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

 

[Paul Farquhar]

But anyway I'm totally unable to understand why people needs this amount of different monsters in their game.

TBH, most of the monsters in my adventures are custom jobs anyway.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Sword Coast Adventuers's Guide is, at least, adequate and a major seller to boot. I wouldn't expect a replacement, maybe in 2024, but even maybe nor then.

The Ravenloft book is a good counter to your concern: it is more in line with the Eberron or Ravnica books. The reality is that WotC will probably make these decisions on a case by case basis.

I think SCAG is underrated - I certainly find myself referring to it sometimes. But I do support it with material from FR Wiki, my 3rd edition book, and lots of experience.

Likewise, I think that if you know the settings well from MTG, the Ravnica and Theros books work, but without that supplemental info they feel very sparse.

Ideally, a good setting book stands on it's own. And by that criterion, only Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, Eberron: Rising from the Last War, and Explorer's Guide to Wildemount stand up.

Stryxhaven is different to any of those, in that the world beyond the college isn't much fleshed out even in MTG, so we have one small part of a world in great detail. I would call it a "bubble" setting - one designed to support a single campaign. Which is not to say there isn't anything generally useful in it. We already have an Owlin PC in our game, the Stryxhaven backgrounds are a handy fix for underpowered sorcerers, I'm sure the maps could be handy etc..

Full disclosure, I was planning on buying the digital Stryxhaven on D&D Beyond in the sale, and am really really bummed that they have excluded preorders. I reckon it's worth $20 but not $30.

 

[MockingBird]

I think SCAG is underrated - I certainly find myself referring to it sometimes. But I do support it with material from FR Wiki, my 3rd edition book, and lots of experience.

I agree, I use it fairly often combined with basic FR knowledge. I do find myself wanting a bit more, something on par with the 3rd edition FR book or a 2nd edition like box set (I own that one).

 

[doctorbadwolf]

My main concern is that this appears as a “setting” book that doesn’t offer the same amount of material for multiple campaigns. How much does this portend future “settings” books?

With settings like Eberron, Wildemount or Forgotten Realms, an imaginative DM could easily spend a lifetime developing adventures and campaigns. However, with the scant material of this book, multiple campaigns would almost be like starting from scratch. Maybe I’ll feel differently once I see the books, but I this feels like a one-and-done campaign setting.

I could make multiple campaigns just from the preview material.

 

[Parmandur]

I could make multiple campaigns just from the preview material.

One thing I have heard about people playing Ye Ollde Tyme modules was that they were highly replayable.

This frankly feels like a campaign that could be replayed happily, with different events and outcomes.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

One thing I have heard about people playing Ye Ollde Tyme modules was that they were highly replayable.

This frankly feels like a campaign that could be replayed happily, with different events and outcomes.

Indeed. I also suspect that one could premise a campaign on each individual college.

 

[Parmandur]

Indeed. I also suspect that one could premise a campaign on each individual college.

Intergenerational campaigns would take a bit of work, but would also be pretty neat: after I've campaign, move the timeline along, and make the old students faculty, create some new NPCs and situations.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Intergenerational campaigns would take a bit of work, but would also be pretty neat: after I've campaign, move the timeline along, and make the old students faculty, create some new NPCs and situations.

Man I’d love some rules for legacies in 5e. It’s a thing I’m working on in my TTRPG Quest for Chevar, and it’s a bit of a thing in The One Ring, but I’d love to see a setting or AP that uses Legacy as a premise and does some Theros/Strixhaven improved backgrounds and starting feats stuff around Legacy.

 

[Parmandur]

Man I’d love some rules for legacies in 5e. It’s a thing I’m working on in my TTRPG Quest for Chevar, and it’s a bit of a thing in The One Ring, but I’d love to see a setting or AP that uses Legacy as a premise and does some Theros/Strixhaven improved backgrounds and starting feats stuff around Legacy.

I want to say that Pendragon had something like that, but I may be misremembering.

 

[darjr]

Huh. Could do one campaign that is in the book. And a second one based in Strixhaven but using content like Candlekeep. And I’m sure DMsGuild will have some folks add stuff to Strixhaven specifically