Mystic Class
Followers of a strange and mysterious form of power, mystics shun the world to turn their eyes inward, mastering the full potential of their minds and exploring their psyches before turning to face the world. In doing so, a mystic must learn and understand the working of mysticism, of which they take their name from. This strange and esoteric school of magic is without question the least understood of all. While it is a school of magic, true mystics, instead of simple mage practitioners of mysticism, do not rely on the use of magicka to perform their incantations or rituals. While it differs from magicka in origin, but the effects are much the same.
After months of review and revisions, we're excited to share the mystic class with you. A Tamrielic take on the mystic class from the abandoned mystic from Dungeons & Dragons Unearthed Arcana series. This beefy class is loaded with player options for those who like crunch and choice. The designer of the class, Crimson (who has also dedicated himself to tons of UESTRPG content in the last year, dropping thousands upon thousands of words and dozens of stat blocks to enjoy), has provided a bunch of background information about creation of the class, to give you all a glimpse of the thought process involved in this massive endeavor.
I hope you enjoy it as much as we do and let us know what you think!
Designer Notes
The concept of the mystic came about as numerous individuals had inquired about the possibility of introducing the UA mystic into UESTRPG. As it is well understood in the 5e communities, the mystic isn't table friendly as-is. Some massive and subtle changes would be required to correct the balance of both the core class and how the disciplines function.
The overall design consideration was a simple approach: how would one go about balancing the mystic class without changing it so dramatically that it no longer felt like the UA mystic? With this as the guiding principle, all other considerations of changes for the class had to adhere to this.
Major Changes
Psi Points & Psi Limit. The first major differences of the v3 UA of the mystic and this version is the redistribution of the psi points and psi limit. The original design was very front half heavy for its resources, much like that of the 5e warlock. Now, the mystic is functionally a 3/4 caster instead. It's psi points are still cheaper than magicka points, but the psi limit now acts like a spell level that keeps the class progressively improving with each level instead of reaching its highest power cap by level 10.
Bonus Disciplines. All mystic orders have had their Bonus Disciplines feature reduced to one, making their discipline maximum up to 9, much like a 5e warlock's innovations known total.
Additional Talents. A few new talent options have been given to the class to help diversify their abilities both inside and outside of combat.
Disciplines. Disciplines have also had a major overhaul. There are now two types of disciplines: psionic disciplines and order disciplines. Psionic disciplines are generally available to be learned by any mystic, whereas some secrets are kept by orders. This is meant to resolve the issue of any mystic being able to be all things at any given time. There was no functional role for the class based solely on subclasses previously, but with the separation of disciplines in this manner, and them being grouped to allow themes and builds that are vastly different for each subclass. An Old Ways and Voice mystic will undoubtedly be played differently from one another, but they should not be pigeonholed into only one build due to the psionic disciplines allowing more versatility to the subclass. Some may complain about this design concept, but it is believed this will resolve the issue that many cited as being a huge issue that plagued the class before.
New disciplines have been added, as well as some have been removed for thematic reasons; such as diminution. Other disciplines have been renamed to better fit new themes. In some cases, portions of disciplines have been switched for the purpose of maintaining the theme of the subclass. In all cases, each discipline has no more than three ways it can be used. This was done due to the nature of disciplines vs spell dilemma. Each discipline produces several spell-like abilities, and if one considers there being 3 different spells per discipline, and a mystic can have upwards of 9 disciplines, that would equate with 27 spell-like effects, thereby making it more on par with a full spellcaster's max number of spells they would know or prepare of 25. Mathematically, if the mystic were a true 3/4 caster it would have a max number of 19 spell-like effects, or only 6 disciplines. Being aware of the massive backlash that design consideration would unleash, the discipline was only reduced by one to try to reign in their power creep.
Mystical Orders. All mystic subclasses have been redesigned to be specific to UESTRPG. Some portions of the previous classes were able to be incorporated, such as the Soul Knife was largely the same as the Ansei, and some changes were made to better reflect the themes or for the purpose of balance. Some of the subclasses were completely cut, such as the Order of the Avatar and were replaced with new subclasses such as the Order of the Voice or Worm.
Strength of Mind. This feature had a singular flaw in it that arose from mutliclassing. A class in which a player did not have a starting Willpower saving throw would not gain any benefit of this feature. As it is now presented, the player can change any mental (Intelligence, Personality, or Willpower) saving throw into any other for the duration of the feature. While not a perfect solution, it still maintains the intended theme for the class's feature.
Potent Psionics. Potent Psionics was changed to reflect some of the new concepts that have been since introduced in psionic subclasses with the changing of the dice sizes. But adding your attribute modifier to talents was removed. This is due to the fact that it took the idea of both Divine Strike and Potent Cantrips from the cleric and gave them both as a single feature. It is believed that as a general whole, talents should be increased in damage output via a subclass feature instead of the core class. The unarmed and weapon increase from this version of Potent Psionics should help to keep up with other classes for damage.
For those who wish a ranged caster instead of a melee build, an optional class feature replacement (Potent Talents) allows this to resolve any personal preference on using talents as their primary attack.
Consumptive Power. Consumptive Power had a small but functionally important change. Instead of healing, the feature instead grants temporary hit points. This is meant to address any possible exploitation of this feature while still being helpful in combat each round. Thematically, instead of being healed, this would be more akin to one's mental resolve, very much mind over matter and body.
Psi Limit Break. The most significant change for the core class is the new feature that replaced Psionic Mastery with Psi Limit Break. The original feature was bulky, poorly worded, and incredibly unbalanced as it allowed players to maintain concentration on several disciplines at once. Instead, a simple solution was to give the mystic a means to push past their mental and physical limitations to grant some burst damage. Using this feature they can increase their psi limit for a turn and can use two ‘standard’ action disciplines in that same turn as long as the psi points used for both of these disciplines does not go past this new limit on that turn. Which acts somewhat like a Twinned Spell but with disciplines.
Tonal Architect. The Tonal Architect subclass is designed to rely on their Dwemer construct as a means of increasing their damage output. Unlike other companion subclasses that bar a companion from using its multiattack, this is not the case of the Tonal Architect. An 18th level mystic of this subclass would be able to summon a Dwemer centurion which can make two attacks, or its special attack as a means of keeping the subclass comparable to the other subclasses and it is gifted a unique talent as an offensive boon for the build in addition to their possible mechanized weaponry as a backup option.
Worm. The Worm is designed to play as an offensive controller that can be utilized in either melee or ranged combat. The worm has the unique ability to offer one of its extra attacks to be used by one of its undead thralls, similar to that of the Beast Master ranger.
