D&D General What’s The Big Deal About Psionics?

[JiffyPopTart]

IS the Fighter a super simple Martial Class though? The Champion maybe (which uh, I've only seen played once ever), but really, I found the Rogue to be bog simple in combat. Aim for a guy in melee with an ally. Roll lots of dice. Rinse and repeat.

The only thing keeping rogues from being super simple is the GMs who fight against giving them sneak attack every round (despite the fact that it's underpowered compared to there martials and there is an endless stream of options making it kinda obvious they should be getting it) and forcing the player to do a bunch of narrative garbage to try to remain useful in combat.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Things that could make psions mechanically unique that aren't inventing entirely new subsystems....

1. Cantrips with level up abilities other than just extra damage per tier.

2. Using Hit Dice or HP as a resource to power talents.

3. Dice pools to augment base powers.

4. Different ways to apply concentration.

5. Very narrow thematic focus for talents (opposite of the generalist wizard).

There is enough design space in core 5e to park a fleet of trucks in, WotC just chooses not to use it.

 

[Maxperson]

IS the Fighter a super simple Martial Class though? The Champion maybe (which uh, I've only seen played once ever), but really, I found the Rogue to be bog simple in combat. Aim for a guy in melee with an ally. Roll lots of dice. Rinse and repeat.

Yes, the champion is the simple fighter. And I have you beat since I've not seen even one played. I have played in the past, though, with people who didn't want anything more than the champion gives and only played straight fighters.

The reason I said fighter and not champion, is that in most(all) of these threads, people want to change the base class to make fighters "better." That would necessarily impact the champion and ruin the simple class that a decent sized minority of players want to have available to them.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Guys, this thread is about giving excuses for keeping the psionics fans down, not fighter fans. There's dozens of threads about keeping the fighter in their place.

 

[Yaarel]

Things that could make psions mechanically unique that aren't inventing entirely new subsystems....

1. Cantrips with level up abilities other than just extra damage per tier.

2. Using Hit Dice or HP as a resource to power talents.

3. Dice pools to augment base powers.

4. Different ways to apply concentration.

5. Very narrow thematic focus for talents (opposite of the generalist wizard).

There is enough design space in core 5e to park a fleet of trucks in, WotC just chooses not to use it.

The psionic fans divide into different camps.

I.really.dislike.fiddly.experimental.mechanics.

There must be two classes.

The 3e Psion needs to be as simple as possible with normal full-caster mechanics and medievalesque mind flavor. Let it be normal.

There can be a second separate class, maybe call it the 2e Psionicist. It can be a half-caster or its Monk-like equivalent, and its mechanics and flavors can be as fringe as you want.

Let the camp that likes psionics being part of traditional D&D, have that!

 

[James Gasik]

You're right, my apologies, I didn't mean to confuse the issue. The fact is, however, in this thread, the Psion and his relatives are consistently being compared to other classes, I presume because there is some contention about whether or not there is a niche for such characters that isn't already being filled elsewhere. Either that, or Wizards are all consuming voids that will steal any ability any other class has that isn't nailed down.

 

[Yaarel]

Guys, this thread is about giving excuses for keeping the psionics fans down, not fighter fans. There's dozens of threads about keeping the fighter in their place.

Heh, I want to laugh, but its to close to the truth.

 

[Vaalingrade]

You're right, my apologies, I didn't mean to confuse the issue. The fact is, however, in this thread, the Psion and his relatives are consistently being compared to other classes, I presume because there is some contention about whether or not there is a niche for such characters that isn't already being filled elsewhere. Either that, or Wizards are all consuming voids that will steal any ability any other class has that isn't nailed down.

Well that's both right and niche protection is a corrosive force in game design.

 

[Minigiant]

The 3e Psion needs to be as simple as possible with normal full-caster mechanics and medievalesque mind flavor. Let it be normal.

I don't think you can port over an interesting and balanced 3e psion in less than 50 pages.

 

[Yaarel]

Almost all of the 3e psionic powers are already 5e spells.

It is simple to design a 5e Psion, and add a handful of flavorful spells.