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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jfdlsjfd" data-source="post: 8498889" data-attributes="member: 42856">Onward to reading Strixhaven at this point. Digesting it will be more complicated. Let's start with the player facing part, the character creation rules. Two remarks.Owing to being a multiverse nexus, any race can fit in Strix. There is a very disappointing one page race (and I am generous), the owlin (think EQ2's Hooluk or anthropomorphized owls), with only rules. No roleplaying tip about what it is to be a humanoid owl, how does it make you forge a worldview or to make anything distinctive. Owls uses the same orifice to eat food and excrete undigestible part of their food (since they can't chew). I am pretty sure it would affect society and culture of owlin and the question of their table habits when sharing with other humanoids would have been welcome. Or at least, anything cultural to make them distinctive from other humanoids. I don't want to turn this thread into a criticism of how they handle players species, but this one entry is very short and disappointing and I hope not the way it goes forward. I guess that with Tasha and Owlin, having a fly speed will be common (30 ft fly or walk, darkvision, stealth proficiency, floating ASIs with reference to a "Quick Build" section that seems missing...) College-related background are given, including the free initiate feat for each. I was in the habit of giving a free feat at level 1, or a freebie power that would be a half-feat, as long as it was explained in the character backstory (as an incentive for players to actually write a backstory...) so I am not surprised but glad to see this as a source of inspiration). It also includes free spells added to the list -- generally logical, sometimes odd (I am an archeologist, so I get to cast Legend Lore, Locate Object, Identify, Speak with Dead... (all good) and Flame Strike (because... reasons?)Then to the campus description...It's a four-year curriculum (and odd-choice in the 3/5/8 LMD world... Are four-year college the norm in the US? While SoT seems to be extremely quick but fuzzy so far, Strix starts with a clearly defined length... and the difference with the US starts page 1 still ;-) ) around the five iconic college of the MtG setting.Strix is located... wherever the GM wants. This is unhelpful. While the Mwangi Expanse books in Pathfinder can help depicting the world outside the Magaambya (too bad if you don't know it...) there is a resource. The advice here is "put it where you want in your game world"... but since it's supposed to be a campaign for a starting group, they might as well start on Arcavios proper, as they have no reason to interact with elements of their proper setting. Each setting brings its peculiarities that will not necessarily fit with the story being told (a subject touched by Keith Baker on his blog article about where to put Strix in Eberron, which suggested a number of definitely plot-altering elements that would Eberonize the experience (so it's worth saying that it is in Eberron proper). I found t<a href="http://keith-baker.com/ifaq-strixhaven/" target="_blank">his blog article</a> very useful, but it takes KB's mastery and knowledge of the setting to write that quickly... putting it elsewhere might require some work. Here becoming part of faculty is described as a lifelong endeavour. Characters are supposed to be learning a trade (history, art, physics and maths, writing and eloquence, biology) supplemented by magic, allowing any class to be part of the campaign, constrasting with the Magaambya where they are supposed to get a spellcasting archetype as druid or wizard. The university is presented as a large place (hundreds of administrative staff, legions of constructs, ten deans, numerous teachers...) The place is large, with six campuses needing half an hour of walk to cross. Contrast to the SoT school which fit an island of 500m radius, so 0.8 km2. The description of the college left me puzzled. In SoT, they examplify a quality the faculty seeks to extoll among students, and it's linked to skills. It seems a strange way to classify students, but, after all, why not, they are all going to be spellcasters, and be taught to use your power in a kind of benevolent public service function in the end so it's not like realism is needed. I felt that the practical approach of the Strix colleges fitted better... in a world of wide (not necessarily high) magic, this magic should be used for a gainful employment... adventuring isn't a job for most people, so students need to learn to do something with their wizarding. It's a really different take. I wanted to like Strix's distinction... because it evoked the university experience better. You don't take a camaradery degree or a creative thinking degree, you get a physics degree. However, the need to tie those college to the color of magic felt strange to me. College / topic / dichotomy / rationaleLorehold / history / order & chaos / history repeats itself vs history is chaotic Prismari / art / intellect & emotion / technique vs improvisation and feelingQuandrix / hard sciences / substance & theory / dunno... it might echos realism vs nominalism medieval debate about universalsSilverquill / eloquence / radiance & shadow / seems to be panegyrists vs satyrists, but at some point you start summoning weapons? Witherbloom / biology / growth & decay / basically the two process from the dichotomy...From the list, you can see the problem I have with Quandrix and Silverquill... I love the way Witherbloom mixes druids and necromancy into actual jobs all needing to have biology and natural processes lessons, I have some doubt about some of the carreers given for Lorehold (where there is a lot of case the principle doesn't seem to relate specifically to the job proposed as an illustration) and Prismari, and I am at loss with the last two, Quandrix and Silverquill -- especially Silverquill. The idea has merit, but I execution lacked halfway for me, because I failed to understand Quandrix and Silverquill didn't click at all. I might want to make it work (it's 3 out of 5 done) but it's a lot to rewrite into something... that maybe the players won't have any interest in, if they choose other colleges or don't involve themselves in their philosophies. And finally an "academic life chapter". Students, parallel to adventures, are welcome to join two clubs (up to two, but there doesn't seem to be any benefit not to have these extracurricular activities -- like, as in real life, actually concentrating on your studies instead? Some stereotyping happens (a RPG club, a cheerleading squad...) Or hold a job, gaining 5 gp a week. That's actually as much as skilled labor, while most of the jobs are unskilled (graffiti eraser, litter retriever...) where are the legions of automaton servants if they must resort to pay heftly the students to do that? On the other hand, money in 5e has little use and I'll keep an eye if 150 gp a year are really making a difference. Especially since it means abandonning the +1d4 bonus to a relevant skill honed while being a member of a club. A mechanics we're seeing often and that I like (even if 1d4 is a small benefit, it helps differentiating PCs and the pleasure of throwing that additional d4 is visible even on grognard's faces (and I inspire you... and I pray for guidance beforehand... and I...)Exams are more abstracted than in SoT, since all college specific stuff is kept in the background and the rules provided focus on general topic exams all the characters pass. The exam is split into two phases: study (where you can get a reroll on the next phase if you beat the DC of the exam's topic, using apparently your best skill (as long as you can naughty word the GM into buying your explanation on why Nature is helping your to memorize equations, I guess that sipping herbal tea makes you better at studying?), or you could gain two reroll at the price of exhaustion (so in Strix, like Maabangya, you can study to death...), or studying together with grant advantage instead of a reroll. Then comes the Test phase, where they need to do two ability checks, modified by the result of the study phase. Passing gives a student dice in the relevant skill, acing gives two, failing means losing the ability to enjoy a club as you're forced to take remedial courses. Unless I am mistaken, since exhaustion grants disadvantage, having more rerolls at disadvantage is still worse than simply having advantage from group study...Interacting with other students will move a tracker of relationship points, providing small (often cosmetic) (dis)advantage when befriending or offending the named NPC. If you're friendzoned, you can then become Beloved at the next interaction and you gain inspiration for each Beloved relationship. They make sure fraternity bonds are totally good for Beloved status, if not, the adventure would be crowded with Casanovas getting inspiration <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":-)" title="Smile    :-)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":-)" /></blockquote>

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