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

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don't know about you, but I don't know how to put into words why I like class based progression like we have in D&D... It's just... it's just neat I guess? I like it better than free form characters... Maybe it's the structure that helps you figure out what is strong or not? I dunno...

It's like Lego vs. clay. Both are great to play with, but one is more structured than the other. It's not wrong to prefer one over the other.

 

[Undrave]

I think the best hope for martials is probably a Nentir Vale setting book, which could bring in a lot of orphaned 4E concepts under the umbrella of "oh, it's only for this setting (unless it's a big hit with fans)."

That would be neat, but sadly unlikely...

It's not purely 'Martial' but I would love to see the Avenger and the Warden back...

It's like Lego vs. clay. Both are great to play with, but one is more structured than the other. It's not wrong to prefer one over the other.

I also like LEGO! And card games with an element of deck building (either an actual deck builder, a TCG, or even something as simple as Smash Up!) even if I'm not big into the monetization of same...

 

[Parmandur]

Clerics tend to bring a lot of additional baggage to the table, like organized religion. Even Brutha in Pratchett's Small Gods deals with organized religion as he ponders rejecting it.

Since most of the terms of a warlock's deal with a patron are meaningless (what does it mean, for instance, if a warlock gave up their soul for their class abilities if they can still be resurrected like normal?), the actual patrons are meaningless unless there's a faucet they can turn on and off.

One of my favorite characters to DM in my long-running campaign is the party paladin, who was a paladin/cleric under 3E. But his relationship with his god and church is a very different from what the warlock is going through.

Ravnica had Clerics with no gods or religion (for most Guilds).

 

[Parmandur]

I mean, if you want your subclasses to be able to straddle two different classes (or more), you're gonna need a common structure, and you're gonna need similar enough features that they can interact with the subclasses properly and if you have classes with commonality you're gonna want some kind of label to point out they can have straddling subclasses. I guess 'play style' was the wrong word, it isn't so much 'combat role' as it is a mechanical style of class building, regardless of what the actual features DO. Do you have full caster progression, half or none at all? Do you have lots of bonus to skills in your progression or not?

A Cleric and a Wizard would both be in the 'full caster' mold but I don't think they have the same 'combat roles'. A Paladin and Ranger are both Half-Caster but they wouldn't have the same role in 4e either, for exemple. The way the individual classes interact with the straddling subclass features is where the interesting bit would be.

Heck, despite being full casters, I wouldn't group Bards with the other and instead group it with Rogues! Then you could have a subclass that straddle both that either gives more magical stuff or more mundane stuff so your Bards and Rogues could either specialize or expand their repertoire.



They barely had enough idea for a handful of maneuvers for Tasha's. I don't think they the D&D designers could come up with a whole book without spells, even if you allowed them to include alchemical products.

Sure, but this UA shows a path where they can maintain distinctions between the Classes while bringing bringing gaps.

 

[Bitbrain]

Reply to OP.

Boy, that was a slog for me to read through, so much so I’m not even going to give my opinion on the mechanical side of things. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many uses of the words “class” and “sub-class” in an unearthed arcana pdf before.

Not that such a complaint really matters of course, because quite a bit of this UA looks really cool to me.

Mage of Lorehold. This would be PERFECT in my dad’s Forgotten Realms Sword Coast-in-Fantasy China home setting. His version of the Order of the Gauntlet already practices ancestor worship and uses terracotta golems as shock troops.

Mage of Prismari. My version of the shardminds are already big into using rainbows as part of their cultural style of magic. Make it more than just cold, fire, and lightning damage and this would fit right in with them.

Mage of Quandrix. What happens when your Divination Wizard multiclasses into Sorcerer and learns his grandpa was a calculus professor.

Mage of Silverquill. Reminds me of when I used to sass Darth Baras in the Star Wars: the Old Republic MMO.

Mage of Witherbloom. Essence Tap. Overgrowth. IT’S BASICALLY ARCANE DEFILING FOR DARK SUN!!!

 

[Minigiant]

Casters are all that matters anyway, right?

Becoming that way.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Ravnica had Clerics with no gods or religion (for most Guilds).

I don't own Ravnica or play MTG, but I have a hard time seeing how clerics are anything other than game logic at that point. If they have some other compelling flavor in Ravnica, I'd love to hear it. But it puts me in mind of the many terrible D&D novels where "oh, and here's a person playing class X" shows up, without them having any connection to the world.

 

[Parmandur]

Mage of Witherbloom. Essence Tap. Overgrowth. IT’S BASICALLY ARCANE DEFILING FOR DARK SUN!!!

You know, it does strike me that Defiler and Preserver as Subclasses that cover a range of Classes would make a lot of sense.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't own Ravnica or play MTG, but I have a hard time seeing how clerics are anything other than game logic at that point. If they have some other compelling flavor in Ravnica, I'd love to hear it. But it puts me in mind of the many terrible D&D novels where "oh, and here's a person playing class X" shows up, without them having any connection to the world.

Well, for the Mafic Settings, the volded part of your post is sort of the deal: Clerics in MtG don't receive power from divine beings, they channel Mana themselves using proscribed rituals (sometimes taught by divine beings, sometimes not: Ravnica has zero living and worshipped gods). The exact quote us "Though the worship of gods isn't widespread in Ravnica, Clerics dedicated to more abstract principles do exist...They most often use their guild insignia as holy symbols." For Warlocks, it says simply that "In a handful of Guilds, service to a powerful individual common among Warlocks." The book does suggest that the extinct gods of Ravnica can be discovered by those who delve too deeply into forbidden knowledge.

Point is, Strixhaven looks to be following Ravnica's lead, and rheblead of advice in the DMG for that matter, in regards to Clerics and Warlocks.

 

[Undrave]

Sure, but this UA shows a path where they can maintain distinctions between the Classes while bringing bringing gaps.

If we can have Ability Score Improvement at level 4 for everybody and Extra Attack at level 5 for everybody who swings a weapon, I really don't feel like "the Level sub-class features come online" is THAT important a distinction between classes.

One thing for sure, I think if 6e happen, subclass will probably all come online at level 1 like the Cleric, Sorcerer and Warlock, if nothing else for the sake of consistency in your character's path.

Becoming that way.

Maybe it always was... considering the number of Subclass the Wizard got in the PHB compared to say the Barbarian...