A Mystic with Magic Initiate...

[Aleister VII]

So yeah I'm gonna play an UA Mystic that happens to be a variant human and I decided to give her magic initiate, what cantrips and spells should I take?

Ahem... let me explain the build so far before start suggesting, scores are 8 strength, 16 dexterity, 13 constitution, 16 Intelligence, 10 wisdom and 8 charisma, the PC is level 3 and is from the order of the awakened, the disciplines chosen are psychic assault to deal damage, psychic disruption to debuffing the foes, mastery of wood and earth for the wall that has a ton of HP, the focus that gives me extra AC and animate weapon seems useful too and mastery of force mainly for inertial armor.
The idea so far is have a high AC (inertial armor + 3 DEX mod. + mastery of wood and earth focus = 18 AC Without using an armor) and go Nova once in a while with psychic assault or screw my enemies with psychic disruption and play the smart detective with psionic investigation.
Mind Thrust is to be able of attack at no cost after burn all of my resources and Delusion is the mystic version of minor illusion.
I'm planning to grab mastery of ice and telepathic contact later on when I've more psi points to spend and my limit is bigger.

So back to magic initiate, I'm divided between taking cleric for guidance and bless or warlock for Hex, why Hex? The extra damage is enough reason to consider it but it also gives disvantage in one save of my chose, and almost all disciplines and mystic stuffs rely on saves so hex will not only increase my damage output but also the odds of a successful save or suck like... broken will, psychic domination, phantom betrayal, phantom idea and so on.

Guidance however is spamable as hell and has unlimited uses and bless also help my teammates, cleric also has bane...

So what magic initiate cantrips and spell should I go for? I'm missing something? Or I better pick ritual caster to get find familiar and others utility rituals?

[MagneticKitty]

Wizard: find familiar or feather fall
Prestidigitation / minor illusion
Ray of frost / firebolt
I like having a save and an attack roll cantrip.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Wizard to get another attack cantrip isn't a bad idea; if you run into a psychic resistant foe, or even just one with good saves, you might have some trouble.

Also, grab Mastery of Ice early; that 20-temp-hp thing is ludicrously good in the early game.

[Aleister VII]

Also, grab Mastery of Ice early; that 20-temp-hp thing is ludicrously good in the early game.

That's a valid point to consider... I'll exchange wood and earth for ice then, after all it also has a wall and one that also inflict damage xD

Reminds me armor of Agathys... may as well rename it "Wall of Agathys" xD

[8wGremlin]

Careful with Hex;


Until the spell ends, you deal an extra 1d6 necrotic damage to the target whenever you hit it with an attack
it triggers whenever you HIT, so any saving throw attacks wont work.

I'd pick ritual magic for find familiar and perhaps unseen servant.
you can as you go up level get more rituals added, especially Leomund's tiny hut, water breathing etc.
In games I have found this to be invaluable

[Ganymede]

So back to magic initiate, I'm divided between taking cleric for guidance and bless or warlock for Hex, why Hex? The extra damage is enough reason to consider it but it also gives disvantage in one save of my chose, and almost all disciplines and mystic stuffs rely on saves so hex will not only increase my damage output but also the odds of a successful save or suck like... broken will, psychic domination, phantom betrayal, phantom idea and so on.


Hex gives disadvantage to one type of ability check. It does not affect saving throws.

[8wGremlin]

Careful with Hex;


Until the spell ends, you deal an extra 1d6 necrotic damage to the target whenever you hit it with an attack
it triggers whenever you HIT, so any saving throw attacks wont work.

I'd pick Ritual Magic for find familiar and perhaps unseen servant.
you can as you go up level get more rituals added, especially Leomund's tiny hut, water breathing etc.
In games I have found this to be invaluable

If you are allowed UA planescape stuff, then look at quicksmithing, which is like Ritual Magic Plus

[Exocist]

Wizard to get another attack cantrip isn't a bad idea; if you run into a psychic resistant foe, or even just one with good saves, you might have some trouble.

Also, grab Mastery of Ice early; that 20-temp-hp thing is ludicrously good in the early game.

If we're talking about grabbing good things, wouldn't Mind Slam be a better choice than Mind Thrust - it does Force damage and knocks creatures prone for -2 damage (another -2 every time it goes up a dice). Sure it's a more commonly resisted save, but most of the Mystic's saves are INT or WIS based, so having a STR save could actually be beneficial over having another INT save.

[Alderic78]

I would grab a cantrip with an attack roll, mystics are kinda lacking in that area. Most of their stuff is save based.

[Aleister VII]

If we're talking about grabbing good things, wouldn't Mind Slam be a better choice than Mind Thrust - it does Force damage and knocks creatures prone for -2 damage (another -2 every time it goes up a dice). Sure it's a more commonly resisted save, but most of the Mystic's saves are INT or WIS based, so having a STR save could actually be beneficial over having another INT save.

Strength is fairly common and I already can do that with the mastery of force grapple-thing as well as pushing or moving foes, it consumes Psi points but does the job and much better than a simple push and I'll pick Fire bolt as my attack roll cantrip, it's the most common element but the best damage dealing cantrip is Eldritch Blast and I lack the CHA to use it so it's Fire Bolt, I also considered chill touch, ray of frost and even the acid bubble whose name I can't remember but neither gives me enough potential damage that's what I'm looking for an at will attack.

That being said Mind Slam's push can be quite useful when combined with pits and things like flaming sphere or rolling flame from mastery of fire or the likes and there aren't too many talents to chose from so I'll eventually pick it or energy beam, the later is like chromatic orb lite and can deal with most resistances and exploit weaknesses but if you can convince your DM you can abuse of it to meld stuffs with the acid energy, froze water with the cold and start fires with the fire energy, it doesn't specify that it can do any of these things but it's just logical to assume that if a fire attack strikes something flammable it will start a fire or that acid melts things upon contact and so on, but then again this is DM dependant and mind slam is much more clear and consistent in what it does.

Oddly enough I pick Prestidigitation as my other cantrip, it is mostly for RP purposes but It's just too flavorful and thematic to say no, however I actually came up with some combos between Prestidigitation and Delusion, I can create the image of some delicious looking food with later and create an equally delicious smell with the former, it can be a good distraction or if I'm hidden and about to be find I can do the opposite, use delusion to create the image of something gruesome or foul and then create a foul smell, chances are that whoever is about to uncover me will just say "yuck!" And stop looking for me in that direction.

Also I pick find familiar as my level 1 spell, having a familiar is just too good and profitable in many ways, for flavor I'll pick a weasel but mechanically the owl is supposed to be the best familiar.

[8wGremlin]

Also I pick find familiar as my level 1 spell, having a familiar is just too good and profitable in many ways, for flavor I'll pick a weasel but mechanically the owl is supposed to be the best familiar.

The Owl is a good familiar, as it has flyby, which helps deliver touch spells, and an get into and out of trouble.
But I'm not sure that it's the best one for you, as you don't have touch spells.
This frees you to pick some of the other familiars and see what they can offer.


Also as an aside if you took energy ray (talent) and Move Earth and Shape water as your cantrips.
You would be quite the 'Elementalist' type wizard.