D&D 5E Let's Build A Better Psion

[Yaarel]

Psionic Themes:

• Telekinesis, fly, force, force constructs
• Telepathy, enchantment, charm, frighten, domination, phantasm

• Prescience, divination, time, luck/fate
• Teleportation, clairvoyance, outofbody projection, planar travel

• Shapeshifting, healing, psychometabolism, incorporeal form, phase thru objects

• Air-Water, weather
• Earth-Fire, forge, stone construction, crystal, metalworking

 

[TwoSix]

I was thinking about the Concentration mechanic from previous UA articles; I remember liking it because if felt different than your typical spell-casting class. This got me to thinking about some of the classic Psionic defenses from previous editions (mainly Mind Blank, Thought Shield, and Intellect Fortress).

What if we made those part of the concentration mechanic? While you are "focused" you gain a static benefit that mimics one of the effects. At higher levels, you gain further options while you are focused. Perhaps a DC for the concentration check to see what type of effect you receive?

Just brain-storming here.

That’s pretty slick. That could be a major feature of the class, especially if you have some psionic cantrips that require concentration.

 

[Stormonu]

I agree in feeling a Psion fits better working closer to a Warlock than a Wizard with spell points.

I would also offer that the possibility of dividing abilities or subclasses into three groups - each one keyed to one of the three “mental” stats.

Charisma-based Psions use the force of their personality to access, alter or control other people’s mind or their own (Domination, Biomancy, Self-Healing)

Intelligence-based Psions use their superior intellect to access hidden information and manipulate items with their mind instead of their muscles (Telekinetics, Mind Reading, Telepathy)

Wisdom-based Psions are tuned into the mental energies that exude from all things and harness that external power to fuel their own abilities (Abjurations, Animal Friendship/Kinship, Object reading, Clairvoyance, Astral Travel, Healing others)

 

[Sacrosanct]

speaking of using existing rules, and just tossing this idea to the ether, but what about giving some powerful nova abilities tied to exhaustion?

 

[Stormonu]

Excellent idea, but I feel tying exhaustion to nova abilities should be an optional feature tied to certain play styles/campaigns, and not a basic built in ability. Maybe a feat ?

 

[DEFCON 1]

So far in these two pages of 35 posts we've seen 35 different opinions and ideas of what the Psion needs to be.

And we wonder why what WotC presented didn't work for anyone. Because no one can agree on what Psionics should be, what they should do, and how they should do it. Not so surpringly... the exact same rigamarole we saw four years ago when people kept trying to create a Warlord for 5E. Every single idea got crushed into paste.

I think this is why WotC went with the "conservative" route... because anything they do will be decimated on the boards by 95% of the players anyway who don't actually know what they want. So why bother? Just like with spell components, they give us a very bland, hand-wavy, easily-understood default, under the expectation that everyone who is that fanatical about it is going to jerry-rig their own version of it regardless (like you all are trying to do now.)

Just remember as you do though... we've had several dozen attempts at creating Warlords in 5E over the years and I don't know of a single one that has actually gained any traction with even the EN World community, let alone the general gaming populace. And you're probably going to find the same thing happening here. Because no one is going to agree on how it should be done.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I would do something based on the druid's wildshape/barbarian's rage where you enter a heightened mental state for X minutes a day, Y times a day.

When you aren't heightened, you get to be a half caster like the artificer, but with a psychic themed spell list (like the one conveniently provided in the UA). At least for the big combat of the day, heightened mental state is assumed.

When you are heightened there are a couple of options (I haven't decided which I prefer):

Straightforward barbarian comparison: You add psychic damage (equal to the barbarian's rage damage) to any spells that do damage. Maybe add some kind of defensive ability (like attackers need to make an int check to determine where you are) that could very by subclass.

The Firestarter/paladin option: You get some kind of overpowered big psychic power that you can feed spell slots into.

More Mystic-al: you cast spells as normal, but you ignore concentration requirements (I might make this one be a 2/3rds caster).

Even more Mystic-al: you get psychic points you can feed into some kind of overpowered big psychic power.

Straightforward druid comparison: you transform into (or are surrounded by an aura that looks like) some representation of your psyche (this is where the big fiery bird comes in).

 

[NotAYakk]

So far in these two pages of 35 posts we've seen 35 different opinions and ideas of what the Psion needs to be.

Well, we've definitely seen someone who hasn't read all 35 posts, or whose measure of different is pretty wide. Upwards of 50% are saying that the Warlock would work really well, with people throwing around riffs on it.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Well, we've definitely seen someone who hasn't read all 35 posts, or whose measure of different is pretty wide. Upwards of 50% are saying that the Warlock would work really well, with people throwing around riffs on it.

Yeah, different riffs.

But hey, if you want numbers more in line... then we've seen 38 posts with *27 different methods and ideas for how psionics needs to be.

* do not take 27 as a factual number, but merely as illustration of the point.

 

[Stormonu]

Another idea just occurred to me...

A lot of the psion’s abilities are clearly going to mimic existing spells, so I think it would be wise to give them an X number of known spells/powers (of up to Y level), and then a pool of psi points that are expended to cast it at a specific level (ex., 2 psi points to use invisible, for the purposes of example, if the psion had “psionic [magic] Missile”, they would expend 1 psi point for a 1st level version, 2 for a 2nd (+1 Missile), 3 psi points for a 3rd level version (+2 missiles), etc.)