D&D 5E In your Years of Gaming, How many Psionic Characters did you See played

[Parmandur]

Yeah, except there's a pretty strong consensus psion should be its own class because that's the only thing that makes any god damn sense.

Says who?

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Ugh! That sounds like a recipe for trouble. Did they also have the Eye and Hand of Vecna while they were at it?

We had one psionic NPC in 1e; he was the younger cousin of two of the PCs (who were brothers). He was the focus of a few adventures based around how to handle a child with these powers. Criminy, I think the NPC's name was Darrin Starsearcher. Can't believe I remember that...

Since starting D&D back in the early 80's I have seen 0 PC and 1 NPC as a psionicst. That NPC sucked as it was the DM's "stand in" so he could play too.

 

[Aldarc]

Just thinking about the Jeremy Crawford quote that basically says the reason they didn't want to go with a new class for psions in 5e is because the previous versions, while they have their fans, just didn't get enough traction. And I can certainly see his point. 1e we saw quite a few psionic characters, but, that's because we cheated. Once psionics became a "class" in 2e and beyond, I almost never saw one played.

In fact, many of the DM's I played with flat out banned psionics for any number of reasons. So, I'm just tossing up a poll here to see how often people played in groups that had psionic characters. It's not meant to be exact, just a gut feeling.

Remember how Mearls or Crawford talked about how 4e alienated people who played Gnomes even though they were played so rarely because of how it affected the tables where there were people who played Gnomes? Psionics is similar.

I really only started playing D&D (and its variants) with 3e. I have played 3-4 psionic characters, depending on how one counts it. I played a Psychic Warrior in 3e; a Psionic Sniper (whatever it was called) in d20 Modern; a Battlemind in 4e; and a Cryptic in Pathfinder/Dreamscarred Press.

There have also been a number of my players who have played psionic characters. So it's fairly frequent in my experience.

 

[toucanbuzz]

I only saw Psionics in Dark Sun because the setting pretty much necessitated it. The 2E rules were horrific to master in actual play but definitely felt unique. After 3E and the Mystic UA, it simply feels like we're repackaging magic. No one felt excited enough in 3E to purchase the rulebooks for it, so beyond Dark Sun, never.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Remember how Mearls or Crawford talked about how 4e alienated people who played Gnomes even though they were played so rarely because of how it affected the tables where there were people who played Gnomes? Psionics is similar.

Well, except there was a nominally-playable Gnome in the 4e MM, and a full 'Core' version of the Gnome in the PH2, some 9 months after launch.

This is 5 years in.

So similar, sure. But different in degree.

 

[Oofta]

Well, except there was a nominally-playable Gnome in the 4e MM, and a full 'Core' version of the Gnome in the PH2, some 9 months after launch.

This is 5 years in.

So similar, sure. But different in degree.

Well 4E had the philosophy of holding back material so that people would buy book #2. They did the same thing with dragons in the MM. It always struck me as being pretty cynical.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Well 4E had the philosophy of holding back material so that people would buy book #2. It always struck me as being pretty cynical.

Many things about WotC have struck me as cynical over the years. I can't say I even noticed that one, above the "everything is core!" noise. Now that you mention it, it is similar to the bizarre way 3e tweaked the 'Complete....' book concept, and managed to wedge spells into books nominally for fighter or rogues - another, less noble, take on 'something for everyone,' I suppose.

But, cynical money-grab like a half-edition or no, I'd rather get the held-back material I was wanting after 9 months than still be waiting for it after 5 years. I'd rather see other folks getting what they want, even if it means books I've no interest in buying, or worse, books like SCAG where I buy a whole book for a few pages.

 

[pukunui]

I played a psion in a 3.5e Dark Sun game once. I also had a player who made a MC psion/wizard once.

In all my years of gaming, I think those are the only two times.

 

[Monayuris]

My first AD&D character, I legit rolled a 99% for psionics.

I never used them. Otherwise I've never seen another Psionic character in 1e days.

In the 30+ years of playing since...

I saw one Psion in 3rd edition and one battlemind in 4th.

 

[DragonBelow]

I have used them when playing Darksun, Greyhawk, and FR (2e). And the again when played Eberron (3.5). We used the 1e rules for a bit, then the complete psionics handbook, then the skills and powers version. Finally I used the Expanded Psionics handbook of 3e. Both as player and as a DM.