D&D: The Mystic Returns – Mike Mearls Makes Mystics…Maybe
Mike Mearls sits down to work on more psionics–picking the Mystic back up, though now it’s the Psion, and delving into step one, identifying just what this class does.
If you have been following the D&D community, then you know that there’s a lot coming down the pipe in the coming months. Between adventure in Waterdeep and an as yet unannounced setting book, there’s a lot to get excited about. And with all the work being done on psionics now and the frequency with which Dark Sun is referenced, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see these rules sooner rather than later. July is going to be a very interesting month for gamers. But for now: Psionics, part 1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5qBkEuV-WE
As a result of the twitter poll, the class has been renamed Psion, and as you can see in the video one of the first things Mearls does is sit down to figure out what exists in psionic space. This means looking at classes that would have “psionic subclasses” so not just the Psion, but places where psionic power might manifest, say in a Fighter or a Rogue:
As you can see, there’s already space in the game for psionics to slide in neatly. Especially in its most current iteration as a set of spells that are restricted to ‘psionic’ classes and subclasses that specifically gain access to them. No need to develop a whole new engine to run them off of, but plenty of flexibility in designing unique spells.
But before you can get into all of that, first there’s figuring out what exactly the Mystic/Psion does. So to begin with, Mearls went through the current list of subclasses with the intention of figuring out what each one does, and whether it belonged still as a Psion subclass, or as a psionic subclass for a different class.
As you can see the Immortal got the axe (in more ways than one) being shipped off to be a likely Barbarian subclass. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the Metamorph ends up being grafted onto the Druid chassis–which seems to be where Mearls is heading with this.
All of this psionic news and so recent makes it seem like it’ll be relevant to July’s announcement. Again, nothing is confirmed, but I strongly suspect Dark Sun is getting announced in some fashion next month. And be on the lookout for a more official playtest document for psionics coming soon to an Unearthed Arcana near you.
What do you think about how the Mystic fits in to the game? How would you fit the concept in? And do you think this means we’ll be seeing Dark Sun soon?
