New D&D Monthly Survey: Mystics & Psionics

The new D&D monthly survey is up - it asks about last month's Unearthed Arcana psionics rules. Additionally, WotC reports on the results of the last survey about settings, classes, and races. It turns out that the top tier settings in terms of popularity are Eberron, Ravenloft, Dark Sun, Planescape, and the Forgotten Realms, followed by Greyhawk, Dragonlance, and Spelljammer. Additionally, popular character types were led by the artificer, shaman, and alchemist; while the most popular races were thri-kreen, goblin, and aasimar.

Find the new survey here. "This month, our survey looks at the mystic character class and our first draft of psionics rules for fifth edition. Your input is an invaluable tool that helps shape how we develop new material for D&D. If you love the rules, hate them, or have a specific issue you want to address, let us know."

 

[MoonSong]

We need a new thread to talk about this month's article - I had to scan 12 pages of setting talk nostalgia to find out nobody cares that the Mystic class is total garbage.

No Psi points back from short rest? Monk gets all his ki points back (yes he has fewer ki points than Mystic has psi points, but uses fewer), fighter gets his second wind, action surge, and superiority dice back after a short rest, and he isn't dependent on those to be tanky or to do consistent damage.

Being only able to use one discipline at a time makes this class have to choose between decent offense, and (poor)defense, making them effectively a strictly ranged offensive class. The defensive stuff is not good enough to make the class tanky, takes away virtually all offensive capabilities and is thus pretty much unusable.

The mind control discipline seems strong vs a single target, albeit one dimensional (like being a wizard that can only cast a couple different single target charm spells).

There is the Psionic Weapon discipline that can nova similar in power to a fire snake monk at level 5, but can do it for 5 rounds in a row!

There is a discipline that makes you sorta tanky vs only one attack per round and you have to use psi points and your reaction, and you have to switch to that discipline BEFORE you are attacked.

There is a discipline that gives you the fighter's Action Surge (even called "Surge of Action", but you don't get it until 5th level, and you have to use your bonus action, but you can use it FIVE ROUNDS IN A ROW. That means a Fighter 11, Mystic 5 with both Action Surge and Surge of Action, on the first five turns of a combat can get 9/6/6/6/6 attacks! That's 33 attacks in 5 turns! Even just the first round's 9 attacks is more than the Fighter class's level 20 capstone lets him do in a single round. Add in Great Weapon Master + a magic greatsword or Sharpshooter + Archery + a magic bow and wow!

Everything in this class is either super broken or completely useless.

It is a first draft. I guess we never over checked the mechanics, the flavor and name were very problematic as they were, and if they are changed, the mechanics won't matter that much. And it is very problematic to playtest only five levels, this isn't like the playtest were we could check a few levels at the time, we need to start a new game to test this, and with only five levels there's not enough to start one.

 

[garnuk]

Was I the only one who thought that the comment about merging the Shaman, Artificer, and Alchemist into one class was just meant to be a fun joke?

As for the concern of arbitrary limits on crafted items, for the pharmacist class I did the following:

1. Items made with an alchemy table last until used. However the alchemy lab is a large piece of equipment (10 ft x 10 ft), and expensive. (5,000 gold)
2. Any item made without a full alchemy lab only lasts 1 hour before loses its affect. Instead they are made with a "travel alchemy lab".
3. It takes 1 hour per level of the "recipe" to craft the item. (Making it impossible for anyone to make alchemy items without the alchemy lab, or a class skill)
4. There is a class skill which allows any number of alchemy items to be made during a short rest. But it uses up a "slot" to make the item.
5. There is another class skill which allows alchemy items made with a "travel alchemy lab" to have an 8 hour shelf life before it become useless.

 

[Li Shenron]

Shaman

So the article suggest that the Shaman could be the same class as the Artificer and Alchemist because of mechanical reasons i.e. sharing the same mechanics of creating semi-magical single-use objects, whether they are Shaman's talismans, Artificer's tools, or Alchemist's substances.

But the Shaman could also be a Sorcerer subclass because of the ancestral origin of her powers.

But the Shaman could also be a Wizard subclass, a tradition focused on summoning spirits and similar stuff.

But the Shaman could also be a Warlock subclass if her power implies a pact with a powerful spirit.

But the Shaman could also be a Cleric of an animistic religion with unique domain spells, because after all they are priests.

But the Shaman could also be a Druid because after all she communes with nature, and the spirits could simply be feys.

Then I read the first lines of "Shaman" from Wikipedia (emphasis mine)...

Shamanism (/ˈʃɑːmən/ SHAH-mən or /ˈʃeɪmən/ SHAY-mən) is a religious practice that involves a practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with a spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into this world.[1] A shaman is a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of benevolent and malevolent spirits, who typically enters into a trance state during a ritual, and practices divination and healing.[2]

...and wham! bam! it sounds perfect as a Psion subclass too, with "entering trance" being equivalent to "activate a discipline" (if you accept that as a 'ritual' it would be pretty quick), with a divination-oriented and a healing-oriented disciplines available.

As I said previously, Shamanism is a very complicated thing with different meanings in different parts of the world, hard to pin down and could be anything in D&D (I bet we can find a way to justify a Bard version of the shaman too).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism

 

[steeldragons]

(I bet we can find a way to justify a Bard version of the shaman too).

Many shamanic practices and traditions involve the use of ritualized/rhythmic music, the beating of drums and rhythmic/repetitive chanting being the most common, to assist in the shaman's transition into trance...similarly, many modern day pagan traditions incorporated this behavior to assist in entering altered states of consciousness.

Wouldn't be a stretch, really, at all. The Bard's spell list including bits and pieces of arcane, druidic and clerical magic totally works for flavor as well.

...fluff Dissonant Whispers as a spirit attack....hmmmm...

 

[Greybird]

Actually, the ancestral origin bit is rare. Most shaman did not pass their art down to family members unless their family members were also 'chosen.' An initiatory system following certain portents (visions and near death experiences were typical) indicating that the subject had been chosen by spirits was the most common way of new shaman being chosen for training. They also didn't commune with nature (as such.) Shaman were frequently from tribal cultures where everybody 'communed with nature', so while, yes, they worked with nature, so did everyone else. It wasn't what set them apart from the rest of society. And while they fulfilled much the same role as a priest, they weren't priests as we define them today. Some were quite religious and prayed during ceremonies, but again, that wasn't what set them apart. They rarely claimed that their abilities came directly from some divine source.

Now bard is interesting. Steeldragons is right - there are many bardic arts tied in with the shaman. Not only the trance work (which he described quite accurately), but also because they were often the tribal historians, responsible for reciting and teaching all of the traditional histories and stories. As I mentioned before, a great deal of their rites were also intentional performances. A bard shaman would much more on target than a cleric, wizard, or druid.

 

[Agamon]

We need a new thread to talk about this month's article - I had to scan 12 pages of setting talk nostalgia to find out nobody cares that the Mystic class is total garbage.

I feel ya. Weeding through all the class talk has been a hassle.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I general gave high marks to the mystic... but I also don't mind the name or feel. I did point out an issue with multi class and chooseing to become prof in a save, and I also pointed out that the skills were all over theplace...

 

[Remathilis]

Was I the only one who thought that the comment about merging the Shaman, Artificer, and Alchemist into one class was just meant to be a fun joke?

I did, considering how two of them are thematically very similar and the third diametrically opposite; I think he was looking for some link between all three as a joke.

Of course, never let humor get in the way of a good nerdrage.

 

[Dragonhelm]

Here is the feedback I gave on the mystic flavor:

In regards to the flavor of the class...

1. The name mystic is a good fantasy name, but it isn't as representative of the class as the name psion. Please do not use psionicist as a name, as that is a mouthful.
2. The mystic may be confusing to Dragonlance fans, as the mystic served as a divine counterpart to the sorcerer. Creating a psionic mystic will mean some work figuring out what to do with the Dragonlance mystic. Are they one and the same, or are they different?
3. If you go with mystic as a name, then please create a mystic Order of the Heart that would focus on emotions (think Green Lantern's emotional spectrum). This might make a decent fit for Dragonlance.
4. Please bring back the crystal themes of 3rd edition, but in a way that doesn't mimic existing magic items.
5. Please bring back psionic gem dragons!
6. Please do not make the Far Realm the default go-to story. While it may work for some settings (Ravenloft?), it wouldn't for other settings (Dragonlance).
7. I like psionics being different than arcane and divine magic. It can be a magic of its own if need be, or just a separate power source altogether.
8. Please have notes on what settings psionics can be used it and which ones it can't. If that's to be vague, then never mind.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for tackling psionics!

 

[Fralex]

I playtested a 4th-level Awakened Mystic. Object Reading was probably the best-realized feature; unique and flavorful without being too strong.
Mind Thrust is a nice start, but with so many stupid to average monsters hitting with it felt too easy. I'd rather it just be an Int save.
Conquering Mind's ability to convince a creature of a single 10-word statement felt really unfair as something I could do in the middle of combat. Too easy to completely eliminate opponents in ten words. Maybe it should be a one-minute hypnosis session rather than an action; then the ability of Broken Will to make an enemy fight for you is more valuable.
The Far Realms flavor is fine, though they should make it more clear that it's not the only way to awaken someone to psionics. The "3-D creature looking at a 2-D world" thing is the important bit; Far Realm is just one way to get there.
I wish I had more options in combat.