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

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Well, actually, it kind of should be on the players to determine what class best fits what they want to play. (Also, don't forget that this is a playtest, and UAs are always a bit high-powered and then get nerfed a lot.)

But at any rate: if a newbie gets into D&D because of Strixhaven, they'll likely buy the PH and this book, and that's it. That's a very limited number of archetypes to look through and compare.

Also, is it really good to perpetuate the idea that you have to be powerful in order to "win" D&D?

Sorry, these are all just terrible excuses. And this is not only about this UA, it is about a lot of newer stuff. Like sure, it is not really a huge deal, but it's still not ideal. Refusing to update the older stuff but power-creeping the newer stuff just is a bad combo.

 

[Yaarel]

That's the standard D&D flavor...but flavor is fungible, if needed, and they have fudged the core Class flavors for both Ravnica and Theros already.

Class flavor depends 100% on the setting.

Neither every setting is, nor should be, Forgotten Realms.

 

[Faolyn]

Sorry, these are all just terrible excuses. And this is not only about this UA, it is about a lot of newer stuff. Like sure, it is not really a huge deal, but it's still not ideal. Refusing to update the older stuff but power-creeping the newer stuff just is a bad combo.

They did just add a bunch of options in Tasha's. Any more and they might as well just completely redo the PH and call it a 5.5.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

They did just add a bunch of options in Tasha's. Any more and they might as well just completely redo the PH and call it a 5.5.

They totally should redo PH and call it 5.5! That's what I'm asking for!

 

[Yaarel]

They totally should redo PH and call it 5.5! That's what I'm asking for!

For Machiavellian reasons, they must never call it 5.5.

WotC must pretend that no changes whatsoever have happened. Everything is just extra options to use or ignore according to preference.

But then the "Compendium" needs to present the current rules in the most utilitarian, comprehensive, convenient, and straightforward way possible.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For Machiavellian reasons, they must never call it 5.5.

WotC must pretend that no changes whatsoever have happened. Everything is just extra options to use or ignore according to preference.

Technically, that would be Orwellian.

"We have always had these better class abilities for rangers!"

 

[Yaarel]

Technically, that would be Orwellian.

"We have always had these better class abilities for rangers!"

Orwell occurred to me too. But I had more in mind of the politics of amorally sustaining power.

 

[Yaarel]

2024 will be both the 10-year anniversary of D&D 5e, and the 50-year anniversary of D&D as a whole.

There will be a sense of achievement. I suspect most people will be happy to see a product that shows where 5e is at so far.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I’m not saying it didn’t work. On the contrary, I explicitly said it was fully compatible. But having characters whose classes were designed with complete different philosophies in the same party felt awkward. Characters had wildly different gameplay feels that, in my experience, clashed. Obviously your experience was different, and that’s fine and valid as well.

Okay, fair enough. I guess I just don’t see what about having, say, a Thief and a PHB Ranger (assuming no cheesy power gaming) in the same party would feel awkward?

Like is it resting and recharging abilities? The fact some classes rely more on basic attacks than others?

I guess I never saw those as more significant than Wizards creating zones external to themselves that they can then move, or walls, or summoning creatures, and fighters hitting things really hard and making it hard for enemies to move away from them.

Idk I don’t mean to argue about it I just don’t get it.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

For Machiavellian reasons, they must never call it 5.5.

WotC must pretend that no changes whatsoever have happened. Everything is just extra options to use or ignore according to preference.

But then the "Compendium" needs to present the current rules in the most utilitarian, comprehensive, convenient, and straightforward way possible.

That isn’t really accurate. The Tashas options are options, not changes.