D&D 5E Psionics in Tasha

[Maxperson]

And nothing you have said counters "psionics aren't real, so they can be whatever the game designers say they are".

This doesn't matter, though. If the designers make them crappy, they've said psionics are crappy.

I agree that it's a garbage solution for people who like psionics, but it's also the only option WotC where left with.

Considering that I've offered up another option, proper polling to find out what people would be willing to accept, that statement is incorrect.

 

[Maxperson]

Doesn't metamagic do that?

Distant "Power" extends the range of telekinesis.
Empower "Power" makes mind blasts deal even more damaging.
Extend "Power" increases the duration of mind-affecting powers (and similar)
Heighten "Power" makes mind-affecting powers more potent (more likely to affect the target)
Subtle "Power" make tricky tricky powers even more tricky.
Twinned "Power" allows you to mind blast/dominate more creatures at once

What else are you looking for?

Psionics. The points upped it in a way that metamagic did not.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Considering that I've offered up another option, proper polling to find out what people would be willing to accept, that statement is incorrect.

That's simply magical thinking. There is no magic "proper polling" that would ever have made people people willing to accept what they downright reject.

Anyway, the timer has run out. They need psionics to make Dark Sun, and the business model will not let them push it back whilst they spend years trying to find a version of psionics grognards can agree on.

 

[Maxperson]

A wild magic sorcerer channels magic.
A psionic sorcerer uses psionics.

If you want, one can bound by those rules. The other needn't be.

Play jazz, man. Riff on that trumpet.

Not everyone likes to kludge square pegs into round holes. If that works for you, great. It doesn't work for us.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

I'm just expecting to get the main thing psionics users shared in 4 editions.

If WOTC makes psionics powers into spells, then adding augments either requires a full rewrite of 50-75% of spells in the psionic lists or turning D&D into a freeform RPG.

A little improvisation doesn't make D&D into a freeform RPG.

Regardless, psionics have gone through a number of forms.
In OD&D, psionsic ability was determined randomly and ate away at the user's class abilities.
AD&D was similar, but didn't eat away at the user's class abilities.
AD&D 2e introduced the psion as a class of its own.
3.X introduced power points as a daily resource and several more psionic classes.
4E used spell points to transform at-will powers into encounter powers.
5E interrogates psionics into the traditional magic system.

All of those seem like quite distinct variations to me.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

Not everyone likes to kludge square pegs into round holes. If that works for you, great. It doesn't work for us.

I don't suggest you kludge square pegs into round holes. I suggest making your own personalized tools to suit your own personalized needs. Why be dependent on WotC to invent round pegs for you?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Not everyone likes to kludge square pegs into round holes.

No one likes it.

It's just that sometimes square pegs are the only pegs you have.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

Psionics. The points upped it in a way that metamagic did not.

What missing power-ups cannot be accomplished by expanding the scope of metamagic?

 

[Coroc]

Aren't you conflating two things there?

People definitely said they didn't want Psionics using an entirely new mechanic, but I don't recall them also saying that people wanted Psionics to use the spell mechanics, just not something new like Psi die. I think I'd have remember if WotC claimed people wanted Psionic spells, because I'd have been incensed.



I agree that there is, but my concern is that when you start making psionic spells, especially calling them things like "Tasha's Mind Whip" (not Mind Whip), you're very clearly establishing them as spells, and they can't really be re-used as psionics without creating a new, separate system, which WotC don't want to do.



This is a lazy argument that has no substance to it. It's just about a semantic definition of magic (which itself is a bloody silly word). It's been knocking around since the 1980s. It doesn't matter if you call it "magic" or not. But Psionics is clearly not the SPELL-SLOT-BASED magic that all D&D casters use.

I am a bit disappointed, but if they turn this into a official full psionic caster then it is at least better than that awful subclass to existing class hodgepodge.

edited for typo

 

[Maxperson]

That's simply magical thinking. There is no magic "proper polling" that would ever have made people people willing to accept what they downright reject.

It's not "magical thinking." I see polls that do this all the time and they work. I haven't claimed that they would absolutely reach the 70% mark, but they would in fact alter the percentages upward by some degree. When you change polling from all or nothing for each separare psionic attempt, to rating them all on a scale together, you will have people that said NO!!!! to an iteration, giving that iteration a lower, but still positive rating. Positive ratings are..........positive. This raises the percentage closer to that 70% mark and could cause one or more iterations to reach it.

Anyway, the timer has run out. They need psionics to make Dark Sun, and the business model will not let them push it back whilst they spend years trying to find a version of psionics grognards can agree on.

Heh. If this is what they are going to put into Darksun, it won't do nearly as well as they hope and may bomb. It's the old timers, not the new folks who have been clamoring for Dark Sun to come back. The same old times that they are screwing over with these psionics.