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've had a couple convention dms get annoyed when a warlock used a cantrip (guidance) or at-will spell (false life) a lot, saying that the patron would get annoyed at the constant requests for power, and thus denying the use of the cantrip or at-will ability.

Garbage DM + convention that you pay to attend = nightmare scenario

 

[Micah Sweet]

I am one of those who feel warlock feels far short of what I want the witch class to be. If a farmer knocks a witch down in a market, he should go home and find his cows not giving milk, maybe. Or his hair falls out. Or all of his business dealings start losing money. Or something along those lines.

If a farmer knocks a warlock down in the market, the warlock fires two or three beams of eldritch energy directly at him, vaporizing him. That doesn't feel witchy to me.

Mage Hand Press has a good witch class, with subclasses and everything. Has a strong de-buff theme.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Absolutely!

It does not require loyalty to the patron… Why do I feel like people are just entirely skipping over the “a patron grants its boons to a warlock to see what they’ll do with them” part?

That’s generally what I would expect, yeah.

But how is what I described remotely compatible with the Patron being able to take away their power?

I'm not skipping over that part, I just have no issue with it. The part I don't understand is why "can take away power" is seen as a necessary part of the concept.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Mage Hand Press has a good witch class, with subclasses and everything. Has a strong de-buff theme.

There's also a promising looking book on Kickstarter a few months back that's coming out at the end of 2022 (!) that has witch subclasses for multiple classes. The warlock one in particular has a strong master/apprentice theme substituting for the warlock/patron relationship.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I am one of those who feel warlock feels far short of what I want the witch class to be. If a farmer knocks a witch down in a market, he should go home and find his cows not giving milk, maybe. Or his hair falls out. Or all of his business dealings start losing money. Or something along those lines.

If a farmer knocks a warlock down in the market, the warlock fires two or three beams of eldritch energy directly at him, vaporizing him. That doesn't feel witchy to me.

How do you make a class for dnd based on that, though, and how is it not just...add more debuff spells and some other cantrip boosting invocations to the warlock, and put in a patron and/or pact boon that doubles down on the more subtle nature of the concept?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm not skipping over that part, I just have no issue with it. The part I don't understand is why "can take away power" is seen as a necessary part of the concept.

Come at it from the other direction: What does the patron get out of the bargain? It's not the warlock's soul, because warlocks can be resurrected like any other character. Is the bargain for a one-time boon? If so, what is it? If it's not a one-time boon, but an ongoing benefit to the patron, in what way does the patron enforce the terms of the deal? Messing with the warlock's power is the obvious one to me, but maybe there are other routes other DMs prefer. How do patrons in your campaign crack the whip, when needed?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

How do you make a class for dnd based on that, though, and how is it not just...add more debuff spells and some other cantrip boosting invocations to the warlock, and put in a patron and/or pact boon that doubles down on the more subtle nature of the concept?

I think he was speaking about one approach to a problem, not the totality of a class. Warlocks are a very blunt tool, generally speaking. Witches in fiction are usually the opposite.

 

[Yaarel]

How do patrons in your campaign crack the whip, when needed?

Patrons cant crack a whip. The player is free to control the character concept.

That said, if something truly egregious happens duing the story, the DM can use the story to resolve it. For example, a Patron can send other Warlocks or Clerics who are loyal to try get the player back in line. The player still doesnt have too. The tension can be a fun dynamic.

 

[Charlaquin]

But how is what I described remotely compatible with the Patron being able to take away their power?

Because generally your patron won’t take away your power. Like I said, I’ve never had it happen in an actual game, and if it were to happen I can only imagine it would be something that had player buy-in, and unfolded over the course of a campaign.

I'm not skipping over that part, I just have no issue with it. The part I don't understand is why "can take away power" is seen as a necessary part of the concept.

So the patron has some kind of leverage to try and get the warlock to do what it wants. Part of the appeal of characters like Spawn and Ghost Rider is the tension created by the fact that their powers come directly from the devil. They may try to use it for good, but there’s always the fear that by using it at all you’re playing into his hand. The fun of warlocks is the unbalanced power dynamic, which doesn’t work if the patron can’t at least theoretically take the power away. Obviously this is subject to the “don’t be a jerk, and don’t play with jerks” rule.

It’s also… just how patronage works. You get the luxury of the patron’s resources, at the cost of having to keep your patron (or patrons) appeased. Most of the time, that means doing whatever you were going to do anyway - the patron wouldn’t have chosen to support you in the first place if they didn’t already enjoy your work. But, sometimes they want something specific, and while you don’t have to do it, are you really going to say no to the person enabling you to make a livelihood off your art? Sometimes you have to take some requests, or offer some reward tiers, to keep your patron(s) happy.

 

[Cadence]

It was interesting to reread the PhB on Warlocks... and it feels like a lot of folks posting in this thread haven't in a while.

lt seemed pretty clear that how much control the patron has over the PC's life is something worked out between the DM and player (page 106).

It feels odd to me that the Warlock would keep getting the new Pact Boons on advancement if they didn't keep the patron happy. Each one is "for your loyal service" and is bestowed at the level in question (pages 107-108).

And Warlocks do seem to study. "In your study of occult lore, you have unearthed Eldritch invocations, fragments of forbidden knowledge that imbue you with an abiding magical ability." (page 107). That reads to me like the invocations don't depend on the patron being happy. The Pact Magic is also due in part to "[y]our arcane research" and also "the magic bestowed on you by your patron" (also 107).