D&D 5E How does 5e know what you're thinking? Psionics Mechanics..

[steeldragons]

What's your favorite/favored way of working with psionics/psychic powers?

How should 5e implement psychic powers, assuming they are to be an element "out the gate" in the basic/starter/core rules?

 

[JeffB]

What's your favorite/favored way of working with psionics/psychic powers?

Ignoring them completely just like Gary had wished he had done when Blume came up with them and insisted they go into the AD&D PHB a couple years later?


There is a quite a bit of truth there, but I'm presenting in a hopefully funny manner.

On a serious note, I do not have a problem with the idea of Psionics, but I have yet to see a simple and flavorful system for them that makes them worth bothering with.

 

[Steely_Dan]

On a serious note, I do not have a problem with the idea of Psionics, but I have yet to see a simple and flavorful system for them that makes them worth bothering with.

Yes, I would like them straight out the gate, not tacked on.


Sorcerers have taken power points (willpower points), so maybe the 5th Ed Psion should be a Sorcerer of Psionic Heritage.

 

[slobster]

First you choose a specialty, appropriate to psionic tropes. Telepathy and telekinesis comes to mind. We should resist the urge to create a psionic specialty equivalent to every school of magic, as has been done before.

You get some simple at-will stuff for your specialty. Telekinetics can push and trip people at a distance and lift objects with their brains. Psychics can charm people, attempt to read their surface thoughts, and even cause small amounts of psychic damage.

Then you have power points, which recover slowly after you use them (essentially making them encounter resources). You can use them to augment your specialty, so that a powerful enough telekinetic could lift someone and toss them into an ally, dealing damage to both. A powerful psychic could crush an opponent's will and make them into a thrall, or overwrite someone's personality with a copy of his own.

So basically it's an encounter resource system modifying at-wills which are granted according to your psionic specialty.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

First you choose a specialty, appropriate to psionic tropes. Telepathy and telekinesis comes to mind. We should resist the urge to create a psionic specialty equivalent to every school of magic, as has been done before.

You get some simple at-will stuff for your specialty. Telekinetics can push and trip people at a distance and lift objects with their brains. Psychics can charm people, attempt to read their surface thoughts, and even cause small amounts of psychic damage.

Then you have power points, which recover slowly after you use them (essentially making them encounter resources). You can use them to augment your specialty, so that a powerful enough telekinetic could lift someone and toss them into an ally, dealing damage to both. A powerful psychic could crush an opponent's will and make them into a thrall, or overwrite someone's personality with a copy of his own.

So basically it's an encounter resource system modifying at-wills which are granted according to your psionic specialty.

I agree with this, but I'd like to see power points recover every round, like the Fighter's expertise dice. The most powerful augments, though, would require the psion to store up power points over multiple rounds (say, using a psi-crystal). Thus, telekinesis could be used to teleport, and telepathy could cause a psychic explosion.

 

[Dragoslav]

I'm in favor of a system like slobster suggests. Psionics should have their own set of augmentable abilities, not cast normal spells.

 

[bogmad]

Perhaps you could also spend power points to use the at will abilities of different disciplines? I like the system proposed, but I have a feeling some would be disappointed with only having access to telepathy without being able to dabble in telekinesis.

 

[Ultimatecalibur]

I have never gotten the desire that psionics=/="magic" and that the game needs a psionic equivalent for everything. Psionics is just a modern day pseudoscientific refluffing of magic.

If Psionics make an appearance in 5e/Next I hope it ends something like the following:

• Wizards get a Mentalist tradition.
• Sorcerers get a Wild Talent Origin.
• Warlocks get a Pact with a mental super construct.
• Monks get Psychic Warrior and Soul Knife styles.

 

[timASW]

First you choose a specialty, appropriate to psionic tropes. Telepathy and telekinesis comes to mind. We should resist the urge to create a psionic specialty equivalent to every school of magic, as has been done before.

You get some simple at-will stuff for your specialty. Telekinetics can push and trip people at a distance and lift objects with their brains. Psychics can charm people, attempt to read their surface thoughts, and even cause small amounts of psychic damage.

Then you have power points, which recover slowly after you use them (essentially making them encounter resources). You can use them to augment your specialty, so that a powerful enough telekinetic could lift someone and toss them into an ally, dealing damage to both. A powerful psychic could crush an opponent's will and make them into a thrall, or overwrite someone's personality with a copy of his own.

So basically it's an encounter resource system modifying at-wills which are granted according to your psionic specialty.

I like this idea but rather then have psychics by their own class I would make them a kind of specialist sorcerer and then put all the mind reading, charming, divinatory, telekinesis style powers and just make them spells on a specialty class spell list.

 

[RangerWickett]

I'd love some sort of superhero-esque rules. Like, Magneto can bend metal and fly and do telekinesis, but he doesn't know cantrips and a huge spellbook full of other spells.

If psionics let you focus on a few powers that could do a tight cluster of related things, I'd appreciate that. TKs move stuff, crush and trip and throw. PKs burn and maybe can fly on thermal updrafts. TPs create mental illusions, dominate, and cause your head to explode.

Jaunters teleport. Egoists alter their biochemistry to become invincible, or enhance their damage (but aren't necessarily the kung-fu warriors that monks are). Shapers create objects and monsters.

Like, psion could let you pick one thing and be great at it, or a variety of things. But they'd be at-will. They're innate powers, not spells. You might still have warlock-style "per encounter" points that you can expend to push yourself. Your nose bleeds, your eyes turn white, and you pull off an awesome power, then sag afterward.