Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana Revisits Psionics

The latest Unearthed Arcana from WotC revisits some psionic rules! “Shine with the power of the mind in this installment of Unearthed Arcana! Today we revisit several psi-themed options that we released in the past few months. Studying your feedback on those options, we’ve crafted this new collection of subclasses, spells, and feats, found in the PDF below.“

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[TwoSix]

"Mystic" is more likely to give someone from outside the D&D bubble the image of a person who cultivates mental powers (whilst levitating in a loincloch).

Yoga fire!

 

[Maxperson]

It could easily have been trimmed back if it had met with a less overwhelmingly negative response, and doing everything better than every other class is exactly what the 2nd edition psion that people are so fond of did.

And anyway, your own suggestion includes no significant differences to the Mystic.

Nope, The truth is it was rejected because the community is deeply divided over what it wants from psionics, and no side is prepared to give an inch.

So you know the truth and WotC was lying.

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

Yoga fire!

That reminds me, there needs to be a stretchy-limbed Monk archetype.

 

[Maxperson]

But anyone who rejected it on the basis of "I don't like the name" is an idiot.

So you wouldn't have a problem renaming the fighter class from fighter to wizard? I would. I think most other people would as well. Names have strong meaning. They aren't simple fluff.

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

So you wouldn't have a problem renaming the fighter class from fighter to wizard? I would. I think most other people would as well. Names have strong meaning. They aren't simple fluff.

Can you get more disingenuous?

 

[Maxperson]

Can you get more disingenuous?

Yes. As that wasn't disingenuous at all. But since you think it was, prove to me that names don't have meaning.

 

[Remathilis]

But they could have taken the Mystic/Psion and focused on a narrower range of archetypes, while moving the Soul Knife to the monk/rogue and the immortal/psychic warrior to the fighter. Have a main psionic class, with two to three subclasses (e.g., Akashic, Transcendant, Nomad, Empath, etc.) but then also spread psionics out a bit so that one class chassis doesn't have to try doing it all.

So I don't think that the KISS method hasn't been disproved here. If anything, your summation points to the point how they KISS and then lost sight of their vision when they tried to make the Mystic do too much.

This. Absolutely this.

The mystic seemed to have the same problem that arcane magic had during the Next Playtest; they wanted to lump a large variety of different classes into one SuperClass and use subclasses to heavy-lift the differences. At one point, there was the Mage: a SuperClass that was supposed to contain the Wizard, Sorcerer, Warlock and even Psion classes using different subclasses to provide caster mechanics and features. I recall it didn't go very far and the idea scrapped. Unfortunately, the Mystic seemed to expand the SuperClass idea and absorbed ALL psionic classes that had existed and try to cram them under one roof, which failed just as much as Mage did. Once it did, it seemed WotC decided against a class-based solution and has gone down the subclass route.

It's a shame, before Mearls was banished from ever being in front of a WotC camera, he had a good idea with his base-class + subs idea. Some of that lingers on here. But since the mystic failed, they seem to want to avoid using a new class or new mechanic.

 

[Remathilis]

Yes. As that wasn't disingenuous at all. But since you think it was, prove to me that names don't have meaning.

Well, you are making my favorite argument against refluffing mechanics, so please continue.

 

[Mistwell]

So let's talk about the Psi Knight (which I love by the way).

Specifically, how does this work:

"Psi-Powered Leap. When you make a high or long jump, you can roll your Psionic Talent die and extend the distance of the jump, up to a number of feet equal to twice the number rolled plus twice your Intelligence modifier (minimum of 1 extra foot). This extra distance costs you only 1 foot of movement."

"Long Jump: When you make a long jump, you cover a number of feet up to your Strength score if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. When you make a standing long jump, you can leap only half that distance."

So let's say you have a 16 Intelligence (+3 mod) and a 19 strength (+4 mod). You're 5th level and your die is still a d8. You roll your die and get a 5. So, twice 3 (int mod) plus twice 5 (your roll) equals 16 feet for 1 foot of movement. Simple so far.

You move 10 feet, you jump 19 feet (your strength score), your psi-powered leap takes you another 16 feet but only costs you 1 foot of movement. So you travel 45 feet total, with a jump that goes 35 feet, but it cost you only 30 feet of movement total for the 45 feet you traveled.

Or you can do a standing long jump, in which case you jump 9 feet plus 16 feet for a total of 25 feet at the cost of 10 feet of movement.

So for this example it's a boost of 15 feet of movement at the risk of your die lowering (which could be really helpful on the first round of combat to close with that pesky spellcaster in the back and still attack, perhaps laying down your action surge to kill them before they can get off that fireball). And, sometimes more importantly (though circumstantial) you jump a 35 foot chasm - something normally only your monk or spell-aided PC can do. Pretty neat!

For the high jump, "When you make a high jump, you leap into the air a number of feet equal to 3 + your Strength modifier (minimum of 0 feet) if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. When you make a standing high jump, you can jump only half that distance."

So in this example you move 10 feet, then jump 3+4=7 feet up, and then add 16 feet from the psi-powered leap, for a total of 23 feet up at the cost of 18 feet of movement. Or for a standing jump, you jump 3+16=19 feet up for the cost of 4 movement. That could be pretty handy!

Did I get anything wrong in this example? Thoughts on how this could be used, or more realistic examples?

 

[Eltab]

Though I am sure it would be controversial, I would like to see WotC experiment with a psion and psionic subclasses that use Ki. Let's take the psion and put it on the other end of the monk, but make its ki focused on being a caster. It could also help reinforce the monk's "mystical/magical" abilities and contextualize its magic.

+1 and this would be an opportunity to test a rewrite of Way of the Four Elements so it doesn't look / feel 'a step behind' the other Monk subclasses.