D&D (2024) What Should a Psion Be Able To Do?

A psionics fan can justify any power as psionic because there are so many different fictions that portray it as such. Even creating matter and energy out of thin air, or spirit/soul stuff and outer planar/afterlife traveling.

Because psionics is just magic seen through a different filter.

It's. Just. Magic. Fans just prefer a different mechanical system (often super-flexible power points which is even more powerful than the normal magic/martial divide) and different narrative (They can kill or secretly manipulate you and the world around them with their mind with no verbal, somatic, or material components).

It's a power fantasy that exceeds even Wizardry.
 

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Uni-the-Unicorn! said:
So what I gather from these responses is that it is less important what the psion can do, but instead how they do it.
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Yeah, I think most of the things people have listed are things a Psion might be able to do, but they aren't things all Psions should be able to do. I don't like Psions being able to pick up random abilities at random power levels, that is what I associate with being a Wizard.
 

Mirrorrorrim said:
A psionics fan can justify any power as psionic because there are so many different fictions that portray it as such. Even creating matter and energy out of thin air, or spirit/soul stuff and outer planar/afterlife traveling.

Because psionics is just magic seen through a different filter.

It's. Just. Magic. Fans just prefer a different mechanical system (often super-flexible power points which is even more powerful than the normal magic/martial divide) and different narrative (They can kill or secretly manipulate you and the world around them with their mind with no verbal, somatic, or material components).

It's a power fantasy that exceeds even Wizardry.
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The entire game is "magic" by that usage. Every class and darned near every monster does impossible things. Dispel Magic should vaporize everything.
 

"Magic" covers everything supernatural or not-normal to our world for some folks.

And that's okay. In most stories and settings, that's all there is.

It doesn't mean, however, you cannot have a setting with multiple types of power.

Superhero Comics, for example, have weird science, impossible technology, mutation, psychic powers, magic, alien physiology, and more all existing alongside one another.

For some readers, it could easily all be classified as magic. It's reductive of the narrative, but it's what they prefer, clearly.
 

I could go on a big ol' rant on descriptive terms vs. technical accuracy (birds are fish etc.) but at the end of the day this is fiction so there can be magic, schmagic, and magyk and they could do the exact same thing and can be defined as completely different things. None of this has a truth value to it, the words don't map directly to the real world.
 


Reynard said:
I am not sure how you would balance this in 5E's paradigm.
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Flights of Fancy said:
Should be random to begin, but cultivated later on through training and experience.
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Could do it the same way wild magic / spirit bard does.

I.e.
Half caster.

Level 1: when you cast a spell roll a d6 on the table below.
Level 2: When you roll on the table, you can spend 1 Psi Point to reroll the die, changing the result.
Level 5: roll d8
Level 7: you can spend a psi point to add 1 to the result.
Level 11: roll d10
Level 14:
Level 17: roll d12
Level 20: you can choose any result lower than what you rolled.

1: you take damage equal to your level.
2: your spell does minimum damage
3: no effect
4: move the target of the spell 5' away from you.
5: gain temporary hit points equal to twice the spell level.
6: teleport 15' after the spell
...
10: cast the spell 1 level higher.
11: maximize the damage
12: targets have disadvantage on the savings throw.

Or some such.
 

CreamCloud0 said:
typically, it's distinct due to the standard power organizations and techniques of dealing with magic users don't include or work on psionics, this makes it a bit of an X-factor in the world, yes it's just as powerful and does most of the same things as magic and that's part of the point, but it lacks several limitations and doesn't trigger any of the sensors or defences magic usually would, like being able to walk through security with a loaded bandolier of grenades and guns with nary a glance while everyone else gets their weapons taken.
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But if the world includes psions to the same degree as wizards, everyone knows this and they take precautions.

That's the point. Without the "mystique" what is the point of psions in a world that has 6 other kinds of magic already?
 


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