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!

 

[ZeshinX]

One thing's for sure, expect the next storyline after the Drizzt fan-wank one to be Cthulhu-esque, Far Realm focused. WotC doesn't release anything unless it has a direct correlation to its storyline concepts. Their attempt to mimic Marvel's shared universe concept with D&D and all.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

With a little more time and the full document, I can say that I really like the core concept of Disciplines. They're like psionic stances.

I do not like tying the Disciplines to Orders. If you can only have one active Discipline at a time, then why not let a Mystic choose from the complete list? That way choosing an order matters, but doesn't entirely define your character.

And the name Mystic is still wrong to me. It's a far too generic term for the idea, plus we have good traditional names for this class: Psion or Psionicist.

 

[maceochaid]

This is exactly what I wanted! I love it. The concentration mechanic gets that sense of Luke lifting the x-wing out of the swamp. I kind of wish they pushed some of this to be repeated failed saves allowed you to move up the tree, to really sell the escalation mechanic, but I'm not certain it would work quite right.

As for Strength of mind it seems like they should have gone with a minor saving throw (Charisma or Intelligence) since Wisdom is one of the big three. I see every mystic buffing DEX and never budging. I could also see it tied to your Discpline. Mystics all get Cha, while Immortals get Con, Awakened Mind get Wis, the Knife and Invisible Hand gets Dex.

Oh and Telekinetics should not be Invisible Hand, there has to be a better term for this.

I like how the telepath is set up with a basic mind attack power, and then several discplines that aren't combat focused. I tried my hand at a couple Psion Character classes and this one does this even more elegantly than I tried to do this. Perfectly done. I agree that the lack of line of effect maybe a little over-powered.

I am wondering if at higher levels the following options might be available:
concentrate on two discplines at once
choose a dicipline from another order, when you use that discpline you consider your maximum psi-maximum you can spend to be half your level

I think a monster update would not be too difficult, AND with the concentration mechanic each monster having 1-3 Disciplines with short writes ups I see as tottally doable, and monster specific options would be better to explain. A PC can't learn the Mind Flayer Discpline of thought eating because it's not a Mind Flayer. The text could specify variant monsters use different disciplines, but since it's operating off of concentration a monster will only want to use one or two in a fight.

 

[maceochaid]

as for magical/non-magical transperency I think this should be a DM Option box. In a world with balanced psionics and magic it's a meaningful character choice. In a heavy magical world the occasional psionic creature that the Wizard is defenseless against is a memorable and exciting new challenge if handled correctly. However a psionic PC in a non-psionic world is potentially a problem.

I would leave it up to DM's to decide how to ajudicate some rules with guidelines. However if a wizard uses eldrtich magic to ward himself from scrying I think it is reasonable that this makes it difficult to use awakened mind powers on that wizard.

 

[Baumi]

Are there only 5 levels in the document or am I missing something?

 

[Yaarel]

Are there only 5 levels in the document or am I missing something?

Yes, only five levels. Tier 1, and first level of Tier 2.

 

[Dausuul]

Now that we have the whole thing...

Overall, I feel like these rules are groping toward a good implementation of the psion, but they're not there yet. I like the idea of psionic disciplines where you get a base ability and then spend psi points for more advanced manifestations of that ability. However, I really dislike the need for "switching disciplines" to use different abilities. It's clunky and will result in the same kind of juggling that happens when gish-type PCs have to manage weapons and somatic components. Appropriately, the Immortal subclass looks like having the most trouble with this.

The tie-in to the Far Realm is annoying, but eh, whatever. It's not tightly integrated into the class, so it's easy enough to ignore.

The focus on Int saving throws/Int score as AC is good. I felt like 5E didn't do as much as it could have with Int saves, so this is a refreshing change.

The class mechanics feel rather like the monk (using psi points instead of ki), which is probably not a coincidence.

There are potential balance issues with some of the mechanics, of course, but that's to be expected in UA.

 

[Yaarel]

‘Invisible Hand’ is an inappropriate name for Telekinesis. If the appropriate name ‘Telekinesis’ itself is unavailable, then ‘Psychokinesis’, ‘Mindforce’, or so on would be better.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

I think it would be nice if each Discipline had an ability that cost zero power points as well. I'd like to see the number of power points a character has and can spend, plus the number that abilities cost, reduced. Each point should feel significant. At higher levels, I don't want to have do deal with the math of spending lots of power points.

Thus, instead of:

Exacting Query (1)
Occluded Mind (3)
Broken Will (5)

It would be:

Exacting Query (0)
Occluded Mind (1)
Broken Will (2)

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I like the name of the class, and I've been using it in my homebrew for years. It is an appropriately fantasy-sounding name that doesn't have much arcane or divine baggage associated with it.

It's really weird that they don't have proficiency with Int saves, especially since it's such a rare save that it would be hard to justify ever taking that one over Dex or Con.

Mind Thrust is bad. Using an ability score as a DC, without going through the ability modifier structure, is just not done. It would be simpler to just have the target make an Int save.