Hey all,
The new mystic UA that they released certainly has a lot to chew on. One of the Psychic Foci has something that, to my knowledge, nothing in the game could do at this point. The Giant Growth discipline allows you to increase your reach by 5 feet as a psychic focus. That means no action economy -- and as far as I can tell -- no way to "lose" your focus involuntarily. This opens the door for a reach-grappler build.
I've been sitting down and toying with this for a while now and have come to a few conclusions -- it would probably work better as a multi-class, and probably isn't the best build by any metric, but seems very thematically neat. Mechanically, the idea of holding an opponent at arm's length and being out of their reach is really interesting.
You can also use (at the loss of reach) utilize the Brute Force focus to gain advantage on strength checks, and for 2 psi points and a bonus action, grant your self a +5 to a strength check until the end of your turn.
We'll be level 8, which just allows for the use of Potent Psionics to give a minor buff (+1d8 psychic damage) to our melee output.
The biggest issue is the lack of extra attack, lack of good AC option (the Immortal Psion gives you a natural armor option, but it keys off Dex and we can't go too MAD). Strengths are the THP and regen that are inherent in the class and Immortal Order, as well as the ability to reach. Additionally, you have access to a bevy of other class features when you can't/don't want to grapple.
My thought is to take Variant Human, start 15 strength, max INT, take tavern brawler, and focus on hitting with improvised weapons to trigger tavern brawler and then grab opponents with reach. If we assume multi-class is allowed, you could dip rogue 1 for expertise to have a fair-shake at it.
Still, a lot of work for one gimmick. Works very well if we assume full multi-classing is allowed (take any Extra Attack Chasis, paste on Level 1 psion for the discipline).
Unfortunately, Giant Growth doesn't give advantage on athletics checks like Enlarge/Reduce does.
The new mystic UA that they released certainly has a lot to chew on. One of the Psychic Foci has something that, to my knowledge, nothing in the game could do at this point. The Giant Growth discipline allows you to increase your reach by 5 feet as a psychic focus. That means no action economy -- and as far as I can tell -- no way to "lose" your focus involuntarily. This opens the door for a reach-grappler build.
I've been sitting down and toying with this for a while now and have come to a few conclusions -- it would probably work better as a multi-class, and probably isn't the best build by any metric, but seems very thematically neat. Mechanically, the idea of holding an opponent at arm's length and being out of their reach is really interesting.
You can also use (at the loss of reach) utilize the Brute Force focus to gain advantage on strength checks, and for 2 psi points and a bonus action, grant your self a +5 to a strength check until the end of your turn.
We'll be level 8, which just allows for the use of Potent Psionics to give a minor buff (+1d8 psychic damage) to our melee output.
The biggest issue is the lack of extra attack, lack of good AC option (the Immortal Psion gives you a natural armor option, but it keys off Dex and we can't go too MAD). Strengths are the THP and regen that are inherent in the class and Immortal Order, as well as the ability to reach. Additionally, you have access to a bevy of other class features when you can't/don't want to grapple.
My thought is to take Variant Human, start 15 strength, max INT, take tavern brawler, and focus on hitting with improvised weapons to trigger tavern brawler and then grab opponents with reach. If we assume multi-class is allowed, you could dip rogue 1 for expertise to have a fair-shake at it.
Still, a lot of work for one gimmick. Works very well if we assume full multi-classing is allowed (take any Extra Attack Chasis, paste on Level 1 psion for the discipline).
Unfortunately, Giant Growth doesn't give advantage on athletics checks like Enlarge/Reduce does.
