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CREDITS StrixHaven World Designers: Doug Beyer (creative lead), Taylor Ingvarsson (art director), Jess Lanzillo (creative director), Meris Mullaley (creative producer), Fox Allison, Annie Sardelis, Emily Teng, Andrew Valias, James Wyatt, Ari Zirulnik Project Engineer:Cynda Callaway Imaging Technicians:Kevin Yee Prepress Specialist: Jefferson Dunlap Lead Designer:Amanda Hamon Assistant Lead Designers: Jeremy Crawford, James Wyatt Art Director:Emi Tanji Designers:Bill Benham, Makenzie De Armas, Dan Dillon, Steve Kenson,T. Alexander Stangroom Assistant Designers:Sydney Adams, Taymoor Rehman Rules Developers: Jeremy Crawford, Ben Petrisor Editors: Judy Bauer, Michele Carter, Scott Fitzgerald Cray, lanara Natividad, Christopher Perkins, F. Wesley Schneider Graphic Designers:Trystan Falcone, Emi Tanji, Trish Yochum Cover Illustrators:Hydro74, Magali Villeneuve Cartographers:Francesca Baerald, Sean Macdonald, Mike Schley Additional Art Directors:Ovidio Cartagena, Taylor Ingvarsson, Kate Irwin, Thomas Jenkot, Zack Stella, Sarah Wassell Interior Illustrators: Steve Argyle, Jinho Bae, Cristi Balanescu, Mike Bierek, Zoltan Boros, Alex Brock, Filip Burburan, Dmitry Burmak, Ekaterina Burmak, Paul Scott Canavan, Manuel Castanon, Jehan Choo, Billy Christian, Chris Cold, Justine Cruz, Alayna Danner, Jonas De Ro, Olga Drebas, Piotr Dura, Jesper Ejsing, Anna Fehr, Tony Foti, Caroline Gariba, Ilse Gort, Johan Grenier, YeongHao Han, Josh Hass, Hydro74,Izzy, Tomasz Jedruszek,Jihun, Jason Kang, Igor Kieryluk, Mathias Kollros, Yigit Koroglu, Kekai Kotaki, Andrey Kuzinskiy, Luiza Laffitte, Lius Lasahido, Ryan Alexander Lee, Lie Setiawan, Daniel Ljunggren, Lindsey Look, Titus Lunter, Howard Lyon,Slawomir Maniak, Antonio Jose Manzanedo, Joseph Meehan, Viko Menezes, Robson Michel, Francisco Miyara, Scott Murphy, Marta Nael, Hector Ortiz, Adam Paquette, Alessandra Pisano, Steve Prescott, Chris Rahn, Jason Rainville, Andreas Rocha, Denman Rooke, Sean Sevestre, Liiga Smilshkalne, Bryan Sola, Craig J Spearing, Raymond Swanland, YWTang, Viktor Titov, Jokubas Uogintas, Randy Vargas, Svetlin Velinov, Raoul Vitale, Johannes Voss, Sara Winters, Bayard Wu, Kieran Yanner, Andreas Zafiratos D&D STUDIO Executive Producer: Ray Winninger Game Design Architects: Jeremy Crawford, Christopher Perkins Design Manager: Steve Scott Design Department:Sydney Adams, Judy Bauer, Makenzie De Armas, Dan Dillon, Amanda Hamon, Ari Levitch, Ben Petrisor, Taymoor Rehman, F. Wesley Schneider, James Wyatt Art Department Manager: Richard Whitters Principal Art Director:Kate Irwin Art Department: Trystan Falcone, Emi Tanji, Shawn Wood, Trish Yochum Senior Producer: Dan Tovar Producers:Bill Benham, Robert Hawkey, Lea Heleotis Director ofProduct Management: Liz Schuh Product Managers:Natalie Egan, Chris Lindsay, Hilary Ross, Chris Tulach MARKETING Director ofGlobal Brand Marketing: Brian Perry Global Brand Manager: Shelly Mazzanoble Senior Marketing Communications Manager: Greg Tito Community Manager:Brandy Camel ON THE ALT-COVER Hydro74 shows off the Strixhaven star, a symbol of unity and magical fellowship. The sigils of each of Strixhaven’s five colleges adorn the back cover. ON THE COVER Three Strixhaven students find distractions from their studies in Magali Villeneuve’s cover illustration.On the back, a harried Biblioplex assistant tries to tidy the mess. Disclaimer: A degreefrom Strixhaven University does not provide protectionfrom magic missiles,fireballs,freezing spheres, or any other deleterious effects spellcasters might generate. If you create deleterious effects, Strixhaven kindly requests you refrainfrom invoking any names, symbols, or other references to the university should youfind yourself in a confrontation. Strixhaven University does not take responsibilityfor any injury of any nature sustained in the course of anything, magical or otherwise. 620D0147000001 EN ISBN:978-0-7869- 6744-5 First Printing: November 2021 UK CA 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 K DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D,Wizards of the Coast, the dragon ampersand, Dungeon Master, Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master's Guide, Strixhaven, Magic: The Gathering, the planeswalker symbol, all other Wizards of the Coast product names, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast in the USA and other countries. All characters and their distinctive likenesses are property of Wizards of the Coast. The materials described in this statement are protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America and around the world under international intellectual property treaties. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the materials contained herein or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of Wizards of the Coast. Printed in the USA. ©2021 Wizards ofthe Coast LLC, PO Box 707, Renton, WA 98057-0707, USA. Manufactured by: Hasbro SA, Rue Emile-Boeechat 31, 2800 Delemont. CH. Represented by: Hasbro. De Entree 240. 1101 EE Amsterdam. NL. Hasbro UK Ltd., P.O. Box 43 Newport, NP19 4YH, UK.
CONTENTS 58 Ch.6:A Reckoning in Ruins 156 58 Running This Adventure 59 A Sinister Shadow 59 A Brief Distraction 60 Arcane Herbology 60 Exam: Vegetation Identification . 61 Clue in the Bayou .66 Advance to 9th Level! . 70 No Time to Lose Into the Badlands . 72 ThisIs Surreal, Isn’t It? . 74 Ruins of Caerdoon . 74 Advance to 10th Level! Confronting Murgaxor Ch. 7:Friends and Foes ' 78 Archaic Art Elemental Mascot Beledros Witherbloom Brackish Trudge Cogwork Archivist ' 92 Daemogoth .. 95 Daemogoth Titan ..96 First-Year Student „97 Fractal Mascot „98 Galazeth Prismari „99 Groff Inkling Mascot 106 Lorehold Apprentice 107 Lorehold Pledgemage 108 Lorehold Professor of Chaos Ill Lorehold Professor of Order Mage Hunter 113 Oracle of Strixhaven 114 Oriq Blood Mage .116 Oriq Recruiter Pest Mascot .118 Prismari Apprentice .119 Prismari Pledgemage .121 Prismari Professor of Expression 206 .123 Prismari Professor of Perfection Quandrix Apprentice Quandrix Pledgemage Quandrix Professor of Substance Quandrix Professor of Theory Relic Sloth Ruin Grinder Shadrix Silverquill 135 Silverquill Apprentice Silverquill Pledgemage Silverquill Professor of Radiance 215 Silverquill Professor of Shadow.. Spirit Statue Mascot Strixhaven Campus Guide 141 Tanazir Quandrix 145 Velomachus Lorehold Witherbloom Apprentice 145 Witherbloom Pledgemage Witherbloom Professor of Decay Witherbloom Professor of Growth 223 4 Shuvadri Glintmantle 5 Tilana Kapule 5 Urzmaktok Grojsh 6 Zanther Bowen Welcome to Strixhaven About This Book Orientation Strixhaven’s World Ch. 1:Life on Campus Magical Study Campus Overview Lorehold College Prismari College Quandrix College Silverquill College Witherbloom College Ch. 2:Character Options Race Option:Owlin Choosing a College Strixhaven Backgrounds Lorehold Student Prismari Student Quandrix Student Silverquill Student Witherbloom Student Feats Strixhaven Initiate Strixhaven Mascot Spells Borrowed Knowledge KineticJaunt Silvery Barbs Vortex Warp Wither and Bloom Magic Items Bottle of Boundless Coffee Cuddly Strixhaven Mascot Lorehold Primer Prismari Primer Quandrix Primer Silverquill Primer Strixhaven Pennant Witherbloom Primer Ch. 3:School Isin Session.. Running the Adventures Strixhaven Tracking Sheet... Extracurriculars Jobs Exams Relationships Fellow Students Aurora Luna Wynterstarr.. Bhedum Sooviij Cadoras Damellawar Drazhomir Yarnask Grayson Wildemere Greta Gorunn Javenesh Stoutclaw Larine Arneza Melwythorne Mina Lee Nora Ann Wu Quentillius Antiphiun Melentor III....56 Rosimyffenbip Wuzfeddlims Rubina Larkingdale 157 157 158 Campus Kerfuffle 9 Running This Adventure 44 First Day on Campus 13 Orientation Challenge 45 Frog’sthe Word 19 Magical Physiologies 22 Exam:Slaadi 8 159 160 165 165 166 172 173 25 Advance to 2nd Level!.... Work Hard, Play Harder 28 Magical Physiologies 29 Exam:Owlbears 30 Campus Daredevils 31 Advance to 3rd Level! 31 Magical Physiologies 32 Exam: Otyughs 33 All the World’s a Stage... 35 Secretsin Sedgemoor... 36 Advance to 4th Level! 178 178 182 184 86 185 186 86 187 86 188 189 190 36 191 36 Ch.4:Hunt for Mage Tower 37 Running This Adventure 32 Back in Session 32 Mascots Everywhere! 32 Scrivening and Symbology 38 Exam: Glyph of Warding.... 38 Advance to 5th Level! 3g Party at the Rose Stage 3g Practice Makes Perfect 38 Scrivening and Symbology 3g Exam:Symbol Glyphs 39 Getting Some Air 39 Dangerous Knowledge 39 Scrivening and Symbology 39 Exam: Augury 39 Tell Us in Song! 39 Battle of Strixhaven Advance to 6th Level! 44 Ch.5:The Magister’sMasquerade...124 43 Running This Adventure 44 Cordially Invited 45 Reception at Bow’sEnd 42 Fate at Furygale Advanced Arcane History 50 Exam:Relics 51 Dressing for Success 54 Party Preparations 52 Advanced Arcane History 52 Exam: Devices 53 Suspicions 53 Fancying Up Footwork 54 Preparing the Hall 54 Advance to 7th Level! 55 Advanced Arcane History 55 Exam: Unearthed Arcana 55 A Starlit Night Midnight at Lorehold 52 Aftermath Advance to 8th Level! 192 193 194 195 197 197 198 198 199 200 ,201 .202 .203 .205 .205 206 40 208 208 125 .209 126 .209 127 210 130 211 48 212 134 214 214 138 215 139 216 140 217 140 218 219 . 221 .222 .223 146 149 154 Appendix:Campus Map. .224 155 57
HE MISSION OF STRIXHAVEN UNIVERSITY IS TO As a Strixhaven student, you start with a welldiscover and preserve magical knowledge, to rounded education in a rigorousfirst-year program. In yoursecond year, you choose your preferred disseminate that knowledge from one generation specialty at one of the five colleges. You can also partake in a vibrant campuslife, with plenty of clubs and other activities. You might even play on one of Strixhaven’s prestigious Mage Tower teams and bask in the adoration of cheering crowds! to the next, to promote free and open study of magic in all its forms, and to enhance the lives of people throughout the world through the use of magic. —Strixhaven mission statement COLLEGES OF STRIXHAVEN College Lorehold A magical world boasts many places where students can study magic and many sages who take eager learners under their wings. But being accepted to Strixhaven University is a special honor, the dream of many young students.Strixhaven is a place of enlightenment and learning, and both its graduates and its delegates are typically welcomed and respected wherever they go. Founded seven centuries ago by five ancient dragons, Strixhaven is the premier institution of magical learning, drawing promising young magesfrom all over. Each equipped with its own campus and faculty, Strixhaven’sfive colleges—summarized in the Colleges of Strixhaven table-cover a vast array of academic and magicalspecialties. Description Explores the past and preserves its lessons for future generations. Also called the College of Archaeomancy. Prismari Uses the elements to practice the arts. Also called the College of Elemental Arts. Quandrix Focuses on the mathematics of nature. Also called the College of Numeromancy. Silverquill Teaches the magic of rhetoric, poetry, oration, and writing. Also called the College of Eloquence. Witherbloom Harnesses the forces of life and death. Also called the College of Essence Studies. - TO STRIXHAVEN 4
Finally, student characters are part of a school community. They live in university housing, eat in dining halls, and spend the majority of their time on campus. They eat, sleep,study,socialize, and adventure as part of a community of students, faculty, and staff.The school islike a town, where a relatively small cast of characters can play significant roles over the course of the campaign. IT S AN ACADEMY OF MAGES Study at Strixhaven isn’t about learning to be a wizard but about learning to be a historian, an artist, an orator, a scientist, or some other profession—while using magic to enhance one’sstudies.The university’s understanding of magic is expansive.Characters of any class can study at Strixhaven, whether they’re full-fledged spellcasterslike wizards, clerics, and druids; they manage a spell or two thanks to a subclass or feat; or they manifest magical abilities that aren’t even spells. (For example, a barbarian who follows the Path of the Ancestral Guardian, described in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, can excel in studying history at Lorehold College by virtue of their connection to an ancestral spirit.) Magic is everywhere on campus.The campus culture encouragesfinding magical solutions to the most mundane problems, and if characters need accessto a spell they can’t cast, they have a strong chance of finding someone who can cast it. IT S COSMOPOLITAN ABOUT THIS BOOK This book is your guide to life at Strixhaven in DUNGEONS & DRAGONS an introduction to the university, a guide to creating student charactersthere, a campaign, and a collection of friends and foes. Chapter 1 gives an overview of life and study at Strixhaven.It introduces the main features of the central campus and each of the five colleges. Chapter 2 is your guide to creating a student character. It introducesthe owlin race and five backgrounds—one for each college—as well as a collection of feats, spells, and magic items. Chapters 3-6 provide a campaign meant to advance charactersfrom 1st to 10th level as they progressthrough their magicalstudies. Each chapter covers a year’s worth of adventure,so characters begin chapter 3 as lst-level characters and first-year students and begin chapter 6 at the start of their fourth year of studies(at around 8th level). Chapter 3 includes an overview of the adventures and the overall campaign arc as well asspecial rulesfor aspects of campus life:exams, relationships, extracurriculars, and jobs. Chapter 7 is a collection of stat blocksfor students, faculty, and various creatures on and around the Strixhaven campus.Whether student adventurers get caught up in a duel with their rivals or face a dreaded mage hunter, the stat blocks in this chapter give you the information you need to resolve the situation. Strixhaven drawsstudents and faculty from across the world and from other realmsin the multiverse. The university’sstudents and faculty are united by a desire to learn and include humans, elves, dwarves, owlin (described in chapter 2), ores, trolls, vampires, and studiousfolk of many other origins. In practical terms, for player characters, you can use the rulesfound in any D&D book to select a character’srace, if the DM approves. For nonplayer characters, you’re aslikely to meet a pixie, a dryad, a giant, a treant, or another fantastical creature on campus as you are to meet a Humanoid. The faculty members mentioned in chapter 1 include genasi, tritons, and even a bipedal brown bear. To the faculty and students of Strixhaven, it is unremarkable to meetsomeone who hailsfrom a faroff land,since almost everyone on campusisfrom somewhere else. Strixhaven has a place for anyone who is dedicated to magic-enhanced study. ORIENTATION The following subsections present three important facts to keep in mind as you explore these pages and prepare to play or run the book’s campaign. STRIXHAVEN IS A UNIVERSITY This book’s campaign assumes that the player characters are students at Strixhaven University. Even asthey get caught up in the adventures, the characters have to continue going to class, doing homework, and studying for exams. Optional rules in chapter 3 reinforce the importance of study in the adventures. The characters are also subject to the authority of the university’sfaculty and staff members. Circ*mstances will at times cause player characters to defy faculty authority—and even deans—during their adventures, and the threat of detention or even expulsion might hang over their head. WELCOME TO STRIXHAVEN 5
STRIXHAVEN S WORLD a place of great magic, such as the site of a great mage’s birth or the location of a time-lost spell. Other folk believe these arches are connected with the archaicsin some way (see “Archaics and the Oracle” below).Some students have even seen an arch come to life with magic in an archaic’s presence. Both snarls and star arches are subjects of magical research for students and faculty at Strixhaven, who also study wild and dead magic zones, floating earth motes, and other weird locales. FOUNDER DRAGONS Strixhaven University wasfounded by five ancient dragons who, according to legend, hatched from the magical energy of the newborn world of Arcavios. These Founder Dragons were among the first to master magic, and they realized that only through disciplined study would magic be safe in the hands of other peoples. They founded Strixhaven to facilitate that study and established the five colleges based on the magic that each dragon mastered, as summarized in the Founder Dragons table. To this day, the Founder Dragons roam the world. They no longer associate directly with Strixhaven, preferring to let the deans of the collegesspeak in theirstead.The dragons’ knowledge is vast, but their tempers can prove short. Magesseek them out only to learn the most elusive secrets. The dragons’ stat blocks are presented in chapter 7. Strixhaven billsitself as “the premier institution of magical learning in the world,” but the question that raisesfor your campaign isthis—which world? In the multiverse of the MAGIC: THE GATHERING Trading Card Game, Strixhaven islocated on a world called Arcavios, which (according to legend) formed from the collision or merging of two other worlds. It issituated in the northeastern portion of a continent called Orrithia, also known as the Vastlands, which is populated by a tremendous variety of peoples. For the purposes of D&D, though, you can place Strixhaven wherever it best fits the needs of your campaign. It could be in a world of your own creation, in a published D&D setting (such asthe Forgotten Realms or Eberron), in the planar cosmopolis of Sigil, or in an interplanar nexus that allowsit to draw studentsfrom acrossthe Material Plane or the entire multiverse. Whatever world you decide to place Strixhaven in, three elements of the wider world of Arcavios might have some impact on adventures in the school. SNARLS AND STAR ARCHES As described in the Player’s Handbook, magic suffuses all existence in the worlds of D&D. In the Forgotten Realms,scholars describe the fabric of magic as a Weave that allowsspellcasters to interact with the world’s underlying magical reality.In Arcavios, that fabric is knotted and tangled in some locations, creating a phenomenon called snarls. At these places,spells can be amplified or distorted in unpredictable ways.This phenomenon matters for Strixhaven because a luminoussnarl issituated at the very heart of campus, located in the Hall of Oracles in the university’s monumental library, the Biblioplex. Similarly, gravity-defying arch shapes appear throughout the world of Arcavios and, in particular, tower over the Biblioplex. These star arches are made from spokes of natural materialsthat float in an arch shape, with a precise inner curve and a rough and irregular outer arch. They can stand straight or lie at an angle, and they can be small or enormous, whole or broken, grown over or mysteriously clean. Their irregular spokes evoke the radiating lines of a shining star. The star arches are a mystery left over from the birth of the world.In most cases, the archessimply float inexplicably—silent, immovable, and inert.But many people report seeing an arch appear to them at a critical juncture in their lives, helping them understand a lesson or answer a burning question in their mind.Some scholars believe each arch marks FOUNDER DRAGONS College Lorehold Founder Velomachus Lorehold Galazeth Prismari Tanazir Quandrix Shadrix Silverquill Beledros Witherbloom Prismari Quandrix Silverquill Witherbloom ARCHAICS AND THE ORACLE The Oracle of Strixhaven isthe wisest and most accomplished mage in the world of Arcavios, selected by the Founder Dragons. The Oracle’slifelong task is to ensure that magic is used to help people and not twisted to evil ends. To be the Oracle, one must understand fundamental truths about the nature of magic, know and wield hundreds of spells, and possessimpeccable judgment and virtue. Mysteriously linked to the Oracle, archaics are wise, giant, long-lived beings with an innate talent for magic.They can be seen striding through the wilds, exploring sources of magic with their many arms or contemplating existence through their “eye,” which functions as a magical focus of some 6 WELCOME TO STRIXHAVEN
STRIXHAVEN UNIVERSITY, WITH THE (CENTER) BIBLIOPLEXSURROUNDED BY (TOP) SILVERQUILLAND (GOING CLOCKWISE) QUANDRIX, WITHERBLOOM, PRISMARI, AND LOREHOLD soul and itsfragmented memories coalesce into a creature—a newborn archaic. Every archaic alive today was born at the dawn of time from the mind of someone who haslived and died (or who will one day live and die) as an Oracle. Archaicsspeak in cryptic allegories not only to tease and test the eager minds of young mages, but also to cleverly sidestep time paradoxes. Stat blocksfor archaics appear in chapter 7, alongside that of the current Oracle, whose name isJadzi. kind.Scholarsseek out archaicsfor their vast knowledge of history and magic, but archaicstend to communicate in obscure allusions and cryptic metaphors. Few know that archaics’ existence islinked to a time-warping phenomenon involving the Oracle. When an Oracle dies, their mind and spirit isswept off to the distant past, drawn backward through time toward the intense magical power that brought the world into being. Splinters of that Oracle’s WELCOME TO STRIXHAVEN 7
C H A P T E R 1 LIFE AT STRIXHAVEN S TRIXHAVEN UNIVERSITY SPARKLES WITH FACULTY the enthusiasm of itsstudents and faculty, asthey study, debate about, and experiment with magic in its varied forms.This chapter offers an overview of life and studies on the university’s campus, as well as a look at each of the five colleges where students explore different modes of magical study. The faculty members of Strixhaven are mages and scholars—expertsin their variousfields and in the use of magic to enhance theirstudies. They are dedicated to their research and to educating generations of mage-students who follow in their footsteps. Some faculty members value research more than teaching, while others make education their highest priority. But all find some balance between the two. INSTRUCTORS Strixhaven’sfaculty begin their careers asinstructors, focusing primarily on teaching classes and crafting curriculum, while the school administration evaluates their performance. At the end of a provisional period, which can last from one to several years, an instructor is elevated to the rank of professor or let go. PROFESSORS Professors who have distinguished themselves over the course of a long career—typically at least twenty years—hope to be recognized with the title of esteemed professor.This honor is bestowed in recognition of groundbreaking research as well as exceptional teaching. Upon retiring, a professor receives the title of mage emeritus. Mages emeriti are held in high esteem and welcomed to campus as guest lecturers. MAGICAL STUDY The fundamental work of Strixhaven University is the application of magic to academic study.Students and faculty aren’t limited to magical topics alone; they pursue studiesin every facet of existence-magical or otherwise—applying magic to whatever they study. At Strixhaven, historians call the spirits of the dead to aid their lessons about the past, and arcano-biologists use necromancy to pull at life and coax out death when teaching about the natural world. Simultaneously, mage-artistssculpt elemental energy to create animate art, and arcane symbologists teach students how to recognize and understand the magical glyphs they encounter. PRINCIPLES AND POLARITIES The colleges and curriculum at Strixhaven are organized around the idea of philosophical principles joined in concordant opposition. Each school embracesthe paradoxical unity of two polar principles: life and death, order and chaos, reason and emotion, and so on. The five Founder Dragons are thought to embody the coexistence of these principles, while the ten deans of the collegesstand for the individual principles distinguished from their opposites. A student’s course of learning at Strixhaven involves exploring the tension between these opposing principles, which typically involves late-night argumentsin residence halls and study rooms.The university’steaching philosophy is built on the idea that exploring oppositesleadsto an understanding of a greater whole. Most people believe that only a being with the wisdom (and long life) of the Founder Dragons or the archaics can truly master both halves of a school’s dichotomy, but a mage must learn at least the rudiments of those halves. A Strixhaven graduate is expected to leave the university prepared to argue the fundamental issues of their school’s philosophies. STUDENTS Students at Strixhaven spend their first year in a course of generalstudies, which lays the foundation for the more specialized work to follow. During this year, they wear a uniform of black, white, and gray. They’re encouraged to study broadly so that they become acquainted with a wide range of disciplines. First-yearstudentslive in dormitories located on the central campus and often form close friendships there that last throughout their educational careers, even when members of tight-knit groups of friends join different collegesin their second year. A few students continue to live on central campus after choosing a college, particularly if they pursue extensive studiesin multiple colleges or work as resident advisersto first-yearstudents. But most students move to dormitories located on their chosen college’s campus in their second year. CHAPTER 1 LIFE AT STRIXHAVEN 9
CHOOSING A COLLEGE Before starting theirsecond year of studies,students choose one of the five colleges—Lorehold, Prismari, Quandrix, Silverquill, or Witherbloom—to be their academic home for the remainder of their education. From this point,students wear uniforms featuring the colors of their college, though these outfits aren’t as unvarying asthe first-year garb. Two Counselors. Upon choosing a college, a student is assigned two professors to serve as counselors to help the student plan a course of studies. The two deans of the college assign these two counselors, who represent the poles of the college’s philosophical opposition.By design, the two counselors tend to offer conflicting advice,forcing the student to navigate opposing principles. For example, a student pursuing historicalstudiesin Lorehold College might have one counselor who focuses on the unpredictable, war-filled chaos of historical reality and another who dwells on the idea of an orderly progression toward an ideal. The former might encourage the student to choose courses based on gut feeling, to delve into the military aspects of an issue, and to supplement their academic studies with some practical martial training.The other counselor, meanwhile, might offerseveral ordered, rational proposalsfor course selection, focus on the political and human aspects of historical issues, and place less emphasis on martial prowess.The student must then navigate this conflicting advice and chart their own course. Course of Study.Some students, having chosen a college, spend virtually all their remaining school years on that campus and study with those professors, diving into their preferred area of study and related fields.Otherstudentstake as many as a third of their classesin other colleges, continuing the breadth of their first-year education and looking for places where the perspectives of other disciplines can bring new insight to their studies. Both approaches are encouraged at the university. AFTER STRIXHAVEN A student’s course of study at Strixhaven lasts at least four years but allowsfor advanced study for several years beyond that time frame. Moststudents eventually graduate, though, and they walk a variety of paths after leaving the university.Many return to whatever home they came from, putting what they have learned to use in their communities. Some mages travel the multiverse in search of ever-greater magic, continuing their research in some form beyond the confines of an academic program. A few alumni return to Strixhaven, sooner or later, asinstructorsthemselves, and a small, select number join the Dragonsguard, an elite force of mages who work with the Founder Dragons. ADMINISTRATION The day-to-day functioning of Strixhaven relies on hundreds of laborers, clerks, coaches, administrators, and others. These personnel include folk like Mavinda Sharpbeak, the kindly owlin guidance counselor who takesfirst-yearstudents under her wing, and Gyome, the troll chef of Witherbloom College.In addition to legions of people who devote their lives to the university’s operations, numerous automatons and artificial life-forms—various kinds of Constructs—serve in various roles, including campus guides and library assistants. All these operations are managed by an administration overseen by the ten deans, two in each college. Each dean is an esteemed professor who embraces one side of their school’s philosophical dichotomy. The deans, like the professors who serve as counselors to students, view it as their role to disagree with each other and guide the college by way of their arguments. Furthermore, rivalries among the deans only exacerbate this combative attitude. When the argumentative deansfail to chart a coherent course for Strixhaven, the Founder Dragons are occasionally forced to intervene. They don’t step in directly, but a director known asthe Voice of the Founders—currently an imposing man named Taiva—speaks on the dragons’ behalf. MASCOTS Each of Strixhaven’sfive colleges has a mascot—a small creature associated with the magic of the school and often found wandering their respective campuses.Witherbloom’s mascots, pests, are naturally found in the world around the campus. The other colleges’ mascots are brought into being through magic. The Strixhaven Mascots table lists the mascots by college. Each of these mascotsis detailed in chapter 7. STRIXHAVEN MASCOTS College Lorehold Prismari Quandrix Silverquill Witherbloom Mascot Spirit Statue Mascot Art Elemental Mascot Fractal Mascot Inkling Mascot Pest Mascot The five kinds of mascots act as companionsfor students and faculty,sometimesserving as willing subjectsfor experiments or demonstrations, and occasionally even helping out in a duel or a more serious combat situation. Most notably, mascots are also playing pieces of sortsin the Strixhaven sport of Mage Tower, described in more detail in chapter 4. 10 CHAPTER | LIFE AT STRIXHAVEN
dictable:they aren’t necessarily open all the time, they don’t always lead to the same places, and some require complicated conditions or keysto open. CENTRAL CAMPUS CAMPUS OVERVIEW The central campus—shown on map 1.1—is the heart of Strixhaven.Its extensive groundsinclude residence halls for first-year students, dining halls, administration buildings, classrooms and laboratories(mostly used for first-year classes and interdisciplinary studies), and space forsocial gatherings. Two of the sites on map 1.1 are described elsewhere in the book:Aerojaunt Field (see chapter 4) and Captain Dappiewing’s Manor (see chapter 3). THE BIBLIOPLEX The center of Strixhaven isthe Biblioplex, the university’s main library. At the heart of the library is a snarl, a tangle in the fabric of magic, that glows like a miniature sun in the grand Hall of Oracles. A star arch called the Dawnbow curves across the sky above the library, marking its location as a center of mystic learning. Strixhaven occupies hundreds of acres,spread out over six campuses. Each of the university’sfive colleges hasits own campus, and the central campus, home to the Biblioplex and Strixhaven Stadium, serves as a hub for university life.See the appendix or the poster map for a view of the entire university. Well-maintained roads connect the six campuses, and walking from one to another can take a halfhour or more.Regularshuttles—large carriages drawn by horselike automata—run on an hourly schedule between a station near the Biblioplex and each of the satellite campuses, making the journey in about 15 minutes.In addition, each campus has multiple permanent teleportation circles, which faculty and more advanced students can use when they require instantaneoustravel, and several magical portals exist as well.These portals can be unpreARCHWAY COMMONS IS A FAVORITE SPOT
MAP 1.1: CENTRAL CAMPUS Arches welcome inquisitive minds into the library. Inside, almost every surface from the floor to the high ceiling isjammed with stacks of books. The interior of the Biblioplex is vast, with long hallways, archive chambers tall enough to have their own weather, and even pools and moat-passages crossable only by boat. Five lines of beacon-towers radiate from the Biblioplex like enormousspokes. These Torches of Enlightenment stretch out to the five college campuses and beyond, more than a hundred milesinto the surrounding countryside. They burn perpetually with magical flame, symbolizing the path toward learning and an escape from ignorance. ARCHWAY COMMONS Just south of the Biblioplex, a star arch curves overhead like a smaller echo of the Dawnbow, and a lush park, Archway Commons, marks the site. More familiarly called the Commons, the park is a favorite spot for students—especially first-years—to gather in fair weather or to wander through on dates.Some of the university’s clubs also use the park to host social gatherings and games, including live-action roleplaying games and casualsports. FIREJOLT CAFE At the edge of Archway Commons and just outside the Biblioplex stands the cozy Firejolt Cafe, where students cram both information and caffeine into themselves before exams.The cafe’s name comes from itstrademark beverage, which the manager, an elf mage named Ellina, brews with her fire magic. The Firejolt has a reputation as a hangout for firstyearstudents, but olderstudentsfrom all five colleges can be seen inside at all hours. Bow’s END TAVERN At the western end of the Dawnbow, where it meets the ground,stands a smaller university landmark: Bow’s End Tavern, which serves as a hangout for older students. Most patrons come for the live music, deliciously greasy food, and various potions and beverages. Others come to settle their differences in wild duels in the lot behind the tavern.The tavern’s manager is a kind but strict ore named Tulk “the Bulk” Tusktooth. STRIXHAVEN STADIUM The stadium where thousands gather to watch students play Mage Tower (and sometimes other sports) islocated near Bow’s End Tavern. Chapter 4 offers more information about Mage Tower. CHAPTER 1 LIFE AT STRIXHAVEN
ORDER AND CHAOS Lorehold’stwo deans carry the titles Dean of Order and Dean of Chaos, as order versus chaos encapsulatesthe fundamental conflict at the heart of Lorehold’s philosophy. This conflict revolves around the forcesthat underlie and drive history. Is the course of time driving toward a well-ordered idealstate or slowly devolving into chaos? Are deep patterns hidden in historical texts, or is time a series of coincidence and happenstance? The perspective of order emphasizes the structuresthat pull people together—law, religion, economics, education, social class, and so on—and how those structures drive historical events. Order focuses on systemic changes and the actions of people collectively. The perspective of chaos, by contrast, emphasizes individual actions, personal bonds of families and friends, and the disruptive force of lone, passionate people in history. Scholars of chaos gravitate toward reckless discovery and the spirit of adventure in their research of the past—the essence and emotion of history over precision or procedure. LOREHOLD COLLEGE Lorehold isthe College of Archaeomancy—a term that describesthe exploration of ancient things through magic. Its mages explore the past by poring over archaeologicalsites, calling forth magical energy from old tomes, and summoning the spirits of long-dead historical figures. Lorehold magestravel far and wide acrossthe world, gathering relics of bygone ages and learning dead languages to unpack the secrets of history. STUDIES AND PHILOSOPHY Lorehold College is devoted to the study of history, broadly understood to include the various aspects of culture, behavior, and social relationships that shape historical events. Itsstudiesinclude various subdivisions of history (military history, social history, cultural history), archaeology, anthropology, psychology, sociology, religion, and economics. It overlaps with Prismari College in the field of art history, with some studentssplitting theirstudies between the two colleges. Lorehold mages use their magic to unearth secrets and share illumination. SCHOLARS OF LOREHOLD The Lorehold Scholarstable offers examples of the scholars in Lorehold College. You may use the table to randomly determine the scholarly focus of a Lorehold student or faculty member. The Principle column notes which side of the order-chaos conflict
Plargg believes that history isfull of unpredictable, war-filled chaos and that hisstudents must be ready for anything. He teachesthat no rewards come without risk, and his excursions typically end with students heading to the infirmary. He pays little attention to Dean Tullus’swork, usually dismissing her attemptsto find order in chaos asfoolhardy. HOFRI GHOSTFORGE When Hofri (neutral good dwarf Lorehold professor of order) first enrolled in Strixhaven, he believed hisfuture lay with Prismari. A diligent student, he quickly mastered the technicalskills of art, but his magic left something to be desired. After talking with the school’s counselor, Mavinda, Hofri decided to try hisluck with Lorehold.It turned out he had a natural talent for Lorehold’sspirit magic. Histime at Prismari was hardly wasted, however. Combining his artistic skill with his keen spiritual sense, Hofri could visualize a spirit’s mortal appearance and construct a viable statue form for them to inhabit. No one in Lorehold’s history had previously created a spiritstatue from scratch, and Hofri was offered a professorial position after graduation, which he happily accepted. OSGIR, THE RECONSTRUCTOR Even by Lorehold standards, Osgir (neutral stone giant) is obsessed with relics of the past. A professor of order, he treasures every connection to old civilizations, whether it’s a magnificent jeweled crown or an old shovel. As a student, he constantly spent time in detention for hoarding the best finds from Lorehold dig sitesin his room; he lost count of how many times he wassternly told, “History belongs to us all!” So, naturally, he mastered the magical art of duplicative restoration. Not only can he perfectly recreate an ancient object or device from the smallest scrap, but he can also produce a second, identical version for his personal collection. He displayssomething different every week in his Lorehold office, from a mighty sword of demon-slaying to a delicate elven music box. LOREHOLD SCHOLARS dIO Scholar Principle 1 Archaeoscribe, chronicling historical Order truths for posterity 2 Battle medium, strengthening sum- Order moned spirits for use in battles 3 Chaos scholar, chasing down historical Chaos anecdotes as a litany of happenstance 4 Conservator, preserving ancient spell Order knowledge and other relics of the past 5 Dustspeaker, conversing with spirits Chaos of the past to learn their storiess 6 Pastraiser, binding spirits into the monuments that bear their likeness to learn about their inspiring deeds 7 Relic reader, divining wisdom from the Order past from the context of ruin sites 8 Ruin shaman, wielding magic that helps delve into ancient sites 9 Tomewielder, summoning fiery magic Chaos from the words in old writings 10 Warsinger, studying the magic used in Chaos ancient wars Order Chaos LOREHOLD FACULTY Thissection describes noteworthy members of the Lorehold faculty.Some of them use a Loreholdspecific stat block from chapter 7. AUGUSTA TULLUS, DEAN OF ORDER Augusta Tullus (lawful neutral human Lorehold professor of order) isthe current Dean of Order. A professor of spirit studies, she has been called the college’s most talented pastraiser.She can conjure entire legions of ghostly apparitions to reenact historical eventsfor her lectures. Augusta believes that history repeatsitself as an orderly progression toward an ideal.In her view, the mistakes of the past can inform the choices of the present, creating a world of peace and order.She plays things by the book and frowns on students who embark on Dean Plargg’s dangerousfield trips. Characters have ample opportunity to meet Dean Tullus in the adventure presented in chapter 5. PLARGG, DEAN OF CHAOS Plargg (chaotic good ore Lorehold professor of chaos) isthe current Dean of Chaos. Specializing in military history, Plargg is known for his perfect recall of historicalstories, as well as his potent scroll magic. Blind himself, he invented a form of magical embossing called heat lettering, which provides a tactile way to read texts. COLWANDATHE BLOODSPILLER "Have you met Colwanda yet?” is a question that older Lorehold students love to ask second-year students, new to the college. Sooner or later, one professor or another summons this spirit of a notorious stone giant warmonger, ostensibly as a cautionary tale about the dire fate that befalls a society that loses control of its aggressive impulses. Golwanda plays her role with relish, doing her best to strike terror into the students with her bloodcurdling screams and howls of rage. , CHAPTER 1 | LIFE AT STRIXHAVEN
LOSHEEL, CLOCKWORK SCHOLAR Losheel (chaotic good loxodon Lorehold professor of chaos) is a Humanoid resembling a bipedal elephant.She proudly admits that she is willing to work hard to be aslazy as possible. She turns her brilliant mind to constructing increasingly efficient mechanical helpers, with the goal of one day being able to do anything she wants without standing up. LOREHOLD CAMPUS to another, often directly passing the enormous stone faces of old statues. Every Lorehold class has a story of some carelessstudent making a misstep on one of these bridges or in some particularly crumbling section of the ruins,sometimes with disastrous consequences—and sometimesfinding deliverance when a spirit statue appearsfrom nowhere to catch the haplessstudent before they suffer serious harm. EFFIGY ROW The heart of the Lorehold campussurrounds a soaring bridge that crosses the chasm of Pillardrop. The bridge and surrounding pathways are lined with monuments depicting historic figures, including past professors and prominent mage-students, as well as war heroes and heads of state from ages past. KOLLEMA HALL Kollema Hall is a grand, multitiered gallery built into a large outcrop at the end of Effigy Row. Here, Lorehold mages gather for large lectures. At the center of the hall towers a magnificent statue of Kollema, a wise monastic who was one of the first Lorehold professors. Chapter 5 includes a partial map of Kollema Hall. The Lorehold campus—shown on map 1.2—issituated northwest of the central campusin a region of stark vertical relief. Rugged mesas and steep hills rise from a wide plain, and a great chasm holds the excavated ruins of an ancient settlement.Several star arches encircle rocky peaks and outcroppings, testifying to the powerful magical energy in the vicinity-energy once harnessed by the ancients who used to inhabit this area. PILLARDROP Part natural chasm, part archaeological excavation, and part new construction, Pillardrop is a series of buildings excavated out of cliffs on the Lorehold campus. Ruins and upgraded halls together are now used for research, classwork, and housing. Precarious bridges link one neighborhood of Pillardrop MAP 1,2: LOREHOLD CAMPUS CHAPTER 1 | LIFE AT STRIXHAVEN 15
The perspective of perfection focuses on technique, analysis, theory, aesthetics, and universal principles.It embraces intellect over emotion, strives to be thought-provoking and reflective, and aspiresto mastery. Its mages tend to use elemental forces of cold, water, and wind. The perspective of expression instead emphasizesthe portrayal of personal emotional truths. Its mages value improvisation, innovation, and rule-breaking, and they often favor elemental magic using fire, lightning, and earth. SCHOLARS OF PRISMARI The Prismari Scholarstable offers examples of the scholarsin Prismari College. You may use the table to randomly determine the scholarly focus of a Prismaristudent or faculty member. The Principle column notes which side of the perfection-expression conflict a scholar more likely aligns with. PRISMARI COLLEGE Prismari, the College of Elemental Arts, is devoted to the study and practice of art intertwined with magic.The mage-students of Prismari wield magic in spectacles of creativity:masterpieces of showy, over-the-top magic. They use elemental magic to express who they are and how they see the world, often combining different types of energy—fire, water, air, earth, lightning, heat, cold—in powerful expressions of conflict and harmony. STUDIES AND PHILOSOPHY Prismari College is dedicated to the arts. Itsscholars view art asthe fundamental form of self-expression and magic as a tool, a medium, and an inspiration. Prismaristudiesfocus on visual arts (including architecture, painting, and sculpture) and performing arts(such as dance, music, and theater). The curriculum overlaps with Lorehold in the field of art history and with Silverquill in the literary arts, and some students divide their time between Prismari and one of those other schools to pursue these interdisciplinary fields. Prismari mages use magic to weave the elementsinto their creations; they might juxtapose fire alongside paint, ceramics, or fabric, or they might choreograph elaborate works that unite a dancer’s movements with gusts and eddies of air. PRISMARI SCHOLARS d12 Scholar Principle 1 Aesthemancer, studying abstract prin- Perfection ciples of beauty for insight into the workings of the multiverse 2 Electrovisionary, wielding the forms of Expression lightning as a paintbrush 3 Flamesinger, combining fire and music Expression 4 Ceosculptor, using earth and lava in Expression volatile emotional displays 5 Heartrager, turning inner creative fire Expression into personal strength 6 Ice sculptor, crafting ice and cold into Perfection immersive experiences 7 Mistmage, shaping cloud, fog, and Perfection mist into lasting sculptures 8 Muse channeler, projecting blasts of Expression inspiration toward others 9 Opusmancer, creating magical effects Perfection on a monumental scale 10 Spectacle mage, hurling stormy dis- Expression plays into the sky 11 Waterbinder, shaping water into ani- Perfection mated elemental forms 12 Zephyrist, weaving wind with dance Perfection PERFECTION AND EXPRESSION Prismari’stwo deans carry the titles Dean of Perfection and Dean of Expression, and they often express the fundamental conflict of their philosophy as perfection versus expression—or,sometimes, as intellect versus emotion. What isthe purpose of art? Is it to make people think things or make people feel things? Isit supposed to be carefully thought out or raw and spontaneous? Is mastery of art a matter of honing precise techniques to a point of perfection or of perfectly expressing a raw emotionalstate? Does art aspire to express universal truths or intensely personal ones? OCTAVIA, THE LIVING THESIS Crafted as a graduate’s final project many years ago, Octavia (a water elemental that looks like an enormous octopus) took up residence on campus and never left. After all, in its humble opinion, every student deserves the chance to see true art in person. Some say it’s incoherent, but really, Octavia is just a very conceptual thinker. PRISMARI FACULTY Thissection describes noteworthy members of the Prismari faculty. Some of them use a Prismari-specific stat block from chapter 7.Several of them are genasi, who are Humanoids touched by the Elemental Planes. l6 CHAPTER 1 | LIFE AT STRIXHAVEN
PRISMARI COLLEGE UviLDA MlSTCOILER, DEAN OF PERFECTION Nassari believes that true expression comesfrom the heart. They encourage theirstudents to treat the entire world as a canvas on which to spread emotion and excitement. Nassari takeslittle heed of Dean Uvilda Mistcoiler (neutral good genasi Prismari professor of perfection) is the current Dean of Perfection. A master of artistic technique, Uvilda trains with a range of elements whenevershe isn’t focused on her teaching.She is known for giving students profoundly insightful feedback, which she tailors to each individual. After a review,she often offers a small piece of advice that altersthe student’s point of view and work forever—for the better. Uvilda believes that good art comesfrom the head. To her, carefully measured strokes and deliberate object placement make the difference between fully realized art and a total mess.If Dean Nassari interrupts her careful work with bombastic expressions one more time, Uvilda is prepared to enroll in Quandrix to learn how to shrink Nassari. Mistcoiler’s quiet masterpieces and often feignsforgetfulness about Dean Mistcoiler’s very existence. VEYRAN, VOICE OF DUALITY In addition to being an accomplished elementalist, Veyran (chaotic good genasi Prismari professor of perfection)serves as a mentor to many Prismari pledgemages.She advocates enthusiastically for the importance of both passion and disciplined technique in any artistic pursuit. If a new student is upset or overwhelmed,she eagerly callsforth playful, beautiful elemental creatures to cheer up the student. ZAFFAI, THUNDER CONDUCTOR Assoon as Zaffai (chaotic neutral human Prismari professor of expression) came of age, his parents sent him to Strixhaven, assuring him his budding musical genius deserved the finest instruction in the world.(In truth, though he did possess prodigious talent, they were also growing tired of their house being randomly struck by lightning or engulfed in cyclones whenever he practiced.) Even as he flourished as both mage and musician, he discovered a new aptitude: conducting. NASSARI, DEAN OF EXPRESSION Nassari (chaotic good genasi Prismari professor of expression) is the current Dean of Expression. Nazzari always want to see art that is bigger, more radical in concept, and more emotionally powerful. For their final project as a mage-student, Nassari famously “turned in” an earthquake, which almost destroyed three campus buildings.The piece received a standing ovation from the mage-student body—and a grumpy thumbs down from the campus construction golems. CHAPTER 1 | LIFE AT STRIXHAVEN
CONJUROT HALL The center of the Prismari campus is Conjurot Hall, a towering structure with a glassed-in observation area at the top.Constantly changing strands of elemental energy encircle the structure. Artist-mages can see for milesfrom Conjurot’s main turret, and the view hasinspired many artistic creations. OPUS WALK Hundreds of Prismari creations are displayed along a path that winds through the central campus buildings, giving the path its name:Opus Walk.Some famous pieces of magical art have been displayed along Opus Walk for centuries, while other transient bursts of creativity last only a few moments. FURYGALE At the outskirts of the Prismari campus, the abandoned creations of thousands of past artist-mages have coalesced over the years into the notorious region of Furygale. Roped off by magical wards and warning signs, Furygale isseveral acres of ever-changing magical energy, gales of ice and wind and fire, and elementals gone rogue. While dangerous, it also provides a source of wild inspiration, and it remains a popular spot for students who want to duel without being interrupted by faculty. In addition to teaching, he serves as Grand Maestro of Strixhaven’sOrchestra of the Arcane, an elite extracurricular activity for top Prismari students.They practice only outdoors, and their concertsfill the sky with beautiful explosions of elemental magic. ARKIN MINEXES, PEPPY INSTRUCTOR Arkin (lawful good human Prismari professor of expression) is a newly hired instructor teaching a few coursesin choreography and dance ensembles. He recently graduated from Strixhaven himself, and he bubbles with excitement at the prospect of guiding a new generation of students on the course of study he so greatly enjoyed. He particularly delights in finding new ways to help students work collaboratively to unlock the heights of their creative potential. Characters might encounter Instructor Minexesin chapter 6. PRISMARI CAMPUS Southwest of the central campus, the Prismari campus—shown on map 1.3—issituated in a region of jagged rocks, rugged spires, and intense geothermal activity. : 18 CHAPTER 1 | LIFE AT STRIXHAVEN
SCHOLARS OF QUANDRIX The Quandrix Scholarstable offers examples of the scholarsin Quandrix College. You may use the table to randomly determine the scholarly focus of a Quandrix student or faculty member.The Principle column notes which side of the substance-theory conflict a scholar more likely aligns with. QUANDRIX COLLEGE Quandrix isthe College of Numeromancy—a term that encompassesthe study of patterns, fractals, and symmetriesto wield power over the fundamental mathematics of nature. Quandrix mages can summon creatures made of fractals or turn abstract theories into towering, spiraling patterns. They love to expand and multiply; they can increase their knowledge or size by bending numbers. They dwell in the overlap between the theoretical and the natural—from the fabric of their robesto the nature of their spells, they make use of repeated elements, clever symmetries, and surprising geometry to express the complex truthsthey study. QUANDRIX SCHOLARS d8 Scholar Principle 1 Abstractor, using magic to stretch the Theory possibilities of space 2 Augmenter, making creatures and things larger 3 Fractalologist, creating beautiful illu- Theory sory patterns 4 Mana scholar, studying snarls, leylines, and star arches 5 Metamancer, studying metaphysics to Theory alter reality 6 Scale druid, manipulating the size of Substance plants and animals 7 Sequence prophet, studying repeating Theory patterns that bend the mind 8 Vivifier, conjuring fractal creatures based on biological life Substance Substance STUDIES AND PHILOSOPHY The studies undertaken within Quandrix College include mathematics, physics, logic, statistics, metaphysics, and variousfields of theoretical magic.Studentsfrom the other colleges occasionally delve into Quandrix courses to bolster the theoretical underpinnings of theirstudies, and Quandrix’sstudies of nature and Witherbloom’s explorations of practical biology have some significant overlap. SUBSTANCE AND THEORY Quandrix’stwo deans carry the titles Dean of Substance and Dean of Theory, reflecting the philosophical division within the college. Is mathematics a natural force that exists in the universe independent of the constructs of intelligent minds, or isit a theoreticalframework created by those who study it? Is the work of the scholar to discover what is or to define what could be? The perspective of substance emphasizes physical reality. In this view, math is embodied in the natural forces of the multiverse, waiting to be discovered by those with the intellectual fortitude to delve into those secrets.Quandrix mages who embrace this view use magic to bring numerical concepts to life, creating or altering physical reality out of mathematical possibility. The perspective of theory focuses on the abstract realms of conjecture and possibility. Itsscholars view math as a lensthrough which a mind can understand the cosmos, notsomething that existsindependently in the world. Mages who embrace this perspective use theirspells to weave illusions and manipulate the fabric of magic itself. Substance QUANDRIX FACULTY Thissection describes noteworthy members of the Quandrix faculty.Some of them use a Quandrix-specific stat block from chapter 7. KIANNE, DEAN OF SUBSTANCE Brilliant and eccentric, Dean Kianne (neutral elf Quandrix professor ofsubstance) is one of the preeminent mana scholars of the world.She has visited and studied countless bizarre magical phenomena, from snarls to star arches to ancient shrines. She loves to share her wild theories with anyone who will listen. Kianne believes in using mathematics to better understand nature. She places an emphasis on practical magic that improves daily life through applied calculations.She rolls her eyes at Dean Imbraham’s theories, dismissing them as evidence that her fellow dean livesin an imaginary world. CHAPTER 1 | LIFE AT STRIXHAVEN 19
tery of both of Quandrix’s philosophical perspectives. They constantly debate the merits of various esoteric mathematical principles, but if one of their studentsis in danger, they leap into action in perfect harmony. DEEKAH, FRACTAL THEORIST Deekah (lawful neutral human Quandrix professor of theory)seesthe world as an endlesssequence of interconnected equations, which to her is the most beautiful thing imaginable.She explores new theorems by giving them physical form, and her exquisite geometric creations are thrilling sights on campus. RUXA, PATIENT PROFESSOR Ruxa (neutral good Quandrix professor ofsubstance) looks like a bipedal brown bear and knows that wild new theories, though exciting, are worthless without a deep understanding of the basics. He teachesstudents of all levels, and even his most experienced pupils benefit from a much deeper understanding of the fundamental building blocks of the world. Dean Imbraham (neutral owlin Quandrix professor of theory) isstern and shrewd, with a mind as piercing as his curved beak. He is known for the unnerving habit of fully rotating his head around to address hisstudents, while still rapidly chalking up complex theorems and equations on a chalkboard. Imbraham loves numbers more than people or the out-of-doors;some say he hasn’t gone outside certain chambers of the Quandrix campus in years. Imbraham wants nothing more than to crack the mysteries of the world through dauntingly complex theories. He offers hisstudentsstanding bounties on any of his unsolved equations. ADRIX AND NEV, TWINCASTERS The twins Adrix (neutral good triton Quandrix professor ofsubstance) and Nev (neutral good triton Quandrix professor of theory) grew up literally swimming in magic, in an ocean region near a powerful magicalsnarl. At an early age, they began to see patternsin the tides and currentsthat eluded even the most esteemed scholars of their society. Once, they saved a hundred lives by predicting the sudden arrival of a tsunami, despite the deceptively calm seas—washing away any doubts in their prowess. CHAPTER | LIFE AT STRIXHAVEN
QUANDRIX CAMPUS ESIX, FRACTAL BLOOM Tasked with devising an infinite equation, a group of Quandrix students accidentally created Esix, a living theorem obsessed with infinity. Over the years, a few professors have tried to deactivate it, but all their formulas somehow end up dividing by zero and fizzling out. Esix never seems to register these would-be threats, as it remains consumed by its own calculations. The Quandrix campus-shown on map 1.4—issituated in a coastal area to the northeast of the central campus, surrounded by lush woodland and abundant rivers and streams. TORUS HALL The central hall of Quandrix campuslies at the end of a geometric series of walkways, terminating at ascending rampsto the towering building. Inside, Torus Hall’s architecture is mapped to an ever-changing three-dimensional grid, which slowly evolves.Some Quandrix faculty membersinsist that mage-studentsshouldn’t linger too long inside the hall, lest its geometry eventually turn itself inside out while students are still within it. THE ARITHMODROME The Quandrix campusis alive with dynamic sculptures made of water behaving in odd ways: cube-shaped fountains, arching aqueducts that flow through the air, towers of solid-seeming water. One water structure holds a secret: a mysterious inner expanse called the Arithmodrome. From the outside, the Arithmodrome looks like a large cube of water, ten feet on each side. The inside is an apparently boundless theory-space thatsuspends the rules of reality. Mages use thisspace to explore theoretical numerical possibilities. THE CULTIVARIUM The Cultivarium is an eye-popping,sun-drenched garden of spiraling, cyclical plants and fractalized animals. Quandrix faculty members have repeatedly taught growth spellsin this part of campus, and over the centuries, the area has come to intensify any growth magic cast within it. . CHAPTER 1 | LIFE AT STRIXHAVEN
SCHOLARS OF SILVERQUILL The Silverquill Scholarstable offers examples of the scholarsin Silverquill College. You may use the table to randomly determine the scholarly focus of a Silverquillstudent or faculty member. The Principle column notes which side of the radiance-shadow conflict a scholar more likely aligns with. SILVERQUILL COLLEGE Silverquill isthe College of Eloquence, and its mages—stylish, intimidating, and driven—are masters of the magic of words. They create spells from spoken-word battle poetry or magical manifestations of the written word,scribing patterns of runic ink in the air.These mages make for natural leaders, fiercely competitive, with a piercing wit and a never-second-place attitude. SILVERQUILL SCHOLARS d8 Scholar Principle Bantermage, using incisive observa- Shadow tion to pierce rivals’ confidence Duskmage, conjuring inky voids of Shadow shadow magic Inkcaster, summoning living inklings Shadow to service Lumimancer, bringing light to bear on Radiance shameful situations and holding corrupt institutions to account Shadewing, forming weapons from Shadow darkness to slice and stab at foes Silvertongue, bathing others in the Radiance light of inspiring words Vainglory, wielding the power of a per- Radiance fectly crafted compliment to enhance a person’s best qualities Warsinger, stirring hearts through po- Radiance etic performance and song 1 2 STUDIES AND PHILOSOPHY 3 The curriculum of Silverquill College revolves around words, encompassing literature (including fiction, essays, drama, and poetry), languages, linguistics, oratory, rhetoric, and dramatic performance. Studentsfrom other colleges often take Silverquill courses to improve their communication skills, learning to speak and write more effectively about their primary field of study. Silverquill and Prismarisee overlap in the area of performing arts, with Silverquill emphasizing verbal performance and Prismari focusing more on dance and other forms of movement. 4 5 6 7 8 RADIANCE AND SHADOW The two deans of Silverquill are called the Dean of Radiance and the Dean of Shadow, highlighting the college’s use of metaphor in describing its philosophical differences. The metaphor of radiance and shadow takes concrete form in Silverquill magic, asstudentslearn to manifest brilliant light or inky darkness with their spells. The fundamental argument among Silverquill’sscholars centers on the purpose of communication.Isit to help others or further a personal agenda? Doesliterature selflessly better society or selfishly advance one’s own goals? The college’s perspective of radiance envisions language assunlight emanating from the speaker or writer to illuminate others and make the world a brighter place. Mages who embrace this view use their language skills—and their magic—to uplift and empower others, to shine light on the evils of society, and to inspire the best in those around them. The college’s perspective of shadow focuses on the power of language to stab, to expose stinging truths, and to obfuscate secrets. The magic of shadow mages often manifests as bolts or blades of darkness or blotches of flowing ink, and its effects range from a sting of shame to an assault on the target’slife energy. SILVERQUILL FACULTY Thissection describes noteworthy members of the Silverquill faculty.Some of them use a Silverquillspecific stat block from chapter 7. SHAILE TALONROOK, DEAN OF RADIANCE Dean Shaile Talonrook (lawful good owlin Silverquill professor of radiance) is a perennially optimistic orator. A master of literature,she often quotes obscure passagesfrom famous texts. Her soul-filling advice and educated references have been known to make people literally glow. Shaile believesthat all people have the potential for good and wishes to teach herstudents how to make the world a better place.She and Dean Lu often clash over Silverquill’s curriculum, but the balance found between them isfar more eloquent than even their words can describe. CHAPTER 1 LIFE AT STRIXHAVEN
cruit her, threatening herstudents’ lives if she didn’t comply. Within an hour, she convinced him to free her, abandon his wicked ways, and seek wisdom from the archaics. Dean Embrose Lu (lawful neutral human Silverquill professor ofshadow) is a master poet whose ink magic is merciless. Scant with praise and quick with a cutting remark, Dean Lu hasseen many mage-studentsscrub out of Strixhaven and has nothing good to say about those who can’t hack it. A cynic, Embrose believes that most people are in it for themselves. He demands hisstudentslearn how to use language-based magic to “get what they deserve.” While he often argues with Dean Talonrook, he holds a deep (if begrudging) respect for the owlin. NILS, DISCIPLINE ENFORCER Nils (lawful neutral human Silverquill professor of radiance) is an optimist, as he believesin every student’s potential for greatness. However, this outlook also means he’s constantly disappointed by their suboptimal choices, and he is well known for his strictness and abrupt scoldings. BRENNETH BLACKSTONE, SCRIPTOLOGY STAR Brenneth Blackstone (neutral good dhampir Silverquill professor ofshadow) is a rising star in the study of magical writing and symbols.With a dynamic lecturing style, this dhampir—a partial vampire—attractsstudentsfrom across Strixhaven purely for hislessons’ value as performance art. He teaches a course in scrivening and scriptology that characterstake over the course of chapter 4. BREENA, THE DEMAGOGUE Breena (neutral good owlin Silverquill professor ofshadow) has a talent for getting her way. If she wants you to do something, you won’t just do it—you’ll be sure it was your idea all along. Her students and colleagues alike hang on her every word, and in front of a crowd,she’s a powerhouse of charisma, enhancing herspeeches with elegant swirls of ink magic.Though she’s an elite mage who can easily hold her own in a fight, Breena prefers to defeat her foes with words alone. 1 | AT STRIXHAVEN
THE ROSE STAGE The Rose Stage is a rotating circular platform on the Silverquill campus. It has a backdrop of roses made of magical ink (tributesleft by spectators of past performances), which creates excellent acoustics. Mage-students meet at the Rose Stage to practice performances,spar, or engage in honor duels. Faculty members often observe performances at the Rose Stage, coaching the studentsin their magical and rhetorical displays. THE DRAMARIUM The Dramarium is a facility where Silverquillstudentstrain in fitness, dance, martial arts, and other acts of physical performance. Students can avail themselves of the preparation space called the Gray Room (actually a chain of rooms), which has hair and makeup salons, voice rehearsal booths, mirrored rehearsalspaces, and spa facilities.The back of the Dramarium has a specialsensory deprivation chamber for mage-students who want complete silence in which to meditate. FAIN, THE BROKER Lost an important textbook? Craving some rare delicacy from home? Need something inconveniently forbidden? Enter Fain (neutral human Silverquill professor ofshadow). He has an extensive network of connections on and off campus, and he can procure just about anything—so long as you can afford his price. SILVERQUILL CAMPUS The Silverquill campus—shown on map 1.5—is located due north of the central Strixhaven campus and looks much like an extension of it. Silverquill is the most urban of the five colleges, with a campus that features buildings of stately elegance. GRANDLOFT HALL The main Silverquill building is Grandloft Hall, a vast space with shafts of light streaking in from the enchanted windowpanesfar above. Grandloft teems with balconies, loges, booths, daises, and other spaces where orators can perform their craft. Inklings, the college’s mascots, flit around the high ceiling, and enchanted spotlights automatically focus on any mage who uses powerful magic. 1.5 CHAPTER 1 | LIFE AT STRIXHAVEN
SCHOLARS OF WITHERBLOOM The Witherbloom Scholarstable offers examples of the scholarsin Witherbloom College. You may use the table to randomly determine the scholarly focus of a Witherbloom student or faculty member. The Principle column notes which side of the growth-decay conflict a scholar more likely aligns with. WITHERBLOOM COLLEGE At Witherbloom, the College of Essence Studies, mages draw power from the opposing forces of life and death.These mages brew theirspellsfrom natural components and the essence of living creatures, using that power to heal or harm the living or to raise or entreat the dead. They can cause entire foreststo blossom out of nowhere or call down old cursesthatscourge flesh from bone.Some Witherbloom mages defend ecosystemsfrom pollution, while othersrevel in the power of corruption. They’re at home riding zombie crocodiles down a languid river, picking herbsfor a potion to treat a disease, brooding over a chorus of swamp frogs, or summoning fearsome avatars of nature. WITHERBLOOM SCHOLARS d8 Scholar 1 Banelock, using concoctions of noxious ingredients for withering magic 2 Bleed doctor, drain the essence of liv- Decay ing creatures to fuel sinister spells 3 Boon witch, brewing drafts to empower the living 4 Boughcaller, summoning creatures from bogs 5 Dreadbones, infusing dead tissue with Decay magic to create Undead servants 6 Earthcroucher, connecting directly with the land to power nature magic 7 Leafbinder, using medicinal herbs to Growth soothe wounds 8 Pestcatcher, harvesting life energy from the pests of the bayou Principle Decay Growth Growth STUDIES AND PHILOSOPHY Growth The curriculum of Witherbloom College focuses on varioussciences, revolving around the life sciences. Biology, ecology, botany, chemistry, and related sciences combine with the study and manipulation of the magical energy of the Positive Plane and the Negative Plane, the primal forces of life and death. Witherbloom’s curriculum sharessome overlap with Quandrix’s analysis of the mathematical patterns in nature. Decay WITHERBLOOM FACULTY Thissection describes noteworthy members of the Witherbloom faculty. Some of them use a Witherbloom-specific stat block from chapter 7. LISETTE, DEAN OF THE ROOT Dean Lissette (neutral good human Witherbloom professor of growth) is a world-class healer and herbalist; it’s even said she once cured the Lorehold founder dragon of a secret illness.Lisette’s classes lean more toward demonstration and hands-on experience than lectures.When Lisette speaks, her words are soft and full of colorful metaphors. Lisette believesin preserving nature and life, and she instills in her students a respect for all living things.While Dean Valentin’s exploitation of living creatures disgusts her,she also knowsshe can use the results of his cruelty to help future lives. VALENTIN, DEAN OF THE VEIN Dean Valentin (neutral vampire) is ancient and drinksthe blood of living creaturesthroughout the bayou. Valentin is a kind of sangromancer—he receives visionsfrom the blood he consumes, which he usesto learn things about a creature or place. He has no qualms about exploiting the bayou’s creaturesfor personal gain. GROWTH AND DECAY The two deans of Witherbloom are traditionally called the Dean of the Root and the Dean of the Vein.These titles are a somewhat abstract way of framing the core division in the college’s philosophy:is growth or decay the driving force in nature? The philosophy of the root (growth) focuses on life and itsirrepressible drive to thrive. This view celebrates the diversity and adaptability of lifeforms, from the tiniest cells to the most complex networks of living things.The growth philosophy assertsthat the urge to survive and reproduce isthe most essential principle in the cosmos. Mages who adopt this view wield positive energy and practice healing magic. The philosophy of the vein (decay) focuses on the inevitability of death and decay. Itstraditional name comesfrom the prominence of vampires within the college, whose conceptions of draining life through the vein have long proven an important counterweight to the growth philosophy of Witherbloom. The decay philosophy seeslife energy as a resource to be consumed, rather than a good to be nourished for its own sake. Mages who adopt this view wield negative energy and practice necromancy. CHAPTER | LIFE AT STRIXHAVEN
treatment of animals, but that hasn’t stopped her from using his discoveriesfor her research. WILLOWDUSK, ESSENCE SEER No one knows how old Willowdusk (neutral good treant) really is. This professor of growth claimsto be older than Strixhaven itself, and although many suspect thatshe exaggerates, no one else who has lived long enough to refute her cares to do so. Many years ago, a group of rebelliousstudents got lost in Detention Bog and took shelter in what turned out to be Willowdusk’sroots.She protected them from a pack of hungry groffs and shepherded them back to Widdershins Hall, offering a lecture on proper herb-gathering practices during the journey. Her lessons proved so effective that she was asked to stay as a professor.She loves passing on her knowledge of medicinal herbs, pest mascot cultivation, and dissection techniques to generations of new students, and she almost always has a pot of tea brewing. out getting your hands dirty—which is the first thing Tivash (neutral human Witherbloom professor of decay) teaches Witherbloom students. Some call the forces he manipulates evil, but he asserts that power is only as good or evil as how you use it. VERELDA LANG, ARCANO-BIOLOGIST Verelda Lang (chaotic neutral dryad) is a respected Witherbloom professor of growth who teaches introductory coursesin magical physiologies, helping studentsin every college learn about the many unusual creaturesthey’re likely to encounter, whatever the students’ field of study. Her research extends to the vital functions of fractal creatures and other artificial life-forms, leading her to teach courses at Quandrix College as well. Characters have multiple opportunitiesto study with Professor Lang in chapters 3 and 6. CHAPTER | STRIXHAVEN
YEDORA, GRAVE GARDENER Yedora (neutral treant) is the head groundskeeper and unofficial undertaker of Strixhaven. Students and graduates often wish to spend their afterlife at their beloved university, and she honors that wish. Each tree she plants representsthe essence of a fallen mage, and she remembers them all by name. GYOME, MASTER CHEF Anyone who thinks a troll can’t be a great chef has never met Gyome (neutral troll). He combines local ingredients with flavors from his homeland into an ever-changing menu of delicacies.Studentsfrom every college trek through Sedgemoor in drovesfor hisfood.The only complaint he ever receives isthat he gives out unreasonably large portions. WlTHERBLOOM CAMPUS swamp creatures: bats, crocodilian monsters, zombified animals, lumbering beasts called brackish trudges, and canine creatures called groffs(brackish trudges and groffs are described in chapter 7). Sedgemoor is an excellent place to find pest mascots, herbs, spidersilk, fungi, and other ingredients for potions and spells. Characters have the opportunity to explore Sedgemoor in chapter 3. WlDDERSHINS HALL The center of the Witherbloom campusis Widdershins Hall, a bog mansion that lookslike it grew out of Sedgemoor itself. Widdershins is a network of interconnected wooden pods, with planked walkways leading out of it like tendrils. The hall has a cozy inner chamber where students gather for classwork. DETENTION BOG A stinking, thoroughly unpleasant marshland lies adjacent to Sedgemoor: the Detention Bog.Witherbloom faculty memberssend misbehaving students to this bog as punishment, but it’s also an excellent place to gather herbsfor certain cures and curses. The adventure presented in chapter 6 offers characters the opportunity to enter this bog. Witherbloom’s campus—shown on map 1.6—is tucked away in a wide bayou to the southeast of Strixhaven’s central campus. Wiltroot Hall is described in chapter 4. SEDGEMOOR Sedgemoor, the bayou area that encompasses the Witherbloom campus, is known for a range of MAP CHAPTER LIFE AT STRIXHAVEN
CHARACTER OPTIONS CREATURE TYPE Every creature in D&D, including every player character, has a special tag in the rules that identifies the type of creature they are. Most player characters, including owlin, are of the Humanoid type.Creature types don’t have rules themselves, but some rulesin the game affect creatures of certain types in different ways. For example, the text of the cure wounds spellspecifies that the spell doesn’t work on a creature that has the Construct type. LIFE SPAN The typical life span of a player character in D&D is about a century, assuming the character doesn’t meet a violent end on an adventure. HEIGHT AND WEIGHT Player characters, including owlin, typically fall into the same ranges of height and weight that humans have in our world. If you’d like to determine your character’s height or weight randomly, consult the Random Height and Weight table in the Player’s Handbook, and choose the row in the table that best representsthe build you imagine for your character. OWLIN Distant kin of giant owls from the Feywild, owlin come in many shapes and sizes, from petite and fluffy to wide-winged and majestic. Owlin have arms and legs like other Humanoids, as well as wings that extend from their back and shoulders. Like owls, owlin are graced with feathersthat make no sound when they move or fly, making it easy for them to sneak up on you in the library. Your owlin character might be nocturnal. Or perhaps your character issimply prone to rise later, embodying the common nickname of night owl. OWLIN TRAITS You have the following racial traits. Creature Type. You are a Humanoid. Size. You are Medium or Small. You choose the size when you select this race. Speed.Your walking speed is 30 feet. Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 120 feet of yourself asif it were bright light and in darkness asif it were dim light. You discern colors in that darkness only asshades of gray. HE CAMPUS OF STRIXHAVEN DRAWS A student body from acrossthe world—or many worlds.With your DM’s permission, you can create just about any Strixhaven character you can imagine, drawing on player character rulesfrom the Player’s Handbook and other D&D books.This chapter adds to that wealth of options with the material in the following sections: “Race Option” presentsthe owlin, a character race option perfect for playing an owl-like student. “Choosing a College” gives advice on building a character for adventuring in Strixhaven. “Strixhaven Backgrounds” presents a background option for each Strixhaven college, linking a character to one of the five colleges. “Feats” offers Strixhaven-themed featsfor use with A Curriculum of Chaos and other adventures. “Spells” revealssome spells that were developed at the university. “Magic Items” collects magic items that Strixhaven students might acquire on their adventures. RACE OPTION The owlin is a race option for player charactersin Strixhaven and other D&D settings. CREATING YOUR CHARACTER If you create an owlin character, follow these additional rules during character creation. ABILITY SCORE INCREASES When determining your character’s ability scores, increase one of those scores by 2 and increase a differentscore by 1, or increase three differentscores by 1. Follow thisrule regardless of the method you use to determine the scores,such as rolling or point buy. The “Quick Build” section for your character’s class offerssuggestions on which scores to increase. You’re free to follow those suggestions or to ignore them.Whicheverscores you decide to increase, none of the scores can be raised above 20. LANGUAGES Your character can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for the character.The Player’s Handbook offers a list of widespread languagesto choose from.The DM isfree to add or remove languages from that list for a particular campaign. CHAPTER 2 | CHARACTER OPTIONS
Flight.Thanksto your wings, you have a flying A STRIXHAVEN PARTY If you’re starting a Strixhaven campaign with the introductory adventure in chapter 3, that adventure gives all the advice you need to bring a party of characters together. The adventure assumes that the characters are first-year students who are participating in orientation activities together. If you start the campaign at higher level, using one of the adventures in later chapters of this book (or an adventure of your DM’s creation), give some thought to what has brought your characters together as a group. The easiest explanation is that you met as first-year students, perhaps living in the same residence hall or taking the same classes, or united by a common extracurricular interest. It’s also possible that your characters are just meeting for the first time. The events of the adventure might throw you together more or less at random. You could all be taking the same class, you might be working the same campus job, or you could be introduced by mutual friends. speed equal to your walking speed. You can’t use thisflying speed if you’re wearing medium or heavy armor. Silent Feathers. You have proficiency in the Stealth skill. CHOOSING A COLLEGE At Strixhaven, students choose their colleges at the start of their second year. But even during a character’sfirst year, you make college-related decisions for your character, such as a background choice. From the start, your character is making decisions that will lead to their eventual college choice. Chapter 1 describes each of the colleges. How do you decide which of these colleges is right for your character? Consider these approaches: • Read the college descriptionsin chapter 1, and choose the college that appealsto you. • Read the descriptions of backgrounds and feats in this chapter. If one of them catches your eye, choose that college. • If you have access to MAGIC: THE GATHERING cardsfrom the Strixhaven set, find a card that appealsto you and build that character. . 3 0 CHAPTER 2 CHARACTER OPTIONS
STRIXHAVEN BACKGROUNDS BUILDING A LOREHOLD CHARACTER Any class or subclass that deals with knowledge of the past can be a good fit in Lorehold. Bards thrive in Lorehold, and wizards(particularly those of the School of Divination) are numerous among itsstudents. Clerics(often with the Knowledge or Light domains) are also quite common. For a more unusual take on a Lorehold student, you could consider playing a barbarian with a primal connection to the past (perhaps adopting the Path of the Ancestral Guardian from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything) or a paladin whose Oath of the Ancients gives a concrete link to history. Suggested Characteristics. Methodical historians and daring adventurers alike can be found among the ranks of Lorehold college.The Lorehold Personality Traitstable suggests a variety of traits you might adopt for your character. Thissection presentsfive backgrounds that you can choose to reflect your character’sstudies preparing to enter one of Strixhaven’s colleges. You aren’t limited to these backgrounds in a Strixhaven campaign; they’re just one way you can choose to dive deeply into your character’s college affiliation. If you do choose one of these backgrounds, you can assume that your life to this point has been consumed by the education that has made enrolling at Strixhaven possible for you, and you might not have much experience of the world beyond that preparatory work. You’re ready to excel as a student—and that, in turn, will prepare you to excel at whatever path comes after graduation. LOREHOLD STUDENT You have spent your youth preparing to be a student of Lorehold College, reading every book on the college’srecommended reading list for prospective students. Your academic passions are in the broad field of history. You might dream of using magic to contact great historical figures or your own ancestors or of recreating the mighty magic of a distant age. Skill Proficiencies: History, Religion Languages:Two of your choice Equipment:A bottle of black ink, an ink pen, a hammer, a hooded lantern, a tinderbox, a tome of history, a school uniform, and a pouch containing 15 gp FEATURE: LOREHOLD INITIATE You gain the Strixhaven Initiate feat (presented later in the chapter) and must choose Lorehold within it. In addition, if you have the Spellcasting or Pact Magic feature, the spells on the Lorehold Spells table are added to the spell list of your spellcasting class. (If you are a multiclass character with multiple spell lists, these spells are added to all of them.) LOREHOLD PERSONALITY TRAITS d6 Personality Trait 1 I thrive on esoteric lore. The more obscure the historical references I can include in everyday conversation, the better. 2 By searching for these lost artifacts, I hope to find who I really am along the way. 3 I can barely go a minute without talking about my research. I have so much knowledge in my head, and it needs to be let out somewhere! 4 The spirits of the dead are so much more interesting to talk with than living classmates. 5 I can speak eloquently about the historical ramifications of an ancient war. But ask me to add two-digit numbers together, and I ’m a mess. 6 In the end, it’s all just entropy. Everything falls apart someday. Lorehold Trinkets.When you make your character, you may roll once on the Lorehold Trinkets table, instead of on the Trinketstable in the Player’s Handbook,for your starting trinket. LOREHOLD SPELLS Spell Level Spells Comprehend Languages, Identify Borrowed Knowledge (in this book), Locate Object Speak with Dead, Spirit Guardians Arcane Eye, Stone Shape Flame Strike, Legend Lore LOREHOLD TRINKETS d6 Trinket 1 A map made of concentric circles that can be rotated around the page 2 A puzzle box bedecked with amber 3 A dented brass compass with a red needle 4 The head of a broken statue that houses the consciousness of a snarky sage 5 A sheet of parchment embossed with tactile lettering, glowing red 6 A broken dagger with a wavy blade and a serpentine hilt 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Consider customizing how your spellslook when you cast them. Your Lorehold spells might create displays of golden light. You might use a tome or a scroll as a spellcasting focus, and your spell effects might reflect the appearance of the reference books you study. CHAPTER 2 | CHARACTER OPTIONS 31
PRISMARI STUDENT PRISMARI SPELLS You Spell Level Spells are an artist, and you have been preparing to hone your craft according to the traditions of Pris- 1st Chromatic Orb, Thunderwave mari College. Whatever your medium—sculpture, dance, paint, music, drama, architecture, or any other field—you have grand visions of bringing your art to life in a fusion of magic and creativity. 2nd Flaming Sphere, KineticJaunt (in this book) Haste, Water Walk Freedom of Movement, Wall of Fire Cone of Cold, Conjure Elemental 3rd 4th 5th Skill Proficiencies:Acrobatics, Performance Tool Proficiencies:One type of musical instrument or artisan’stools Languages:One of your choice Equipment: A bottle of black ink, an ink pen, a set of artisan’stools or a musical instrument (one of your choice), a school uniform, and a pouch containing 10 gp FEATURE: PRISMARI INITIATE You gain the Strixhaven Initiate feat (presented later in the chapter) and must choose Prismari within it. In addition, if you have the Spellcasting or Pact Magic feature, the spells on the Prismari Spells table are added to the spell list of your spellcasting class. (If you are a multiclass character with multiple spell lists, these spells are added to all of them.) Consider customizing how your spells look when you cast them. You might wield your Prismari spells with dynamic, gestural movement—as much dance assomatic component. Even a blast of fire in your handsis a sculpted work of art; elemental forces make grand designs as you hurl spells.These forces might linger on your body or in your clothes as decorative elements after your spells are dissipated, assparks dance in your hair and your touch leaves tracings of frost on whatever you touch. BUILDING A PRISMARI CHARACTER Any class or subclass that wields elemental forces of cold, fire, lightning, and wind can be a good fit in Prismari. Druids and sorcerers are common in Prismari, and wizards who study the Schools of Evocation or Transmutation are also well represented. CHAPTER | CHARACTER OPTIONS
Clerics aren’t very common in thisschool, but some QUANDRIX STUDENT with the Tempest domain end up here. Beyond the ranks of traditionalspellcasters, Lorehold students also include monks who follow the Way of the Four Elements.Some acrobatic rogues and fighters(including those who emulate the archetype of the Eldritch Knight) also delight in the athleticism of Prismari performance. Suggested Characteristics.Though the curriculum of Prismari College attracts many outgoing and driven artists, the school has no shortage of shy scholars and lackadaisical blowhards among its ranks. The Prismari Personality Traits table suggests a variety of traits you might adopt for your character. In preparation to become a student of Quandrix College, you have spent years working through the college’s math problemsfor prospective students. Your interests concentrate on the mathematical principles and patternsfound in the natural world. You might lean more toward mathematics or physics, or you delve into more abstract studies of metaphysics, arcana, or logic. Skill Proficiencies:Arcana, Nature Tool Proficiencies:One type of artisan’stools Languages:One of your choice Equipment: A bottle of black ink, an ink pen, an abacus, a book of arcane theory, a school uniform, and a pouch containing 15 gp PRISMARI PERSONALITY TRAITS d6 Personality Trait 1 I ’m the life of the party, and I expect everyone’s attention when I walk into a room. 2 Two weeks ago, I was enthralled with my latest project. Now, I think it’s garbage and deserves to be destroyed. 3 I believe everyone has the ability to express their truest selves through art, and I ’m happy to quietly push them in the right direction. 4 Everyone is a critic, and I work to win them all over. 5 I ’m beset with such an overwhelming sense of ennui regarding my art. Nothing quite captures my attention anymore. 6 Instead of confronting my negative emotions, I channel them into explosive artistic displays. Prismari Trinkets. When you make your character, you may roll once on the Prismari Trinkets table, instead of on the Trinkets table in the Player’s Handbook, for your starting trinket. FEATURE: QUANDRIX INITIATE You gain the Strixhaven Initiate feat (presented later in the chapter) and must choose Quandrix within it. In addition, if you have the Spellcasting or Pact Magic feature, the spells on the Quandrix Spells table are added to the spell list of your spellcasting class. (If you are a multiclass character with multiple spell lists, these spells are added to all of them.) QUANDRIX SPELLS Spell Level Spells Entangle, Guiding Bolt Enlarge/ Reduce, Vortex Warp (in this book) Aura of Vitality, Haste Control Water, Freedom of Movement Circle of Power, Passwall 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Consider customizing how your spellslook when you cast them. Your Quandrix spells might manifest amid kaleidoscopic swirls of fractal patterns, amplifying the tiniest movements of your somatic components.When your magic creates or alters creatures, it might briefly surround the targets with shimmering fractal designs or tessellated patterns. BUILDING A QUANDRIX CHARACTER Any spellcasting class orsubclass can work well for a Quandrix character. Both the scholarly focus of wizards(especially those who study the Schools of Abjuration, Illusion, or Transmutation) and the metamagic manipulations of sorcerers are welcome in Quandrix, and many druids explore the patterns of nature in Quandrix as well. A few clerics, particularly those with the Knowledge or Nature domains, study in Quandrix as well. Aside from traditionalspellcasters, a few characters of other classesfind homes in Quandrix.Some fighters, monks, rangers, and roguesstudy here, using Quandrix principles to train their minds. PRISMARI TRINKETS d6 Trinket 1 A pair of rose-tinted glasses with glittery frames 2 A stoppered glass bottle that, when opened, plays a brassy orchestral piece 3 A quartet of hovering water motes in a vial 4 A bandolier of watercolor paints 5 A tiara capped with a crystal that crackles with harmless lightning 6 An iridescent quill CHAPTER 2 | CHARACTER OPTIONS
Suggested Characteristics. With subjects ranging from the physical and tangible to the paradoxical and strange, the student body of Quandrix College includes an eclectic mix of individuals. The Quandrix Personality Traits table suggests a variety of traits you might adopt for your character. Quandrix Trinkets. When you make your character, you may roll once on the Quandrix Trinkets table, instead of on the Trinkets table in the Player’s Handbook,for your starting trinket. QUANDRIX TRINKETS d6 Trinket 1 A small succulent in a dodecahedral clay pot 2 A blue knit hat that looks a bit like a bottle folding in on itself 3 A model hypercube carved from green crystal, showcasing the fourth dimension 4 A crumpled test on the theory of gravity manipulation, with a failing grade on the front and the name of a famous Quandrix professor 5 A blue tetrahedron that, when tapped twice, projects a recording of an old mathematics lecture 6 A round bread roll cut so that someone could spread butter on both halves without ever lifting the knife QUANDRIX PERSONALITY TRAITS d6 Personality Trait When I find a subject I’m interested in,I won’t stop studying until I know everything about it. It keeps me up at night. 2 I hope this all makes sense to me one day. Until then, I’m going to keep faking it. 3 Equations and patterns come naturally to my mind. I wish friendship came just as easily. 4 I believe I’m always the smartest person in the room. And I’ll prove it, even if no one asks me to. 5 If these classes have taught me anything, it’s that reality is a lie, and nothing matters. So why bother? 6 Before I graduate, I want to achieve something mathematically impossible.I must leave a legacy! 1 34 CHAPTER 2 | CHARACTER OPTIONS
SlLVERQUILL STUDENT A number of both paladins and rogues attend Silverquill College as well, highlighting the diversity of the student body. Suggested Characteristics. With the college’s intense standardslooming over them, Silverquill students range from co*cky and cutthroat to overwhelmed perfectionists.The Silverquill Personality Traitstable suggests a variety of traits you might adopt for your character. You have spent years practicing your writing and oration in the hope of becoming a student of Silverquill College. Your studiesfocus on language, literature, and the power of words, both magical and otherwise.The metaphorical power of words to illuminate or conceal isjoined with the literal ability of magic to do the same in your academic pursuits. Skill Proficiencies:Intimidation, Persuasion Languages:Two of your choice Equipment: A bottle of black ink, an ink pen, a book of poetry, a school uniform, and a pouch containing 15 gp FEATURE: SILVERQUILL INITIATE You gain the Strixhaven Initiate feat (presented later in the chapter) and must choose Silverquill within it. In addition, if you have the Spellcasting or Pact Magic feature, the spells on the Silverquill Spells table are added to the spell list of your spellcasting class. (If you are a multiclass character with multiple spell lists, these spells are added to all of them.) SILVERQUILL PERSONALITY TRAITS d6 Personality Trait 1 I ’ll say whatever I need to in order to maintain my high social status. 2 I prefer saying the blunt truth over a pretty lie, and I don’t particularly care whose feelings I hurt. 3 I believe that uplifting my peers is the best way to succeed. 4 I ’ve mastered the art of using humor as a defense, and I always have a charming joke ready. 5 I always wait before speaking, analyzing the situation for whichever angle is most advantageous to my goals. 6 No one knows about the all-nighters I’ve pulled to keep my magic looking effortless, and I ’m going to keep it that way. Silverquill Trinkets.When you make your character, you may roll once on the Silverquill Trinkets table, instead of on the Trinkets table in the Player’s Handbook,for yourstarting trinket. SILVERQUILL SPELLS Spell Level Spells Dissonant Whispers, Silvery Barbs (in this book) Calm Emotions, Darkness Beacon of Hope, Daylight Compulsion, Confusion Dominate Person, Rary's Telepathic Bond 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th SILVERQUILL TRINKETS d6 Trinket 1 A black leather notebook filled with half-finished poems 2 A set of flashcards detailing different colloquialisms and their meanings 3 A canteen that makes any liquid drunk from it taste sweet 4 A forged permission slip granting access to the special archives of Strixhaven’s libraries 5 A stylish silver pin that references a famous series of novels about warlocks 6 A stack of small pieces of parchment, each enchanted to stick to whatever surface it’s pressed against and peel off easily Consider customizing how yourspellslook when you cast them. Your Silverquill spells might be accompanied by visual effects resembling splotches of ink or radiating ripples of golden light. Any auditory effects of your spells often sound like amplified echoes of your own voice speaking the spells’ verbal components—even amid the crash of lightning or a fiery eruption. BUILDING A SILVERQUILL CHARACTER Many bardsfind a home in Silverquill, putting the power of their voices to use with Silverquill magic. Wizards(especially those who study the Schools of Illusion and Enchantment) are common in Silverquill, as are warlocks. Clerics with the Divine Domains of Light and Trickery also fit in well among the mages of Silverquill. CHAPTER 2 |CHARACTER OPTIONS
WlTHERBLOOM STUDENT Suggested Characteristics.Students of Witherbloom College are equally likely to be found picking herbsfor a healing tincture or riding zombified swamp beasts through the bayou.The Witherbloom Personality Traits table suggests a variety of traits you might adopt for your character. You filled your childhood with rudimentary alchemical experiments, all in the hope of becoming a student of Witherbloom College.The life sciences are the focus of your reading, which include biology and necromancy. Brewing strange concoctions with medicinal properties, exploring the anatomies of monsters, and cataloging swamp flora are the kinds of studies you might pursue at Witherbloom College. Skill Proficiencies: Nature, Survival Tool Proficiencies:Herbalism kit Languages:One of your choice Equipment: A bottle of black ink, an ink pen, a book about plant identification, an iron pot, an herbalism kit, a school uniform, and a pouch containing 15 gp FEATURE: WITHERBLOOM INITIATE You gain the Strixhaven Initiate feat (presented later in the chapter) and must choose Witherbloom within it. In addition, if you have the Spellcasting or Pact Magic feature, the spells on the Witherbloom Spells table are added to the spell list of your spellcasting class. (If you are a multiclass character with multiple spell lists, these spells are added to all of them.) WITHERBLOOM PERSONALITY TRAITS d6 Personality Trait I love brewing up a new recipe, even if some might be repulsed by my choice of ingredients. Or the final product. Or both. 2 My fashion sense is like my garden: withered, black, and weird. 3 I ’m going to befriend every single monster in this swamp if it’s the last thing I do. 4 Everything in this world dies eventually. The question is, what will you do with the time you have left? 5 I know we just met, but when you die, may I have your bones? For research. 6 Don’t interrupt me; I ’m brooding. Witherbloom Trinkets. When you make your character, you may roll once on the Witherbloom Trinkets table, instead of on the Trinkets table in the Player’s Handbook, for your starting trinket. 1 WITHERBLOOM SPELLS Spell Level Spells WITHERBLOOM TRINKETS d6 Trinket 1 A black bird-shaped mask, trimmed with glowing green thread 2 A set of rabbit bones 3 A pair of thick knee-high waders, stained with muck and moss 4 A slimy green tentacle, which occasionally wriggles 5 A notebook containing waterproof paper 6 A necklace of five small vials, each filled with luminescent white liquid Cure Wounds, Inflict Wounds Lesser Restoration, Wither and Bloom (in this book) Revivify, Vampiric Touch Blight, Death Ward Antilife Shell, Greater Restoration 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Consider customizing how your spellslook when you cast them. Your Witherbloom spells might rely on material components or a spellcasting focus drawn from the swamp environment of Witherbloom, and your spells might take on an appearance suggesting those natural elements.Spectral shapes of swamp animals or plants might form amid your spell effects. BUILDING A WITHERBLOOM CHARACTER Druids and warlocks make up most of Witherbloom’sstudent body. A few wizards(mostly those who study the School of Necromancy) and clerics (including those with the Divine Domains of Life or Nature) also find their home in Witherbloom. A number of rangers and barbariansstudy at Witherbloom as well, and some rogueslearn how to create and use poisons during their studies at this college. FEATS Thissection introducesfeats that give your character benefits associated with the colleges of Strixhaven. These feats are available to you whenever you normally choose a feat, and they follow the feat rules in the Player’s Handbook. FEAT DESCRIPTIONS These feats are presented in alphabetical order. STRIXHAVEN INITIATE You have studied some magical theory and have learned a few spells associated with Strixhaven University. 36 CHAPTER | CHARACTER OPTIONS
Choose one of Strixhaven’s colleges: Lorehold, Prismari, Quandrix, Silverquill, orWitherbloom. You learn two cantrips and one lst-level spell based on the college you choose, asspecified in the Strixhaven Spellstable. You can cast the chosen lst-level spell without a spellslot, and you must finish a long rest before you can cast it in this way again. You can also cast the spell using any spellslots you have. Your spellcasting ability for thisfeat’sspellsisIntelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma (choose when you select thisfeat). SPELLS Created at Strixhaven, the spells presented in this section are available to the backgrounds offered in this chapter.The spells also appear on the class spell listsindicated in the Spellstable below. SPELLS Level Spell 1st Silvery Barbs Enchantment Bard, Sorcerer, Wizard Bard, Cleric, Warlock, Wizard School Class 2nd Borrowed Divination Knowledge 2nd KineticJaunt Transmutation Artificer* Bard, Sorcerer, Wizard 2nd Vortex Warp Conjuration Artificer* Sorcerer, Wizard STRIXHAVEN SPELLS 1st-Level Spell Choose one 1stCollege Cantrips Lorehold Choose two from light, sacred flame, and level cleric or wizard thaumaturgy. Prismari Choose two from fire Choose one lstbolt, prestidigitation, and ray of frost. spell. 2nd Wither and Bloom *The artificer class appears in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything and Eberron: Risingfrom the Last War. Necromancy Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard level bard or sorcerer spell. Quandrix Choose two from druid- Choose one lstlevel druid or wizard spell. craft, guidance, and mage hand. SPELL DESCRIPTIONS These spells are presented in alphabetical order. BORROWED KNOWLEDGE 2nd-Level Divination CastingTime:1action Range:Self Components:V, S, M (a book worth at least 25 gp) Duration:1 hour You draw on knowledge from spirits of the past. Choose one skill in which you lack proficiency.For the spell’s duration, you have proficiency in the chosen skill. The spell ends early if you cast it again. KINETICJAUNT 2nd-Level Transmutation Casting Time: 1 bonus action Range:Self Components:S Duration:Concentration, up to 1 minute You magically empower your movement with dancelike steps, giving yourself the following benefitsfor the duration: • Your walking speed increases by 10 feet. • You don’t provoke opportunity attacks. • You can move through the space of another creature, and it doesn’t count as difficult terrain.If you end your turn in another creature’sspace, you are shunted to the last unoccupied space you occupied, and you take ld8 force damage. Silverquill Choose two from sacred Choose one lstlevel bard or cleric spell. Choose one lstlevel druid or wizard spell. fame, thaumaturgy, and vicious mockery. Choose two from chill touch, druidcraft, and spare the dying. Witherbloom STRIXHAVEN MASCOT Prerequisite:4th Level, Strixhaven Initiate Feat You have learned how to summon a Strixhaven mascot to assist you, granting you these benefits: • You can cast the find familiarspell as a ritual. Your familiar can take the form of the mascot associated with the college you chose for the Strixhaven Initiate feat: a spiritstatue mascot (Lorehold), an art elemental mascot (Prismari), a fractal mascot (Quandrix), an inkling mascot (Silverquill), or a pest mascot (Witherbloom). Stat blocksfor these creatures appear in chapter 7. • When you take the Attack action on your turn, you can forgo one attack to allow your mascot familiar to make one attack of its own with its reaction. • If your mascot familiar is within 60 feet of you, you can teleport as an action, swapping places with the familiar. If your destination space istoo small for you to occupy, the teleportation fails and is wasted. Once you teleport in this way, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest, unless you expend a spellslot of 2nd level or higher to do it again. CHAPTER 2 | CHARACTER OPTIONS
SILVERY BARBS lst-Level Enchantment Casting Time:1 reaction, which you take when a creature you can see within 60 feet of yourself succeeds on an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw Range: 60 feet Components:V Duration:Instantaneous You magically distract the triggering creature and turn its momentary uncertainty into encouragement for another creature.The triggering creature must reroll the d20 and use the lower roll. You can then choose a different creature you can see within range (you can choose yourself).The chosen creature has advantage on the next attack roll, ability check, or saving throw it makes within 1 minute. A creature can be empowered by only one use of thisspell at a time. VORTEX WARP 2nd-Level Conjuration Casting Time:1 action Range: 90 feet Components: V, S Duration:Instantaneous You magically twist space around another creature you can see within range.The target mustsucceed on a Constitution saving throw (the target can choose to fail), or the target is teleported to an unoccupied space of your choice that you can see within range.The chosen space must be on a surface or in a liquid that can support the target without the target having to squeeze. At Higher Levels.When you cast thisspell using a spellslot of 3rd level or higher, the range of the spell increases by 30 feet for each slot level above 2nd. and regain a number of hit points equal to the roll plus yourspellcasting ability modifier. At Higher Levels. When you cast thisspell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage increases by ld6 for each slot above 2nd, and the number of Hit Dice that can be spent and added to the healing roll increases by one for each slot above 2nd. MAGIC ITEMS Thissection presentssome magic items that are created at Strixhaven. These items, along with a few from the Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG), can be purchased on campus using the prices in the Magic Itemsfor Sale table. MAGIC ITEMS FOR SALE Item Bottle of Boundless Coffee Cuddly Strixhaven Mascot Lorehold Primer Prismari Primer Quandrix Primer Silverquill Primer Spell Scroll (lst-Level Spell; DMG) Common Strixhaven Pennant Weapon, +1 ( DMG ) Witherbloom Primer Rarity Common Common Cost 100 gp 100 gp Uncommon 300 gp Uncommon 300 gp Uncommon 300 gp Uncommon 300 gp 50 gp 100 gp Uncommon 300 gp Uncommon 300 gp Common MAGIC ITEM DESCRIPTIONS These items are presented in alphabetical order. BOTTLE OF BOUNDLESS COFFEE Wondrous Item, Common This metal bottle carries delicious, warm coffee. The bottle comes with a stopper, which is attached to the bottle by a little chain. Even when open, the bottle won’t accept any liquid other than the coffee it produces. The coffee inside is always comfortably warm, and none of the heat can be felt through the bottle. Each time you drink the coffee, roll a d20. On a 1, the bottle refusesto dispense coffee for the next hour.If you pour coffee from the bottle, rather than drinking from it, the coffee vanishes the moment it leaves the bottle. WITHER AND BLOOM 2nd-Level Necromancy Casting Time:1 action Range:60 feet Components: V,S, M (a withered vine twisted into a loop) Duration:Instantaneous You invoke both death and life upon a 10-foot-radius sphere centered on a point within range. Each creature of your choice in that area must make a Constitution saving throw, taking 2d6 necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Nonmagical vegetation in that area withers. In addition, one creature of your choice in that area can spend and roll one of its unspent Hit Dice CUDDLY STRIXHAVEN MASCOT Wondrous Item,Common Representing one of the mascots of Strixhaven, this soft, Tiny, magic toy is perfect for cuddling. If you pressit to your arm, shoulder, or leg as an action, the toy stays attached there for 1 hour or until you use an action to remove it. 2 |CHARACTER OPTIONS
Thistoy can also be used to fight off fear.When you make a saving throw to avoid or end the frightened condition on yourself, you can give yourself advantage on the roll if the toy is on your person. You must decide to do so before rolling the d20. If the save succeeds, you can’t use the toy in this way again until you finish a long rest. LOREHOLD PRIMER Wondrous Item, Uncommon (Requires Attunement by a Spellcaster) The Lorehold Primer is a magic textbook created at Strixhaven’s Lorehold College.The primer has 3 charges, and it regains ld3expended charges daily at dawn. If you make an Intelligence (History) or an Intelligence (Religion) check while holding the primer, you can expend 1charge to give yourself a ld4 bonus to the check, immediately after you roll the d20. In addition, if you study the primer at the end of a long rest, you can choose one lst-level spell from the cleric or wizard spell list. Before you finish your next long rest, you can cast the chosen spell once without a spellslot if you are holding the primer. Your spellcasting ability for thisspell is your choice of Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma. PRISMARI PRIMER Wondrous Item,Uncommon (Requires Attunement by a Spellcaster) The Prismari Primeris a magic textbook created at Strixhaven’s Prismari College. The primer has 3 charges, and it regains ld3expended charges daily at dawn. If you make a Dexterity (Acrobatics) or a Charisma (Performance) check while holding the primer, you can expend 1 charge to give yourself a ld4 bonus to the check, immediately after you roll the d20. In addition, if you study the primer at the end of a long rest, you can choose one lst-level spell from the bard orsorcererspell list. Before you finish your next long rest, you can cast the chosen spell once without a spellslot if you are holding the primer. Yourspellcasting ability for thisspell is your choice of Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma. QUANDRIX PRIMER Wondrous Item, Uncommon (Requires Attunement by a Spellcaster) The Quandrix Primer is a magic textbook created at Strixhaven’s Quandrix College.The primer has 3 charges, and it regains ld3 expended charges daily at dawn. If you make an Intelligence (Arcana) or an Intelligence (Nature) check while holding the primer, you can expend 1 charge to give yourself a ld4 bonus to the check, immediately after you roll the d20. In addition, if you study the primer at the end of a long rest, you can choose one lst-level spell from the druid or wizard spell list. Before you finish your next long rest, you can cast the chosen spell once without a spellslot if you are holding the primer. Your spellcasting ability for thisspell is your choice of Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma. SILVERQUILL PRIMER Wondrous Item, Uncommon (Requires Attunement by a Spellcaster) The Silverquill Primeris a magic textbook created at Strixhaven’s Silverquill College.The primer has 3 charges, and it regains ld3 expended charges daily at dawn. If you make a Charisma (Intimidation) or a Charisma (Persuasion) check while holding the primer, you can expend 1charge to give yourself a ld4 bonus to the check, immediately after you roll the d20. In addition, if you study the primer at the end of a long rest, you can choose one lst-level spell from the bard or cleric spell list. Before you finish your next long rest, you can cast the chosen spell once without a spellslot if you are holding the primer. Your spellcasting ability for thisspell is your choice of Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma. STRIXHAVEN PENNANT Wondrous Item,Common This magic pennant bearsthe symbol of Strixhaven or one of its colleges:Lorehold, Prismari, Quandrix, Silverquill, or Witherbloom.While you wave the pennant, the symbol on it glitters, and the pennant sheds bright light in a 10-foot radius and dim light for an additional 10 feet. WITHERBLOOM PRIMER Wondrous Item, Uncommon (Requires Attunement bya Spellcaster) The Witherbloom Primeris a magic textbook created at Strixhaven’sWitherbloom College.The primer has 3charges, and it regains ld3 expended charges daily at dawn. If you make an Intelligence (Nature) or Wisdom (Survival) check while holding the primer, you can expend 1charge to give yourself a ld4 bonus to the check, immediately after you roll the d20. In addition, if you study the primer at the end of a long rest, you can choose one lst-level spell from the druid or wizard spell list.Before you finish your next long rest, you can cast the chosen spell once without a spellslot if you are holding the primer. Your spellcasting ability for thisspell is your choice of Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma. CHAPTER 2 | CHARACTER OPTIONS
SCHOOL Is IN SESSION T A STRIXHAVEN CAMPAIGN If you run these adventures as a campaign, one villain is behind the chaos on campus: the bullywug Murgaxor Grenshel, a disgruntled former student who attended Strixhaven centuries ago. Murgaxor—who uses evil magic to sustain his life force—focuses his all-consuming desire for revenge on destroying Strixhaven University. The adventures assume you’re playing a Strixhaven campaign, and each adventure provides information about how Murgaxor’sinfluence corrupts and warps creatures and places on campus. The end of each adventure providesinformation that foreshadows orsets up the events of the next adventure. The characters ultimately confront Murgaxor in chapter 6, where the villain is described in detail. CHARACTER CREATION HE FOLLOWING FOUR CHAPTERS PRESENT a series of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS adventures optimized for four to six characters. Each adventure takes place on and around the Strixhaven campus. In these adventures, the player characters are students attending the university, and they become heroes in their own right as they navigate plots, overcome monsters, and thwart dangers that arise in each adventure. Chapters 1 and 2 contain all the information the players need to play Strixhaven students. Each adventure takes place over the course of one academic year. For instance, “Campus Kerfuffle,” the adventure in this chapter, takes place during the characters’ first year at the university. “Hunt for Mage Tower,” in chapter 4, takes place during the characters’second year at the university, and so on.The adventures can be run consecutively as a campaign or individually, as described below. Before starting any of this book’s adventures, consult chapter 2 for guidance on making Strixhaven characters and uniting those charactersin a group. CHARACTER ADVANCEMENT RUNNING THE ADVENTURES To run these adventures, you need the fifth edition core rulebooks: the Player’s Handbook, the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and the Monster Manual. In these adventures, the characters receive experience points for achieving story milestones, rather than for defeating monsters. Each adventure tells you when the characters advance to the next level. Text that appears in a box like this is meant to be read aloud or paraphrased for the players when their characters first arrive at a location or under a specific circ*mstance, as described in the text. STANDALONE ADVENTURES Rather than playing the four adventures as a campaign, you can run them asstandalone adventures. A section near the start of each adventure tells you how to use the adventure in this way. If you run any of these adventuresseparately, you should ask the players to create characters of the appropriate starting level for the adventure, asshown in the Adventure Levels table. When a creature’s name appearsin bold type, that’s a visual cue pointing you to itsstat block. In other words, when you see a name in bold type, you should get the creature’sstat block ready because you’re going to need it soon. If the stat block appears in chapter 7, the text tells you. Otherwise, you can find the stat block in the Monster Manual. Spells and equipment mentioned in these adventures are described in the Player’s Handbook.If an adventure doesn’t describe a magic item, you can find the magic item’s description in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. ADVENTURE LEVELS Adventure Campus Kerfuffle Hunt for Mage Tower The Magister’s Masquerade A Reckoning in Ruins Starting Level Chapter 1st 3 4th 4 6th 5 8th 6 fi 3 | SCHOOL IS IN SESSION 41
T O S T A R T O F A . POSTER MAP The poster map is meant to be shared with the players. One side shows the Strixhaven University campus, with a focus on the central campus and the five surrounding colleges.The other side of the poster shows detailed maps of key campuslocations,some of which the characters visit in multiple adventures. RELATIONSHIPS If you run chapter 4, 5, or 6 as a standalone adventure, you should ask each player to choose at least one student to be a Friend, a Beloved, or a Rival, as described in the Relationship ruleslater in this chapter.The Starting Relationship Pointstable lists the number of points a character has at the start with the chosen Friend, Beloved, or Rival. THE PASSAGE OF TIME STARTING RELATIONSHIP POINTS Person Friend Beloved Rival Each adventure in this book takes place over the course of an academic year, which is no longer than a calendar year.The adventures include events, but those events aren’t the entire extent of the characters’ experience on campusthat year. Unless explicitly stated, assume that anywhere from a few days to a few weeks passes between the events of an adventure. You can decide how quickly the year passes and work with your players to decide what else they get up to. You can conduct roleplaying scenes with the characters’fellow students, taking into account their Friends, Rivals, and Beloveds. You might also narratively describe developments in their courses to help the academic year feel varied and robust. Finally, as the characters are completing tasks together for their courses or hanging out with their fellow students, consider challenging them with random monster encountersthat crop up on campus.These encounters might be truly random, or they could be unexpected side-effects of the more significant events unfolding in the adventure. Each chapter includes a table tailored for that adventure. Relationship Points 2 3 -2 USING THE MAPS This book contains a number of interior maps and is accompanied by a poster map, all of which will aid you as you run these adventures. INTERIOR MAPS Maps in the book primarily depict areasfor the characters to explore or areas where combat is likely to occur. These maps are designed to be easily reproduced on graph paper, a wet-erase mat, or some other surface to help the players visualize locations and devise combat strategies. You can alter a map’sfeatures as you see fit. On interior maps, an arrow on a slope or staircase pointsin the ascending direction. When elevation numbers appear on a map, a plussign indicates a rise of the indicated number of feet, while a minus sign indicates a depression. 7 CHAPTER SCHOOL IS IN SESSION
STRIXHAVEN TRACKING SHEET OPTING OUT OF THESE RULES The rules for Extracurriculars, Jobs, Exams, and Relationships combine with the adventures in this book to enhance the flavor of life at a university of magic. If you find these rules aren’t the best fit for your group, you can run this book’s adventures without those rules, simply narrating the effects of related encounters without using rules to resolve them. The sections on the following pages give special rulesfor certain aspects of university life. Players can use the sheet below to keep track of the effects of those rules on their characters. Each player should have a copy to use during the course of the adventures. The tracking sheet includes the following parts: Relationships. The player notes here the names of each student NPC with whom their character has a Relationship.The player should track how many Relationship Pointstheir character has with each NPC; whether that NPC is a Friend, a Rival, or a Beloved; whether that NPC confers Beloved Inspiration; and that NPC’s Bond Boon or Bond Bane, whichever is applicable. Report Cards. Thissection includes places to track the results of each Exam. Extracurriculars. The player notes the Extracurricularsin which their character is participating. The player should also note each Extracurricular’s NPC member. Remind players that while their character participates in an Extracurricular, they gain a positive or negative Relationship Point with its associated student NPC. Job. The player should note their character’sjob, if any. Remind the player that while their character holds a job, the character gains a positive or negative Relationship Point with its associated student coworker, whom they should also note on thissheet. Student Dice. The player should track the Student Dice their character hasfrom passing Exams and from Extracurriculars. They should also note the skills their character can expend the Student Dice on. They should check the “d4” box whenever they gain a Student Die, and they should erase the check mark when they expend the die. & STRIXHAVEN MEMORIES ' RELATIONSHIPS Name Points Relationship Inspiration Boon/Bane REPORT CARDS EXTRACURRICULARS 1 2 #1 #1 ' #2 Name d4 Skills Member 3 #3 Rerolls d Skills Rerolls d4 Skills YEAR 3 YEAR ' JOB i #i #2 NO TIME . Nature Rerolls Employer d4s Skills #3 Rerolls d4s Skills GRADUATION Coworker CHAPTER 3 | SCHOOL IS IN SESSION , 3
new adventure.Typically, joining an Extracurricular in between academic yearsisn’t eventful. Players should note the changes on their tracking sheet. EXTRACURRICULAR BENEFITS While a student participates in an Extracurricular, they gain a Student Die and a Relationship Point, as explained below. STUDENT DICE Each character gains one Student Die for each Extracurricular they are participating in. A Student Die is a d4 the player can roll and add to an ability check that the character makes, provided the check uses one of the skillslisted in the Extracurricular’s description.The player can wait until after rolling the d20 before rolling the Student Die, but must do so before you say whether the check succeeds or fails. No more than one Student Die can be rolled per check. After rolling a Student Die, a player can’t roll it again until the character finishes a long rest. RELATIONSHIP POINT While a student participates in an Extracurricular, the student gains either a positive or a negative Relationship Point (the player’s choice) with one student NPC who is also a member of the Extracurricular (see the Relationship ruleslater in this chapter). QUITTING AN EXTRACURRICULAR Characters can quit an Extracurricular at any time, updating their tracking sheet accordingly. When a student quits an Extracurricular, they immediately lose its benefits. If a character quits during an adventure, you might want to roleplay the situation, since NPCs are likely to take an interest in why the student is leaving. EXTRACURRICULAR OPTIONS EXTRACURRICULARS Student characters can join any of the following Extracurriculars. Extracurriculars—the campus clubs and societies students can join—are a key part of student life at Strixhaven. Using the rules that follow, characters can join Extracurriculars to add flavor to the book’s adventures, gain minor rules benefits, and perhaps more easily befriend—or irritate—their classmates. DEAD LANGUAGES SOCIETY Skills:Athletics, History Member: Drazhomir Yarnask, Quentillius A. Melentor III These linguistics lovers take advantage of Strixhaven’s deep repository of tomes written in ancient and near-extinct languages, teaching themselves these tongues and often translating their favorite works. DISTINGUISHED SOCIETY OF FINEARTISTS Skills:Performance or Sleight of Hand Member:Cadoras Damellawar, Nora Ann Wu These painters, sculptors, printmakers, and mosaic artists gather to create fine works and to discuss the latest techniques and trendsin the world of art. JOINING AN EXTRACURRICULAR At any point during the book’s adventures, a character can gain the benefit of two of the Extracurriculars noted below, as described later in thissection. If a student character also works on campus using theJob rules, the character can benefit from only one Extracurricular. Characters can gain the benefit from a new Extracurricular only by joining it at the start of an academic year, which correspondsto the beginning of a 44 CHAPTER | SCHOOL IS IN SESSION
DRAGONCHESS CLUB Skills: Deception, Investigation Member: Bhedum “Rampart” Sooviij, Tilana Kapule These expertsin the game of dragonchess discuss the latest in strategy, compete against one another, and test out homemade variations of game rules. DRAGONSGUARD HISTORICAL SOCIETY Skills:Arcana, History Member: Bhedum “Rampart” Sooviij These historians are fascinated by all time periods, and they regularly meet to discuss, debate, and deep dive into members’ favorite topics. FANTASTICAL HORTICULTURE CLUB Skills: Nature, Survival Member: Urzmaktok Grojsh These green-thumbed expertslove mixing magic and gardening to create new strains of vegetation, many of which they cultivate on campus. FUTURE ENTREPRENEURS OF STRIXHAVEN Skills:Insight, Persuasion Member: Grayson Wildemere These enterprising students discuss business theories. They often create smallstart-upsto sell wares and services appealing to students. The fundsthey generate fuel the club’s activities. INTRAMURAL GYMNASTICS CLUB Skills:Acrobatics, Performance Member: Zanther Bowen These graceful gymnasts work to hone their craft, and they compete against each other in dazzling floor routines. LIVE-ACTION ROLEPLAYING GUILD Skills:Animal Handling, Performance Member:Cadoras Damellawar, Rosimyffenbip “Rosie” Wuzfeddlims These storytelling enthusiasts engage in a mix of strategy and playacting—often involving mascots— when they enact fantastical narrativesthat they resolve with special rules. MAGE TOWER CHEER SQUAD Skills: Perception, Persuasion Member: Zanther Bowen With their coordinated cheers, outfits, and school spirit, these cheerleadersinspire pride in the official Strixhaven University Mage Tower teams. PLAYACTORS DRAMA GUILD Skills:Arcana, Deception Member: Quentillius A. Melentor III, Rubina Larkingdale These actors work together to create productions of brilliant stagecraft, often involving new spins on old classics as well as displays of magic and music. STRIXHAVEN IRON-LIFTERS SOCIETY Skills:Athletics, Medicine Member: Greta Gorunn These bodybuilderssupport each other in developing strong muscles and even stronger friendships. STRIXHAVEN SHOW BAND ASSOCIATION Skills:Sleight of Hand, Performance Member:Aurora Luna Wynterstarr, Rubina Larkingdale These music enthusiasts play instrumentssuch as hurdy-gurdies, bagpipes, flutes, and drums, and they regularly perform rousing concerts. STRIXHAVEN STAR Skills:Investigation, Insight Member: Grayson Wildemere, Mina Lee These truth seekers and wordsmiths report on campus news, regularly interviewing important figures and producing the monthly Strixhaven Star newspaper, which is distributed across the campus. STUDENT-MAGES OF FAITH Skills:Insight, Religion Member:Melwythorne, Shuvadri Glintmantle These piousstudents of many faiths gather to share prayers and theological debates and to celebrate one another’s high holidays. INTRAMURAL SILKBALL CLUB Skills:Athletics, Intimidation Member:Javenesh Stoutclaw, Melwythorne, Tilana Kapule These hardy athletestrain together and compete in the rough-and-tumble Strixhaven game of silkball, which is played in muddy fields with balls made of spidersilk. INTRAMURAL WATER-DANCING CLUB Skills:Athletics, Performance Member:Larine Arneza These swimming enthusiasts combine their athletic skills with the finesse of artists asthey choreograph water dances to the latest popularsongs. CHAPTER 3 |SCHOOL IS IN SESSION 4 ,
JOBS Working in gainful employment while atschool can provide a character with a modicum of cash and help forge connections with student coworkers. GETTING OR LOSING A TOB A character can hold oneJob at a time, and they can participate in only one Extracurricular while they have a Job. A student can switchJobs whenever they wish, even in the middle of the academic year, as long as they don’t work more than oneJob at a time. At your discretion, switchingJobsin the middle of the year might lead to a roleplaying scenario. JOB BENEFITS While a student has aJob, they earn a wage and a Relationship Point, as explained below. WAGE A student who works a Job gains 5 gp at the start of each week that they hold theJob. If a student quits during the academic year, they stop earning this money at the end of the week in which they quit. RELATIONSHIP POINT While a character works a Job, they gain a positive or negative Relationship Point (the player’s choice) with one student NPC at thatJob.This represents a coworker with whom the character is often scheduled and with whom they can easily form a connection (see the Relationship ruleslater in this chapter). DORMITORIES Jobs:Cleanup crew member, events assistant, frontdesk worker, resident assistant Coworker: Nora Ann Wu JOB OPTIONS Student characters can find work at the places below. A number of possible positions are noted for each place, along with NPC coworkers. BIBLIOPLEX Jobs: Book clerk, book shelver, cafe worker, cleanup crew member, garden tender, store worker Coworker:Drazhomir Yarnask FIREJOLT CAFE Jobs: Barista, cashier, cleanup crew member, server Coworker: Mina Lee INTRAMURAL FIELDS Jobs:Cleanup crew member, crowd manager, equipment assistant, groundskeeper, referee Coworker:Rosimyffenbip “Rosie” Wuzfeddlims STRIXHAVEN PERFORMING ARTS SOCIETY Jobs:Cleanup crew member, general assistant, refreshments expert, stagehand, ticket taker, usher Coworker: Larine Arneza Bow’s END TAVERN Jobs:Assistant manager, cleanup crew member, cook, host, server Coworker:Javenesh Stoutclaw CAMPUS GROUNDS Jobs:Graffiti eraser, lawn manicurist, litter retriever, sidewalk sweeper, statuary repairer, trash collector Coworker:Shuvadri Glintmantle STRIXHAVEN STADIUM Jobs:Cleanup crew member, entertainment assistant, equipment assistant, groundskeeper, refreshments expert, ticket taker, usher Coworker:Aurora Luna Wynterstarr, Greta Gorunn CAMPUS MAGIC LABS Jobs:Cleanup crew member, specimen preparer, volunteer lab partner Coworker: Urzmaktok Grojsh CHAPTER SCHOOL IS IN SESSION
PULLING AN ALL-NIGHTER After pulling an all-nighter, a character gains two rerolls to use during the next Testing phase if the character succeeds on the ability check. Doing so imposes a cost:the character gains1level of exhaustion that takes effect at the start of the day of the Exam. Thislevel of exhaustion can’t be removed until after the Exam. STUDYING TOGETHER If two or more characters engage in a group study session, each participating character has advantage on their ability check during the Studying phase. SKIPPING STUDYING A character can skip the Studying phase if they wish, forgoing the chance of gaining these rerolls. TESTING PHASE Once the Studying phase of an Exam is over, have the players record any rerolls their charactersreceive, then begin the Testing phase. ABILITY CHECKS Each Exam’s Testing phase consists of two ability checks, with specifics(including the DC) noted in the encounter. If a character gained any rerolls during the Studying phase, the character can use one reroll when making a Testing ability check, rerolling the check’s d20 and using the new roll. Each character’sTesting phase has three possible results: Failed. No successful ability checks means a character failed, having gotten fewer than half the questions correct. Passed. One successful ability check means a character passed, having gotten half or more of the questions correct, but not all the questions. The character gains one Student Die, explained below. Aced. Two successful ability checks mean the character aced the Exam, having gotten all the questions correct.The character gainstwo Student Dice, explained below. CHEATING An unscrupulous character can cheat on an Exam. Doing so requires a successful Charisma (Deception) check and a successful Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check, both using the DC set for the Exam. If a character cheats, they can’t use any rerollsfrom their Studying phase. If the character fails either of these checks, a proctor or other authority figure noticesthe cheating, and the student fails the exam. If the Charisma (Deception) and Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) checks are both successful, the character successfully cheats and aces the Exam. EXAMS The characters’ years at Strixhaven are covered by each of this book’s adventures, which focus on the notable and even shocking eventsthat take place at the university. Even though the characters’ studies include the trappings of academic life—attending lectures, participating in labs, reading textbooks— those everyday academic activities mostly take place in the background.The exam rules presented here are thus designed to help the players keep their characters’studies part of the game. USING THESE RULES Each of the book’s adventures includes Exams. Though each character might be a member of a different college at Strixhaven, the adventures assume that the characterstake at least one general education or interdisciplinary course together each year. It is this course that the Exam rules represent. Each Exam encounter has a Studying phase followed by a Testing phase. In general, a character can approach Studying in any way they desire, with that phase then culminating in a single ability check of their choice. In contrast, Testing requires ability checks using specific skills. In each phase, resolve the outcome of one character’s ability checks before moving on to another character. (If any characters are studying together, however, resolve their ability checks at the same time.See below for more information.) Don’t forget to have each player mark the results of an Exam on their tracking sheet! STUDYING PHASE The Studying phase of an Exam represents the characters brushing up on their coursework, prompting sparks of insight when faced with difficult questions, or using mnemonics or other memorization techniques to absorb academic material. During the Studying phase, each character must succeed on an ability check against a DC noted in the encounter. They can use any ability and skill they wish when making this check, but they can make it only once. For example, one student might make an Intelligence (History) check to pore over their books, while another student makes a Charisma (Performance) check to create a series of spoken mnemonic devices. A third student might make a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check to create reminding gestures or practice any physical components that are part of a course,such asthe somatic gestures involved in spellcasting. On a successful check, the character gains one reroll to use during the character’s next Testing phase. CHAPTER I SCHOOL IS IN SESSION
RELATIONSHIPS If a character fails an Exam, Strixhaven’s bylaws require them to attend tutoring with a junior faculty member until they achieve at least a passed Exam in a different Exams encounter. This tutoring can be narrated through roleplaying, or you might simply inform the player of this result. A student who must attend tutoring can’t take part in any Extracurriculars orJobs until they achieve at least a passed Exam during one of that academic year’s Exam encounters. The character thusloses any benefits from Extracurriculars orJobs, and their player should indicate thissuspension on their tracking sheet. STUDENT DICE A Student Die gained from an Exam is a d4 the player can roll and add to an ability check that the character makes, provided the check uses one of the two skillsfeatured in the Exam.The player can wait until after rolling the d20 before rolling the Student Die, but must do so before you say whether the check succeeds or fails. No more than one Student Die can be rolled per check. After rolling a Student Die, a player can’t roll it again until the character finishes a long rest. Playersshould note any Student Dice they gain and the skills those dice can apply to on their tracking sheet. At the end of each academic year, players lose any Student Dice their characters have earned from an Exam. Asstudents, the characters have the opportunity to cement friendships, establish rivalries, deepen bonds, and otherwise develop relationships with student NPCs in this book’s adventures. Although these pursuits could be played out entirely with roleplaying, you can use the following Relationship rules to reinforce this aspect of the adventures. These rules provide characters with benefits—or drawbacks!—based on their social endeavors, infusing their interactions with otherstudents with rules weight, and making this integral part of student life a more significant part of the game. The rules encompass only interactions with student NPCs. Professors, administrators, and other older adults aren’t part of the Relationship rules. SESSION ZERO If you’re interested in using these rulesin your game, consider holding a session zero to introduce the rules to the players.Such a session zero allows you to ascertain players’ comfort with these rules. If some players want to use these rules and other players don’t, using these rules only for some characters, or not using them at all, doesn’t unbalance these adventures. Similarly, if you are uncomfortable engaging with the roleplaying encounters these rules describe, we recommend you don’t use them. If any players exhibit trepidation, err on the side of caution and don’t use these rulesfor some or all of the characters. Characters who use these rules CHAPTER 3 | SCHOOL IS IN SESSION 48
