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

 

[Yaarel]

I think we're disagreeing about what makes up the character concept, then.

If so, the core rules need to be clearer. Because obviously this is a big deal in terms of peoples experiences with D&D.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

A pox on tyrannical DMs and their unilateral use of Rule 0. Make the democratization and decentralization of table authority so that all members are not just allowed, but expected to have creative input the new normal.

There are a lot of games that do just that, many of them quite successful.

That said, I think the concept of the DM is one of the last sacred cows that D&D will ever slay.

If it did, I think the resulting game might play a lot like Fellowship, a game that people who want the DM to be less important in D&D should definitely at least read through.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm not gonna lie: I legit liked the old school DND idea that a Druid had to fight another Druid or a Monk had to fight another Monk, of high rank, in order for them to advance to the next level.

I use the same idea, except the whole "fighting to advanced to a higher tier in the Class Ranking" is more of a flavor/rp thing. So even if a Druid did reach level 20, they aren't a Archdruid yet in universe until they fight and beat one. The Levels ups still happen normally.

A much better way to handle it. You get the mechanical benefits, but the social stuff is handled via roleplay (and combat).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If a setting flavor BANS certain lineages or classes, including Cleric or Warlock, that is fine, and self-evident during session zero when players are creating characters and discussing what they want in the setting.

But to violate the personal space of a player, including the character concept that player roleplays and self-identifies with, is something different. The DM and the players are reallife humans, and there are interpersonal boundaries and comfort zones.

I think we all agree that your DM friend was being a jerk, for the record.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There are games where, while the characters can certainly get into life-threatening situations, the decision to actually have them die if they get dropped to 0 is entirely on the player. The player has a limited number of "respawn options" with narrative consequences to choose from (their character takes a permanent injury, their character's personality changes, their character has theirbstats and skills redistributed, player's choice).

Broken Compass apparently has something like this, where "dead" characters aren't truly dead unless their dead body can be seen and recovered. Otherwise, true to the Indiana Jones-style play, they can pop up in a later adventure, having had a daring escape just off screen.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The DM is fine. The Dragonlance rules were violating.

Unless your DM's mouth was broken, he could and should have said something.

For crying out loud, so few people wanted to play clerics back then, you didn't want to traumatize them.

 

[Greg K]

That said, I think the concept of the DM is one of the last sacred cows that D&D will ever slay..

And a game without a DM is not the type of a game that I would to as a player

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I've had DMs force me to change my character class (from thief to fighter) via divine intervention because they didn't feel I was playing a "thief" properly.

Even for the 1E era, that's pretty bizarre.

"Steve, my character is involved in a long con. Back off."

(Your DM was now canonically named Steve.)

 

[Yaarel]

I think we all agree that your DM friend was being a jerk, for the record.

Heh, it seems more like tyrannical DMs playing True Scot.

Oh, but a "REAL DM" would never do that! A "REAL DM" would exercise the ability to violate reallife players with perfect omniscient justice!

It is impossible that bad rules could be bad!

If a DM violates a player, that isnt a "REAL DM". The rules that permit reallife violations, they cannot exist. Because "REAL DMs" are perfect.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The default core rule is, the player has a safespace in the game, whose personal identity the DM cannot violate.

I don't think that's a rule. I think that's an unspoken assumption on your part, which is clearly deeply felt. It's also a pretty modern take on things. Given the number of "jokes" about "bolts from the blue" in the 1E DMG and Dragon magazine, the D&D gaming culture at the time certainly viewed DMs as the ultimate arbiters and anything they didn't like, they could smite.