Strixhaven - Curriculum of Chaos: Dungeons & Dragons (DDN)

O livro strixhaven é um complemento interessante para D&D quinta edição e incorpora a Universidade de Strixhaven do universo de Magic The Gathering ao mundo e regras do Forgotten Realm. A primeira novidade de destaque é a raça dos Owlin - vulgo humanoide coruja para jogar. O livro peca em trazer apenas 5 magias novas e 10 itens mágicos (tendo em vista a temática poderia ter implementado mais), mas compensa com 47 novas criaturas, dentre as quais o Caçador de Magos acredito ser bem interessante para desenvolver historias no tema. Além disso tem 2 novos feats e 5 backgrounds. Apesar de classificado como um livro de regras o Strixhaven também traz uma aventura pronta na universidade, que além dos detalhes da aventura, possui um vasto detalhamento do seu funcionamento.É um livro interessante para complementar e fomentar a criatividade do mestre mas ele peca nos pontos de trazer mais magias e novidades inesperadas. Não é, do meu ponto de vista, um livro essencial, mas um complemento interessante. Muito bem estruturado, com artes maravilhosas no padrão Wizzard of The Coast e qualidade das páginas de sempre.

Let me start by saying that the physical content in excellent. Not only oes the book include a removeable map (with other maps on its back), but the book is filled with wondrous drawings, pictures and maps.Unfortunately, that is the best of it.This book includes basically two things, a setting for D&D 5E (the Strixhaven University), and a campaing set in that setting.The setting is IMHO, rather uninspired, specially if we compare it with the many magical school and academies that we've read about (Hogwarts, the Unseen University, Breakbills, etc). Strixhaven seems generic and not as "magical" as it should. And I don't mean just as in lacking charm, or being unattractive. How come that in a world with magical unseen servants and elementals being summonned right and left people are still used as waiters, or even cleaners? Also, although the book claims that any class that has access to magical or suppernatural powers can fit in Strixhaven, the truth is that it only works on a mechanical way. A Barbarian, a Cleric (of any god except Knowledge), a Sorcerer, or any class that doesn't gain its magical abilities from studying (so almost anyone except Wizards, Artificers and perhaps Bards) should not advenace or gain levels just for being in an academical setting. Yes, to be sure, a good DM can fix all the problems with it, but if a thing is "fixable", it means it has to be fixed. At least, they made their homework, for the most part. There are new feats and backgrounds, and a new reace for players to choose. Many other NPC students and teachers are included, as well as rules for jobs, extracurriculars, studying and exams. Unfortunately, although each student is suppposed to study different subjects, each year they are only examined about the one common subject that they are all required to study. One of those things a DM can fix.As for the campaign, I'd rate it 1/5. A magical academy offers you a perfect sandbox for a non-linear campaign, but Strixhaven offers you instead a perfectly linear campaign where the PCs are railroaded time and again into being at the right time in the right place, and then into doing what many of them wouldn't do. At one point, for instance the PCs are to go to a coffee shop, and once there thay take part in a contest that involves stacking pets on top of each other. What if the players don't want to go to the coffee shop? What if they don't like interacting with pets, or if they respect them too much to stack them like boxes? At other time the PCs are challenged into breaking inside of a faculty building and stealing a doll. What if the PCs are law abiding folks, or juts to strong willed to give in to peer preasure. It doesn't matter, the campaign demands it, so the PCs must do it. And there are many instances like these. And the PCs are not allowed to step off the tracks. Any attempt to solve problems in a logical way that is not what the book has foreordained is to be thwarted. Yes, a good DM can ignore all of this, and create a good and logical campaing, but he shouldn't have to.And that is my rating of this book. If the DM wants to work a lot on it it can be really good. As it is, it is very disappointing.

My group is all adults, and there is no way they would find the childish adventures in this interesting, so I'm simply replacing them with active "teaching" adventures of my own, but I like the layout and the inspiration that the book gives me.My Introduction inspired by this...When you first received your invitation to Strixhaven, you didn’t know what to make of it, you didn’t even know the place was real. It was thought to be a legend, an old wives tale.But in your hand is a parchment with your name and current dwelling location on it and a seal with five dragon heads, hand-delivered by a tree that walked up to you and placed it there, before waving with creaking limbs and strolling off. You wanted to ask it questions, I mean, why you? And why a tree? But its pace far outstripped yours even at a run. It was gigantic.In your other hand it placed a round…something. It’s smooth and warm, and flexible, like a fist-sized jelly. Examining it reveals nothing else about it though. Poking it just springs it back to its original shape.You glance at the parchment again, and it now says “Do you accept?” at the bottom with two words, Yes and No, and nothing else. You swear those words weren’t there a minute ago.More curious than not, you touch the word Yes and the dragon emblem at the top of the page comes alive for a moment and breathes fire onto the parchment. Instantly it burns into fine ash in your hand and then without warning the glob in your other hand explodes into a mass of webbing that encapsulates you from the neck down.At first you think it’s a joke, and not a very funny one. You struggle to free yourself from the powerful sticky threads and end up falling onto your back. There in the sky is a giant wasp descending on you, the loud buzzing gripping your heart with fear. You struggle even harder, it’s almost here, but the webs are strong and flexible. You are helpless.It lands upon you, its giant mandibles in your face, gnashing cruelly, its round and black unblinking eyes reflecting your own face of fear back at you… Its legs grip your cocoon and you are sure that it is readying its stinger, even though you can’t see below your neck.And then it speaks in a grinding, chittering voice.“Hi, I’m Buzzkill, and I’ll be your delivery drone today.”Buzzkill spins you in his grip until you are facing forward and then he lifts you off the ground effortlessly. “We’ll be flying at a comfortable altitude of two thousand feet, up to that low cloud, you see it there?”You see it. And you are heading in that direction. You consider struggling more, but once you are high in the air, the idea quickly leaves your thoughts. A landing on your own at this point wouldn't be pretty.When you reach the clouds, you disappear into the mist, you can no longer see the ground. In fact you could barely see your hand in front of your face, if you could lift it there.Buzzkill appears to be searching for something, as he is flying left and right, and then suddenly he speeds up and flies straight, into a glowing, translucent purple circle surrounded by floating stones.You feel electricity, magic, flowing over your skin as you pass through the portal. Then you emerge from the cloud and can see the land far below you, but where this is, you’re not really sure.In the center of a broad valley is a city surrounded by five landscapes that each stretch out for miles in all directions.To the northwest, at least from your current position, there are mountains and chasms with buildings built on the rock faces.To the north looks like a small town of finely made buildings, which at least in most part is recognizable as modern dwellings, similar to the city in the center.To the northeast are green expanses of grass and trees with tall, delicate buildings, much like the architecture you have seen elves build, though this is a bit different from the designs you have seen before.To the southeast is a swamp with buildings looking like they were grown from the trees themselves.Lastly, to the southwest is a wild land of localized storms and elaborate buildings and structures in bright colors that couldn’t possibly stand without the assistance of magic.You note that the air is different here. Warmer, more cloying and heady. Possibly because of the swamp.Other drones are carrying cocoons like yours and they are all heading towards the building in the center of the small city, as are you. Some are carrying people that aren’t in cocoons at all, and there are even some people flying on their own.Above the central building is a massive arch of floating stones, and you note that these arches exist in many places, in the mountains, over specific buildings, some vertical, others angled or horizontal. You don’t know their nature specifically, but they are very similar to the stones surrounding the portal that you just flew through in the clouds to get here.Buzzkill deposits you gently on the front lawn in an upright position and before you can protest, salivates on you a large volume of fluid that smells of alcohol and honeyed wine. He then waves one segmented leg as he departs with a “Leave me a decent rating…” as the cocoon around you dissolves and dries into a dust that you easily brush from your clothing.People of varying races, many that you’ve never seen before, are heading up the front steps into the enormous marble building that stands before you. It has to be the largest building you have ever seen. You see Goblins and Orcs, Elves and Dwarves, Humans, flying folk, even some slithering folk, half-snake, half man. That one had antlers, and was that a tree-man? And isn’t that a skeleton?! Most are carrying books and are wearing clothing that would depict them as students, their uniforms matching the colors and designs of one of the five long banners that hangs from cornices at the front of the building. Above each banner is a stone depiction of a dragon’s head, and below the head, its name.Velomachus Lorehold, a dragon head whose bony face ridges include a large horn like a rhino. The Lorehold banner consists of one half golden light shining down on a white scroll tied with a gold thread, the other half a black tome floating in a pool of red and black magic that slowly swirls before your eyes. In the center of the banner, is a scale of justice that tips from side to side randomly, and beneath the scale is a golem constructed of pieces of statuary held together by glowing magic, the golem’s form changing into different creatures as you watch.Galazeth Prismari, a dragon head with a mass of tentacles for a crown. The Prismari banner is half blue white, with alternating pictures of ice and frost, the other half bright and explosive fire and flames. In the center of the banner composed of lightning, frost and fire, is an ever-changing form that dances before your eyes in a captivating manner as if it is reaching out to you.Tanazir Quandrix, whose dragon’s head is sporting the horns of a ram, has a banner with one half a white background with floating geometric shapes that form into elaborate patterns, the other half depicting a black starscape, with floating stone arches and circles much like the portal you flew through. In the center of the banner is a fractal worm composed of diamonds of light that turns to look at you when you look at it.Shadrix Silverquill, a dragon head with a bony ridge jutting down from its chin like a beard, has a banner that is shining light on one side, and deepest black of swirling shadows on the other. An amorphous floating creature composed of black liquid creeps out of the black side onto the white side of the banner and turns to you with glowing eyes.Beledros Witherbloom, a dragon head sporting antlers and black feathers, has a banner that is the deep green of the swamp, showing flowers and trees in a constant state of bloom and growth. The other half is dark and shaded, depicting the same flowers and trees as they die and rot. A larvae or grub crawls in the center of the banner, changing forms, but always depicting a pest or early stage of some insect.There are many others on the lawn, like you, that look just as confused and amazed, but near you are only a handful of others, also recently released from a cocoon as you were.In front of your small group stands a six foot tall humanoid, sporting a long, leather, hooded trench coat.It waits until it has your attention before it pulls back its hood revealing a young, thin and gaunt man in his early twenties, with long black hair and blue eyes peeking from beneath bushy black eyebrows. One oversized, crooked fang makes him appear to be snarling, though you believe he is attempting to smile. A gangly arm reaches out to shake each of your hands in turn."Switch," he offers as he takes a step back to see all of you clearly. "And this is..." he says as he pulls his other hand from his pocket, just as a group of older students walks past behind him. They are all attractive and fit, elvish and human men and women, wearing robes of Prismari and Silverquill. You can clearly hear one of them mutter "Mongrel Man" under his breath and the others giggle.Switch notices them with some embarrassment but quickly turns his attention back to you. "This is Bait."His hand opens to reveal a jumping spider the size of a gold coin. One black fuzzy pedipalp raises in your direction and waves at you."I have been tasked with showing you around, as I arrived a few days early and have had a chance to...""More like he's being punished for poking his nose in where it doesn't belong," calls back a man’s voice from the group to more giggles. They continue to walk toward the steps leading up to the entrance of the building.Switch growls and then pulls his hood back up so his face can no longer be seen, and Bait disappears into his sleeve. "Anyway, it wouldn't be right if we didn't make the proper introductions, so you are...?"

At 225 pages roughly, this book does not offer much. I mainly got it for the backgrounds and the feats it introduces. Now for a book about a college of magic with five different schools, it is very disappointing that there are only five new spells added, one for each college. That is pathetic. The magic items are not much better either, and of the two new feats only one is good. The monster section/friends and foes is not bad and has 40+ entries.The owlin race that was added is not something I care for, and though it has some interesting play options it will probably not be something I ever roll up. Then there are the four adventures covering your time as a student at Strixhaven. To be honest, I have not really looked over these adventures much as of this writing, but I have no desire to play or run them. It would of been much more better if they used their time and effort to create a hell of a lot more spells for the game, and maybe fleshed out some better magic items as well. For additional space, some more in depth lore would of been nice as well. A lot of fluff here in my opinion.The binding on this book is a bit of an issue in the rear. Where the poster map of the campus is, it appears to be causing the last 4-5 pages to kind of lay flat with the rear cover which may cause them to come loose from the binding. Though I am not sure I will be using this book too much other then the initial character creation section.2.5 out of 5

Amazing book, great story & adventures.Then Silvery Barbs...Why, just why did you add this unbalanced game breaking spell. If it were a level 2 or 3 spell that would be better. But a level 1 force opponent to have disadvantage with no Save of any kind. What madness is this, who looked at this & thought "looks fair to me".You have given wizards a tool to completely nullify anythings attacks, spells, abilities until they run out of spell slots or displease the dice gods.Either way, balancing encounters has become a nightmare thanks to this spell shutting down monsters. The only way to really counter this is adding minions to every fight or stacking the action economy against the players every fight.On behalf of DMs everywhere Nerf this spell. Make it a level 3 spell, or add a Saving throw, or Remove the advantage to another player, or make it exclusive to just attacks, not saves & ability checks, or reduce the range to 30 feet, or add somatic & material (with a gold cost) componts to the spell. Something the make this spell either more taxing to use or not the best option in every situation.Cause right now this spell rocks & is the best thing to use for every situation, every enemy, every CR & every Tier of play.