D&D Psionics Survey; Plus "First Major Mechanical Expansion" Coming?

The latest D&D survey is up from WotC, and it's asking your thoughts on the revised Awakened Mystic article (aka 5E psionics rules) in Mike Mearls' Unearthed Arcana column last July. It also asks whether you want to see new races, classes, spells, and feats. At the same time, the last survey's results are in, reporting on the pubic's opinions of the Kits of Old article from a few months ago; and Mike Mearls refers to a "first major mechanical expansion" in the game.

[lq]At this stage, we’ve begun considering what the first, major mechanical expansion to the game might look like.[/lq]

 

[Bad Fox]

Back in 2014, they were writing the DMG in August for a late November release. But that was mostly straight text and advice, and a lot less playtesting and rules. And that was still a good four-month period.

Making new class content and having *any* sort of playtest will be slower. Designing class options simply takes more time than a bunch of magic items or optional rules.

Case and point: http://www.enworld.org/forum/conten...Perkins-Tweeting-Page-Snippets-Of-Mongrelfolk
Perkins was hard at work on Curse of Strahd a year ago. Making a book is time intensive.

I agree, but again, you're assuming that the work hasn't started, which is isn't the case. At least some options that make it into any upcoming sourcebook have been floated in UA. These concepts will have already had internal playtesting, and the wider community has already been surveyed about them.

On top of that, we don't know what other bits and pieces are being worked on that we haven't even heard a whisper about.

 

[TrippyHippy]

I think there should be some expansion of some subclass options - especially for Rangers, Fighters, Rogues, Sorcerers and Bards. I'm still quite content with the options presented in the Player's Handbook though.

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

One possibility is that since they were going to be doing DMs Guild recommendations every other month for awhile in Unearthed Arcana that some of that content may end up being surveyed, playtested, and tweaked and that the best of the end result will show up in the big expansion.

I liked the look of the Blood Hunter. It obviously needs some mechanical balance work, but if something like that showed up with 5e style playesting in the expansion I would be thrilled.

 

[CapnZapp]

This post was generated by a news article which your device or browser is not displaying directly. You can view the article directly here.

I believe there was already a thread on this.

Cheers,
zapp

 

[Matthan]

I think it's worthwhile to remember that not all of the player options in SCAG had any precedent in UA articles. It's probably a mistake to think that we will see everything that is being worked on in UA. I believe WOTC has dedicated testers as well who may already be interacting with new rules options. That doesn't tell us when a new book will drop, but I think it does open up the possibility of it being announced suddenly.

 

[thzero]

Maybe a mechanical update will mean I can learn a new skill later in the adventuring "career" (and no, tools don't count) without needing a feat (especially since they are optional).

 

[Jester David]

I agree, but again, you're assuming that the work hasn't started, which is isn't the case. At least some options that make it into any upcoming sourcebook have been floated in UA. These concepts will have already had internal playtesting, and the wider community has already been surveyed about them.

On top of that, we don't know what other bits and pieces are being worked on that we haven't even heard a whisper about.

True.
I guess I'm just hoping that if they're polling people to see what kind of splatbooks they want, they won't have already started writing & developing one.

 

[kalil]

Traditionally I would assume lots and lots of elf sub-races and wizard spells.

 

[CapnZapp]

Maybe a mechanical update will mean I can learn a new skill later in the adventuring "career" (and no, tools don't count) without needing a feat (especially since they are optional).

I suggest a house rule. I think more-skills-as-you-level is too "small" a rule for them to bother with at this stage, unfortunately. Especially since more skills by downtime is already part of the rules.

Perhaps:

You begin with on skill less than indicated by your class description. You gain one new skill for each tier; that is, at levels 4, 11, and 17.

 

[Uder]

I like that it looks like they are aiming it at veterans, and being careful to express that it's DM's choice on material. Like some sort of "Advanced" Dungeons and Dragons.