Davvy reviews Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos
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- čas přidán 23. 08. 2024
- This video made me learn how to spell curriculum.
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Song: Kingdom of Bards - Adrian Von Ziegler
I can't believe Davy made through this entire video without saying "especially the wizard" once.
Especially in this video
I'll do it for him, "ESPECIALLY THE WIZARD!!!"
Noo spoiled
This truly must be the end times
Stolas
"living the fantasy of getting good grades"
Same, chappy, same 😂
That's just you two being lazy.
@@nicolaezenoaga9756 oof, buddy. Be careful where you say things like that
In strixhaven's case, it's ALSO the escapist fantasy of being employable by a starbucks...
Who was this aimed at?
For a book about a spellcaster school, I really expected more spells to cast. The ones we got are pretty juicy, though.
kinetic jaunt is pretty underwhelming. why not just take expeditious retreat? its lets you move further and is only first level. yeah it still provokes AoO and doesnt let you move through other creature's spaces, but with the extra movement you dont NEED to move through them and you can use the extra movement to circle around them completely and probably still get farther. all of this and jaunt is a whole spell level above retreat and arguably does less!
Silvery Barbs is so juicy, it's basically a forbidden fruit. Not that I mind. That shit is wack and I don't blame DMs for going "nah".
The thing to remember: Strixhaven isnt a school to "learn how to cast spells", it's a magical school and magic in magical school is good and all BUT it's about applying magic studies to ALL ASPECTS of life.
Picking up a little bit of magic shows that at least anyone (with those backgrounds) studied a little bit, enough to get some magical ability. But a monk may be interest in quandrix to sharpen their minds a bit. A lorehold barbarian (Ancestral guardian be great here) fits perfectly even if they cant flex their first level spell while raging. Battlemaster honing their techniques by studying spells that could be used against them. It's even part law school (Silverquill) and Lawyers need a place to learn law, court is pretty tough and practicing against magical opponents can make non magical courtroom battles even easier.
Heck one of the monsters that is in the book is anti-spellcaster (Known from MTG knowledge, but countering spellcasters with mage killers is just smart badguy tactics) so maybe having that one person with less magic could be a good thing!
tdlr school is more studying about magic, then being magic yourself. Even if your a non-caster with little spells (Via feats) you can have RP reasons to be there, because knowing how magic works makes you smarter. Caster classes, enjoy your improved education especially Silverquill (vicious mockery all day every day!)
yep Strixhaven is the study of all aspects, its about understanding magical anything, including monsters it's as much about learning how best to defeat a wielder as it is about becoming one.
@@fuzzydragon exactly.
And if you want, the ritual caster feat let you be a slow caster to show dedication even though you are not a "natural talent"
Finally someone who gets it! I’m tired of people of thinking Strixhaven is a wizard school. It’s not. It’s a school to learn how to work in a magical world. The ancestral guardian barbarian is the greatest example within lorehold, since they use spirits to fight with you. Hell, even one of the npc you can seduce isn’t a wizard but a loxodon with a big sword.
I'd love to be an Echo Knight in either Quandrix, with the echo literally being me conjured from another timeline, or Silverquill, where its like an ink construct that's a manifestation of my wit or whatever.
Also I feel like any martial class that is in a Strixhaven setting is obligated to take the Mageslayer feat. It just makes sense that if you're not there to learn specifically how to CAST magic, that you're there to learn how to deal with magic casters instead.
I'm going to try to mix this in with Candlekeep Mysteries to see how that goes. Maybe give the graduates something to do after their school life, as the last chapter of strixhaven is level 10 (Thanks comments! Good to know it was higher than I thought (8)), while Candlekeep goes to level 16. Might make for a meatier campaign setting!
Goes to level 10 when you graduate out of the school completely.
You graduate at level 10
Genius play. The candlekeep books could be in a "restricted" area of the biblioplex or something.
Cool idea!
As far as "Magic school in TTRPG" goes, I really like the "Strength of Thousands" adventure path in Pathfinder Second Edition. Even non-casters get cool stuff and you can even get items/ new spells if you befriend students.
Plus, it has Anchor Root, the greatest NPC
@@thenecrodancer4002 I love her, she's great
@@thenecrodancer4002 She is every student's imposter syndrome made manifest. She must be supported with positive reinforcement and ramen!
It’s disappointing that they couldn’t find a way to get martial classes to feel as included here, especially given it has some pretty direct competition in the “magical academy adventure” niche. It’s release is right at the tail end of Pathfinder 2e’s *Strength of Thousands* Adventure Path (I think the second-last part released a week or two back) which has the PCs as new students at the Magaambya, Golarion’s premier magical university deep in the jungles of the Mwangi Expanse.
And it included martial classes by using a variant rule called Free Archetype, where every time you get a class feat (which is every even-numbered level, with martial getting an extra one at 1st level) you also get a bonus archetype feat, which the AP thematically restricts to either the Wizard or Druid multiclass archetypes (the school focuses on arcane and primal magic and those are the only two sources of such magic that can be academically taught). Those archetypes can let you get up to 8th level spells if you follow them long enough, which you’re probably going to do in this AP unless the restriction on which archetypes you can get for free loosens up along the way - there’s a shedload of non-multiclass archetypes that could work for the campaign, even a few with direct lore connections to the Magaambya.
The main argument against this is that every 5e martial class has at least 2 subclasses that are inherently magical. Make a swarmkeeper ranger and reflavor your swarm as your school mascot. Take two levels of war wizard on your barbarian, rogue, or monk. Be a third caster. Hell, make a "summoner" character that's is just a reflavored echo knight fighter. There are options.
Also there's nothing saying a DM can't just rule that martial classes without spellcasting get one level of spell progression at every fourth level. Limit it based on your school background.
Silverquill-bard.
Lorehold-cleric.
Quandrix-wizard.
Prismari-sorcerer.
Witherbloom-druid.
@@CitanulsPumpkin I think the issue here is that WotC is putting all of the weight on the shoulders of their customers rather than providing them better tools. As an adventure, the book is lacking for someone who needs the module to guide them, and as a sourcebook it is lacking in features and meaningful additions to the characters and world. Yes the DM could just rule it one way, or the players play it another, but they shouldn't HAVE to given that this is supposed to be content meant to guide both players and DMs.
Now I can roleplay something I’m already doing; failing in school.
Davvy Chappy knowing about Helluva Boss makes me really happy!
You and me both/only.
The irony is this comment isnt higher. F#ck.
I feel like the feats should have been five for each school, for a total of 25. One initiate level, and then two paths that represent the different ways to specialize in the school, locked by both the previous feat and level requirements. It would give a nice feeling of progression and a proper theme for your character. For example, you could have Witherbloom initiate, and then proceed to either Witherbloom Lifecrafter or Witherbloom Gloomsage, before finishing out at Witherbloom Biomaster or Witherbloom Deathmaster. I also thought that maybe t he max level feats could only be taken at the level of most classes' final feats, so you could only have one, but I don't know about that.
👍 .
That sounds pretty great.
problem with those feat trees, the campaign itself goes up to 10 so too little feat gaining levels.
@@summermermaidstar756 they're already level locked so make give the +2 and the special school based effect so it'll feel more like progression. This is something I have issue with 5e is that fighter is the feat monster yet really don't need them. The classes that need them feats need their stats maxed asap.
@@ExeErdna the difference, the campaign itself goes from levels 1 through 10
Only two ASI levels in there unless your a fighter.
Only having two feats means you can get strixhaven initiate (preferably from background for quicker access) and strixhaven mascot, with room for one more feat or ASI during the campaign (if using background).
They handled the strixhaven feat tree fine
If this doesn't end with crippling student loan debt then not a true college and can't forget useless degrees
I dont know what you mean with "student debt", must be a non-european thing.
@@2MeterLP i take it your not from the United states? well here most students have to Barrow money just to afford college. And lets just say when you get out and you see the bill about $30,000 you better hop that the degree you choose wasn't worthless
@@zimattack9994 You do know there are plenty of cheaper colleges, right? There's also trade jobs. All of which immediately give you a middle-class salary.
@@supremecaffeine2633 yha i know im actually planing on going in to a trade school.
This is mostly ment as a joke that people borrow way to much money and get screwed over because the degree they spent 4 years getting wont pay it off any time soon. There's also this stigma about you have to go to college you won't get ahead with out a degree. And let's face it high schools dont help in this as they try to push students into college and into debt.
There is definitely mention of a fairly high tuition in the book so there can definitely be student loan debt
i kinda dig what im reading of the adventure, its a vast departure from the dark gritty style that most 5e modules have for something a good bit more kid friendly, or light hearted. But I can see where the real potential lurks in in pairing Strixhaven with Candlekeep Mysteries to span the downtime for some Scooby-Doo adventures! 🤔
Question is how easily the school life stuff is adabtable to other schools. Might be interesting as a baseline for all the magic schools and military academies scattered around my world.
Then again paying 50 bucks for something that some DnD content creator probably already has a superior video on might not be a savvy investment.
I honestly just bought it because I've been sitting on an 'academy for adventurers' campaign idea for years.
27 bucks on beyond
@@TheHICDealer Not paying 27 bucks for a pdf, at least not to an already affluent company. Indie creators on the DMs guild are a different thing of course.
I've been thinking about this too. If Strixhaven is the Harvard of the DND world, I want to create a Greendale Community College version.
I kind of agree that subclasses should deepen the mechanics of their class, but feats have so much unexplored design space. I understand the hesitancy though, after 3.5e.
At 2:33 I was screaming "owlbear!"
Tbh my favorite thing was the extracurricular stuff. So good to fill out a setting that is in a static
Honestly I like that background features because they allow you to do cool things like cast revify as a contingency as a wizard in case you die. There is also the fiends in the book that give bonus magic for dealing with them that comes at a cost. The 5 new spells are also go from okay to stupidly good.
I wonder when Davy will realize that the Discord link doesn't work.
weird way to trick people to click the link.
You’re doing me a service here
I'd still use the UA subclasses but just make them optional.
If you could rework the UA subclasses into some sort of prestige class, I feel like that would maybe work allowing your players to be both what their class is supposed to be along with the added college stuff.
Yup, you get that lv 1 piece as you start the school, lv 6 is kinda the end of year 2ish, and the lv 10 skill is right at the end. It isn't too busted and makes more sense now that colleges are more fleshed out in 5e metrics.
Strixhaven does feel like a big missed opportunity. Like, I knew from the name they were going to focus in on the school, but it feels like they neglected Arcavios as a larger setting while also half-assing the school itself. It's not bad, but definitely average at best. I expect we'll see a lot more value added on Guild now that Arcavios is available as another MtG setting though.
That purple owl on the cover image is Stolas from Helluva Boss
Personally I look forward to using the Strixhaven background feats in pretty much any campaign. Extra spells with an upgraded familiar that can be useful for more than just spying on people before it dies, plus just the personal flavor of “yup, top of my class” or “eh, necromantic anthropology wasn’t my strongest subject” just sounds fun to me.
With all these D&D reviews, I would love to see you make and publish your own source book or pre-written adventure. I am genuinely curious to see what you would make.
Hi, responding to a comment from a year ago. Just adding an addendum, If you have issues with the books that wizards of the coast puts out then why don't you make your own book?
Instead of just griping and moaning about why the books are bad, do something about it. Make your ideal book of things that you want. I know you said "writing is hard" but there is nothing stopping you from making your own book that you believe is the best iteration of a D&D setting, adventure, or source book.
You had me at "I can have friends"
I like the backgrounds, but was disappointed that we didn’t get any new subclasses like we did in Ravnica. I didn’t like their initial ideas for subclasses, but sad they dropped new subclasses altogether
I would call even go so far and call it lazy, but aparently i am pretty alone with this opinion.
@@CaitSith87 nah I gotta agree.
@@CaitSith87it ain’t lazy, they just focused more on the world itself
@@algotkristoffersson15 everytime they throw in a new idea it must either be accepted no matter the effort they put in or it dies. There is almost never a second attempt on an a good idea badly implemented.
Can we talk about how the bibloplex has, in the rules no less, accessibility for everyone?! Such as large creatures, those with mobility devices, ect... Like i could be a wheelchair bound character and player and have better accessibility to every building than i do in real life on campus
Making sure players can give their characters the aesthetics of their favorite disabilities so they can feel unique and special was higher on WOTCs priority list than making sure non-casters got anything, I guess
@@StrangeGamer859 please shut up and go cry about how the people in wheel chairs having content made for them makes you feel bad.
@@StrangeGamer859 non casters get out done as soon as you get summon woodland creatures plus most players don't know hunter's mark is a trap and inoptimal
@@jettlucashayes8508 Put two levels of war wizard on any "non caster" and pick the right subclass for that non caster and the problem of "should the non caster be in the magic school" goes away.
Hell, put two levels of war wizard on the right non caster and you more than keep up with the casters. Fighter, barbarian, rogue, and monk each have multiple subclasses that fit the theme of one or more of the 5 schools.
@@CitanulsPumpkin yeah but you still get eclipsed in damage and utility by summon woodland creatures.
Honestly, Witherbloom College is a good place for building the “Gothic Lineages”. Plus, I can think of several ways to use the “Owlin” race.
I love some of the backgroud traits and how the different schools give different skill/tool profs so I have ran my character as a custom sage so I still get the background feat while able to keep my proficiencies
So in summary this is a DM adventure book for a group where everyone wants to be a full caster? Or do you still need a tank even though they are going to feel like their only role is to take the damage and feel like they don't belong?
You never needed a tank, but yea, non-casters feel out of place.
The book tries and tells you that you can play a non-caster as long as the sub-class fits the school, specifically stating as an example that a Barbarian Path of the Ancestral Guardian might work as a Lorehaven student. The backgrounds for each school give you a free "Strixhaven student" feat which are essentially Magic Imitate feats with that only lets you pick from a limited spell list that fits school themes.
Did multiclassing and reflavoring suddenly go out of style? If you need a "tank" have your sorcerer start with two levels of paladin and ask the DM to give you a +1 shield and full plate early on.
Hell, if I'm in the mood to play a "summoner" type character I just put two levels of war wizard on an echo knight fighter. Go back and read the level 2 features of war wizard. Tactical Wit and Arcane Deflection are fantastic tools for any non caster character that sets Int as their second or third highest stat.
Make a party of five swarmkeeper rangers and have each one be from a different school and all their "swarms" flavored as the mascots of their school.
The heavy focus on academia practically begs for the inclusion of artificer which is a half caster with multiple tank options.
5e is versatile enough that you can make any "tank" a "mage" with the right level dips or reflavoring and still come out with a viable character.
@@CitanulsPumpkin There's also Bladesingers and Abjuration wizards, Clerics being... OP as always, Druids who can face-tank just fine in their wild shapes (and that is if they're not Tortles, in which case they just... always face-tank). Hexblade can do some tanking (not much, but... can work). Valor Bards are also a thing.
Basically, you don't need a dedicated "Tank Class", even though they help.
@@lyravain6304 realistically, barbarian is the main dedicated tank class in the game due simply to their d12 hit die and rage halving most if not all incoming damage. And there are something like four barbarian subclasses that are full of magic.
Zealot
Ancestral Guardian
Storm Herald
Wild Magic
An argument can be made for Totem being a magic based class as well. Any of these can be reflavored to focus more on magic, and you still always have the option of taking 2 levels of war wizard to make it even more of a tank. Use your low level spell slots for social and exploration encounters, begin fights by casting a non concentration buff like jump or whatever, and then Rage and Arcane Deflection your way through every fight.
I think the UA multisubclasses were amazing and great for the game as an example and path towards more flexibility and versatility for character building in exchange for specialization towards a single class.
Unrelated but sorta bc Nate is a spell caster:
Fangirls: *holding up yellow banners, waving their shirts around and screaming “WE LOVE YOU NATHANIEL GAINSBY!!”
Nate: my face portrays no emotion.
Should've given the owls blind sence to represent their hearing.
Honestly, I just buy these for whatever wild MtG lore they slip in as an afterthought. Even so, this isn't what I was hoping for.
"Look at that tongue" he says about an orc with tusks and no visible tongue
Honestly, though I wish this had more content to it, and though this is tied more to a Hogwart-sy flavor, I probably could take some notes from this since I've thought a couple of times about what a D&D source book to play precisely highschool anime would look like.
As a forever DM I feel there are too many race abilities and subclasses anyway, so I didn't think about a player perspective while reading this book.
Ok guys, we are going to play a hogqarts style game in dnd
*Everyone picking normal, non casting classes*
"Why is this magic school so hard on muggles?"
I'm tempted to run a Strixhaven one shot for my friends at school, and maybe make them play as their respective majors... though that would mean half the party would be Lorehold
1:02
Frog: *thinking of eating a fly*
Student: I think... This frog is thinking of home on his pond and seeing a woman grapppling a lizardfolk who is grappling a cowboy who is stabbing the lizardfolk with a rapier
"If I had wanted schoolin', I'd have gone to school."
I recently started a campaign, and I had to basically discard the entire adventure part because I prefer making up my own, but I think we have potential for a good story; We have one player who faked their way into Strixhaven, one that had Urza the planeswalker mess in his family history giving him aberrant sorcery, one extremely creepy musician who just wants to make everyone happy, and one janitor.
Hmmm, i'm disapointed.
I really wanted this book to offer more variety on how to play according to the colleges and studies you undergo.
With the new DrakeWarden subclass and seeing the MTG card illustration, i started piecing stuff together like a SilverQuill student that's writing a poem/thesis on the founding Dragons and the Drake he can summon is his work conjured, coming to life, made out of ink.
It would've been great, the early stage would show a small drake representing a work in it's begining, in need of maturing, and as the story goes and the poem is more rafined the Drake it conjures become stronger, tougher and eventually spread his wings.
With that and a few conjuring animals reskinned as ink construct i thought i had a solid idea.......
I'll still run with it
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who thought that orc’s tusks were some kind of split tongue 😆
On the first day strixhaven, WotC gave to me: an owlfolk with 1 less racial trait.
On the second day of strixhaven, WotC gave to me: 2 "new" feats and an owlfolk with one less racial trait.
On the third day of Strixhaven, WotC gave to me: 5 samey (but good) backgrounds, 2 "new" feats, and an owlfolk with one less racial trait.
On the fourth day of Strixhaven, WotC gave to me: 4 magic items, 5 samey backgrounds, 2 "new" feats, and an owlfolk with 1 less racial trait.
On the fifth day of Strixhaven, WotC gave to me: 5 wizard spells! 4 magic items, 5 samey backgrounds, 2 "new" feats, and an owlfolk with 1 less racial trait.
That what makes homebrew great is ignoring everything WotC changed to "balance" things
the owlin may have 1 less racial trait, but it gets free flight at level 1 which is super powerful. I'd still probably ban it from my games on that fact alone.
@@companyoflosers the owlin has 1 less racial trait than the owlfolk from UA which had everything the owlin has + free feather falling.
@@dxjxc91 It really isn't a free feather fall since you can fail the roll
@@companyoflosers It's only powerful when it is allowed to be such, it's slow unless you're planning on making a monk or barb out of one
Honestly, the drama over the UA subclasses was driven by idiots. The only legitimate problems were that it needed language saying certain classes got two features at higher levels to get everything listed, some of the "target creature gets vulnerability to an element until end of combat" stuff was borderline OP, and Prismari needed Unarmored Defense tied to dex plus casting stat.
The only thematic gripe I had was that more colleges than just Lorehold should have had pet/mascot options, but putting the Strixhaven mascot feat on a chain pact warlock fixes almost all of that. Hell putting sidkick levels on the mascots sounds like a fun way to turn the mage tower minigame into pokemon.
In all likelihood, the UA subclasses will be included in the options for players at my table going forward. It's just a shame that multiclass subclasses are off the table now for 5e. There goes any chance of seeing Planescape in an official 5e setting book.
Yeah some of the UA school stuff should be adapted into full play if a player wants to do it since I still agree the classes were solid ONLY if it was on top of base class/subclass. Yeah rabble-rabble OP OP. Yet I'll rather have that then the multiclass mess of 5e. Where some lv1 dips are way too strong which are pretty much no different than being a pseudo multiclass in a "magic school setting" since you have your base class and what you're learning from said school.
They're still very clearly doing planescape due to that recent UA with the weird races.
Daddy Hasbro is making them pump out book after book after book... I remember when they said they weren't going to do that.
@@kyubii972 Yeah, Hasbro production seems to be very counter productive.
@@kyubii972 That race UA is Spelljammer. Sure, there's some overlap between Spelljammer and Planescape, but at their core one is about exploring a vast number of alien worlds and the other is about political power struggles between ten guilds operating in one massive city. They already released Ravnica as their ten factions fighting for power setting. Without a new mechanical gimmick like multi-class-subclasses they don't have something to draw munchkins to the Planescape book.
Sure we might see a small pdf for Planescape support on one of the digital platforms, but realistically if you want Planescape in 5e your best bet is to look at the books coming out of Monte Cooke Games rather than WotC.
6:41 I think those are tusks, Davvy. He's an Orc :p
Don’t… don’t ruin this for me
Those are tusks, but the dude is a Troll. He's from a card.
@@valvadis2360 perhaps that's the origin of the artwork, but in Strixhaven his character is Urzmaktok Grojsh, an Orc.
I really liked the concept of the UA subclasses, my problem with them was that they were about as balanced as the SS Vasa.
Everyone: *absolutely dumps on the UA Subclasses that WotC released*
WotC: *Removes said Subclasses entirely and has to make do with some smaller features like Feats*
Everyone: “WhErE aRe My SuBcLaSsEs?! REEEEEEEEEE!”
I might look into the social mechanics in the book.
Maybe I could steal it for my own game: Social encounters lack much mechanical structure aside from a few charisma skills, but this might make social encounters more rewarding, or at least easier to navigate!
Davvy HARDCORE roleplaying a cold take rn
I will be “flavoring” this as a strange academy campaign
I would have loved having feats that are locked behind levels and other requirements(stats) because this would allow for stronger and stronger feats, like imagine if you can only get certain feats if the report card had a really good or bad grade, or if certain feats become accessible with a certain number of levels in certain classes or subclasses(all martial character can get a feat that give battle master Maneuvers but battlemaster's of 10th level or higher can get a feat that gives them like Maneuvers' that use Two or more superiority dice for even more powerful effects.
this just my opinion
yet another video. thank you Davvy chappy.
"Look at that tongue." **picture only shows tusks, no tongue** lol
Hooty!
The Strixhaven UA debacle made me realize that multi-subclassing should absolutely be a thing, but I have no idea how it'd work.
It'll work like how it is in the UA except the college is beside your normal class choice. Like Wizard lv 1 of the Prismari College. So you get both and level up normally. You get your 1,6,10 and 14 skills from Prismari with your Wizard skills. Since you're most likely running the background you get that feat at lv1 to for Prismari too. Now if you're V-Human you get another feat(war caster) making it so you're VERY solid of character at level 1 and really have no need to truly multiclass.
Plus it makes more sense in a "mage school" the "mages" aren't pushovers imo. The problem I see is when you start moving away of casters into melee, mainly the fighter where it might get a bit crazy.
idk whats best: the video itself or the thumbnail
i been giving the mtg setting books a chance and tried each of them out, except for this one. Strixhaven just doesn't speak to me and feel the magic school concept limits the potential for adventures rather then creating more opportunities, so when i now hear davy explain how little of a actual setting book this is, i now becom even less likely to buy it. hope they start focusing on making proper settings books in the future instead then this mix content style books they been making lately
Hogwarts but good?
I read Strixhaven. It is boring. Only for DMs who are scared of flying.
But it doesn’t have Hufflepuff.
I'd say Hogwarts but less pernicious, and leave it at that.
Hogwarts is only a murky 4/10. Strixhaven on the other hand is a clear vibrant 4/10.
@@InquisitorThomas then how are you supposed to Find anything?!?!
Ravnica backgrounds and Eberron Dragonmarked races are superior to this teenie-weenie feat.
This is true because the races can work with said backgrounds.
As a Magic nerd the fact that Strixhaven looks like it has Kozilek's weird floaty rocks feels like it so should've been a thing, as Eldrazi Conscription shows Emrakul making a powerful Eldrazi maybe even a Titan, so I think since Kozilek is the most "wizardly" of the 3 titans it would've been so cool if this was his home world and was somewhat still alive
So how would the adventure book for this be for a newer DM? I’ve been considering running lost mines of phandelver as my first campaign, though I’m also considering trying out other campaigns after. Strixhaven does seem like a fun adventure book, but how would it be for new dms?
Don’t start with strixhaven. WAY to many new mechanics and it doesn’t do a good job at explaining how to lead your players from one set encounter to the next.
Your better of doing LMOP or dragon heist instead
The adventures are spaced out over the course of the handful of years the PCs attend the school. The "new mechanics" in the book are effectively just 3 to 5 point scales that say whether an NPC likes, hates, or is neutral to the PC they see most in their daily routine.
For new DMs the big hurdles for this book are running downtime and running a lot of NPCs that the party should not or can not kill in a straight up fight. These aren't really even hurdles though. They're what set Strixhaven apart from most campaigns where running into a place and killing everything in sight are the expected norms.
If you can think up, or get random tables to roll up, a lot of stuff for your players to do around a university and you can run multiple NPCs that have detailed relationships with your players you'll be fine. If you just want kick in the door and loot the place action adventures start with another book.
Compared to some of the other reviews, this one is an interesting take on some of the aspects of the books and potential uses of the feats/colleges
YESSS, A feat Tree (maybe like what we'll see in 5.5) would have worked so well here. And I have a gripe with all the NPC having these abilities tied to their collages that player characters won't have access too. I wanna strip out the statblock features and make some feats that let PCs access those abilities
I actually think this would prove useful for adaptation into my setting, because one of the cities is getting a magic school when they rebuild. So my plan is to use this as framework or foundation, and go from there.
You are totally correct why didn't they just do that?... That would have taken time and effort and they don't feel like putting effort into their books anymore it's pretty clear they want to pump them out as fast as possible nowadays.
They still want to put stuff that play tests well with everyone but don't want to put in the effort to actually edit and design new subclasses that are actually interesting for the system.
I'm just happy that we got the Owl race. To me that is the win here, the wrest feels like proof of concept for something that was rushed.
2:34 "Bear and bird" no Banjo Kazooie picture?! 0/10 missed opportunity
I see Stolas, I click. I am a simple man.
My marketing works
I'm trying to decide if I can use any of the concepts here, and in candle keep, for my worlds University of Universal Understanding.
I’m kinda sad they couldn’t find a way to make the subclasses work, but it’s understandable why it happened.
They didn't give themselves time to fix the problem. They needed to come up with two or three subclasses per college. Some could have been existing subclasses such as spores druid or scribes wizard that maybe just need an extra 3rd level ribbon feature to reflect Witherbloom or Silverquill etc.
The subclasses were fine in the UA. They just needed to reword the base language so bard got the last two abilities at whatever level that doesn't see play they get their last subclass feature at. And prismari should have had unarmored defense.
Armchair DMs cried "balance", threw a hissy fit, and now the door has been closed on an entire avenue of game design for 5e. I'm just wondering how long it will take the munchkins to realise they've killed any chance of a full Planescape setting book coming to 5e.
So a lionfolk, a yuan-ti, a kenku, and and owlin walk into the great hall...
owlin? don't you mean shifter / half furry? 😉😆
@@Wreckur4203 Owlin is the new Owl race
@@summermermaidstar756
I know but weren't they making a HP mascots joke? the lion, snake, raven and badger?
@@Wreckur4203 I wouldn't know cuz I never got into Harry Potter (and never will cuz like, the author is a transphobic POS).
Remember when they designed breakthrough subclasses for this book then scrapped them?
Strixhaven: Weaponized polyamory
25 SECONDS WOOO. Holy shit this literally just popped on my sub feed.
TBH the only reason I asked for this book is because Silvery barbs looks OP
Im pretty sure its not even a sourcebook because its part of a crossover with magic the gathering
You would have more fun with a high magic setting on the weave grounds. Each race gains a race related level one spell and cantrip with +1 level one spell slots. Kobolds gain detect gemstone\ore. Halflings attain overtion to traps for one hour( the movement or action that triggers leaves you nauseated you must succede a DC 8 con save to ignore and press through any way. When elfs use a long or short bow you randomly fire an arcane archer shot except bramble based on a D8 roll the first time you attack a creature that day. Nomes receive a once per day casting of shield regardless of class. Goblins receve a once per day casting of grease...
I will say it over and over again, the Strixhaven schools should have been *Prestige Classes*. WotC shot themselves in the foot with Prestiges in 5e, because when the one they gave us was poorly received, they took it as prestige classes as a whole being bad instead of the one solitary one they gave us being hot garbage. Meanwhile they'll trip over their own poorly-designed wizard hats to 'fix' Ranger for the sixth time.
Prestige Classes are a *good idea*. The Rune Scribe was just *Bad*. Other classes you can just take each level along your journey, leveling as a rune scribe was a quest in and of itself, and was 100% reliant on your DM remembering they needed to help you reach the required milestones. and woe be you if you reached the XP requirement for your next level before completing your subclass lv-up minigame.
Just give us a 1-5 level mini-class with some cool, but niche abilities, WotC. Add a little more variance to the class-subclass dynamic that isn't just "the 20th flavor of wizard" or "Ranger, but we fixed it this time, we promise, please stop hating Ranger."
so like, would a proper prestige be like "I took 3 levels of wizard and have 15 Wisdom so I now qualify for Sigil Seeker, now my 4th character level will be in Sigil Seeker"?
proper as in not what Rune Scribe did
@@GoblinLord Require a level/ASI requirement, possibly a skill proficiency, and a condition that must be met to *take* the class. Having an entry requirement is fine, but you shouldn't have to be constantly be finding keys out in the world to unlock further class levels. That's what XP is for.
Example: Trapsmith
Prerequisites:
- Dexterity 13 (Trapsmiths need to have good dexterity to interact with and avoid traps.)
- Intelligence 13 (Creating new traps and properly circumventing old ones requires in-depth knowledge of how they function.)
- Proficiency with Sleight of Hand (A deft hand is required to not set off a trap as you set it up.)
- Character Level 5th (The level of skill required to become a Trapsmith takes effort. The earliest you may take a level of Trapsmith is your 5th character level.)
- Complete a Special Task (Trapsmiths learn their trade the same way others would, under tutelage from a master. You must complete an internship of at least 1 month with another Trapsmith to learn the basics of trap design and construction before you can begin experimenting and learning on your own.)
The class would then give you the ability to set up complex traps quickly, from spending a turn creating a crossbow trap to catch a pursuer unawares, to spending time while setting up camp to create a nonmagical version of the Alarm spell, all over the course of 5 levels.
@@harutakami1313 so basically you start it the same way Rune Scribe does but without the will-they-won't-they of the later increases (aka having to do the mini quest bs)
@@GoblinLord Yeah. Also Rune Scribe's abilities were... not the greatest. They ate up your attunement slots meaning you had to choose between a class feature or a magic item, which is never a good feeling.
oof, that is horrible management lol
Thanks.
Wish he talked about how one spell in this book is genuinely game breaking
Yeah I was waiting for the dunk on Silvery Barbs...
Thanks for the video.
This book is literally Wizards saying "Hey, we heard you like roleplay so we put more roleplay in your roleplay so you can roleplay while you're roleplaying"
I'm so glad the only campaign I'm planning to run in strixhaven is where my players and I conquer the plane and destroy the school Because we didn't like the magic set it's based off of
As someone who loves Mtg and thought Strixhaven was great this makes me sad :( I’m playing a kids on brooms game right now and thought this book might give me some new ideas but now I’m not sure.
Well the class UA is still available online so I guess I'll just use that
I love that they basically are like well I guess we just suck let's not put any classes in the book....
No... Do some actual work and play test again, delay your damn book.
7:18 you made me burst out loud laughing at that comment 😀. Most people pay taxes 🖐🙂.
Ah Strixhaven, 40 pages of material, and limitless homebrew potential. Try it but, be ready for anything after the first 2-3 sessions, as anything from chance encounters to cinnamon squirrels can happen... Welcome to Strixhaven, Enjoy yourself or flunk trying, lol.
For the subclasses, time notwithstanding, they could have made subclasses for each spellcaster that shows up in each of the houses. Like for Witherbloom we should have gotten a Druid and warlock subclass. Granted this gives a lot of subclasses to the Wizard but also to the sorcerer, warlock and Druid, and even one or three for bard!
So for someone who is REALLY into the whole 'magical academy' thing, but wants a sourcebook for it, does anyone have any recommendations?
I'm really surprised you didn't mention the spells. Not only are there very few of them, but some of them, mainly Silvery Barbs, are completely op
I feel like the complaints about the feats in this book overlook the fact that, in this case, the feat is really just an extension of the new backgrounds. I think having access to three spells as a part of a character's background is cool as hell. You are a student who studied to get to a prestigious university, so on day one you already have some knowledge and skills from that lifestyle.
So, would you say that this book is like Tome of Foes; where it's just full of nifty info on the magic school/schools of D&D or is this one of those instruction books for building a campaign?
As someone who's more of a player than a DM, I'm hoping it's the former
@6:41 is that a tongue, or a bookmark? Or the Tognue of the book?
It feels like after the first UA they should have pushed the book back and try to figure out how to make it work, either with the subclasses or feat trees but instead just decided to reuse the dragonmark concept from eberon but as a background.
I think if they'd pushed this book back like 6 months and actually worked on that side of it they could have accomplished this.
WOTC: so the new subclasses are not received well by the buyers...let's get rid of them and still sell the manual at full price!
This is is one example of why I'm moving away from D&D 5E...there's so much better out there...like advanced D&D 5E ( from level up), or any free league game to be honest.
Hey @Davy Chappy why don't you cover free league material? Just food for thoughts.🙂👍
the owlin was nerfed alot so its just another flying race the feat familiars are fun and cool but we needed more feats to replace subclasses they said more feats to make up but instead got 2 not a lie but feels dishonest
The “problem” I have with people’s expectations with Strixhaven, is the same I got in… a part in this video.
People think Strixhaven is DnD Hogwarts, and that’s not the case, it’s more about an academy that teach you ABOUT magic not to teach you yo USE magic.
I honestly wanna make a character that is afraid of magic so he goes to Strixhaven to know about it and find a way to keep it at bay, more than control it.
Time and also the DM will determine if he ends up not liking magic or understanding that magic is cool.
EDIT: I cannot blame people for thinking like that cause it seems like it was marketed like it was dnd harry potter, which lets be honest, it is a pretty appealing concept, so people rolled with it, cause in reality, Strixhaven can be that, but it isn’t the only thing it can be.
There's a thirsty owl for the thumbnail.
i wanted a HP esk sourcebook, sad that this isnt it. the dating sim stuff sounds intresting tho running romance at the table has always been something i try to avoid. for anyone that has the book do you think its worth it and why?