I am usually happy with Wotc's materials but I found Strixhaven to be a terrible disappointment. A disappointment enough for me to start a Thread.
They missed out a few word in the title.
It was mislabelled it as a source book.
STRIXHAVEN: A(N ADVENTURE IN THE) CURRICULUM OF CHAOS.
Disappointments
1. Spells
It's a source book about 5 magic schools!!! And thus, they only provide 5 new spells that I could screenshot in a single screen. Level 1 x 1 and lvl 2 x 4!!!
I was expecting a list of new spells from 1 to 9. We may play as students but the founders were DRAGONS and the most teachers/ headmasters of schools are at least somehow powerful.
They noted the adventures goes from 1-10 so hey at least give us spells till level 4... but nah....
2. Owlin
Wotc gave us ONLY a trait list. They DID not even provide a background, personality, names suggestion etc etc that comes with other d&d races.
It's so short let me copy and paste all the lore on it for you right HERE.
"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 feathers that 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 is simply prone to rise later, embodying the common nickname of night owl." THANK YOU FOR THE VISUAL DESCRIPTION OF AN OWLIN.
Let me write something up for you guys!!!
You know the owl stat block that we know so well from 'Find familiar' and drakewarden's drake? They had a baby and owlin was born!!! Boom! At least now I know how to RP it!
3. Backgrounds and colleges
5 magic school. The same feat for all. Pick 2 cantrips and a lvl 1 spell with restrictions. That's about it! There is some amazing lore about the Colleges in chapter 1 but the mechanical translation is.... pathetic.
And poor Silverquill must be really sad to be the weakest school. In the additional magic list, Every other school came up with a signature level 2 spell but Silverquill only has a level 1. Maybe I shouldn't judge based on the spell slot. I apologise.
4. Magic items
They did the same thing with the magic items. 1 template for 5 primers. So technically, 3 new common magic items and 1 uncommon magic item.
But they have made the MOST POWERFUL MAGIC ITEM OF ALL!!!
Bottle of Boundless Coffee!!! All hail to the amount of money you will save!!! No more overpriced branded coffee!!! Yippee!!!
5. Adventures
This is where the Real magic is.. like I said... this is a adventure book.
They should have put all their efforts here and gave us teachers, a caretaker with a cat, a house elf and....oh wait sorry this is not Harry potter. My mistake....
The materials for an adventure book would are great but we got a "adventure" sourcebook.
OK folks! Hope this is helpful! Mischief Managed! Oh crap wrong sou..r..c.e...b..o....o...k...........poof.
I see where you're coming from and don't fully disagree, but I do think when approaching a magic school, or any setting that prioritizes things like intrigue and social interaction, it's difficult to do so without context for them. In dnd, that context usually comes from the adventures the DM comes up with/chooses to run. If this were released as a full setting book maybe with a single intro adventure (like Ravnica was) then I think the developers would be asking DM's to be doing a lot more work than if you were to just run Ravnica by not framing it around an adventure.
I think it's probably necessary to show DM's at least a basic example of what your typical Strixhaven school-themed adventure looks like before they can expect DM's to create an adventure on that particular fringe of the mainstream from whole cloth.
Also, since Strixhaven is so contained as a setting, the adventures do have a lot of important setting info in them-- they can't not since the premise of the adventures of living and adventuring in a school for magic, is the same as the premise of the setting. In the adventures you get rules for running social encounters, exams, sports, games, maps, etc. It's fairly substantial setting-wise, and you could simply treat the adventures as setting material and use the information within to craft your own story. Much of the modules are pretty bare-bones anyways, and there's lots of space to build off of them organically and insert your own B-plots (mostly since each module takes a school year and involve time jumps between encounters. I see this as a positive rather than a negative, and personally am taking advantage of this structure to graft a lot of the Candlekeep modules into Strixhaven).
That said, I do agree about being let down by the spells and a bit by the owlin-- the magic items are more just for flavor anyways I think.
The main thing I like about Strixhaven is that it gives you a lot to build off of. When I run it, I plan to add my own B-plot adventures, more NPC's (both student and faculty) and modify the main adventure a bit because that's what I find fun, but I do appreciate the existing framework that's in the book giving me that head start.
In an ideal world though, bringing it back to your point about it not being setting enough, I do wish they included a section about How To write magic school themed adventures, as that would have been very useful. Like how the Ebberon book has a section at the beginning about how to write noir-style adventure and then tells you how to incorporate all the various factions, or how Ravnica did something similar with all the inter-guild conflict. Something like that with info on student/teacher faction conflict and intrigue would've been very useful.
I will say I'm annoyed by 'sourcebooks' that spend a majority of their page count on an adventure. I purchased Wild Beyond the Witchlight primarily because I'm a huge sl#$ for Feywild shenanery and it was sortakinna an obligation for me to buy 'The Feywild Book' for my table since two thirds of my characters have Feywild ties somehow or other. I still haven't read over three quarters of the book, because the huge majority of it is an Adventure Module that is 110% worthless to me as someone who rarely DMs and who prefers creating new games when I do. I could read through it for the occasional pointers it might provide, but then I would be forever disqualified from playing a WBtW game if anyone else ever ran one I otherwise felt like being part of. There's basically no information on 'The Feywild' in Witchlight that isn't in the PHB, which was deeply frustrating.
And yet, Wild Beyond the Witchlight was lauded as "the only book you'll ever need on the Feywild!" and basically treated as a sourcebook rather than an Adventure Module in all but name. Yes, they called Witchlight an Adventure, but all the run-up to it was about the 'sourcebook material'. Strixhaven didn't even get that much - they called this thing a sourcebook from the start. I can see where that's annoying.
I see where you're coming from and don't fully disagree, but I do think when approaching a magic school, or any setting that prioritizes things like intrigue and social interaction, it's difficult to do so without context for them. In dnd, that context usually comes from the adventures the DM comes up with/chooses to run. If this were released as a full setting book maybe with a single intro adventure (like Ravnica was) then I think the developers would be asking DM's to be doing a lot more work than if you were to just run Ravnica by not framing it around an adventure.
I think it's probably necessary to show DM's at least a basic example of what your typical Strixhaven school-themed adventure looks like before they can expect DM's to create an adventure on that particular fringe of the mainstream from whole cloth.
Also, since Strixhaven is so contained as a setting, the adventures do have a lot of important setting info in them-- they can't not since the premise of the adventures of living and adventuring in a school for magic, is the same as the premise of the setting. In the adventures you get rules for running social encounters, exams, sports, games, maps, etc. It's fairly substantial setting-wise, and you could simply treat the adventures as setting material and use the information within to craft your own story. Much of the modules are pretty bare-bones anyways, and there's lots of space to build off of them organically and insert your own B-plots (mostly since each module takes a school year and involve time jumps between encounters. I see this as a positive rather than a negative, and personally am taking advantage of this structure to graft a lot of the Candlekeep modules into Strixhaven).
That said, I do agree about being let down by the spells and a bit by the owlin-- the magic items are more just for flavor anyways I think.
The main thing I like about Strixhaven is that it gives you a lot to build off of. When I run it, I plan to add my own B-plot adventures, more NPC's (both student and faculty) and modify the main adventure a bit because that's what I find fun, but I do appreciate the existing framework that's in the book giving me that head start.
In an ideal world though, bringing it back to your point about it not being setting enough, I do wish they included a section about How To write magic school themed adventures, as that would have been very useful. Like how the Ebberon book has a section at the beginning about how to write noir-style adventure and then tells you how to incorporate all the various factions, or how Ravnica did something similar with all the inter-guild conflict. Something like that with info on student/teacher faction conflict and intrigue would've been very useful.
I love your last point. I was looking forward to a sourcebook to provide some handles on the creation of spells and the inner working of a magic school. D&D has always had spell casters but where and how they train has always eluded us. I was really looking forward to this collaboration with Magic the gathering to provide us that.
With Ravenloft, the amount of lore and mechanics provided was substantial . They ended with a great chapter of creating your own Horror adventure with tips, handles and some examples. With Strixhaven, a good 80% of the book is it's own adventure. They could be trying a different style of writing
I'm not saying the content of the adventure is bad just doesn't feel like a sourcebook. Please buy the book if you are a MTG fan, I loved reading about it.
I have some good stuff to say about Stryxhaven. Thanks to the release of this "sourcebook" buying ANY other sourcebook now is a lot more reasonable. So if you don't know what sourcebook to buy - just buy anything but Stryxhaven. :D
As a sourcebook this book is the worst release of 5e. I hope this is not a look at the future releases of 5e in regard to the increased amount of books published per year. Before i was able to say "cool a 5e sourcebook. i will get something out of it." and now slowly i feel like "a new sourcebook - maybe its as bad as Stryxhaven...." will be up my mind in 2022.
I have some good stuff to say about Stryxhaven. Thanks to the release of this "sourcebook" buying ANY other sourcebook now is a lot more reasonable. So if you don't know what sourcebook to buy - just buy anything but Stryxhaven. :D
As a sourcebook this book is the worst release of 5e. I hope this is not a look at the future releases of 5e in regard to the increased amount of books published per year. Before i was able to say "cool a 5e sourcebook. i will get something out of it." and now slowly i feel like "a new sourcebook - maybe its as bad as Stryxhaven...." will be up my mind in 2022.
haha I had the same takeaway NOTE TO SELF: Do not buy a preorder anymore until you know the actual content.
happy you like it. i don't hate the idea of it - i just dislike the lack of content in this sourcebook dedicated to setting and background information and the rather lackluster way setting up the schools and their relationship. Its just very flat and a bit boring. The character options are a bit of a joke including the race description and makeup. As an adventure book it might be fine - but as a sourcebook its just failing for me. Ravnica or Eberron are far better examples of what a sourcebook is compared to Stryxhaven. We seem to just enjoy different kinds of content and that is totally fine.
Wish you the best and lots of fun playing ttrpgs :)
Gotta say I echo this frustration. If they want it to be mostly adventure with some new bits call it an adventure. Calling it a sourcebook is disingenuous at best. The new options were tiny. Sure the setting can be fun for those that want to live out their harry potter fantasies but ehhhh.... Give us more options. Especially when you took out some genuinely interesting class options (whether they worked or not). Because without them this book offers nothing to those that don't want the specific adventure. And most of this book IS adventure.
I mean come on its a MAGIC school. this was perfect for a bunch of new spells. gives us new rules for spells. give the spellcasters literally anything more than a few level two spells
WotC seems pretty good at misrepresenting their products with the hype leading up to release. Like how the hype leading up to VGtR had me believing that there would be a bunch of darklords for me to use, but nope, WotC is just like "use a statblock from a knight because we couldn't be bothered".
Then knowing that there's a large chance that the book won't be fully implemented on D&D Beyond, I just don't have any faith in WotC or D&D Beyond to deliver what they promise. So no, I'm not surprised that Strixhaven seems disappointing to most people.
I 100% disagree. It’s both an amazing adventure and an amazing source book.
Fair opinion but when you go to a restaurant for lets say steak, and they serve you Italian food, it doesn't really matter if its the best Italian food you have ever had. You went there and were promised one thing and got another.
I haven't read it, but fromwhat people have said, it sounds like a brilliant adventure book with lots of extras. The problem is that people understood it to be a sourcebook, and were understandably disappointed when it came out.
Nothing wrong with adventures, and that's what I understood it to be from the beginning. But if I were expecting and buying it for a bunch of races, subclasses, feats, etc then I'd be upset too - especially if I had no use for an adventure.
The other day I bought KFC takeaway for the family. I asked for two lots of coleslaw, and got home to find that there was gravy instead. Except I already had more gravy than I needed as part of the burger, so it was no good to me. Nothing wrong with the gravy, I quite like it actually. Doesn't mean I wasn't frustrated to find that I didn't have what I thought I was paying for. Especially since I had no use for what they did give me.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
See I thought, BG:DiA was a great sourcebook for both Baldur's Gate and Avernus. RofF was also probably the coolest Forgotten Realms location gazateer ever put out. Witchlight and this ... are thin (at least they sorta acknowledged the expectations shortfall with Witchlight when they put that PDF book out). I think the difference is the latter two were definitely DM sourcebooks, where the latter two I think are trying to do some sort of balance between player DM even when the design is clearly adventure book.
Witchlight and the PDF was a sorta half measure return to what I think the should be doing. When Princes of the Apocalypse comes out, they also put out the Elemental Player's Companion. I think WotC needs to get back to that sort of content balance and away from what we've seen in the last two let's call them "adventure setting" books. I think the best thing would be for them to put out a crunch book in print, with players option, beastiary DMs guide to the environment ... then give a supplement of straight up adventure material for those who want it. I think Nerd Immersion put that idea in my head a few days ago when he was reading Strix online, or maybe he proposed doing it the other way.
Imagine if Tasha's Cauldron was Feywild centric, so in addition to what you got you got additonal Fey race options, a beastiary more fey themed etc, and then a full on Fey Gazettier including the online guide to building your own demiplane of delight, and then something like the adventure Wild Beyond the Witchlight was made available as an supplement. Aside from the protean feywild being like the in game place to introduce the now mutable race options, I think people would be much more happier with WotC putting out content like that. But I guess they think this works.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
What it looks like right now is that they had a sourcebook ready with an adventure attached to it, but then people threw a hissy fit over the classes in UA and how there were no martial classes in the sourcebook and how that was not inclusive to players who identify als a martial class (yeah I'm still salty that someone used that argument), so what we got was a truncated "campaign" in a magical school, still without martial classes may I point out, but with all the good stuff ripped out and replaced with euh mascottes and Starbucks?
Edit: I do like some of the monsters, and will use them in a campaign.
This book may not be the rip off that it feels like(there are some useful things...), but I dont buy adventures and with the removal of the sub-classes that is all it is to me.
Am I the only person who knew this book was an adventure from the get go or what? This whole thing has me so baffled. I recalled people speculating and complaining about it being an Adventure book instead of a Source book like Ravnica and Theros during its initial announcement.
Not criticism for those who don’t care for it, just an honest question.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Am I the only person who knew this book was an adventure from the get go or what? This whole thing has me so baffled. I recalled people speculating and complaining about it being an Adventure book instead of a Source book like Ravnica and Theros during its initial announcement.
Not criticism for those who don’t care for it, just an honest question.
I do also want to state that looking through more threads I now realize that the issue seems to be that it is classified as a Source book instead of an Adventure book here on DND Beyond. I wasn’t aware of that classification as I don’t use the builder so that makes more sense to me now. I still seem to recall it being treated as more of an Adventure book during its announcement though.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
I am usually happy with Wotc's materials but I found Strixhaven to be a terrible disappointment. A disappointment enough for me to start a Thread.
They missed out a few word in the title.
It was mislabelled it as a source book.
STRIXHAVEN: A(N ADVENTURE IN THE) CURRICULUM OF CHAOS.
Disappointments
1. Spells
It's a source book about 5 magic schools!!! And thus, they only provide 5 new spells that I could screenshot in a single screen. Level 1 x 1 and lvl 2 x 4!!!
I was expecting a list of new spells from 1 to 9. We may play as students but the founders were DRAGONS and the most teachers/ headmasters of schools are at least somehow powerful.
They noted the adventures goes from 1-10 so hey at least give us spells till level 4... but nah....
2. Owlin
Wotc gave us ONLY a trait list. They DID not even provide a background, personality, names suggestion etc etc that comes with other d&d races.
It's so short let me copy and paste all the lore on it for you right HERE.
"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 feathers that 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 is simply prone to rise later, embodying the common nickname of night owl." THANK YOU FOR THE VISUAL DESCRIPTION OF AN OWLIN.
Let me write something up for you guys!!!
You know the owl stat block that we know so well from 'Find familiar' and drakewarden's drake? They had a baby and owlin was born!!! Boom! At least now I know how to RP it!
3. Backgrounds and colleges
5 magic school. The same feat for all. Pick 2 cantrips and a lvl 1 spell with restrictions. That's about it! There is some amazing lore about the Colleges in chapter 1 but the mechanical translation is.... pathetic.
And poor Silverquill must be really sad to be the weakest school. In the additional magic list, Every other school came up with a signature level 2 spell but Silverquill only has a level 1. Maybe I shouldn't judge based on the spell slot. I apologise.
4. Magic items
They did the same thing with the magic items. 1 template for 5 primers. So technically, 3 new common magic items and 1 uncommon magic item.
But they have made the MOST POWERFUL MAGIC ITEM OF ALL!!!
Bottle of Boundless Coffee!!! All hail to the amount of money you will save!!! No more overpriced branded coffee!!! Yippee!!!
5. Adventures
This is where the Real magic is.. like I said... this is a adventure book.
They should have put all their efforts here and gave us teachers, a caretaker with a cat, a house elf and....oh wait sorry this is not Harry potter. My mistake....
The materials for an adventure book would are great but we got a "adventure" sourcebook.
OK folks! Hope this is helpful! Mischief Managed! Oh crap wrong sou..r..c.e...b..o....o...k...........poof.
I 100% disagree. It’s both an amazing adventure and an amazing source book.
I see where you're coming from and don't fully disagree, but I do think when approaching a magic school, or any setting that prioritizes things like intrigue and social interaction, it's difficult to do so without context for them. In dnd, that context usually comes from the adventures the DM comes up with/chooses to run. If this were released as a full setting book maybe with a single intro adventure (like Ravnica was) then I think the developers would be asking DM's to be doing a lot more work than if you were to just run Ravnica by not framing it around an adventure.
I think it's probably necessary to show DM's at least a basic example of what your typical Strixhaven school-themed adventure looks like before they can expect DM's to create an adventure on that particular fringe of the mainstream from whole cloth.
Also, since Strixhaven is so contained as a setting, the adventures do have a lot of important setting info in them-- they can't not since the premise of the adventures of living and adventuring in a school for magic, is the same as the premise of the setting. In the adventures you get rules for running social encounters, exams, sports, games, maps, etc. It's fairly substantial setting-wise, and you could simply treat the adventures as setting material and use the information within to craft your own story. Much of the modules are pretty bare-bones anyways, and there's lots of space to build off of them organically and insert your own B-plots (mostly since each module takes a school year and involve time jumps between encounters. I see this as a positive rather than a negative, and personally am taking advantage of this structure to graft a lot of the Candlekeep modules into Strixhaven).
That said, I do agree about being let down by the spells and a bit by the owlin-- the magic items are more just for flavor anyways I think.
The main thing I like about Strixhaven is that it gives you a lot to build off of. When I run it, I plan to add my own B-plot adventures, more NPC's (both student and faculty) and modify the main adventure a bit because that's what I find fun, but I do appreciate the existing framework that's in the book giving me that head start.
In an ideal world though, bringing it back to your point about it not being setting enough, I do wish they included a section about How To write magic school themed adventures, as that would have been very useful. Like how the Ebberon book has a section at the beginning about how to write noir-style adventure and then tells you how to incorporate all the various factions, or how Ravnica did something similar with all the inter-guild conflict. Something like that with info on student/teacher faction conflict and intrigue would've been very useful.
I will say I'm annoyed by 'sourcebooks' that spend a majority of their page count on an adventure. I purchased Wild Beyond the Witchlight primarily because I'm a huge sl#$ for Feywild shenanery and it was sortakinna an obligation for me to buy 'The Feywild Book' for my table since two thirds of my characters have Feywild ties somehow or other. I still haven't read over three quarters of the book, because the huge majority of it is an Adventure Module that is 110% worthless to me as someone who rarely DMs and who prefers creating new games when I do. I could read through it for the occasional pointers it might provide, but then I would be forever disqualified from playing a WBtW game if anyone else ever ran one I otherwise felt like being part of. There's basically no information on 'The Feywild' in Witchlight that isn't in the PHB, which was deeply frustrating.
And yet, Wild Beyond the Witchlight was lauded as "the only book you'll ever need on the Feywild!" and basically treated as a sourcebook rather than an Adventure Module in all but name. Yes, they called Witchlight an Adventure, but all the run-up to it was about the 'sourcebook material'. Strixhaven didn't even get that much - they called this thing a sourcebook from the start. I can see where that's annoying.
Please do not contact or message me.
I love your last point. I was looking forward to a sourcebook to provide some handles on the creation of spells and the inner working of a magic school. D&D has always had spell casters but where and how they train has always eluded us. I was really looking forward to this collaboration with Magic the gathering to provide us that.
With Ravenloft, the amount of lore and mechanics provided was substantial . They ended with a great chapter of creating your own Horror adventure with tips, handles and some examples.
With Strixhaven, a good 80% of the book is it's own adventure. They could be trying a different style of writing
I'm not saying the content of the adventure is bad just doesn't feel like a sourcebook. Please buy the book if you are a MTG fan, I loved reading about it.
I have some good stuff to say about Stryxhaven. Thanks to the release of this "sourcebook" buying ANY other sourcebook now is a lot more reasonable. So if you don't know what sourcebook to buy - just buy anything but Stryxhaven. :D
As a sourcebook this book is the worst release of 5e.
I hope this is not a look at the future releases of 5e in regard to the increased amount of books published per year. Before i was able to say "cool a 5e sourcebook. i will get something out of it." and now slowly i feel like "a new sourcebook - maybe its as bad as Stryxhaven...." will be up my mind in 2022.
haha I had the same takeaway
NOTE TO SELF: Do not buy a preorder anymore until you know the actual content.
As bad as Strixhaven? This is probably my favorite book published so far
happy you like it. i don't hate the idea of it - i just dislike the lack of content in this sourcebook dedicated to setting and background information and the rather lackluster way setting up the schools and their relationship. Its just very flat and a bit boring. The character options are a bit of a joke including the race description and makeup. As an adventure book it might be fine - but as a sourcebook its just failing for me. Ravnica or Eberron are far better examples of what a sourcebook is compared to Stryxhaven. We seem to just enjoy different kinds of content and that is totally fine.
Wish you the best and lots of fun playing ttrpgs :)
Gotta say I echo this frustration. If they want it to be mostly adventure with some new bits call it an adventure. Calling it a sourcebook is disingenuous at best. The new options were tiny. Sure the setting can be fun for those that want to live out their harry potter fantasies but ehhhh.... Give us more options. Especially when you took out some genuinely interesting class options (whether they worked or not). Because without them this book offers nothing to those that don't want the specific adventure. And most of this book IS adventure.
I mean come on its a MAGIC school. this was perfect for a bunch of new spells. gives us new rules for spells. give the spellcasters literally anything more than a few level two spells
WotC seems pretty good at misrepresenting their products with the hype leading up to release. Like how the hype leading up to VGtR had me believing that there would be a bunch of darklords for me to use, but nope, WotC is just like "use a statblock from a knight because we couldn't be bothered".
Then knowing that there's a large chance that the book won't be fully implemented on D&D Beyond, I just don't have any faith in WotC or D&D Beyond to deliver what they promise. So no, I'm not surprised that Strixhaven seems disappointing to most people.
Fair opinion but when you go to a restaurant for lets say steak, and they serve you Italian food, it doesn't really matter if its the best Italian food you have ever had. You went there and were promised one thing and got another.
I haven't read it, but fromwhat people have said, it sounds like a brilliant adventure book with lots of extras. The problem is that people understood it to be a sourcebook, and were understandably disappointed when it came out.
Nothing wrong with adventures, and that's what I understood it to be from the beginning. But if I were expecting and buying it for a bunch of races, subclasses, feats, etc then I'd be upset too - especially if I had no use for an adventure.
The other day I bought KFC takeaway for the family. I asked for two lots of coleslaw, and got home to find that there was gravy instead. Except I already had more gravy than I needed as part of the burger, so it was no good to me. Nothing wrong with the gravy, I quite like it actually. Doesn't mean I wasn't frustrated to find that I didn't have what I thought I was paying for. Especially since I had no use for what they did give me.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
See I thought, BG:DiA was a great sourcebook for both Baldur's Gate and Avernus. RofF was also probably the coolest Forgotten Realms location gazateer ever put out. Witchlight and this ... are thin (at least they sorta acknowledged the expectations shortfall with Witchlight when they put that PDF book out). I think the difference is the latter two were definitely DM sourcebooks, where the latter two I think are trying to do some sort of balance between player DM even when the design is clearly adventure book.
Witchlight and the PDF was a sorta half measure return to what I think the should be doing. When Princes of the Apocalypse comes out, they also put out the Elemental Player's Companion. I think WotC needs to get back to that sort of content balance and away from what we've seen in the last two let's call them "adventure setting" books. I think the best thing would be for them to put out a crunch book in print, with players option, beastiary DMs guide to the environment ... then give a supplement of straight up adventure material for those who want it. I think Nerd Immersion put that idea in my head a few days ago when he was reading Strix online, or maybe he proposed doing it the other way.
Imagine if Tasha's Cauldron was Feywild centric, so in addition to what you got you got additonal Fey race options, a beastiary more fey themed etc, and then a full on Fey Gazettier including the online guide to building your own demiplane of delight, and then something like the adventure Wild Beyond the Witchlight was made available as an supplement. Aside from the protean feywild being like the in game place to introduce the now mutable race options, I think people would be much more happier with WotC putting out content like that. But I guess they think this works.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
What it looks like right now is that they had a sourcebook ready with an adventure attached to it, but then people threw a hissy fit over the classes in UA and how there were no martial classes in the sourcebook and how that was not inclusive to players who identify als a martial class (yeah I'm still salty that someone used that argument), so what we got was a truncated "campaign" in a magical school, still without martial classes may I point out, but with all the good stuff ripped out and replaced with euh mascottes and Starbucks?
Edit: I do like some of the monsters, and will use them in a campaign.
This book may not be the rip off that it feels like(there are some useful things...), but I dont buy adventures and with the removal of the sub-classes that is all it is to me.
Am I the only person who knew this book was an adventure from the get go or what? This whole thing has me so baffled. I recalled people speculating and complaining about it being an Adventure book instead of a Source book like Ravnica and Theros during its initial announcement.
Not criticism for those who don’t care for it, just an honest question.
"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Characters for Tenebris Sine Fine
RoughCoronet's Greater Wills
I do also want to state that looking through more threads I now realize that the issue seems to be that it is classified as a Source book instead of an Adventure book here on DND Beyond. I wasn’t aware of that classification as I don’t use the builder so that makes more sense to me now. I still seem to recall it being treated as more of an Adventure book during its announcement though.
"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Characters for Tenebris Sine Fine
RoughCoronet's Greater Wills