D&D 5E Psionic Thoughts

[Fralex]

Oh hey that was like a pun or something. Huh.

I've been thinking about how them psychic classes might be implemented in 5e. It would be neat if they were more their own class. I mean, if their main deal is casting spells with their mind and being able to spend a special pool of points to adjust those spells on the fly, they could just be another kind of sorcerer. Is that all we can do with them? There must be some concepts none of the other classes have covered yet...

And then it hit me: There aren't any magic-based classes that aren't also spellcasters! The two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, even. But it's a well-known kind of character: the guy/gal who only knows one or two simple tricks, but they can use them all the time and find new ways to use them. This is quite different from a spellcaster, who has a whole bunch of different expendable abilities. It would be more like... using magic as a weapon, I suppose. Fighters don't learn new weapons when they get stronger; they don't even use all that many different weapons. Why not have a class that treats magic the same way?

Usually, when I think of a psychic from a story, they didn't really have lots of different psychic abilities. Like, Matilda's whole range of psionic talents were just basic telekinesis. The oracles from stories rarely can do anything else associated with psionics, unless they're also wizards of some sort. So although the overall range of things psychics are known to be capable of is quite expansive, few psychics have all those powers.

We've already got the six categories of psychic abilities:

• Psychokinesis- The ability to conjure energy and move objects mentally, at a distance.
• Psychoportation- The ability to mentally warp spacetime for instantaneous transportation through space or, in some cases, time.
• Psychometabolism- The ability to manipulate biological processes with but a thought to induce healing, adrenaline rushes, and other physiological boosts.
• Clairsentience- Also known as Extrasensory Perception. Grants a person special senses to access useful hidden information, most commonly about the future.
• Telepathy- The ability to touch other minds. Enables mental communication and mind control.
• Metacreativity- The ability to conjure and shape solid matter (or often just solid invisible force) using the mind. Mimes wish they were that good.

...so each one just needs to be its own distinct class or subclass consisting mainly of unique at-will abilities related to its powers. For example, a nomad (psychoportater (hee hee... psycho potater!)) would probably have the Incorporeal Movement trait as a basic power and gradually learn other spacetime-bending abilities as they level up. A (psycho)kineticist could start with an improved, invisible version of mage hand. Maybe they get to have more than one telekinetic hand active at a time as they level up, and conjure energy by gathering a certain number of hands together and destroying them? I don't know, the point is, this is totally possible and objectively cool. I'd love to play a class like this.

 

[BigVanVader]

They'd probably be Archetypes. The Psionic Class would have a very huge selection of Archetypes.

 

[Fralex]

They'd probably be Archetypes. The Psionic Class would have a very huge selection of Archetypes.

Yeah, probably. I'm just not sure what the non-subclass features of a psion class would be. There's likely something, though.

 

[BigVanVader]

Well, what do you mean by non sub-class features? Because from what I've read of 5th Edition, Archetypes seem to be built into every class. Like, at third level, they have to make a decision about where they want to go, they can't just stay in the carpool lane.

 

[Fralex]

Oh yeah, that's right. I was thinking of the classes that still mixed in some class-wide features with the subclass features at higher levels, but you're right; not every class does that.

 

[damnbul]

I see it being more like how the Wizard was built. Akin to picking an arcane tradition. You would be able to use any power that you know(like a sorcerer with spells), but you pick a Psychic tradition. Each tradition being one of the 6 you listed, and each one giving some abilities at certain levels.

 

[Fralex]

One thing I was imagining all psions having is a psychic aura that grows in radius as they level up. This aura is sort of your standard area of influence for your powers-- it's the portion of reality around you that is susceptible to your mind's influence. All the psionic powers would be based around what can happen to things inside your psychic aura.

 

[Fralex]

I see it being more like how the Wizard was built. Akin to picking an arcane tradition. You would be able to use any power that you know(like a sorcerer with spells), but you pick a Psychic tradition. Each tradition being one of the 6 you listed, and each one giving some abilities at certain levels.

As long as "powers" don't just become another kind of spell with different categorizations, yeah, that is one way it could be taken. But I'm also interested in what can be done with a class that has very little sharing of magic abilities.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Look at the warlock great old one pact

 

[Fralex]

Just gonna jot down some ideas I've been thinking about... here's what I imagine the class features of a kineticist to look like:

1st level: You can conjure a Medium invisible hand as an action. It appears anywhere within your aura (10-foot radius at 1st level). On any of your subsequent turns, you may forgo your action to have the hand take an action instead. It can do anything your own hands can do, with the same level of skill (however, any attack you make with the hand may use your Intelligence modifier for attack and damage rolls in place of Strength or Dexterity, and the hand's maximum carrying capacity is your Intelligence score). Once during your turn, you may move the hand to any position within your aura, even having it occupy another creature's space. At the end of your turn, if the hand is outside your aura, it vanishes. You can only keep one hand active at a time.

Later level: You can have multiple psychic hands active at a time. Each one can be moved during your turn, but only one may take an action. If two hands are occupying the same space, they may use your action to do anything you can do with your own two hands as an action (grapple, attack with a two-handed weapon, etc.). The maximum number of hands you may keep active at a time starts off at two, and gets bigger as you level up. Keeping more than one hand out takes concentration. If you lose concentration, all but one of your psychic hands are destroyed.

Even later level: You can convert your psychic hands into bursts of pure elemental energy. As an action, you may destroy any number of hands. Each creature with one or more of those hands in its space must make a Dexterity saving throw or take damage equal to 1d8 per hand (getting destroyed) in its space, plus your Int modifier. The damage may be fire, cold, lightning, or thunder. Later on you can also choose force damage.

Much later level: Some sort of nova energy attack that targets all creatures in your aura to take a bunch of energy damage on a failed Dex save, or half as much on a successful one. Doing so destroys any psychic hands in the area and maybe does something like give you a level of exhaustion each time you do it after the first?

Oh, and I think one ability that would be available to all psions is a basic attack where one creature in your aura takes 1d4 + your Intelligence modifier psychic damage on a failed Intelligence save. Like an unarmed strike, but mental.