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.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah, I always felt that the point of psionics in Dark Sun was to serve as mutant powers (without actually copy/pasting from Gamma World) not to bypass the downsides of magic.

It was always meant to echo stuff like John Carter of Mars...so, weird fiction Psi stuff goes in.

Also to be a flagship for AD&D Battlesystem, it nobody ever talks about that, sooooo...

It has occurred to me that this UA has nothing like enough wild talents to do Dark Sun, since everyone should have one.

4E Dark Sun had 10 Wild Talents, and the Ad&D ser included a couple with similar names to this batch.

 

[Shardstone]

It seems the Psionic "thing" in 5e is dice that power things.
Soul Knife does uses there's for more than damage.
Psi Warrior does too.

Having the Psion do similar is a strong story echo

Bard is lowkey psionic now.

 

[Staffan]

Any thoughts how they could implement the Seer or Shaper subclasses?

The Seer suffers from being traditionally rather close to the Diviner Wizard, but many of the interesting 3.5e Clairsentience powers were often shared with the Psychic Warrior. I guess they could try pushing the Seer more towards the Fighter or the Monk. Or try making the subclass from the other end as a subclass of Fighter (though less likely given the Psi Warrior subclass) or Monk instead of a Psion subclass.

The Shaper I'm guessing is one they can really lean on the crystals and ectoplasm flavour, have the Shaper be all about throwing around exploding force damage crystals and summoning Astral Entities, with spells like Web or Entangle, some of the Conjure spells (including Conjure Minor Elementals) and Fabricate added to their list. Maybe go all in with the Astral Entity with a constant set of companions that they can manifest physically (really just Find Familiar, Find Steed or Phantom Steed and special uses of Summon Astral Entity and Aberration).

I'd actually prefer it if there is no Shaper. The 3e Metacreativity discipline always felt a bit shoehorned in. In 3.0, each discipline had its own casting (sorry, manifesting) stat: Strength for psychometabolism, Dexterity for psychoportation, Constitution for metacreativity, Intelligence for psychokinesis, Wisdom for clairsentience, and Charisma for telepathy (I'm not certain about Con/Int, but the principle is right). In 2e, however, metacreativity was not a thing – there was a metapsionics discipline, but that was for things like extending durations/ranges and such. So to me, metacreativity always felt like "OK, we decided to match disciplines to stats, and we need one for Constitution... any ideas?", and creating things from nothing never felt particularly psionic to me. Force fields yes, crystals no.

As for the Seer, I like the idea that came up in another psionics discussion (it might have been from @Yaarel) of combining clairsentience and psychoportation (and moving the more physical aspects of psychoportation, like levitation, to psychokinesis). Both are about ignoring the limitations of time and space, and to me it makes perfect sense that teleportation is an evolution of clairvoyance/remote viewing.

And while on the topic of clairsentience, I do miss some of the weirder powers (many of which were clairsentience) in this UA. Things like déjà vu, destiny dissonance, synesthete, time hop, or déjà vu. It'd be fun to see more of those.

 

[Yaarel]

Yes, but that is very unfun for players.

If your party is kidnapped, you want to be awake and able to try and overcome challenges. Including a Psion makes these effectively mute points, unless you treat them the same way you treat mages.

If you have to knock out a character just to counter them in these type of scenarios, then you are removing one players agency to overcome these challenges. That’s not good for gameplay.

For the record, for me, the you-all-got-kidnapped/arrested and all-of-your-stuff-is-gone, is deeply unfun. What is supposed to be 'disorienting' and 'challenging', is boring, pointless, and frustrating. I dont think D&D needs to ensure this kind of scenario is playable. Maybe the Psion is less vulnerable to this weird situational event, but I wish the Fighter and Wizard didnt have to deal with this situation either. In a sandbox campaign that follows a story wherever it goes, getting arrested or captured 'could' happen, but I dont think it 'should' happen. In my life, as player, this kind of situation has only happened twice. And I hated it both times. Both DMs were great and compassionate, but game scenario was nonentertaining. As a DM, I never did this to the players. That said.

I kinda agree that drugging the spellcaster as the only way to incapacitate is unfun (perhaps even a session zero no-go, for certain tables).

I think of certain Norse sagas, where the warriors and psions (seið-fólk, etcetera) are about equally powerful, and who would win would be a coin-toss, albeit maybe a bit like 'rocket-tag'. It seems to me, a way to disarm a psion would be something like a successful Intimidation check against the psion. But I am unsure if this would work for D&D. It might make it too easy to disrupt a spellcaster. Also, I doubt it would be sustainable. The moment a psion regained some sense of self-empowerment or an opportunity presented, the psion would flee.

I wonder if the idea of using Intimidation to 'force surrender' on any spellcaster (not just Psions) might be viable in D&D − within reason and clearly defined parameters.

In the meantime, a down and dirty solution is the arresters/captors have magic restraints that can incapacitate a caster. The tv show Wheel of Time comes to mind, with its trope of magic collars to subjugate the casters. Again, these are not fun D&D encounters. And even Wheel of Time touches on the trauma that this kind situation inflicts on the victim.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Things like déjà vu, destiny dissonance, synesthete, time hop, or déjà vu.

I see what you did there.

 

[Older Beholder]

Just as an aside:
I had a friend in highschool when we were first getting into 2nd edition DnD who loved Psionics. Like, he believed in it as a real thing, that with enough practice he would one day be able to move things with his mind.

When the psionics handbook came out he joined our group, and only ever played psionicists (always human). Which was fine, I'm not dunking on the guy, it was just always funny to me that he was so much more interested in one class than the game itself.

 

[Yaarel]

As for the Seer, I like the idea that came up in another psionics discussion (it might have been from @Yaarel) of combining clairsentience and psychoportation (and moving the more physical aspects of psychoportation, like levitation, to psychokinesis). Both are about ignoring the limitations of time and space, and to me it makes perfect sense that teleportation is an evolution of clairvoyance/remote viewing.

Yeah, that was me. I like the idea of 'spacetime' magic including both Teleportation and Divination. I think the 'passive' Divination and 'one-trick-pony' Teleportation enrich each other for great gameplay. So for the playtest, I would like to see both 3e Seer/Clairsentience/Divination and 3e Egoist/Teleportation fuse into the 5e Psi Warper.

Meanwhile 'conjuration' is 'planar' magic (where planes a different levels of being rather than different places).

 

[pukunui]

I see what you did there.

The 3.5e XPH did that too ... no joke.

 

[Maxperson]

I see what you did there.

The 3.5e Expanded Psionics Handbook did that. It had Deja Vu on page 91, and then when you turned to page 92 there it was again.

 

[Remathilis]

Why?

Because if a suspected criminal cannot be detained safely short of an anti magic field, you cannot arrest them and that only leaves killing or inhumane methods (keeping them in an induced coma) as the only way you can be sure they won't escape and continue to break the law.

If it's a caster, don't take chances. Kill on sight.