Neonchameleon
Legend
And Aberrant Minds have power points but called something else. All that is different is the name - the points become fully fungible at level 6. This clear water does not exist other than in name.Clear water exists, Neon. You just can't see it.
Psionicists use Power points to pump their Talents, Disciplines, or Sciences.
So the 3.5 Psion wasn't psychic? They certainly had their powers formatted like spells. This clear water is once again in name onlyThey don't cast spells.
Oh look. So can other casters. There is no clear water here eitherThey can function as battlefield manipulators, healers, blasters, and Gish.
Hmm... Do sorcerers have spells to do this? Yes. There is no clear water here.They're telepaths and telekineticists.
So they have weird names. I never disputed there was a name. Can sorcerers heal? Divine soul can.They're Psychic Chiurgeons and Metacreatives.
So do sorcerersThey use their will to directly modify reality rather than spellcraft and ancient languages.
Then stop saying they exist and start producing some of these mythical mechanics because so far all you have done is given odd names to sorcerer stuff.There's a whole boatload of mechanics you could use to create a Psionicist class that feels vastly different from "Wizard" or "Sorcerer" to a similar degree as the Artificer or Warlock does.
Sounds like a good start.Years ago I tried to build a proper Psionicist out of the Mystic mess. The first thing I did? Narrowed down the Disciplines list. Then I gave them a few unique abilities.
This could actually be pretty interesting. I'll give you that - but don't really see why it's pure psychic.Second, the ability to concentrate on two Psionic Powers at the same time. With a curated list of powers they couldn't stack a whole mess of crazy big fun stuff, but it was a neat twist that made them feel super different.
Why is that not something a sorcerer could do? And I was doing something of the sort with Malediction Invoked in 4e and have proposed it for warlocks as a blood sacrifice - and blood mages are a thing. Again far from psionic exclusiveThird, Consumptive Power. Each day they could sacrifice a limited number of their Hit Points directly as if they were Power Points for use in powers. 10hp/long rest was the maximum. And it reduced your max HP by that amount, so having someone toss a heal didn't instantly fix it.
And what new character concepts did it fit?Add in some Psionic Quanta, which functioned similarly to Eldritch Invocations but could often be boosted with Power Points, and voila!
You had a unique and interesting class that wasn't a Sorcerer or a Wizard.
So ... to sum up the big thing that distinguishes it is that you created an entirely new class that could concentrate on two spells at a time.If I could do that, 3 years ago, based on the UA Mystic, surely WotC can do better.
Not seeing specifically psychic stuff there - just you moving into deliberately untapped design space and giving it the name psychic.
And 5e has already got some psychic stuff. It can't do that so that's not the distinguishing feature of psionics. And doesn't as far as I know even have a history in D&D