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.“

News Archive | Dungeons and Dragons

Read the full archives of Dungeons & Dragons news, Sage Advice, Unearthed Arcana, and D&D Studio Blogs.

dnd.wizards.com

 

[Mistwell]

If this is the direction 5e is going with psionics, I may stick with Pathfinder/Dreamscarred Press, True20, Blue Rose, or maybe anything else.

I'd be interested in your thoughts on what a houseruled Psionics system would be like. What kind of system is more to your tastes and how hard would it be to implement that as a houseruled version or a third party version?

 

[Mistwell]

I'd wager the vast majority of those players want a full psionic class. I think they are working on it, but aren't at a place where they want to share it.

I'd take that bet. I do not think they are working on it, I do not think a majority care if it's a full class or done as subclasses, and I'd bet on that.

For me, my preference for psionics has always been Deryni magic, which is distinct from arcane or divine magic. But that's not going to happen and I don't think many new players have ever even heard of Kurtz's books.

 

[Maxperson]

I'd take that bet. I do not think they are working on it, I do not think a majority care if it's a full class or done as subclasses, and I'd bet on that.

For me, my preference for psionics has always been Deryni magic, which is distinct from arcane or divine magic. But that's not going to happen and I don't think many new players have ever even heard of Kurtz's books.

You really think a majority of players who want psionics don't want a psionic class?

 

[toucanbuzz]

Well, as a Dark Sun fan, I'm torn that while 5E is clearly on the way to abandoning the Psion as a stand-alone class, it's still attempting to embrace some form of psionics. Gary Gygax was asked in 2004 if there's something he looks back and says: "This was a mistake, I shouldn't have done this?"

Gygax: "Oh yeah. There's a number of things in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons that I never should have done. I shouldn't have put Psionics in there, but somebody talked me into it. Some of the combat, weapons vs. armor, and weapon speeds I just would have dropped."

Over the years, I'm beginning to back off the idea it has to be a stand-alone. Boiled down, nearly everything in AD&D that psionics did was also a spell (mind control = charm, psychometabolism = shapeshift, disintegrate = disintegrate). I'll keep an open mind on this one and would be happy to hear from anyone who's able to playtest it.

 

[Parmandur]

I think the opposite. They are giving a lot of thought to psionics right now, which shows that they are aware that a lot of players want psionics, and I'd wager the vast majority of those players want a full psionic class. I think they are working on it, but aren't at a place where they want to share it.

Well, WotC has the data now: maybe they know just the opposite, that the vast majority of players don't want a full Psion Class. They've been reiterating on the concept for 5 years now...

 

[Parmandur]

You really think a majority of players who want psionics don't want a psionic class?

Quite possibly: WotC would be the ones with the solid data on the topic, we can only speculate.

 

[bedir than]

Tower of Iron Will feels a bit underpowered compared to the other psi feats.
Give it a mental stat increase.

 

[Mistwell]

You really think a majority of players who want psionics don't want a psionic class?

That's a different question. I think a majority of players just want new stuff, and psionics is just more new stuff. I don't think most 5e players (which at this point is a majority made up of people who never even played D&D before 5e) even know what psionics is from a prior edition.

And then a pretty meaningful number are parents coming back to the game from having only played 1e - which didn't really focus on psionics as it's own class for the most part.

We're not really in the world of former-3e players being the majority of 5e-players. A lot of 3e-players went to Pathfinder. This board was founded on 3e, and it has a backbone of older users who have been here since 3e, but I don't think 3e-based players are that big a chunk of 5e-players anymore.

So no, I'd say a majority of 5e-players really don't have much of a preference one way or the other in psionics as a class vs series of subclass. For those who specifically want psionics, I don't know if that's a meaningful question. If 100 units of people want "new stuff" which could include psionics, and 30 of those want psionics specifically (a minority), and 18 of those want a psionic class specifically (so a majority of that minority), is that really a meaningful number given it's just 18 of 100 ?

 

[Parmandur]

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.

I'm leaning between Planescape and Dark Sun... probably Planescape, bit if these options win out, there's really not too much more to Dark Sun that needs mechanical expression.

 

[Maxperson]

That's a different question.

It's not. I said, "They are giving a lot of thought to psionics right now, which shows that they are aware that a lot of players want psionics, and I'd wager the vast majority of those players want a full psionic class "

It helps if you don't cut out the context.

I think a majority of players just want new stuff, and psionics is just more new stuff.

I don't think a majority of players want psionics, and a bunch would probably rather not have it all and get something else.