D&D 5E Strixhaven Pre-Order Details

More details of Strixhaven Curriculum of Chaos have emerged on D&D Beyond. Owlin are in, and there is a built-in 1-10 campaign composed of four separate adventures, each spanning a single school year, and taking the PCs from first-year students through to graduation.

THE SCHOOL OF MAGIC IS IN SESSION

The greatest minds in the multiverse meet at Strixhaven University. Professors convey fantastic secrets to eager students, and life on campus is frenetic. But danger lurks even here. Campus hijinks mix with mishaps and sinister plots, and it’s up to you to save the day.

Strixhaven™: A Curriculum of Chaos introduces the fantastical setting of Strixhaven University, drawn from the multiverse of MAGIC: THE GATHERING, and provides rules for creating characters who are students in one of its five colleges. Characters can explore the setting over the course of four adventures, which can be played together or on their own. Each adventure describes an academic year filled with scholarly pursuits, campus shenanigans, exciting friendships, hidden dangers, and perhaps even romance. This book includes a poster map that shows Strixhaven’s campuses on one side and location maps on the other.

• New player character options including feats and a new background in the Character Builder
• Includes new spells and magical items to use in your campaigns
• Play through the book’s multiyear campaign, beginning as first-year students who study, socialize, and adventure their way to graduation.
• Includes four adventures that can be played as stand-alones or woven together to create one campaign taking players from level 1 to level 10.
• Encounter over forty magical, mysterious creatures and NPCs in the bestiary to battle in the Encounter builder and Combat tracker
• Create new characters with the new player race, the owlin, one of the owlfolk who study at the university in the character builder
• Experience Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering in new ways through the academic challenges, extracurricular activities and jobs, and relationships explored on campus.
• Strixhaven can easily be dropped into any D&D world or campaign with the provided rules for adventuring as a student of magic.

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This purchase unlocks the contents of this adventure for use with D&D Beyond, including the book in digital format in the game compendium and access options from the book in the searchable listings, encounter builder, character builder, and digital character sheet.

Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos

Explore Strixhaven in the latest Magic: The Gathering campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons

www.dndbeyond.com

 

[Parmandur]

I don't really want to get in a big argument about whether Strixhaven is an obvious Harry Potter motif, because I'll admit there are clearly some differences.

All I'll say is that the "magic school" genre really was kicked off by Harry Potter, and it's arguably in the top five fantasy properties of our time. Although Strixhaven does do some things to differentiate it from HP, it also is clearly meant to be an outlet for folks who want to roleplay the Harry Potter experience while sticking within the D&D multiverse and rulesets.

True that (though Harry Potter epitomized the genre, it didn't really kick it off, but that's splitting hairs).

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

If the response to the subclasses wasn't positive and they cut that content, I'd applaud WizCo
Too often it feels like all the options get included because they wrote the minimum number rather than making a few extras and only picking the best

I'd have liked a few more draconic options for them to pick through

 

[Charlaquin]

Not really. Harry potter deals a lot with "real wolrd" and muggles (the people that do not have magic). also it's a secret school and a secret wolrd. Something Stryxhaven also does not have. Almost everything about Harry Potter is about magic being a secret in a normal world. To me this is like comparing MIB and Mass Effect because both have Alien Societies in them.

That said, it is totally fair to compare The Illusive Man from Mass Effect to the Cigarette Smoking Man from X-Files

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Soo, the subcçasses were dropped it seems...

If so this will be a skip for me.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

True that (though Harry Potter epitomized the genre, it didn't really kick it off, but that's splitting hairs).

I meant kicked it off into the broader cultural zeitgeist, there were definitely "fantasy school books" pre-HP.

 

[Bolares]

That said, it is totally fair to compare The Illusive Man from Mass Effect to the Cigarette Smoking Man from X-Files

What, no! That's just a coincidence!

 

[Charlaquin]

I meant kicked it off into the broader cultural zeitgeist, there were definitely "fantasy school books" pre-HP.

X-Men comes to mind.

Yeah, HP is definitely hugely impactful on the genre. I just think, because of that impact, it’s nearly impossible do do a magical school property that doesn’t have a -lot- of clear parallels to HP. A lot of that stuff just comes with the territory. What would raise “trying to imitate Harry Potter” flags for me would be either parallels that aren’t tropes of the genre, or that mirror specific details of Harry Potter’s particular execution of those genre tropes. I don’t really see either of those in Strixhaven personally.

 

[Bolares]

it also is clearly meant to be an outlet for folks who want to roleplay the Harry Potter experience while sticking within the D&D multiverse and rulesets.

oh, on that we can agree. It surelly wanted to profit on the "Magical school" genre. I just stated their differences to make clear that it's not JUST a dumb cash grab.

 

[Weiley31]

Just think: instead of starting the adventure in the Tavern, your students can start off in the dormitory, the lunch room, college grounds or the next most popular college location: the college party in a Strixhaven frat house.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I did not expect a level 1-10 campaign (this will be my first MTG setting book I purchase), and I'm delighted. I can definitely see running a Strixhaven side campaign, especially once the DMs Guild fills up with all sorts of optional add-ons like diplomas, curricula, flyers posted on campus, etc.

I think they might be folding the subclasses into the "player options" but are just giving themselves some wiggle room while they work on them and possibly (but not definitely) drop them.