Psionics Coming Soon To D&D?

WotC's Mike Mearls has hinted that we may be able to expect some psionics content soon, possibly in the Unearthed Arcana column. He was asked by Ethan Clow on the Twitterweb "any chance we might see a Psionic class for 5e soon? Perhaps in unearthed arcana?" to which he replied "wouldn't be surprised. I *might* have had a couple prior edition psionics books on my desk last week..." (Thanks to Wolf Hunter for the scoop).

 

[Mistwell]

Heh. I'm just hoping that "soon" is basically "after Kevin Kulp is done with Timewatch, so he can work on the new version of Of Sound Mind"...

Best. Reason. Evar!

 

[Parmandur]

Psionics is inside of Dark Sun, yes, but it is not exclusive like the Artificer is to Eberron. So, a good psionic set of class/subclass/feat should have to take a setting neutral standpoint, not be a Dark Suns thing.

Witch World has always combined sci-fi elements with high fantasy - I wouldn't consider that "old school sword and sorcery" at all. But then we're getting into a semanitcs argument, so shall we agree to disagree?

The old school line is thin, generically speaking. Greyhawk has six-shooters and crashed spaceships, Eberron has trains and dinosaurs.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

The thing with psionics having a different mechanism than wizards/clerics/etc is that almost by definition it will either be better or it will be worse.

(the likelihood of it being comparably powerful as in "same same but different" is of course theoretically possible, but really slim to none)

So while I can understand the desire for mechanically different psionics, I don't believe most people want to pay the price.

Which is, either everybody want to play a psionicist (instead of a spellcaster) or nobody does.

I'd honestly settle for "worse" but usable much more often. Outside of a few very draining stunts, a psion's abilities should be more at will. Or bring back the equivalent power check from 2nd edition, where you can attempt a more powerful version of a basic ability by pushing yourself.

Particularly for Dark Sun, reskinned spells just wont work. If a psion creates the same effects as a wizard, why would anyone pursue magic, particularly as a preserver?

I just think the game has enough 9 level casters with spells. Lets try something creative rather than more of the same.

 

[Chryssis]

I've GOT it!

Concentration is a prevalent mechanic of 5e used to define many spells across all spell lists.

Give a psionic/psychic class a Concentration feature. Maybe not right away/level 1. Maybe a 3rd level when they choose a subclass....maybe at 5th level as a big boost ability, like a Mental "Extra Attack"...Let them have/maintain concentration on multiple power/effects at once! No mere "spell/magic caster" can do that...at least not consistently, with all/any of their powers.

I don't know how it would work...make it dependent on their Int. mod. comes to mind...or an ability [Cha or Int] check to initiate a second power while a first one is ongoing...Maybe scaling with level? Up to 2 powers at once at X level, 3 powers/effects at once at Y level, etc...It could go a couple of different ways.

But it seems to me, for the future of psionics in 5e D&D, the use and manipulation of the Concentration mechanic may be the golden key to meet [or satisfy] the most demands of the most people.

Thoughts? [heh heh. Psionics thread...asking for thoughts...cute. ehem. Carry on.]

I have actually been trying to incorporate something like this into a homebrew psionic that i`ve lazily working on while waiting for the offcial one.

My idea is based off the 3.5 focus. Some abilities need you to expend focus to function. So you have limited number of powers, some of which are buffs, some blast/utility. the buffs almost exclusively require concentration (as per the 5e model) to activate many of the blast/utility powers you need to expend your concentration ie can`t cast your mindblast if you aren`t already concentrated. to balance this with the action economy i`ve set all the concentration buffs to activate on a bonus action.

 

[DJCupboard]

In the spirit of 5e being about options, I could see an entire class write up for a Psion (won't get into the war about flavor v mechanics and spells), but also a sorcerous origin (like the storm sorcerer they introduced in UA) heavy on flavor. Maybe add a feat for casual dipping, and a roguish archetype and a martial archetype for completeness.

Introducing it into my own campaign, I like the idea of it being new to the world, with no (or limited) system transparency with magic. I would let a single Arcana check and the like by the players overcome that though, so it wouldn't be a burden to the narrative and game play.

 

[Vael]

My preference is that Psionics is more discipline-focused. Spellcasters can just learn a spell, it doesn't matter if you've never cast a fire spell at all, you can learn Fireball or Meteor Storm. To me, since psionics are more about being a telepath, or telekinectic, I kinda want Psions to have to focus on a discipline to get more powerful abilities. I feel like Psionic powers need to have some kind of tree or some kind of dependency, so you can't cherry-pick.

 

[Chryssis]

My preference is that Psionics is more discipline-focused. Spellcasters can just learn a spell, it doesn't matter if you've never cast a fire spell at all, you can learn Fireball or Meteor Storm. To me, since psionics are more about being a telepath, or telekinectic, I kinda want Psions to have to focus on a discipline to get more powerful abilities. I feel like Psionic powers need to have some kind of tree or some kind of dependency, so you can't cherry-pick.

That is pretty easily done via the archetypes, same as clerics get different domains, druids different land types, and warlocks different pact lists. I would tend to agree that I like them to be focused, ie all clerics can heal, all psions can do some telekinesis (like mage hand) but when it gets to the more specialized, I would like to see telekinetic themed abilties, teleportation (psychoportation), telepathic abilities etc be more highly separated. maybe all psion can do one form of teleporting but only a psychoporter can do group teleport, dimension door, astral projection type effects.

 

[Staffan]

could[/I]--not saying "should," but "could"--just take a whole bunch of spells from the PHB, say "These no longer require V/S/M components," and call it psionics. And you'd be able to do everything you need to do to call a character a psionicist.

I agree that you could reskin a few spells and use a sorcerer or wizard and call it a psionicist for... let's call them limited purposes. Like when Keith Baker played a warforged "artificer" for a charity game, the artificer was a reskinned cleric. In the same way, if you were doing a Dark Sun one-shot, you could "fake" a psionicist fairly easily by reskinning a sorcerer. But I don't think that method has enough "meat" to it to support a setting like Dark Sun, or the more psionics-heavy areas of Eberron (you could use it for an occasional Inspired villain, but not for a Sarlona campaign).

But you also touch on something that's been one of my beefs with D&D since... I think I reached the conclusion back when the Expanded Psionics Handbook was released for 3.5: Wizards do everything. Wizards throw fireballs. Wizards summon demons. Wizards craft illusions. Wizards make undead. Wizards teleport. Wizards move things with magic. Wizards read minds.

That makes it very hard to add a magic class that actually does things a wizard can't do, because the wizard does everything. So your only options are (a) to change the way they do it (e.g. power points, or the weird Truenamer mechanics), and (b) to specialize them. But the last bit is also difficult, because the game was originally designed with the idea that the wizard did everything, so they get all the supernatural abilities at as low a level as possible. Pretty much the only way it was OK for the XPH to give specialize psions in ways wizards couldn't was by giving them "intermediate" access to various abilities - for example, both wizards and psions can charm humanoids at level 1, and charm almost everything else at level 7, but psions get intermediate charms at level 3 and 5 that can charm some, but not all, non-humanoid creatures.

That is pretty easily done via the archetypes, same as clerics get different domains, druids different land types, and warlocks different pact lists. I would tend to agree that I like them to be focused, ie all clerics can heal, all psions can do some telekinesis (like mage hand) but when it gets to the more specialized, I would like to see telekinetic themed abilties, teleportation (psychoportation), telepathic abilities etc be more highly separated. maybe all psion can do one form of teleporting but only a psychoporter can do group teleport, dimension door, astral projection type effects.

That's sort of what they did in 3.5e: there was a common list of psion powers that any psion could take, but the more powerful powers were found in discipline-exclusive lists. It was sort of like any wizard being able to cast ice storm, but only evokers getting fireball.

 

[Umbran]

I don't know as a backer of timewatch I am starting to think he has his plate full...

Which is why I stipulated *after he's done with Timewatch*.

 

[Vael]

That is pretty easily done via the archetypes, same as clerics get different domains, druids different land types, and warlocks different pact lists. I would tend to agree that I like them to be focused, ie all clerics can heal, all psions can do some telekinesis (like mage hand) but when it gets to the more specialized, I would like to see telekinetic themed abilties, teleportation (psychoportation), telepathic abilities etc be more highly separated. maybe all psion can do one form of teleporting but only a psychoporter can do group teleport, dimension door, astral projection type effects.

True, but 3.5 Psions could still cherry-pick. Between the Expanded Knowledge feat and just taking higher level psionic powers.

I guess what I'd like to see is something like 4e Psions, where you learn at-will (cantrip-like) abilities that you then augmented. So, for example, Fireball is an augmentation of Firebolt.

But I also want Psionics to be ... I want Psionics to be less like Psionic spells. I don't want Psionic Fireball, Psionic Magic Missile, etc. Maybe a list of Psionic skills? Like Telepathy is something a Psion can become proficient in. That gives you some base abilities, mind-to-mind communication. Then you learn cantrip-like abilities, like Mind Thrust, and then Augmentations for those abilities, like Mindblast.

I guess, here are my desires for Psionics:
1. It's not just Psionic Magic. While it's important to be able to integrate with the base game, I just don't what a list of spells with a "Psionic" prefix.
2. Psionic abilities should be more general then spells. This is why I'm eyeing the skill system. Not sure it'll work. Especially when ...
3. Psionics should still be a fairly simple system. The big issues I see with Psionics is that since it's different, it needs to be easy to grok so DMs will allow it.
4. Psions need to be balanced and viable. Ugh, all those 3.5 "debates".