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!

 

[respenstarym]

Mirtek
Yes, but it will happen on a boat that is build by artificers and crewed by minotaurs, since WotC *doesn't* release anything unless it has a direct correlation to its storyline concepts and the last UAs had artificers, minotaurs and the mariner fighting style

So... Spelljammer A confirmed?

On a different note, I can see a Rogue/mystic doing some interesting damage via Physic Weapon Discipline

edit: still getting used to the forum

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

actually, the disciplines do grant a bonus simply by concentrating on them. the "conquering mind" discipline, for example, grants you advantage on all charisma checks. i think they did a pretty good job with this.

really looking forward to testing this out sometime soon.

I meant to say an active ability. Most of the concentration effects are passive. I'm thinking something more akin to a cantrip.

 

[Remathilis]

Mmmm.... Chewy.

So, a while back I proposed an idea for psionics here, which has a few ideas that seem to jive nicely with what we just got. Great minds? (OK, I got 0, 3, 4, and a bit of 5 right).

For a first blush, I like it. It feels different, doesn't rehash the spell system in a different name, uses power (psi) points, and isn't just a sorcerer with telepathy. Going blow by blow.

* General Psionics rules: Good. No components, point-based system, limited transparency, and definitely a "not magic" vibe.
* Disciplines: Disciplines are wide, but flexible. You can do a lot with them, but they are capped to one effect at a time. Good.
* Awakened Mystic: If we're calling them psionics, can't we call him the psion(icist)? While we're at it, I miss the pseudoscience names, but I'll adapt to both.
* One class contains all psionics. Admittedly, I didn't completely see that coming. It seems one subclass will be the traditional psion class, one with be the psychic warrior class, one will be more an ardent/wilder, and one will be a soul knife. Works for me.

So I'm a happy camper today. Admittedly, its not quite ready for prime time, but its got a good solid start and it reinforces my theory of 5e, they aren't going to just drop splat subclasses for sake of name, if they are going to augment the system they are going to give us our money's worth.

Sorry spellcaster psionics fans.

 

[beholdsa]

I really miss the pseudo-sciencey flavor.

 

[ceejzz]

I meant to say an active ability. Most of the concentration effects are passive. I'm thinking something more akin to a cantrip.

ah, fair enough. i do think that would be cool. perhaps future disciplines, whether in the current orders or the new orders (order of the knife & order of the invisible hand), will have this type of ability.

on the bright side, the order of the awakened comes with the at-will psychic attack. it doesn't scale with damage like a cantrip does, but you can spend a small number of points to make it do more damage.

 

[SkidAce]

It's correted with the full class now.


......aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, it's got the Far Realm's tentacles all over it.

There are some friggin' narrative backflips and impressive contortions to make Eberron and Dark Sun fit that narrative, and it contradicts the "evolution" vibe from DS and the "dreams" vibe from Eberron pretty hard.

No worries, I have a Sharpie that will fix that part.

I like the ideas I am seeing here. Concentration effect and boost it for additional effects. Nice psion flavor.

I might keep it even if they don't...

 

[bganon]

Hmm, so a Fighter 15/Immortal 5 can use action surge AND surge of action in the same round for 9 attacks?

Just with Immortal 5 you can grant yourself a +3 weapon and then Ethereal Weapon+Lethal Strike on EVERY attack. I'm not sure how that compares to a Paladin but it seems pretty damn good. Or maybe not, since I'm not sure that using Ethereal Weapon counts as a "hit".

 

[Patrick McGill]

The mechanics look interesting and fun, cannot wait to test them out.

I do not like the flavor, not one bit. Mysticism and the occult as a concept is magical; "mystics" were often spiritual people trying to get closer to their deity through things like asceticism and meditation. A not small portion of where we get the pop culture ideas for wizards is from medieval and renaissance mystics like alchemists and kabbalists.

I thought the reason people liked psionics in the old editions was because of it's sci-fi flavor. It was incredibly unique and brought to mind pulp "sword and planet" fantasy and sci-fi of the era. I mean, come on! Dark Sun is THE psionic setting and that's got a Sword and Planet streak many miles across.

In my settings, at least, mysticism and the occult is the modus operandi for wizards, warlocks, and even some clerics. The inner workings of many of the temples and mystery schools are definitely what I would call mystical. The Far Realm itself is closely connected to the mysteries of the world; old tomes of great power mention these unknowable beings. I kinda don't like that being used for psionics, which is completely separate from magic.

In the end despite my rant, this is a very tiny minor issue. They're not going to tear up my campaign notebook or force this flavor on me, so don't take this as a wholesale rejection. I just wish, as with many other things in 5e, they would embrace what made people like this in the past, and take a look at where Gygax and co. got the inspiration for those things.

 

[SkidAce]

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.

I particularly like these two points.

Was looking at my homebrew psion and wanted the flavor of psi to be just a step up from ki...so this works for me.

 

[pming]

Hiya.

Broken. Almost all of it. Scrap it, start again.

At least I'm not disappointed. This was exactly what I was expecting. *shrug* No skin off my back though, never used psionics since they got all brokified back in 2e.

^_^

Paul L. Ming