Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Mages of Strixhaven

Dire Bare · Jun 8, 2021

Weiley31 said:
And amazingly Prismari has no Bards, despite a certain card being otherwise.

It states in the document that not all members of a particular college have to choose the subclass. So, there certainly can be Prismari bards, just not with the Mage of Prismari subclass.

Parmandur · Jun 8, 2021

TwoSix said:
If you're arguing that the heterogeneity of 5e class design is better, we'll have to agree to disagree. Necessary for the needs of the 2014 playtest audience, sure, but I don't think it's better.

Water under the bridge now, unless it affects the development of a hypothetical 6e. More importantly, it's nice to see the current designers are willing to get a little more radical. Should be a lot of interesting homebrew with the concepts this UA opens up if it makes it to press.

Exception based, heterogeneous design allows for more variety.

Tonguez · Jun 8, 2021

Anyone think that Prismari might have some connection to the Prismeer domain mentioned in the Feywild book? Kinetic Artistry seems appropriate for a Carnival performer Or am I reading too much into their similairity?

collin · Jun 8, 2021

Is it just me, or do these schools of magic sound a little Harry Potter-esque (at least the names)?

Steampunkette · Jun 8, 2021

I'm honestly fairly annoyed by the "Multiple classes can take this subclass" design. Primarily because 5e has been really -big- on the idea of "Creating and maintaining class identity". Druids are naturalist in tune with primal magic. Warlocks traffic with dark powers. Sorcerers have an innate magical spark.

Or they sit in the same school as Wizards and Bards and learn spells in the exact same way as any Hogwarts character...

It's right up there with all magic, Divine, Arcane, Primal, Etc, being "The Weave". It washes away variety and depth.

I find that somehow freeing and also frustrating. 'Cause the reason we don't have 2 dozen different classes is because they tried to break everything down to it's most core archetype. Heck, Jeremy Crawford has implied there may not be a Psionicist because it would need to hold both a narrative and functional niche.

But apparently that is going out the window with these subclasses, which wash away narrative and mechanical niches.

Vael · Jun 8, 2021

They might need to create another subclass or two. For starters, A Prismari Bard-specific subclass, 'cause it's just weird that the Arts and Performance focused school doesn't have a Bard option.

I know why Mage of the Prismari doen't work as written for Bards, they lack the elemental spells that it'd be a trap option, but the flavor fits, so I'd just consider making a "College of Elemental Performance" subclass for them.

Kobold Avenger · Jun 8, 2021

So my observations so far:
-The Bard cannot gain the full abilities of any of these subclasses because they gain additional subclass abilities at (6/14), I think we should either allow them to get both the 10th and 14th level ability on level 14, or allow they to replace the 6th level ability with the 10th level ability if they choose to.
-Sorcerers are also another class that doesn't fit into the 6/10/14 pattern they get (6/14/18), but they at least can get all the abilities
-The main ability of the Mage of Lorehold is dependent on there being an actual medium-sized statue around. On most other worlds this could be highly situational, unless they're willing to Stone Shape (a bonus spell they get) any rock they run into.
-Mage of Prismari is based on being mobile and flexible elemental bonuses, I feel there needs to be a some more touch spells around to take advantage of their mobility. Boreal Sweep can make a bunch of closely packed creatures prone, if they're willing to take a few opportunity attacks.
-Mage of Quandrix has some useful probability and space altering abilities. While Quantum Tunelling is a fairly strong ability (resistance to most attacks), Null Equation seems odd based on it's description that it's a constitution save, I feel it should be an intelligence save.
-Mage of Silverquill, silvery barbs is their signature ability and can basically be seen as using a 1st level spell, since I feel they're certainly going to use it more than once per long rest. Being able to apply Infusion of Eloquence to any creature damaged by their spells seems to be their most effective ability.
-Mage of Witherbloom, I like that they can do a bunch of necrotic damage (without resistance getting in the way) and can heal nearby companions. The potion granting resistance without requiring concentration is quite useful too.

Dire Bare · Jun 8, 2021

Steampunkette said:
I'm honestly fairly annoyed by the "Multiple classes can take this subclass" design. Primarily because 5e has been really -big- on the idea of "Creating and maintaining class identity". Druids are naturalist in tune with primal magic. Warlocks traffic with dark powers. Sorcerers have an innate magical spark.

Or they sit in the same school as Wizards and Bards and learn spells in the exact same way as any Hogwarts character...

It's right up there with all magic, Divine, Arcane, Primal, Etc, being "The Weave". It washes away variety and depth.

I find that somehow freeing and also frustrating. 'Cause the reason we don't have 2 dozen different classes is because they tried to break everything down to it's most core archetype. Heck, Jeremy Crawford has implied there may not be a Psionicist because it would need to hold both a narrative and functional niche.

But apparently that is going out the window with these subclasses, which wash away narrative and mechanical niches.

Agreed. I have mixed feelings.

Samurai · Jun 8, 2021

While I like the idea a lot, I think if 6e is going to go this route, the levels at which each class gains a subclass ability should all be the same (such as at level 1 and every odd level you only get your base class abilities, while at level 2 and every even level you get your subclass abilities.) Something like that would make it much easier to swap around sub-classes between different classes.