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

 

[Charlaquin]

What I hear you saying is "their planet-spanning guild is the replacement for their god." I get that.

Ish. It’s more like the agreement between the 10 guilds, magically reinforced by a planet-wide ritual (you could think of this as a form of prayer rather than a Magic ritual if you prefer) grants powers to the guilds’ members, comparable to those the gods of other D&D worlds grant to their clerics.

I do not understand why a magical mega-corporation should in any way actually replicate what a god can grant a cleric. I felt like I was expressing that with my repeated questions, but maybe not. But what I've gotten back is "because it does."

A magical mega-corporation does not replicate what a god can grant a cleric. A ritual spell that every citizen of a plantet-spanning city is constantly participating in a replicates what a god can grant a cleric. The guild is analogous to the church, not the god.

 

[Yaarel]

The mega-corp is also a religion, so it has that going for it. And here's this quote from the DMG:

In some campaigns, believers hold enough conviction in their ideas about the universe that they gain magical power from that conviction. In other campaigns, impersonal forces of nature or magic replace the gods by granting power to mortals attuned to them.



Heroes of the Feywild. November of 2011. I wasn't exaggerating with "tail-end", it was one of the last releases for edition, and maybe the last before the announced Next.

I think Xanathars gets it right, that a nontheistic Cleric requires a "cosmic force". It has to be some kind of value or principle that can plausibly feel like the essence of reality.

That could be anything from love to energy to money, but it needs be a "cosmic force" somehow.

In a magical setting, magic itself can easily be a "cosmic force".

 

[Charlaquin]

So how are people feeling about these subclasses just giving you the subclass spells and not counting against your spells know as a warlock? Isn't it rather unfair compared to all other warlock subclasses who don't get that?

Yes, but other warlock subclasses really should do that with their expanded spell lists. More reason for a 5.5e update. Or mass errata.

 

[Weiley31]

So how are people feeling about these subclasses just giving you the subclass spells and not counting against your spells know as a warlock? Isn't it rather unfair compared to all other warlock subclasses who don't get that?

I LEGIT House Rule and argue that ALL Patron Spells are given to their respective Warlock subclass once they reach the unlock levels AND don't count towards their Spell List limits.

Because it's legit stupid that your Patron is hooking ya up and your Warlock goes "gosh gee golly, why would I want a free granting of Blur when I can choose Legend Lore like a big kid!!!

 

[Cadence]

Ish. It’s more like the agreement between the 10 guilds, magically reinforced by a planet-wide ritual (you could think of this as a form of prayer rather than a Magic ritual if you prefer) grants powers to the guilds’ members, comparable to those the gods of other D&D worlds grant to their clerics.

A magical mega-corporation does not replicate what a god can grant a cleric. A ritual spell that every citizen of a plantet-spanning city is constantly participating in a replicates what a god can grant a cleric. The guild is analogous to the church, not the god.

I'm torn between thinking they should get something for having to put up with Jace, and torn for thinking they don't deserve anything for living on a world that would have Jace as the living guildpact...

 

[Micah Sweet]

To continue with my art analogy, I'm naturally pretty decent with pen and pencil. If I take a class on figure drawing or landscape art to hone my skills, I learn to improve the way I draw people or landscapes when I use a pen, but I don't suddenly become good with watercolor or clay sculptures or digital art.

Sorcerers and warlocks are taking classes that improve their innate (or granted) magic, but they aren't learning wizard magic, which is a different type. A sorcerer, a warlock, and a wizard may take the same class, but they aren't using the same form of magic, even if their spells produce the same result.

How are they taking the same class if they're learning different things? As cool as a magic school as a setting is, it only really works if you either have just for one kind of spellcaster (the one that, you know, actually learns magic), or you explicitly teach different things to different kinds of spellcasters. Otherwise, it's just lazy storytelling.

Oh, and if they are changing the lore on what classes mean, as had been suggested upthread, then they need to make that retroactive and explicit in the PH classes as well.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

If I recall correctly, didn't DND, in like the really early editions, have basically the Wiccan as a class or something? I recall one of the reasonings why that still isn't around is cuz actual Wiccans weren't too thrilled about it, especially during the time of the whole Satan Pact saga of DND's history.

In BECMI D&D the Wicca was an arcane counterpart to the Shaman, which was a overlay that could be applied to certain nonhuman classes. There was some type of complaint, and it was changed to Wokan.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Class flavor depends 100% on the setting.

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

That is wishful thinking. As of 2021, we still have a default in the core books. Looking forward, who knows?

 

[Charlaquin]

I'm torn between thinking they should get something for having to put up with Jace, and torn for thinking they don't deserve anything for living on a world that would have Jace as the living guildpact...

Yeah… I’m compartmentalizing so I don’t have to think about the fact that I’m technically arguing that Jace is God of Ravnica right now. Honestly the whole “living Guildpact” idea was stupid to begin with.

 

[Micah Sweet]

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.

I don't know. Essentials rewrote the core options of 4e in a compatible, but quite different design. Thematically, they were replacements. That's at least a half edition shift to me.