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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[Dausuul]

I rarely care about somatic/verbal either. The wriggling of fingers, the muttering of spells under one's breath... this can be done pretty easily in 95% of situations without issue.

Sure--if the DM allows players to do that. I'm of the opinion that components should matter a bit more. I rule that verbal components are loud enough to be heard by anyone close enough to hear normal speech, and somatic components require gestures bigger than a mere finger-wiggle.

 

[Maxperson]

Sure--if the DM allows players to do that. I'm of the opinion that components should matter a bit more. I rule that verbal components are loud enough to be heard by anyone close enough to hear normal speech, and somatic components require gestures bigger than a mere finger-wiggle.

That's RAW, really. This is what verbal components say in the PHB.

"Most spells require the chanting of mystic words. The words themselves aren’t the source of the spell’s power; rather, the particular combination of sounds, with specific pitch and resonance, sets the threads of magic in motion."

Verbal requires changing and specific pitch and resonance. Muttering the words under your breath will screw that up.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

That's RAW, really. This is what verbal components say in the PHB.

"Most spells require the chanting of mystic words. The words themselves aren’t the source of the spell’s power; rather, the particular combination of sounds, with specific pitch and resonance, sets the threads of magic in motion."

Verbal requires changing and specific pitch and resonance. Muttering the words under your breath will screw that up.

Who -ing cares what the rules as written say about components? A lot of people when they think of wizards think about Harry Potter, and those wizards can mutter spells under their breath.

If a player wants to imitate that, am I really going to say, "Oh sorry, the PHB says you have to have to say spells at a specific pitch and resonance. Looks like the Duke's guard noticed your attempted charm and arrests you!"

 

[Guest 6801328]

Who -ing cares what the rules as written say about components?

Well, lots of us.

Ignoring the VSM requirements/restrictions of spell casting is like ignoring opportunity attacks for melee, or cover rules for archers (the latter of which I realize many people do in fact do).

 

[Chaosmancer]

I did some thinking about this elsewhere. Think about it this way - you get access to a large number of extra spells with ten minutes notice. Some of those are standard ritual spells, too, and if you have ten minutes you usually have 20. It allows the Psionic Soul to be much more of a toolkit caster than a sorcerer usually is, but with a very tightly themed set of tools. Then, the Mind over Body abilities reinforce that. Consider: This is a caster who can fly while invisible, without the sound of flapping wings. That's pretty damn powerful. Some of the combinations you can put together just with Mind over Body and Psionic Discovery are so good that I wouldn't be surprised if Mind over Body used concentration it this gets into a book.

I was thinking more in line with how they are using the new die mechanic. Getting Ritual Caster on them might be worth it, but it sort of leaves me with the same thought about damage, they just aren't built to be damage dealing focused, so I'm not sure why the ability at level 6.

I also doubt they will end up taking concentration just for that. Storm Sorcerer can do it too just off the top of my head. And at about the same level.

Also, flight is about the only consistently useful ability from that list, so I don't think the nerf would really be appropriate.

Well, lots of us.

Ignoring the VSM requirements/restrictions of spell casting is like ignoring opportunity attacks for melee, or cover rules for archers (the latter of which I realize many people do in fact do).

I get you, but the vast majority of the tables I've played at haven't cared. In fact, I don't think any table I've ever played with cared.

I mean, let us just take Charm Person for a second. Imagine someone walks up to you and yells "Ktharun tol suiule Vake Tul!" while waving their hands around. And suddenly, you remember they are a good friend of yours from... well it doesn't matter where.

Unless you are an idiot, you know you've been charmed by magic. You just have to, any guard worth hiring at a place more secure than an empty warehouse would know to look out for this.

And it just drags the game down for me and a lot of other people. Might be great for you to figure out how the bleep anyone uses these spells in any context other than a battlefield, but there are spells clearly meant for stealth or sneaky operations, and having to yell out a string of nonsense just breaks that story entirely.

 

[Maxperson]

Who -ing cares what the rules as written say about components? A lot of people when they think of wizards think about Harry Potter, and those wizards can mutter spells under their breath.

If a player wants to imitate that, am I really going to say, "Oh sorry, the PHB says you have to have to say spells at a specific pitch and resonance. Looks like the Duke's guard noticed your attempted charm and arrests you!"

So you homebrew it to be different. Homebrew doesn't mean much in this discussion.

 

[Chaosmancer]

So you homebrew it to be different. Homebrew doesn't mean much in this discussion.

Well, I'd argue it might.

We don't have hard numbers of course, but it is fair to ask "is it a bonus to a class to get an ability that ignores a part of the game we ignore anyways?"

I mean, how many people actually recommend Goliaths or Orcs because Powerful Build lets you have a higher encumbrance value? For some specific tables, that is a useful ability, for the majority of us, we ignore encumbrance anyways so it is a meaningless ability

 

[Parmandur]

I mean, let us just take Charm Person for a second. Imagine someone walks up to you and yells "Ktharun tol suiule Vake Tul!" while waving their hands around. And suddenly, you remember they are a good friend of yours from... well it doesn't matter where.

Unless you are an idiot, you know you've been charmed by magic. You just have to, any guard worth hiring at a place more secure than an empty warehouse would know to look out for this.

Well, yes, that's what the rules for Charm say: once it wears off, they know exactly what happened.

 

[Parmandur]

Who -ing cares what the rules as written say about components? A lot of people when they think of wizards think about Harry Potter, and those wizards can mutter spells under their breath.

If a player wants to imitate that, am I really going to say, "Oh sorry, the PHB says you have to have to say spells at a specific pitch and resonance. Looks like the Duke's guard noticed your attempted charm and arrests you!"

I'm not saying that you have to care, shine on you crazy diamond. I'm just more bemused that there was an unspoken assumption (until it was spoken) that everyone was ignoring the rules, when I haven't really seen that myself (and obviously, the rules are what they are, so I wouldn't have gotten that from there: even Critical Role tends to pay attention to narratively significant components, and they are not rules sticklers...)

 

[Parmandur]

Well, I'd argue it might.

We don't have hard numbers of course, but it is fair to ask "is it a bonus to a class to get an ability that ignores a part of the game we ignore anyways?"

I mean, how many people actually recommend Goliaths or Orcs because Powerful Build lets you have a higher encumbrance value? For some specific tables, that is a useful ability, for the majority of us, we ignore encumbrance anyways so it is a meaningless ability

I wouldn't be quick to assume that a particular house rule was dominant in actual fact.

Just because you ignore a certain part of the rules doesn't mean that an ability that changes the rules isn't a bonus.