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.

 

[Ashrym]

All the other adventure path books and settings guides have generically useful sections that are buried in specific unusable content.

I'm not going to buy a full hardback adventure (Saltmarsh) just to get access to a few pages of naval battle rules or a background or a handful of new monsters.

Campaign adventures are very useful because they create a campaign for a group to use instead of leaving that to the DM. That's saving time and effort for a lot of people who are happy to use premade adventures. Additional rules in minor areas or a handful of new monsters is just a value added approach.

A campaign book is pretty much where I would expect to see any of the psionics options presented unless we're looking at something like a PHB2 coming down the road.

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

At some point you have to branch out or you are going to run out of design space. I'm a huge Star Wars fan and lived the idea of an X-Wing minis game. Then I bought it and played it....and there was a problem. They chose to simplify the different ships down to a handful of stats, and that stat range only varied from 0-3. This caused a problem as they expanded the line because there was little to no variability in the feel of the different ships because they only had a few values to work with.

When X-Wing 2.0 released I had hoped they wod widen the range to allow finer details...but they did not so are stuck in the same hole they were before (at least in my opinion).

There isn't anything left, classwise, that is a basic trope that is going to appeal to the masses to warrant developing according to past sales standards. So you have painted yourself into a corner of "sales dictate development" which is NOT a good practice to pursue with all of your resources.

Products designed primarily because of marketing goals are good for the company but bad for the game as a whole.

Now I will shut up and wait for my Critical Role supplement to add to my Rick and Morty, Stranger Things, and Acquisitions Inc supplements because that's what the crowd wants.

Acquisitions, Inc is one of the better books they have done.

It actually added something new to the game.

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

Every 4e psionic class bar the monk was a quite different system than other 4e classes. I mean, the typography was similar?

The way they used psionics power points in 4e was very cool and did make them different. The monk didn't feel very psionicky compared to the others.

 

[Eric V]

Acquisitions, Inc is one of the better books they have done.

It actually added something new to the game.

I didn't think to buy it...what did it add that was new (kinda desperate for something -new- in 5e...)

 

[dave2008]

I didn't think to buy it...what did it add that was new (kinda desperate for something -new- in 5e...)

What are you looking for? AiME adds quite a bit, so does Primeval Thule, so do about a half dozen other 3pp supplements / settings. Alternatively there are lots of UA options (variant class features, skill feats, tool and weapon feats; mass combat; PCs make all rolls).

 

[Eric V]

What are you looking for? AiME adds quite a bit, so does Primeval Thule, so do about a half dozen other 3pp supplements / settings. Alternatively there are lots of UA options (variant class features, skill feats, tool and weapon feats; mass combat; PCs make all rolls).

Yeah, I like a lot of AiME. It's why I got all of it that I could and believe it's the best stuff for 5e.

 

[dave2008]

Yeah, I like a lot of AiME. It's why I got all of it that I could and believe it's the best stuff for 5e.

So what else are you looking for?

 

[Eric V]

So what else are you looking for?

Something more innovative but in a less low-magic setting.

 

[cbwjm]

Acquisitions, Inc is one of the better books they have done.

It actually added something new to the game.

Ah yes. One of the better books done by wotc is the book that wasn't done by wotc.

 

[dave2008]

Something more innovative but in a less low-magic setting.

Hmmm. That is pretty vague. Not sure how to help you but there are SiFi settings, noir settings, horror settings, greek settings, modern settings, and investigation settings using the 5e core. I imagine some of those have innovative ideas.

EDIT: There is also Stongholds and Followers which has some new ideas