Henshin Mystic

UPDATES to this and related trees are incomplete for Update 33. The Mystic tree was substantially re-tooled so much of this chapter may not be expressly useful.

The Henshin Mystic is the long-named and awaited third Prestige line to the Monk class. A handful of items that existed in the game for years (such as Oremi's Ring) were created for this then-unreleased Prestige class.

The Henshin Mystic walks the line between Light and Dark. They are as close to a spellcasting Monk as you'll find in-game without attempting to multiclass with a spellpoint-based caster.

The Mystic uses ki to wield impressive Fire (light) and Force (untyped) damage through weapons and area-of-effect attacks. Specializing in the quarterstaff for fighting, the Mystic's DPS shine against persistent hordes. They also gain bonuses to Spell Power that augment their attacks.

In their most advanced training in Tier 5, the Mystic can use Force damage to obliterate an enemy instantly. They may also choose a special ki attack from their opposite Philosophy, allowing the Mystic the incredible ability to use all of the Light and Dark Monk's core finishing moves.

A Henshin Mystic can use their powers to weaken mobs with Fire and Force damage, using tactical melee attacks such as Cleave to further that damage, repeating these attacks indefinitely as they regenerate ki. Because they use a weapon, high-level Mystics have very high damage-per-second.

The key difference with the Mystic lies in the use of the staff, a weapon that is harder to use in stunning something--a practice very common to the unarmed Monk. Damage-per-second and mass damage using the staff and greatly weaponized ki, not stunning, is the trademark of the Mystic.

If you are new to playing a Monk but have experience in playing other melee and spell-casting classes, the Mystic may be of interest to you. However, players new to Monks in general should create a human Shintao Monk to gain a better understanding of the unarmed Monk abilities that do and do not translate to the Mystic's weapon style, the quarterstaff.

As with most class trees, there are core enhancements at the bottom of the tree, which can be selected as you meet level and spent Action Point requirements. Also, many abilities require 2 AP to activate.

Some abilities have ranks where additional AP can be spent to improve that ability. Other abilities also have prerequisites that must be selected before you can choose a particular ability. Remember that a character can have only one Tier 5 class tree, so selecting any Tier 5 ability will lock out the Shintao and Ninja Spy Tier 5 trees.

Core Enhancements

• Riddle of Fire: For each action point spent in this tree, you gain 1 Fire and Force Spell Power, which affects your Monk finishing moves and spell-like abilities. You gain +2 Fire Resistance and enemies have -2 Fire Resistance against your spell-like abilities for each Henshin Mystic core ability you possess. You also gain +1% Fire and Force Spell Critical chance for this and all other core abilities you train.
• Ki Bolt: Cost: 5 Ki, Cooldown: 3 seconds. You fire a ki blast that deals 1d6 fire and 1d4 force damage per two Monk levels to an opponent. The target also gains a stack of Weakened Will, Feeble Fortitude, and Reduced Reflexes (-1 to saving throws, 6 seconds duration, stacking up to 5 times.) A successful Reflex save (DC 10 + Monk level + Wisdom modifier) reduces damage by half. This ability has double normal spell range.
  • Don't underestimate the power of this simple attack, especially as you level and have more ki at your disposal.
  • By level 20, you'll likely get 100 or greater damage with this combined Fire and Force damage per hit--more if the target is particularly vulnerable to either element. With only a 3 second cooldown, it may be more effective in ranged attack for you than a throwing star.
  • Ki Bolt has a tremendously long range that you can utilize to pull individual enemies. A beholder can be killed using this ability, well outside of their Spot and attack range.
  • The ability also debuffs an enemy's saves as you strike them.
• Sounding Staff: While you are centered, any staff you wield is treated as an implement, granting 3 Universal Spell Power per point of enhancement bonus.
  • When throwing your mystical energies around, keep in hand a high-spell power quarterstaff to gain improvements on your spell power.
• Incinerating Wave: Cost: 20 ki, Cooldown: 9 seconds. You produce a wall of ki flame that travels away from you, dealing 1d6 Fire and Force damage plus 1 point of Fire and Force damage per two Monk levels every 2 seconds to all opponents near it.
  • This purplish-wave of destruction is a very effective way to severely damage or destroy mobs such as skeleton hordes. The cooldown was lowered with Update 19.2. This will be your "Go-to" attack for mobs, especially if they are vulnerable to Fire and Force damage.
  • The Wave is a directional attack. You can target enemies above or below with it, not just horizontally.
  • The Wave has exceedingly long range but moves slowly enough that you can outrun your own Wave attack for tactical benefits.
• Cauldron of Flame: Cost: 30 ki, Cooldown: None. You expend a use of Meditation to will flame into the world around you. Enemies around you take 4d10 Fire damage every 2 seconds, increasing by 2d10 Fire damage every 2 seconds that you remain standing in the center of the flames. If you leave the very center of the flames, this effect ends.
  • If you and your party get surrounded, this "stand your ground" effect guarantees that the mob will pay for encircling you. It's a wide area of effect that burns anything. Think of it as a Flame Turret where you become a living version that can choke enemies in a doorway or narrow passage. Be mindful that you have only up to 5 uses of this ability per rest (assuming you trained all ranks of Embracing the Void for extra Meditation turns). Perfect for fighting against swarms of freezing creatures and mummy hordes. Even if you stand still, the effect ends after about 1 minute.
• Serenity: Your understanding of things has evolved to a level that defies description.
  • +2 Wisdom
  • + 10 Concentration
  • +1 Passive ki generation
  • +25 Fire and Force Spell Power
  • +5% Fire and Force Spell Critical chance
  • +2 Fire Resistance
  • Enemies have an additional -2 Fire Resistance against your spells.
    • This final core is based on the remains of the original Monk level 20 capstone enhancement. As Mystics will go through ki rapidly in their fighting, this is an appropriate relocation of this old capstone, especially with extra WIS, Concentration and passive ki regeneration. Update 19.2 updated this ability and other cores with spell critical chances.

Tier 1 Enhancements

• Elemental Words: These elemental vulnerability attacks were formerly those found in the pre-Update 19 Dark Monk enhancements as prerequisites for the Touch of Death strike. They are now found only in the Henshin tree. More detail on these in a later section.
• Henshin Staff Training: +1 to hit and damage with quarterstaves.
  • When using quarterstaves, you do NOT add your inherent damage numbers to your attacks as you would as an unarmed Monk. That is, the only damage comes from the weapon alone (ki attacks notwithstanding) as with other weapon-wielding classes. (Handwraps aren't weapons in the conventional sense). It's key to build up your attack and damage numbers if you plan to be a staff-wielder.
  • These are untyped bonuses, so other attack effects may stack with these, including Staff Training from other class trees.
• Mystic Training: +[1/2/3] to the DC's of your Monk finishing moves.
  • Syncletica nicknames special Tier 1 abilities as "low hanging fruit" since they are inexpensive to obtain and useful for other Monk builds. Maximizing this ability is highly recommended for all Monks to add more DC to ensure that stuns and other finishers will land more reliably.
• Negotiator: +[1/2/3] Bluff, Diplomacy, and Haggle. The cooldown for your Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate are reduced by [0/0/10]%.
  • Use only if you know what you're doing. Ki Shout, in the Shintao class tree, is preferable over cross-class points into Intimidate, Bluff isn't applicable except for Rogue multiclassing, and Diplomacy can be added less expensively. In most instances, a Mystic neither cares to shun Threat or gain too much, unlike a stealthy Ninja Spy or a tanking Shintao.
• Animal Forms: These forms were available to all Monks in the original enhancement format. More detail on these in the section on "Animal Forms."

Tier 2 Enhancements

• Elemental Words: You can select a different ability not chosen in Tier 1.
• Henshin Staff Training: +1 to hit and damage with quarterstaves.
• Quick Strike: Cooldown: 20 seconds. Melee Quarterstaff Attack: Deals +[1/2/3][W] damage. You gain a [5/15/25]% Morale bonus to melee doublestrike for 10 seconds.
  • A highly powerful mode that should work well with Power Attack to remove an attacking mob more rapidly with more damaging attacks. You could use the Lighting the Candle ability (Tier 3) to improve this further. Stacks with Wind Stance's enhancement-based doublestriking bonus but not with doublestrike gear (which also use a Morale bonus).
• Elemental Ki Strikes: This special ki attack are found in all the Monk class trees. Unlike their predecessors in the original enhancements, you may only choose one of these four attacks. See the section "Elemental Ki Strikes" later in this chapter. (You can train other trees to gain other Elemental Ki attacks.)
• Contemplation: +[1/2/3] Concentration and Will saves. Your passive ki regeneration is increased by [0/0/1].
  • More ki regeneration is essential for Mystic fighters. It's strongly recommended to max out this ability as soon as possible.

Tier 3 Enhancements

• Elemental Words: You can select a different ability not chosen in Tier 1 or 2.
• Henshin Staff Training: +1 to hit and damage with quarterstaves.
• Lighting the Candle: Cooldown: 3 seconds. Weapon Stance: While you are centered, you enhance your attacks with Ki flame. Two handed weapons gain On Hit: 1d4/1d6/1d8 Fire damage and On Critical: 1d10/2d10/3d10 Force damage. One handed weapons and handwraps gain On Hit: 1d2/1d3/1d4 Fire damage and On Critical: 1d6/2d6/3d6 Force damage. Your Ki generation on hit is reduced by 1.
  • In combination with Quick Strike from Tier 2, this ability greatly aids in melee damage per second. Watch out in keeping this ability toggled on all times as it can negate or even depreciate your ki pool and regeneration when fighting until you're able to offset its ki degeneration. Don't activate this on fighting Fire-happy enemies such as iron golems and fire elementals.
• Embrace the Void: Gain [1/2/3] Meditation use per rest, and regenerate Ki faster while meditating. While you are meditating, you generate a protective shield which can absorb up to [25/50/100] damage, and is refreshed every 3 seconds.
  • No other class tree shows the ability to add additional Meditation uses, so this ability can give Mystics an opportunity to greatly boost their ki rapidly for an upcoming fight. The temporary protection won't help in the center of a fight, but might absorb "splash" damage if you can find a spot to sit while close to a battle.
  • The extra Meditation turns can also be used with a later core ability, "Cauldron of Flame."
• Ability Score: +1 to any ability score.
  • As Mystics, you'll be taxed in ability points that maximize your staff damage (STR) while keeping WIS and CON high and DEX reasonably high for more AC and Reflex saves. Take advantage of this ability.

Tier 4 Enhancements

• Elemental Words: You can select the ability not chosen in earlier tiers.
• Henshin Staff Training: +1 to hit and damage with quarterstaves.
• Focus: (Requires: Embrace the Void.) While you are meditating, you bring the world around you into focus. The field of focus lasts for 30 seconds from the start of your meditation, and gains power every 3 seconds of your meditation. Each tier of power grants an additional 3 Insight bonus to Universal Spell Power, +1% Insight bonus to hit, and a +2% Insight bonus to weapon damage to all allies within it.
  • This is a buffing action to yourself and the party while you charge up. It's probable that you'd use this just before a boss fight. Focus is passive and activates any time you Meditate.
• Ability Score: +1 to any ability score.

Tier 5 Enhancements

Remember: A character can use Tier 5 abilities from only one class tree. Once you select any of these final Henshin Mystic abilities, those abilities found in the sister tier 5 class trees are locked out.

• Void Strike: Cost: 15 ki, Cooldown: 3 seconds. Void ki melee attack: You have learned to make attacks backed by pure ki energy. On Hit: 10d6 Force damage. On Vorpal: Your enemy is erased from existence.
  • It's the same as the old "Void Strike IV," killer of training dummies. Still a powerful attack that should be taken by any Mystic. This is the only Force ki attack in the game now.
  • See the special note about this ability at the end of this chapter.
  • You must select all Elemental Words to gain this ability.
• Staff Specialization: You gain a +1 Competence bonus to critical damage multiplier and threat range with quarterstaves.
  • By this level of training (and if you've added Improved Critical: Bludgeoning and Two-Handed Fighting feats), you are quite destructive with a quarterstaff, with greater damage from normal and critical hits. While your attacks per second might be slower than when unarmed, your overall damage is likely to be greater, especially with Seeker effects, doublestrike bonuses, high-damage staves, Lighting the Candle and Melee Alacrity.
• Balance in Dawn: Select a melee attack that opposes your philosophy:
  • This is a very unique ki strike. More about this in a moment.

Animal Forms (Tier 1, 2 AP)

These are the enhancements that often trade one benefit at the expense of another. You can only choose one of these animal ranks. Unlike their past incarnations, it's a decent option to consider for a modest amount of AP. Also, these forms will improve automatically at levels 3, 9 and 15 without any additional AP.

• Way of the Clever Monkey: Like a monkey, no trap in the world can catch you. You gain +1 to your haggle skill and all saves against traps, as well as energy resistance 2. At Monk levels 3, 9, and 15, the skill and save bonuses increase by 1 and energy resistance increases by 2.
• Way of the Elegant Crane: Like a crane, you strike with precision and elegance. You gain +1 to your Diplomacy skill, and generate 1 additional ki on critical hits. Your training has left you more fragile than normal, however, and have a -1 penalty to Fortitude saves. At Monk levels 3, 9, and 15, these bonuses and penalties increase by 1.
• Way of the Faithful Hound: Like a hound, you are ever vigilant and at home amidst the pack. You gain +1 to your Listen skill and a +2 bonus to hit flanked opponents. At Monk levels 3, 9, and 15, the bonuses increase by 1.
• Way of the Patient Tortoise: Like a tortoise, you are calm at heart and worries wash over you. You gain +1 to your Concentration skill and 5 additional hit points. At Monk levels 3, 9, and 15, the skill bonus increases by 1 and hit point bonus increases by 5.
• Way of the Tenacious Badger: Like a badger, you are most dangerous when grievously injured. You gain +1 to your Intimidate skill, and whenever you are below 50% health, your passive ki regeneration is increased by 1 and you deal 4% additional damage. Your patience has suffered, however, and you generate ki slower when meditating. At Monk levels 3, 9, and 15, the skill bonus increases by 1 and the damage bonus increases by 2%.

Of these five forms, the Patient Tortoise is often chosen by many since it has no downsides in offering more Concentration and HP.

Mystics should consider the Tenacious Badger as it will add passive ki regeneration and more melee attack damage automatically in tough times. The Embrace the Void ability can be trained later to offset any ki regeneration issues from the Badger form. Alternately, the Way of the Elegant Crane adds additional ki per hit at the expense of Fortitude.

Elemental Ki Strikes

Every Monk class enhancement tree offers you the option to add one of four ki attacks with secondary effects. Each attack uses 5 ki and take 3 seconds to cooldown (same as Form-based ki strikes).

• Eagle Claw Attack: Fire Ki Melee Attack: Your attacks can shatter objects. You strike at weak points in your opponents armor or hide, dealing +2[W] damage and apply two stacks of the Armor Destruction effect. (Each stack reduces Armor Class by 1 and Fortification by 1% for 20 seconds. This effect can stack up to 4 times.)
• A simple way to add a type of Destruction to attacks.
• Fists of Iron: Earth Ki Melee Attack: You have imbued your attacks with extra force. Performs a melee attack with +3[W] damage, +1 critical threat range, and +1 Critical Damage Multiplier.
• A recommended attack with fast cooldown, low ki usage and great benefits.
• Knock on the Sky: Air Ki Melee Attack: You strike your opponent, deflecting their momentum. Performs a melee attack with +1[W] damage, and your enemy deals 2% less physical damage for 30 seconds. This effect can stack up to 5 times.
• Unbalancing Strike: Water Ki Melee Attack: You have learned several joint strikes. You can attack these weak points of your opponent, throwing them off balance for a short period of time. This reduces their armor class by 2, applies a -10 penalty to their Balance skill, and renders them vulnerable to sneak attacks. A successful Reflex save negates this effect (DC 10 + Half Monk Level + Wisdom modifier + Trip modifiers). The target receives periodic saves to attempt to break free of this effect.
• Helpful to those with weapons that give sneak attack damage or others in party with such ability. The bluffing ability turns enemies about, allowing you free attacks.

Elemental Words

As you spend action points, Mystics can also choose touch attacks that make enemies more vulnerable to elemental damage from you and your party. These debuffing attacks formerly existed in the pre-Update 19 Dark Monk enhancement line.

• Static Charge : For the next 30 seconds, any electrical attack targeting your opponents deals 10% more damage.
  • A great curse to use against Arraetrekos in "The Shroud," as he is weak against electrical attacks.
• All-Consuming Flame: For the next 30 seconds, any fire attack targeting your opponents deals 10% more damage.
  • Mummies and most trolls are vulnerable to fire; this effect would be like pouring kerosene on them. Of the four debuffers, this will be your commonly-used since Henshins deliver a lot of fire damage.
• Porous Soul: For the next 30 seconds, any acid attack targeting your opponents deals 10% more damage.
  • All trolls go down faster if you use this (or All-Consuming Flame if not a Fiend type).
• Winter's Touch: For the next 30 seconds, any cold attack targeting your opponents deals 10% more damage.
  • Good against stubborn fire elementals and hellhounds with a Frost staff.

You must learn all four Elemental Words to gain:

• Void Strike: You hit an enemy with massive Force damage. On what would be a vorpal hit, the enemy is erased from existence.

Therefore, only a Henshin Mystic can take advantage of these finishers without a substantial dump of Action Points by non-Henshins into the Henshin Elemental Word abilities, and then selecting Void Strike, a tier 5 ability that, on selection, locks out all other Tier 5 trees.

We hope that the developers will add back a lesser Void Strike attack as an optional feat so that these finishers can be used by non-Henshin players in a later update.

Balance in Dawn: To Master all Finishers

Balance in Dawn allows you to select a ki strike with a powerful effect but one that's opposite of your chosen philosophy.

• Every Light Casts a Shadow: Cost: 15 Ki, Cooldown: 12 seconds. Dark ki melee attack: Perform an attack with +2[W] damage. On Damage: Target suffers 1d4 negative levels. If the target dies within 10 seconds, all nearby enemies suffer 1d2 negative levels.
• Shadows Cannot Exist Without Light: Cost: 15 Ki, Cooldown: 6 seconds. Light ki melee attack: Perform an attack with +2[W] damage. On Damage: Target suffers 1d6 Light damage every 2 seconds for 10 seconds. This can stack up to 10 times. If the target dies within 10 seconds, all allies around the target receive 100 Positive Energy healing. (This healing effect is unaffected by Spell Power.)

Let's break this one down carefully.

Each attack is designed to wallop a target or mob with either negative levels or massive stacking light damage with an healing burst to allies. That's good.

Now consider that a Dark Mystic can use the Shadows Cannot Exist Without Light attack (a Light ki attack) to use the Light Monk's special buffing finishers, such as Aligning the Heavens (25% spell point reduction for 1 minute) or Dance of Clouds (1 minute of 20% concealment) and Grasp the Earth Dragon (anti-stunning of allies for 1 minute).

A Light Mystic can use the Every Light Casts a Shadow attack (a Dark ki attack) to chain up the Dark Monk's debuffing finishers such as Freezing the Lifeblood (paralyzing) or Karmic Strike (guaranteed +1 critical modifier at a HP cost). When you strike something with this attack, they gain one or more negative levels. If you kill it fast enough, all around you gain negative levels. (As of Update 19.3, this means everybody--your enemies, allies and you. Have Death Ward on your party before using it.)

The Henshin Mystic tree (currently) is the only place to find Void Strike, which means it is the only class tree that can use either the Moment of Clarity light finisher or the Curse of the Void dark finisher.

This makes the Henshin Mystic class tree an extremely versatile attacker as they would have access to all finishing moves available in game.

Spell Power

As noted, the Henshin Mystic uses ki-based attacks. As with traditional spell casters, however, the Mystic will gain more damage from their Fire and Force attacks with higher spell power.

The principle of spell power is simplified from older DDO updates. One point of spell power increases the damage or effectiveness of an elemental effect by 1 percent. So if you are holding a quarterstaff that shows "Combustion +10," it means that you get an Equipment bonus of 10 to your Fire spell power, and your fire damage is increased by 10%.

The key issue for the Henshin Mystic is that they aren't classified as a spellcaster, such as a Wizard. As such, the Mystic has no magical training. With that, the Mystic lacks the ability to amplify their spell power as strongly as spellcasters can do, using metamagic feats such as Empower and Maximize.

No metamagics is certainly by developer design (in as far as what's been shown in Update 19). A Henshin Mystic is still a Monk, and therefore a melee character. As with some Monks, you can gain potent spell-like abilities for attack and defense. But the DDO developers don't want to overpower this class tree. (Don't bother trying to add meta-feats by multiclassing. Reports indicate that metamagic feats don't affect Mystic spell power.)

There's two bits of good news. First, the Mystic does gain innate bonuses to spell power as they level up from the core abilities, as well as spell critical chances. Finally, since spell power can be boosted in many ways, there's plenty of options still to increase overall damage. Most importantly, throwing spell-like effects is only half of a Mystic's fighting power.

Another important difference for Mystics to consider is that ki is not generated in significant quantities except in melee combat or Meditation, at least at lower levels. You will see significant improvements here as you approach level 20. See the following section on "Managing your Ki."

To make the most of your ki attacks as a Mystic, you'll need to improve your spell power. Together with your incredible melee power with a staff, you'll have an impressive skill set.

There are several categories to spell power, just like with Armor Class. Many separate categories stack with each other, but only the highest number in a category that's not an innate bonus of the character's training will apply (just as Displacement will overwrite Blur).

These categories are:

Class Enhancement Bonuses. As Mystics, your core enhancements will improve your Fire and Force spell power as you level, and gain spell critical chances, too. These effects stack with all other spell power bonus categories.

Metamagic feats: Not applicable to Henshin Mystics as pure Monks as you don't receive these feats. To repeat: early reports show that metamagics DO NOT effect the Mystic's spell power in a multiclassed character.

Magic items: These effects have several subcategories. Only the highest effect of each subcategory applies to your overall spell power.

Equipment bonuses are often found on quarterstaves (especially those with the Thaumaturgy prefix). They often give specific bonuses. Combustion, for instance, gives Fire bonuses. Potency is a universal that will apply to all spell power equipment bonuses if its number is higher than other equipment bonuses you have.

Implement bonuses are based on the enchantment level of a weapon you're holding, multiplied by 3. Mystics can choose the Sounding Staff core ability at level 6 to grant them Implement spell power bonuses. So, wielding a +3 Quarterstaff, a level 6 Mystic gains 3 * 3, or +9 to their spell power.

Alchemical bonuses are often temporary boosts using potions from vendors. A Potion of Impact or Potion of Inferno, for instance, can be drank to give a modest but useful temporary increase to Force and Fire spell power, respectively. Such potions can be found at vendors found in Houses Jorasco and Kundarak.

Psionic bonuses are rare effects on rarer items. The Xachosian Eardweller from the Dreaming Dark quest chain can add a +25 psionic bonus to Universal (all) spell power.

Your mission, as a Mystic, is to discern the better combinations of gear and training to maximize your Fire and Force damage when using your spell-like abilities.

Carrying alchemical potions for special occasions is advisable, while also wielding quarterstaves with lesser emphasis on the weapon's melee damage and greater emphasis on its spell power.

To mix up both melee and spell power, you could find or craft Combustion and Impulse rings that add Equipment spell power while using a better melee staff. Remember that the Mystic's touch turns any staff into a spellcasting implement to gain natural bonuses.