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

 

[Crimson Longinus]

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.

Yeah. Clerics not having powers at certain periods in Dragonlance is a well known thing. The GM should have said that this is how it is, so that the players could have made informed choices. The issue here is withholding this information and I doubt that the rules instruct the GM to do so.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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

Your insistence that everyone is terrible and just lying to you about it makes me sad.

I'm sorry you had an obviously extremely impactful bad experience.

Short of everyone getting character references, you either need to accept that people are telling the truth or maybe stop accusing them of things they say they're not doing or interested in doing.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It is impossible that bad rules could be bad!

No one said that. I don't think you'll find any post on this site, dating back to 2004, where people said the rules of D&D were perfect. That's a weird, insulting thing to put in other people's mouths.

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.

1) Please stop using "violate a player." You are trivializing real violence with this language.

2) No one said that they're perfect.

Please dial it down a notch.

 

[Greg K]

Your insistence that everyone is terrible and just lying to you about it makes me sad.

I'm sorry you had an obviously extremely impactful bad experience.

Short of everyone getting character references, you either need to accept that people are telling the truth or maybe stop accusing them of things they say they're not doing or interested in doing.

And makes Yaarel sound like an "entitled" player whether or not it is their intention.

 

[Rikka66]

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.

So I haven't read the Dragonlance rules. Does it say "let your player make a cleric and don't tell them they won't get....you said class features, so I guess tell them they don't get a class"?

 

[Yaarel]

And makes Yaarel sound like an "entitled" player whether or not it is their intention.

Yaarel is a HE.

HIS intention is to balance the needs of a player to play a character versus the needs of a DM to play a setting.

 

[Greg K]

Yaarel is a HE.

HIS intention is to balance the needs of a player to play a character versus the needs of a DM to play a setting.

Thanks. I did not want to presume gender

 

[Yaarel]

Thanks. I did not want to presume gender

Actually, it would be cool if Enworld could add the preferred pronoun along with the Forumer Name and Title with the icon.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Yaarel is a HE.

'They' is gender neutral and can be accurately used for everyone. People on forums cannot be expected to know or remember everyone's gender. Greg was being inclusive and did not assume any gender.

HIS intention is to balance the needs of a player to play a character versus the needs of a DM to play a setting.

These things are not in conflict, they contribute to each other. You seem to want to separate the character from the world, and do not want the world to affect the character or the character affect the world. This is detrimental to the player agency.

 

[Yaarel]

You seem to want to separate the character from the world, and do not want the world to affect the character or the character affect the world. This is detrimental to the player agency.

When it comes to character concept, class mechanics, and (legal and setting appropriate) character builds,

yes, DM must respect the safespace of the player − the agency of the player.

The DM has many tools, both carrots and sticks, to narrate an adversarial relation with an NPC. The DM lacks need to violate a players concept of self.

I am a DM, I have never felt the impulse to trespass on the character concept of a player.