[ +- ] 5e Mystic revisions
0 Balanced : https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-LH7PZomOHw4GFJTFr83
[ +- ] Balanced
This is a section for those who want to know some of my reasoning behind my changes, as well as a list of changes I have made from the original design.
When the mystic class was released there was a general consensus that it was way too strong, so this unofficial update to the mystic is here to let you add mystics to your campaign without making your DM or your party mad at you. This has been changed from the the Unearthed Arcana: The Mystic class I encourage you to look there.
Primary Goals
• Bring mystic in line in terms of power- it should not be able to do everyone`s jobs better than them
• Keep versatility- The Mystics ability to be built to fit different roles should be kept
Secondary Goals
• Simplify- currently the mystic is very complex, which is not necessarily bad, but all simplification is welcome.
• Normalize Saving Throws- there are way to many powers that are Int saving throws, while some int saves should exist, saves against charms and illusions are across the board wisdom saves.
Things I Keep in mind
• Psionics are not Magic - I should keep psionics and magic about the same power level, but make them different. For example, no psionic power should require material components beyond what you directly affect with the spell (For example: Mystic arrow is okay requiring a ranged weapon because the whole point is to animate a weapon, but a mystic cannot copy a revivify spell because that consumes diamonds to return a soul)
• Psionic mastery allows multiple concentrations at once for psionic disciplines, so I need to keep in mind combo potential, both good and bad.
• There is a conversion for psi points to spell slots included in the wu-jen subclass, which should be used to track power
The Role of the Mystic
The Mystic is a strange blend of eldritch and full caster, having a maximum power cap of about 5th level spells, but having those spells on a per day basis.
Thoughts on the Current Build
• I might change Potent Psionics to be subclass specific like cleric domains
• I am not happy with my current soul knife fix. They need something more at 1st level. changing the damage dice to a d10 is a stopgap fix to bring their power up a bit.
• I want to look into allowing stronger spells like warlocks (possibly give each discipline a "Ultra" ability and allow the use of 1 "Utlra"/day)
The mystic is an entire class to try out in your D&D games. This version of the class arose out of playtest feedback on two previous versions.
https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/222485/the-mystic-class-1-1-updated-psionics-for-5e
[ +- ] Updated
Design Philosophy
When Unearthed Arcana released the mystic class to playtest, I was floored. Unlike previous playtests, it was not building upon previous classes or class resources, not even leaning on spells available to other classes. Instead, it was a whopping 28 pages of entirely new material, practically constituting a new system onto itself. A clear labor of love.
The class has such spectacular versatility that you could build a whole party of mystics and each one could have a radically different play style from the next. These possibilities include popular styles that some existing classes already specialize in, such inflicting big area-effect damage to many enemies at once, sometimes referred to as "blasting", and also include expending resources to Inflict tremendous damage in a single turn with weapon attacks, sometimes referred to as "going nova".
When considering balance issues, I used the following principles: If built as a blaster, we should not out-blast the wizard, due to our also having superior hit dice, AC and defensive capabilities. If built as a nova-style weapon user, we should not out-nova the paladin, due to our also having the resources of a full caster equivalent.
Changes in the 1.1 Edit
Keeping the above guiding principles mind, I made the below changes:
• Abusable Mechanics: My top priority was to close all the mechanical loopholes I could Jind which allowed overpowered combinations. Prime example: Minor action activation powers that add huge damage to other actions.
• Multiclassing: I made a lot of changes out of multi-classing considerations. Generally speaking, we don’t want to it be a clearly better choice to switch from mystic to another class once we get to high levels, and we don’t want to give so much away at First level that it’s a go-to choice to dip into the mystic class for just a level.
• Psionic Mastery: I completely retooled "Psionic Mastery" to keep the mystic competitive with the damage output of other classes in levels 11-20, but without multiple supernovas per combat.
• Order Mastery: Created the new "Order Mastery" features to ensure levels 11-20 also saw interesting growth in outside of raw damage output.
• General Class Features: Moved many general class feature outside of levels 1-10, where we were already gaining lots of interesting powers. Many of these abilities turned into Order Mastery options.
• Order Features: I adjusted certain order abilities. The biggest of which was to strip arcane casting from Wu-Jen. In addition to being a bit of an odd Jit for the order, I found a potential for abuse. Although the ability to cast arcane spells might return as a new, separate order in a future update.
The second biggest change was probably changing the Order of the Immortal’s powerful alternative AC mechanic so that it was balanced by some associated disadvantages.
• Using A Discipline: I created a section called "Components and Perceiving Psionics" to clarify when and where psionics can be perceived, since there are no obvious gestures or verbalizations to make their originator obvious.
• Disciplines: Adjusted the effectiveness and damage output of many disciplines, increasing them where they fell short of comparable PHB spells and DMG guidelines, increasing them where they fell short. Also improved some of the less impressive disciplines by giving them additional powers. Many psychic focus options got rethought or powered down, allowing access via feat to be reasonable.
• Talents: The rate talents are gained now matches existing classes. Individual talents were also added, removed, or rewritten out of consideration for balance, usefulness or fun.
• Psi Points: Retooled psi point gain progression to be easier to remember and progress (slightly) slower than other full casters in lower levels to offset their superior Flexibility.
• Personal Satisfaction Changes: I made minor changes all over the document for no reason other than my own satisfaction.
For example, while every mystic is Proficient in Intelligence saving throws, each order now has a different second saving throw ability, and each order gains a First level feature which Benefits from an associated secondary ability. These changes are a small nod toward 3e psionics. For example, the Order of the Avatar now receives a small Benefit for having a Charisma bonus. But each of these abilities grant such a minor advantage that their associated ability scores can be ignored without suffering any Significant consequence when building the mystic, if the player so chooses.
The new "cognallum" material is another addition
made simply because I enjoy the idea of it, but offers no Significant advantages.
If people don’t like these minor new features, they can discard them and revert to the original versions easily enough, I Figure.
• Character Options: I added a psionic feat and multiclassing rules.
Possibilities for a 1.2 Edit Here are some of the changes already under consideration for the 1.2 revision, if this one is well received:
• Order Mastery: Add more options. I think Order of the Avatar could use a Thriller feature, and Awakened could probably use a variant of Cerebral Blind, for starters.
• Disciplines: More rebalancing, as some disciplines still offer a lot more than others. And maybe add a completely new discipline or two; Order of the Nomad doesn’t have quite the selection of the other orders. Also, rename some of the disciples? For example, Mastery of Fire might get changed to Pyrokinesis, and similar, as we already have plenty of features with the word "Mastery" in their names. Then again, maybe it’s better to keep the names straightforward? I’ll think on it.
• Displays: Something I liked from 3e psionics were "displays", ways to make the use of psionics obvious to observers. This might make a return.
• Flavor: I might take a stab at altering some of the Flavor text. While I mostly Find the existing Flavor text agreeable, the whole "hermits and outcasts" angle seems like an odd Jit for people who form orders, and an especially poor Jit for those of the Order of the Avatar, who seem based around working with others.
• Balance: I’m a bit of an amateur when it comes to character optimization. Hopefully those more expert than myself will reach out to me if I got the balance really wrong anywhere, so I can make adjustments.
• Optional Rules: Add "Psionics Are Different" optional ruleset. I very much liked this optional rule in 3e psionics, but I’ll have to think carefully about how it might be implemented in 5e.
• Psionic Gear: The idea of a handful of psionic weapons, armor or wondrous items sound fun.
: https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-NaN0afVJMTTXD2lVqK4
3 Revised : https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-LAt1D6TrD6TosHAnQn3
4 Revised, condensed and added 2e/3e flavor : https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/p-AX29-Xh0CX
[ +- ] Revised
Revised, edited and condensed version of the UA Mystic, removing some of the chaos and restoring flavour from 3e and 2nd Ed AD&D
renderer: V3
source: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/p-AX29-Xh0CX
Disclaimer
*This class is a heavily edited, revised version of the Mystic Class presented in Unearthed Arcana, aiming to improve both focus and structure as well as restoring some of the psionics flavour from previous editions of Dungeons and Dragons. Content is reused from UA, and from the 2nd and 3e Psionics Handbooks, sometimes verbatim. Full credit is given to their authors (see [acknowledgements](#p24)* – Calzier, Jan-May 2024.
5 Fan work by Formion : https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-MGN4ricuJVE0hBr1Qb1
The following is the fan product of several years of slow, on and off development. When creating this class I took into consideration the complexities of creating a class that works off an entirely new resource (psi points) as well as the role characters of this class could play in a party and how it would feel different than the rest.
This class is meant to fit into the custom world I have run games in for several years, though there is very little that would prevent it from fitting in in other setting.
The concepts that this Mystic class is based on are:
• It should be a single unified class, with the various orders providing options, but not penalizing you for picking other options.
• The class progression should be centered on a theme. In this case, as characters in this class level up, they gain more flexibility in the use of psionic disciplines, starting significantly rigid and inflexible and are gradually granted more ways to gain access and use disciplines.
: https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/214099/improved-arcana-psionics-and-the-mystic?src=newest_in_dmg
[ +- ] Arcana Psionics
Psionics have a long history, backing to the days of AD&D First Edition, and it has spawned versions in all the iterations of the game. Although 5th Edition has some time under its wing, there isn’t any official version of it, and it has only be presented as a few Unearthed Arcana articles. The version presented here is an alternate take on the mystic class presented in the latest Unearthed Arcana, dabbling with some of its inconsistencies and problems, as I see them. There are also some other classes’ archetypes and a few feats.
The main problems I see on the Unearthed Arcana are the following:
- Psionics working exactly the same as magic, thus negating preexisting
Dark Suns general and Forgotten Realms illithid’s lore.
- Raw power issues of the Psionic effects regarding to the DMGs guidelines equivalent level of power of spells.
- Overextension of discipline’s powers and effects. Now they have more or less the same options, but some of them are linked to higher levels. The ones that still have more than three pre 10th effects have slightly toned down their offensive capacity (lesser size of damage dice).
- Lack of any meaningful impact of the Order’s disciplines.
- Lack of any balancing issue that prevents psionics to work.
- Lack of any interesting choice or power past 10th level.
- Lack of an archetype dedicated to telekinesis.
- Although there isn’t any meaningful effect that costs more than 7 psi, Psionic Mastery is a problem by itself, as it allows to ignore
Concentration, thus leading to stupid stacking. There is also the issue that it’s only more psi points.
- Lack of multiclassing.
- Non-intuitive psi point progression.
- Soulblade seeming off in the psionic orders, and also forced to Dexterity.
- Wu jen masteries working exactly like spells, but then open to every other order. Also, the issue that it is another blaster caster,
- Fluff impact on the disciplines, There are many more little issues, but most of them are minimal in effect. In this document, my intend is to rebalance and rework the mystic into a playable, interesting class, although this is in a draft form too. It’s necessary to balance a little more the final Mastery powers, although many of their effects have damage equal to the DMGs Guidelines. I hope that many people comment and review this, as it is free. I hope too that Crawford and Mearls read this and use my work as a draft for the final release of the mystic class.
[b]0 Balanced[/b] : https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-LH7PZomOHw4GFJTFr83
[spoiler="Balanced"] This is a section for those who want to know some of my reasoning behind my changes, as well as a list of changes I have made from the original design.
When the mystic class was released there was a general consensus that it was way too strong, so this unofficial update to the mystic is here to let you add mystics to your campaign without making your DM or your party mad at you. This has been changed from the the Unearthed Arcana: The Mystic class I encourage you to look there.
Primary Goals
• Bring mystic in line in terms of power- it should not be able to do everyone`s jobs better than them
• Keep versatility- The Mystics ability to be built to fit different roles should be kept
Secondary Goals
• Simplify- currently the mystic is very complex, which is not necessarily bad, but all simplification is welcome.
• Normalize Saving Throws- there are way to many powers that are Int saving throws, while some int saves should exist, saves against charms and illusions are across the board wisdom saves.
Things I Keep in mind
• Psionics are not Magic - I should keep psionics and magic about the same power level, but make them different. For example, no psionic power should require material components beyond what you directly affect with the spell (For example: Mystic arrow is okay requiring a ranged weapon because the whole point is to animate a weapon, but a mystic cannot copy a revivify spell because that consumes diamonds to return a soul)
• Psionic mastery allows multiple concentrations at once for psionic disciplines, so I need to keep in mind combo potential, both good and bad.
• There is a conversion for psi points to spell slots included in the wu-jen subclass, which should be used to track power
[u]The Role of the Mystic[/u]
The Mystic is a strange blend of eldritch and full caster, having a maximum power cap of about 5th level spells, but having those spells on a per day basis.
Thoughts on the Current Build
• I might change Potent Psionics to be subclass specific like cleric domains
• I am not happy with my current soul knife fix. They need something more at 1st level. changing the damage dice to a d10 is a stopgap fix to bring their power up a bit.
• I want to look into allowing stronger spells like warlocks (possibly give each discipline a "Ultra" ability and allow the use of 1 "Utlra"/day)
The mystic is an entire class to try out in your D&D games. This version of the class arose out of playtest feedback on two previous versions.[/spoiler]
[b] 1 Updated by Jeff Rebbeck 9/25/17 :[/b] https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/222485/the-mystic-class-1-1-updated-psionics-for-5e
[spoiler="Updated "]Design Philosophy
When Unearthed Arcana released the mystic class to playtest, I was floored. Unlike previous playtests, it was not building upon previous classes or class resources, not even leaning on spells available to other classes. Instead, it was a whopping 28 pages of entirely new material, practically constituting a new system onto itself. A clear labor of love.
The class has such spectacular versatility that you could build a whole party of mystics and each one could have a radically different play style from the next. These possibilities include popular styles that some existing classes already specialize in, such inflicting big area-effect damage to many enemies at once, sometimes referred to as "blasting", and also include expending resources to Inflict tremendous damage in a single turn with weapon attacks, sometimes referred to as "going nova".
When considering balance issues, I used the following principles: If built as a blaster, we should not out-blast the wizard, due to our also having superior hit dice, AC and defensive capabilities. If built as a nova-style weapon user, we should not out-nova the paladin, due to our also having the resources of a full caster equivalent.
Changes in the 1.1 Edit
Keeping the above guiding principles mind, I made the below changes:
• Abusable Mechanics: My top priority was to close all the mechanical loopholes I could Jind which allowed overpowered combinations. Prime example: Minor action activation powers that add huge damage to other actions.
• Multiclassing: I made a lot of changes out of multi-classing considerations. Generally speaking, we don’t want to it be a clearly better choice to switch from mystic to another class once we get to high levels, and we don’t want to give so much away at First level that it’s a go-to choice to dip into the mystic class for just a level.
• Psionic Mastery: I completely retooled "Psionic Mastery" to keep the mystic competitive with the damage output of other classes in levels 11-20, but without multiple supernovas per combat.
• Order Mastery: Created the new "Order Mastery" features to ensure levels 11-20 also saw interesting growth in outside of raw damage output.
• General Class Features: Moved many general class feature outside of levels 1-10, where we were already gaining lots of interesting powers. Many of these abilities turned into Order Mastery options.
• Order Features: I adjusted certain order abilities. The biggest of which was to strip arcane casting from Wu-Jen. In addition to being a bit of an odd Jit for the order, I found a potential for abuse. Although the ability to cast arcane spells might return as a new, separate order in a future update.
The second biggest change was probably changing the Order of the Immortal’s powerful alternative AC mechanic so that it was balanced by some associated disadvantages.
• Using A Discipline: I created a section called "Components and Perceiving Psionics" to clarify when and where psionics can be perceived, since there are no obvious gestures or verbalizations to make their originator obvious.
• Disciplines: Adjusted the effectiveness and damage output of many disciplines, increasing them where they fell short of comparable PHB spells and DMG guidelines, increasing them where they fell short. Also improved some of the less impressive disciplines by giving them additional powers. Many psychic focus options got rethought or powered down, allowing access via feat to be reasonable.
• Talents: The rate talents are gained now matches existing classes. Individual talents were also added, removed, or rewritten out of consideration for balance, usefulness or fun.
• Psi Points: Retooled psi point gain progression to be easier to remember and progress (slightly) slower than other full casters in lower levels to offset their superior Flexibility.
• Personal Satisfaction Changes: I made minor changes all over the document for no reason other than my own satisfaction.
For example, while every mystic is Proficient in Intelligence saving throws, each order now has a different second saving throw ability, and each order gains a First level feature which Benefits from an associated secondary ability. These changes are a small nod toward 3e psionics. For example, the Order of the Avatar now receives a small Benefit for having a Charisma bonus. But each of these abilities grant such a minor advantage that their associated ability scores can be ignored without suffering any Significant consequence when building the mystic, if the player so chooses.
The new "cognallum" material is another addition
made simply because I enjoy the idea of it, but offers no Significant advantages.
If people don’t like these minor new features, they can discard them and revert to the original versions easily enough, I Figure.
• Character Options: I added a psionic feat and multiclassing rules.
Possibilities for a 1.2 Edit Here are some of the changes already under consideration for the 1.2 revision, if this one is well received:
• Order Mastery: Add more options. I think Order of the Avatar could use a Thriller feature, and Awakened could probably use a variant of Cerebral Blind, for starters.
• Disciplines: More rebalancing, as some disciplines still offer a lot more than others. And maybe add a completely new discipline or two; Order of the Nomad doesn’t have quite the selection of the other orders. Also, rename some of the disciples? For example, Mastery of Fire might get changed to Pyrokinesis, and similar, as we already have plenty of features with the word "Mastery" in their names. Then again, maybe it’s better to keep the names straightforward? I’ll think on it.
• Displays: Something I liked from 3e psionics were "displays", ways to make the use of psionics obvious to observers. This might make a return.
• Flavor: I might take a stab at altering some of the Flavor text. While I mostly Find the existing Flavor text agreeable, the whole "hermits and outcasts" angle seems like an odd Jit for people who form orders, and an especially poor Jit for those of the Order of the Avatar, who seem based around working with others.
• Balance: I’m a bit of an amateur when it comes to character optimization. Hopefully those more expert than myself will reach out to me if I got the balance really wrong anywhere, so I can make adjustments.
• Optional Rules: Add "Psionics Are Different" optional ruleset. I very much liked this optional rule in 3e psionics, but I’ll have to think carefully about how it might be implemented in 5e.
• Psionic Gear: The idea of a handful of psionic weapons, armor or wondrous items sound fun.[/spoiler]
[b]2 by Smug Coffee Man[/b] : https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-NaN0afVJMTTXD2lVqK4
[b]3 Revised[/b] : https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-LAt1D6TrD6TosHAnQn3
[b]4 Revised, condensed and added 2e/3e flavor[/b] : https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/p-AX29-Xh0CX
[spoiler="Revised"] Revised, edited and condensed version of the UA Mystic, removing some of the chaos and restoring flavour from 3e and 2nd Ed AD&D
renderer: V3
source: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/p-AX29-Xh0CX
[u]Disclaimer[/u]
*This class is a heavily edited, revised version of the Mystic Class presented in Unearthed Arcana, aiming to improve both focus and structure as well as restoring some of the psionics flavour from previous editions of Dungeons and Dragons. Content is reused from UA, and from the 2nd and 3e Psionics Handbooks, sometimes verbatim. Full credit is given to their authors (see [acknowledgements](#p24)* – Calzier, Jan-May 2024.
[b]5 Fan work by Formion[/b] : https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-MGN4ricuJVE0hBr1Qb1
The following is the fan product of several years of slow, on and off development. When creating this class I took into consideration the complexities of creating a class that works off an entirely new resource (psi points) as well as the role characters of this class could play in a party and how it would feel different than the rest.
This class is meant to fit into the custom world I have run games in for several years, though there is very little that would prevent it from fitting in in other setting.
The concepts that this Mystic class is based on are:
• It should be a single unified class, with the various orders providing options, but not penalizing you for picking other options.
• The class progression should be centered on a theme. In this case, as characters in this class level up, they gain more flexibility in the use of psionic disciplines, starting significantly rigid and inflexible and are gradually granted more ways to gain access and use disciplines.[/spoiler]
[b]6 Arcana Psionics[/b] : https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/214099/improved-arcana-psionics-and-the-mystic?src=newest_in_dmg
[spoiler="Arcana Psionics"] Psionics have a long history, backing to the days of AD&D First Edition, and it has spawned versions in all the iterations of the game. Although 5th Edition has some time under its wing, there isn’t any official version of it, and it has only be presented as a few Unearthed Arcana articles. The version presented here is an alternate take on the mystic class presented in the latest Unearthed Arcana, dabbling with some of its inconsistencies and problems, as I see them. There are also some other classes’ archetypes and a few feats.
The main problems I see on the Unearthed Arcana are the following:
- Psionics working exactly the same as magic, thus negating preexisting
Dark Suns general and Forgotten Realms illithid’s lore.
- Raw power issues of the Psionic effects regarding to the DMGs guidelines equivalent level of power of spells.
- Overextension of discipline’s powers and effects. Now they have more or less the same options, but some of them are linked to higher levels. The ones that still have more than three pre 10th effects have slightly toned down their offensive capacity (lesser size of damage dice).
- Lack of any meaningful impact of the Order’s disciplines.
- Lack of any balancing issue that prevents psionics to work.
- Lack of any interesting choice or power past 10th level.
- Lack of an archetype dedicated to telekinesis.
- Although there isn’t any meaningful effect that costs more than 7 psi, Psionic Mastery is a problem by itself, as it allows to ignore
Concentration, thus leading to stupid stacking. There is also the issue that it’s only more psi points.
- Lack of multiclassing.
- Non-intuitive psi point progression.
- Soulblade seeming off in the psionic orders, and also forced to Dexterity.
- Wu jen masteries working exactly like spells, but then open to every other order. Also, the issue that it is another blaster caster,
- Fluff impact on the disciplines, There are many more little issues, but most of them are minimal in effect. In this document, my intend is to rebalance and rework the mystic into a playable, interesting class, although this is in a draft form too. It’s necessary to balance a little more the final Mastery powers, although many of their effects have damage equal to the DMGs Guidelines. I hope that many people comment and review this, as it is free. I hope too that Crawford and Mearls read this and use my work as a draft for the final release of the mystic class.[/spoiler]
