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!

 

[Minigiant]

I miss id insinuation


Anyway:

Awakened Mystic: 5 6d8 mind blasts and 1 2d8 mind blasts per long rest.
Immortal Mystic: 4 5d10 lethal strikes with a +3 augmented psionic weapon per long rest.
Evoker Wizard: 3 fireballs and 3 melf's acid arrows per long rest.
Dragon Sorcerer: 3 fireballs and 3 melf's acid arrows per long rest.

Umm.. mind blast needs to progress like cantrips, man.

 

[aramis erak]

I find myself wondering if Monk Ki and Awakend Mystic Psionic Points are on the same scale... if so, then multiclass monk/mystics are going to be a thing for some.

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".

It does note that a failed save does take half damage but no other effects from the hit. So... adding a Battlemaster's superiority effects could be quite amusing...

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.

I tend to agree. I hope that enough of us scream about the Far Realms link to get it culled.

Am I the only one who actually liked the 2e psionist? In fact, every other edition has had zero appeal to me.

Not at all... I liked it just fine... in AD&D 2E.

I'd like something comparable in overall breadth eventually...

 

[RotGrub]

I hope there is a wild talent system for those campaigns who like to use them.

 

[Yaarel]

Notice how the psi points are exactly the same thing as spell slots.

‘S1’ stands for ‘Slot 1’ or ‘Spell Slot of Spell Level 1’. And so on. Convert as follows.

Level	Max Psi	Spell Slot Level	Total Psi	Total Spell Slots
1	Max 2	= S1	4	= 2x S1
2			6	= 3x S1
3	Max 3	= S2	14	= 4x S1, 2x S2
4			17	= 4x S1, 3x S2
5	Max 5	= S3	27	= 4x S1, 3x S2, 2x S3

And so on. See the spell table of the Wizard and other full casters to determine the rest of the spell slots or psi.

 

[shadow]

I'll wait until I see the full class to make a judgment, but I really didn't care for bringing the Cthulhu-esque "Far Realm" into psionics.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

WOW... this is great it is exactly what I asked for... I mean it could use some fine tuning, but it's a better start then I could hope for.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

Wait . . . we DON'T have to use fluff as written? Well golly, thanks for the insight, I've been doing it wrong for ages now!

Sorry for the snark, but "no duh" we don't have to use fluff as written. Doesn't mean we can't discuss what we like and what we don't about the fluff, or that it isn't an important part of D&D. Changing the fluff and leaving behind classic D&D setting elements is what happened with 4E, and that left a lot of fans alienated. I'm hoping that the final psionic rules for 5E don't make the same mistake.

No prob. The poster I was responding to said, "Unhappy with psionics requiring Far Realms flavor..." That's different from saying, "Unhappy about the Far Realms flavor with psionics."

 

[AK Browncoat]

Am I the only one who actually liked the 2e psionist? In fact, every other edition has had zero appeal to me.

No, I thought it was superior to the others as well.

 

[Psikerlord#]

My kneejerk reaction is... broken.

Being able to spend your points all in one round etc is a major, major advantage - and they ought to get less "slots" per day because of it. In older editions, like 2e, the ability to nova burst was outright busted, and I suspect repeats itself here.

I like the far realms fluff. I like most of the telepathic stuff and the switchable saving throw. I don't like the crazy burst the psi-warrior is going to do with double actions, extra d10s on a hit, etc. Also his concentration cannot be broken, another bad plan imo...

I also really don't like that dispel magic/counterspell etc simply don't work for psionics. This means we're going to need a dispel psionics etc spells in the game. Bluurghgh. No thanks.

 

[Remathilis]

Notice how the psi points are exactly the same thing as spell slots.

One better: its the same as the spell point variant in the DMG (at least for the levels we have so far)

1st.........4
2nd........6
3rd.......14
4th.......17
5th.......27
6th.......32
7th.......38
8th.......44
9th.......57
10th.....64
11th.....73
12th.....73
13th.....83
14th.....83
15th.....94
16th.....94
17th...107
18th...114
19th...123
20th...133