Psionic Playtest thoughts

Wizards of the Coast released a playtest of the Awakened Mystic class at the beginning of the summer. The class looks, at first cut, to be working to wrap most of the previous psionic classes into a single base class, though your specific order appears to affect the flavor of the class drastically.

Recently, the results of a feedback survey were posted, and seem to indicate the rules were generally well received.

I’m interested to see if anybody here has played the class, and if so, what do you think about it?

For my part, I’m playing an awakened mystic in an online Planescape game, and I’m finding it interesting.

It’s possibly because we’re running through the old modules, and those really don’t take mind-reading and such into account, but I’m finding it breaks expectations in some places, and the class could be a real pain for a DM to deal with in non-combat situations. I’ve always loved Object Reading and that they give it to you as a part of the class is excellent. However, a lot of “mystery” situations are somewhat broken by the existence of that power.

I’m also having a lot of fun with the spy-token from Object Reading; my PC starts his day by preparing a whole bunch of them using innocus items, and has been either handing them out to NPCs to spy on, leaving them in places of interest, or passing them off to fellow PCs – a nice guard against “splitting the party”

Combat-wise though … I find plinking away with Mind Thrust to be less than inspiring. Sure, it’s gonna hit a lot but at 1d8, it’s kinda meh …

Overall, I find I really like the class, and I’m looking forward to what they do in the revisions.

From what I read on Mike Mearls twitter, I expect an expanded UA for psionics in November or December. Hope it is true and not delayed.

I am currently playing an Awakened Mystic in the Order of the Immortal. It’s like the Psychic Warrior. I’m liking it a lot. He’s fun and interesting to play. Granted I’ve only just started and am at 1st level, but being able to turn a weapon attack into save vs. half has saved us quite often. I would love to be able to combine disciplines later on, but as they all require concentration, I don’t think that’s possible as of now following RAW. I think Celerity mixed w/any of the other disciplines would be downright nasty, but that may be my inner munchkin talking.

From what I read on Mike Mearls twitter, I expect an expanded UA for psionics in November or December. Hope it is true and not delayed.

Ah, that’s good to know. I think this is the first class they’ve tried to work out via Unearthed Arcana, so I wasn’t really sure what the expected turnaround time is. The general public playtest of 5e isn’t necessarily a good guide for how things work out after the fact. :smile:

Hey guys. I am new here but an experienced D&D player and dm. I am just getting back into the hobby and want to run a 5e Dark Sun Campaign with my local players. I have looked a good bit into the Dark Sun conversions but am curious if anyone has expanded upon the Awakened Mystic yet? I would like to see the full class options from lvl 1-20 since I already have a couple players interested in the psionic classes. I apologize for thread necro, but this is a question I would love to see answered. Ty guys.

Greets all …
My GM recently came across these plates rules and was willing to let me give it a try.
We are currently playing 5th edition.
I have a human monk of 5th lvl and am now currently 2nd ln mystic and have taken the school of the Immortal.
I have taken celerity as my first subject and iron durability as my second.
It’s incredible how much floor space I can cover in a single combat.
I’m not high dmg, but I’m where I’m needed with minimal headaches.
Flank with fighter and/or rogue. Slide over to the cleric for heals or to hand out potions.
Bail out the Wizz once things heat up !
MOBILITY is my Forte and I am it’s Master.

This bugs the GM a bit !
It’s not breaking the game, I run out out psi points in 2 battles if I’m not carefull.
We are an advanced group. And the GM is a great tactition, so the fights can be a bit “by the seat of your pants” kind of deal.
So basically I love it so far and the GM doesn’t hate it !! Lolz

That’s interesting to hear.

I could see dipping a couple levels into Rouge so you can pick up the Dash action and get even more movement … though there’s probably a fair bit of competion for what you spend your Bonus action on already …

I just downloaded Gabriel Zenon Wach’s “Dark Sun Player’s Handbook for 5e” - Thank you Gabriel - but could not figure one thing out. How is the psion class expected to work without all the psionic powers? Because Gabriel’s handbook does not have any list of psionic powers.
Back in 3.5 and 2e I used to have the “psionic’s handbook”.
Is anyone actually working on a 5e psionic’s handbook? If not, how I am supposed to be playing a psion?

I played in a couple of games at the local gaming store. I was a awakened mystic. I did not like it much at 1st level. Seemed very limited. But at 2nd level I multi-classed into Rogue and the 2 classes worked well together. To me, I do not know if the class can stand well on its own, compared to the others. But is does seem like it could work well when combined with other classes.

I’ve been playing in an online game for the last few months as the “telepath” variant.

It’s a frighteningly powerful social class, and you can sometimes use the “belives one thing to be true” power to devistating effect. In combat, however … Outside of taking the high PP risk of puppeting an opponent for a round, it largely plays one-note. Sort of like the Warlock _eldarich blast_ing everyone, except I don’t even get the joy of to-hit rolls.

I would be unsurprised to see the Object-Reading power nerfed, or moved into a domain. It’s potent in an intrigue-style game, and it’s the sort of thing that you should at least have to pay for, I think.

That said, I do really like the domain setup and the psionic focus mechanic, and I love the mind vault disicpline. I also suspect that taking that displine, and forgoing some of the more combat poentent disciplines is why my bullet-time feels so monotonous – it’s more in the build…

So, generally – I really like the take on the class, and it definatly feels different than playing any other class, which is important. Some tweaking and balancing is still needed, but overall: :thumbsup:

http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/S1-JaoT0

Try this out I used his 5e conversion and expanded on it

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Thanks a lot!:smile: