Psion as Wizard archetype − Happy Fun Hour

[GlassJaw]

I much prefer this approach, although it's even better as a Sorcerer, Bard, or Warlock subclass than Wizard (Wizard already has the Enchanter).

In 3ed, Complete Arcane had the Mindbender prestige class, which I really liked.

 

[Tony Vargas]

The unfortunate problem with the sorcerer is its name, a flavor that denotes black magic and demonic spirits. ‘Sorcery’ is the technical name in anthropology for this kind of negative magic that derives from external spirits rather than from ones one self.

There's a negative connotation to Sorcerer or Sorcery, today, because it's used to refer to, in effect (and among other things), con men, who bilk the superstitious by claiming magical powers, too.
But, yes, the definition does imply dealing with spirits, to gain secrets known to them, including magical powers, and to have them do your bidding. The D&D Warlock is closer to a Sorcerer, in concept, though the mechanics still don't much model actually dealing with spirits. Something more like an RQII Shaman, really, would model a dictionary-definition Sorcerer.

Mutant - in the Marvel sense - would almost be more accurate.

Anyway, name aside, the 5e Sorcerer's schtick is, indeed, /magical/ power from within, and that makes it a better candidate for faux-psionicist than wizard, hands down.

While psionics is inevitably supernatural in nature, whether psionics is magical is something that should be left to the DM - and prettymuch requires a new class to package it. Some might prefer the theoretically more consistent 'balance' of keeping the psionic tamped down by the same measures as other casters (Beholder's and anti-magic zones and whatnot), or just the unifying concept that in the fantasy genre the supernatural /is/ magical, while others might prefer adding to the range of supernatural abilities the game models.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Which is why I'm one of the biggest advocates of "make it close to spells" and completely disapprove of any justifications of why Dispel Magic or similiar things shouldn't work on psionics.

I still feel a separate class for Psionics like the Mystic is justified, though I'm OK with other classes getting their own Psionic subclasses.

In the end that's probably what we'll get, and I think that's awesome. The Mystic itself was fun once you moved some archetype that didnt make sense to other classes (The soul knife order moved to being a rogue archetype and the 4 element monk get to choose a Wu-Jen discipline instead of a single spell at level x-y-z).

On the opposite of [MENTION=58172]Yaarel[/MENTION], I like the crystal/ectoplasm/force ''elementalist'' feel of some psionic powers. I do think that the fluff behind the full class needs to be top notch before release; some classes can get by with little coherent backstory/fluff (looking at you ranger) because of tradition, but psionicism dont necessarily have a good track record. I think they should just say where this magic could come from and let the DM decide why it interact with other type of magics.

Psionics should not allow the caster to avoid all balancing checks of the other casters just by selecting a class. Material components I could see, but not all component; it needs to be obvious, no shooting force blast from your eyes without anyone noticing for free it just because you chose a class that came after the rest. Having a class that dont interact with the basic assumptions of the game is a bad way to make it fit the game for once. It would feel....dandwikia worthy.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I might feel differently about it, were my experiences with people playing psionic classes different.

For my part, I’m fine with the name (psionics). When I was younger, I didn’t really like sci-fi and fantasy mixing, but I’ve gotten more amicable about it as I’ve gotten older.

In my experience, the fans of psionics that I know are fans of the 3e Psion. This fan base cares deeply about gaming balance, and integration as a normal aspect of D&D. That said, this base tends to divide between those who need medievalesque flavor to fit seemlessly within core D&D, versus those who love the quasi-techno-babble as a distinctive flavor. I am in the normative D&D camp, so I like the name ‘mystic’.

 

[AmerginLiath]

I've never really understood the appeal of Psionics in D&D.

I wonder how much the appeal of psionics in D&D is generational, given the kitbashed nature of sources that played into the early game, as well as the diversity of “fantasy” (still drawing heavily from sword & sorcery stories that featured early-20th century psychic pseudoscience as it’s magic) into the early-mid 1980s. By he emergence of 2nd Edition, the very face of fantasy literature and popular entertainment had shifted to a more homogenized form (compare Excalibur to any Arthur film in the next two decades) and D&D sources began to be actual D&D books like Dragonlance and FR (which were basically cod-Tolkien). As such, the idea of magic wasn’t even truly Vancian any longer in the gamer imagination, inasmuch as the gamer no longer read Vance and imagined the energy of magic in the pseudo-psionic way that he (and later Gygax) imagined it.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that (to borrow a phrase), but it’s a different way of considering the influences upon the game and the cultural and literary influences upon the gamer (what are the images borrowed from media that the new gamer uses to imagine what they’re doing when learning the game? Ditto-era Dr. Strange comics and Harry Potter books are very different teachers of what magic looks like). But, in the end, as a generation of gamers grows up on the LotR trilogy instead of Excalibur, that’s going to alter how they see fantasy coming to the table, and that includes a psionic system that builds off literature that was popular in the 50s-80s but hasn’t been in many current players’ lifetime.

 

[gyor]

I much prefer this approach, although it's even better as a Sorcerer, Bard, or Warlock subclass than Wizard (Wizard already has the Enchanter).

In 3ed, Complete Arcane had the Mindbender prestige class, which I really liked.

Sorcerer would work best, it's already got a subclass that changes it's power source, Divine Soul's use Divine Magic instead of the Sorcerer's Arcane magic, so a Psion subclass that changes it's power source to Psionic and allows it to use intelligence as it's casting stat if it chooses could work very well.

After all Psionics are an innate form of magic.

 

[Parmandur]

Sorcerer would work best, it's already got a subclass that changes it's power source, Divine Soul's use Divine Magic instead of the Sorcerer's Arcane magic, so a Psion subclass that changes it's power source to Psionic and allows it to use intelligence as it's casting stat if it chooses could work very well.

After all Psionics are an innate form of magic.

There are no formal "sources" of magic in 5E, Divine and Arcane are entirely based in Fluff and Class abilities.

 

[Horwath]

I've never really understood the appeal of Psionics in D&D.

because flapping your arms around like you have a seizure and yelling gibberish at the top of your lungs is not dignified for a wizard. Maybe for a crazy sorcerer.

And of all things, in 5e sorcerer has access to subtle magic and wizard does not.

psi-magic lets you be limited, but very stealthy, undercover spellcaster by default.


Also, every time you create a Soul knife you can say: "my life for Aiur!"

 

[Zero Cochrane]

Psionics is always an orphan, except in superhero RPGs. Fantasy players say it's "too much like science fiction" Science fiction players say it's "too much like magic".
Those of us who like the idea of psionics in either genre are just left out. Psionics being dismissed out of hand is a tiresome legacy in gaming groups.
Some fantasy writers/players just reskin magical spells, but psionics was never meant to be another kind of magic -- there is not only flavour but a specific set of capabilites that are covered by the tradition of mental powers in books, comics, movies, and television.
A bit of research will show a long tradition of mental powers in many genres. A couple good compiled sources include White Wolf's book "Second Sight", and Dragon Magazine issue #76 had a good number of articles about psionics in D&D.
Well, that's my two cents, anyway.

 

[greylurk]

I tend to agree that Psionics could just as easily be a "form" of magic, and the psionic "disciplines" as just a different way of looking at the schools of magic. Having a list of spells tagged as "psionic" and just create a wizard subclass that interacts specially with those psionic spells, that feels like it would fit with D&D much better, possibly giving them dispel resistance, or counterspell resistance? However, the old 3e "crystal power" psionics and the 2e and 1e psionics never felt appropriate to D&D.