Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos - First Party Review

[TwoSix]

The concept of "adult" is a social/legal construct. In Japan, the age of consent, voting, drinking, smoking, driving, etc is 20, not 18. In the US, legally people can't drink until they are 21; yet they can drive at age 16. Point being - the idea of "adult" is squishy, and varies by culture and even within the same culture.

This article is interesting. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0959354319876985. One point I'll highlight is that it wasn't until the 1920s, just a mere 100 years ago, that psychology began to seriously place "categorization" of "correct behaviors" based on age.

All of which to say, in your fantasy games, you can have whatever tropes you are comfortable with for people of whatever age you want them to be - at your table. As long as everyone's on the same page and relatively robust safety tools are being used...

I mean, sure, I could absolutely develop a unique culture of aging, development, and the meaning of adulthood specifically for this school and its undeveloped environment. A culture that would be completely unmentioned in the book, of course, and one that I’m just extrapolating based on assuming the book writers actually thought about this topic and just failed to mention it.

Or, I can just point out the book is widely incoherent in its presentation of student life.

 

[bedir than]

Or, I can just point out the book is widely incoherent in its presentation of student life.

This keeps getting repeated, but when asked for specifics about what does occur in high school age boarding schools versus college age schools with dorms or barracks there's complete , utter silence

A lack of knowledge of dorm/house life doesn't prove incoherence

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Raise your hand if you went to boarding school.

 

[Sparky McDibben]

I think I'm going to use Golden Vault, Radiant Citadel, and Candlekeep. And maybe Yawning Portal and/or Saltmarsh. And that the dean of the Quandrix is also on the "board" of the Golden Vault; that the dean of the Silverquill is an ambassador to Radiant Citadel, and the dean of Lorehold is the sibling of the head librarian at Candlekeep (note, I have not read any of those 3 books yet either lol so forgive me if this doesn't quite work). Maybe the dean of Witherbloom is connected to Durnan of the Yawning Portal. Oh, and perhaps the Dean of the Prismari is from Greyhawk, and specifically a little village called Saltmarsh. Why not, right?

I'd really like to figure out if in some or all of the various Golden Vault, Radiant Citadel or Candlekeep adventures there could be a way to fit in a rival party that's going for the same goal - in other words a rival student group from school?

That sounds awesome! Not sure if Saltmarsh is a great fit, but the others are pretty good. Radiant Citadel is probably my favorite adventure anthology this edition.

While I want to reconsider every single spell in PHB, Xanathar's and Tashas and re-assign them to a Strixhaven school - that's not going to happen.

I don't know that you'd want to, either, since that basically removes the opportunity for PCs to "discover" them in play, either through research, or by being marked by a spellbook that thinks they have great potential.

I just went to the DMs Guild and checked out about 15-20 products. A bit less than half I could see adopting in my campaign, although some only conditionally (see campaign above, my notes below).

Here's links, and a brief (very brief) note about each.

OK, Titanhall sounds dope and that just went into my cart. I've picked up several of the others already, and "Classroom Events" really went into my idea of how to run a Strixhaven campaign.

Or, I can just point out the book is widely incoherent in its presentation of student life.

Like, I'm happy to use assumptions that fit the text, but when the text doesn't fit the tropes or the text, it makes worldbuilding quite difficult.

This keeps getting repeated, but when asked for specifics about what does occur in high school age boarding schools versus college age schools with dorms or barracks there's complete , utter silence

A lack of knowledge of dorm/house life doesn't prove incoherence

I'm not sure what you're asking for here. Are you saying that you want an age range for the fantasy races that reside in Strixhaven?

Mr. Farquhar, I'm sorry - you posted that comment while I was writing this, and I wasn't able to quote it into the piece. My only comment here is that if you needed personal experience to play or comment on a D&D campaign, no one would ever be able to play a wizard, sir.

Alright, folks, let's finish this bad boy off (mostly). Chapter 6: A Reckoning In Ruins covers the PCs final confrontation with Murgaxor! So everyone comes back to campus, and the atmosphere's pretty not-great. Everybody's scared of Murgaxor, since he checks notes hasn't actually killed anyone yet. Yes, he charmed a dean, and that's impressive, but that's about it.

But first, there's a Fun Strixhaven Game, using animated teacups! Huzzah. No monster attack, at least.

After that, there's an exam, with one DC being 20 and the other being 13. Took 'em long enough to hit the high numbers. From there, the PCs (who are the only people to have actually stopped Murgaxor) are sent to be detention monitors, but secretly to look for signs of Murgaxor. Because the detention this week is being held in a hydra-infested swamp!

Someone really needs to tell Wizard OSHA that this place is hazardous to these kids' health. JFC. Unfortunately, it's another fetch quest. I could see an escort mission or "defend the younger kids" kind of mission being really cool here, but no, it's just another pointcrawl with functionally zero stakes. Deep breaths, Sparky. Deep breaths.

After this, the PCs level up to 9th level.

The actual honest-to-God villain. May he strike fear into the hearts of flies everywhere!
​

At this point, one of the professors pulls the PCs in and lets them know that

1. Murgaxor is bad news, having killed several kids when he was a student 200 years ago​
2. Murgaxor has shielded himself completely from the faculty's magic, but not from the PCs​
3. Murgaxor is working on a ritual to drain the life from everyone on campus to achieve immortality​
4. The faculty will excuse the PCs from any more exams this year if they go kill Murgaxor, and they graduate with honors​

There's a lot to unpack with this premise. First, aren't there dozens of students who aren't immune to Murgaxor's magic? Why are we only sending the PCs? (If your answer is "because plot," smack yourself) Is the endowment running out? Second, what about the founder dragons, all of whom are active in Strixhaven's campus? Did Murgaxor make himself immune to breath weapons? Third, "with honors" is crap - summa cum laude or nothing, y'all. What about the archaics and the oracle that were mentioned in Chapter 1 and whom we still haven't seen?

Like this whole setup is a non-starter. Utter garbage. Here's how I would do it: Right after the PCs get started on campus, Murgaxor's curse hits the entire faculty, rendering them all comatose. Murgaxor's magic starts to cause chaos on campus, including besieging it with tons of summoned creatures and minions. The dragons and the rest of the students are busy engaging a literal army of chaos and can't get everyone to safety- the oracle can find where to pursue Murgaxor, and tell the PCs his ultimate plan, but that's it. Now we have a reason for the PCs to go after him, and a reason that no one else can interfere. Took me five minutes.

The next step is investigating Murgaxor's last known whereabouts in the Badlands. This is a dungeoncrawl with two levels. The upper level 7 rooms, some interesting loops and investigation of secret doors, and the bottom level has four rooms in one big loop. That's 11 rooms. That's barely a lair, you guys. There are no interesting navigational choices to make in the bottom level; it's just fighting Murgaxor's lieutenant.

The PCs learn that Murgaxor is found in another castle. Unfortunately, there are only two clues pointing to the next castle, and both require skill checks to find. In fact, one requires that the PCs take a prisoner and successfully Intimidate her. So they could very easily miss these. DEEP BREATHS, SPARKY. DEEP BREATHS.

After this, the PCs head back to Strixhaven and have a Mass Effect-style send off. I actually like the PCs being feted by their peers as they ride out; this adds a nice bow to the big confrontation. The final fight is another two-level dungeoncrawl, with each level having six rooms. There's a necrotic shield they have to get through, but they can easily fail the check to figure it out, making the PCs very hesitant indeed to engage with it. There's a fight with a fiend and some ghouls (separately), and then the PCs need to blow up a security measure. This last one is bonkers to me - it has a damage threshold of 15, but that's within the upper bounds of some cantrips by this point, so the PCs can just blast it with cantrips and eventually blow it up. It would be boring, but safe. "Boring but safe" is generally bad adventure design.

After they clear the top level, they level up to level 10. The adventure recommends the PCs take a short rest, but recognizes the players might not feel it's dramatically appropriate, so they suggest the DM can handwave some stuff to have that happen. Just key stuff like this into the world, guys. It feels less "pulled out of my ass" that way.

Murgaxor can't take any actions but lair actions, and has a 200 hp barrier surrounding him. Once the barrier comes down, the PCs can blow up five key ritual stones, stopping the ritual. So you never actually fight Murgaxor. You fight his lair actions.

This was the absolute last straw for me. You build this guy up for four freaking adventures and then don't even let me take him on properly? What the actual hell, WotC?

At this point, the PCs are either the heroes of Strixhaven, and graduate with honors, or, if they failed, everyone on campus takes 20d6 necrotic damage, Murgaxor is immortal, and the PCs are probably dead. Well, I'll be damned. It took four adventures and over a hundred pages, but they finally recognized that consequences matter, you guys! We did it! Hurray!!!

Or, y'know, with all the handwaving the adventure has done, the writers figure if the PCs can't close the deal that's on the PCs.

And now we come to why Strixhaven falls into the Products that Actively Piss Me Off category: There's a lot here, and it could have been amazing. This genuinely could have been the social pillar book we were wanting! It could have been utterly awesome! And what I get is a near-stakeless railroad. No DM support. Nothing to let you run your own adventures in your own magical school. Nada. Bupkis. Zip.

Why even write this? God, look, this review is exhausting. I hate writing negative reviews. The ones I have fun on are interesting one like Planegea or Drakkenheim. But this? It's a mess. Next time we'll come back and go over the monsters and how I would run a Strixhaven campaign. Until then, friendos!

 

[bedir than]

I'm not sure what you're asking for here. Are you saying that you want an age range for the fantasy races that reside in Strixhaven?

No.

I'm saying that common refrain that "this doesn't happen at colleges" when referring to the tropes in the setting are absolutely things that happen at colleges with dorms and barracks.

The only example of something that "doesn't fit" is the students returning to study, and hooo boy, let me tell you there's little more motivating to study than the threat of being rejected from not just school but the place where you live.

Masquerade balls, sports, cheer squad, theater, etc, all completely normal in college life

 

[TwoSix]

No.

I'm saying that common refrain that "this doesn't happen at colleges" when referring to the tropes in the setting are absolutely things that happen at colleges with dorms and barracks.

The only example of something that "doesn't fit" is the students returning to study, and hooo boy, let me tell you there's little more motivating to study than the threat of being rejected from not just school but the place where you live.

Masquerade balls, sports, cheer squad, theater, etc, all completely normal in college life

I certainly wasn't questioning any of that.

My point is that the adventure is essentially on rails, and requires the characters to simply accept the orders of the omnipresent "faculty" to ignore all the weirdness that is going on, in order to facilitate the next cut scene. That's a trope that's hard to accept in any adventure, but it at least makes some sort of sense that a younger student might actually listen.

It's the presumption that the PCs are simply going to knuckle down and follow direction that makes it feel like the adventure is aimed at roleplaying younger PCs, even though the trappings of campus jobs and having to pay tuition feel aimed at PCs who are presumably young adults.

 

[Libertad]

The actual honest-to-God villain. May he strike fear into the hearts of flies everywhere!
​

At this point, one of the professors pulls the PCs in and lets them know that

1. Murgaxor is bad news, having killed several kids when he was a student 200 years ago​
2. Murgaxor has shielded himself completely from the faculty's magic, but not from the PCs​
3. Murgaxor is working on a ritual to drain the life from everyone on campus to achieve immortality​
4. The faculty will excuse the PCs from any more exams this year if they go kill Murgaxor, and they graduate with honors​

There's a lot to unpack with this premise. First, aren't there dozens of students who aren't immune to Murgaxor's magic? Why are we only sending the PCs? (If your answer is "because plot," smack yourself) Is the endowment running out? Second, what about the founder dragons, all of whom are active in Strixhaven's campus? Did Murgaxor make himself immune to breath weapons? Third, "with honors" is crap - summa cum laude or nothing, y'all. What about the archaics and the oracle that were mentioned in Chapter 1 and whom we still haven't seen?

The problem with using Murgaxor as the primary villain is that he looks more appropriately "villainous" as a sort of humorous villain in a PG-rated show or movie. He has more Ludo Avarius vibes than Azula or Fire Lord Ozai.

Which can be good if you want to lean into Strixhaven being a more low-stakes, chill adventure. Murgaxor is the kind of guy who looks like he'll go on a rant about "you meddling kids." Over on the 5e subreddit someone even pointed out that the setting has a much better villain to use instead.

After they clear the top level, they level up to level 10. The adventure recommends the PCs take a short rest, but recognizes the players might not feel it's dramatically appropriate, so they suggest the DM can handwave some stuff to have that happen. Just key stuff like this into the world, guys. It feels less "pulled out of my ass" that way.

This is why I see so many house rules reducing the time on short rests to 10 minutes or so.

Murgaxor can't take any actions but lair actions, and has a 200 hp barrier surrounding him. Once the barrier comes down, the PCs can blow up five key ritual stones, stopping the ritual. So you never actually fight Murgaxor. You fight his lair actions.

This was the absolute last straw for me. You build this guy up for four freaking adventures and then don't even let me take him on properly? What the actual hell, WotC?

Murgaxor is a humanoid, his only condition immunity is Exhaustion, has a Passive Perception of 11, no legendary actions or resistances, or actual proper spells. I can see a lot of 10th level groups bypassing the damage entirely to do something like Dominate Person to get him to surrender.

And now we come to why Strixhaven falls into the Products that Actively Piss Me Off category: There's a lot here, and it could have been amazing. This genuinely could have been the social pillar book we were wanting! It could have been utterly awesome! And what I get is a near-stakeless railroad. No DM support. Nothing to let you run your own adventures in your own magical school. Nada. Bupkis. Zip.

Why even write this? God, look, this review is exhausting. I hate writing negative reviews. The ones I have fun on are interesting one like Planegea or Drakkenheim. But this? It's a mess. Next time we'll come back and go over the monsters and how I would run a Strixhaven campaign. Until then, friendos!

Will definitely be interested in hearing your thoughts on how you'd run a setting like this. There's quite a bit of "magic school" sourcebooks out there, although I only own a few rather than a lot. I actually wrote one for OSR quite some time ago. This was actually the culmination of around 2-3 years' worth of blog posts about running "magic school" campaigns in a variety of systems, so decided to make a proper sourcebook out of it.

I'm aware that Pathfinder 2e has a magic school adventure path, but I don't know how that one stacks up. Academies of the Arcane is another OSR magic school book, while Academia Arcana RPG is a free supplement for Dungeon Crawl Classics. Of these ones I only have Academia Arcana, which ist still on my "to-read" list.

Oh, and there was Redhurst for 3.5 D&D, but that was less an adventure or system than a setting, and while it has a free PDF that was a "player-friendly" version which excised some details that were present only in the physical book.

 

[Libertad]

I just went to the DMs Guild and checked out about 15-20 products. A bit less than half I could see adopting in my campaign, although some only conditionally (see campaign above, my notes below).

Here's links, and a brief (very brief) note about each.


Strixhaven Faculty Handbook - this supplement points to other areas in the rules corpus to provide things Strixhaven (hereafter abbreviated as SH) does not. For example use the Rivals rules in Xanathars. It does provide additional "cladding" around those rules too. Has a Renown system that could be a good add. For US$2.99 for 28 pages, I'm going to buy.

Strixhaven: A Syllabus of Sorcery - 144 events for the classes offered in the SH book (4 events each). Makes the classes more spicy and interesting. Also more class mechanisms; a group points system; and a different rivals system. 53 pages for US$1.99. I'm buying.

Titanhall Academy: Rivals of Strixhaven - a supplement for "martial" classes that fills out the other 5 color pairings that SH doesn't have. "5 Unique Colleges: Leafcloak, college of survival; Felforge, college of cratsmanship; Saberguard, college of strategy; Memnor, college of trickery; and Hjertseir, college of combat and balance." Unclear on how it is suggested to use this for a group of PCs. Maybe can be blended with SH instead of set as Rivals. 60 pages for $14.95. Not an auto-buy for me, but intriguing none the less.

Students of Strixhaven - The 18 NPC other students in the core SH book, as well as 2 new students to give each college 4 students each - are each given a stat block for each of their 4 years there. If the PCs are really vibing with the other NPC students - this is a must buy. If not, can probably leave this on the shelf. US$3.95 for 31 pages. I'm going to take a wait and see position.

Strixhaven Supplemental Volume I: Course Catalog and Staff Directory - 127 new classes, with punny names. Each new class also has a reward that gives players a bit of a reward. Also 31 new professors and more details on the faculty in the SH core book. $4.99 for 28 pages. I'm going to pass on this, unless the players seem underwhelmed by the class catalog in the core SH book; or in case I need some more faculty.

Strixhaven Supplemental Volume II: The Rulebook - intriguing stuff in here. "Student Skills" that shape the type of student each PC is. Rules around classes, homework, and labs (if using volume I). More structured rules on Free Time. Not sure how useful that would be. Finally rules to make the Mage Tower at the end more engaging/interesting. 7 pages for US$1.50. Reading the Preview, I don't think these rules are for me - but if my players are clamoring for more granular rules around their classes, I might come back to this one.

Strixhaven Supplemental Volume III: Creature Compendium and Item Index - for those who like Magic Item and Creature supplements, this is the book for you. $4.99 for 18 pages. Since I'm mostly going to be using SH as a framing device and the adventuring will take place in other adventures, I think I can skip this one.

Strixhaven Supplemental Volume IV: The Bulletin Board - 27 new ExtraCurriculars (EC) run by the Professors in volume I above. In addition the 16 published ECs get expanded notes (they do away with Athletics for the Dead Languages Society). Jobs get a few more details and Silkball gets 2 sets of rules which also require a magic item. 7 pages for US$1.50. I could see buying this if I also bought volume I. Otherwise, I'm going to pass - again pending on the predilections of my players.

Off to complete my purchase. Then (soonish) I'm going to read over the SH Faculty Handbook and the SH Syllabus of Sorcery. If they don't meet my needs, I'll probably grab the SH Supplemental series (all of them). I'm going to ask my players about the Titanhall idea.

Some recommendations of my own. A publisher known as Bonus Action Rainbow made a sourcebook reworking the Relationship rules, and they regularly make free and extra paid-for maps on their Patreon.

The relationship book provides more detail and gradations for Relationships, adds in Cliques as social groups (which have their own specific bonds and banes as well as features which provide mechanical benefits and penalties), expands details on the students in the adventure, and provides additional optional encounters meant for developing relationships with various NPCs. If you're really into the social pillar of Strixhaven, this is a good product to pick up.

Bonus also made a sourcebook turning Mage Tower into a proper mini-game, but I haven't picked that up so I can't attest to its usability.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I will check out your magic school, @Libertad! I've used Strixhaven's Biblioplex as an access point to the (amazing) Stygian Library adventure/setting, but the longer time goes on, the more I sour on the book as the setting for games overall. It's just too much work to make it work. I am more likely to get Redhurst out of storage and stat it up for 5E. (It needs relatively little, as it's based around the D&D schools of magic, unless one is super-keen on the spells and monsters in the DM's section in the back.)

 

[Teemu]

The bestiary in this book has given me a ton of options! It has a lot of Monsters of the Multiverse style caster NPCs of varying CRs and types with bespoke magical abilities and attacks. I use them all the time. And I’ve also used the high CR dragons, reskinned, and they were very fun as well. Much more interesting than the baseline Monster Manual ancient dragons.

I’d recommend this book at a discount if you enjoy WotC’s bestiary sections. I haven’t used the adventure or the setting material. But the bestiary has been in frequent use for me.