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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[dave2008]

The thing is, in Dark Sun, everyone is supposed to be psionic. If the system for psionics doesn't make everyone psionic, it's not going to be a very good replication of Dark Sun. It's not a matter of whether or not those options are good enough that some people choose them... it's a matter of them being optional.

OK, I didn't realize that was a DS thing. Is everyone supposed to have the same amount of psionic capability? If not, it is easy enough to have psionic class for those with great ability, psionic feats for those with less, and psionic background for those with very little. In DS you would just require characters take one of those three options. Done.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Most players started with 5E (3.x for me), but the IDEA, the PHILOSOPHY of 1E has caché. Which is what WotC went after with this after years of iteration.

They really didn't. This is nothing remotely like what 1E did. This is far more similar to 3E's take with classes that weren't Psion, actually. Do you actually know how Psionics worked in 1E? Because it sounds from this like you're assuming based on some misleading posts.

 

[Parmandur]

OK, I didn't realize that was a DS thing. Is everyone supposed to have the same amount of psionic capability? If not, it is easy enough to have psionic class for those with great ability, psionic feats for those with less, and psionic background for those with very little. In DS you would just require characters take one of those three options. Done.

In Dark Sun, everyone had a Psionic feature called a Wild Talent (which they are blatantly testing here).

 

[dave2008]

What percentage, do you think, of current D&D players, looking at all D&D players, including all the new groups that have sprung up with 5E, and all the people who started with 2E, 3E and even 4E, and are still/once again playing, actually want to go back to 1E-style rules?

I have no idea, but I would guess 75-85% Why, because that is basically what 5e has done and it is very popular.

 

[Parmandur]

They really didn't. This is nothing remotely like what 1E did. This is far more similar to 3E's take with classes that weren't Psion, actually. Do you actually know how Psionics worked in 1E? Because it sounds from this like you're assuming based on some misleading posts.

I have the 1E DMG secondhand, so I know in theory. That's what It saying, they aren't recreating the 1E rules, but a feeling (per their stated intent in the text). Most players won't have any familiarity with 1E.

 

[TwoSix]

So a dragon, which is explicitly a 20th level Psion AND a 20th level wizard, is better fit by a sorcerer than a Psion/Wizard? You're really going to try and argue that?

There's simply no extant model in 5e that can hold what a Dragon King/Avangion represented in 2e, that is, someone who was at the pinnacle of both psionic and arcane power (either defiling or preserving). Anything developed to allow a PC to attain those heights would be a new subsystem built out of whole cloth.

Psionic soul sorcerer won't work for that, but any psionic system not explicitly built for Dark Sun around the assumption that Dragon King/Avangion apotheosis is possible is going to fail that test.

 

[Parmandur]

There's simply no extant model in 5e that can hold what a Dragon King/Avangion represented in 2e, that is, someone who was at the pinnacle of both psionic and arcane power (either defiling or preserving). Anything developed to allow a PC to attain those heights would be a new subsystem built out of whole cloth.

Psionic soul sorcerer won't work for that, but any psionic system not explicitly built for Dark Sun around the assumption that Dragon King/Avangion apotheosis is possible is going to fail that test.

That's what monster stat blocks are for: Dragon King's are for slaying and looting, not playing, and 5E is not Simulationist in mechanics.

 

[TwoSix]

I have no idea, but I would guess 75-85% Why, because that is basically what 5e has done and it is very popular.

5e mimics some of the presentation of 1E, but rules-wise, they're barely related. But that's not really the rabbit-hole that this particular thread needs to go down.

 

[dave2008]

5e mimics some of the presentation of 1E, but rules-wise, they're barely related. But that's not really the rabbit-hole that this particular thread needs to go down.

Agreed!

 

[TwoSix]

That's what monster stat blocks are for: Dragon King's are for slaying and looting, not playing, and 5E is not Simulationist in mechanics.

Maxperson seemed particularly concerned about a system that allowed a playable Dragon King, or at least that was built off the existing PC creation rules. I agree with you, personally, but that wasn't what the complaint was.