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.

 

[Valetudo]

Hey prof. X has to touch his forehead when he uses his powers. Somatic doesn't have to be a dance or wiggly fingers. Maybe it's pointing real hard.

 

[Yaarel]

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

I feel like I can recreate the Norse animistic magic with this Psion: berserkr, valkyrja, vǫlva, ljóði, etcetera.

Generally, a D&D base class being vanilla and versatile, is probably what the Psion class should be. And it can multiclass easily. This is normal D&D.

 

[Horwath]

Wild talent feats as more options for origin feats is nice,
class is revamped aberrant mind sorcerer

Level 1: subtle telekineses:
Just write in:
you gain Telekinetic feat but without +1 ASI

extra cantrip or two would not be bad, just to see some variance in builds.

 

[WanderingMystic]

Wild talent feats as more options for origin feats is nice,
class is revamped aberrant mind sorcerer

Level 1: subtle telekineses:
Just write in:
you gain Telekinetic feat but without +1 ASI

extra cantrip or two would not be bad, just to see some variance in builds.

I would love a free wild talent when you either chose the class or chose your subclass to make certain concepts and builds viable.

 

[Maxperson]

Hey prof. X has to touch his forehead when he uses his powers. Somatic doesn't have to be a dance or wiggly fingers. Maybe it's pointing real hard.

No he doesn't have to touch his head. A lot of times he does do it, and a lot of other times he doesn't do it. He does it more in the movies than the comic books because movies need something visual, but other times he doesn't. The very first scene below when he was a child is him not using somatic for his telepath.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I would hazard a guess at “mystic” for a wild talent background.

 

[WanderingMystic]

So the more I read and reread the class my biggest disappointments are the disciplines. The subclasses give us great ways to spend our psi dice, to the point that spending a psi dice on a discipline will be rare except for maybe the skill ones. What we need are constant abilities, or things more similar to a warlocks boons, I would even feel satisfied with choices that were more similar to the wild talents as choices even if we got fewer of them.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Somatic components with Psionics are Mudras, spiritual gestures in Hinduism. A lot of D&D's ideas of Psionics specifically come from the more esoteric ideas in Yoga. Some of the classic D&D disciplines/schools of Psionics correspond to the Siddhis in Hinduism and the powers that Yogis are said to obtain.

 

[Yaarel]

With the UA Psion out now, obviously WotC has already decided what book it would be part of. Whatever they decided, I will work with.

Regarding my preference, I hope the Psion class appears in an 'Everything' book, being quasi-core and meant for any setting.

Every major D&D setting has psionics ... Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Planescape, and so on. The Psion class also makes sense for Magic The Gathering Settings, including for Blue themes. It would be a mistake to reduce the Psion class to the flavor of the Dark Sun setting only. Of course, Dark Sun features psionics as a major setting theme. But psionics is important to most settings, and matters to psionic fans who want to play a Psion in whichever setting they are currently in.

 

[Yaarel]

Somatic components with Psionics are Mudras, spiritual gestures in Hinduism. A lot of D&D's ideas of Psionics specifically come from the more esoteric ideas in Yoga. Some of the classic D&D disciplines/schools of Psionics correspond to the Siddhis in Hinduism and the powers that Yogis are said to obtain.

Psionics is important for various Hindu themes. At the same time, I dont want to see Psionics being reduced down to Hindu flavor only.

Psionics is also important for Nordic animisms, Australian animism, various animisms in Africa, probably American Indigenous 'medicine' too. Most shamanic cultures have concepts that D&D mechanics express best as psionics.

Plus there is modern popculture, like X-Men and Legion, shows like Tomorrow People, and so on. Much of 'alien' tropes are soul magic.