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

 

[jmartkdr2]

I do not like this subclass approach. While a bard, wizard and sorcerer of the College of Lorehold all may play differently, they have underlying class mechanics that do not fit this 'flexiblity'.

What does it mean for the Warlock to have the "College serve as their Patron"? They've "eschewed their patron’s usual boons for learning these more esoteric manifestations of power." If I am a Warlock and I select this College, with whom did I enter into a pact? What types of pacts would they make with me? Why? Normally, warlock pacts have some obvious paths (although you can certainly subvert expectations).

It's worth noting that in the Strixhaven lore, each college has an ancient dragon as it's head/founder/something. So those would likely be the actual Patron, who happen to grant the same spells they teach everyone else.

But I only know that randomly; it's not even hinted at in the UA.

 

[Yaarel]

No mention of Inklings, Elementals, Fractals or Pests, yes. This makes me think they will be elsewhere in the book, in some capacity. Fractal Spells could be pretty radical, in particular. Been hit pretty hard by those a few times on Arena...

As as part of the Find Familiar spell?

 

[Marandahir]

...you know what this means? It means you can do a Warlock with a hag patron and use the Witherbloom subclass instead of the Archfey one. The Archfey's charm and illusion theme never fit a hag's motif, IMO, and Witherbloom is a much better fit. I love it!

That's a very good point. I want them to explain this explicitly in the text of the book.

"For Warlocks, these are alternate features that replace your Patron. Your Warlock still has a Patron that grants you your Pact Magic, but the precise nature of your magic is tied to the eldritch forces of the college you honed your abilities at afterward."

Just a line or two like this for how these variations on the subclass pillar of character building interacts with the core assumptions of the class would go a long way to reconciling the feeling of the class.

 

[darjr]

Why would they do a 5.5 or 6e when this is working just fine? Try things in books known to be a bit experimental, then adopt the popular stuff in later more core books, and while the PHB is doing just fine, leave the golden goose alone.

I think they are in a good position to leave 5.5 or 6e off to when their good and ready, if ever.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

the warlock has a patron whose boons they can eschew.

I feel like the patron would have opinions about that, which would be a lot of fun to play out in game.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

No game edition

No verb or punctuation.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Why would they do a 5.5 or 6e when this is working just fine? Try things in books known to be a bit experimental, then adopt the popular stuff in later more core books, and while the PHB is doing just fine, leave the golden goose alone.

I think they are in a good position to leave 5.5 or 6e off to when their good and ready, if ever.

One of their stated goals early on was for people not to have to lug 45,000 books to a game. The core three plus two Everything books plus Strixhaven plus the actual adventure you're running is pushing the outer limit of portability.

 

[cbwjm]

Just looking through this now, I like the fact that they are trying to make these subclasses cross the different classes, unfortunately the subclass structure is so different that it's a kludgey way to do it. This is exactly the reason that I wish they'd given each class a similar structure for subclass levels.

 

[DnD Warlord]

No verb or punctuation.

I said no game will last 20 years in response to someone saying it will be 2034 before we see 6e.

 

[darjr]

One of their stated goals early on was for people not to have to lug 45,000 books to a game. The core three plus two Everything books plus Strixhaven plus the actual adventure you're running is pushing the outer limit of portability.

Yea, there is that but last game I was at the DM had many of the books. I had the one that most of my pc options came from and that was mostly it. Though I do use DnDBeyond a lot. And I’m not at the point where I feel like I NEED DnDBeyond. Not yet.

But yea, this maybe the thing that prompts things. But I don’t feel the need to have a ton of books yet.