Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana Revisits Psionics

The latest Unearthed Arcana from WotC revisits some psionic rules! “Shine with the power of the mind in this installment of Unearthed Arcana! Today we revisit several psi-themed options that we released in the past few months. Studying your feedback on those options, we’ve crafted this new collection of subclasses, spells, and feats, found in the PDF below.“

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[Paul Farquhar]

I think it's fair to say that the percentage of players and DMs who want something to work a way it last did in 1988 and earlier is probably in the low single digits.

Nope, it's 99% percent of the population of the planet.

I can make up "facts" too.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Nope, it's 99% percent of the population of the planet.

I can make up "facts" too.

So "I think" is claiming something is a fact, now? Wow. Really? What exactly would I have to say to indicate something was an opinion, even if I feel it's a likely one? That doesn't seem remotely like a reasonable or fair position for you to hold.

Make Dark Sun specific Races that grant Psionic access. Done.

How would this work? It seems a little more involved than you're suggesting.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

So "I think" is claiming something is a fact, now? Wow. Really? What exactly would I have to say to indicate something was an opinion, even if I feel it's a likely one? That doesn't seem remotely like a reasonable or fair position for you to hold.

Here is a "fact": you are speaking for yourself, and making sweeping generalisations about what other people want, with no evidence whatever to support it.

 

[Parmandur]

But if WotC really aren't going to give us a Psion-type class, that's clearly internal politics, not "the players have spoken", and it's completely ridiculous. If they do Athas without doing that, it's vandalism.

It isn't "clearly" that at all: they've spent five whole years testing the Psionic space, and gathering feedback. Just because you don't like the results doesn't mean they are unauthentic.

 

[TwoSix]

The biggest stumbling block is (as it always is) convincing people that using 3PP isn't an anathema to enjoyable gameplay. And to all those who constantly refuse to use 3PP because they have this belief that anything 3PP is inherently unbalanced... those people need to learn how to game balance themselves so that they can recognize the 3PP stuff that actually is. Then they can start using all the fantastic stuff that is out there, rather than constantly mope that WotC isn't giving them what they want.

I agree with you, but I think a major stumbling block is that a large section of the most hardcore aren't purely concerned with their own games, they're concerned with defining the edition as a whole. The ones for whom concepts like "canon" actually mean something.

 

[Weiley31]

The biggest stumbling block is (as it always is) convincing people that using 3PP isn't an anathema to enjoyable gameplay.

Case in point, The Korranberg Chronicles: The Psion's Primer on DMguilds seems to be a fully functional Psionics system complete with Power Points. Sure Eberron setting, but can be adapted for Psionics as it seems to be intended for. And it's a best seller, judging by it's Electrum rating.

 

[DammitVictor]

OK, but options can improve your main concept. If your main concept is playing psionic character, then psionic options improve that concept.

The thing is, in Dark Sun, everyone is supposed to be psionic. If the system for psionics doesn't make everyone psionic, it's not going to be a very good replication of Dark Sun. It's not a matter of whether or not those options are good enough that some people choose them... it's a matter of them being optional.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Here is a "fact": you are speaking for yourself, and making sweeping generalisations about what other people want, with no evidence whatever to support it.

No, I'm expressing an honestly-held opinion, and one that I'm pretty sure you think is actually correct.

What percentage, do you think, of current D&D players, looking at all D&D players, including all the new groups that have sprung up with 5E, and all the people who started with 2E, 3E and even 4E, and are still/once again playing, actually want to go back to 1E-style rules?

Please answer honestly. "I have no idea" is fine, but it's a cop-out, frankly, because you clearly have an opinion here.

It isn't "clearly" that at all: they've spent five whole years testing the Psionic space, and gathering feedback. Just because you don't like the results doesn't mean they are unauthentic.

I'm sorry, the reasons they gave for not going with Mystic were wholly unauthentic. They literally apply fully to Artificer, but that was apparently not a worry there. They also carefully avoided saying "Players don't want a Psion/Psionicist-type class", rather saying the problems were specific to the 2017 Mystic class.

 

[DEFCON 1]

The thing is, in Dark Sun, everyone is supposed to be psionic. If the system for psionics doesn't make everyone psionic, it's not going to be a very good replication of Dark Sun. It's not a matter of whether or not those options are good enough that some people choose them... it's a matter of them being optional.

Well why not wait for the Dark Sun book to come out to see whether or not everyone in Arthas * is * psionic? Is there a point to getting upset that the generic psionic rules do not get into what could be used by a different game setting that hasn't even come out yet?

 

[TwoSix]

Case in point, The Korranberg Chronicles: The Psion's Primer on DMguilds seems to be a fully functional Psionics system complete with Power Points. Sure Eberron setting, but can be adapted for Psionics as it seems to be intended for. And it's a best seller, judging by it's Electrum rating.

Thanks for the heads up, I'm going to be digging into this today!