Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Mages of Strixhaven

An Unearthed Arcana playtest document for the upcoming Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos hardcover has been released by WotC!

"Become a student of magic in this installment of Unearthed Arcana! This playtest document presents five subclasses for Dungeons & Dragons. Each of these subclasses allows you to play a mage associated with one of the five colleges of Strixhaven, a university of magic. These subclasses are special, with each one being available to more than one class."

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It's 9 pages, and contains five subclasses, one for each the Strixhaven colleges:

• Lorehold College, dedicated to the pursuit of history by conversing with ancient spirits and understanding the whims of time itself
• Prismari College, dedicated to the visual and performing arts and bolstered with the power of the elements
• Quandrix College, dedicated to the study and manipulation of nature’s core mathematic principles
• Silverquill College, dedicated to the magic of words, whether encouraging speeches that uplift allies or piercing wit that derides foes
• Witherbloom College, dedicated to the alchemy of life and death and harnessing the devastating energies of both

 

[Faolyn]

@Hussar @Faolyn

This feels vaguely related to patrons forcing things on Warlocks and the impact of having a Patron. Do either of you include the mistrust of Tieflings by the general populace in your games?



Is that something you'd discuss with the player at session 0? Lean towards including it since its front and center to what being a Tiefling is in the PhB and assume the player would expect it because they read the PhB? Leave it out because it's really uncomfortable to roleplay even if the player wanted to be discriminated against in those ways?

I did. In my world, some people are born tieflings or have their tieflingness come forth when they enter puberty (yeah, yeah, I know). Since nobody knows why this occurs (but they have Theories), they dislike tieflings and treat them with very cold politeness so as not to offend them, lest the tiefling curse them. This was something that was included in my handout of lore on the race.

In retrospect, I kind of wish I hadn't done this because, yes, it's quite uncomfortable to RP this type of bigotry.

 

[Hussar]

@Hussar @Faolyn

This feels vaguely related to patrons forcing things on Warlocks and the impact of having a Patron. Do either of you include the mistrust of Tieflings by the general populace in your games?



Is that something you'd discuss with the player at session 0? Lean towards including it since its front and center to what being a Tiefling is in the PhB and assume the player would expect it because they read the PhB? Leave it out because it's really uncomfortable to roleplay even if the player wanted to be discriminated against in those ways?

To be honest no. I tend to not bring up those sorts of things in game. And, from a believably perspective, well, the tiefling in the last couple of groups I've had were probably the least shocking.

The tiefling in my last campaign got some funny looks, but that's because he was bat poop crazy and kept talking about the Chaox, the Ox of Chaos that was going to come down and reign over the world. He started a cult based on it. Reskinned his spells to include giant cow tongues for his Evard's Black Tentacles and things like that. The Tiefling thing wasn't really even on the radar.

And, in our Candlekeep game, we have an anthropomorphic owl, a warforged, a dream creature created by an aboleth, a dragonborn, a half orc and a tiefling. Like I said, in that lineup, the tiefling is the least of the issues.

 

[Kurotowa]

Just a heads up that the survey is out. If you want to deliver your feedback on one of the most experimental UA in a while, now's the time.

 

[Magister Ludorum]

Ahh. Fair enough I suppose. I truly remain baffled by this perception that the 4e design was limited this way, but, I accept that others see it. But, I do have a question, what is "chronicle"?

We don't use the term campaign because of its connection to wargames. We use chronicle instead, to emphasize the storytelling nature of our games.

 

[Weiley31]

Well I did the survey. Should be interesting to see how things differ in the final product.

I did state though, that I felt like these Subclass options could/probably work better as a Faction/Guild type deal and that gaining reputations/earning ranks in the appropriate College allows you to gain the College Features alongside your Subclass features, developing alongside ya. Which I still say is how 5E Psionics should be with Talents.

I also felt/expressed that this experimental take with Subclasses could make for a nice alternative to revising 5E's take on Prestige Classes.

And keep this system for 5E's Dark Sun.