Unearthed Arcana 5E Psionics Alert! The Mystic Is Back In Unearthed Arcana

It's back! The long-awaited new version of the mystic - 5th Edition's psionic class - is here. "The mystic class, a master of psionics, has arrived in its entirety for you to try in your D&D games. Thanks to your playtest feedback on the class’s previous two versions, the class now goes to level 20, has six subclasses, and can choose from many new psionic disciplines and talents. Explore the material here—there’s a lot of it—and let us know what you think in the survey we release in the next installment of Unearthed Arcana." Click the image below for the full 28-page PDF!

It's back! The long-awaited new version of the mystic - 5th Edition's psionic class - is here. "The mystic class, a master of psionics, has arrived in its entirety for you to try in your D&D games. Thanks to your playtest feedback on the class’s previous two versions, the class now goes to level 20, has six subclasses, and can choose from many new psionic disciplines and talents. Explore the material here—there’s a lot of it—and let us know what you think in the survey we release in the next installment of Unearthed Arcana." Click the image below for the full 28-page PDF!

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Tallifer

Hero
That seems weird to me; why would you be sad that these rules allow you to better build a concept you have? Why be attached to a class name?

Forsooth. Just write Sorcerer or Druid or Warlord at the top of your Mystic character sheet if you want to. That's how I created a Friar in 4E, a Paladin in OD&D, a Bene Gesserit in AD&D and a Warlord in 5E.
 

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I'd still like to see the Shaper back as an order, but I know the current designers are very crystal and ectoplasm phobic.

Though they could try taking some of Pathfinder's Psychic concepts, and calling the Shaper the Order of the Occultist and going with a more ghostly path for such a thing, since ectoplasm is essentially ghost matter.

For crystals they don't need a pet rock, just a bunch of throwing crystals around and stuff.

I recognize the Astral Construct thing might be too complicated to try implementing at first pass, though they could have a discipline with a single companion as the Telepathic Thrallherd needs some sort of comeback too. Something like moving it and having it take reactions should be the focus ability, and getting it to do special things should cost points.
 

Falcon42

First Post
Then define enemy. OK, so dunk the rats in water so that they are irritated. Then kill them. The point is, enemy is a fairly ill-defined term. While I understand the 5e vibe of short rules and let the DM fill in the blanks, the bag of rats syndrome has been around long enough that WOTC should just quash it. The rule should state that you must kill an enemy with a CR of greater than 0. Problem solved.

Really, any DM that allows the bags o'rats (or similar) abuses to occur really deserve whatever crap it causes. I'm a pretty laid back DM but I brook none of that kind of :):):):):):):):).
 





Tony Vargas

Legend
Some do, yes. Trying to group together Warlord fans is like trying to herd cats into a woodchipper; even if you succeed, you're only going to satisfy small pieces of the whole.
I know you're trying to be funny, and cat-herding is never a bad analogy to dealing with gamers, but that's abject nonsense. There's only been one Warlord in D&D's history, there's nothing to be at odds about, really, if you want to see the class in 5e.

This topic, psionics, OTOH, is much more varied. Psionic has been magic, it's been not-magic, it's been a magic substitute; it's been a random gift, it's been a trained class, it's been multiple classes; it's been tongue-in-cheek Freudian science-fiction, it's been spellcasting, it's been a cosmic immune response to Far-Realm incursion; it's been a grafted-on system that seems like it came from another game, it's been utterly broken, it's been needlessly complicated, it's been somewhat balanced.

Depending on which things you like from which edition, what constitutes psionics for you may vary quite wildly. A few things have popped up as issues for some fans of psionics, magic vs not magic and Far Realm influence, particularly, the insistence that it be different from spellcasting even if it is possible to regard it as magic.

And, there was very little groundwork laid for it in the core game, too. So it's clearly a challenge, three drafts in and it still feels a little brain(npi)-stormy.

It bears repeating, but that's not a Warlord but an Ardent, a psionic leader class from 4E.
Aparently it either bears a lot of repeating, or inspires a lot of trolling. ;(

it does not bear noting that Ardent was probably the 4e Leader class most similar to the Warlord in terms of overall aesthetics,
The Skald was a lot closer, but then it's a leader sub-class, being at least part-martial, including it's 'aura.'


I know y'all are excited about this, but I find it all kind of...underwhelming. Yucky, even (to use a technical term.)

It seems like they just took a whole bunch of ideas for various mechanics, threw them all into a pile, and explained it all by saying, "It's psionics."
As opposed to taking the bizarro Vancian thing, and a pile of mechanics and ideas lifted from genre, mythology, and even the bible, and just saying "it's magic?" I mean, I get that 2017 is not 1974, and you can't necessarily get away with pulling the same tricks anymore. ("Hey baby, wanna see my etchings?")

Even though this is a game that's trading heavily on it's own past...

This almost feels like the core of an entirely different game, maybe a superhero game, in which heroes are the rare few with psionic powers.
Perfect! It's evoking the feel of 1e AD&D psionics!

Speaking of which, does psionics satisfy warlord fans, because it's not actually magic?
No, of course not, its just yet more supernatural powers for existing martial options to be strictly inferior to.

It is, however, more practical to completely re-skin, not that 5e is particularly encouraging of re-skinning, with it's flavorful concept-first class designs, but it might make a fair addition to the fractional stop-gap options a really determined player might resort to while waiting for an actual Warlord.

And, of course, it does satisfy those interested only in cheesing their way around anti-magic effects. A side effect of satisfying the legitimate desire for psionic to be/feel /different/ from magic is giving anyone who wants the unlimited range of effects open to supernatural abilities a get-out-of-anti-magic free card. "Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Beholder, I'm not magic, I'm psionic, eat lambda-variant waves."

And of course, what's a Beholder - a bug-eyed alien who shoots raybeams from it's eye stalks - supposed to do, it can't exactly plead 'but that's science-fiction!' ;P
 
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