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!

 

[Sadrik]

I would suggest that making psi a 'unique weird thing' is actually the point.

And as far as #1... if someone really is a 'creative DM', they'd be able to reverse engineer the power point system back into a slot system themselves if they really wanted it. They don't need WotC to do it for them.

My point was not that if a creative DM looked at an RPG and thought they could change something then they could do it. It was talking about accessibility of change. How easy do you want the interlocking parts of the game to be? How difficult? Do you want to make a bunch of things that look like spells, but are not?

That's defeating the point.

Psionics isn't supposed to be magic. Its a new a different thing that occasionally resembles magic. Its doesn't use the same rules, nor should it. Its not for people who wants wizards using telepathy. Its for completely foreign and alien types of supernatural effects.

If you want psychic magic, its not that hard. Make your own subclass for wizard (mentalist), sorcerer (psion), or whatever class you want. Borrow liberally from Paizo's Occult Adventurers and the Expanded Psionics Handbook (as well as the PHB) and your auntys your uncle. Anyone who wants that can have it, because it takes a little effort to do so. I like that WotC is giving us a whole new system rather than just rehash what we have already.

So your point is that psionics inherently have to use different rules than magic. I don't agree with that. Mechanically psionics can use the same rules whether Mearls and co want to actually make the rules different or the same is just a style choice. Not an inherent difference, like you cannot have similar mechanics because they are so different. Example: divine magic and arcane magic could be very different, howerver they use the same mechanics. I feel psionics are similar in this regard, they can bolt on a whole different subsystem, however they could evoke all of the same theme through, all ready established mechanics.

That does not follow.

Just like you can have spell slots as the default rule and spell points as the variant, you can have power points as the default rule.

Converting from A to B is not inherently more right or wrong than converting from B to A. Both are equally easy (or hard).

What does follow is that you could ask for a "psionic power slot variant". Please do.

I agree, However they cannot go back and rewrite the DMG. I would say it would be simpler to use slots and then point out that the power points can be incorporated from the DMG. No overlap and no convolution.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

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.

 

[TheWriterFantastic™]

I was so pissed off when I saw them in the psionics book. The 3E psionic classes were already very close to the wizard in feel--it baffled me that the designers wanted to give them a familiar too. I did play a couple of psions but never used the crystal.

Anyway, crystals a a means of power storage or part of the psionic aesthetic--OK. Crystals as sidekicks--No.

Back in 3.0, I used a psi-crystal for my fighter/psion PC - its creepy, spiker-like movements added interesting flavor to my character. While 3.0 included it as a class feature, 3.5 remedied this bug (no pun intended) by setting it up as a feat instead, which psions could select as one of their bonus feats. Granted, I can understand why some may not like the feature, but it gives an interesting option to those that want it, and it's arcane counterpart, Find Familiar, is a ritual in 5e, so it's not treated as a significant class feature. Perhaps mystic/psychic/psion, in its final form may have access to similar options, or ritual casting as a feature, with psionic options becoming available for the Find Familiar ritual. While it may throw magic into the psionic mix, it may make some sense for the more scholarly awakened mystic to have access to rituals, with a "psionic" ritual list. Worst case, the character can always take ritual casting as a feat.

 

[Li Shenron]

Even tho I have never been a fan of psionics in D&D, I am interested in what they come up with for 5e... my first random impressions on these draft rules:

- "Mystic" doesn't sound like an appropriate class name at all to me, as far I know the word normally has some religious connotation, which doesn't typically come with psionics (it could, but I think it would be a minority option); maybe the name belongs to the attempt at removing the sci-fi colour of psionics but my guess is that WotC will later revert to the usual "Psion"

- I am with those who think the Far Realm connection is inappropriate for the class as a whole; it just doesn't cut it because the Far Realm is all about madness while Psionics is pretty much the opposite, it's about awareness and clarity... the two might connect in a very special case, which means there could be one subclass of the Psion that relates to the Far Realm (just like there's a Warlock subclass), but for the whole class is way too restrictive

- Psionics mechanics is not spells: this is a key design decision, but I cannot say whether it's right or wrong. Perhaps the main consequence is with multiclassing, because psi points won't merge with spell 'slots'. I am not against this idea, I am not worried about some class combinations such as Psion/Wizard or Psion/Cleric not working well. But I have the feeling that Psion/Monk would make a lot of sense, so how about a (perhaps optional) rule that says psi points and ki points are the same thing? Going even further, sorcery points could also be the same thing as psi/ki points. I think narratively it would make at least some sense (Monks, Psions and Sorcerers all get their power 'from within" while Clerics, Druids, Wizards and Warlocks get them 'from the outside') and it would help the Psion class be less isolated from the others.

- All psionics effects require concentration: this is quite restrictive, and I am not sure it's fair, although it's narratively sensible. At least IIUC it still allows multiple effects (because it's the discipline which requires concentration, not the individual effects).

- All psionics effects do not have components: this is nailed perfectly.

- Intelligence as key ability... I would prefer a different ability (Int, Wis, Cha or Con) depending on discipline.

 

[SpikeTailDrake]

Looks tight! Seems a bit dull though.

 

[Yaarel]

I feel the Mystic should be able to use their Wisdom to maintain concentration, because Will power.

Or better yet, use whichever mental ability is highest: Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma.

The Mystic seems to suffer from Multiple Ability Dependency. Normally, the rules ought to encourage all mystics to rely on their mental abilities.

I get why the Immortal Mystic can have high physical abilities. But even here, I would rather have the Immortal rely on Intelligence instead of Dexterity, on Wisdom instead of Constitution, and on Charisma rather than Strength. The Immortal might well have buff bodies, but it is their brain that is psionically developing their bodies.

Compare how it is the mental aspect that causes the body to regenerate hit points - not the Constitution ability.

 

[TwoSix]

Hard enough that I don't want to do it. There was no need to change it at all to accommodate people who don't like and never used psionics. And the names and terminology in the official material are inevitably what will get used at the table. I have no desire to constantly remind people that 'Invisible Hand' is actually 'kineticist'. It just ruins the flavor for me, even if the mechanics seem decent, though unpolished.

What about those of us who like the idea of psionics, but really never cared for the sci-fi trappings? I personally like the idea of Far Realms inspired mental magic without the arcane trappings of components and spoken words.

 

[Remathilis]

So your point is that psionics inherently have to use different rules than magic. I don't agree with that. Mechanically psionics can use the same rules whether Mearls and co want to actually make the rules different or the same is just a style choice. Not an inherent difference, like you cannot have similar mechanics because they are so different. Example: divine magic and arcane magic could be very different, howerver they use the same mechanics. I feel psionics are similar in this regard, they can bolt on a whole different subsystem, however they could evoke all of the same theme through, all ready established mechanics.

It COULD, but they chose not to resell us the same rules system they are giving away for free in the Basic doc.

Psionics could go two ways: it could be sold to us as a book of splat giving us a couple of new subclasses, a bunch of new spells, etc, or as a new system. The former just ends up more PC glut to pick through, while the latter is a new decision point; do I want to include this or not. Some DMs will love it and use it heavily (Dark Sun), some will find place for it but not over-emphasize it (Eberron, Ravenloft), some will allow it and never discuss it (Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms) and some will outright ban it (Dragonlance). To me, that makes it an important, dynamic changing element rather than just another tool for PCs to build sorcerers and monks with.

 

[Nifft]

The former just ends up more PC glut to pick through, while the latter is a new decision point; do I want to include this or not.

You realize that multi-classing exists, right?

People get the glut effect even if Psionics are a separate system.

I mean, look at the feedback from this playtest: Fighter 11 / Mystic 5 sure looks like it kicks the butt of Fighter 16.

Unless you're trying to say that a DM can't exclude a sourcebook unless the sourcebook uses a whole new system? But that's nonsense. I've excluded overpowered crap from settings like the Forgotten Realms since forever.

 

[houser2112]

The Psicrystal was exactly as forgotten as the typical Wizard's Familiar. It had little to no impact on our games.

And if you use the Implanted Psicrystal option that Dreamscarred created, you could sacrifice the mobility and scouting ability of the regular psicrystal for what would eventually become a stronger version of Improved Initiative and a higher bonus on its personality, for the price of a single feat, and you could pretend it didn't exist, just like we all did with our familiars.