A review copy of “Strixhaven Student Prospectus: Lorehold” was provided by the publisher. Find more DMs Guild Reviews on my website and YouTube channel.
Support my work by using my affiliate links and pledging via Patreon.
Designed by: Steph Farrow (StickyHunter), Frederic Walker (Kor-Artificer)
Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos transported the magical university from Magic: The Gathering into D&D 5E, yet added only handful of new spells and zero new subclasses.
Strixhaven Student Prospectus: Lorehold is the first of a series of mini-expansions that focus on each of the magic schools, providing a ton of new content for studious spellcasters, including new spells, feats, and courses.
The historical college of Lorehold is all about studying the past: ancient ruins, ancient languages, ancient artifacts — you get the idea.
The new race option is the Stonebound Spirit, a spirit who possesses a broken statue, creating a living sculpture linked by radiant light. It’s an awesome, unique concept, but the actual traits leave a lot to be desired: You don’t need to eat or sleep (boring), flight (ugh), and you shed light in a 10 ft radius (also boring).
There are so many cool ideas these animated statues could possess, such as disassembling themselves back into broken pieces to get into small areas, not unlike Gaseous Form, or the Swarmkeeper Ranger’s Swarming Dispersal.
Thankfully everything else in the Student Prospectus is A+, beginning with the new Wizard subclass, School of Archaeomancy.
The School of Archaeomancy is all about spell scrolls. Instead of a spellbook or focus, you carry around a big-ass scroll the size of a quarterstaff. Not only are you better at copying spells, you can also cast any non-memorized spell once per day, as if you had the spell scroll for it (with spell level up to your PB).
Later abilities include building charges into your staff-book-focus for every spell cast, then unleashing them as a literal laser beam of radiant energy. Nice!
New spells include giving someone super-advantage (three rolls instead of two) with True Certainty, or casting Call the Past on an object (or corpse) to summon a linked spirit to ask it a series of questions. Every college kid’s dream!
The most impressive additions are the new Lorehold courses. From the Study of Ancient Languages to the Study of Historical Artifacts, the supplement provides helpful details, tables, studying skills and bonuses, and final exam rolls. Complete the course to unlock minor but nice bonuses.
I don’t remember much of the original Strixhaven courses, but already these new additions look a lot more detailed, interesting, and well thought-out.
The Student Prospectus is further elevated with original artwork, thoughtfully embedded in nearly every page. The original art is especially welcome for the half dozen new NPCs, including Lorehold faculty and students.
If you have any interest in Strixhaven’s magic-focused content, definitely check out the Strixhaven Student Prospectus series.
Pros:
- Lots of useful new content for spellcasters, including spells, feats, backgrounds, and magic items.
- New Lorehold courses and exams are a big improvement over the book.
- School of Archaeomancy is a fun, thematic wizard subclass.
- Six detailed NPCs, with original character art.
Cons:
- Needs an introduction, and a helpful reminder about Lorehold and Strixhaven!
- Stonebound Spirit is a neat idea, with boring traits.
The Verdict: With a densely-packed trove of highly thematic player-facing content, Strixhaven Student Prospectus: Lorehold is the perfect mini-expansion to the Curriculum of Chaos.
A review copy of “Strixhaven Student Prospectus: Lorehold” was provided by the publisher. Find more DMs Guild Reviews on my website and YouTube channel.
Support my work by using my affiliate links and pledging via Patreon.
RogueWatson 