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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[zaratan]

It's like smite in that you can poor points into it. Which was probably a bad choice of words because its the normal attack power much like Corrosive Touch. This makes it worse than other comparable powers due to limited range, using INT for a melee character, and having the slashing damage type.

Yeah but they forget to add "you use your action" as all the rest, so RAW by now, don't cost any action, you can do that attack and still use your action or bonus action to do another thing. Probably shouldn't work that way. Costing the action is worse than the rest

No, you have to spend the bonus action before you attack. Which adds a rider to your attacks, but only for the current turn. If you miss with all of your attacks on that turn, you lose the extra damage and the points spent. You cannot hit and then use a bonus action before you apply damage. Abilities that let you activate them after you hit but before you damage things say "when you hit".

The text in this one don't say that, it day you can add in the next damage roll, not after the next hit

Is a con save, one of the hardest to crack.

The awakened version target int

Hiding normally takes your action, this is improved hide, without any restrictions on trying to start it.

And spend psi points to only hide unil the end of turn, you'll not keep that after the end of turn, isn't a big deal

They aren't that great, with vision limited to 60', a duration of one hour, and it takes an action to move them 30'. You will be spending a very long time scouting, time enough for entire patrols to move around, or being ambushed at the gates. And those problems are multiplied by two when you have to send out the eye again so you can teleport back out of the dungeon.

You have disciplines to stay hide all that time. Nomad's gate solve the return problem, but you don't really need to teleport back after you saw the best way and can get everybody from behind.

 

[Saint_Ridley]

Getting there, but the thing that's bugging me is that it seems very much to be casting too wide a net. Take a couple of these subclasses and rework them as sub-classes for different classes and we're in a better place. It would also patch away some of the multiclassing problems I'm already seeing people note as potentially abusable if some of these abilities got locked away where certain subclass abilities from other classes couldn't get to them.

 

[Azzy]

I'll grant that Hide and Move Silently are on their skill list, but jeez, Barbarians had 4+Int skill ranks and I don't recall them being considered skill monkeys. Rangers and bards got 6, and Rogues had 8. But it's not the "sneaky" bit that strikes me as most off-character for the Soulknife so much as the "trapfinding skill monkey". Anyway, I'm not trying to claim that the Rogue class doesn't mesh well with the Soulknife - it does - but that I don't think it's the only option for meshing well with the Soulknife, and I'd hate to see them limited to it.

Ah, I get you now.

 

[Xeviat]

I still have digesting to do before I can post my full review, but the first thing I don't like is the Soul Knife. Their abilities are good, but the lack of the two bonus disciplines really hurts them. At least, their soul knife ability should have some discipline powers built in. Needing a bonus action to use TWFing really hurts them by preventing smite spells.


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[Xeviat]

To be positive, I really like the fantasy imagery they added to the psion of old. Psionics always felt a little out of place, even in a world of mindflayers, gith, aboleth, and other psionic monsters. But, then again, I also didn't mind the far realm tie.

I like the Wu Jen here. It fits the "mysterious ascetic" vibe they have going. Plus, it gives a stronger theme to the pyrokineticists and such, though "kineticist" could really be the name of the subclass "Order of Energy" if enough complained. When I saw the quirks, I thought of Wu Jen.


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[sleepyhitsuji]

I have to assume that Jeremy misunderstood or was just wrong. Without a stat mod to damage, the soul knife would be a worse weapon than even a dagger, and I find it hard to believe that's the intent.

That is actually the case, on his twitter Jeremy replied

Jeremy Crawford‏ @JeremyECrawford

@MarkSparklFarkl I read your tweet too quickly and missed the "(no modifier)" part. Nothing in Soul Knife says you don't add your modifier.

 

[cbwjm]

Excellent, did think that was a little weird that you didn't get the modifier.

 

[ppaladin123]

I still have digesting to do before I can post my full review, but the first thing I don't like is the Soul Knife. Their abilities are good, but the lack of the two bonus disciplines really hurts them. At least, their soul knife ability should have some discipline powers built in. Needing a bonus action to use TWFing really hurts them by preventing smite spells.


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And celerity...the extra attack in celerity is also a bonus action.

 

[bganon]

It does seem to me that the Soulknife looks a bit unfinished around the edges, but it also took me all this time to realize that there's no reason you can't stack Hone the Blade with Augmented Weapon, which means a total of +16 to attack & +12 damage at level 9, and you can do it for basically 4 combats per day. Hmmm.

 

[rollingForInit]

From Sage Advice:

"Jeremy Crawford [MENTION=4036]Jeremy[/MENTION]ECrawford
Telepathy in the MM (p. 9) says a creature can respond to a monster's telepathic communication. The mystic's Mind Meld doesn't say that"

Okay, so then there really is a weird overlap between Telepathy and Mind Meld Mind Meld then allows you to also communicate regardless of language, and allows you to experience a memory. The first part seems superfluous, though.

Maybe if you MC 1 level, take the Talent and skip level 2 for the class feature.