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!

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I'm really impressed with this so far. I think there are numerical adjustments that need to be considered, but the core mechanical concept for the class seems cool and has legs. I like that the disciplines are a grouping of powers, to keep your character in theme. A 0PSP "cantrip" as an active ability would be nice in conjunction with the concentration passive ability.

I am a bit surprised its not a short rest recharge on PSP's (with a corresponding lower amount). You could probably modify them to get a more X-men type feel however.

 

[Li Shenron]

Wizards have that thing about having learned how to twist the Weave, which is the body of the goddess Mystara (is that right?)

Clerics have the gods affect the weave for them, and Druids... nature spirits I guess.

"You guess"... exactly! Guessing means you are making this up, and that's not a bad thing to do. More appropriately, you are filling the gaps in the fiction. You don't need the book to go that far, explicitly mentioning something as "nature spirits", it's ok to have a loose fiction that simply mentions "nature" (which is more generic), and then let the DM or a campaign setting complete the picture. Which is by the way what Forgotten Realms does with Mystra, but it would be to restrictive to set Mystra in stone in the core game.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I'm really impressed with this so far. I think there are numerical adjustments that need to be considered, but the core mechanical concept for the class seems cool and has legs. I like that the disciplines are a grouping of powers, to keep your character in theme. A 0PSP "cantrip" as an active ability would be nice in conjunction with the concentration passive ability.

I am a bit surprised its not a short rest recharge on PSP's (with a corresponding lower amount). You could probably modify them to get a more X-men type feel however.

that was the only part of my request they didn't go with... I wanted the x0men feel and to have at wills that built on each other but also had augments with power points that refreshed on short rests (so look to warlock to balance) and the return of the 3.0 psi focus... other then the short/long rest thing they nailed exactly what I wanted... now to fine tune...

 

[Mercule]

"You guess"... exactly! Guessing means you are making this up, and that's not a bad thing to do. More appropriately, you are filling the gaps in the fiction. You don't need the book to go that far, explicitly mentioning something as "nature spirits", it's ok to have a loose fiction that simply mentions "nature" (which is more generic), and then let the DM or a campaign setting complete the picture. Which is by the way what Forgotten Realms does with Mystra, but it would be to restrictive to set Mystra in stone in the core game.

This. A hundred times this.

I really think even mentioning the Weave in the PHB was a excessive. Of course, listing a bunch of Realms-specific human ethnicities was even more excessive.

 

[Mistwell]

I gotta say, I find it humorous (to say the least) to see that there doesn't seem to be a position on these playtest rules that doesn't have people with diametrically opposite opinions. Love the new flavor, despise the new flavor. Hate the Far Realm link, love the Far Realm link. Love the mechanics, hate the mechanics.

It definitely sounds like WotC has their work cut out for them.

Eh, that's just the internet. You can get that sort of response for just about everything. The real criteria is based on a much larger sample size of responses. That's where you see if the few cranks are making way more noise than their opinions represent in the larger group, or if they are truly representative. If 95% of people respond positively on the mechanics (for instance) on the eventual survey, then we know the people complaining about the mechanics come from that remaining small 5% and, logically, the 95% are the ones you go with.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Something about the 1e psionics that is a problem with this edition is the further unique they go the more difficult the monster manual becomes. Unless, in a future printings they go back in and errata the book and post a free update. The monsters could look quite different. Something that melds with what they did in the MM makes a lot of sense to me. Additionally psionics should have already been worked out by Mearls and co. we should have seen the mechanics already in the MM and simply not had the source book to run them appropriately. This is ball that was dropped.

You're right, by leaving it out of the MM they basically locked themselves into magic/psionic transparency from the outset.

The 3e Expanded Psionics Handbook published updates for the iconic psionic monsters as alternatives to the MM versions. "Mindflayer, Psionic" etc. Basically, if you were using psionics in your game, you just used that version instead of the MM version. The only real differences were the psionic elements themselves.

So it wasn't really a big deal.

This. A hundred times this.

I really think even mentioning the Weave in the PHB was a excessive. Of course, listing a bunch of Realms-specific human ethnicities was even more excessive.

Except in 5e the concept of "the Weave" is the core all-setting (unless some setting, like perhaps Dark Sun specifically overrides it) official explanation of how magic works in the D&D multiverse. "The Weave" and its Mystra connection is just the name and world-specific flavor of how it works in the Forgotten Realms.

I can see a few a reasons for why they listed the Forgotten Realms ethnicities, but it does feel off sticking it right there in the PHB/Basic Rules.

 

[Fralex]

Eh, that's just the internet. You can get that sort of response for just about everything. The real criteria is based on a much larger sample size of responses. That's where you see if the few cranks are making way more noise than their opinions represent in the larger group, or if they are truly representative. If 95% of people respond positively on the mechanics (for instance) on the eventual survey, then we know the people complaining about the mechanics come from that remaining small 5% and, logically, the 95% are the ones you go with.

Yeah, I went to a bookstore yesterday to play D&D, brought this up there, and everyone I talked to was just "Oh, that. Yeah, I thought it sounded pretty cool." We're going to have someone playtest the class next week. I notice nobody's actually talked about their play experiences with the mystic yet, so this should be interesting.

 

[Mistwell]

I'm in a hurry so not reading 27 pages of a thread so maybe this was already noted. Quick thing on the wotc psionics (which I love). The Awakened Mind's Third Eye discipline automatically gives blindsight 30' and then if you spend a psi point you can get tremorsense 30'. But isn't blindsight 30' already strictly superior to tremorsense 30'? What would the latter give you that would make it worth spending the psi point?

Tremorsense can see through cover. Blindsight still needs "line of sight", despite not being sight.

 

[Mistwell]

In this edition, that is NOT correct.

The same language is used for Tremorsense and Blindsight ("within a specific radius"). There's nothing about obstructions blocking either.

Clarified by tweets from Crawford on this. Tremorsense does indeed see through cover, while blindsight does not.

From MM:

Tremorsense: "A monster with tremorsense can detect and pinpoint the origin of vibrations within a specific radius, provided that the monster and the source of the vibrations are in contact with the same ground or substance. Tremorsense can't be used to detect flying or incorporeal creatures. "

Blindsight: "A monster with blindsight can perceive its surroundings without relying on sight, within a specific radius ...If a monster is naturally blind, it has a parenthetical note to this effect, indicating that the radius of its blindsight defines the maximum range of its perception."

Notice the emphasis for blindsight is simply perceiving surroundings without sight - it's just like normal vision, with regular perception checks, except you don't use your eyes, and you don't need light. It doesn't imply you can detect things around obstructions, as it still otherwise follows the normal perception rules which require line of sight to perceive something.

For tremorsense though, you sense vibrations in a radius. It doesn't matter if there is a door or wall or curtain in the way, as long as they are in the range and on the ground, you can detect them there. It's an exception to the normal perception rules.

 

[Remathilis]

Except in 5e the concept of "the Weave" is the core all-setting (unless some setting, like perhaps Dark Sun specifically overrides it) official explanation of how magic works in the D&D multiverse. "The Weave" and its Mystra connection is just the name and world-specific flavor of how it works in the Forgotten Realms.

I can see a few a reasons for why they listed the Forgotten Realms ethnicities, but it does feel off sticking it right there in the PHB/Basic Rules.

5e uses a lot of that as examples. For example, the Weave sidebar says "The spellcasters of the Forgotten Realms call it the Weave and recognize its essence as the goddess Mystra, but casters have varied ways of naming and visualizing this interface." In essence, it uses the Realms name to discuss it, but the concept of a magical interface could just as easily be Syberis the Dragon Above, Solinari/Lunitara/Nuitari, or the Sorcerer Kings. Similarly, I think the ethnicities of humans was the to avoid painting humanity as one vaguely-European block, while avoiding possible offense by using "real world" ethnicities.

So much like the Great Wheel in PHB, the Calendar of Harptos in the DMG, or the FR deities and factions in the Basic Doc, its mostly there for example for DMs or a ready-made option if it suits you (and to subtly push people towards their FR-placed APs and AL, they're not stupid).