Need some help with a Mystic character.

[Wilb]

Well, I've loved the mystic and, as my main group's main campaign is ending this week after a couple years,  we've been asked to make characters for a short campaign that may grow into a full fledged one if the group likes it and I thought of making one for it.

We can use all wotc material, including UAs (obviously), but no 3rd party stuff. We'll start at 4th level and our attributes are rolled but you can expect at least a 17. (Our method is to have every player roll 4d6b3 6 times then each player in the group then may choose anyone's array to use, and they can choose the same array multiple times, with no limit)

I want my character to be someone specialized in manipulating his presence, looking meek and useful when he wants to, being utterly unable to be detected or tracked otherwise. His backstory is that he is a prefect is a rural village and he does his best to deal with corrupt officials of an aloof but good-hearted king, using his abilities (that no one else knows about) to evade assassination attempts and dodging legal loophole abuses until the officials are caught and hanged for their crimes, then he is rewarded with a title and some land, but he insists on keeping his position as prefect to keep a low profile, using his new servants to do the job while he travels the world to sate his long repressed curiosity.

He is a NN non-monstrous humanoid (V.Human? something else?) and I am torn on him being either an awakened or a nomad. He prefers to not get his hands dirty with unsavory stuff but is otherwise helpful to others who seem helpless. He probably should have a "gtfo button" and he hates being caught. He enjoys his options and having a leverage in any dealing with those he believes are not beneath him.

Any help on background, feat, subclass & discipline choice?

[Nunkuruji]

I'll comment on my basis of being familiar (as a DM) with the Mystic, with the assumption that you'll make it to 6th, and at most ~10th level. The mystic has most of its capabilities once their psi limit hits 7 at 9th level anyways. Unfortunately, haven't yet had any sessions with the new ruleset.

Awakened
Psionic Investigation is good, assuming there is a level of intrigue in the game. If it's largely combat against straightforward or unintelligent creatures, not so much.
Psionic Surge and the other psychic focus burnout abilities I do not like, as they don't really make up for losing it.

Nomad
All the abilities are useful without drawback

At 4th Disciplines
2 Order
2 Generic

The order disciplines for Nomad/Awakened fall in line with some of the personality aspects.

Mystic lacks an equivalent to Disguise Self in terms of presence, but you can skill into Disguise Kit.

Chameleon grants some great concealing abilities, but it can be resource intensive. It is not quite as combat action efficient as the Rogue's Cunning Action.

Nearly all the Awakened disciplines have options for basically manipulating your presence by either messing with your enemies or allies heads, but I can't comment much on them in play.

Celerity I've seen be a life saver in both escaping and aiding allies, but I believe it's changed a bit since the last revision.

The Nomad teleports all require LoS, so not going to get you out of a swallow situation.

Psychic Assault / Mind Thrust is probably your bread and butter damage. Psionic Blast notably has no roll/save. Granted, constructs and a few others are immune to psychic, so have an alternative.

That said Psychic Weapon is an option, even with a ranged weapon. Again, it changed since last revision, it's Psychic Focus & Lethal Strikes are looking less attractive, particularly in earlier levels, and with regards to bonus actions. Same consideration of psychic damage type. My player is currently using this with Handbow / Crossbow Sniper.

The combination of Precognition and Lucky can go a long way towards skewing rolls in your favor.

If you're playing a module, and it hands out treasure, you might consider Wu Jen and ask for Arcane Dabbler to count as Wizard class for magic item attunement (or just ask for it outright on full caster attune items). Certainly if no one else is playing a wizard.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

1 Blind Spot , use x-bow

dip Lock 2 but not for the usual EB combo
take the Disguise Self atwill and Friends cantrip

Mind Thrust at level 5 for Mystic 3 / Lock 2
puts you right in the middle, take concept for everything else.

[sambojin]

If it is a combatty campaign, you could go Immortal w/ Bestial Form, Iron Durability, Nomadic Mind and whatever your chosen awakened discipline is. With Blind Spot talent for a bit of stealth and another talent to taste (Energy Beam to spread save types, or Mind Thrust probably).

It has plenty of durability, some non-concentration escapes and movement types, a bit of investigation and stealth, but not a lot else. In fact, no real damage psi's either, but the last choice is completely open, so it doesn't have to be an awakened one. Psychic Phantoms can be good though, as the basic damage power is always useful for your melee tanks or stabbers, and the DoT one can be very PP efficient later on and requires no extra input but concentration and saving rolls. The BFC on offer later in the discipline is nice too, and fits your character overview well.

Grab another mind bending one at 5th and you're laughing. You could easily drop Iron Durability and choose either Nomad or Awakened as subclass, but I'd keep Bestial Form because it's quite versatile and the constant tempHP from Immortal is very nice for any character.

Tough enough to survive and escape is one way of doing it. There's heaps in the UA as ways of doing this sort of character, so I figured I'd offer a bit of a defensive style variation with some openness left up to you, because most things are ok in Mystic with high enough Int anyway.

[Wilb]

Thanks for the help guys, We're rolling stats tomorrow and next week we'll probably start. After I get them I'll post some builds here.

Nunkuruji, intrigue and all NPC interactions will play a big part in it, as said by the DM, he hinted that it will all take place in or near some kind of large water body, dealing with inter city conflict between 3 port cities, with mafia, smuggling, "deep ones" cultists, etc.  He also said that he is intent in testing Wotc's combats-per-day number, so 6 or so before a long rest. I guess he intends on having the group travelling or being exposed to some long term danger during trips between these cities or while investigating stuff in them.

Awaken & Sambojin, I'll surely consider your suggestions, and, as everyone will probably declare what they'll play tomorrow, I'll know what the party lacks and try to build it to round the group, considering the combat marathon that we'll face sometimes.

[sambojin]

Depending on just how rural the character's village was, and the level of multi-classing allowed, you could go for something a little more BS.

Moon Druid 2/ Immortal Mystic 2 w/ Iron Durability, Bestial Form, Nomadic Mind.

Swim bear thinky tank. Keep levelling into Mystic from that point onward. Grab Druid 3 if you ever really want Pass without Trace.

Constantly moving stat-based AC depending on Wildshape (10+Dex+Con, so usually better than natural armour, but you didn't have to assign any stats to it), +3AC for focusing on Iron Durability and having Tough Hide going for combat. With quite a large amount of versatility in disguise (as a domestic animal) and escape (horsies run quick). Even flying bear eventually! TempHP from Immortal kicks in next level, so you make a tanky thing tankier. And another discipline so you can begin the mind-screwery or blasting.

Starts sucking in melee combat at around lvl6-7, but most moon druids do anyway, and your Mystic side should be doing plenty for you by then. Powers can be used in Wildshape in most cases, so you lose nothing mystically magical in bear-form, just your druid stuff, and you've got telepathy to speak with when needed too.

You'll lag in psi points and powers to be used quite a bit, but you'll love the tempHP and Wildshape free HP if it's a bit of a grindy campaign. Your psi still scales beautifully, just not as quickly as it would, but it stacks with everything Wildshape'y so is very handy regardless. All investigation scrying is available to you straight away for basic information, but you're also a straight up melee tank for the party, so you definitely "fill a spot" in party makeup regardless of what others choose. You can even go diving in the sea if you want. You've just got to weigh the acceptability of being a bear in a city compared to the usefulness of being the average house-cat or rat in one. Depends on how common Druid BS is in that gameworld I guess.

It's dumb, so I haven't mentioned Druid/Mystic synergy so far, but it's a reasonable backup plan.


(scrap that whole "falling off" in combat potential later on thing. Bestial Claws is so openly worded that you'll stay relevant regardless. A LOT of d10+Str attacks are available per day, all at once, especially as you get more mystic levels. On top of all the other very handy stuff in the discipline)

[Wilb]

Well, some good news and some bad news.
The bad news is that there will be no multiclassing if one uses UA material, even if its just a feat.
The good news is that while most arrays were horrid, the one almost everyone chose (including me) was 16 16 16 11 10 6.  I don't think I've ever had a character with a 6 stat. What race should I pick and what stat should I dump to hell?

[sambojin]

Here's a helpful little doc that includes all the stat alterations of all the races in one handy place:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PhQ933l3svEnqREAYwPKwJOlxPFK5R4s1TwwZ4Xem8Y/mobilebasic

and another, slightly more comprehensive one:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzptumctKD_HUmJ3NnFHTFNJQ0k/view


You know I want to say gnome, just for the +Int, but I'm not sure it's needed with that stat array. Firbolg actually seems quite nice for everything "your character does", but whether that fits your background story and gameworld correctly is another thing entirely, and the stats aren't exactly what a mystic needs (although they're not bad). It'd let you dump Str and still carry at least a bit of stuff with the Large size-carry bonus.


When you say no-UA multiclass feats, does this mean no feats at all for a UA character?

[Wilb]

You know I want to say gnome, just for the +Int, but I'm not sure it's needed with that stat array. Firbolg actually seems quite nice for everything "your character does", but whether that fits your background story and gameworld correctly is another thing entirely, and the stats aren't exactly what a mystic needs (although they're not bad). It'd let you dump Str and still carry at least a bit of stuff with the Large size-carry bonus.

When you say no-UA multiclass feats, does this mean no feats at all for a UA character?

Sorry for not being clear, it means that if you use UA material on your character, you can't multiclass. Not just classes or subclasses, if you take a UA feat, even with a basic human champion, you can't multiclass.

EDIT= Due to DM circumstances, we had to postpone the game for two weeks...

[sambojin]

Ok, cool.

Half-elf isn't too shabby either. 6 Str, 16 Dex, 16 Con, 17 Int (+1), 12 Wis (+1), 12 Char (+2). Add two points to Int at your 4th level for a nice 19, but it's still an odd number. Choosing the Observant feat (+1 Int, so 18 Int) instead doesn't actually make you lose anything, and really makes up for crappy Wis at 4th level for any passive perception checks you need to make. Or you could throw that odd point into Str for a tiny bit more carry capacity. Or throw it at Con with the thought of taking the Resilience (Con) or Warcaster feat at 8th-12th level. But I'd go Observant at 4th, and +2 Int at 8th as the best levelling option.

You can skill out if you'd like for stealth (or just grab it from background), take elf weapons (you're a pretty reasonable archer), grab a wizard cantrip to round out character design, or grab Mask of the Wild for alternate stealth options.

Quite durable, can handle dex weapons a bit, good saves for when you change out your Wis proficiency for Dex or Con, and plenty of Int for all the mystical goodness.

Your strength might suck, but you're a pretty well rounded character. Half-elf heritage explains the petty lords' hate of you, having a wizard cantrip is handy, and the character seems pretty playable with that stat array. Not great Wis, but not too terrible with Observant either (passive perception is about all you'll use it for anyway). You can do a lot of Mystic-talky later on, or even just take the Friends cantrip, so low charisma isn't really a problem for you. Lots of options, and they all fit what you've described, all with nice stats to use them with.



I'd still be tempted to go Immortal w/Iron Durabilility, Bestial Form, Nomadic Mind and Psychic Phantoms. Probably with Blind Spot and Energy Beam as talents.

It's a little combat focused, but you'll get another discipline at 5th if you really want something else to do. 17AC without armour when focused on Iron Durability (can boost it a bit when needed), 4 tempHP a turn, and you just talent blast and Distracting Figment all the things when damage is needed (or fire a crossbow at it or use a vs-AC wizard cantrip if you chose one).

There's plenty of other good disciplines, but at lvl4, this is probably all you'll need for RP and to survive fairly easily. At 5th, you can grab something far nicer.

[8wGremlin]

Slightly different approach -

DEEP GNOMES (SVIRFNEBLIN)
(+1 Dex, +2 Int)

Str: 6, Dex: 16 (+1) , Con: 16, Int: 16 (+2), Wis:10 , Cha: 11
Str: 6, Dex: 17 , Con: 16, Int: 18, Wis:10 , Cha: 11

This will give you a starting INT of 18
you have all the normal great gnome racial abilities and the following:

• Darkvision120 feet.
• You have Advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks to hide in rocky terrain.
• Extra Language - Undercommon.

@ level 4 you take Svirfneblin Magic
 This ability allows you to cast nondetection on yourself at will, without needing a material component. You can also cast each of the following spells once with this ability: blindness/deafness, blur, and disguise self. You regain the ability to cast these spells when you finish a long rest. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

Non-detection really helps here it lasts 8 hours and for the duration, you can hide a target that you touch from divination magic. The target can be a willing creature (yourself) or a place or an object no larger than 10 feet in any dimension. The target can’t be targeted by any divination magic or perceived through magical scrying sensors.

Now Mystic: Order of the Awakened - this will give you 2 more skills and with your good INT you should take Investigation.
@ 3rd level you get Psionic Investigation - this allows you to read items and also set up short term remote scrying as well.
@ 4th level you will have 2 Awakened Disciplines and 2 others, plus 2 Talents.

for your Talents, I suggest: Mind Thrust, for pure damage dealing. and Mystic Charm for well charming people

Awakened Disciplines: Psychic Assult, Telepathic Contact
General Disciplines: Mastery of Light and Darkness (for shadow beasts) and Bestial Form for utility, AC bonus and close combat if needed.
 
@8th level you might want to take Moderately Armored feat; this gives you +1 dex and both medium armour and shields, substantially upping your AC.