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."

 

[epithet]

...Based on that, and on my readings, the closest thing to a shaman in 5E today would be a Warlock. Every other type of caster gets their power from either a divine, internal, or external 'raw power' source, while a warlock gets his power by making a deal with an intelligent external source - much like a shaman. Just create a warlock archetype with a Patron of 'Spirits.' Fill the patron's list with healing, buffing, and protection spells, and you're ready to go.

This idea: I like it.

 

[Patrick McGill]

Starting caveat: I have not read or played an existing Shaman class from any form of D&D. I have, however, studied quite a bit about the cultural/spiritual practices of shamanism (or more accurately, shamanistic practices, unless you're in Siberia.)

In D&D terms, shaman aren't really divine casters. The closest existing thing (in concept rather than mechanics) would probably be a necromancer, except that a shaman would work with natural spirits rather than the spirits of the dead. Each spell on the spell list would represent different spirit allied with the shaman, acting at his behest. Spells would be (fluff-wise) gained by making deals with new spirits (or overcoming them in a challenge), so they would be fewer than many classes get.

Based on that, and on my readings, the closest thing to a shaman in 5E today would be a Warlock. Every other type of caster gets their power from either a divine, internal, or external 'raw power' source, while a warlock gets his power by making a deal with an intelligent external source - much like a shaman. Just create a warlock archetype with a Patron of 'Spirits.' Fill the patron's list with healing, buffing, and protection spells, and you're ready to go.

This is an excellent point. It has the added benefit of subverting the Warlock trope as well. The base warlock is someone that assumed would be looked down on by society at best, while the Shaman is often an important part of tribal life. I really like the idea of doing a Shamanistic pact for the Warlock.

 

[gyor]

The only thing I was disappointed by was that Vyrloka and Shadar-Kai were third tier.

I was really happy with the list of favourite settings.

classes were okay, most of them should subclasses anyways and the top three should be classes anyways.

 

[Greybird]

As I think about it, the Warlock's ability to be in melee also fits the shaman well. Many 'iconic' shaman in history were also great warriors.

 

[Patrick McGill]

As I think about it, the Warlock's ability to be in melee also fits the shaman well. Many 'iconic' shaman in history were also great warriors.

Looking through the invocations, a lot of these fit with a primeval shamanistic culture. Beast speech, misty visions, sign of ill omen, lifedrinker. I honestly think you're on to something here.

 

[MidwayHaven]

I'm actually surprised Ravenloft got into the Top 5, considering the niche audience it has these days; maybe the success of the "Castle Ravenloft" board game pushed it up there.

 

[Nawara]

I'm pretty happy with the Immortal overall, but I kind of put them on blast regarding Mystic skill proficiencies and the Immortal's Martial Order power not providing heavy armor.

It's pretty obvious that the skill list for Mystic was designed with the Awakened in mind, and the Immortal came along later. There's no reason for it to come with Medicine and Religion (man what?) while denying the Immortal really, really useful skills like Athletics (for Str-based) or Acrobatics (for Dex-based).

And speaking of Str-based Immortals, Martial Order really should come with heavy armor proficiency. Dex-based Immortals are better off using medium armor either way, so that's a wash, but Str-based Immortals basically have to take Heavily Armored as a feat tax. Adding heavy armor to Martial Order won't break anything, and will make it less frustrating to play a Str-based Immortal.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Shamans in D&D have been pretty varied, so "what do you mean by Shaman?" is a pretty relevant question. Old 2e-style humanoid-priests? Spirit-talkers who divine illness? Spellcaster-monks?

Fey-pact warlocks and land-circle druids overlap some of those.

The idea of a class that focused on item creation of various sorts (rune-crafting, alchemy, artifice, spell-wearing, etc.) is something that could maybe have a dedicated class, but it would have to have more going for it than "I create a potion of dragon's breath - it is exactly like burning hands, but it is a potion of dragon's breath!" There's some space there, but there's also some problems to overcome.

I was pretty down on psionics overall. I like the basic mechanical conceit (get a special ability from Concentration, and dump points into it to cast spells), but it's going to need MUCH better flavor (FAR REALMS?!) and a LOT of balance.

In fact, maybe we could take the idea of different psionics stories, turn them into subclasses.

The Dreamer is an Eberron-style psionicist capable of dream-travel and dimensional rifts. Kalashtar love them. They have two minds - a dreaming mind and a waking mind.
The Evolved is a Dark-Sun-style psionicist who changes their body. They are mutants and seers. They master energy and shape.
The Outsider is a World-Axis-style psionicist who is linked to the invasions of the Far Realm. They have madness and insight in equal degrees. They are changed by things from behind the stars.

That'd give them a flavor boost as well as breaking down the weird One True Origin Story Of All Psionicists that the UA material has going on.

 

[bedir than]

Starting caveat: I have not read or played an existing Shaman class from any form of D&D. I have, however, studied quite a bit about the cultural/spiritual practices of shamanism (or more accurately, shamanistic practices, unless you're in Siberia.)

In D&D terms, shaman aren't really divine casters. The closest existing thing (in concept rather than mechanics) would probably be a necromancer, except that a shaman would work with natural spirits rather than the spirits of the dead. Each spell on the spell list would represent different spirit allied with the shaman, acting at his behest. Spells would be (fluff-wise) gained by making deals with new spirits (or overcoming them in a challenge), so they would be fewer than many classes get.

Based on that, and on my readings, the closest thing to a shaman in 5E today would be a Warlock. Every other type of caster gets their power from either a divine, internal, or external 'raw power' source, while a warlock gets his power by making a deal with an intelligent external source - much like a shaman. Just create a warlock archetype with a Patron of 'Spirits.' Fill the patron's list with healing, buffing, and protection spells, and you're ready to go.

I also haven't played a Shaman, nor a Warlock, so take this from that angle.

While the Druid comes, primarily, from Celtic lore, I think it is what I would use for Shamans whether those are based in history or fiction.

 

[Psikerlord#]

Honestly the problem with Greyhawk is that it hasn't had good representation. As the base setting of 3.x it got watered down heavily. Since most people these days know of Greyhawk only through 3.x, it's no surprise that it's not high on their priority list. I bet if a rocking return was made to Greyhawk that had it's sword and sorcery ferocity turned back up to 11, you could change hearts and minds and separate it from the High Fantasy of FR.

I understand that because the base assumptions of 5e fit will with GH already, however, it's probably low on the list. A man can dream, though.

Yea I only know Greyhawk from the 3.0 era and I don't find it much different to FR. to me they are both heroic fantasy. On the other hand, I find Primeval Thule more sword & sorcery, very different and awesome! Perhaps earlier Greyhawk was grittier etc, but I didn't see it.