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

 

[Parmandur]

Guild symbol as holy symbol is eye-rollingly stupid

Ah, actually just noticed this disconnect here: the Guild Signets are actually.totemic magic items given to members, that tie into the magical power of the Guildpact (which has power in the world):

 

[Parmandur]

For MTG enthusiasts, how does the following feel?

• White: divine
• Blue: psionic
• Black: necromantic
• Red: arcane
• Green: primal

Overly reductive. Wizards are primarily Blie, for one thing, and Shamans are Red.

 

[Yaarel]

I don’t think so. I picture a tomelock’s book of shadows as more akin to the Necronomicon than merlin’s spellbook. You don’t need to understand it to make use of it.

I have the opposite impression. Warlocks do study the Necronomicon and do slowly begin into understand it and discover its secrets, and there by become increasingly insane because of this otherworldly insight.

 

[Parmandur]

Actually, hmmm...Maybe the Colleges WOULD work better as a Renown based system. That we we COULD get a Witherbloom Oath of the Ancients Paladin with BOTH The Oath abilities and the College Features.

Still don't give up the method of doing Poly Classes/Subclasses for future releases.

Honestly, considering that Pests, Inklings, Fractals, and Elementals never come up in this article, I would wager there are other elements to the Colleges: Spells, magic items, something.

 

[Charlaquin]

For MTG enthusiasts, how does the following feel?

• White: divine
• Blue: psionic
• Black: necromantic
• Red: arcane
• Green: primal

That more or less tracks. It’s more complex than that, but as a concession to make one universe’s magic system fit into another, it’s passable.

 

[Undrave]

The 5E Monk is milqutoast, and the Wizard Sublclasses are boring...?

Are we talking about the same PHB?? The Wizard Subclasses are actually pretty great, and the Monk is a great example of how overly boxed in thinking like "Power Sources" or "Combat Role" are overly restrctive.

The Monk is sub-par at basically everything and only has one good 'trick' (stunning strike) that comes online around the time more games start to wind down. The best thing you can do with a Monk is a Way of Shadow Stealth Master. We've had multiple lengthy thread about the failings of the Monk and I think the fact that so many people speak up about being disappointed by them is cause enough to think something went wrong in the design. I've played a Monk and aside from the aforementioned Stealth Mastery, I never feel like I contribute squat.

The Diviner has a cool ability with the dice pre-roll thing, and the Abjurer's barrier is pretty neat, especially how it recharges upon using your specialty (a design concept they actually should have applied to the others), but the rest of the Wizard class features are just snoozeville. Reading through them all bore me to tears.

 

[Parmandur]

The Monk is sub-par at basically everything and only has one good 'trick' (stunning strike) that comes online around the time more games start to wind down. The best thing you can do with a Monk is a Way of Shadow Stealth Master. We've had multiple lengthy thread about the failings of the Monk and I think the fact that so many people speak up about being disappointed by them is cause enough to think something went wrong in the design. I've played a Monk and aside from the aforementioned Stealth Mastery, I never feel like I contribute squat.

The Diviner has a cool ability with the dice pre-roll thing, and the Abjurer's barrier is pretty neat, especially how it recharges upon using your specialty (a design concept they actually should have applied to the others), but the rest of the Wizard class features are just snoozeville. Reading through them all bore me to tears.

...

OK, that not my experience.

 

[Yaarel]

Overly reductive. Wizards are primarily Blie, for one thing, and Shamans are Red.

In that case:

• White: divine
• Blue: arcane
• Black: necromantic
• Red: psionic
• Green: primal

Shamans are psionic, mediating between a community of minds.

If some object to the electronic-sounding term "psionic", call it "ki".

 

[Charlaquin]

I have the opposite impression. Warlocks do study the Necronomicon and do slowly begin into understand it and discover its secrets, and there by become increasingly insane because of this otherworldly insight.

Sure, that works too.

 

[Parmandur]

In that case:

• White: divine
• Blue: arcane
• Black: necromantic
• Red: psionic
• Green: primal

Shamans are psionic, mediating between a community of minds.

That really doesn't track with Red, no. Red is Goblins and Dwarves, fire and emotion.