D&D (2024) Psion Class: Green/Yellow/Red?
- Thread starter Henadic Theologian
- Start date
Xeviat
Dungeon Mistress, she/her
I want to see at least two things, on top of general polish and balancing:
My other bugbear is that I liked the thematics and concept of Mystic as a class more than Psion. Mystic is more fantasy and fits a trope we don't really have (mysticism is a real world thing separate but adjacent priests). That and I'd rather see the 3E Egoist, Nomad, Kineticist, Shaper, Seer, and Telepath be the subclasses, just to use names with history. Round out the eventual 10 with Medium, Ardent, Alienist, and Pyrokineticist.
- Use Magic Points (call them MP instead of Spell Points because SP already means Silver Pieces) or Warlock's pact magic slots. Psions need to feel different on the player side of play. MP are already roughly balanced, the Sorcerer functionally has an MP system hidden within it with their ability to swap sorcery points for slots and slots for sorcery points. Overtuned first level reaction spells are the only real problem with spell points: 2 SP for +5 AC when you have 60 MP is too cheap, but this could be resolved by having shield be +AC equal to MP but also letting you know what the enemy rolled to hit you so you don't waste it (like in BG3).
- The telepathy features need to have a longer distance. The telepathy feat and the soul knife, aberrant mind, and great old one all have huge distances once contact is established.
- More psionic dice recovery. 1 on a short rest is too small. Half on a short rest? Sorcerers get up to 20 sorcery points, Psions get 12+2 for 2 short rests... If it was half on a short rest, it would be 20 vs 24 and all the features that cost psi dice wouldn't hurt so bad.
My other bugbear is that I liked the thematics and concept of Mystic as a class more than Psion. Mystic is more fantasy and fits a trope we don't really have (mysticism is a real world thing separate but adjacent priests). That and I'd rather see the 3E Egoist, Nomad, Kineticist, Shaper, Seer, and Telepath be the subclasses, just to use names with history. Round out the eventual 10 with Medium, Ardent, Alienist, and Pyrokineticist.
Corinnguard
Hero
DragonLancer
Hero
Fair play but out of curiosity, why were power points rejected? It seems the best way to differentiate between magic and psionics.
Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad
The subclasses though are all interesting and different than both each other and almost everything else in the game.
Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad
It's now 80% either Yellow or Green. I think it was the colors of the graph that threw everything off. Very odd choice.
I would imagine its because WotC probably determined most of their millions of players care more about ease-of-use and the story results of using a feature than needing more unique mechanics to acquire and organize those features.
Once a player determines that the story of who their character is and what adventures they go on matters more in the long run that the organization and numbering system of when they can use their special powers... the need for mechanical differentiation becomes a lot less.
When you have an ability that is 'at-will' but you only use it like 3 or 4 times an adventuring day, or you have 'spell points' that result in you using that same ability 3 or 4 times per day, or you have a 'spell slot' system that only allows you to use it 4 times per day... there ends up being no practical difference. You're still using X ability 4 times per adventuring day. And for every player the narrative produced within the story is the same-- the character used X ability four times and it resulted in some change in the story.
Whether it's at-will abilities or spell points or spell slots or some other esoteric system... they all do the same thing. They give the player some organizational format to keep track of for when they can use said ability. And that's merely bookkeeping. And I suspect the designers of D&D long ago said that players spending time with their heads buried in their character sheet worrying about bookkeeping takes away from the actual game of what their characters are doing in the story. So they aren't going to bother creating new bookkeeping systems that they have to try and balance around when there's a perfectly serviceable bookkeeping method for "supernatural ability" that is tried and true.
And if some players want something different? That's what the OGL/CC/DMs Guild is for. They can make or find whatever weird-ass mechanical bookkeeping system they want to differentiate their psionics from their arcane magic from their divine magic from their primal magic from their tinkering technology etc. etc. And thus WotC doesn't have to do it.
Paul Farquhar
Legend
The mystic as a whole was rejected, the feedback system wasn't sophisticated enough to identify why. It might have fared better under the traffic light system, but I can't see WotC going back to it at this point. Far too complicated seems the most likely explanation. WotC have said that their market research has shown that they have found players to be highly resistant to learning new systems.
I think the problems with the alternative points based magic system in the 2014 DMG are fairly well known though.
Last edited:
Paul Farquhar
Legend
And you don’t care about anyone else…
Similar Threads
D&D General
Hard Moves (in D&D)
