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One thing that wasn't really mentioned is that the mystic is also one of the best "assassins" since their disciplines don't require any components they can literally just sit in an inn, drink an ale and let the target outside suffer from the worst effects on their list and kill them. No hand signs, no weird materials on their table, no ominous words and depending on your house rules also no magic to be traced. Btw this could also make a great villain just imagine a town in which random people fall victims to spontaneous combustion (Mastery of Fire) or die because of brain failure (Psychic Assault) and your party has to find out what is causing these cases.
@@StarryxNight5 i mean not really, there are only two spells in the entire Sorcerer spell list, which only have a verbal component and do not originate from you, that being mind sliver a cantrip and Immolation a 5th level spell which wreaths one creature in fire. Every other spell would reveal you as the caster. The mystic however has probably around 12 disciplines that he could use, which could never be traced back to him, some of which are even AOE effects.
@letstec Subtle Spell eliminates both verbal and somatic components. Mind Spike is an easy one. Synaptic Static is another, if you're high level. Blight is a necrotic damage spell that works. Honestly, you have a whole bunch of options
This Psionicist must see the target at the distance of the effects. yes, conditional "spontaneous combustion" for 7d10 fire damage is as much as 120 feet, but... this is certainly far away, but it can be calculated by geometry if he has dealt with more than one person. We will inevitably create zones where the psionicist could or could not be, and at the same time determine who is not involved in the case. thereby removing more and more suspects and citizens. quickly understood through witnesses of strange people, or those who looked at their victims. most likely, a wizard or an artefact or another psionicist will figure it out before that. plus, you can try to determine who is a psionicist or a sorcerer. and that same maniac will begin to understand the problem and will hide in every possible way. Either he will lie low, or he will begin to hide too clearly by frequent relocation. Thereby only further reducing the circle of suspicion. As a result, there will be an extremely small circle of possible villains and then it will be determined, or they will understand that they need to look for some unregistered ones, and this is easier than it seems. as a result, he will be tied up
Or... you could do a power rangers style one-shot. Each mystic at the end summons a dragon coodinating with their selected color. Then they combine into a Void Dragon! What's that? Why yes. I am VERY high right now. Why so you ask?
Honestly, I had hoped they would have brought us Mystics officially when Spelljammer came out. What better setting than a magic flying space ship campaign to introduce a new Mind Magic Class
It would've been the perfect setting too. Mind flayers and Thri-Kreen are explicitly psionic, and they're both fairly prevalent in the book (the Mindflayer Nautiloids, and Thri-Kreen being a fully playable race) There was a MASSIVE missed opportunity. They could've said "We spent six years fine tuning the mystic after all of your feedback, and here it is, fully official and playable. Have at it." As it exists, Spelljammer doesn't add any new classes or subclasses, which is strange for a setting sourcebook (Eberron added four races (Warforged, Changeling, Kalashtar and Shifter) and added the artificer class. Dragonlance added 1 new race (Kender), the Lunar Sorcery sorcerous origin and the Knight if Solamnia and Mage of High Sorcery backgrounds, Wildmounte added two new dragonborn subraces as well as the Blood Hunter, Echo Knight, Chronurgy & Graviturgy wizards and the Oath of The Sea Paladin.) Even the other fully Third Party sourcebooks add at least half a dozen new race options, some new subclasses and at least 3 new backgrounds.
As someone who ran a level 3 - 15 campaign featuring a mystic, I can say your assessment of its balance is pretty accurate. Very overpowered early game with abilities that outweigh capabilities of other casters, but after 11th level the power really tapers off with them never really getting any psionics that feel more powerful than a 5th level spell.
@@boogienightsmarkwahlberg6011 Settle down, Becky. No need to get all flustered. It's a simple matter of perspective., this balance thing. Know what I mean, bruh... bra... brosephus? Not sure which pronouns you use.
I played the Immortal up to lvl 17 (we started at 8). 71 Psi Points sounds like a lot but it was super easy to burn through those if trying to do any significant damage or being defensive. While you could do some crazy damage, pulling it off meant focusing everything into a single hit. If you missed, say good bye to all those wasted Psi Points. I know they're different systems but Stars Without Number does psionics really well.
I agree the ramp of Psi points as the class is in the UA is really required, basically everything you do costs Psi making it similar to a Monk's ki there. But unlike Ki regeneration of the Psi points through a day is very limited, and the costs of many skills pretty substantial.
Psi points actually mirror the optional rule in the DMG for spell points so it’s definitely a pretty good scaling for “spellcasting” which it primarily functions as
This is one of the best classes which WOTC should never have abandoned. The Planescape and Dark Sun settings are among those which really come alive with this class and have since 2nd Edition. This class could've received a bit more work to make it balanced, but in the long run it's no less problematic than any other class with a table of min-maxes. I thought the 5e Mystic had fantastic potential which invited other classes to improve rather than for the Mystic to be abandoned. We could do with the 5e Mystic developed a bit further. It's really fantastic for those inspired by the likes of Julian May. We should club together and print a version of it! I really like the idea of a spell caster type class that doesn't rely on gods, pacts with otherworldly creatures, or magic and instead on the inner potential of a sentient being.
If you do it on your own you'll get sent a Cease and Desist and sued by Hasbro. The mystic isn't in the SRD, thus it's not available for our use. It's super shitty, but that's just how copyright laws work. They're there for corporations to profit and creatives to suffer.
I miss the straight up psion from 3.5e. As early as level 3 you can begin creating your own damn plane of existence and as long as you live to level 16 it will have become anchored enough and grown large enough that it becomes permanent even after you die. The class existing allows the DM to bring in planes that have no god existing in them which is a big deal considering in D&D only the material plane has no god interference, every other plane has a god living there.
Mystic could also keep up with a bunch of new subclasses thanks to the gradual Power Creep that WOTC used. Earlier subclasses tend to be outclassed by later released ones after all, and the Mystic fits in with about the 2021 era of subclasses and classes.
The Monk's Ki Points could benefit greatly from the Mystic's psi-points progression (like holy hell 71? If a Monk could get to 40 Ki Points at level 20 I'd be happier than a Dwarf in a forge!)
@@CHARLES-s6h It's such a dumb misconception that short rests are only useful to warlocks. Bards, clerics, druids, monks, paladins, and of course warlocks all have core game mechanics that come back on a short rest (bardic inspiration, wildshape, ki points, spell slots, and channel divinity x2). Then every other class in the game has at least one subclass with features that return on short rests.
Thank you for finally showing off probably my favorite class and not just laughing at it and calling it broken makes me happy that you actually talked about the up and the downs
Mystics were in the Basic D&D Rules Cyclopedia, monks complete with a Death Touch. And 2nd edition had the Psionicist class which was basically cleric fighter with all the good wizard spells that were effectively unresistable.
YEP. The 'idea/concepts' of the Mystic essentially splintered into the Sorcerer, psionics, and the Monk by 3rd edition. I feel like in today's edition, a 'mystic' class is kinda an in between of a wizard/sorcerer and a monk, but with wonky magic casting rules, and not as martial. Which is probably why it never made it in. It's just soooooo niche and squeezed, plus the whole 'OP' magic casting really puts it above the aformentioned classes. So it breaks game balance and tradition. THey figur if u want something with that flavor, play a 4 Elements monk, a divine soul, or a Divination wizard.
@@angelagranger760 The highest level character I ever played at the tabletop was a 12th Psionicist (Dragon Magazine version) 7th Wizard 5th Thief. He was an agent of a dimension spanning espionage organization which was concerned with maintaining "balance". After drawing from a Deck of Many Things and pulling the Enmity with a Greater Devil card, my character was captured by Geryon and imprisoned in Hell. After a timeless time of torture and misery, a little fly came into my cell and asked if I wanted to get out. We quickly made a deal. The cell was opened and all of my power and gear was restored to me. I shrank down with Reduction and cast Fly, slowly navigating the cooridors of moaning imprisoned faces until I came to a throne room. I watched as Geryon, surrounded by all manner of devils, created a massively powerful psionic helmet, spending almost all of his psionic attack and defense points. At the moment he was depleted I attacked with Psychic Crush and exploded his brain, Scanners style. I watched as the Pit Fiends began to fight over the throne and then the fly from my cell transformed into a towering pit fiend, much larger than the rest. He strode towards the throne, backhanding away the other devils contemptuously and retrieving the helm. Once seated, a crown of fire appeared over his head, and he said, "Damien Corben... Our compact is complete. You may depart the Hells unmolested and intact." A little Imp yes man quickly chimed in, "Yeah. Get the eff out." I was very generous with the tip I gave Charon for the boat ride, and I killed a hell beast along the way to appease Cerberus with fresh meat. When I passed the gates my Delorean, powered by a Well of Many Worlds for dimension travel, was waiting for me with the keys in the ignition. This was a solo campaign a friend of mine used to run for me. I was 15 and probably high for most of it. I loved the Psionicist, which was largely based on the Deryni series by Kathyrn Kurtz. Good times.
The "D&D: Mystic Edition" is exactly the kind of idea springboard groups need who have become trapped running official campaigns. It beckons inspiration to move into a more creative space in your gaming, while also challenging your understanding of the mechanics and how they engineer fun into the sessions. Check out MCDM's "The Talent" class for another take on the Mystic
Why would playing official campaigns be considered a trap? Some groups just want to run official material and plenty of those groups add their twists to make it their own. You really don't need to go beyond their comfort zone just to be creative.
@@nojusticenetwork9309 As a DM, my experience of running these campaigns has been a mixed bag. The official content winds up being a scaffolding that requires constant adjustments, repairs, and iterations to make a fluid experience that makes everyone's experience at the table rewarding. They also require sometimes hundreds of hours of play to achieve a strong sense of closure, which statistically through player surveys isn't happening; a very small number of groups are completing this content. My group has completed BG:DiA which was one of the better-formed campaigns. Our DM still put in a ton of work. Smaller, focused homebrew content that can give groups a sense of completion is the direction TTRPG's is moving in now. Even WotC is aware of this, hence the growth of the anthologies collections; plug-in-play games that can be completed in 4 sessions or less.
Interesting fact about the Mystic and its PSI point system, they are actually half casters that use the optional spell point system (DMG) instead of spell slots, while also progressing at the same rate as full casters until they reach 9th, at which point the Mystic's progression stops completely. This also explains the power curve swinging back into the full casters' favor beyond 11th level.
I really wish that mystics would have gotten more work done on them, there would need to be a lot of changes to make this actually cohesive but I wish they would have put the effort in, Mystics were such a cool concept but had no real solid identity, the crazy number of options was awesome but also busted. If they had spent the time to solidify the identity, pick a direction to go in rather than shoving a million ideas into one class, and made it balanced this could have been a really cool addition to dnd
My feeling was that Mystic was a class for more advanced players who could put together their own "feel" for their character from the massive amount of options.
I agree, not every class is beginner friendly. But that is ok. There is reason I steer brand new pen & paper players away from "prepare" your spells casters. There is already a lot going on in the game for them to pick up. A more basic caster [sorcerer or warlock] are newer player friendly and tons of fun. Make complicated classes! On your second or 3rd play through, newer players can take em on. Meanwhile, some veteran players like something less simple to get their hands on!
@@mata6669 yeah, to me I felt that it seemed almost like a brand new character creation method than a class, I love the customization options but personally I found it a bit disconnected from itself but mystics are still really fun and if they touched them up with some rebalancing I'd probably end up playing one in every campaign
Agreed, kinda feels like they were trying to cram every psionic class into a single thing, which would be like if the base game just had the Adventurer class and then lkke Fighter and Wizard as subclasses.
@@mata6669 I disagree entirely, I think prepared casters are a lot safer for new players, because they can easily swap out their "bad picks" the next time they long rest. It's far too easy, especially with Sorcerer's limited spells known, to wind up with horrible spell choices and have to wait until the next level-up to start fixing it. I think Cleric is a great spellcaster for new players because it gets a survivable amount of armor and HP, and can swap spells every long rest.
There's a pretty skilled homebrewer who brought 4e classes to 5e, one of which was the psion (but more importantly, the WARRRLORD!!). I think doing something like that should be fine. There's already a basis, all you have to do is make it make sense, which with the psion, as you've shown in this video, isn't easy but also isn't impossible.
I know that KibblesTasty did, not sure if anyone else has. Their content can be a little bloated, but they make homebrew with a distinct identity that also feels good to use.
You have my respect for opening the video with talking about the main subject right away. No intro, no sponsor, no updates, no meandering about barely related stuff. Straight to the interesting part, thank you.
I am actually playing a mystic in a campaign that has lasted more than five years now. At first my DM was incredibly skeptical towards allowing one at the table, but did give in after a while, which turned out to be "One of the best decisions they ever made for the game", their words specifically. It has created a lot of fun times at the table, but also a few headaches. It is important to work out together with the DM what might be considered too challenging or powerful for the sake of the game balance. Mystics are incredibly versatile, but can also be overwhelming and often outperforming other classes. One thing we did to balance some of this power is that we adjusted how the PSI Limit works. Instead of it being the amount of PSI you can spend per discipline, we set it to be "the amount of PSI that can be spent per turn", which tones down the burst potential significantly. It also doesn't step on the toes of spellcasters too hard when they still have to abide by bonus action spell casting rules. I love mystics, just make sure to leave a good impression if you are allowed to play one at your table. Work with your DM and optimize the fun.
I love the Mystic class and all the work that went into it is defiantly amazing. There are a few things that you didn't fully explain, like the using HP to cast one of your abilitys is a per long rest feat to help keep it from being too good. and the passives that each of the 40 talents have have the caveat that you can only focus on 1 at a time. so even if you have 8 talents you have to pick what passive you want active at the time between the 8 you know this is still ridiculously powerful. and lastly the 2nd level ability you stated was for temp hit points was for standard HP healing, not Temp hit points. I do love this video and your channel though and bringing the Mystic to light in a positive light is great to see. Keep up the amazing work.
Some other great channels have covered it well, and I'm super ill so might need to miss this news update. I will cover Hasbro/WotC related stuff in the future though. There's plenty left to say, just depends when victims choose to come forward
We don't need every channel covering bad news. It is only horrible because of the time of year. If this happens in the summer it'd pass by without much fanfare. Yes it is terrible, but honestly it becomes beating a dead horse when EVERY channel covers the same thing for their video of the week/day.
The Mystic is so versatile in and of itself, it could support its own separate TTRPG. It can be a martial class, a Gish, a healer, and much, much more. The mystic is as though you took all of 3.5 D&D and turned it into a class/subclass (it’s that customizable). However, MCDM productions has made their own version that’s now available, called The Talent, and it was designed with that superhero comic fantasy idea in mind. And I also fill like 5e’s move to make the mystic into individualized subclasses was ultimately the right move. The mystic was a heavy plate to sit down to when building a character, it was by far the most powerful class in 5e because of it…but it was also not fun filling out a character sheet for one for that same reason.
My ideas to rebalance the Mystic (without actually reading absolutely everything in the UA) just from glancing at the Mystic table on page 3: 1) Psi Points need a smoother progression from 4 at level 1 to 71 at level 20. Every odd level (1, 3, 5, etc.) you get 4 Psi Points and every even level (2, 4, 6, etc.) you get 3. This gives 7 Psi Points every 2 levels, reaching 70 at level 20, so just go ahead and give that last level an extra point to match what's in the table. 2) Slow the Psi Limit a little bit by introducing the number 4. Psi Limit starts at 2 as normal, and increases by one every odd level after that, capping it at 7 at level 11 instead of level 9. As stated above, I have not read the entire UA, but I think this would be a great start to smooth them out some.
I think it would be a cool idea to have a module/campaign that is exactly the same as any other D&D module, but, the only class included in the story is the Mystic. There are so many subclasses that it would be like playing in a completely different world with its own unique culture based around Psionics being the primary magic system. Whole countries and cultures could be formed just based around people with compatible abilities wanting to live together. There are a lot of directions a story with this feature could go. Maybe, the Ant men Mystics are looked down upon by the Detective Mystics, both literally *and* figuratively, so it's up to your party to act as diplomats to the Detective nation.
This has got to be a video that's been in the works for a while now. Because WIll is acting like Wizards didn't backpedal on Warlock's Pact Magic in the One D&D stuff already. Still, I do appreciate the love made for Mystics, cause I definitely was fascinated about them once.
Would love a deep dive like this on the Revised Ranger: WotC's forgotten attempt to fix the class before Tasha's came around. It was such a big shake up and they used almost nothing from it in the features they would go on to add.
I couldn't agree more. The MCDM Talent has been through a lot of playtesting, and it shows. I'm working on a power ranking review right now, and I'm really impressed with how original, varied, balanced, and cool all the powers are.
See...I just read the Talent book today, and to me, it just read like a caster using Spell Points. I mean, some of the powers were just straight up carbon copies of spells that already existed.
I'd like to shout out Kibbles Compendium of Craft and Creation. It has a revamp of Mystic in the form of the Psionic class that feels a little less complicated but more balanced and still strong af
Also will second KibblesTasty's Psion class. It's a definite successor to the Mystic UA and is very fun and different to play. I love it and have played a Psion in multiple one-shots without ever overshadowing the rest of the party.
I was just about to comment that I definitely prefer KibblesTasty's Psion class to the OG Mystic. Now that Dungeon Dudes's book has made it to dndbeyond, one can only hope that one day we get some Kibbles content. Definitely a top tier creator in the community.
The Mystic, based on the discussion you made, is just a 5e rework of the Psionicist from AD&D 2e. I saw a few comments dating this further back than my knowledge base. But I used to have the Complete Psionics Handbook when I played 2e.
There is a lot of D&D history in the Mystic. As a Gen-X D&D OG, I can see connections in the Mystic to the original AD&D optional Psionics rules, the 2nd Ed Psionics Handbook and Dark Sun and even the 3.5 Psionics Book. So many more mental effects that make the INT save actually have relevance in 5th Ed, which is part of the problem as many monsters would be vulnerable to mental effects with INT saves. And if the class feels overpowered before 11th and underpowered after, a modification of the Psi Points and Max Points per use in the levelling table seems to be an easy fix. The Mystic's biggest challenge is that it's basically an alternative spell casting variant for the entire base game in a single class. You could replace all casters in D&D with Mystic subclasses and play a game with a very different feel. I think it got abandoned because it's so versatile and flavourful that it changes the base D&D game too much, hence why they cherry picked elements to make the Soul Knife, Aberrant Mind Sorcerer and Psi Knight sub-classes so they don't break the 5th Ed. vibe. I still love the potential of the Mystic, though.
So here's what I'm hoping for. The class specialisations in 2024 (from the one D&D UA) will get filled by classes like the Mystic: Artificer = Expert, Shaman (from 3.5 / 4e and popular home-brewed content) = Priest, Blood Hunter (I'm sure an agreement could be made as it's already on D&D Beyond) = Warrior, and Mystic = Mage. Would love to see some updates to Mystic, there's so much potential. Maybe duel concentration on some subclass catered 'spells' and/or re-vamp the talents, disciplines and Psi points. One thing I think could make the class stand out in the future is giving them just 1d4 hit dice but a lvl 1 'psionic barrier' feature that gives 1d6 per mystic level of temporary hit points. The barrier could be regenerated through short rests, meditation etc.
I had forgotten about the Mystic! My players & I have been talking about making a side-setting with a Planetary-Romance vibe (and Mecha) and specifically wanted a "magic" system that leaned into that. This opens up so many possibilities! I checked and I still have the PDF from the original release. I'm putting together a write-up to share with the group and I think this will be a big hit with them. So thank you for this video. It's inspired lots of cool ideas for this setting that's been languishing for a while. Barsoom awaits! 👽
The Mystic has by far the best chassis in 5e. Were I in charge of development there would be only 4 or so classes, all of them with variations on the Mystic chassis. Like, you've got mix-n-match feature bundles. They mostly follow the same template, but there's room to play within the structure. They each guarantee access to scaling, level-appropriate abilities, and they make system balance easier by putting more of a limit on the number of combos that designers need to account for, while still creating a lot of space for designer creativity and player expression. And they're all very thematic, helping ensure every character has a strong mechanical identity, and making things easier for new players.
I remember seeing references to the Mystic class in older jokes and videos about 5e, and it was always about the class being overpowered and used to make the most obnoxious OP anime MC character builds… Having read the class abilities myself, I can see where the reputiation comes from
One of the disciplines lets you pick any one skill, language, or tool to be proficient in whenever you switch to it. Switching disciplines is a Bonus Action & there's no limit on it. You can have proficiency in anything you want whenever you want for a Bonus Action as many times as you want. You can't stack it to get multiple at once, but any time you want to do anything that involves a skill or tool, you'll never not be fully proficient & you will never again have a language barrier to solve. This is usually better than Jack of All Trades.
I played a mystic that was basically a Battlemaster. I was having our party do extra moves and attacks like crazy. Was so fun. And "wall of wood" was my favorite power.
Nice. This is gonna be a good one. R.i.p. my wujen mystic/four elements monk. Half of you was nerfed and jalf of you was banned. With one level of druid you were still a better ranger than anything released at the time.
Never got their argument that it was "tooo complicated" as a reason to cut it. Psi points weren't any more complicated than ki points,and they coulda jyst chopped points back a few if they wanted to nerf it. Wasnt any worse than wizard or particularly sorcerer but just seemed like they responded to all the bitchy wizards and sorcerers that complain if anything can do something they cant or even come close to their dps. Especially when it comes to flight(four elements monk cant even fall with style anymore) Just look at current druid. Cant fly til what? Level 8 or 9. since a mystic could levitate at almost an equivalent level knew they were gonna get nerfed already but didnt expect the banhamner comin down on the whole class. Needed a bit more balancing but cutting it entirely was just lazy and the subclasses they replaced it to were even more complicated with their rolls to see if you got free points back or not instead of just having a fixed pool. Was just horseshit. Especially since they were the best at resisting obnoxious dms favorite thing psychic damage most classes didnt have an answer to.
Its cool to hear someone talking about some of the UAs that never got printed into books like Tasha's or Xanathar's because there are some interesting ideas that I wish would come back as actual subclasses like Stone and Phoenix Sorcerer and Treachery Paladin. As well as concepts like the Modern Magic UA where they tried their hand at making options for modern day or almost cyberpunk setting. It would be cool to hear your thoughts on some of those.
I would so often see people ignore the psi limit on mystics, then others complained it was overpowered. If you ignore spell slot limits sorcerers are way overpowered. To many people playing the class wrong is what killed it.
Honestly, the Mystic is an awesome Idea. It's sad that the Class will never be re-made or re-mastered officially. A balanced but equally versatile Mystic could be so healthy for the entire Game!
Mystics are balanced if you actually play them within the set limits of the class. If you gave sorcerers infinite spell slots they would be way overpowered but that's not how the sorcerer works.
Yeah, and for the most part there isn't actually that much that needs changing to make it really work well. Yes there are lots of broken bits that need tweaking - like 3 psi to gain 20 temp HP as a bonus action - available at such a low level that at that level of play it is hugely broken, but a simple fix is you gain 2x your mystic level temp HP - means the skill stays really relevant in later level player characters but doesn't get to super OP at the low level. Or just lock some of the more potent skills like that one behind a minimum number of mystic or player levels...
@@josephpetermccray1433it wasn't the powers that were busted, this time. It was the IMMORTAL and the WU-JUN. For my game, I straight up banned immortal (no single player needs more HP than the entire rest of the party, combined) and gave the wu-jun an expanding spell list in place of their "build a spell" concept. This actually worked. Well, okay, it worked for us.
@@foldionepapyrus3441 Exactly. Its like a bunch of loose screws. You just need a little fixing here and there, maybe a minor houserule on some things. There are no major errors, just a dozen or so little ones.
I use to play as a human/ kheldar hybrid. Either as a druid, a bard or a ranger. Class depended on group composition. Solo was more often bard (charms & enchantments) & free food/drink/s3x for price of some songs. But that was late 70s & well into the 80s.
Missed the BECMI Mystic from the d&d rules cyclopedia, specifically they are usually apprentices of run aways from the island nation of, miss spelt but can't find the correct spelling rn, Ocholarum, the island nation that is only mentioned in the 80s rules a few times.
I was always sad that they never made the mystic an official release. I love psionics, and the existing psionic subclasses don't "scratch that itch" enough. Mystic probably outperformed warlock customization, so it never saw official printing to outshine one of the most popular classes.
I really hope they find some way to work this class out during one D&D because I love panic stuff. I mean we have a lot of psychic themed classes like Aberrant Mind and Soulknife (Honestly my favorite ones) but it’d be cool to have some strictly psychic class, also the name/theme of Mystic is just so dope! I can see them making this by having disciplines becoming parts of subclasses rather than having a bagillion of them, but realistically speaking it’ll probably become an almost completely different class
I have a player who's currently running a mystic in Princes of Apocalypse (the group is 4th level right now, and yet taking on Scarlett Moon Hall anyways...) and while sure, he did just get bit by a Werewolf and now I'm working on a whole new class just for this very reason, he pretty much introduced me to this cool class. Seeing that this is out there though, it makes me wish something like this was in the official books, or heck, just devote an entire book to it! It's so worth the play I think, and I personally would love to see this more often. Thanks for the extra enlightenment man!
Oh yeah, and this "Breath of the Green Dragon" thing he uses, and the ability to deal out acid damage upon taking certain types of damage. That's been really cool. It's built nicely onto the gameplay, kinda neat to see where things are going with his character. The rest of the party is cool too, we have effectively Ezio Auditore but a Water Genasi, along with a Horizon Walker x Nature Cleric, and our Druid, so it's pretty cool overall. Oh yeah, and they have bird friend named "Birb". 🐦
I got to play Mystic for some levels in Curse of Strahd after my cleric died, and I played as emotion control and party support type and honestly next to party of moon druid, paladin and hexblade warlock I was definitely not overpowered. I enjoyed the class and character, and I think from "gameplay" point of view, Mystic is in my opinion best designed class in 5e because unlike other classes you don't stop getting options after level beyond spells. Your disciplines are things you get that unlock more options and lend build identity opportunities to the character. Sure the balance was maybe not there, but my best option often was to grant extra attacks to the paladin. I really loved the fact the class had customisation room, a matter that is so minimal in rest of 5e that it's one of the major reasons I abandoned the edition entirely.
I once played a Mystic/Monk build. One of the most powerful and versatile characters I've ever played, but also came with the largest amount of text and info to keep track of. FYI. The Rogue soulknife is so badass. You can throw pscionic knives and teleport where they land!
A couple things that I think are worth pointing out in case you do genuinely want to do a rework of the Mystic: - 1: A lot of the Mystic's features are inspired by the psionic classes from 3.5e, which *are* in the SRD for that edition. I don't think it would take much effort to convert them over to 5e. - 2: Gameplay mechanics are not copyrighted in the country where WotC is based in. You can feel free to make your own iteration of the 5e Mystic as long as you do not use the exact same wording that WotC used in the UA, which you probably won't because you intended to nerf it (it is genuinely broken, after all).
I feel like all the x-men clips are extra appropriate for this class. when it came out I always kind of saw it as marvel style mutant abilities, like the soul knife being Psylock blades like you've shown, or Colossus's organic metal exo-skeleton. almost all of the mystic abilities are straight out of x-men.
This version of the mystic class came out in UA shortly after we started playing. Kinda using the idea that there should be a place for everything in your world, so we added them as an old organization of lore keepers who watched over special sites. The one NPC the party ran into used a blank flat piece of apple wood as his psionic focus.
I WAS SOOOO STOKED FOR THE MYSTIC. UA published the Mystic and seeing how customizable it was nearly gave me a hard on lol. And now, I havent been able to get it up since. THanks WotC.
My favorite version of a balanced Mystic is Taron Pound's Mystic in the DMs Guild. It's a really well done and simplified version of the UA one with far more thematic subclasses.
I used to have an idea for a Mystic character, but I had forgotten the class existed. Thanks for making this video and reminding me! Edit: You're right about the Mystic class having a ton of content! I have the PDF saved to my Pinterest and it's a whole 30 pages of subclasses, lore, and more! It really does seem like a passion project
I played an Immortal Mystic Grimalkin (medium sized psychic cat) in my last campaign- we only made it to level 9, but Ashe was one of my favourite characters to play! I can VERY easily see how easy it would be to be OP in the wrong hands... But the variety and options were so much fun to play with!! And the lack of verbal/somatic was awesome for my character (a literal cat )!
I have the pleasure of playing Mystic in one of my games. It's very cool, I have enjoyed it a lot. Also, the psi point progression is just the 1st-5th level spell slots converted into psi points. Psionic Mastery is the approximate equivalent of your 6th-9th level spell slots. Also also, the Dark Sun fan-driven campaign guide does try to fix the class, but it really cranks up the complexity to the point that it no longer feels like a 5e class.
I went through dragon heist as an order of the nomad mystic. The most powerful combo that I found was when one of the abilities let me see through walls, and another let me teleport for really cheap into anywhere in line of sight, then teleport out as a skirmish/assassin fighter. Nobody could touch me and I left a path of destruction through the city. It was glorious.
For the saving throw thing, I think the simple fix is to have the saving throw that is not tied to your first class's primary attribute be the one you can swap out (for fighter, that is CON, for Paladin that's WIS, for Cleric, that's CHA, etc.)
I loved the mystic. I even managed to play one through to level 11 using the UA. It was... "interesting"... I actually loved the class and the idea behind the UA. They were super customisable and you could build them in so many ways, which I loved. They were a bit "wonky" and there were balance issues for sure. I would love to play one again if I could.
Something about the psi point count: If you are using the spell points optional feature, the amount of psi points follows that exactly up until around 10th or 11th level. It may seem like a bunch of random numbers, but if everyone uses that rule, everyone can cast a bunch of 5th level spells at 9th level.
It should also be noted that you aren't locked out of =any= discipline, before or after choosing a subclass. Most subclasses will give you an extra disciplines from their related list when you choose that subclass, but you can still choose disciplines from the "Immortal" list and one from the "Avatar" list as a Soul Knife subclass
answer to the mystic's issue with the wisdom saving throw thing is simple mystic 'cant' multiclass...you either are a mystic, or your not....given how op the class is that would make for a nice balancer to it...when you pick mystic you are 'stuck' with it
I had an idea for a Mystic that was wheelchair-bound until he started focusing on one of his disciplines at which point he became a monster. I can't recall the disciplines exactly because this was four years ago and my DM did not allow my mystic at the table! That's the way it goes, I had a lot of fun delving into the mechanics and figuring out what would work for the character.
So, fun fact actually In my long term campaign thats been going for about 2 and a half years now, the main big bad and the personal nemesis of a number of the player characters is a Mystic who studied the arcane until they eventually (with a LOT of help from their boss) became a psionic lich. This dickhead, for half the campaign tricked the group into thinking he was just some Kindly old man trying to make a Universal cure, when in truth they were helping him attempt to make a superweapon Dragon. In the end he succeeded but was unable to maintain control over said dragon and thus got toasted by it. Now, he's just in the background Puppeteering events from the shadows and building his Cult.
I've DM'd in a game where there was a Tortle Mystic. Was a challenge to balance the game but a tonne of fun. Not only did I make sure all the other players for extra magic items but I also had to run encounters specifically designed with his teleporting from damage ability and crazy ac in mind
The Mystic really appeals to me, it's a focus on Int and Wis which no class really represents. Sadly they just stripped down parts and make them subclasses. It was a bit to OP, because it is so flexible. If they would trim it down and clean up some of the broken / OP stuff it would do well. Pretty sure Wizards already reversed the Warlock half caster
In the game that I played with my friends, my DM fixed the class to make it playable at the request of one of the players. We were planning a high level campaign, so the player agreed to play a pure mystic all the way up to ensure we fully playtested the class at different levels. He cycled through three characters at the table and used a different subclass for all of them, but other than tweaking a few skills as the game went along, it worked out great. He was MVP of several fights.
I made a psion class that functions much like a spellcaster, but uses spell points instead of spell slots, and reflavored as brain juju. Also, since every other psionic spellcaster (illithids, etc...) doesn't require verbal or somatic components, I gave that to the psion. Subclasses include the telepath, the telekinetic, and the pyromancer.
What's insane as well are the clips that you put while you talk to give visual aids to those of us who need it. I find myself trying to remember where i saw that scene or am really happy to be like oh i know where that's from!" Alway great content, bro! Lover your work! PS Now i want to go and look up this class 😃 and try and play it.
Even if you never use the mystic, there is just a treasure trove of fun stuff in talents and disciplines. The Wu-Jen gives you a direct conversion of psi points to spell slots so its easy to break down disciplines into new spells or elemental disciplines for 4 elements monk. Wall of Thunder, Nomads Step, and Dehydrate are a couple that immediately come to mind.
I'm currently playing a mystic in a Champaign currently. We are currently level 3 and I am the RP savior at the moment. And my most useful is that I am able stabilize players once they are down. Also, 5 temp hit points per round makes me tank-ier than the tanks in the group.
A trick that would work to help balance the mystic a bit more: out of subclass tallents are limited to a number equal to proficiency bonus. (So you cant just be an immortal mystic with all psi-knife and nomad tallents). Adds a bit of flavor and while slightly restrictive, still would allow for a lot of versatility. (As even spellcasters do not have access to the entire list. Of spells)
So I had a character who swapped from cleric into Mystic at a suprisingly high ish level - level 11 I think it was. All I did was teleport around and do meme stuff with teleportation. I had a blast and understood that the powers mystics had were just... way too much, so why even bother trying to optimise? Tonnes of fun as a nomad. Best character I've EVER had and Mystic made it so much more fun.
I once attempted to play the Mystic in game. A few of the control powers might need balancing (the command-like ability doesn't have the "you cant force a enemy to hurt themselves" caveat... just a saving throw), but it was super fun! It was in Ravnica and I was attempting to hide my powers by pretending to be a Eldritch Knight/Battle Master Fighter. It's the perfect class for Dimir Spies... I think it would also fit really well into Eberron.
I absolutely adore the Mystic. It was such a fun idea that someone at WOTC came up with. My own fav was the soulknife. Unfortunately, I do understand why it was never officially published. It was a class that was too easy to break. That even without power gaming, could outperform the majority of the core classes in their own niche for most of the level curve. Add in the fact that it was a much more complicated class when compared to the rest (and 5e’s design philosophy focusing on simplicity over crunch) it’s no surprise that it never got any further than the UA. Massive shame, but here we are.
I recently made a mystic and might get the chance to play them in a one-shot soon, so this video is kinda perfect timing to learn a bit more about how to play them
I am actually playing a slightly customized version of a mystic where I start off with less psi points and a lower limit but end up with more psi points than the original mystic. Since we figured out that the most broken part was early level, seeing as you basically got the ability to cast the equivalent of 2nd level spells at lvl 1 which was kinda broken. Just as an example at lvl 1 you have a psi limit of 2 normally. Meaning you can take the Discipline Giant Growth. Giant Growth has a Focus that increases your reach by 5 feet. It also has the ability Ogre Form, which gives you 10 temp hp, an additional 1d4 bludgeoning damage on hit, an additional 5 feet reach and makes you large if you weren't already as a bonus action. Mind you this ability is concentration, but still. This means that at lvl 1, if you were using a reach weapon and a race that has a flying speed. You could fly 20 feet above an enemy and use a glaive to keep smacking him for 1d10+str+1d4 and have 10 temp hp on top of that. And because it only takes a bonus action to activate it, you can attack in the same turn you activated this in. So yes they are broken as is. At certain levels of course. I recommend trying to balance it out a little bit since the concept is indeed amazing!
Was playing a homebrew short game of SpellJammers. One of my players made a monk based on River Tam (Firefly) so I gave her 9 psi pts and the Precognition discipline at lvl 5. It was epic.
Good thing r/UnearthedArcana and creatives like Laserllama are out there delivering much better balanced iterations of 5e content without scrapping good designs, like the 5e Warlock. LL's version of the Mystic is just one of several of their designs built off of Pact Magic, and Short Rest game balance, and I feel that reverting casters back to being Long Rest-dependent across the board isn't the game fix that WotC thinks it will be.
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I’m genuinely unsure if the ‘I am alone’ joke in the ad is just a bit or secretly DND shorts pouring his heart out
DnDshorts I know where your going tomorrow 🤓🤓📚✏️🏫
NO WAY! How DARE you not do the clap thing at the beginning of your video!
You need a hug homie? That add seemed a bit loaded
@dungeondad 👀
One thing that wasn't really mentioned is that the mystic is also one of the best "assassins" since their disciplines don't require any components they can literally just sit in an inn, drink an ale and let the target outside suffer from the worst effects on their list and kill them. No hand signs, no weird materials on their table, no ominous words and depending on your house rules also no magic to be traced. Btw this could also make a great villain just imagine a town in which random people fall victims to spontaneous combustion (Mastery of Fire) or die because of brain failure (Psychic Assault) and your party has to find out what is causing these cases.
To be fair, you can do this with Sorcerer too. Just burn your spellslots on subtle spell and use a psychic damage spell
@@StarryxNight5 i mean not really, there are only two spells in the entire Sorcerer spell list, which only have a verbal component and do not originate from you, that being mind sliver a cantrip and Immolation a 5th level spell which wreaths one creature in fire. Every other spell would reveal you as the caster.
The mystic however has probably around 12 disciplines that he could use, which could never be traced back to him, some of which are even AOE effects.
@letstec Subtle Spell eliminates both verbal and somatic components. Mind Spike is an easy one. Synaptic Static is another, if you're high level. Blight is a necrotic damage spell that works.
Honestly, you have a whole bunch of options
This Psionicist must see the target at the distance of the effects. yes, conditional "spontaneous combustion" for 7d10 fire damage is as much as 120 feet, but... this is certainly far away, but it can be calculated by geometry if he has dealt with more than one person. We will inevitably create zones where the psionicist could or could not be, and at the same time determine who is not involved in the case. thereby removing more and more suspects and citizens. quickly understood through witnesses of strange people, or those who looked at their victims. most likely, a wizard or an artefact or another psionicist will figure it out before that. plus, you can try to determine who is a psionicist or a sorcerer. and that same maniac will begin to understand the problem and will hide in every possible way. Either he will lie low, or he will begin to hide too clearly by frequent relocation. Thereby only further reducing the circle of suspicion. As a result, there will be an extremely small circle of possible villains and then it will be determined, or they will understand that they need to look for some unregistered ones, and this is easier than it seems. as a result, he will be tied up
Or... you could do a power rangers style one-shot. Each mystic at the end summons a dragon coodinating with their selected color. Then they combine into a Void Dragon! What's that? Why yes. I am VERY high right now. Why so you ask?
I love the fact that you recognized some creators passion behind the Mystic write-up.
Honestly, I had hoped they would have brought us Mystics officially when Spelljammer came out. What better setting than a magic flying space ship campaign to introduce a new Mind Magic Class
definitly. together with the Vedalken
Eberron too. It's always been hinted psyonics are used in Sarlona
It would've been the perfect setting too. Mind flayers and Thri-Kreen are explicitly psionic, and they're both fairly prevalent in the book (the Mindflayer Nautiloids, and Thri-Kreen being a fully playable race)
There was a MASSIVE missed opportunity. They could've said "We spent six years fine tuning the mystic after all of your feedback, and here it is, fully official and playable. Have at it."
As it exists, Spelljammer doesn't add any new classes or subclasses, which is strange for a setting sourcebook (Eberron added four races (Warforged, Changeling, Kalashtar and Shifter) and added the artificer class. Dragonlance added 1 new race (Kender), the Lunar Sorcery sorcerous origin and the Knight if Solamnia and Mage of High Sorcery backgrounds, Wildmounte added two new dragonborn subraces as well as the Blood Hunter, Echo Knight, Chronurgy & Graviturgy wizards and the Oath of The Sea Paladin.)
Even the other fully Third Party sourcebooks add at least half a dozen new race options, some new subclasses and at least 3 new backgrounds.
As someone who ran a level 3 - 15 campaign featuring a mystic, I can say your assessment of its balance is pretty accurate. Very overpowered early game with abilities that outweigh capabilities of other casters, but after 11th level the power really tapers off with them never really getting any psionics that feel more powerful than a 5th level spell.
I always laugh at balance discussions, when Wizards/other casters exist in this game.
@@boogienightsmarkwahlberg6011 Hierarchies amuse me as well, Comrade. As do "circumstances" and something called "context", whatever that is.
@@Tusitala1967 Oh, I believe you have no clue what "context" is bro.
r/whoosh anyone?
@@boogienightsmarkwahlberg6011Cringe
@@boogienightsmarkwahlberg6011 Settle down, Becky. No need to get all flustered. It's a simple matter of perspective., this balance thing. Know what I mean, bruh... bra... brosephus? Not sure which pronouns you use.
I played the Immortal up to lvl 17 (we started at 8). 71 Psi Points sounds like a lot but it was super easy to burn through those if trying to do any significant damage or being defensive. While you could do some crazy damage, pulling it off meant focusing everything into a single hit. If you missed, say good bye to all those wasted Psi Points.
I know they're different systems but Stars Without Number does psionics really well.
I agree the ramp of Psi points as the class is in the UA is really required, basically everything you do costs Psi making it similar to a Monk's ki there. But unlike Ki regeneration of the Psi points through a day is very limited, and the costs of many skills pretty substantial.
Psi points actually mirror the optional rule in the DMG for spell points so it’s definitely a pretty good scaling for “spellcasting” which it primarily functions as
Like the sorcery points instead of spell slots optional rule nobody uses. Sadly.
@@mydir2772it’s not sorcery points specifically instead of spells it’s a new kind of points but yeah it sucks that nobody uses that
That was the main reason why I chose the psy knife so I could be the one to pick of the hurt ones and regain points
This is one of the best classes which WOTC should never have abandoned. The Planescape and Dark Sun settings are among those which really come alive with this class and have since 2nd Edition. This class could've received a bit more work to make it balanced, but in the long run it's no less problematic than any other class with a table of min-maxes. I thought the 5e Mystic had fantastic potential which invited other classes to improve rather than for the Mystic to be abandoned. We could do with the 5e Mystic developed a bit further. It's really fantastic for those inspired by the likes of Julian May. We should club together and print a version of it! I really like the idea of a spell caster type class that doesn't rely on gods, pacts with otherworldly creatures, or magic and instead on the inner potential of a sentient being.
If you do it on your own you'll get sent a Cease and Desist and sued by Hasbro. The mystic isn't in the SRD, thus it's not available for our use. It's super shitty, but that's just how copyright laws work. They're there for corporations to profit and creatives to suffer.
I miss the straight up psion from 3.5e. As early as level 3 you can begin creating your own damn plane of existence and as long as you live to level 16 it will have become anchored enough and grown large enough that it becomes permanent even after you die.
The class existing allows the DM to bring in planes that have no god existing in them which is a big deal considering in D&D only the material plane has no god interference, every other plane has a god living there.
Mystic could also keep up with a bunch of new subclasses thanks to the gradual Power Creep that WOTC used. Earlier subclasses tend to be outclassed by later released ones after all, and the Mystic fits in with about the 2021 era of subclasses and classes.
The Monk's Ki Points could benefit greatly from the Mystic's psi-points progression (like holy hell 71? If a Monk could get to 40 Ki Points at level 20 I'd be happier than a Dwarf in a forge!)
I think you mean a Dwarf in a brewery.
Mystic disciplines are way more expensive though
But Monks get them back every short rest.
@@AdonanSyea but you're only gonna short rest if you have a warlock in the party
@@CHARLES-s6h It's such a dumb misconception that short rests are only useful to warlocks. Bards, clerics, druids, monks, paladins, and of course warlocks all have core game mechanics that come back on a short rest (bardic inspiration, wildshape, ki points, spell slots, and channel divinity x2). Then every other class in the game has at least one subclass with features that return on short rests.
Thank you for finally showing off probably my favorite class and not just laughing at it and calling it broken makes me happy that you actually talked about the up and the downs
I believe ths mystic was first released in the BECMI edition back in the 1980s, so its history actually predates rangers as a class.
Mystics were in the Basic D&D Rules Cyclopedia, monks complete with a Death Touch. And 2nd edition had the Psionicist class which was basically cleric fighter with all the good wizard spells that were effectively unresistable.
YEP. The 'idea/concepts' of the Mystic essentially splintered into the Sorcerer, psionics, and the Monk by 3rd edition.
I feel like in today's edition, a 'mystic' class is kinda an in between of a wizard/sorcerer and a monk, but with wonky magic casting rules, and not as martial.
Which is probably why it never made it in. It's just soooooo niche and squeezed, plus the whole 'OP' magic casting really puts it above the aformentioned classes. So it breaks game balance and tradition. THey figur if u want something with that flavor, play a 4 Elements monk, a divine soul, or a Divination wizard.
@@angelagranger760 The highest level character I ever played at the tabletop was a 12th Psionicist (Dragon Magazine version) 7th Wizard 5th Thief. He was an agent of a dimension spanning espionage organization which was concerned with maintaining "balance".
After drawing from a Deck of Many Things and pulling the Enmity with a Greater Devil card, my character was captured by Geryon and imprisoned in Hell. After a timeless time of torture and misery, a little fly came into my cell and asked if I wanted to get out. We quickly made a deal. The cell was opened and all of my power and gear was restored to me. I shrank down with Reduction and cast Fly, slowly navigating the cooridors of moaning imprisoned faces until I came to a throne room.
I watched as Geryon, surrounded by all manner of devils, created a massively powerful psionic helmet, spending almost all of his psionic attack and defense points. At the moment he was depleted I attacked with Psychic Crush and exploded his brain, Scanners style. I watched as the Pit Fiends began to fight over the throne and then the fly from my cell transformed into a towering pit fiend, much larger than the rest. He strode towards the throne, backhanding away the other devils contemptuously and retrieving the helm.
Once seated, a crown of fire appeared over his head, and he said, "Damien Corben... Our compact is complete. You may depart the Hells unmolested and intact." A little Imp yes man quickly chimed in, "Yeah. Get the eff out." I was very generous with the tip I gave Charon for the boat ride, and I killed a hell beast along the way to appease Cerberus with fresh meat. When I passed the gates my Delorean, powered by a Well of Many Worlds for dimension travel, was waiting for me with the keys in the ignition.
This was a solo campaign a friend of mine used to run for me. I was 15 and probably high for most of it. I loved the Psionicist, which was largely based on the Deryni series by Kathyrn Kurtz. Good times.
@@angelagranger760 The Mystic as in the Rules Cyclopedia, but before that it was already contained in the Masters Rules (black set).
Came here to say this. It was printed a few times way before the 2010s in various iterations.
The "D&D: Mystic Edition" is exactly the kind of idea springboard groups need who have become trapped running official campaigns. It beckons inspiration to move into a more creative space in your gaming, while also challenging your understanding of the mechanics and how they engineer fun into the sessions. Check out MCDM's "The Talent" class for another take on the Mystic
Ooh, thank you so much for sharing. I’m gonna go watch that video right now.
Why would playing official campaigns be considered a trap? Some groups just want to run official material and plenty of those groups add their twists to make it their own. You really don't need to go beyond their comfort zone just to be creative.
@@nojusticenetwork9309 As a DM, my experience of running these campaigns has been a mixed bag. The official content winds up being a scaffolding that requires constant adjustments, repairs, and iterations to make a fluid experience that makes everyone's experience at the table rewarding.
They also require sometimes hundreds of hours of play to achieve a strong sense of closure, which statistically through player surveys isn't happening; a very small number of groups are completing this content. My group has completed BG:DiA which was one of the better-formed campaigns. Our DM still put in a ton of work.
Smaller, focused homebrew content that can give groups a sense of completion is the direction TTRPG's is moving in now. Even WotC is aware of this, hence the growth of the anthologies collections; plug-in-play games that can be completed in 4 sessions or less.
Interesting fact about the Mystic and its PSI point system, they are actually half casters that use the optional spell point system (DMG) instead of spell slots, while also progressing at the same rate as full casters until they reach 9th, at which point the Mystic's progression stops completely. This also explains the power curve swinging back into the full casters' favor beyond 11th level.
Almost like "pact magic, but spell points!"
@@daiedalous honestly a much better way to put it
I really wish that mystics would have gotten more work done on them, there would need to be a lot of changes to make this actually cohesive but I wish they would have put the effort in, Mystics were such a cool concept but had no real solid identity, the crazy number of options was awesome but also busted. If they had spent the time to solidify the identity, pick a direction to go in rather than shoving a million ideas into one class, and made it balanced this could have been a really cool addition to dnd
My feeling was that Mystic was a class for more advanced players who could put together their own "feel" for their character from the massive amount of options.
I agree, not every class is beginner friendly. But that is ok. There is reason I steer brand new pen & paper players away from "prepare" your spells casters. There is already a lot going on in the game for them to pick up. A more basic caster [sorcerer or warlock] are newer player friendly and tons of fun.
Make complicated classes! On your second or 3rd play through, newer players can take em on. Meanwhile, some veteran players like something less simple to get their hands on!
@@mata6669 yeah, to me I felt that it seemed almost like a brand new character creation method than a class, I love the customization options but personally I found it a bit disconnected from itself but mystics are still really fun and if they touched them up with some rebalancing I'd probably end up playing one in every campaign
Agreed, kinda feels like they were trying to cram every psionic class into a single thing, which would be like if the base game just had the Adventurer class and then lkke Fighter and Wizard as subclasses.
@@mata6669 I disagree entirely, I think prepared casters are a lot safer for new players, because they can easily swap out their "bad picks" the next time they long rest. It's far too easy, especially with Sorcerer's limited spells known, to wind up with horrible spell choices and have to wait until the next level-up to start fixing it. I think Cleric is a great spellcaster for new players because it gets a survivable amount of armor and HP, and can swap spells every long rest.
There's a pretty skilled homebrewer who brought 4e classes to 5e, one of which was the psion (but more importantly, the WARRRLORD!!). I think doing something like that should be fine. There's already a basis, all you have to do is make it make sense, which with the psion, as you've shown in this video, isn't easy but also isn't impossible.
who is that?
I know that KibblesTasty did, not sure if anyone else has. Their content can be a little bloated, but they make homebrew with a distinct identity that also feels good to use.
@@RaptorMotherLaser Llama I think
Could i have a link/where to find the warlord?
@@naturesfinest2408 Both KibblesTasty and LaserLlama have one, you can google either one pretty easily
You have my respect for opening the video with talking about the main subject right away.
No intro, no sponsor, no updates, no meandering about barely related stuff.
Straight to the interesting part, thank you.
I am actually playing a mystic in a campaign that has lasted more than five years now. At first my DM was incredibly skeptical towards allowing one at the table, but did give in after a while, which turned out to be "One of the best decisions they ever made for the game", their words specifically. It has created a lot of fun times at the table, but also a few headaches. It is important to work out together with the DM what might be considered too challenging or powerful for the sake of the game balance.
Mystics are incredibly versatile, but can also be overwhelming and often outperforming other classes. One thing we did to balance some of this power is that we adjusted how the PSI Limit works. Instead of it being the amount of PSI you can spend per discipline, we set it to be "the amount of PSI that can be spent per turn", which tones down the burst potential significantly. It also doesn't step on the toes of spellcasters too hard when they still have to abide by bonus action spell casting rules.
I love mystics, just make sure to leave a good impression if you are allowed to play one at your table. Work with your DM and optimize the fun.
I love the Mystic class and all the work that went into it is defiantly amazing. There are a few things that you didn't fully explain, like the using HP to cast one of your abilitys is a per long rest feat to help keep it from being too good. and the passives that each of the 40 talents have have the caveat that you can only focus on 1 at a time. so even if you have 8 talents you have to pick what passive you want active at the time between the 8 you know this is still ridiculously powerful. and lastly the 2nd level ability you stated was for temp hit points was for standard HP healing, not Temp hit points.
I do love this video and your channel though and bringing the Mystic to light in a positive light is great to see. Keep up the amazing work.
Thank you, love the channel. Please cover the layoffs when you can, we need to really bring noise to it.
Some other great channels have covered it well, and I'm super ill so might need to miss this news update. I will cover Hasbro/WotC related stuff in the future though. There's plenty left to say, just depends when victims choose to come forward
@@DnDShortsget well soon
We don't need every channel covering bad news. It is only horrible because of the time of year. If this happens in the summer it'd pass by without much fanfare.
Yes it is terrible, but honestly it becomes beating a dead horse when EVERY channel covers the same thing for their video of the week/day.
@@DnDShorts omg I’m so sorry, please take care and recover first, health first!
The Mystic is so versatile in and of itself, it could support its own separate TTRPG. It can be a martial class, a Gish, a healer, and much, much more. The mystic is as though you took all of 3.5 D&D and turned it into a class/subclass (it’s that customizable). However, MCDM productions has made their own version that’s now available, called The Talent, and it was designed with that superhero comic fantasy idea in mind. And I also fill like 5e’s move to make the mystic into individualized subclasses was ultimately the right move. The mystic was a heavy plate to sit down to when building a character, it was by far the most powerful class in 5e because of it…but it was also not fun filling out a character sheet for one for that same reason.
My ideas to rebalance the Mystic (without actually reading absolutely everything in the UA) just from glancing at the Mystic table on page 3:
1) Psi Points need a smoother progression from 4 at level 1 to 71 at level 20. Every odd level (1, 3, 5, etc.) you get 4 Psi Points and every even level (2, 4, 6, etc.) you get 3. This gives 7 Psi Points every 2 levels, reaching 70 at level 20, so just go ahead and give that last level an extra point to match what's in the table.
2) Slow the Psi Limit a little bit by introducing the number 4. Psi Limit starts at 2 as normal, and increases by one every odd level after that, capping it at 7 at level 11 instead of level 9.
As stated above, I have not read the entire UA, but I think this would be a great start to smooth them out some.
I think it would be a cool idea to have a module/campaign that is exactly the same as any other D&D module, but, the only class included in the story is the Mystic. There are so many subclasses that it would be like playing in a completely different world with its own unique culture based around Psionics being the primary magic system. Whole countries and cultures could be formed just based around people with compatible abilities wanting to live together.
There are a lot of directions a story with this feature could go. Maybe, the Ant men Mystics are looked down upon by the Detective Mystics, both literally *and* figuratively, so it's up to your party to act as diplomats to the Detective nation.
Interesting
MysticSoverignty
Spreading peace
One War @a time
What an army ov mystics wood look like
That's exactly what I was thinking! It looks a lot like the Jedi.
This has got to be a video that's been in the works for a while now. Because WIll is acting like Wizards didn't backpedal on Warlock's Pact Magic in the One D&D stuff already. Still, I do appreciate the love made for Mystics, cause I definitely was fascinated about them once.
Is Mr Shorts okay? He's speaking at a speed I can understand
He has been training his mind to stay calm
Would love a deep dive like this on the Revised Ranger: WotC's forgotten attempt to fix the class before Tasha's came around. It was such a big shake up and they used almost nothing from it in the features they would go on to add.
Could also try out The Talent from MCDM. It’s a class that is shooting for the same flavor of fantasy and is also generally considered well balanced.
Yeah, the Talent is a super fun and innovative class
I couldn't agree more. The MCDM Talent has been through a lot of playtesting, and it shows. I'm working on a power ranking review right now, and I'm really impressed with how original, varied, balanced, and cool all the powers are.
Came in here to post about the MCDM Talent!
See...I just read the Talent book today, and to me, it just read like a caster using Spell Points. I mean, some of the powers were just straight up carbon copies of spells that already existed.
The Mystic sounds like a any of the psionic classes from 3.5's Psionic/Expanded Psionic book but sounds like the mystic is much easier to use.
I'd like to shout out Kibbles Compendium of Craft and Creation. It has a revamp of Mystic in the form of the Psionic class that feels a little less complicated but more balanced and still strong af
Also will second KibblesTasty's Psion class. It's a definite successor to the Mystic UA and is very fun and different to play. I love it and have played a Psion in multiple one-shots without ever overshadowing the rest of the party.
I was just about to comment that I definitely prefer KibblesTasty's Psion class to the OG Mystic. Now that Dungeon Dudes's book has made it to dndbeyond, one can only hope that one day we get some Kibbles content. Definitely a top tier creator in the community.
The Mystic, based on the discussion you made, is just a 5e rework of the Psionicist from AD&D 2e. I saw a few comments dating this further back than my knowledge base. But I used to have the Complete Psionics Handbook when I played 2e.
I absolutely love the Mystic class, and have been using it for years
There is a lot of D&D history in the Mystic. As a Gen-X D&D OG, I can see connections in the Mystic to the original AD&D optional Psionics rules, the 2nd Ed Psionics Handbook and Dark Sun and even the 3.5 Psionics Book. So many more mental effects that make the INT save actually have relevance in 5th Ed, which is part of the problem as many monsters would be vulnerable to mental effects with INT saves. And if the class feels overpowered before 11th and underpowered after, a modification of the Psi Points and Max Points per use in the levelling table seems to be an easy fix. The Mystic's biggest challenge is that it's basically an alternative spell casting variant for the entire base game in a single class. You could replace all casters in D&D with Mystic subclasses and play a game with a very different feel. I think it got abandoned because it's so versatile and flavourful that it changes the base D&D game too much, hence why they cherry picked elements to make the Soul Knife, Aberrant Mind Sorcerer and Psi Knight sub-classes so they don't break the 5th Ed. vibe. I still love the potential of the Mystic, though.
I remembered this existed like a week ago, and I was amazed that it was just scrapped like that
So here's what I'm hoping for. The class specialisations in 2024 (from the one D&D UA) will get filled by classes like the Mystic:
Artificer = Expert,
Shaman (from 3.5 / 4e and popular home-brewed content) = Priest,
Blood Hunter (I'm sure an agreement could be made as it's already on D&D Beyond) = Warrior,
and Mystic = Mage.
Would love to see some updates to Mystic, there's so much potential. Maybe duel concentration on some subclass catered 'spells' and/or re-vamp the talents, disciplines and Psi points.
One thing I think could make the class stand out in the future is giving them just 1d4 hit dice but a lvl 1 'psionic barrier' feature that gives 1d6 per mystic level of temporary hit points. The barrier could be regenerated through short rests, meditation etc.
I had forgotten about the Mystic!
My players & I have been talking about making a side-setting with a Planetary-Romance vibe (and Mecha) and specifically wanted a "magic" system that leaned into that.
This opens up so many possibilities! I checked and I still have the PDF from the original release. I'm putting together a write-up to share with the group and I think this will be a big hit with them.
So thank you for this video. It's inspired lots of cool ideas for this setting that's been languishing for a while.
Barsoom awaits! 👽
The Mystic has by far the best chassis in 5e. Were I in charge of development there would be only 4 or so classes, all of them with variations on the Mystic chassis.
Like, you've got mix-n-match feature bundles. They mostly follow the same template, but there's room to play within the structure. They each guarantee access to scaling, level-appropriate abilities, and they make system balance easier by putting more of a limit on the number of combos that designers need to account for, while still creating a lot of space for designer creativity and player expression. And they're all very thematic, helping ensure every character has a strong mechanical identity, and making things easier for new players.
I remember seeing references to the Mystic class in older jokes and videos about 5e, and it was always about the class being overpowered and used to make the most obnoxious OP anime MC character builds…
Having read the class abilities myself, I can see where the reputiation comes from
One of the disciplines lets you pick any one skill, language, or tool to be proficient in whenever you switch to it.
Switching disciplines is a Bonus Action & there's no limit on it.
You can have proficiency in anything you want whenever you want for a Bonus Action as many times as you want.
You can't stack it to get multiple at once, but any time you want to do anything that involves a skill or tool, you'll never not be fully proficient & you will never again have a language barrier to solve. This is usually better than Jack of All Trades.
I played a mystic that was basically a Battlemaster. I was having our party do extra moves and attacks like crazy. Was so fun. And "wall of wood" was my favorite power.
Nice.
This is gonna be a good one.
R.i.p. my wujen mystic/four elements monk.
Half of you was nerfed and jalf of you was banned.
With one level of druid you were still a better ranger than anything released at the time.
Never got their argument that it was "tooo complicated" as a reason to cut it.
Psi points weren't any more complicated than ki points,and they coulda jyst chopped points back a few if they wanted to nerf it. Wasnt any worse than wizard or particularly sorcerer but just seemed like they responded to all the bitchy wizards and sorcerers that complain if anything can do something they cant or even come close to their dps.
Especially when it comes to flight(four elements monk cant even fall with style anymore)
Just look at current druid.
Cant fly til what? Level 8 or 9. since a mystic could levitate at almost an equivalent level knew they were gonna get nerfed already but didnt expect the banhamner comin down on the whole class.
Needed a bit more balancing but cutting it entirely was just lazy and the subclasses they replaced it to were even more complicated with their rolls to see if you got free points back or not instead of just having a fixed pool.
Was just horseshit.
Especially since they were the best at resisting obnoxious dms favorite thing psychic damage most classes didnt have an answer to.
Its cool to hear someone talking about some of the UAs that never got printed into books like Tasha's or Xanathar's because there are some interesting ideas that I wish would come back as actual subclasses like Stone and Phoenix Sorcerer and Treachery Paladin. As well as concepts like the Modern Magic UA where they tried their hand at making options for modern day or almost cyberpunk setting. It would be cool to hear your thoughts on some of those.
I would so often see people ignore the psi limit on mystics, then others complained it was overpowered. If you ignore spell slot limits sorcerers are way overpowered. To many people playing the class wrong is what killed it.
There is a Complete Psionics Handbook that was made for the 2nd ed. back in the 90s. And i realized. No Dark Sun campaigns for me.
I remember that the later Dragonlance books even made an effort to include notable characters with this class in the lore.
I've been looking for a video like this forever. That's up-to-date. Thank you so much
Honestly, the Mystic is an awesome Idea. It's sad that the Class will never be re-made or re-mastered officially. A balanced but equally versatile Mystic could be so healthy for the entire Game!
Mystics are balanced if you actually play them within the set limits of the class. If you gave sorcerers infinite spell slots they would be way overpowered but that's not how the sorcerer works.
Yeah, and for the most part there isn't actually that much that needs changing to make it really work well.
Yes there are lots of broken bits that need tweaking - like 3 psi to gain 20 temp HP as a bonus action - available at such a low level that at that level of play it is hugely broken, but a simple fix is you gain 2x your mystic level temp HP - means the skill stays really relevant in later level player characters but doesn't get to super OP at the low level. Or just lock some of the more potent skills like that one behind a minimum number of mystic or player levels...
@@josephpetermccray1433it wasn't the powers that were busted, this time. It was the IMMORTAL and the WU-JUN. For my game, I straight up banned immortal (no single player needs more HP than the entire rest of the party, combined) and gave the wu-jun an expanding spell list in place of their "build a spell" concept. This actually worked. Well, okay, it worked for us.
@@foldionepapyrus3441 Exactly. Its like a bunch of loose screws.
You just need a little fixing here and there, maybe a minor houserule on some things.
There are no major errors, just a dozen or so little ones.
The BECMI Mystic was (is) quite balanced...
No need to limit yourself to current "official" rules 😉
The class was called the Psionic in 2nd edition. It was very popular. Not sure why D&D never brought it back.
i think mystics broke the "don't be too complicated" rule of 5e
I got to play a Mystic Investigator in Curse of Strahd. Great fun. One of my favorite characters to play.
Perfect! I just brought this up to my players in my Icewind Dale campaign
wow that either was Oscar-level acting in the sponsor portion... or you need a hug.
I use to play as a human/ kheldar hybrid. Either as a druid, a bard or a ranger. Class depended on group composition. Solo was more often bard (charms & enchantments) & free food/drink/s3x for price of some songs. But that was late 70s & well into the 80s.
Missed the BECMI Mystic from the d&d rules cyclopedia, specifically they are usually apprentices of run aways from the island nation of, miss spelt but can't find the correct spelling rn, Ocholarum, the island nation that is only mentioned in the 80s rules a few times.
I love the intro to the ad, that was great.
I was always sad that they never made the mystic an official release. I love psionics, and the existing psionic subclasses don't "scratch that itch" enough. Mystic probably outperformed warlock customization, so it never saw official printing to outshine one of the most popular classes.
I really hope they find some way to work this class out during one D&D because I love panic stuff. I mean we have a lot of psychic themed classes like Aberrant Mind and Soulknife (Honestly my favorite ones) but it’d be cool to have some strictly psychic class, also the name/theme of Mystic is just so dope! I can see them making this by having disciplines becoming parts of subclasses rather than having a bagillion of them, but realistically speaking it’ll probably become an almost completely different class
Taron Pounds has a great revised version of the Mystic on DM’s Guild, I’ve used it for one of my own characters.
I have a player who's currently running a mystic in Princes of Apocalypse (the group is 4th level right now, and yet taking on Scarlett Moon Hall anyways...) and while sure, he did just get bit by a Werewolf and now I'm working on a whole new class just for this very reason, he pretty much introduced me to this cool class. Seeing that this is out there though, it makes me wish something like this was in the official books, or heck, just devote an entire book to it! It's so worth the play I think, and I personally would love to see this more often. Thanks for the extra enlightenment man!
Oh yeah, and this "Breath of the Green Dragon" thing he uses, and the ability to deal out acid damage upon taking certain types of damage. That's been really cool. It's built nicely onto the gameplay, kinda neat to see where things are going with his character. The rest of the party is cool too, we have effectively Ezio Auditore but a Water Genasi, along with a Horizon Walker x Nature Cleric, and our Druid, so it's pretty cool overall. Oh yeah, and they have bird friend named "Birb". 🐦
Its the attempt at 2es Psionic class. Which was primarily for the Dark Sun setting where magic was far less reliable or available.
I got to play Mystic for some levels in Curse of Strahd after my cleric died, and I played as emotion control and party support type and honestly next to party of moon druid, paladin and hexblade warlock I was definitely not overpowered. I enjoyed the class and character, and I think from "gameplay" point of view, Mystic is in my opinion best designed class in 5e because unlike other classes you don't stop getting options after level beyond spells. Your disciplines are things you get that unlock more options and lend build identity opportunities to the character. Sure the balance was maybe not there, but my best option often was to grant extra attacks to the paladin. I really loved the fact the class had customisation room, a matter that is so minimal in rest of 5e that it's one of the major reasons I abandoned the edition entirely.
I once played a Mystic/Monk build. One of the most powerful and versatile characters I've ever played, but also came with the largest amount of text and info to keep track of.
FYI. The Rogue soulknife is so badass. You can throw pscionic knives and teleport where they land!
A couple things that I think are worth pointing out in case you do genuinely want to do a rework of the Mystic:
- 1: A lot of the Mystic's features are inspired by the psionic classes from 3.5e, which *are* in the SRD for that edition. I don't think it would take much effort to convert them over to 5e.
- 2: Gameplay mechanics are not copyrighted in the country where WotC is based in. You can feel free to make your own iteration of the 5e Mystic as long as you do not use the exact same wording that WotC used in the UA, which you probably won't because you intended to nerf it (it is genuinely broken, after all).
I feel like all the x-men clips are extra appropriate for this class. when it came out I always kind of saw it as marvel style mutant abilities, like the soul knife being Psylock blades like you've shown, or Colossus's organic metal exo-skeleton. almost all of the mystic abilities are straight out of x-men.
This version of the mystic class came out in UA shortly after we started playing. Kinda using the idea that there should be a place for everything in your world, so we added them as an old organization of lore keepers who watched over special sites.
The one NPC the party ran into used a blank flat piece of apple wood as his psionic focus.
I WAS SOOOO STOKED FOR THE MYSTIC.
UA published the Mystic and seeing how customizable it was nearly gave me a hard on lol. And now, I havent been able to get it up since. THanks WotC.
My favorite version of a balanced Mystic is Taron Pound's Mystic in the DMs Guild. It's a really well done and simplified version of the UA one with far more thematic subclasses.
I used to have an idea for a Mystic character, but I had forgotten the class existed. Thanks for making this video and reminding me!
Edit: You're right about the Mystic class having a ton of content! I have the PDF saved to my Pinterest and it's a whole 30 pages of subclasses, lore, and more! It really does seem like a passion project
I played an Immortal Mystic Grimalkin (medium sized psychic cat) in my last campaign- we only made it to level 9, but Ashe was one of my favourite characters to play! I can VERY easily see how easy it would be to be OP in the wrong hands... But the variety and options were so much fun to play with!! And the lack of verbal/somatic was awesome for my character (a literal cat )!
5:51 the way he just passed by that it hurts my feelings
"We need more druid subclasses"
3rd party creators: Allow us to introduce ourselves
I have the pleasure of playing Mystic in one of my games. It's very cool, I have enjoyed it a lot.
Also, the psi point progression is just the 1st-5th level spell slots converted into psi points. Psionic Mastery is the approximate equivalent of your 6th-9th level spell slots.
Also also, the Dark Sun fan-driven campaign guide does try to fix the class, but it really cranks up the complexity to the point that it no longer feels like a 5e class.
I went through dragon heist as an order of the nomad mystic. The most powerful combo that I found was when one of the abilities let me see through walls, and another let me teleport for really cheap into anywhere in line of sight, then teleport out as a skirmish/assassin fighter. Nobody could touch me and I left a path of destruction through the city. It was glorious.
Thank you! I've looked into the Mystic before, but this video clarified a lot for me. Thank you again!
I think DnD should a group of classes (Artificer, Bloodhunter, Mystic) labled "Veteran Classes".
For the saving throw thing, I think the simple fix is to have the saving throw that is not tied to your first class's primary attribute be the one you can swap out (for fighter, that is CON, for Paladin that's WIS, for Cleric, that's CHA, etc.)
I loved the mystic. I even managed to play one through to level 11 using the UA. It was... "interesting"... I actually loved the class and the idea behind the UA. They were super customisable and you could build them in so many ways, which I loved. They were a bit "wonky" and there were balance issues for sure. I would love to play one again if I could.
Something about the psi point count: If you are using the spell points optional feature, the amount of psi points follows that exactly up until around 10th or 11th level. It may seem like a bunch of random numbers, but if everyone uses that rule, everyone can cast a bunch of 5th level spells at 9th level.
It should also be noted that you aren't locked out of =any= discipline, before or after choosing a subclass. Most subclasses will give you an extra disciplines from their related list when you choose that subclass, but you can still choose disciplines from the "Immortal" list and one from the "Avatar" list as a Soul Knife subclass
answer to the mystic's issue with the wisdom saving throw thing is simple
mystic 'cant' multiclass...you either are a mystic, or your not....given how op the class is that would make for a nice balancer to it...when you pick mystic you are 'stuck' with it
I had an idea for a Mystic that was wheelchair-bound until he started focusing on one of his disciplines at which point he became a monster. I can't recall the disciplines exactly because this was four years ago and my DM did not allow my mystic at the table! That's the way it goes, I had a lot of fun delving into the mechanics and figuring out what would work for the character.
So, fun fact actually
In my long term campaign thats been going for about 2 and a half years now, the main big bad and the personal nemesis of a number of the player characters is a Mystic who studied the arcane until they eventually (with a LOT of help from their boss) became a psionic lich.
This dickhead, for half the campaign tricked the group into thinking he was just some Kindly old man trying to make a Universal cure, when in truth they were helping him attempt to make a superweapon Dragon.
In the end he succeeded but was unable to maintain control over said dragon and thus got toasted by it.
Now, he's just in the background Puppeteering events from the shadows and building his Cult.
I've DM'd in a game where there was a Tortle Mystic. Was a challenge to balance the game but a tonne of fun. Not only did I make sure all the other players for extra magic items but I also had to run encounters specifically designed with his teleporting from damage ability and crazy ac in mind
The Mystic really appeals to me, it's a focus on Int and Wis which no class really represents.
Sadly they just stripped down parts and make them subclasses.
It was a bit to OP, because it is so flexible.
If they would trim it down and clean up some of the broken / OP stuff it would do well.
Pretty sure Wizards already reversed the Warlock half caster
In the game that I played with my friends, my DM fixed the class to make it playable at the request of one of the players. We were planning a high level campaign, so the player agreed to play a pure mystic all the way up to ensure we fully playtested the class at different levels. He cycled through three characters at the table and used a different subclass for all of them, but other than tweaking a few skills as the game went along, it worked out great. He was MVP of several fights.
I made a psion class that functions much like a spellcaster, but uses spell points instead of spell slots, and reflavored as brain juju. Also, since every other psionic spellcaster (illithids, etc...) doesn't require verbal or somatic components, I gave that to the psion. Subclasses include the telepath, the telekinetic, and the pyromancer.
Alsome idea that I always wanted to play. Trying to be a Mind(wizard), body(monk), soul(mystic) multiclass. One with your hole self.
What's insane as well are the clips that you put while you talk to give visual aids to those of us who need it. I find myself trying to remember where i saw that scene or am really happy to be like oh i know where that's from!" Alway great content, bro! Lover your work!
PS
Now i want to go and look up this class 😃 and try and play it.
Even if you never use the mystic, there is just a treasure trove of fun stuff in talents and disciplines. The Wu-Jen gives you a direct conversion of psi points to spell slots so its easy to break down disciplines into new spells or elemental disciplines for 4 elements monk. Wall of Thunder, Nomads Step, and Dehydrate are a couple that immediately come to mind.
I'm currently playing a mystic in a Champaign currently. We are currently level 3 and I am the RP savior at the moment. And my most useful is that I am able stabilize players once they are down. Also, 5 temp hit points per round makes me tank-ier than the tanks in the group.
A trick that would work to help balance the mystic a bit more: out of subclass tallents are limited to a number equal to proficiency bonus. (So you cant just be an immortal mystic with all psi-knife and nomad tallents). Adds a bit of flavor and while slightly restrictive, still would allow for a lot of versatility. (As even spellcasters do not have access to the entire list. Of spells)
Jacob's (XP to Level 3) song about the Mystic it still a banger, don't @ me
I just use my 3rd edition Psionics handbook. It's great for mind flayers and when people want to play a psyker
So I had a character who swapped from cleric into Mystic at a suprisingly high ish level - level 11 I think it was.
All I did was teleport around and do meme stuff with teleportation. I had a blast and understood that the powers mystics had were just... way too much, so why even bother trying to optimise?
Tonnes of fun as a nomad. Best character I've EVER had and Mystic made it so much more fun.
I once attempted to play the Mystic in game. A few of the control powers might need balancing (the command-like ability doesn't have the "you cant force a enemy to hurt themselves" caveat... just a saving throw), but it was super fun! It was in Ravnica and I was attempting to hide my powers by pretending to be a Eldritch Knight/Battle Master Fighter. It's the perfect class for Dimir Spies... I think it would also fit really well into Eberron.
the ad skits just keep getting more and more creative xD
I absolutely adore the Mystic. It was such a fun idea that someone at WOTC came up with. My own fav was the soulknife.
Unfortunately, I do understand why it was never officially published. It was a class that was too easy to break. That even without power gaming, could outperform the majority of the core classes in their own niche for most of the level curve. Add in the fact that it was a much more complicated class when compared to the rest (and 5e’s design philosophy focusing on simplicity over crunch) it’s no surprise that it never got any further than the UA. Massive shame, but here we are.
I recently made a mystic and might get the chance to play them in a one-shot soon, so this video is kinda perfect timing to learn a bit more about how to play them
I am actually playing a slightly customized version of a mystic where I start off with less psi points and a lower limit but end up with more psi points than the original mystic. Since we figured out that the most broken part was early level, seeing as you basically got the ability to cast the equivalent of 2nd level spells at lvl 1 which was kinda broken.
Just as an example at lvl 1 you have a psi limit of 2 normally. Meaning you can take the Discipline Giant Growth. Giant Growth has a Focus that increases your reach by 5 feet. It also has the ability Ogre Form, which gives you 10 temp hp, an additional 1d4 bludgeoning damage on hit, an additional 5 feet reach and makes you large if you weren't already as a bonus action. Mind you this ability is concentration, but still.
This means that at lvl 1, if you were using a reach weapon and a race that has a flying speed. You could fly 20 feet above an enemy and use a glaive to keep smacking him for 1d10+str+1d4 and have 10 temp hp on top of that. And because it only takes a bonus action to activate it, you can attack in the same turn you activated this in.
So yes they are broken as is. At certain levels of course. I recommend trying to balance it out a little bit since the concept is indeed amazing!
One of my favorite DnD podcasts has a mystic as one of their main 3 characters :D
I use the mystic UA as cool powers to give to my players, or make magic items out of the powers. There's loads you can do with it.
Was playing a homebrew short game of SpellJammers. One of my players made a monk based on River Tam (Firefly) so I gave her 9 psi pts and the Precognition discipline at lvl 5. It was epic.
Good thing r/UnearthedArcana and creatives like Laserllama are out there delivering much better balanced iterations of 5e content without scrapping good designs, like the 5e Warlock. LL's version of the Mystic is just one of several of their designs built off of Pact Magic, and Short Rest game balance, and I feel that reverting casters back to being Long Rest-dependent across the board isn't the game fix that WotC thinks it will be.