D&D 5E If Psion is fixed and official does it belong into FR as basic and RAW?

[Tony Vargas]

5e is at least as supportive of DM Empowerment as any other ed, and quite possibly the most straightforwardly and intentionally so.
Officialdom and Core status and RaW are not the major considerations they have been in past eds.

 

[Kurotowa]

I draw a distinction between "Exists as a player option" and "Exists as a common and well known part of the setting that helps shape events and NPC attitudes".

This distinctions exists because I consider PCs to be inherently exceptional. They're rare talents, people marked by destiny, characters with backstories full of unusual events. If they want to be one of the last survivors of a hidden race, the few practitioners of an obscure discipline, or the few holders of a unique power then that's just fine. They don't have to be some random farmboy who picked up a shovel and brained the orc that was trying to eat their cow. Not unless they want to be, because in its own way that's a special heroic backstory all its own.

The other side of this coin, though, is that the setting doesn't have to be rewritten around these rare and exceptional PCs. One tortle PC doesn't mean that there's now a tortle empire and tortle ships can be found in every port. One psion PC doesn't mean psionics is now a recognized profession with their own guild helping train the psionic inquisitors that kingdoms use to ferret out dissent among their own people. It's okay to leave these things as rare and exceptional. And if a DM wants to veto a particular thing as being a little too exceptional to fit their campaign's theme, well, that's their right as DM.

 

[Coroc]

You do realize that this comes off like a fairly accusative question, and it unlikely to fly well at all, yes? Hint - if you want a reasonable conversation, don't open by telling your audience that they are hypocrites.

Yeah this was maybe not so fair of me, I do not judge the playstyle of others or what they like or do not.
My intent was more to make fans of everything goes a bit more aware that many of the things they think are rules aka crunch/mechanics in fact are fluff/prosa.

And psionics obviously should be optional crunch, and classes, races, spells are obviously pure fluff and can be ruled in and out as someone prefers to.

 

[Stormonu]

No to default Core. Too late in 5E cycle for it to be designated as a core feature.

However, I would certainly allow it if player's request to use it, and I would not be adverse to using psionic-enabled alternate monsters (such as a psionic Mind Flayer and Aboleth).

 

[Nikosandros]

By definition, if you want Dragonborn in Greyhawk or dual-wielding gnomes with rapier in any setting ...

You have no principles to deviate from.

But what if I want a character that uses gnomes as weapons and dual-wields them?

 

[Coroc]

But what if I want a character that uses gnomes as weapons and dual-wields them?

As long as it is a halfgiant character and not a goliath, I would totally allow this (The gnomes have to be paladins of course). For gnome protection laws it is unfortunately required that the gnomes be dead before the halfgiant is allowed to use them as a makeshift weapon.
So yes, but you will not get those typical squeaky noises when they impact on the opponent.

New magic item: crossspiked gnome club: Made of a (dead) gnome (paladin) with his two rapiers pierced through his skull in a cross shaped manner, so a halfgiant can easily use this as a spiked club.
damage 2d4 versus normal and large and 2d20 versus size small creatures.


Side note: really like gnomes, I even like tinker gnomes, in some campaigns they are far more easy to incorporate than halflings. Plus I like them being illusionists, rogues ,clerics, articficers and if it must be fighters. Guess which classes I do no not like in conjucntion with gnomes

 

[Mecheon]

By definition, if you want Dragonborn in Greyhawk or dual-wielding gnomes with rapier in any setting ...

Oh no, you've summoned me from my gnomelair to defend my "Dragonborn would totally fit in Greyhawk and if I ever DM there I'm giving them a bit of a seafarer background because reasons (also did anyone ever do anything with Oerth's totally-not-Australia because that's a big ol' blank space for stuff to come from, probably everything spider-based at least)"

Anywho, psionics has been hooked into the game for absolute yonks so I have no issues with them

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Mecheon]

And, for the most part, psionics have always been an afterthought that never quite jibed, other than campaigns that explicitly built around them from the ground up, like Dark Sun.

Personally, I love psionics so much that I homebrewed my own system for 1e based off of Julian May's books, but I wouldn't want them mandated for all settings.

I came in at a weird angle to D&D, through Neverwinter Nights. So, y'know, given one of the first things you do in that game's (not the best) campaign is go and hunt down an intellect devourer among other creatures. So my D&D experience has that "Oh man there are brain-eating squid-faced psychics who have walking brain monsters as pets" right at the start

I definitely understand some settings not having it but when your introduction starts at the mind flayers, beholders, and finally putting a name to childhood inexplicable dinosaur toys that are now rust monsters, and going back from there, its always gonna be a weird path

 

[Coroc]

...

Personally, I love psionics so much that I homebrewed my own system for 1e based off of Julian May's books, but I wouldn't want them mandated for all settings.

Well as they are mechanics, they would need some Sirius justification in what form they are there and why and what impact this has:

E.g. Lets just take the mindflayers and aboleths from FR being mainly hidden in the underdark, ... or the city sewers, according to some of their lore both are kind of far realm creatures, so no problem for justifying them being different and have Sirius powers which are not conventional.

Compare DS, there the psi is a the consequence of everything mutated and it is all around, justification given again, also magic is kind of shunned and so you got another "magic" partially taking the role of wizardly magic.

But let us now assume Psionics suddenly becomes "Core" in e.g. greyhawk or FR in a way that many adventurers and NPCs are Mystics. Then that is a force suddenly, which has impact on almost everything.
It competes with wizardly magic. It competes with clerical magic (Where does it come from? Is it a gift from the gods? Is it innate good or evil? etc. etc.)

So that are two different things and it should not be just handwaved, imho .