Unearthed Arcana Psionics Hits Unearthed Arcana

If you've been waiting anxiously for psionics to arrive in the D&D Unearthed Arcana column, your wait is over! The Awakened Mystic is a psionic class by Mike Mearls which - currently - has access to three psionic disciplines, with more to come later. Following on from Mike Mearls' question, Should Psionic Flavour Be Altered? (a discussion which promoted 750+ comments here on EN World, and is still ongoing), it sounds like he has answered the question with a resounding "yes". Rather than pseudo-scientific sounding terms like telepathy, clairovoyance, and the like, we have the disciplines Conquering Mind, Intellect Fortress (a callback to earlier editions), and Third Eye.

UPDATE - IMPORTANT NOTE FROM MIKE MEARLS: "For folks looking at the psionics material in today's UA, looks like there was a minor error. Not all the material is there." Keep an eye on it; I expect it'll be fixed soon.

UPDATE 2 - fixed! Updated document includes another three disciplines (Celerity, Iron Durability, and Psionic Weapon) and the basic rules to the class.

Find it here!

 

[Mirtek]

And in Dark Sun, the gods' abandonment of the world has left it badly warped and frayed at the seams, giving people another way to discover the secret workings of the universe despite the Far Realm not being present to rip it open completely.

You could just say that god's abandonment of the world has allowed the far realm to leak in in small quantities. Explains a lot about Athas quite elegantly

 

[Fralex]

You could just say that god's abandonment of the world has allowed the far realm to leak in in small quantities. Explains a lot about Athas quite elegantly

You could, if you wanted. What is Athas? I don't really know much about Dark Sun.

EDIT: Oh, that's just the name of the world in Dark Sun. Like Khorvair in Ebberon.

 

[Celtavian]

So Psionics is like an add on to another class showing that anyone can develop their mind into a weapon to enhance their base class?

Am I missing something or are you extremely hard to kill with Psionic Regeneration...like nearly impossible to kill?

 

[edutrevi]

Nice! Now it would be nice to have something about Dark Sun

 

[Celtavian]

Is there any reason not to take this for a min-maxer?

 

[Remathilis]

Exactly, a plane that actually is the far realm, so it fits perfectly.

5e is unifying the multiverse of old once again, and strayer like Eberron are being brouight back into the fold, aka Xoriat is just the Eberronian name for the far realm and Eberron now connects to the multiverse just like Oert or Toril

Not how it works.

In Eberron, there are 13 planes. Among them is Xoriat, which is basically the Far Realm and home to mind flayers, daelkyr (creatures of pure insanity) and other aberrations. So far so good.

HOWEVER

DaL Quor, the region of dreams, is another plane that is permanently remote. The residents of that plane, called Quori, cannot enter the plane via portals or summons, so they must bind to living creatures (either as vessels known as the inspired or as co-pilot souls to the kalashtar). The side effect of the quori entering a vessel (willingly or unwillingly) is the vessel exhibits psionic potential. Ergo, psionics in Eberron is a manifestation of Dal Quor, not Xoriat.

Unfortunately, changing Dal Quor to Xoriat as the source of psionic power completely ruins the whole setup in Eberron. Both planes were responsible for separate incursions (and subsequent cataclysms). The Kalashtar race is attempting to purify Dar Quor from the evil Quori who run it now (known as the Dreaming Dark) by following the Path of Light; whereas Xoriat is a place of destruction and madness beyond redemption. There is a whole continent (Sarlona) that is devoted to the struggle of the Kalashtar and allies against the Inspired and their slaves, its not a small part of Eberron's lore.

In short, changing psionics in Eberron from Dal Quor to Xoriat just to meet the "Far Realm influence" backstory; it completely shreds a whole continent, two races of monsters, and a PC race just to make that change.

Hopefully, someone with a bit of Eberron lore will correct the Xoriat/Dal Quor thing in the final version of Psionics. Because right now, it pisses on Eberron's established lore far more than "renaming a plane" does.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

The way I see it, Surge of Action is pretty expensive for what it is seemingly supposed to do (give the caster an extra attack or do something extra), but by using the extra action mechanic it could open the door to some form of abuse. For example, an Immortal Mystic with two levels of Warlock (for Agonizing Blast) could eldritch blast for 4x 1d10+Cha at 7th level (total), five times per day. I don't know if that's broken, per se, but it's not a door I want to see opened.

That door is already open. A 7th level Sorlock can do it five times per day AND have almost all his spells left, whereas the Immortal has to blow all his PP. Immortal Fighter attacking nine times in a turn is a fun thought, but not that much better than the pure fighter can already do--and the Immortal is more resource-limited.

Mystic mixins will be fun, especially the regenerating barbearians, but I'm not seeing any potential for real brokenness on the scale of the necromancer or moon druid, yet.

 

[Mirtek]

Not how it worked.

Fixed it for you.

In Eberron, there are 13 planes.

Or what ever planar anomaly causes the D&D multiverse planes to appear that way viewed from Eberron.

Ergo, psionics in Eberron is a manifestation of Dar Quor, not Xoriat.

Yet beings of Xoriat can use psionics too. There's no reason that Xoriat has to be the sole source of psionics, Dal Quor can leak it's psionics too

Even Keith Baker says that Xoriat is a source of psionics too: http://community.wizards.com/comment/42597726#comment-42597726 ("... Psionic energy is often drawn from Dal Quor or Xoriat. ... ")

Because right now, it pisses on Eberron's established lore far more than "renaming a plane" does.

Then Eberron's creator is pissing on his settings since his 3.5e supplements

 

[Remathilis]

Even Keith Baker says that Xoriat is a source of psionics too: http://community.wizards.com/comment/42597726#comment-42597726 ("... Psionic energy is often drawn from Dal Quor or Xoriat. ... ")

Interesting. I partially recant. However, it'd be really nice then if they mention the Dal Quor/Quori/Kalashtar connection first, before the Xoriat one. Its kinda like saying "Eldritch knights are beings of power who can use MAGIC! Oh yeah, wizards can too."

 

[Celtavian]

A paladin/mystic immortal. Damn those smites will be ridiculous with Lethal Weapon.