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!

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[Tony Vargas]

I think a far realm subclass might be worth a look down the line.

We already have a GOO Warlock, so it doesn't seem like it'd be out of line. Mostly the Far Realms tie-in is flavor. A DM could've used it or not - even if it's completely absent, he can add it or not. But, ideally, each past 'fluffing' of psionics should get discussed in a side-bar or something, as a possibility.

 

[Colder]

Man, the reaction here is a lot less vitriolic than I was expecting. Maybe I can relax here a bit before going back to Reddit.

I dig the mystic. I like the themes they're going for, I like the fact that you can use a single class to build a very large variety of character concepts, I like most of the orders' unique features, and I *really* like their 11 feature even though it took me a couple of readings to figure out what it's supposed to actually do.

But I do think it needs to be toned down a bit. A little bit less versatility for single characters would be a good thing (small reduction in disciplines known ought to do it) and diminishing returns on spending psi points for certain abilities would go a long, long way.

 

[Gadget]

I must say I'm not impressed with the flavor this time around. I could take or leave the 'Far Realm' flavor, but this time around seems a little bland. I'm also not loving the shoot acid-poison-glow-in-the-dark-I'm-AntMan disciplines. At some point, this is magic spells with spell points under the psionic guise. It may be fair to argue that is pretty much what psionics has always been in a way, but I think they are going fairly far afield here.

I do, however, kind like the Wu-jen, if for no other reason than maybe an option for a Way of Four Elements Monk to do some things. The sub-class is growing on me for some reason.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I think a far realm subclass might be worth a look down the line.

They do seem to like Feywild and Shadowfell related subclasses recently (and both could easily tie into psychic stuff). No reason to leave the mystic out of it. Once a plane-connected subclass precedent is established, how can the Far Realm be far behind? And the Astral Sea is practically begging for a mystic subclass.

 

[TwoSix]

The Avatar Mystic is still exciting, in spite of the name, as a fair playtest iteration of the 4e Ardent, though I'd like to hear from more psionics fans who were familiar with/are enthused about, the 3.5 version of the class.

I don't know too many people who were ever enthused about the 3.5 Ardent. I mean, it was a full manifester class, so it didn't lack for power, but it had even less versatility in powers known than the psion. The main positives about it were Wisdom based manifesting, and it had an odd way off learning powers that was useful for entering PrCs with different requirements. (If I remember correctly, it could learn powers based on the amount of power points it could use per turn. The feat Practiced Manifester let you manifest as if you were 4 levels highers, up to a maximum of your hit dice. So an Ardent 1/Other Class 4 could qualify for PrCs that required 3rd level manifesting, for example. Quite good for cheesing dual-progression PrCs such as Cerebremancer.)

Dreamscarred Press, which is the third party company that's put out of ton of PF compliant material based on 3.5 psionics, didn't even bother to do a conversion.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Corpsetaker]

I expect to see some cool write ups on Githyanki and Githzerai.

 

[Ath-kethin]

I'm happy about this version because if things keep going like this, it will save me another $50.00 that I otherwise would have spent on a book.

I don't hate it, but the whole psionics-is-magic thing has rubbed me the wrong way since it became the norm in 3e. I do like the more warlock-y structure to this version, as opposed to a more wizard-y take, but it's still not different enough from what we already have to be called "different" in my book.

I don't need psionics in my campaign. An approach to the concept similar to the way 2nd edition did it might get me onboard,and it looked briefly like they might be heading more in that direction, but the more they pull away from it the less interest I have.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Dude, we don't need a hippy class.
It's bad enough we have druids.

Druids are not hippies. Historically, they were priests, judges and lore-keepers of the Celtic tribal cultures that dominated Europe before the rise & fall of Rome. In D&D they can call lightning down on your head or turn into a bear and rip your face off.
Not so very peace-and-love, now is it.

 

[cbwjm]

I just remembered why I've been waiting for the latest mystic UA. I've been wanting to update the Gem dragons from 2e and now I can. The expansion of the talents also means I can create a more impressive wild talent table if I ever get around to running a Dark Sun one shot game as well.