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

 

[Micah Sweet]

To be fair, this argument kinda got away from me. I don't think issues with core abilities are a good reason to end a game, rather a challenge to work through. I don't personally have a problem with sneak attacking rogues, although I still don't like fully kitted and optimized berserker barbarians. And the kind of DMs you guys are talking about are not folks I'd like to game with either.

 

[Yaarel]

The general idea is, just like a DM needs to be into the setting to want to play, a player needs to be into a character to want to play. Interfering with a character, such as class features or other aspects on the character sheet, can interfere with the players desire to play.

 

[Hussar]

The general idea is, just like a DM needs to be into the setting to want to play, a player needs to be into a character to want to play. Interfering with a character, such as class features or other aspects on the character sheet, can interfere with the players desire to play.

Certainly interfere with the player wanting to play that character anyway.

I'm a huge proponent that character sheets are off limits from the DM. The DM has control over the entire universe, but the player only has that sheet. It behooves the DM to tread very, very lightly in these cases.

 

[Remathilis]

Any DM that runs games she doesn't want to has let herself in for a lifetime of misery. Nope, no thanks, check please.

Of course, the alternative might just be a long string of Saturday nights at home watching Disney+. I think a lot of these White Room scenarios exclude the difficulty of finding a game group with matching interests and schedules and that the DM has room to be infinitely picky. That's not so say a DM has to run anything thrown at her, merely that primadonna DMs who run to only their very specific interests end up with difficulty attracting groups.

 

[Fenris-77]

Of course, the alternative might just be a long string of Saturday nights at home watching Disney+. I think a lot of these White Room scenarios exclude the difficulty of finding a game group with matching interests and schedules and that the DM has room to be infinitely picky. That's not so say a DM has to run anything thrown at her, merely that primadonna DMs who run to only their very specific interests end up with difficulty attracting groups.

No white room, I don't run games I don't want to run. Why on earth would I?

 

[Remathilis]

No white room, I don't run games I don't want to run. Why on earth would I?

Is not playing at all the better alternative?

 

[Fenris-77]

Is not playing at all the better alternative?

In the case of games I don't want to run? Very much so. That's just me though, everyone has different tolerances.

 

[Remathilis]

In the case of games I don't want to run? Very much so. That's just me though, everyone has different tolerances.

Again, I think it might depend on the exact nature of complaint. I wouldn't run a game that was in the lines of FATAL with overt violence and sex, but I'm not going to give up gaming because of my personal stance on dragonborn or that the barbarian can crit a horse in half.

I believe this all stemmed from a disagreement over whether patrons can deny class abilities from thier charges. To me, this isn't the kind of hill a DM should choose to die on, but I guess some do..

 

[Fenris-77]

Again, I think it might depend on the exact nature of complaint. I wouldn't run a game that was in the lines of FATAL with overt violence and sex, but I'm not going to give up gaming because of my personal stance on dragonborn or that the barbarian can crit a horse in half.

I believe this all stemmed from a disagreement over whether patrons can deny class abilities from thier charges. To me, this isn't the kind of hill a DM should choose to die on, but I guess some do..

Well sure, lets not descend into silliness. In my case it as much about admitting my own laziness than anything else. If I'm not interested in running the game its not going to happen. I prefer to not make promises I know I'm not going to keep.

 

[Cadence]

@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?

People tend to be suspicious of tieflings, assuming that their infernal heritage has left its mark on their personality and morality, not just their appearance. Shopkeepers keep a close eye on their goods when tieflings enter their stores, the town watch might follow a tiefling around for a while, and demagogues blame tieflings for strange happenings.

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?