I kind of like where Mearls was going with it in his Happy Hour, with the Psion having cantirps that he upgraded with Spell Slots. That could be very useful, and have a lot of utility. Like having a cantrip that allowed a short, five-ten foot teleport, but using a spell slot and a specific "Spell" to upgrade it to 20 or 30 ft, or to add a damage effect, or to add invisibility at the end or something.
I think the main problem right now is to figure out where Psions fit in the game. Every class fits somewhere, with some classes combining roles in unique ways. Fighters fight, Rogues are skills, Clerics heal and Wizards cast spells. Barbarians, Rangers, Sorcerers and Druids are the “Nature” version of those, basically, and can fulfill those functions but do so slightly differently. (These are of course oversimplifications, and don’t include the subclasses, which further mixes things, but bear with me.)
Then you have the hybrid classes. Paladin are Fighter/Clerics, Monks are Fighter/Rogues, Bards are Rogue/Wizard/Clerics, and potentially Fighter/Rogue/Wizard/Clerics, so all around backup. Warlocks are…well, whatever they want to be, depending on the build, but they can't be all of it at once. I guess they could be considered the “Fighter/Wizard”, what with being the only class beside Fighter that naturally gets four attacks that are separate, and each add the ability score to damage (Eldritch Blast).
Artificer seems to fill a good niche, being that they make magic weapons that can help the party, something no one else can do. They are like Rogue/Wizards, which we don’t have above, unless you make a specific Warlock build.
So we’ve got:
Combat: Fighter/Barbarian
Skills: Rogue/Ranger
Casting: Wizard/Sorcerer
Healing: Cleric/Druid
Hybrids:
Combat/Skills: Monk
Combat/Casting: Warlock
Combat/Healing: Paladin
Skills/Casting: Artificer
Skills/Healing: ??
Casting/Healing: ??
All-in-one: Bard
Psions were always dependent on the build, and were always versatile. They could be combatants or casters. We don’t really need another “More Different Wizard”. The playtest was so over general, I literally played four different characters from it, a Striker, a Healer, a Caster and a Fighter. It could be any of the four main classes, and could mix and match wherever it wanted. If they’re going to do Psion, they need to make it do things no one else can do. We don’t have a Cleric/Wizard or a Rogue/Cleric yet. Maybe the Psion would fit the Cleric/Wizard slot well, focusing on healing and casting together, though I don’t know how different that would be from just being a Cleric, or a Divine Soul Sorcerer.
Then again, they’re a lot like monks, in that Monks focus on their own inner strength to enhance their combat utility, and Monks would be Combat/Skill, so having Psions, who are monks who focus more on increasing the mind’s powers, be the Skill/Healing would be interesting. Healing being buffs and debuffs, in this case. Sort of the Cleric version of the Monk.
I don’t know, I’m spitballing here. I’m just saying it needs to fit it’s own niche and do it’s own thing, like the Artificer has.
I think the main problem right now is to figure out where Psions fit in the game. Every class fits somewhere, with some classes combining roles in unique ways. Fighters fight, Rogues are skills, Clerics heal and Wizards cast spells. Barbarians, Rangers, Sorcerers and Druids are the “Nature” version of those, basically, and can fulfill those functions but do so slightly differently. (These are of course oversimplifications, and don’t include the subclasses, which further mixes things, but bear with me.)
Then you have the hybrid classes. Paladin are Fighter/Clerics, Monks are Fighter/Rogues, Bards are Rogue/Wizard/Clerics, and potentially Fighter/Rogue/Wizard/Clerics, so all around backup. Warlocks are…well, whatever they want to be, depending on the build, but they can't be all of it at once. I guess they could be considered the “Fighter/Wizard”, what with being the only class beside Fighter that naturally gets four attacks that are separate, and each add the ability score to damage (Eldritch Blast).
Artificer seems to fill a good niche, being that they make magic weapons that can help the party, something no one else can do. They are like Rogue/Wizards, which we don’t have above, unless you make a specific Warlock build.
So we’ve got:
Combat: Fighter/Barbarian
Skills: Rogue/Ranger
Casting: Wizard/Sorcerer
Healing: Cleric/Druid
Hybrids:
Combat/Skills: Monk
Combat/Casting: Warlock
Combat/Healing: Paladin
Skills/Casting: Artificer
Skills/Healing: ??
Casting/Healing: ??
All-in-one: Bard
Psions were always dependent on the build, and were always versatile. They could be combatants or casters. We don’t really need another “More Different Wizard”. The playtest was so over general, I literally played four different characters from it, a Striker, a Healer, a Caster and a Fighter. It could be any of the four main classes, and could mix and match wherever it wanted. If they’re going to do Psion, they need to make it do things no one else can do. We don’t have a Cleric/Wizard or a Rogue/Cleric yet. Maybe the Psion would fit the Cleric/Wizard slot well, focusing on healing and casting together, though I don’t know how different that would be from just being a Cleric, or a Divine Soul Sorcerer.
Then again, they’re a lot like monks, in that Monks focus on their own inner strength to enhance their combat utility, and Monks would be Combat/Skill, so having Psions, who are monks who focus more on increasing the mind’s powers, be the Skill/Healing would be interesting. Healing being buffs and debuffs, in this case. Sort of the Cleric version of the Monk.
I don’t know, I’m spitballing here. I’m just saying it needs to fit it’s own niche and do it’s own thing, like the Artificer has.
