Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Psionics and Mystics Take Two

February's Unearthed Arcana article from WotC's Mike Mearls has been posted. This time around, the topic is psionics again "This month, Unearthed Arcana returns to the mystic character class and the rules for psionics. Based on the playtest feedback you sent us, there are a number of changes you can expect." The article expands the Mystic class to 10th level, and adds a variety of new options.

Find the article right here.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I get where you're coming from. I guess I agree with you, but I'm also pretty alright with ignoring the parts of the fluff that don't suit me. It's served me well enough so far.

It's pretty easy to ignore fluff in general, but bad defaulting can kill my interest. Like, I don't play a wizard because I love daily power resource management, I play a wizard because a learned scholar of magic is an appealing character type. I don't play a monk because I really like ki points, I play a monk because playing an ascetic, disciplined character who fights with elaborate martial arts is an appealing character type. I won't play a psionic character because I like the mechanics. Usually, it'll appeal because I want a character who is a psychic, who employs mental tricks to read minds, tell the future, maybe do some pseudo-science comic-booky kinetics stuff. But in 5e, unless I want to play a character involved with the Far Realm, I won't be interested in what the Mystic has to offer.

It should be said that with that narrative, there's not a whole lot that the mechanics do to support it. I don't feel like I'm an echo of the farm realm when I spend points on things or because I resist psychic damage or because I have an extra proficiency. There's nothing Beyond The Natural World about getting a bonus to Charisma checks. Blah blah blah.


I want mechanics that reinforce the story, and this isn't doing a great job of that. It's fine if you plan on ignoring the story anyway, but that separation between mechanics and story isn't a great play experience for me.

 

[Colder]

How fast could a wood elf rogue, mystic move with cunning action, light step, surge of speed move? 2 Psi points seems a tiny price to pay for that much movement with no opportunity attacks. Am I wrong?

You wouldn't be able to use Surge of Speed, Cunning Action, and Light Step all on the same turn because they all use your bonus action. So most you could get, using your action to dash, would be (35+30)*2=130 feet, without provoking opportunity attacks. That's possible with just 1 level in mystic. It makes Surge of Action pale in comparison.

 

[Colder]

EDIT 2: It's also worth noting that Sorcerers expend their spell slots and sorcery points regardless of the outcome of the attacks. Mystics only expend their psi points if the attack connects.

Maybe that should be the balancing point; make it so that the lethal strike has to be declared before the attack is made. Sure, similar features for other classes don't have to do that, but the mystic has a lot more flexibility in their resources for it.

 

[Staffan]

I think the cosmic horror flavor of the Far Realm creating psychics is pretty sci-fi!

It is, however, rather inappropriate to how psionics have been presented in previous editions.

The setting most associated with psionics is Dark Sun, which doesn't have much at all to do with the Far Realm (to a large degree because most DS stuff predate the Far Realm stuff in Gates of Firestorm Peak and the Illithiad). In Dark Sun, psionics is an old established part of the setting, with it being the main supernatural power in the historical Green Age. Sure, Dark Sun is full of weird mutant creatures now, but those are the consequence of arcane magic run amuck, not psionics.

The setting that's the second most associated with psionics is Eberron. There, you certainly have some Far Realm-flavored psionics with mind flayers and other Xoriat immigrants, but that's a small part of the Xoriat repertoire. The Daelkyr and their cohorts are more about flesh-shaping than psionics. No, the Eberron plane most associated with psionics is Dal Quor, the plane of Dreams. That's certainly otherwordly, but in a wholly different way.

And in both 2e and 3e, psionics had more of a new-agey flavor. You had powers like Dream Travel, Deja Vu, Crystal Shard, Precognition, Aura Sight, and Deja Vu. There was very little connection to the Far Realm - mostly by way of mind flayers. There's no need to add it in now, at least not as the primary source of psionic power.

 

[Vileo Sufora]

Maybe that should be the balancing point; make it so that the lethal strike has to be declared before the attack is made. Sure, similar features for other classes don't have to do that, but the mystic has a lot more flexibility in their resources for it.

I do like that idea.

Also, upon my friend's request I just calculated a Swashbuckler Rogue's damage under that same 8-turn conditions, considering that they are dual wielding daggers brings the total average damage to 360, which is the exact same number as the Mystic using a greatsword, all bonuses accounted for. So... Maybe Psionic Weapon should instead be a Greater Discipline, or perhaps (if there is/will be one) a "Superior Discipline." It just seems very powerful at lower levels. At 1st level 2d6+2d10+X damage, X being the Strength modifier, is a lot.

EDIT: This is wrong. The damage output with daggers is actually 220.

 

[devincutler]

A poster asked why Immortals don't get multiple attacks per round. Simple answer: Lethal Strike. They basically do all their damage in one big strike per turn.

Another benefit of the Mystic is that many of the effects require Intelligence saves. This is good, IMO, since Int saves have been the red-headed stepchild of the 5e save world.

 

[Xeviat]

You're absolutely correct. I just did the math. Considering 10th level and single target damage, the Immortal Mystic can do a whopping average of 352 damage over 8 turns. This is considering the Order of the Immortal Cutting Resonance feature, a greatsword, 20 Strength and no multiclassing. For comparison, a Draconic Sorcerer (Fire dragon ancestry) at 10th level who uses Fireball as their action and quickens a Fire Bolt every turn possible (three 3rd level Fireballs, three 4th level Fireballs, and two 5th level Fireballs; 10 sorcery points, 2 points to quicken Fire Bolt 5 times, bonus action subsequently to burn a 2nd level slot to quicken another Fire Bolt on the 7th turn) does 354.5 damage total, on average.

This is with the Sorcerer using all possible resources available to them (all relevant spell slots, all available actions, and all sorcery points), and a frakking Fireball on every turn. In comparison, if I'm reading Mystic correctly, this is with the Mystic only using a main action every turn (Unless using Lethal Strike uses a bonus action to activate, and even still...). This isn't taking into account the +1 "magical" bonus for concentrating the Psionic Weapon discipline in the first place (that brings the total average number to 360 on a single target). This is without the aforementioned Extra Attack class feature.

EDIT: Updated to account for the Draconic Sorcerer Elemental Affinity feature.

Are you counting the fact that a good chunk of that Sorcerer's damage is an AoE? You might be able to find something better for single target damage, like maybe a Scorching Ray leveled up instead of a Fireball, but I don't remember the spell damages off the top of my head and my books aren't with me right now.

 

[Vileo Sufora]

Are you counting the fact that a good chunk of that Sorcerer's damage is an AoE? You might be able to find something better for single target damage, like maybe a Scorching Ray leveled up instead of a Fireball, but I don't remember the spell damages off the top of my head and my books aren't with me right now.

Yes, I am.

Considering 10th level and single target damage [ ... ]

EDIT: Also, considering that the Scorching Ray is cast using the same spell slots I noted previously, it will do a total of 24.5 damage more than Fireball on average, assuming a single target. That brings the Sorcerer's total average damage over 8 rounds to 379, which is 19 damage more than what I've calculated for the Mystic, but also with 32 total spell attack rolls, while the Mystic is only making a grand total of 8 melee weapon attack rolls.

 

[Xethreau]

The setting that's the second most associated with psionics is Eberron. There, you certainly have some Far Realm-flavored psionics with mind flayers and other Xoriat immigrants, but that's a small part of the Xoriat repertoire. The Daelkyr and their cohorts are more about flesh-shaping than psionics. No, the Eberron plane most associated with psionics is Dal Quor, the plane of Dreams. That's certainly otherwordly, but in a wholly different way.

And in both 2e and 3e, psionics had more of a new-agey flavor. You had powers like Dream Travel, Deja Vu, Crystal Shard, Precognition, Aura Sight, and Deja Vu. There was very little connection to the Far Realm - mostly by way of mind flayers. There's no need to add it in now, at least not as the primary source of psionic power.

I love the Lovecraftian connection to psionics, but I love crystals and dreams too! One may notice that even this article did not fully escape its pseudo-scientific association. It seems to me that the optimum psionic flavor would keep all of these in mind.

 

[CapnZapp]

But what from this playtest is actually broke by not interacting with magic?
You can't break a psionic charm is about all I can see. Which I prefer and don't have a problem with.

You can't dispell the magic item bonus an immortal bestows? I'd maybe argue against the +3 bonus given that magic items aren't supposed to be built into the system. But if you limit it to the adept himself I think it can help counter the lower attack bonus you'll probably get from focusing on Intelligence over strength or Dex.

Personally, I'm pretty square in the camp of liking psionics as different than magic, but I'd agree you need to take care to not break things. I don't see that yet though.

5th edition don't have the buffing game of d20.

In that game, unless your dispel magic go through, the heroes remains invincible because of the dozen-or-so all-stacking little bonuses and benefits. Psionic powers pretty much had to be affected by antimagic, divination and abjuration spells.

Interesting to see the special rule that essentially tells the Mind Flayer "no you don't get to be special". For some reason they decided Mind Flayers aren't allowed to become even more awesome than they already are...