D&D: Everything We Know About ‘Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos’
With a dragon’s treasure in hand, we look towards the future. Looks like student loans and Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos.
It seems fitting that the upcoming D&D book Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos would come out after Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons– a book all about dragons and the treasure they hoard. The new book will be all about going to wizarding college, and it’ll take a dragon’s hoard to make a dent in any college admissions these days, am I right?
Jokes about crushing debt and waning financial stability aside, the new D&D book looks great.
School’s in Session with Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos
Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos takes place in the premiere school of magic in all the planes: the eponymous Strixhaven College. It originated in Magic: the Gathering, but everything about it feels right at home in the myriad of fantasy worlds in D&D.
Five colleges roughly sum up whether you’re brave, smart, evil, or “also around” and “safe at parties”. Mix that with a little bit of the clique dichotomy of theatre kids, goths, and nerds, and this book is poised to be everything you could want in an academy-based adventure setting.
The College of Strixhaven
As mentioned before, the book takes place in the world of Strixhaven, a magical college with five different “houses”. Students will either be Quandrix, Lorehold, Prismari, Silverquill, or Witherbloom. The book also includes a new kind of bird-person, the Owlin.
The Owlin make for another addition to the growing list of bird-people in D&D. They will likely be proficient with Stealth and fly for 30 feet.
Helping to capture the distinct five-houses feel, there are several new feats, magic items, and spells coming along with Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos. There are five new spells, one for each of the five colleges.
The Feats, Spells, & Mascots of Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos
So far, we know one of the spells, Borrowed Knowledge, will allow you to call out to ancient experts to gain temporary proficiency in a skill. These spells will be added to spell lists once the book comes out.
New magical items include a spellbook for each of the five colleges. Like the wizard tomes in Tasha’s Cauldron, they’ll provide augmentations for specific spells. Then there’s the magically cuddly mascot plush toy that’ll give you advantage on saving throws vs. fear.
As for feats, there are the Strixhaven Initiate feats to grant you spells common to whichever Strixhaven College you choose. And they’re a great way to expand spell lists for any class.
Then there’s the Strixhaven Mascot feat, which requires at least 4th level and the Strixhaven Initiate feat. Once you’ve got those, Mascot lets you choose one of Strixhaven’s house mascots as your familiar.
For example, Lorehold has a Spirit Statue. Prismari has an Art Elemental Mascot.
Quandrix proves that they’re the ultimate nerds with the Fractal Mascot, a math equation for a mascot that can totally be your familiar (if that’s your jam). Silverquill has the Inkling mascot, so you finally have a use for those inkling tokens!
And Witherbloom has a pest.
You’ll meet these Mascots over the course of the adventure comprising a bulk of Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos. This adventure is presented over four different mini-adventures. Each adventure lasts about 4-5 sessions and represents roughly the events of a year in the life of a college student.
Over the course of the adventure, you’ll also meet up to 18 different student NPCs that you can befriend. Each has tracked relationship points with each of the player characters, so you can make friends and enemies while you play. There will be several different “relationship encounters” that help you improve or worsen existing friendships, rivalries, and romances.
There’s also a system of extracurricular activities where you can meet some of these NPCs. It’ll also give you special associated skills that you can get a bonus die on. Friendships work the same way, with a connected student giving you bonuses to associated skill checks.
At some point during each adventures there will be exams, and you can win bonus dice for doing well on them.
As far as the adventure itself goes, the four adventures are all meant to be fairly modular (so that they can fit in with your own existing campaign). They will take you from levels 1-10, and the finale is surprisingly high-stakes.
According to Jeremy Crawford, lead rules design for D&D, the bad ending (if the players fail) is potentially one of the most “concretely upsetting endings seen in a 5th edition adventure.” So study hard.
‘Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos’ is due out November 16th. Happy Adventuring!
