D&D 5E (2014) Is "Mystic" a bad class name?

[Yaarel]

‘Immortal Mystic’ sounds cool.
‘Awakened Mystic’ sounds meh.
...
‘Invisible Hand Mystic’ sounds terribad.

 

[Dausuul]

It just seems silly to me. If the power in question is still called "psionics," what's the point of moving away from "psion" as a name for the class?

 

[jgsugden]

It is a friggin label. It does not matter. When you use a label that seems odd at first, we tend to adjust. There are bigger problems in the world - ones worth mentioning. This is an absolute non-starter.

 

[MoonSong]

Wizard, sorcerer and warlock are all synonyms - and could encompass a D&D bard, druid or even ranger - but the game gives them a precise meaning. I don't see Mystic being any different.

They all have different origins and meanings, warlock "oath breaker", wizard "wise one", sorcerer "speaker of oracles", mystic "initiate of secrets".

But psion was good, it comes from "soul", and I don't know why it has that strong of a sciencey flavor. it is just greek in origin and outside of American media it pops up in fantasy along with words like telepathy and telekinesis. Esper is the sciencey word from science fiction, psion or psychic is perfectly at home in fantasy, more so in D&D.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Well I wonder if they named the fighter XFCRF and the mage FCXRF and the thief CXFRF would it really matter?

 

[houser2112]

There was nothing wrong with "psion". There is plenty wrong with "mystic", foremost in my mind being that it evokes a shamanistic or divine nature using an otherworldly being as the source of your power, and psionics is all internal.

 

[Yaarel]

But psion was good, it comes from "soul", and I don't know why it has that strong of a sciencey flavor.

The term ‘psion’ is very sciency. From current scientific speculation, a science fiction writer proposed the term ‘psionics’ in 1952, as a kind of blend of ‘psychology’ and ‘electronics’.

Earlier in 1942, the Greek letter ‘psi’ was already used as an initial, a technical term to refer to ‘psychic force’ and related parapsychological phenomena.

Whence: psi + -onics.

Psion is to psionics as electron is to electronics.

 

[Sadrik]

Put me down for Mystic as being to imprecise, or evoking a different type of power than the psion evokes for me. Mystic is mystical and spiritual and evokes swamis and gurus. Perhaps that is the theme that this new edition is going for with mental magic. I particularly liked the sciencyness of the previous editions' psionics. It felt different. There is the natural world, and psionics where sort of themed to be a piece of the natural world. Like an animal in nature, there is also this thing called psionics. For magic, it is inherently unnatural, evoked by foul gods and arcane rituals. Mystics, swamis and gurus, to me, fit more in the inherently unnatural magical area...

 

[Yaarel]

I particularly liked the sciencyness of the previous editions' psionics. It felt different. There is the natural world, and psionics where sort of themed to be a piece of the natural world. Like an animal in nature, there is also this thing called psionics.

I agree, the term Psion is inherently natural.



Given these terms, I like ‘Psion’ more than ‘Psionicist’. I like ‘Psi’ (noun and adjective) more than ‘Psionics’ (noun) and ‘Psionic’ (adjective). But arguably, ‘Psionics’ has become a D&D-ism.

To me the phrase ‘magic and psi’ sounds fine in my ears.



At the same time, the term ‘mystic’ also sounds naturalistic to me, referring to a foundation of reality. It feels ‘real’ rather than unnatural or supernatural.

 

[Remathilis]

There is the advantage that mystic, unlike psion* or psionicist, is a real word. Psionic is real ("pertaining to the telepathic, psychic, or paranormal") but neither psionicist nor psion are; they are adding a suffix to change the part of speech (cist) or shorting the word. Really, the term should be "psychic" or "medium" if they were keeping the psuedoscience nomenclature.

Mystic, while plain, does invoke a bit of otherworldly, meditative, and "secrets of the universe" feel. The other two terms invoke "uses psionics".


* Psion is on dictionary.com, but as the proper noun of a UK tech company. Not what you'd want for your fantasy psionic character.