D&D 5E People didn't like the Psionic Talent Die

[Asisreo]

To be fair, people have a hard time managing their Ki points, Sorcery points, superiority dice, even their spellslots seem to trip people up already. I think psionic die would've been cool but it is another thing to track and I'm pessimistic that players can keep up with something where it's bad to roll high on, too.

 

[Undrave]

I gather it started life as a Monk before going Rogue.

They were fine options. If something like that ends up in a book, it would fill that early 80's Jedi niche.

I could see it working WAY better as a Monk... it's got basically zero integration with the Rogue's class abilities. Just throw in some flavorful Spell-for-Ki option like the Shadow Monk get and boom! You got a Psionic Monk. I could trade Ki points for Detect Thoughts or Zone of Truth, for exemple. Maybe modify some of the basc enhencement to fit a bit better with the monk?

 

[Undrave]

To be fair, people have a hard time managing their Ki points, Sorcery points, superiority dice, even their spellslots seem to trip people up already. I think psionic die would've been cool but it is another thing to track and I'm pessimistic that players can keep up with something where it's bad to roll high on, too.

When I played a Battlemaster I literally went and bought a few matching D8s to have physical vrsions of my superiority dice just right there in front of me.

Now that I play monk, I repurposed victory counters from Smash Up! and use them as physical Ki Points.

That people would have trouble with that is... sad... It's not like you have to manage all of those at once...

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I still believe that kind of thinking is poisonous to the game's growth and evolution, and I am sad about that. I can't lie.

Should the game evolve?

It's a topic that goes way beyond this post, but your phrasing just brought to the forefront of my mind that "the game should evolve" is something that some people believe and others don't. In fact, I think there are a lot of underlying unstated perspectives on D&D that color our discussions.

 

[cbwjm]

Part of me feels psionics are dead. Too many people have too many preconceptions based on their favourite type of psionics and each group wants their own vision to be the way it's done in 5e. The designers have already had some great ideas that fell flat, mystic disciplines were cool, so was the psi die, unfortunately neither made it.

If I was going to rate my favourite psi systems I'd go 2e, 4e, then far lower 3e. I'd be happy with either of the two systems they've shown us (not happening) or a system based on 4e using the 5e monk as a base. Why monk? Ki points could easily sub in for a pool of psi points that boost a psion's at-will powers allowing them to keep the psionic feel with at-wills while occasionally boosting them with psi points. I don't think I'd like to see just another spellcaster that happens to use spell points, I'd find be a little boring, I'm sure others would love it which goes back to everyone having a favourite edition for psionics.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Part of me feels psionics are dead. Too many people have too many preconceptions based on their favourite type of psionics and each group wants their own vision to be the way it's done in 5e. The designers have already had some great ideas that fell flat, mystic disciplines were cool, so was the psi die, unfortunately neither made it.

If I was going to rate my favourite psi systems I'd go 2e, 4e, then far lower 3e. I'd be happy with either of the two systems they've shown us (not happening) or a system based on 4e using the 5e monk as a base. Why monk? Ki points could easily sub in for a pool of psi points that boost a psion's at-will powers allowing them to keep the psionic feel with at-wills while occasionally boosting them with psi points. I don't think I'd like to see just another spellcaster that happens to use spell points, I'd find be a little boring, I'm sure others would love it which goes back to everyone having a favourite edition for psionics.

I'm pretty open to different ways of doing psionics, except for a few specific elements. I thought the Mystic had potential, but the deal-breaker there was the lack of high level abilities--ie, features that have reality warping stuff similar to 6th level and higher spells. Psionics need to be able to travel to the Astral Plane and do other stuff that high-level casters can do. I don't care so much how they accomplish it (psionic powers that are similar to spells without components, unique abilities, or disciplines like the Mystic had), but they need to be able to do it. They didn't give the Mystic any of that, although there is no reason they couldn't have. Which is why my feedback on the Mystic was generally A for for effort with a lot of very detailed feedback on the specifics.

 

[Weiley31]

I gather it started life as a Monk before going Rogue.

The Mike Mearls Soulknife WAS a Monk Subclass. And it was the first time, IIRC, the Soulknife was introduced to 5E.

So your not too far off exactly.

 

[Parmandur]

The Mike Mearls Soulknife WAS a Monk Subclass. And it was the first time the IIRC Soulknife was introduced to 5E.

So your not too far off exactly.

It seems that elements of that led to the Rogue, and I think Crawford talked about that a bit, too.

 

[Charlaquin]

The thing that bugs me about dnd, and not just 5e, is the idea that cool stuff needs limited resource management.

Resource management is the fundamental challenge element of D&D.

 

[Undrave]

Should the game evolve?

It's a topic that goes way beyond this post, but your phrasing just brought to the forefront of my mind that "the game should evolve" is something that some people believe and others don't. In fact, I think there are a lot of underlying unstated perspectives on D&D that color our discussions.

I guess some weirdos out there can play with the PHB and just buy new adventures over and over (j/k on the weirdo bit)... but that doesn't seem like a living game... and as long as new stuff is introduced then it'll continue to evolve. Even if its just new monsters then the design will evolve...

So far I've bought the PHB and the Xanathar spell cards... Maybe WOTC doesn't need my money. Maybe the game could just be four classes and a ton of adventures and we should just be happy with that? I'm not, and I'd like to know who would rather see a stagnant game like that.

Part of me feels psionics are dead. Too many people have too many preconceptions based on their favourite type of psionics and each group wants their own vision to be the way it's done in 5e. The designers have already had some great ideas that fell flat, mystic disciplines were cool, so was the psi die, unfortunately neither made it.

If I was going to rate my favourite psi systems I'd go 2e, 4e, then far lower 3e. I'd be happy with either of the two systems they've shown us (not happening) or a system based on 4e using the 5e monk as a base. Why monk? Ki points could easily sub in for a pool of psi points that boost a psion's at-will powers allowing them to keep the psionic feel with at-wills while occasionally boosting them with psi points. I don't think I'd like to see just another spellcaster that happens to use spell points, I'd find be a little boring, I'm sure others would love it which goes back to everyone having a favourite edition for psionics.

Well... There's enough room for different version isn't there? Just like we have Wizards and Warlocks? If the Mystic hadn't tried to be EVERYTHING it wouldn't have needed to be such a GINORMOUS bloat of a thing with more flexibility than a Wizard with two spellbooks... Maybe they should just try to get ONE subclass right at a time afterall.