D&D 5E Everything wrong with the Wizard Psionics subclass

[Coroc]

To stay on topic: For darksun houserules I will use the mystic UA but without the subclasses and powers for wu jen and soulknife. That is enough psionic foundation for a single class psion. Maybe I even take a loo kat hose classic powers (like ego whip) and sort them into those UA rules somehow.

But, if this UA would not exist I would use a sorcerer based solution and not a wizard based solution.
Because psi is for me no components no book no nothing, pure power of the spirit and the will.
(Therefore no soulknife or WuJen some of their powers collide with my perspective on the challenges of a darksun campaign e.g. weapon at will, psychoportation)

 

[jgsugden]

If they want this method to work, I'd do the following:

* Create a level 1 'alternate' feature that allows a PC to use a psicrystal rather than a spellbook and most of the wizard spellcasting section (no spellbook, no ritual magic, etc...)

* Instead, the psicrystal offers: Cantrip (as wizard), Psi - Spells known (You know 2*lvl+int spells, you can prepare from what you know, you can change a known spell when leveling or when looking at a scroll/spellbook during a LR (to the available spells only), Psicasting (ignore material, somatic and verbal components that do not have a cost for spells with a casting time of 1 action, 1 bonus action or 1 reaction).

* Add a psion college of magic and a psychic wizard subclass.

* Psion gains (Font of magic from sorcerer at 2 and everything in the psionic school from the article as well for levels 2, 6, 10 and 14.) I'm not too tied to those mechanics, so some substitution of those abilities would be good to give us more of the psion concept we know from prior editions... perhaps something similar to warlock invocations that give the wizard little psionic at-will abilities.

* Psychic wizards would be templates for Athasian sorcerer kings. They'd add the spell book on to the psicrystal at level 2, allowing the spellcaster to enjoy the best of both worlds (adding ritual magic to psicasting). At 6th they'd gain the ability to suck life force (master defiling) and store it briefly to empower spells with abilities like metamagic feats [it would be a stronger version of defiling than basic defiling if you had rules for that as well]. At 10th they'd gain a once per LR ability that has a large area of effect (a spell that fireballs a one square mile area, a spell that provides a buff like the fly spell to an entire army, a spell that teleports a structure between locations - an iconic spell spell that is very powerful in a limited way - but would exhaust the character 3 levels of exhaustion when used). At 14th they'd gain the ability to transform into an Athasian Dragon - smaller at first, but with enhanced abilities as they level until it becomes the true terror of Athas at 20th level.

 

[Smarmot]

I was getting ready to defend the Wizard subclass as I prefer psionics not being a class unto itself- psionics as a class has never been done well in any edition IMO.
But on reading this I do agree that Thought Form is horrible. Psionics should be subtle until perhaps much higher level.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I can make a proper list when I get home if you like, but wizard is definitely not the base class you are looking for. By your logic we can fold Clerics, Bards, Sorcerers, Warlocks and so on into Wizard.

I've already said (if not in this thread then other ones) that for the three arcane classes, that's true. But not for the Cleric (and Paladin) or the Druid (and ranger). The Wizard has no healing spells or bless spells or resurrection spells... and it also doesn't have spells that deal with plants, animals, or outdoor survival skills or outdoor movement. I can pull out any number of spells on the Cleric and Druid lists that the Wizard cannot match.

So if you can indeed make a list of psionic abilities that the Psion would/should have that Wizards cannot match... please do so and I'd happily change my opinion! But right now, telepathy, telekinesis, psychoportation, precognition, pyrokinesis and the like are as far I can tell, are all doable with Wizard spells. Now granted, they might not give everything someone might think should be in a single spell-- someone might say that having the Mage Hand cantrip, and the Catapult and Telekinesis spells do not do enough mind-over-matter movement and thus we'd need special spells for additional stuff... but I don't think anyone would claim that telekinesis as a concept isn't covered by the Wizard in some form or fashion.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

This issue isn't what psionicists should be able to do, it's what they SHOULDN'T.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I will make the list later, as I said. For starters Psions should be able to heal, and have been able to do so since 2E or before, which as you said is outside of the Wizard purview.

 

[Quartz]

The new Psionic subclass for Wizards in the current UA is easily the most half-done and ill-considered UA I've seen so far, which is saying something,

I actually like what they've done but I'm now not so sure about the way they've done it. ISTM that they should have used the Sorceror and not the Wizard.

 

[Mistwell]

When the survey is released for this, I am going to vote that this is by far the best thing they've ever done for a UA. And that I knew for sure than many, many others at ENWorld loved it as well, and in particular a user named Ruin Explorer.

Because that's what histrionics gets you.

 

[Sacrosanct]

When the survey is released for this, I am going to vote that this is by far the best thing they've ever done for a UA. And than I knew for sure than many, many others at ENWorld loved it as well, and in particular a user named Ruin Explorer.

Because that's what histrionics gets you.

Is this the geek version of making a donation to Planned Parenthood under Mike Pence’s name?

 

[Arnwolf666]

This is why a wizard subclass can never work as a dedicated psionicist. In 5e subclasses can only ever add features, they can never subtract. Similar problem with the spell list - you can add spells to it but you can't remove spells that don't fit the theme. Hence the Psychic Spells pick it yourself nonsense.

It doesn't mean you couldn't have a subclass for a regular wizard who dabbles in mind magic, but that's not the same thing at all.

Wizard has worked as a psionics class for many of us for decades. So I wouldn’t use the world never.