D&D 5E (2014) MCDM 5e Psionicist “The Talent” open play test is live!

[darjr]

I haven’t read it yet but am looking forward to it.

https://files.mcdmproductions.com/Classes/The_Talent_and_Psionics_Open_Beta_Round_1.pdf

I am pleased to announce that The Talent and Psionics is now in open playtesting. This fifth edition supplement features MCDM’s next class, the talent—a hero that uses mind powers to battle monsters and overcome obstacles. This is the MCDM take on the psion!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/67111279?fbclid=IwAR1G7t5WlR6764Dy_zf-6HOuC1ioVBNj6JZ6ARExU7HdCt71CPHUfYsIZbk

 

[Guest 7034872]

Psionics is a notoriously tough nut to crack; I hope they can do it.

 

[Weiley31]

I'm digging it.

 

[Shardstone]

Interesting. So here, Psionics is almost like mental blood magic. Psychic Powers are used by taking on points of strain. Strain gives you various detriments, much like exhaustion, and you have a strain threshold and three types of strain (body/mind/soul). If you cross your strain threshold, you either die or fall to 0 unconscious. So, each power is basically you spending your health/life force to make some psychic effect happen.

 

[Malmuria]

First impressions:

• Overly complicated for effects that still feel like spells
• document definitely needs an edit for clarity

 

[Shardstone]

First impressions:

• Overly complicated for effects that still feel like spells
• document definitely needs an edit for clarity

It does still feel like spells, but I feel like the power list is strong enough that you could make some subclasses (or other classes with their own power list) and run a pretty complete "all psionics, no magic" campaign. That is, I think, one of the goals of this version of the Talent — to provide an alternative magic system for people who want something a little fresher than spell slots or spell points.

 

[Aldarc]

Interesting. So here, Psionics is almost like mental blood magic. Psychic Powers are used by taking on points of strain. Strain gives you various detriments, much like exhaustion, and you have a strain threshold and three types of strain (body/mind/soul). If you cross your strain threshold, you either die or fall to 0 unconscious. So, each power is basically you spending your health/life force to make some psychic effect happen.

Problem: Players in 5e D&D generally don't like throwing themselves into a death spiral to do their cool $#!t, especially when other classes and subclasses don't have to for similar effects.

 

[Shardstone]

Problem: Players in 5e D&D generally don't like throwing themselves into a death spiral to do their cool $#!t, especially when other classes and subclasses don't have to for similar effects.

True, I ultimately think this design only works if you make an all-psionics homebrew world/campaign, or if the powers you gain from it are just really, really, really cool (which could lead to what many will see as imbalance).

 

[Malmuria]

I’ll be honest looking at it a bit more this whole document has a 1990s trad heartbreaker feel to it. Surely there is a more elegant way to deal with “strain” than creating three separate “tracks” and writing it up like this?:

Track Maximum Strain. At 1st level, you have a maximum of 1 strain in two tracks and a maximum of 2 strain in one track of your choice. Each time you gain a level in this class, you can increase the maximum strain of one of the tracks by 1. You can’t increase a track’s maximum strain if doing so would make it 2 higher than either other track. For instance, if your 4th-level talent has a maximum of 3 strain in their body track and a maximum of 2 strain in their mind and soul tracks, you couldn’t increase the maximum strain of your body track at level 5. You would need to increase the maximum strain of either mind or soul to 3 at 5th level, then the other at 6th level before you could increase your body track at 7th level.

and the powers you get from dealing with this level of complexity are mundane magic-ish stuff like:

You touch one creature in range, and they become wreathed in psionic fire that isn’t harmful to you or the target. Whenever another creature within 5 feet of the target touches or hits them with a melee attack, that creature takes 1d4 fire damage

“Psionic fire”

Meanwhile, what would we call writing that is neither natural language nor game language, but in some kind of purgatory?

Effects and spells that affect magic like antimagic field, counterspell, and dispel magic have no effect on powers. Likewise, effects that affect powers don’t affect spells or other magical effects

When you manifest a power with a manifestation time longer than a single action or reaction, you must spend your action each turn manifesting the power

Whenever you gain strain, you choose which type of strain it is. For instance, if you gain 3 strain, you can gain all three as body, mind, or soul strain, you can gain 2 in one type of strain and 1 in another, or you can gain 1 each of body, mind, and soul strain

Ok, sorry, I’ll stop with the negativity! I loved psionics in 2e but I was probably more into the idea than the system, in retrospect.

 

[Waller]

How does it compare to the Level Up psion playtest from a few weeks back?