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]

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.

I'm certainly not trying to be judgemental or question your game: just think it's interesting. Not my experience.

 

[ccooke]

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.

They will very likely have at least one other version of this in test internally, based on previous work. If they absolutely need to have psionics for a book and don't have consensus from the surveys, I expect we'll see a version that's something like the last UA version, but with changes that have been tested outside the UA process.

 

[SkidAce]

I think they should create a psionic subclass of each class, as well as a Psion with a few subclasses of its own.

This is were we slightly disagree.

I feel they should make bolt on talents for any class to use, and then one dedicated class.

 

[Parmandur]

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.

To an extent, but they have avoided finalizing major player Psionics for five years to get it right. They can wait longer.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I'm certainly not trying to be judgemental or question your game: just think it's interesting. Not my experience.

No worries, I didn't take it that way. I'll add that it is fairly rare for my characters to use magic in situations where it needs to be hidden; they'll more often try to roleplay their way to their goal in those situations. So it's not something I usually feel like I need to think about.

 

[Hussar]

I think they should create a psionic subclass of each class, as well as a Psion with a few subclasses of its own.

Hang on, weren't you one of the folks who took me to task for saying folks wanted an entire book of psionics? How is THIS not an entire book of psionics?

Yup, right here:

/snip

Awesome Strawman dude. I have skipped a few pages here, but "having an entire book." isn't a demand that I've seen.


Don't need luck for something not being asked for.

You cannot even keep track of the things you are personally asking for.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

To an extent, but they have avoided finalizing major player Psionics for five years to get it right. They can wait longer.

Oh they surely can... however, I do think the possibility of a setting like Dark Sun has changed dramatically in the past five years. I think 5 years ago, they found the idea of selling setting books unappealing. But the recent successes of Wildemount, Eberron, and Ravnica I think have changed their thinking to that of now wanting to put out at least a new setting out every year.

Considering Dark Sun is (likely) the most popular D&D setting not yet released, there is more pressure for Wizard's to nail out the rules sooner than later.

Just a hunch though.

 

[TwoSix]

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).

Well, it's also because I make sure that juggling components isn't needed. I don't need that kind of complication at my table. If someone is running a character in which some kind of hand/weapon/component juggling would be necessary, I give them options to make that not happen.

 

[Hussar]

Dunno about anyone else, but, an axe wielding sorcerer is probably a fairly corner case example. Just putting that out there.

 

[ccooke]

Oh they surely can... however, I do think the possibility of a setting like Dark Sun has changed dramatically in the past five years. I think 5 years ago, they found the idea of selling setting books unappealing. But the recent successes of Wildemount, Eberron, and Ravnica I think have changed their thinking to that of now wanting to put out at least a new setting out every year.

Considering Dark Sun is (likely) the most popular D&D setting not yet released, there is more pressure for Wizard's to nail out the rules sooner than later.

Just a hunch though.

So, WotC have done surveys on settings, but I can't find anything since mid 2015. Here's a quote:

The popularity of settings in the survey fell into three distinct clusters. Not surprisingly, our most popular settings from prior editions landed at the top of the rankings, with Eberron, Ravenloft, Dark Sun, Planescape, and the Forgotten Realms all proving equally popular. Greyhawk, Dragonlance, and Spelljammer all shared a similar level of second-tier popularity, followed by a fairly steep drop-off to the rest of the settings.

It's interesting to note that of the top tier, only Dark Sun and Planescape have not had official releases now, and the last few UAs could easily be for either.

I've not seen any engagement from WotC about settings since then, though. Given we know they are not basing decisions on reading fora... have I missed anything, or is that still probably the data they are working on?

Not that I am desperate for a Planescape book at all.