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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sword of Spirit" data-source="post: 7968104" data-attributes="member: 6677017">I just came back to look at the thread. It's pretty long, so I started doing more scanning than reading a few pages in (always problematic since the best stuff isn't necessarily on the first couple pages). Some of you have cleared up some misunderstandings of my intent already, so I'll just confirm where I'm coming from:-I believe dedicated Psion(icists) have a stronger presence in the Worlds of D&D than basically any other class option we don't yet have a way to represent.-The unique nature of psionics as a power source contributes to this. Basically, it was a third supernatural power source in 1e-3e (along with arcane magic and divine magic). 4e added others, 5e mechanically eliminated significance but thematically collapsed magical spellcasting back into arcane and divine. None of the other popular unrealized classes are based on power sources with such an impactful past.-It is generally possible to portray a witch or shaman or Wu-Jen with one of the existing classes. The classes have sufficiently accurate (often identical) "power sources" and encompass sufficient details. A Wu-Jen is a Wizard, a Shukenja (1e OA) is a Cleric, and a witch or shaman could be a Warlock, Sorcerer, or Druid, depending on what you're going for. Now--some of those really do need subclasses to better represent them--but they don't need a whole new class.-And to bring it back to where it started, the existence of this psionic type of power is well-established in the Worlds of D&D. It is ubiquitous on Dark Sun, common in certain geographical areas of Eberron, and present on multiple iconic D&D IP monsters in the Monster Manual and other places.If you were to look through the lore of D&D you would find plenty of psionic specialists with no way of portraying them in 5e. If you are one of the people who continues to play with settings, campaigns, or characters you began playing with in previous editions, you have no way to convert your Psion PCs or NPCs to 5e, because there is nothing that fits. This is a problem that, at this point in the edition cycle, is unique to 5e. Within a couple of years of each edition's launch you could bring a 2e Psionicist into 3.0e, 3.5e, and 4e. Now they are stuck with no where to go.The primary purpose of the post was to focus the current energy of the topic into a direct point of discussion. Someone looking at the topics list at ENWorld isn't necessarily going to know where discussions went 20 pages into the UA Psionics thread, but taking what stood out to me as the most important thing there and putting it in a thread title makes it more visible for those who might be asking the question I was attempting to answer. Why do people want a Psion class?Absolutely. Continuity is huge for me in D&D. Why else buy a new edition of it, when there are dozens of other interesting RPG options out there? Because I want to take advantage of improved mechanics that are designed to represent the same worlds I've already spent an enormous amount of time working on.</blockquote>

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