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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[Parmandur]

I don't personally think they have big impacts at all, in combat. Virtually no component has any impact in combat aside from when Silence is involved. Grappled doesn't stop you using S components, nor does Restrained, indeed the only conditions that do stop you taking actions in general (Incapacitated, Paralyzed, etc.). And that's probably good because if Grappled, say, did, enemy spellcasters would be very easy to deal with.

Literally the only way I can think of any of them interacting with combat in a legit way, not a DM bending the rules, or totally forced bizarro situation is V components vs Silence. If you can think of specific, legit examples (like not some super-corner case thing that happened literally twice in the last thirty years)

Oh the other legit one though extremely rare is if Sorcerer metamagic - if the spell is silent and had a V component, it's arguably impossible to Counterspell. Jeremy Crawford certainly thinks so. But both Silence and Counterspell are things that, in my experience tend to only come out when people are expecting serious enemy spellcasters and not even always then. So that's pretty rare.

I cannot think of a single time Somatic components have ever had any impact on combat, not in 2E, 3E, 4E (did that have components?) or 5E.

Stealth-wise it's really again only V components that tend to interact. I forget the default rules on this but I think we assume you speak the V components at a normal volume so that could mess with Stealth.

As far as I can tell, S components exist solely so you can tie Wizards up to stop them casting spells.

Try being an Axe wielding Sorcerer: the juggling is real.

I find it interesting that many here insist that managing components is never done, because that doesn't match my experience since 5E (though it does match my 3.x experience).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I wouldn't bet on Reddit being representative particularly, but yeah, things seem mixed. Time will tell.

This is grognard town, I accept that, but the reddit people are younger, loads of them started with 5E, they're not min-maxers, they're not good at the rules (oh god are they not good at the rules), they're very positive about most things, and I strongly suspect most D&D players under 35 (which is probably most D&D players, sorry guys, I'm over 35 too!) are broadly similar. And they like the dice idea generally but not the "lose your dice" bit.

 

[ccooke]

Hmm. So, since I'm already falling down the stats rabbit hole... here's a bit where the Psi Knight may actually be too good.

Okay, again. Assume 40 combat rounds. When you get to level 5, the talent die increases to a d8. Let's see what that does...

Median number of uses achieved: 40
Average number of uses: 37
Able to use the die on every attempt for the day 78.7% of days.
Assuming all of those rolls are damage, you get: 151.9 extra damage per day.

And the Battlemaster? Doesn't actually get a related bonus at level 5. Sure, they get more attacks. They get an extra superiority die at level 7, which brings their average expected damage from 72 to 90.

On the other hand, if you expect to have 20 combat rounds per day... Well, you can expect the Psi Knight to use their die every round, almost every day. They get an average damage bonus of 58.9 compared to the expected Battlemaster output of 72. At level 5, the Psi Knight goes up to 81.2 extra damage, and at level 7 the Battlemaster goes up to 90... So that looks like they're going to trade places, but end up about the same

Essentially, the Psi Knight is primarily a long-rest optimised build and the Battlemaster a short rest.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Try being an Axe wielding Sorcerer: the juggling is real.

I find it interesting that many here insist that managing components is never done, because that doesn't match my experience since 5E (though it does match my 3.x experience).

We used to do it obsessively in 2E, I recall. With 5E we do check if you have a hand free or have a focus, but there's some obscure stuff that I think people generally ignore about exactly what a focus can replace and so on.

 

[Parmandur]

This is grognard town, I accept that, but the reddit people are younger, loads of them started with 5E, they're not min-maxers, they're not good at the rules (oh god are they not good at the rules), they're very positive about most things, and I strongly suspect most D&D players under 35 (which is probably most D&D players, sorry guys, I'm over 35 too!) are broadly similar. And they like the dice idea generally but not the "lose your dice" bit.

For sure, the demographics of dndnext are closer to the target audience: still only a fraction of the player base, though, and only a fraction of those subbed actually engage. A few thousand posts is a lot of chatter: bit it might not be relevant at the big data level.

I think this is definitely novel enough to spook .ore that. 30% of players though. I like the mechanic, so I hope not, but we'll see...

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Except when those other 5% of situations come up, or are engineered by a Dungeon Master, accuracy is vital.

Considering I'm the DM, and I rarely ever remember to ask for the components... and I'm not cruel enough to have my villains tie up PCs so tightly they can't wriggle their fingers for spells.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I think this is definitely novel enough to spook .ore that. 30% of players though. I like the mechanic, so I hope not, but we'll see...

I think it's kind of mean to make what is, in fiction, kind of the most control-oriented powerset the most random (in fiction it tends to be the least random - arcane magic the most), just because like, it effectively got the last pick of the mechanics.

But equally I suspect if we vote against it we don't get psionics at all, so... I guess I'll vote for it and just say "Let it bottom out at 1d4 and make all the dice-burn abilities either not work when you're on 1d4, or have INT mod uses/day".

 

[ccooke]

For sure, the demographics of dndnext are closer to the target audience: still only a fraction of the player base, though, and only a fraction of those subbed actually engage. A few thousand posts is a lot of chatter: bit it might not be relevant at the big data level.

I think this is definitely novel enough to spook .ore that. 30% of players though. I like the mechanic, so I hope not, but we'll see...

I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't make the cut.
I mean, I really like it, but given how much discussion we've had it's clear that it's not intuitively good.
It's possible that presenting it a different way could help with that, but there's limited opportunity for it.

Anyway, I'll be waiting on the survey to send some positive feedback.

(For everyone who utterly hates the concept: Ah, ignore the survey. You know there's never be agreement on a psionics system, right? )

 

[Parmandur]

We used to do it obsessively in 2E, I recall. With 5E we do check if you have a hand free or have a focus, but there's some obscure stuff that I think people generally ignore about exactly what a focus can replace and so on.

Oh, certainly not saying that everyone is drawing a map of their actions in precise detail: but we're also being sure that nobody is doing anything that would require three hands or anything

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't make the cut.
I mean, I really like it, but given how much discussion we've had it's clear that it's not intuitively good.
It's possible that presenting it a different way could help with that, but there's limited opportunity for it.

Anyway, I'll be waiting on the survey to send some positive feedback.

(For everyone who utterly hates the concept: Ah, ignore the survey. You know there's never be agreement on a psionics system, right? )

Yeah, I get that people are concerned about the 70% positive... but at the same time, if Wizard's wants to print a book that needs psionics (Dark Sun) they're going to do it.

Theros is getting a book this year, and the satyr and leonine weren't in UA. Neither were any of Mercer's new rules, and Wildemount is an official book too.