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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[MechaTarrasque]

Dude, we don't need a hippy class.

It's bad enough we have druids.

Don't forget bards...

More specifics might be good: how about an Astral Sea Pirate mystic subclass? I am pretty sure that is what the Astral Sea is there for.

 

[MoonSong]

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.

Well, Ardent not being OGC might have something to do with it

 

[plisnithus8]

Can't use bonus actions if you want to keep it up, but at level 8 you still have two more Disciplines to grab, and you hit for 2d8+2+dex mod if you spend points on Hone the blade.

Looks like you cannot add Dex mod to soul knife.

View attachment 82110

 

[gyor]

An Avatar with Crown of Disgust kind of gives off a far realms vibe.

Order of Avatar Mystics are going to want to poach Pyschic Restoration from the Immortal by level 6 or they will almost never get any advantage from Avatar of Healing. They have no native healing discipline, so it's a nearly useless feature without it.

Soul Knife + Psychic Consumption + Psychic Restoration + Mystic Restoration = Psychic Vampire Action. Kill something with your soul knife, gain 2 psi points, spend them on Psychic Restoration to heal yourself, then use a bonus action to use Mystic Restoration for bonus healing.

Giant Discipline + auras extend the area you auras reach, so oddly it's good for Avatars. It can also give major range to a soul knife's soul knives and extra damage.

Soul Knives will mostly want to poach from Nomad and Immortal lists.

Nomads are all about knowledge and movement, so you have a ton of different ways to focus your Nomad depending on power choices.

Immortal is good at being tough, but without martial weapons isn't actually good in melee combat. They are extremely good at altering their bodies.

Rogue's will find Soul Knife extremely tempting, especially if they don't have darkvision (Mastery of Light and Darkness as their 1 discipline).

The build that appeared to my mind is Order of the Avatar.

First Disciplines and talent Pyschic Restoration, Mantle of Awe, Mantle of Command, Energy Beam.

By level 3 add Mastery of Light and Darkness so I can summon shadows, see in Magical Darkness, create light including giving my allies advantage against a target.

For future Disciplines, Crown of Disgust, Mantle of Joy, Giant Growth, Telepathic Contact, Beastial Form, Mastery of Water, Talents Delusion, Pyshic Hammer, and Mystic Charm.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Corrosive Metabolism seems like a good fit for a Yuan-Ti Pureblood, though them getting the Poison Spray cantrip for free sort means they wouldn't use the Venom Strike effect that often though.

 

[gyor]

One thing I'd want to change is Avatar of Healing to also include temp HP from a discipline.

 

[Li Shenron]

1) Everyone expected it to happen so it wasn't worth mentioning... or...

2) Having the Far Realms as a possible fluff story for the class to make it unique (just like the quirks table does now) actually is, as it always has been, so easily able to be ignored that people don't even notice it when it's not there anymore.

3) I had so much given up on the hope that it could be removed, that I failed to notice it actually was. And to be honest, I still don't believe they won't slip it back into the final version.

 

[Krachek]

I was doubtful at first but now I think they score a hit.

Using points and no component will mark a clear line between magic and psionic. Even if we look more carefully we recognize the spell and the cantrip in discipline and talent.

Discipline can be used to fuel sub classes for rogue, fighter, maybe monk, and even barbarian. The Nomad discipline could fit well for barbarian adapted to an extremely hard environment. Monk would also be a good candidate for a Mystic sub class. Ki point could fuel discipline.

The mystic will give some challenge to players who need a lot of options.
Discipline can help a player in a small party to fill multiple roles.

 

[Tallifer]

You yourself might not care, but names matter, a lot. People have gone to war and died over names before. Names are important, not just for themselves but for what they mean and stand for.

Names (including Class names) are important. That is why you have a pencil and a hand with which to write the class name of your choice on the top of your character sheet.

Sorry, had to make that quip. No actual insult intended. (I invite your counter quip.)

I understand that official lore is important for some players and dungeon masters. I just wish they could embrace the freedom of 4E's "refluffing." It certainly relieves a lot of stress when trying to customize monsters or characters for any particular world or campaign.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I understand that official lore is important for some players and dungeon masters.

Class names aren't really lore, anyway. Why they matter is similar, though, since a class that is a version of a prior-edition class should bear its name for continuity & clarity, and a class that isn't, but does misappropriate a name used in the past, will be perceived as an egregious 'change' (and there's always fans who nerdrage over change).

I just wish they could embrace the freedom of 4E's "refluffing."

Heck, 4e could have gone further in embracing that (it was mainly powers that could be re-fluffed, explicitly, that and, as in 3e, how your character & his gear looked - you couldn't readily 're-fluff a class,' for instance).

But, for 5e, that ship sailed early in the playtest. The design philosophy that quickly emerged is concept-first, classes are a fluff idea that gets mechanically represented and fleshed out, and made distinct at that rules-text level. It's not that re-fluffing isn't still easy (and, for DMs, just straight-up changing the rules to match is encouraged, though never exactly 'easy' to do /well/), it is that it's not, as you say, 'embraced,' because giving each official class mechanical distinctiveness to back-up it's fluff/concept, creates an expectation that fluff & crunch are linked (even that there's no real line between them, for those wanting to approach the game as a simulation).