D&D 5E 5E Survivor - Subclasses (Part VIII: Mystic, aka Psion)


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Omand

Hero
Genuine question (for you and others): Is your problem with the Nomad that you find its name dull, or that you find its mechanics poor?

Because if voting were based around the name my choices would have been quite a bit different. Nomad is, as you say, a dull name. (Though is "Fighter" any better? Everyone "fights" in D&D!) But the mechanics are better and more interesting than most of the other options available here, without stepping on the toes of other classes like Wu Jen does.
Well, full disclosure here:

I started playing BECMI but quickly switched to 1E way back when. We were all young and immediately tried out the psionics rules (and made it so we all had it even though by rules as written at the time the chance of psionics was incredibly low). OK, sue me, we were like ages 9 - 11 at the time. We also very quickly abandoned psionics in any form as we felt it did not mix well with the game.

So, I will cop to not being a great fan of psionics overall based upon early experience (which is, of course, not universal).

But, when I think of psionics, I think that if you want to include it you need to make it its own thing. The original was not magic, it was mind-power and more (some really trippy stuff in 1E alongside the mind-blast, etc.). The includes the name of the class/sub-class to make it fit the theme.

So, Nomad is not an evocative psionic name to me, regardless of mechanics. Now, call it Noman or Nomon, just a slight shift in letters, gives me a quite different vibe. Soul-Knife or Psion would do the same. Mystic is OK as a class name, although it is skirting the edges to my brain.

I did quickly review the UA before voting, but have never played or tested any of the sub-classes. Personally I have found for myself that I really need to play a class in a game to get a full feel of it.

Thus, for this poll everything is by my gut feeling and sense of the name, not the mechanics. I remember the 1E and 3E Wu-Jen classes, so that does not evoke psionics to me at all. Soul-Knife did while it was in the poll. Of those left, only Immortal gives me a psionic vibe (and not by much).

Look, I admit this is all personal and paradoxical. For other classes we have done polls on I will be much more worried about actual class features rather than the name.

One of the things I like about these threads. You can vote in any way you want because at the end of the day it is for fun and letting off steam, not any actual form of accurate measurement of popularity or effectiveness.

Cheers :)
 

Well, full disclosure here:

I started playing BECMI but quickly switched to 1E way back when. We were all young and immediately tried out the psionics rules (and made it so we all had it even though by rules as written at the time the chance of psionics was incredibly low). OK, sue me, we were like ages 9 - 11 at the time. We also very quickly abandoned psionics in any form as we felt it did not mix well with the game.

So, I will cop to not being a great fan of psionics overall based upon early experience (which is, of course, not universal).

But, when I think of psionics, I think that if you want to include it you need to make it its own thing. The original was not magic, it was mind-power and more (some really trippy stuff in 1E alongside the mind-blast, etc.). The includes the name of the class/sub-class to make it fit the theme.

So, Nomad is not an evocative psionic name to me, regardless of mechanics. Now, call it Noman or Nomon, just a slight shift in letters, gives me a quite different vibe. Soul-Knife or Psion would do the same. Mystic is OK as a class name, although it is skirting the edges to my brain.

I did quickly review the UA before voting, but have never played or tested any of the sub-classes. Personally I have found for myself that I really need to play a class in a game to get a full feel of it.

Thus, for this poll everything is by my gut feeling and sense of the name, not the mechanics. I remember the 1E and 3E Wu-Jen classes, so that does not evoke psionics to me at all. Soul-Knife did while it was in the poll. Of those left, only Immortal gives me a psionic vibe (and not by much).

Look, I admit this is all personal and paradoxical. For other classes we have done polls on I will be much more worried about actual class features rather than the name.

One of the things I like about these threads. You can vote in any way you want because at the end of the day it is for fun and letting off steam, not any actual form of accurate measurement of popularity or effectiveness.

Cheers :)
You expect us to believe you when your username is a clear acronym for one of the finalists??

I think not..
 

Omand

Hero
You expect us to believe you when your username is a clear acronym for one of the finalists??

I think not..
What is up for all of the paranoia in these threads of late?

Maybe you were joking, but my username goes back 20+ years, much longer than the subclass.

Cheers :)
 






FireLance

Legend
Order of the Immortal 2+1 = 3
Order of the Nomad 7
Order of the Wu Jen 2-2 = 0

1. As a Mandarin-speaking person of Chinese descent, I do not consider a Wu Jen to be psionic. Maybe ki, but that's not the question here.
2. Can we get this over quickly and move on to paladins, please?
3. That said, I prefer psychometabolism to psychoportation, so...
 

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