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]

This simply is a matter of specific setting's metaphysics. In many settings paladins are also part of certain sects and their power comes from a deity. You can have things to work in any way you want in your setting. Personally I want divine magic to be characterised by the caster being an intermediary; it's not their power, they're channelling power of deity/spirit. That in my mind it sets it apart from the arcane.

For me, arcane is more like the power of chemicals and physical sciences.

The divine is more like the power of symbols, archetypes, language, culture, oaths, whence a sense of the sacred of what is ultimately "meaningful". The astral realms are mindstuff, made out of words and symbols, including the ethics of the Wheel.

Primal is more about participating in a community that includes humans and nonhumans, including stones and trees. The primal magic often can take on a nonhuman identity. Primal is natural, but that includes humans as beings of nature.

But being temporarily limited is perfectly fine. This is a super common narrative trope and it can be explored in games just fine.

Being stripped of items, and even bound or imprisoned, happens. Sometimes the players push a narrative where the DM has no other option except to do it as a narrative consequence. I cannot remember a single time where I as a player thought it was fun or interesting.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Being stripped of items, and even bound or imprisoned, happens. Sometimes the players push a narrative where the DM has no other option except to do it as a narrative consequence. I cannot remember a single time where I as a player thought it was fun or interesting.

Can you explain why? I would be like "cool we get to be creative and try to come up with a way to escape." Frankly, I get from a lot of your posts that you don't trust the GMs to have the fun of the players in mind. The characters being put in a tight spot is not the GM screwing over the players, it is just a necessary part of having an interesting adventure.

 

[Yaarel]

I would love it if arcane stopped being the omni-caster.

• arcane = elemental
• psionic = enchantment and phantasm
• divine = divination and teleportation
• primal = shapeshift and healing
• necromantic =undead and darkside

A character might typically have two sources.

Heh, I just realized I employed the Magic The Gather colors: red, blue, white, green, and black, respectively.

 

[Yaarel]

Can you explain why? I would be like "cool we get to be creative and try to come up with a way to escape." Frankly, I get from a lot of your posts that you don't trust the GMs to have the fun of the players in mind. The characters being put in a tight spot is not the GM screwing over the players, it is just a necessary part of having an interesting adventure.

If that kind of challenge is fun for you, that is ok. If I was DMing for you, I would keep that in mind. In any case, players are perfectly capable of getting themselves into predicaments that they cannot blame the DM for.

 

[Yaarel]

I would love it if arcane stopped being the omni-caster.

• arcane = elemental
• psionic = enchantment and phantasm
• divine = divination and teleportation
• primal = shapeshift and healing
• necromantic =undead and darkside

A character might typically have two sources.

Heh, I just realized I employed the Magic The Gather colors: red, blue, white, green, and black, respectively.

This is a salient organization of all of the D&D tropes for spells and features. (Notice it implies the elemental Wizard is "Red", while the psionic Telepath is "Blue". So it needs some thought if to tweak it to cohere with MTG.)

• arcane = elemental
• psionic = enchantment and phantasm
• divine = divination and teleportation
• primal = shapeshift and healing
• necromantic =undead and darkside

Meanwhile there is a sixth power source:

• ethereal = ether, force, telekinesis, fly, force construct, magical energy, spirit.

But probably every power source is inherently employing the ether, especially in the sense of "magical energy". There is also a sense of a Fey phantasm becoming a semi-real illusion, or a Psion wielding telekinesis, or a Wizard treating the ether as a fifth element to construct Mage Armor, or divine physicalizing a spiritual symbol, or primal projecting a mind outofbody then manifesting ghostlike, and so on. All magic can be understood as inherently involving the ether.

 

[Micah Sweet]

For me, arcane is more like the power of chemicals and physical sciences.

The divine is more like the power of symbols, archetypes, language, culture, oaths, whence a sense of the sacred of what is ultimately "meaningful". The astral realms are mindstuff, made out of words and symbols, including the ethics of the Wheel.

Primal is more about participating in a community that includes humans and nonhumans, including stones and trees. The primal magic often can take on a nonhuman identity. Primal is natural, but that includes humans as beings of nature.


Being stripped of items, and even bound or imprisoned, happens. Sometimes the players push a narrative where the DM has no other option except to do it as a narrative consequence. I cannot remember a single time where I as a player thought it was fun or interesting.

Do PCs in your games spend all their time being big damn heroes in between bouts of narrative angst? I just dont see how you can have a fun campaign while taking all possibility of mechanical change outside player control off the table.

 

[Yaarel]

Do PCs in your games spend all their time being big damn heroes in between bouts of narrative angst? I just dont see how you can have a fun campaign while taking all possibility of mechanical change outside player control off the table.

This is the rules as written. Alignment doesnt have mechanics. Clerics can disagree with a patron immortal. Members of a religion do disagree with each other. Paladins can break their oath and remain powerful. Etcetera.

Rules as written. And the game is popular.

At the same time, if a player wants a specific concept, the player and the DM can figure out how to implement it mechanically.

 

[Weiley31]

Do PCs in your games spend all their time being big damn heroes in between bouts of narrative angst?

These Realms ain't gonna save themselves at this rate.

 

[Greg K]

I feel strongly that all resurrection magic, (except Revivify which is basically just intensive CPR) should be removed from the game. I don't like character death being common in games, but death should absolutely matter. Removing death is massive drama and tension killer.

I don't go that far, but I do limit resurrection magic. Resurrection magic, in my campaign can only be perfored twice a year and only the clerics of two deities can perform the magic- clerics of the deity of life/creation and cleric's of the deity that is guardian of the dead. The former's clerics can only perform it on the Spring Equinox. The latter's clerics can only perform it at the midpoint between the fall equinox and the winter solstice. The spell succeeding is not guaranteed.
My campaign also has a goddess of healing, but her clerics cannot bring back the dead.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

My campaign also has a goddess of healing, but her clerics cannot bring back the dead.

Makes sense. If someone is dead it means that they already failed at their job!