D&D 5E How To Darksun

[Dispater]

I have a feeling like most of the official stuff designed to be 5e-friendly is going to be unusable if you want a more gritty, low-fantasy Dark Sun campaign. I'm watching Mike Mearl's happy fun hour, and he's treating the psionicist as a wizard, essentially. But you never know. I might be pleasantly surprised.

 

[Zardnaar]

I have a feeling like most of the official stuff designed to be 5e-friendly is going to be unusable if you want a more gritty, low-fantasy Dark Sun campaign. I'm watching Mike Mearl's happy fun hour, and he's treating the psionicist as a wizard, essentially. But you never know. I might be pleasantly surprised.

My fallback plan is to convert the 3.5 psion to 5E. Or use it as a place holder

 

[Coroc]

[MENTION=7635]Remathilis[/MENTION] #14 I ran MotRD quite fine as a little sidekick in my greyhawk campaign. Of course you have to alter a few things, but since this is mainly a RP - orientated with a Little bit of riddle solving adventure - it is absolutely easy to convert. (I am only talking about the actual MoTRD adventure not the other two in the boxed set or the Setting as such but also the modern classes introduced therein are easy to reshape in 5e but that would derail the thread to much)

What i did (and that's about the only thing in MotRD which is easy to do with 2e mechanic but close to impossible in 5e) is to make the red death an unattackable thing, a force of fear and instant death for the Players foolish enough to engage it in direct combat. Which is the RAW Intention in the 2e adventure also.

 

[Ath-kethin]

My fallback plan is to convert the 3.5 psion to 5E. Or use it as a place holder

It might also be bworth taking a look at this book. It's pretty pricy, and it badly needs to be bookmarked, but it's a pretty solid 2e psionics system using the rules. Even if it did go with the mAC/mTHACO sort of approach.

http://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/242474

 

[Coroc]

In how far would 2e psionics be usable? It is to Long (25 years+) i played 2e DS and i only used the wild talents, but i own the 2e psionics book.

The PSP were derived from Co Wis and Int or so. The Power checks were vs these attributes. It wasn't that complicated, but there was a mechanic called contact, so for every telepathic shtick you had to make contact first (wanted or unwanted).

I have to give it a look and see if it is convertable somehow. Since it is only a bit of math and some skillchecks, concentration mechanic is already there in 5e i think it should be possible. It just has to be balanced with the other 5e stuff.

 

[Istbor]

I can't wait for the thread where Zard teaches us how to dougie.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Without offending the psionic-is-not-magic! crowd, the problem of converting high fantasy D&D to a darker sword and sorcery setting like Darksun isn't too much the ability to cast spells, or having spell slots; its the spell lists themselves.

Many D&D spells can easily be flavoured as psionic powers, and in the absence of a psion or a mystic class, classes like the bard, ranger and paladin (and arcane trickster and eldritch knight) readily serve as psionic user classes. Use the spell point variant for a more AD&D 2e psionic feel.

We started a Darksun game a while ago and I wanted to play a psionicist, and the bard provided a good platform for it. Take vicious mockery and rename "ego whip" and it already feels Darksun-y. Although we didn't get that far, you could easily cull and mix 5e D&D spells in a psionic spell list for bards, rangers, paladins, or even warlock, to select from.

Just like Darksun's designers weren't afraid to dramatically alter the fluff of 2e AD&D classes, we shouldn't be afraid to reflavour existing classes fluff while keeping the mechanics of the class itself. A paladin soul knife psionic-warrior enhancing its blades with psychic energy, healing powers and a knack for resisting diseases? Sounds cool to me.

TL;DR: classes as chassis work perfectly for Darksun. Change fluff and spell lists (and if you really want to go that far, make class archetypes) and transform your vanilla D&D to Darksun-flavoured goodness.

I think Darksun is the one setting where the mechanical divide really needs to be front and center. It certainly wasn't refluffing in 2E. If there is no mechanical difference between psionic spells and magic spells which sucks the life out of you or the environment, why would you pick the latter? Are preservers just too stupid to cast the better way?

It's also the setting I'm most comfortable with wizards having an absurdly broad scope of what they can do with their magic, as you're stuck have the choice to preserve at a cost of speed/effectiveness/your life force or defile and risk being murdered by an angry mob and/or turning into a mutant.

 

[Laurefindel]

I think Darksun is the one setting where the mechanical divide really needs to be front and center. It certainly wasn't refluffing in 2E. If there is no mechanical difference between psionic spells and magic spells which sucks the life out of you or the environment, why would you pick the latter? Are preservers just too stupid to cast the better way?

It's also the setting I'm most comfortable with wizards having an absurdly broad scope of what they can do with their magic, as you're stuck have the choice to preserve at a cost of speed/effectiveness/your life force or defile and risk being murdered by an angry mob and/or turning into a mutant.

I agree, to a certain extent. Clerics still had most of the class spells and powers, it's just that they weren't as "blasty" back in AD&D

But in the absence of a psion class with a mind blast attack, power of suggestion, and the ability to jump between dimensions, you can play a "not-bard" casting vicious mockery, suggestion and dimension door. Use power points instead of spell slots to move away from the mage's Vancian vibe. By creating a psionic spell list using existing 5e spells, you can duplicate most the psionic powers of AD&D, but that still leaves a whole bunch of spells aside. Those are your wizard spells, and you can only have them through defiling/preserving.

In the end, a suggestion spell and a suggestion psi power are going to be more or less equivalent (or else someone will cry foul). What you want to preserve is the effect and the mechanical balance, the rest if mostly fluff.

The only real mechanical divide would be an ability check required to manifest psi powers (in addition to power point, attack roll or saving throw). But IIRC, even 3e moved away from that.

 

[Zardnaar]

Could refluff bards using spell points and changing saves to intelligence over charisma. Short term psion and psychic warrior.

 

[grimslade]

I never considered Dark Sun to be low magic. Gritty? Certainly. The entire setting was out to kill you in horrible ways, but even the most bestial of opponents had magic tricks, sorry psionic wild talents. Athas always felt equal parts John Carter and Conan with a little super hero thrown in. Dark Sun was over the top. Ability scores went to 21. You started at 3rd level and had super powers, sorry wild talents again. Wizards could level as fast as rogues if they merely turned the world a little more ashy. I loved it.
5e seems a good fit for Dark Sun but needs some serious fluff adjustment. Without the addition of psionic classes and wild talents, the base classes are going to have to fill in. Paladins and Hexblades make good fill ins for Psychic Warriors Bards can make ok psions maybe a new oath for paladins Oath of Fealty to the Sorcerer King?
Giving the variant human free feat or asi at first unless a large race is pretty elegant actually. Thrikreen and Half giants will not over shadow and it echoes the advanced starting level of 2e Dark Sun