Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana Revisits Psionics

The latest Unearthed Arcana from WotC revisits some psionic rules! “Shine with the power of the mind in this installment of Unearthed Arcana! Today we revisit several psi-themed options that we released in the past few months. Studying your feedback on those options, we’ve crafted this new collection of subclasses, spells, and feats, found in the PDF below.“

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[dwayne]

I like that they added it as paths under other none caster like classes fighter and rogue. I think this is a good way to go with those non caster classes. But we also need a more caster like one as well, i would use the spell points variant in the dungeon masters book page 288 - 289. Much like their are specialized wizards this too could have more focused disciplines like teleportation, empathy, Telekinesis (of which could be further split in to fire, electrical, etc).

 

[atanakar]

If they ask me (and they didn't), all psionic powers should be Intelligence-based, regardless of subclass.

That makes sense. Send them your comments.

 

[dave2008]

If they ask me (and they didn't), all psionic powers should be Intelligence-based, regardless of subclass.

Well, there will be a survey, so if they don't directly ask, you can probably make a comment.

 

[Shardstone]

Man I had so many arguments with Parmandur about whether they were gonna make a full Psion or not.

 

[gyor]

I wonder how much of a mess it would make, if at all, to basically say "for this subclass, where you would normally use CHA, you use INT"? Sorcerers get their subclasses at the start, so it wouldn't be a switch mid-stream...

Or let it be a choice, if you want a more passion based Wilder class like character choose charisma as your caster stat or if you want a more disciplined, logical, brainy Psion class like caster pick Intelligence. Heck you could even just make Psion (Intelligence), Wilder (Charisma), and Godmind (Wisdom) a level one choice point for Psionic Soul Sorcerers the way Good/Evil/Choatic/Lawful/Neutral affinity is a choice for Divine Soul Sorcerers, or Dragon Ancestor breed is a choice for Dragon Blooded Sorcerers.

 

[jgsugden]

I wanna Psion.

 

[gyor]

WTF happened to the absolutely awesome Psion class that Mike Mearls was working on in Mike Mearls Happy Hour? I wish we would get that.

Anyways if the Psionic Soul Sorcerer is the only Psion we are getting, its at least well designed.

I have said in the past that compared to other classes the Sorcerer Origins feels like seperate classes with a few commonalities. A Divine Soul has more in common in someways with a cleric then a Dragon, Storm, Wild, or Shadow Sorcerer, all of which play very differently from other other as well.

And Sorcerer Origins diverging from just Arcane magic has presidence in the Divine Soul and Shadow Magic Sorcerers, so a Psionic Soul Sorcerer is not out rageous at all.

But I still stand by my caster stat choice point idea (Wilder=charisma, Psion=Intelligence, Godmind=Wisdom), with every choice named after a previous Psionic class with a link to the relevent stat.

I would still at least like an Ardent Bard subclass and the Psionic Artificer class they designed.

 

[gyor]

When I first saw Darksun mentioned, I was like oh, okay they are doing a Darksun setting book!

Then read further and I was okay the fluff for this draws upon Dark Sun, Planescape, the Forgotten Realms, the Feywild, and possibly other settings. I think it was no accident Sapphire Dragons were mentioned, perhaps this will be in the same book as the Gem Dragons.

So WotC has me really has baffled on what they are up to, which is unfortunate for the quality of feed back I can give as I don't have the context for any of these UAs except for the stuff that ended up in Theros.

Class Feature Variants, Planar Themed subclasses, Psionic Subclasses but with fluff that links it to a multiple settings, Magic Tattooes, and a Group of Summoning Spells with a couple of odd man out spells like Acid Stream and Otherworldly. Everytime I think I have it figure out, WotC throws me for another loop.

 

[SkidAce]

Full disclosure I havent read any of the UA articles on psionics. Im going to wait until theyre done and official if even then. But I'd prefer them to be separate from magic. One of the things that I liked about psionics in 2E when we used them was that unless you had a wild talent or were a psionic class you had zero defense against a psionic attack. Thats what made creatures such as Mind Flayers for feared and deadly, and why Psions were so rare, when you ran into one you knew you were in trouble. Id like to see that approach again.

I agree with this.

But whatever they come up with, it will be easy for me to state they are different.

 

[Remathilis]

So on further reflection, I think the dream of a unique full psionics system is dead. WotC is borrowing a page from Paizo, who famously ignored psionics and only dipped thier toe in with occult classes. They left true psionics to Dreamscarred Press. I imagine WotC will do the same; have a minor feat/spell/subclass suite that can be used for psychic characters, and then leave a their true psionics system to a third party or the DMs Guild to figure out.

That's probably for the best. WotC clearly doesn't have an idea what to do with them and got cold feet on the whole new system idea, so it will be it to some talented enthusiasts to save them as they did for Pathfinder.