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

 

[cbwjm]

Rereading the classes and I feel the Prismari's Creative Skills ability should also come with a cantrip, one which deals cold, fire, or lightning to tie into the theme of the order.

 

[Marandahir]

That's not necessarily how Warlocks work in MtG, though. Warlocks don't have specific Patrons, they just use Black Mana. It seems that these options eschew the flavor of a patron entirely, while keeping the overall structure.

Which is the issue with using D&D Warlock to emulate MtG Warlock. You might as well throw in a Necromancy Wizard or Shadow Sorcerer and call it a MtG Warlock, it’s not too different.

Above, someone mentioned that MtG Warlocks make pacts with Fiends to access Black Mana. That DOES sound like a D&D Warlock - albeit a very specific form of one, one who made a pact with The Fiend. My problem with this is that it assumes a single, spooky flavour for the D&D Warlock, while ignoring the very White Mana Celestial Patron, Green Mana Archfey Patron, Blue Mana Fathomless Patron, etc. D&D classes are big hat and should be. Limiting them because setting B used the same term is a problem.

 

[Marandahir]

I always assumed warlocks are a channel through which the patron's power flows. There could be value in studying how to manipulate and direct that power, but they are ultimately a conduit, rather than the source of it (like a sorcerer) or manipulating forces outside themselves (wizard).

Crawford has said that once a Warlock’s pact is signed they have the power and the Patron can’t take it away from them. It’s like the Patron is giving away a spark of their essence to the Warlock in exchange for future favours. Alternatively, the Patrons have access to the Weave/Mana Stream/Ether/etc and teach the Warlock how to hack into it via back channels in exchange for future requests. The penalties for breaking promises to the Patron are roleplaying ones, not mechanical one.

 

[Minigiant]

That's not what it says though. There's nothing that says that the warlock's patron is the school or anything within the school.

IOW, you're a warlock BEFORE you enroll in the school. You made your patron beforehand and then went to the school to unlock the secrets of your power.



At no point does it say that your patron changes or is not a standard D&D patron.

In the description of each school that warlocks qualify, it says your school is your patron.

if you are a warlock, the college counts as your patron

They have to clear up the language and say you must make a pact with some other being first. Then the college manipulates that pact.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

found an interesting comment by Crawford on Twitter after this released. When he retweeted the announcement, he did not just plug it as a preview of Strixhaven, He also said this:

"Today Unearthed Arcana presents a brand new playtest option for D&D: subclasses available to more than one class."

So they know what they are doing and looking into expanding for the character classes in general.

 

[Minigiant]

Storywise,

I view the Wizard as directing the magical properties inherent in spell components. (They are sorta the chemists of the Wizard World.)

I view the Sorcerer as directing the magic infused within ones own body. (They are sorta the athletes of the Wizard World.)

I am less sure about what a Warlock is. I am unconvinced that the Patron concept even makes sense in the first place. Ok, the pact initiates some kind of transformation, but what is being transformed exactly? Is the Warlock now able to learn from a book and study? Is the sword an Elric-style demon that is doing all the magic? Does the Patron follow the Warlock around doing all the work? Is the body of the Warlock transformed to now do magic, like the Sorcerer? What exactly changed?

Now, if the Warlock can benefit from all of the ambient magic from students studying magic at a university, that actually makes sense to me.

A patron transforms you and makes you a semi-magical. They alter you a bit and give you access to a new pathway to magic.

It's sorta like basic superhero talk. Yesterday no powers. Today powers. A major devil jams hellfire into your soul and you can now shoot eldritch blasts and turn your eyes glowy. Pew Pew Pew.

 

[TerraDave]

I didn't consider it at the time, but my friends said that it was, and now in hindsight I know that it was. ...

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.

...

Essentials was a 4.5, and a desperate attempt to get some sales, while they started on 5e, which they did.

No desperation now, and all these remain optional rules. Probably more like the end of 2e or 3e, where experimental stuff was released that pointed to the next edition (AoO, at will magic, respectively).

The next edition is coming out in 2024. Could have multi-class sub classes.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Does that fit either MtG or D&D lore well, or the line near the beginning of the document that suggests they'd alr day have a patron before enrolling?

I didn't really understand this question, but the Elder Dragons are part of Strixhaven's lore. An elder dragon founded each college. It's not mentioned in the UA, but it's a suitable substitute if you're not a fan of the College itself being a patron.

 

[Iry]

Peace Cleric + Quandrix Sorcerer + Metamagic Adept is looking particularly delicious.
Bond > QBless > SFunction is a whole bucket of support.

 

[Argyle King]

Are these akin to Prestige Classes?

edit: I'm noticing a trend in newer material, which presents abilities to manipulate movement -which your allies can choose to fail saves against- to gain free off-turn movement. As such, it would seem that my views (in a different thread) about adding more off-turn options during combat aren't entirely outside of how the design team is viewing the game. Though, they are approaching it differently than I had considered.