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

 

[Parmandur]

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.


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

Yeah, standardized Subclass progression might be OK...but power sources and such tighten where it ought to be loose.

 

[Yaarel]

I am

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

I am torn.

If the Defiler and Preserver are separate archetypes, then the Preserver wont (mechanically) feel the temptation to defile.

On the other hand, if they are the same archetype that can at any time do either defiling or preserving, then perhaps the concepts wont develop.



Narratively, it does make sense for Preservers to be a separate archetype, because they were taught how to defile in secret. In other words, arcane magic generally defiles, but only Preservers know the technique to exploit this destruction in order to fuel a spell.

 

[Parmandur]

I am

I am torn.

If the Defiler and Preserver are separate archetypes, then the Preserver wont (mechanically) feel the temptation to defile.

On the other hand, if they are the same archetype that can at any time do either defiling or preserving, then perhaps the concepts wont develop.



Narratively, it does make sense for Preservers to be a separate archetype, because they were taught how to defile in secret. In other words, arcane magic generally defiles, but only Preservers know the technique to exploit this destruction in order to fuel a spell.

It strikes me that having the two narratives separated makes the most sense, but letting them be Wizards, Sorcerers or Bards or what have you makes it more sensible.

 

[ph0rk]

No, I think Crawford is right. There is a class for a person who is channelling power from a powerful being, and that class is the cleric, not warlock.

Agreed. Classes that can have powers removed at the whim of a DM were always bad and the fewer of those there are, the better.

Paladins were insufferable in previous editions precisely because of this issue.

 

[RealAlHazred]

I have to admit, while I love the flavor of Strixhaven, I'm having a hard time coming up with campaign ideas that interest me to run them. Anybody got anything compelling that they feel fits the setting?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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."

I've seen that quote before. It's still almost meaningless in the game world.

Are people going to temples to worship the abstract principle of Compound Interest on Ravnica? Are their pseudo-clerics casting out demons by saying "the power of the Guild of Accountants compels you?"

What it really says to me is "we want there to be healers, but we don't have any conceptual space for them, so, uh, you're just someone with healing magic."

They didn't take out clerics because there's a need for something like them in D&D, but they don't have any real place in Ravnica, it sounds like.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Agreed. Classes that can have powers removed at the whim of a DM were always bad and the fewer of those there are, the better.

Paladins were insufferable in previous editions precisely because of this issue.

It's definitely a Sage Advice ruling meant to stop bad DMs, which is a good impulse. The problem is that it's taking stuff off the table for all the other DMs.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I have to admit, while I love the flavor of Strixhaven, I'm having a hard time coming up with campaign ideas that interest me to run them. Anybody got anything compelling that they feel fits the setting?

Looking through the wiki yesterday, it's clear that their plane outside of the school has a lot of cool mysteries, with ancient ruins, a precursor race, mysterious structures that float over the world, etc. A scholarly "go investigate this thing and bring back information to the school" play loop seems to be the likely dominant way of doing things. (As opposed to Redhurst's "there's a conspiracy against the school, and lots of shady professors who actually are good guys to confuse things" set up.)

 

[ph0rk]

It's definitely a Sage Advice ruling meant to stop bad DMs, which is a good impluse. The problem is that it's taking stuff off the table for all the other DMs.

It doesn't mean the Patron can't be an NPC, although you don't need a warlock patron to come up with an antagonist.

 

[Parmandur]

I've seen that quote before. It's still almost meaningless in the game world.

Are people going to temples to worship the abstract principle of Compound Interest on Ravnica? Are their pseudo-clerics casting out demons by saying "the power of the Guild of Accountants compels you?"

What it really says to me is "we want there to be healers, but we don't have any conceptual space for them, so, uh, you're just someone with healing magic."

They didn't take out clerics because there's a need for something like them in D&D, but they don't have any real place in Ravnica, it sounds like.

Well, actually, the most religiony of the Guilds, Orzhav, does sort of worship compound interest?

But, yes, Clerics in Ravnica are not really necessarily "religous" at all: they have their Guild Background instead of any PHB one,, and don't need to take Religion as a Skill. They are armored Mages with healing spells, basically, which matches the MtG game fiction. Wizards can easily be Healers in Ravnica, too, depending on their Guild Spells, but without armor or weapons. Guildmasters Guide specifically blurs the spellcaster lines, because they are blurry in MtG as a Setting (primarily about Mana Color, but that can be mixed, and is usually.mixed in Ravnica or Strixhaven).