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

 

[Cadence]

The X-Men ended pretty much ended for me with Uncanny X-Men vol 1 227.

I think I made it into the 200s or 210s back in the day. I got sidetracked in the 130s (iirc) reading them to my son in reprints (and so haven't finished), but I can't decide if I'll end at 142 (Day's of Future Past) or with 167 and then God Love's Man Kills (before we get the Morlocks and Forge and all that). In any case, it feels like Claremont's X-men jumped the shark for a lot of people well before #279.

 

[Maxperson]

I think I made it into the 200s or 210s back in the day. I got sidetracked in the 130s (iirc) reading them to my son in reprints (and so haven't finished), but I can't decide if I'll end at 142 (Day's of Future Past) or with 167 and then God Love's Man Kills (before we get the Morlocks and Forge and all that). In any case, it feels like Claremont's X-men jumped the shark for a lot of people well before #279.

I stopped comics in general in the late 80's or early 90's when they started doing those huge crossover stories across like 6 books. I just couldn't keep up, they involved books I didn't really like, and if I missed one the story was thrown off. It was super frustrating, so I walked away.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I feel like I missed a post. Who said they would enforce things on some/all Warlocks in their game but not on any of the Cleric or Paladins? It would seem bizarre to me to do for the former but not the later. Does the PhB not have similar words for those classes about working out what their duties are with th DM (like it does for the Warlock) and similar parts saying which powers they get from their own merits and which

Precisely. God and patrons should both have the ability to control the powers they give to clerics, paladins and warlocks. I will admit certain patrons, like the GOO, can reasonably break that mold.

 

[Undrave]

I stopped comics in general in the late 80's or early 90's when they started doing those huge crossover stories across like 6 books. I just couldn't keep up, they involved books I didn't really like, and if I missed one the story was thrown off. It was super frustrating, so I walked away.

Yeah corporate universes that go on forever and split the storyline across multiple books are annoying.

I'd rather get into more insular work, possibly controlled by its creators from start to finish.

If you enjoy superheroes, I'm a BIG fan of Decoder Ring Theatre's Red Panda Adventures, an audio drama series about a masked mystery man in Toronto. The stories start in the Great Depression and ends sometimes after WWII and there's a LOT of interesting development and nothing gets rebooted back to the status quo and there's no corporate mandated crossovers... It's all controlled by creator Gregg Taylor (who plays the titular role). It's a little rocky at first, but once they get their footing (ep. 7 is where it really clicked for me, out of 120) it's really good. The universe got novels and a few comics (available on Comixology) and instead of continuing forever, Gregg's been mostly filling in the blanks with stories we may have heard about or never saw.

In comics form, I really enjoy Monkeybrain Comic's offering on Comixology (who also did the Red Panda comics, incidentally). They have Bandette about a young thief/vigilante in Paris who faces down criminal organizations and hired killers with a big smile, a lot of sass, and a carefree attitude like no other. Then there's Edison Rex which is more or less "What if Lex Luthor killed Superman and then decided to replace Superman as protector of Earth?".

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I mean of course GM can take away the warlock's powers or cleric's powers, or hell, even rogue's powers if if they so choose. The GM is in charge, if they say that happens, then that happens. It is completely another matter whether that is a good idea. Personally I feel that doing it very short term might be OK if the circumstances logically warrant it (this is the Star Trek episode where Troi loses her telepathic powers and has to deal with that, the situation is resolved in the end of the episode) but of course in the long term it cannot work, the character cannot remain depowered. It could also possibly be a narrative reason for the character to switch subclasses if the plyer so desired (i.e. cleric forsakes their god and goes on quest to find a new one etc.)

 

[Greg K]

I stopped comics in general in the late 80's or early 90's when they started doing those huge crossover stories across like 6 books. I just couldn't keep up, they involved books I didn't really like, and if I missed one the story was thrown off. It was super frustrating, so I walked away.

Yeah, for the most part, I was getting out of DC and Mavel superhero titles around that time and moving to DC Vertigo. It was not just the cross-overs. In general, I was no longer enjoying the writing/stories.
By 1990, I had already dropped most Marvel Superhero titles including Mutants long before that). I think i was still reading Captain America and Amazing Spiderman. However, I was done with Marvel with the exception of a few occasional runs (e.g. Busiek/Perez Avengers, Chichester's run on Daredevil, the Marvel Knight's Daredevil (Smith, Mack, and Brubaker runs) and I still need to check out Brubaker's run on Captain America, Priest's Black Panther, and Coates's Black Panther.

 

[Undrave]

I mean of course GM can take away the warlock's powers or cleric's powers, or hell, even rogue's powers if if they so choose. The GM is in charge, if they say that happens, then that happens. It is completely another matter whether that is a good idea. Personally I feel that doing it very short term might be OK if the circumstances logically warrant it (this is the Star Trek episode where Troi loses her telepathic powers and has to deal with that, the situation is resolved in the end of the episode) but of course in the long term it cannot work, the chracter cannot remain depowered. It could also possibly be a narrative reason for the character to switch subclasses if the plyer so desired (i.e. cleric forsakes their god and goes on quest to find a new one etc.)

They created the whole Oathbreaker subclass for Paladins but didn't bother to make a similar one for Clerics or Warlock... it feels like a missed opportunity...

 

[Faolyn]

They created the whole Oathbreaker subclass for Paladins but didn't bother to make a similar one for Clerics or Warlock... it feels like a missed opportunity...

Hmm... now, what would a Forsaken/Apostate cleric or warlock look like.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

They created the whole Oathbreaker subclass for Paladins but didn't bother to make a similar one for Clerics or Warlock... it feels like a missed opportunity...

Wasn't there a prestige class in the 3E Book of Vile Darkness for ex-clerics? Grossly overpowered, as I recall.

"FACE NOW THE POWER OF ATHEISM!"

 

[Undrave]

Hmm... now, what would a Forsaken/Apostate cleric or warlock look like.

I guess a Cleric could just be taken up by another God and just switch domain?

We could have a Domain of Treachery or Lies for Clerics of Asmodeus or something...

For Warlock... we talked about the Blood Mage who drains their HP so maybe that Forsaken Warlock can basically try to squeeze every bit of magic left in them by spending their hit dice? Like, becoming a Warlock has fundamentally changed them so they're not a normal human anymore, but without the power and support of the Patron they sort of endanger themselves doing magic now?