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.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I like it, but as soon as I saw it cast spells I knew a large portion of the people who really want psionics

Psionics are fictional and every edition of D&D has done them differently. There is no "really."

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Here's another 4e-influenced prediction of mine:

The 2024 version of the four elements monk no longer casts spells, and in 4e the monk was a psionic class. Now that they have the psion as a "fullcaster", maybe we'll see a psionic monk gish subclass as a eldritch knight equivalent to the psion's wizard, though maybe it'd be more appropriate to call it a "Zerth" instead of a "Gish"

 

[Leatherhead]

I'll believe it when I see it, in print that is.

This is the 3rd time they have tried it, and already the same disapprovals that ended up scrapping the class last time are spreading. Good luck to the people wishing for it to pass the bar for approval, but that is an infamously hard check to beat.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

As Dan Brown once stated "Houdini was a Yoga master".

"The whole point of those movies was to see if I could get Tom Hanks to have that crazy haircut."

 

[Charlaquin]

Did you honestly expect anything different?

Can’t say this was on my bingo card, no

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Psionics are fictional and every edition of D&D has done them differently. There is no "really."

I mean, that's a bit silly.

That's like having a system which does superpowers really, really badly (and oh god there are a fair few systems, especially bolt-ons to generic games which do superpowers really badly), and saying "Nyaahhhh you can't say these superpowers are badly done because superpowers are fictional nyaaaah!".

Psionics don't exist just in D&D. They exist in fantasy fiction too - and not just the Deryni books, as I mentioned earlier most "Romantic Fantasy" (i.e. again Blue Rose stuff, not Romantasy) and a fair few other settings, including those by Robin Hobb also have what is, in D&D terms, "psionics", even if they don't use that term. So if D&D's approach to psionics is weak fails when compared against both those AND previous editions of D&D, I think it's pretty legit to say "really" and not just thumb your nose at that.

The real defense, AFAICT is "Well D&D does an absolutely piss-poor job of representing magic in fantasy fiction in general, quite apart from psionics, so why should psionics not also get a pretty rubbish treatment?!?!?! Hmmmm?!?!?" lol.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Psionics don't exist just in D&D. They exist in fantasy fiction too - and not just the Deryni books, as I mentioned earlier most "Romantic Fantasy" (i.e. again Blue Rose stuff, not Romantasy) and a fair few other settings, including those by Robin Hobb also have what is, in D&D terms, "psionics", even if they don't use that term. So if D&D's approach to psionics is weak fails when compared against both those AND previous editions of D&D, I think it's pretty legit to say "really" and not just thumb your nose at that.

Except that saying "really" implies that everyone knows what "doing psionics really" means. And every thread on this subject, going back to 3E, shows that's not true.

It's more useful to say "I want psionic points" or whatever, rather than to suggest that there's one true way that everyone knows and that WotC is just being coy about for some reason.

 

[SkidAce]

I feel like I can re-create the Deryni with this. (persecuted psi-clerics in a fantasy series by Katherine Kurtz)

 

[Corinnguard]

I'm glad the folks who need to have WotC do this for them (perhaps they do a lot of official play?) Are finally potentially getting an option.

One of several options, hopefully. Besides @Steampunkette 's Esper class, there is also the Psion class in the Voidrunner Codex from Level Up and Laser Llama's Psion class.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

(i.e. again Blue Rose stuff, not Romantasy)

Also, how does Blue Rose do it? I've always been interested in that setting, but not enough to drop $30 on a product I'll almost certainly never use. (Although it would make a great lost Concord World for the Radiant Citadel setting.)