D&D 5E Strixhaven Table of Contents

Strixhaven's table of contents has appeared on Reddit. The book contains 7 chapters, plus an appendix, including four adventures.

1. Basic setting information, about 20 pages
2. Character options, about 22 pages
3. 4 adventures organized in a unified campaign, about 32 pages per adventure (plus general campaign organizational tools which take up about 20 pages)
4. NPCs & monsters, about 42 pages

D&D 5E - Strixhaven Previews Start to Appear

It's that time in the D&D pre-release publicity phase where previews of the upcoming book start to appear across the web on various sites. It looks like each site is getting a different college to preview -- Screenrant has Prismari, and Polygon has Silverquill, for example. There are 5 colleges...

www.enworld.org

D&D 5E - Strixhaven's Monsters: Groffs, Mage Hunters, & Oriq Recruiters

Gizmodo has a preview of Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos, showing off some of the new monsters in the book. The Oriq Recruiter is an agent of a dark mage cult; a Groff is a canine swamp creature; and a Mage Hunter is a spider-legged drone. The article also talks about trudges, daemogoths, the...

www.enworld.org

D&D 5E - Strixhaven Has Exams, Jobs, & Extracurricular Activities

It's IGN's turn to preview part of Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos, taking a look at exams, extracurricular guilds, and jobs. An example of an exam includes the Magical Physiologies exam, and a success gives them an advantage when fighting those creatures. The exams have a studying and a...

www.enworld.org

 

[FryMinis]

Table of contents is cool but what I told you that you could learn WAY more in a livestream first look?

 

[Parmandur]

Table of contents is cool but what I told you that you could learn WAY more in a livestream first look?

The ToC is the key, but I respect the hustle.

 

[Parmandur]

Table of contents is cool but what I told you that you could learn WAY more in a livestream first look?

One aspect you seem to be missing around the 35 minute mark is that granting those Feats at Level 1, is that it is exactly equivalent to the Level 1 Feats in Theros or Ravenloft ("Supernatural Gifts" or Dark Gifts"), just mixing it with Backgrounds.

 

[FryMinis]

One aspect you seem to be missing around the 35 minute mark is that granting those Feats at Level 1, is that it is exactly equivalent to the Level 1 Feats in Theros or Ravenloft ("Supernatural Gifts" or Dark Gifts"), just mixing it with Backgrounds.

Thank you but I'd disagree. If a player is looking at D&D Beyond (for example) for a list of Backgrounds, they could see these Backgrounds that explicitly give Feats. The Supernatural and Dark Gifts are an entirely different mechanical structure. Yes, of course, a DM can just tell the player they don't get the Strixhaven Initiate Feat, but now the DM is in the position of being forced to "nerf" a player option.

So, if someone would let a player pick a Gift, sure, they'd be similar power-level rise but I think calling them "exactly equivalent" is not entirely accurate.

I really appreciate you watching!

 

[Parmandur]

Thank you but I'd disagree. If a player is looking at D&D Beyond (for example) for a list of Backgrounds, they could see these Backgrounds that explicitly give Feats. The Supernatural and Dark Gifts are an entirely different mechanical structure. Yes, of course, a DM can just tell the player they don't get the Strixhaven Initiate Feat, but now the DM is in the position of being forced to "nerf" a player option.

So, if someone would let a player pick a Gift, sure, they'd be similar power-level rise but I think calling them "exactly equivalent" is not entirely accurate.

I really appreciate you watching!

It is exactly equivalent in that the actual mechanical component is a Feat, built like a Feat, given at Level 1. Theros goes so far as to say literally "yeah, just go ahead and use any Feat from the PHB as a Supernatural Gift if you want, it's the same thing."

Crawford covered this in an interview with Todd Kendrick a while ago, that they built the Strixhaven options this way so that a DM could take the Background and Feats apart and remix as desired: the Background says it grants the Feat, but want the Background without the Feat? Then the Background works just like any other Background. Want the Feat without the Background? No worries, the Feat is built like any other Feat.

 

[humble minion]

I find this really disappointing actually. I was genuinely looking forward to this as a setting book, but over half the page count is adventures. This isn’t a setting book, it’s an adventure path. I’m a player rather than a dm, I don’t want to read something I might be playing through later.

It’s gone from a must-buy to a maybe-at-best for me.

 

[Parmandur]

I find this really disappointing actually. I was genuinely looking forward to this as a setting book, but over half the page count is adventures. This isn’t a setting book, it’s an adventure path. I’m a player rather than a dm, I don’t want to read something I might be playing through later.

It’s gone from a must-buy to a maybe-at-best for me.

I mean, yeah, that's fair.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Yeah I think they could do decent trade in a pamphlet set that just takes the lore contained in an adventure, no mechanics, no adventure stuff, for something like 10-15 $.

That's the only reason I'd ever buy a physical copy of an adventure, tbh.

 

[Stormonu]

I didn't realize so much of this was an adventure - I thought it'd be a forgettable "introductory" adventure like most other campaign books so far. The stuff I'm looking for (player options/stat blocks) takes about 70 of the 224 pages. I'm now leery of it, but I've already put it on reserve.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I find this really disappointing actually. I was genuinely looking forward to this as a setting book, but over half the page count is adventures. This isn’t a setting book, it’s an adventure path. I’m a player rather than a dm, I don’t want to read something I might be playing through later.

It’s gone from a must-buy to a maybe-at-best for me.

We did already know this but yeah, this is what you get if a setting book and and an adventure path have a baby.

 

[Parmandur]

We did already know this but yeah, this is what you get if a setting book and and an adventure path have a baby.

It's a bit of a blurry line: any "Adventure Path" is going to have Setting details, and Setting books should provide the tools for running Adventures. This book is a bit of an awkward hybrid to market, it seems to me.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Going to Stryxhaven is a good way to make a sorcerer who doesn't suck!

 

[humble minion]

We did already know this but yeah, this is what you get if a setting book and and an adventure path have a baby.

It's possible I missed or misinterpreted some of the more recent information, but before seeing the ToC i was under the impression (I believe from one of the videoes etc that came out a month or so back?) that the adventure would be about a quarter of the book. Which didn't make me happy, but a quarter is a world of difference to 120 pages out of 220.

Mind you, if Strixhaven is what you get when a setting book and an adventure path have a baby, then it's a baby with a couple of elder siblings. Candlekeep and (especially) Witchlight have followed a lot of the same beats.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It's possible I missed or misinterpreted some of the more recent information, but before seeing the ToC i was under the impression (I believe from one of the videoes etc that came out a month or so back?) that the adventure would be about a quarter of the book. Which didn't make me happy, but a quarter is a world of difference to 120 pages out of 220.

They described it as a campaign, said it took place over four years, and (I think) went from level 1 to 10. That seems to me to be enough to indicate it was a significant portion of the book. I don't think they said anything at all about page count.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

If this is going to be an animated serie in Netflix, I advice to plan just one season, just in case.

 

[whimsychris123]

I figured this would be a hybrid of setting and adventure, based on what was said, but this feels more like an adventure, as others have stated. We only get about 27 pages (27!) describing the setting. Here’s the breakdown:

setting details: 27 pages
Player material: 12 pages
NPCs and monsters: 42 pages
Adventure material: 142 pages

This feels like a disappointment for those who might want to use the setting and develop their own adventures. What makes Eberron so great is that you feel you could spend countless campaigns there. This feels like you get just enough info for a single campaign.

I guess I’m fine with it as it sounds like a lot of fun, but I think they should have advertised it as an adventure rather than a setting. It makes me question what is going to be meant by future “settings” books. For example, if we get a Spelljammer book, is it going to be a couple hundred pages detailing D&D in space and space travel, or is it going to be a little bit of that along with a big space adventure?

 

[Remathilis]

This feels like a disappointment for those who might want to use the setting and develop their own adventures. What makes Eberron so great is that you feel you could spend countless campaigns there. This feels like you get just enough info for a single campaign.

To be honest, I felt the same about Ravnica and Theros to a degree; there is scant enough world info beyond the Gods/Guilds to tell more than one solid story. This is not the feeling I got from the equally small amount of info in Eberron, Wildmount or Ravenloft, where even using just the 5e guides I feel I couldn't run through all the settings/villains/adventures I'd want to in one campaign.

I think the inherent issue with the MTG settings is they tend to be small in scope; We've been to Ravnica three times and each of them mostly fixated on the ten guilds vs. the actual city of Ravnica. (Only War of the Spark, which showed the Guilds and all the Planeswalkers united against an invasion, felt like a worthy story to adventure through). Theros has been about the plots of the gods, Strixhaven about the colleges, etc. What works for a CCG (a bunch of well-defined rival groups) doesn't translate well to a TTRPG (where PCs make characters out of the well-defined rival groups and... do... stuff...).

Honestly, the only set so far that felt like it could have been a good setting for multiple types of adventures is Innistrad, where in three sets they delt with the Return of the Angels, the Corruption of the Moon, and now the Endless Night all being separate but equally epic horror adventures. Of course, Innistrad is basically Ravenloft with a tighter focus anyway, so I can see why they didn't bother with a second Gothic Horror setting...

 

[sevenbastard]

I'm all for settings being painted in broad strokes in 30 or so pages and then an adventure that let's me play (hopefully sandbox style) and expand the setting in the adventure.

Give me Curse of Strahd over Van Rics. Guide to Ravenloft any day.

 

[darjr]

I’m good with both styles if done well. I do love getting to know a setting but experiencing it through play. Especially when the setting is designed to be new and strange to the players like first going to college. Then we can explore the setting in play after, graduate and become PHD candidates doing field research.