D&D Debuts Playtest for Psion Class

Wizards of the Coast is playtesting the Psion class for Dungeons & Dragons. Today, Wizards of the Coast provided a new Unearthed Arcana for the Psion, a new class for the current revised 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons. The playtest includes base class rules plus four subclasses - the body-shifting Metamorph, the reality warping Psi Warper, the offensive-minded Psykinetic, and the Telepath.

The core mechanic of the Psion involves use of Psion Energy die. Players have a pool of energy dice that replenishes after a Long Rest, with the number and size of the dice determined by the Psion's level. These psion energy dice can either be rolled to increase results of various checks/saving throws or spent to fuel various Psion abilities.

While the Psion and psionics have a long tradition in D&D, they've only received a handful of subclasses in 5th Edition. If the Psion survives playtesting, it would mark the first time that Wizards of the Coast has added a new character class to D&D since the Artificer. Notably, the Psion and psionics are also heavily associated with Dark Sun, a post-apocalyptic campaign setting that many considered to be off the table for Fifth Edition due to the need to update parts of the setting to bring it current with modern sensibilities. However, the introduction of Wild talent feats (which replaces some Origin feats tied to backgrounds with psion-themed Feats) in the UA seems to suggest that Dark Sun is back on the table.

 

[bedir than]

Backgrounds representing their connection to wild talents will be included with these feats in a future book if they become official, but in the meantime a character who takes the Noble or Sage background can choose a Wild Talent feat in place of that background’s Origin feat, and any character can choose one of these feats when their class normally allows a feat choice.

I know this is an expected statement, but it feels as if we don't get it very often.

 

[LaTia J]

FINALLY!!!!

EVERYONE WH OTOLD ME THAT WOTC SHOULDN'T DO A PSION, BE DEFEATED!

BE STRUCK DOWN BY THE MIGHT OF THE PSION FANS!

WE HATE EACH OTHER BUT THIS TIME WE SHALL BOND! WE SHALL COMBINE FORCES!!

THERE WILL BE AN OFFICIAL PSION AND YOU CANNOT STOP IT ANYMORE!!!!!​

(except via surveys)

today, your enthusiasm will fuel me.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Its all just Wizard spells?

/shrug

That said, it's the least-dreadful "Just a spellcaster" version of the Psion by some margin, at least of the ones I've seen, and that very much includes "hacks" people have made.

It's not on-par with either the earlier 5E Psions, nor most 3PP "proper" Psions though.

Given I don't think 5E necessarily has a whole lot of gas left in the tank, I'm less annoyed than I would have been back when I thought we were getting 5-10 more years (or more!) of 5E.

 

[Scribe]

No. There are several spells not available to Wizards, a few not available to any caster, as well as Feats that enable non-spell Psion stories.

Yeah, its fine enough. I guess I would hope for a whole system for an official Wizards Psion.

Its neat to see a few things here or there that are similar to my Shadowdark Psion built over the last few months.

Certainly its better than the GOO Subclass approach.

 

[Incenjucar]

Its all just Wizard spells?

/shrug

I will not yuck anyone's yum, and I'm out of edition anyone so my opinion is moot, but I did have to turn off the video about the fourth time they said Magic.

 

[Shardstone]

today, your enthusiasm will fuel me.

You have no idea how long I've waited for this. I want an official Psion so dang bad. I love the homebrew ones but IMO a baseline is always good to have to work off of.

 

[Flights of Fancy]

I just hope everyone appreciates how difficult it is for me to NOT rip this to shreds.

So, all I will say before I bow out of this thread is:

Best of luck! I'm glad the community has something to hope for and they can get behind. I hope you get something you can enjoy and really use.

Signing off...

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I will not yuck anyone's yum, and I'm out of edition anyone so my opinion is moot, but I did have to turn off the video about the fourth time they said Magic.

I don't think anyone goes "yum" about psionics getting called "magic" except people who genuinely don't like psionics, so I wouldn't worry too much about that.

Personally I don't have a huge problem with that term being used*, but I do think the clunky slot-based nature of spells in D&D, especially 5E is very poorly suited to fantasy depictions of psionics. But it's rather poorly suited to most fantasy depictions of magic, too! So maybe everyone has to suck it with a pretty bad magic system until 6E comes around?

* = Primarily because I've seen plenty of good fantasy novels where they had powers that people colloquially or generally called "magic", but which operated on psionic principles. An easy example is Robin Hobb's Assassin series, where both The Skill and The Wit are psionics in the sense RPGs use the term, but are "magic" within the setting, which does have other forms of magic (albeit this doesn't really become clear until much later).

 

[Remathilis]

I mean. The survey should still sink it, depends on how people react.

I'm pretty sure WotCs stoplight system is going to safeguard this somewhat. Red doesn't get to say why. You like it, you don't like it, or you say you have some concerns. So even if you're opinion is D&D doesn't need psionics, you want psi points, or something similar, you gotta mark it yellow to tell them that.

That said, in a world where the Mystic was too broad and the aberrant sorcerer too narrow, this really feels like it's hitting Goldilocks territory.

 

[jgsugden]

This is an interesting take.

On the one hand, it is a bit like a sorcerer that just gets to use Intelligence instead of Charisma ... but they add onto that framework substantially. That makes it a bit like a pretty standard cake with some really awesome frosting.

It goes against some of my historical interpretations for a psion. I think of them as using points rather than slots, as well as having limited options on what they can do, but having those limited options being versatile (like Super Heroes). This design adds some complexity on top of spellcasting (like adding Channel Divinity does for a cleric - but on steroids here) which in a way makes it feel a little less like 'just another spellcaster', but they also have an extremely wide range of powers they can utilize.

A 2 level dip to get some spellcasting and the Inerrant Aim Discipline could be really strong - adding Jump, Longstrider, and rituals ... as well as psychic resistance, bonuses to a couple mental saving throws, a bonus action control ability to potentially move enemies or allies, etc... It would be a strong dip for a melee PC to take in mid-range. For example, a barbarian could really benefit here and would not need to be concerned with that pesky concentration issue if they select no concentration pre-combat casts and utility out of combat spells.

The presence of the multi-attack within a subclass makes me think they do not intend to do a separate psychic warrior class to fill those 'Jedi' fantasies.

All in all, I'd prefer an approach that puts aside spells and makes it a distinctly designed power user that feel dramatically different than wizards/sorcerers/druids/clerics, but as that is unlikely, this seems like a decent first public draft.