[RPG] What does Psionic Mastery actually do

dnd-5emysticpsionicsunearthed-arcana

This is part of the Psionic Mastery description from the Unearthed Arcana Mystic rules:

Beginning at 11th level, your mastery of psionic
energy allows you to push your mind beyond its
normal limits. As an action, you gain 9 special psi
points that you can spend only on disciplines
that require an action or a bonus action to use.
You can use all 9 points on one discipline, or you
can spread them across multiple disciplines. You
can’t also spend your normal psi points on these
disciplines; you can spend only the special points
gained from this feature.

I think this explanation is lacking, and I didn't find clarifications around.

When I use my action to activate this new type of psi points, do I also choose the disciplines I want, and they take effect altogether? Or do I need one turn to activate this ability and then another turn to use one discipline, etc. until I finish this pool? Finally, Disciplines are a block of several options, what does it mean when I choose to use these bonus points; is the entire block unaccessible with regular psi points?

Best Answer

As Unearthed Arcana rules, this writing is a bit unpolished. Here's how I understand it:

You spend your action and gain the psi points; that's all you get from that action (the rule says you gain points that you "can" spend, not that you gain points and spend them). Those psi points are tracked separately from your normal pool.

Whenever you use a discipline later to create an effect, you choose whether to spend your normal psi points or your special psi points on that effect. You can't mix and match for a single use of an effect, but I see no rule that prohibits spending special psi points on one effect and then spending normal psi points on an effect from the same discipline.

If one were to interpret the rules to say that using special points locked a discipline from being available via normal points, there would need to be some rule that explained when that lock expired. Since there isn't such a rule, the rule against mixing point types must only apply to a single use of an effect.

Related Topic