0 -> 3.5e; it didn't invalidate my PHB and require me to buy everything over again (I did need to download errata for 2008-2009 books to bring them into continuity with 2010-2012 books, though). I think this is similar. It may open the floodgates and redo subclass design into D&DNext style thematic design for the rest of 5e. I don't think they will issue errata for past subclasses to make them open to various classes; instead, they'll have soft replacements like The Undead was for The Undying patron. They'll probably create multiclass subclasses that step all over the toes of previous subclasses, to my chagrin, like they're doing with Silverquill stepping all over the Order of Scribes and doing what Scribes should have done in the first place (well, I still think Artificer should have access to it, but Strixhaven subclass design doesn't work with non-full casters).

I DO think this points the way to what the design process is looking like internally for 6e. I'm still dubious that that's going to be 2024, though - I don't think there's enough development time to do a full turn over, and I don't think 5e is unpopular enough to do a hard right turn just because it's the 50th anniversary.

We might get a decade or more of design like this before a refresh of the game in 2034 that FINALLY retires the 2014 books and starts over with something more like this for every class archetype in time for the 60th anniversary. And I wouldn't be surprised if we get a Rules Cyclopedia in 2024 that collates rules like sea battles from Ghosts of Saltmarsh, planar effects from Tasha's, lineage feats from Xanathar's, optional class features from Tasha's, custom lineages and supernatural gifts, patrons, etc.

 

[DnD Warlord]

I'm feeling this is more of a 5.5e continuation of 5e. I'm guessing that there'll be like a 2024 Rules Cyclopedia that remixes the core rules with the various dials added over the past 10 years, but it's not a replacement for the PHB/MM/DMG. Then in 2034 we can get a true 6e.

No game will last twenty years.

 

[Parmandur]

nah. They wouldn't need to rewrite anything, just add more stuff. It's just a continuation of the edition.

This UA us, I was responding to the idea of retinkering the existing Subclasses along these lines: that would be a 6e move (I can see 6E on the horizon now, but what I imagine is modular backwards compatibility: 5E and 6E characters and mobsters playing together nicely, but there's enough of a change to warrant new core book).

 

[Marandahir]

The levels in the extra spells table are class level, not spell level. So that paladin would not be able to cast 9th level spells.

But yeah, at 9th level he would add 2 5th level spells. Yet, at that level he does not have the spell slots to use them. He'll have access to them later when he gets 5th level spell slots.

Whoops, you're right. Problem of spell level vs class level nomenclature, sorry, got turned around. You understood my point though - they're too high a level to use. But if he can't cast them until the end of his career, then the subclass is actually UNDERPOWERED for the Paladin, since its granting features that are supposed to kick in twice as fast as he's actually getting them.