D&D's Forgotten Class (And How to Play It) 

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 👀

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 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.

definitly. together with the Vedalken

Eberron too. It's always been hinted psyonics are used in Sarlona

Turns out people who liked playing the very different caster class weren't thrilled when said class becomes not only far more conventional but also more limited. Couldn't have seen that one coming... On a more serious note I will say the first Warlock revision was actually a really good foundation for creating an arcane Paladin or Ranger. If they had split off neoWarlock (or WARlock if you will) from actual Warlock and developed the two in very different directions I think that would have been great for the game overall.

@@NXPhoenix3 agreed. I think D&D needs a d8 arcane half-caster to fill the Gish niche. I and many others have homebrewed something to fill this void. A lot of people say artificer filled that niche and I definitely hear that argument, but I don’t think the artificer quite FEELS like it because of its theming and spell list and lack of martial core class abilities.

Not only did they return Pact Slots but the Warlock also got some really nice buffs.

let's be real, paladin is the perfect gish stat wise and what we really need is just an int paladin with different spells and different coloured smites.

You mean tested like they "tested the OGL changes to see how people would react to them"? Because to me it just feels like yet another tone-deaf move that resulted in a ton of backlash to they backpedaled in a panic.

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

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

Almost like "pact magic, but spell points!"

@@daiedalous honestly a much better way to put it

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.

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.

Lock yourself to one discipline

Correction: Lock yourself to disciplines under the umbrella of your chosen subclass

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 😉

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". 🐦

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.