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!

 

[ceejzz]

for anyone who is a bit confused by the article, it is because it is not complete. mearls tweeted the following (can't link it directly due to post count):

For folks looking at the psionics material in today's UA, looks like there was a minor error. Not all the material is there.

here's hoping they can upload the correct material soon - the content provided here is a good start.

edit: whoops, got ninja'd.

 

[Raunalyn]

Is it me, or does Mind Thrust seem kind of powerful? All you have to do is perceive them...you do not have to have line of effect. If they are with 120 feet of you, and you are scrying on them (for example), you can dump all of you psi points into a mind thrust and potentially do a boatload of damage to someone. Oh, and their Intelligence = AC in this case...just target the big dumb fighter, and all will be well...

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

This is very confusing. If this is a new class its missing a lot of important information such as hit dice, proficiencies, skills, starting equipment, etc.
More importantly though the Mind Thrust ability mentions spending power points, but I was not able to find how to calculate the number of power points available. I assume the bracketed numbers are also the power point cost for each ability. It seems that power points are the main resource of the class but they haven't told us what they are or how you get them.

Edit: Oops, found out after I posted that there was a mistake. Sorry for being hasty.

 

[DEFCON 1]

As far as what it is... my reading of the doc is that it's a new class called the Mystic, and that the Order of the Awakened is one of its subclasses. Since this Order seems to deal completely with the mind, I wonder if another subclass Order will eventually be about the body, and maybe a third about the spirit?

I imagine that there will also be other Disciplines (the Mystic's special abilities a la Maneuvers / Spells) for all the different Orders.

 

[jamesjhaeck]

I get the feeling that someone uploaded a rough draft instead of the actual document. Hopefully they'll reupload later today.

EDIT: Ninja'd by Morrus!

 

[Yaarel]

First impressions.

Flavor: The realm of the mind - blending the Telepath with the Prescient. Has a Jedi vibe to it.

"
Mystics dedicated to the Order of the Awakened seek to unlock the full potential of the mind. By transcending the physical, the awakened hope to attain a perfect state of being − focused on pure intellect and mental energy.

"

This archetype blends the Telepath having Mind Thrust (resembling Psionic Blast), Occluded Mind (Suggestion spell), and Broken Will (Domination spell) with Seer having Blindsight, Unwavering Eye (Wisdom check advantage thus Perception boost), and True Sight (spell).

It seems useful to combine the aggressive abilities of the Telepathy discipline with the more utilitarian abilities of the Clairsentience discipline.



Mechanics: The full class is not shown. This is moreso a dislocated archetype. It uses a simple point system, vaguely reminiscent of the Warlock class.

The Mind Thrust attack targets the Intelligence *SCORE*, not some kind of defense using the standard Intelligence bonus. The wonky mechanics encourages gaming balance failures.

My main concern is there seems to be too few choices for customizing a psionic adventurer concept.

The flavor is solid. The mechanics concerning.

 

[I'm A Banana]

As far as what it is... my reading of the doc is that it's a new class called the Mystic, and that the Order of the Awakened is one of its subclasses. Since this Order seems to deal completely with the mind, I wonder if another subclass Order will eventually be about the body, and maybe a third about the spirit?

I imagine that there will also be other Disciplines (the Mystic's special abilities a la Maneuvers / Spells) for all the different Orders.

I'd say this is probably spot-on.

Looks like they're going the "new class" route in the playtest, so I'm eager to see the whole thing!

Mind Thrust is a little wierd in that it's a ranged attack so uses Dex.

I see a loose Disciplines/Powers division a la 2e, which is neat. Looks like the base class has psi points that it uses to power magical abilities a la the elementalist monk.

Looking interesting so far. Main point of comparison would seem to be enchantment / divination spells, and it looks competitive without being a reskin so far. I think my major question, when I see the whole thing, would be: how is this distinct from a elementalist monk who swaps out elemental spells for enchantment/divination spells, and it looks like they might have a good answer for that.

 

[Sadrik]

Nope won't use it.

 

[Wik]

Nope won't use it.

Ha, jumping the gun a bit aren't we? Unless you're just naturally anti-psionic?

I mean, I'm an anti-psion type guy, but I don't really mind this one so far. Mostly because the science-y names are gone, and it just seems like an altered wizard, which is something I'm totally okay with.

 

[bogmad]

Full article is now up. Much more robust...