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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[Ovarwa]

Wu Jen's Arcane Dabbler has intriguing applications beyond the obvious ability to cast 3 wizard spells. "As a bonus action, you can spend psi points to create spell slots that you can use to cast these spells, as well as other spells you are capable of casting." They don't have to be arcane spells either, so 2PP lets you cast Goodberry or Bless, if you have access to them. Do you have a racial ability or magic item that lets you cast a spell, but costs charges or can only be used 1/day? Cast it using PP!

You might need to multi-class to get the most out of this. Access to the right magic items makes this even better (but that also requires a level in one or two classes.)

Anyway,

Ken

 

[Xeviat]

I'm still digesting things, but I'm really not liking the "bonus action 1 round smite" powers. First, bonus actions come at a premium for mystics, and second other damage powers are save for half damage. Being able to spend points and then risk missing is simply bad.

I think these should be standard actions. Action, then "make one melee weapon attack as part of this action". Or "reaction on hit" like the knockback power. But no miss chance.

Making them standard actions, with half extra damage on a miss, would reduce stacking too. Bonus action powers can be reined in and not have PPdX damage growth.


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[Yaarel]

The Mystic must have the best Telepathy in the game.

(A tweet by Crawford seems to say, Mystic Telepathy is one-way only, so that a Mystic can ‘speak’ into other minds, but not ‘hear’ other minds.)

By definition, Telepathy must allow the Mystic to read the minds of others. In other words, the Telepathy allows two-way communication, so a Mystic can ‘hear’ what an other mind is saying.

It is ok if the communication is voluntary. So an other mind can choose to conceal information. But it must be two-way communication, same as the MM definition of Telepathy.

 

[Yaarel]

For me, the difference between Telepathy and Mind Meld is, the Telepath allows commmunication with an intelligent creature that is able to speak a language.

By contrast, Mind Meld allows communication with low-level intelligence, such as animals that are unable to speak a language. Additionally, Mind Meld allows the Telepath to virtually experience a specific memory, more than hear a description about it.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

A "Kinete" is the name for a person that can perform Telekinesis.

No, it's not "the name", it's a word you just coined. And dropping the tele- root changes its core meaning rather dramatically, from "person who moves things at a distance" to "person who moves". Yes, this does happen in real language (telephone/phone), but if you're going for etymological precision you should probably reconsider.

Generally speaking, in usage I've seen, when English speakers want to talk about a person who can perform telekinesis they just use the adjective substantively and call them a telekinetic, akin to calling them a romantic or a diabetic. If you're looking for "the name" as it actually exists in the language, that is it.

 

[Yaarel]

No, it's not "the name", it's a word you just coined. And dropping the tele- root changes its core meaning rather dramatically, from "person who moves things at a distance" to "person who moves". Yes, this does happen in real language (telephone/phone), but if you're going for etymological precision you should probably reconsider.

Generally speaking, in usage I've seen, when English speakers want to talk about a person who can perform telekinesis they just use the adjective substantively and call them a telekinetic, akin to calling them a romantic or a diabetic. If you're looking for "the name" as it actually exists in the language, that is it.

Pathfinder went from "telekinetic" to "kineticist", suggesting that dropping the prefix "tele-" is well understood in popular culture. (Your own example of "telephone" to "phone", already points out that dropping the "tele-" for the sake of fewer syllables can be understood well enough.)

Here, Kinete is etymologically appropriate, and has few syllables than Kineticist.

Calling someone "a telekinetic" or "a telekinete", or a short form like "kinetic" or "kinete", is fine with me.

 

[cbwjm]

Kinete doesn't sound very good and I believe it would not convey the general idea of the class as the names telekinetic or kineticist do to a lot of people.

 

[Yaarel]

If I recall correctly,

Kinematics is the study of facial "movements", but
Cinematics is the study of "motion" pictures.

Both words come from Greek Kinematika, "things pertaining to movement". The "C" in "Cinematics" comes from French from Latin from Greek, whereas the "K" comes more directly from Greek.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Pathfinder went from "telekinetic" to "kineticist", suggesting that dropping the prefix "tele-" is well understood in popular culture.

"Kineticist" is just tin-eared and awful.

Calling someone "a telekinetic" or "a telekinete", or a short form like "kinetic" or "kinete", is fine with me.

Would you call someone a "romant" or a "diabete"? No, because those aren't the words for those traits.

 

[Yaarel]

Kinete doesn't sound very good and I believe it would not convey the general idea of the class as the names telekinetic or kineticist do to a lot of people.

Heh. Kinete. I got used to it. It is a close rhyme with Synthete.