Unearthed Arcana New Unearthed Arcana: Psionics!

There’s a new Unearthed Arcana article out, and it’s all about psionics! "Their minds bristling with power, three new subclasses arrive in today’s Unearthed Arcana: the Psychic Warrior for the fighter, the Soulknife for the rogue, and the tradition of Psionics for the wizard."

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In this 9-page PDF, there are also some new psionics-themed spells (including versions of classic psionic powers like id insinuation and ego whip) and two new feats.

 

[Parmandur]

I really loved the Psion the Mike Mearls was working on, but why include the Psion class in that class survey along side Blood Hunter and Warlord if they have no interest in doing more classes for 5e, I mean that just seems cruel.

Unless the responses to that survey killed the Psion due to lack of interest...

 

[Shardstone]

Hmmmm.

I guess I do kind of see the Jedi in psychic warrior now.

Wish they changed the name though. Psychic Warrior is the blandest most straightforward name they could come up with.

 

[Einlanzer0]

This reeks to me of "let's shoehorn every new concept into a subclass for an existing class"

No thanks. I'm fine with Psychic Warrior and Soulknife being subclasses for Fighters and Rogues (in fact it makes way more sense than them being separate classes), but the base Psion should definitely be its own class and not a wizard tradition. Ugh.

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

He said those "new mechanics" in previous editions had hardly anyone play them, and therefore they wanted to create things where the most people would use them. That's nothing like "admitting the edition is dead."

Saying they don't want to do it because hardly anyone plays with them is the same as admitting they won't take the game in that direction, so it's dead in that regard.

I'm not saying the game is dead, I'm not saying we won't have great storylines, awesome settings, new monsters, or interesting spells down the road. Anyone who expected the official designers to explore new mechanical directions with the core rules, though, should go somewhere else for it. I don't see what's the problem in recognizing that just because JC will not (or should not) say it clearly.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Saying they don't want to do it because hardly anyone plays with them is the same as admitting they won't take the game in that direction, so it's dead in that regard.

I'm not saying the game is dead, I'm not saying we won't have great storylines, awesome settings, new monsters, or interesting spells down the road. Anyone who expected the official designers to explore new mechanical directions with the core rules, though, should go somewhere else for it, and I don't see what's the problem in recognizing that just because JC will not (or should not) say it with all words.

You don't need new mechanics to have "awesome settings, new monsters, or interesting spells down the road." That is a false assumption.

He's basically saying they aren't going to waste their time on rules that hardly anyone plays with. I would agree with that, because it means they can keep creating "awesome settings, new monsters, or interesting spells" down the road for people who will actually use them.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Hmmmm.

I guess I do kind of see the Jedi in psychic warrior now.

Wish they changed the name though. Psychic Warrior is the blandest most straightforward name they could come up with.

Lucas might have let them get away with calling it the "Jedu" class . But Disney would sue them into oblivion lol

 

[Salthorae]

the base Psion should definitely be its own class

Why?

 

[cbwjm]

As Crawford explains below, the fighter was meant to emulate Darth Vader

I did get that feeling from the subclass.

 

[Gadget]

So, at first I was kind of disappointed in choosing a wizard subclass for the mentalist, but then I realized that Int classes are few and far between, and besides the spellbook, this seems to fit okay. It certainly seems to get more subclass abilities than many of the other wizard sub classes.

I'd like to talk a little about the spells, most of them look as good or better than comparable spells of the level, especially getting to actually use friends.

Ego Whip - Looks to be able to total shut down a caster, and make a martial char's day come to an abrupt halt with disadvantage on attacks and saving throws.

Id Insinuation - This seems to be Phantasmal Killer at level one with the fear affect swapped out for incapacitated. And they did it right by having the target take the damage before they save to end each turn. Seems a bit powerful.

Intellect Fortress - Seems okay for the level. Does not stand out too much compared some of the other spells.

Mental Barrier - Nice effect for a reaction. I can see it be used quite a bit, depending on the campaign. Then again, I can see some games where it would see little use.

Mind Sliver - Good debuff for a cantrip. May be too strong.

Mind Thrust - Seems like an okay effect.

Psionic Blast - Not too far behind the overclocked Lightning bolt in damage, plus a nice debuff and push back. Probably a bit too strong.

Psychic Crush - This alone should tell you that they really have changed their thinking since let out that Ali-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting stinker. Not far behind that in damage, two levels lower plus stunned save ends? Wow.

Thought Shield - Sounds pretty powerful for its level. I'm not sure what it means by the recipient's mind not being detected. I assume its for things like detect thoughts and mind spike, but if they mean scrying and such, wow.

 

[CleverNickName]

It sounds like I'm in the minority here, but I actually prefer having psionics as subclasses rather than a new class. I'll do a deeper dive into this UA over the weekend, but at first glance it looks really good.