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

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Going to start going through the specifics of these subclasses in order, commenting just on the things that jump out at me. wont do all of them tonight though.

1) Lorehold.

Lorehold spells: the biggy here is Spirit Guardians, which it a great addition to a wizard, bard or warlock spell list.

Lessons of the Past: These are bit build specific - for example Warrior is only good if you have a decent weapon attack, so you either have to be MAD or be a bladepact warlock, who has great synergy with Warrior.

War Echoes: as already pointed out, clarity is needed about what happens if a creature is both vulnerable and immune to a damage type. Already seen the issue arise with grave domain clerics.

Overall, this subclass seems most interesting combined with a bladepact warlock. It's strong, possibly too strong.

2) Prismari

This seems pretty weak to me. Presumably bards don't get it for mechanical reasons - they don't get enough elemental damage spells on their spell list to take advantage of it's features. Would be improved if it actually added some elemental spells to your spells known.

3) Quandrix

Not very exciting. I might be inclined to replace some of the ho-hum spells on their list with some duromancy from the Wildemount book.

 

[Yaarel]

I'm feeling this is more of a 5.5e continuation of 5e. I'm guessing that there'll be like a 2024 Rules Cyclopedia that remixes the core rules with the various dials added over the past 10 years, but it's not a replacement for the PHB/MM/DMG. Then in 2034 we can get a true 6e.

Heh. I didnt think we would get a 5.5. (Thought it would be more like 5.3.) But at this point, the decimal is mostly semantics.

 

[the Jester]

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Flesh Rot option

Hallow

You touch a point and infuse an area around it with holy (or unholy) power. The area can have a radius up to 60 feet, and the spell fails...

www.dndbeyond.com

Energy Vulnerability option

Hmm. Both of those grant vulnerability, but I don't see anything about turning an immunity into a resistance.

The Pyromancer option is an 18th level feature- I would hardly read that as a general precedent. In general, it seems like things that ignore resistance don't do anything to immunity; the (few?) case(s) that do downgrade it are exceptions, rather than the rule. Or at least, that's how I am reading it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Warlocks flat out seem off here.

Maybe not for Strixhaven, but I could see a college where the headmaster or a sinister professor is a patron.

 

[Weiley31]

In regards to why the Warlock would be going to school when usually they go the Pay-To-Win options, perhaps it's not the College per se that is powering the Strixhaven Warlock, but the Dragons themselves. That OR the Colleges are so infused with the magicka energies of their Dragon Patrons that just be there at the campus infuses the Warlock with arcane power.


The Good News is that the Warlock now has the ability to use Arcane Magick.

The Bad News? Well the Warlock is forced to be an eternal student who has to make trips/pilgrimages back to their respective Campus to recharge their Patron Sponsored Batteries.

Ugh, imagine having to pay Student Debts forever and you work it off by being sent off on crazy adventures that could kill you OR you risk your Loan Debt being invoked and stricken of your powers on the spot?

 

[Yaarel]

I like those.

I think I'd let any class with the spellcasting/pact magic features takes those, in my games.

Sure it removes a lot if the weight behind the classes, but it moves it to the subclasses, making it the important part of the character's theme.

Want to be a Witherbloom paladin? Go ahead, make sense of it in game!

Im curious if Monk, Rogue, and Fighter can do anything with these subclasses.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

In regards to why the Warlock would be going to school when usually they go the Pay-To-Win options, perhaps it's not the College per se that is powering the Strixhaven Warlock, but the Dragons themselves. That OR the Colleges are so infused with the magicka energies of their Dragon Patrons that just be there at the campus infuses the Warlock with arcane power.


The Good News is that the Warlock now has the ability to use Arcane Magick.

The Bad News? Well the Warlock is forced to be an eternal student who has to make trips/pilgrimages back to their respective Campus to recharge their Patron Sponsored Batteries.

Ugh, imagine having to pay Student Debts forever and you work it off by being sent off on crazy adventures that could kill you OR you risk your Loan Debt being invoked and stricken of your powers on the spot?

The alumni association shaking you down for every little thing would have real teeth in this scenario.

 

[Kurotowa]

This is actually my biggest issue with the UA, and I intend to give WotC feedback on this. While this subclass structure works for Bardic Colleges, Druid Circles, Arcane Traditions, and even Sorcerous Origins (fits in with the Shadow Magic and Wild Magic so you have Quandrix Magic, etc), the story behind Warlock subclasses does not lend itself to magic academies. Yes, what Charlaquin said is the answer to that, but to call the academy your magical patron doesn't fit the story of the occult bargain. It also doesn't fit the nomenclature of Warlock Patrons. What would it be, The Lorehold? The Witherbloom?

Even Sorcerer is a bit awkward here. The nomenclature is fine as I said above, but the narrative of how you got your magic is not. This is supposed to be the origin of your powers, not where you study.

Partly I think it's a flavor thing the book itself will address. Partly I think it's a matter of perspective. Is being a Level 1 PC the end result of your schooling or is the first step of your continuing higher education? Because if you're running Strixhaven not as a background location but as your main campaign locus, then it's very much the latter. Attending lectures and going on field expeditions earns you XP (or story milestones) for leveling up. And every class is supposed to improve with time and experience as they gain levels, even Sorcerers and Warlocks.

 

[Kurotowa]

Im curious if Monk, Rogue, and Fighter can do anything with these subclasses.

Not these subclasses, but I'd be highly surprised if there weren't future UA releases meant to address that. Maybe instead of subclasses it'll be feats, or backgrounds, or Magical Gifts. And on top of new mechanical widgets there's likely to be advice on how to flavor existing character options to fit the setting.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Im curious if Monk, Rogue, and Fighter can do anything with these subclasses.

My idea would be to make the additional spells from the lists to be usable 1/long rest each without spell slots, like the spells from Primeval Awareness in Tasha's.

I mean, a monk prismari would leave the 4 Elements monk in the dust.