Mike Mearls on D&D Psionics: Should Psionic Flavor Be Altered?

WotC's Mike Mearls has been asking for opinions on how psionics should be treated in D&D 5th Edition. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that he'd hinted that he might be working on something, and this pretty much seals the deal. He asked yesterday "Agree/Disagree: The flavor around psionics needs to be altered to allow it to blend more smoothly into a traditional fantasy setting", and then followed up with some more comments today.

"Thanks for all the replies! Theoretically, were I working on psionics, I'd try to set some high bars for the execution. Such as - no psionic power duplicates a spell, and vice versa. Psionics uses a distinct mechanic, so no spell slots. One thing that might be controversial - I really don't like the scientific terminology, like psychokinesis, etc. But I think a psionicist should be exotic and weird, and drawing on/tied to something unsettling on a cosmic scale.... [but]... I think the source of psi would be pretty far from the realm of making pacts. IMO, old one = vestige from 3e's Tome of Magic.

One final note - Dark Sun is, IMO, a pretty good example of what happens to a D&D setting when psionic energy reaches its peak. Not that the rules would require it, but I think it's an interesting idea to illustrate psi's relationship to magic on a cosmic level."

 

[Fralex]

It's pretty mysterious though. There are a lot of theories surrounding its origin, and it's pretty hard to verify any of them.

 

[Dausuul]

My top priority is that psionics should work well in the Dark Sun setting, and Dark Sun is not big on extraplanar intrusions. Aside from Rajaat (bleh), the villains of Dark Sun are not sitting off in distant planes plotting conquest. They're right here, out in the open, running the show. So I would rather not have psionics be tightly coupled to the Far Realms. It can be associated with aberrations, maybe--Dark Sun has a lot of them--but then aberrations need to not be tightly coupled to the Far Realms, either.

I wouldn't mind toning down the pseudoscience a bit, but I definitely want a clear distinction between psi and magic; they should feel very different. That distinction is critical for Dark Sun.

 

[Yaarel]

Let the setting decide the setting.

The setting is beyond the scope of a class.

A class description is more useful when it avoids a setting requirement.

 

[Staffan]

My top priority is that psionics should work well in the Dark Sun setting, and Dark Sun is not big on extraplanar intrusions. Aside from Rajaat (bleh), the villains of Dark Sun are not sitting off in distant planes plotting conquest. They're right here, out in the open, running the show. So I would rather not have psionics be tightly coupled to the Far Realms. It can be associated with aberrations, maybe--Dark Sun has a lot of them--but then aberrations need to not be tightly coupled to the Far Realms, either.

As I said earlier: psionics should be a kind of "unlocked potential." One of the ways to unlock that potential should be discipline, training, meditation, and that kind of stuff. Another could very well be "encountering Things Man Was Not Meant To Know", and a third could be "natural talent."

Under the 3.5e paradigm, the first option lends itself well to the psion class, while the second and third probably fit the wilder better, or maybe just a "wild talent"-type ability (along the lines of the Magic Initiate feat).

 

[GobiWon]

I too would like to see psionic powers that mimic the old modes of psychic combat with Id Insinuation, Ego Whip, Mind Blank and Tower of Iron Will ... but they can't be exclusive to psionic users. Perhaps a type of Psychic AC based on wisdom with psionic users being able to attack and do psychic damage. Psychic users could bump up their psychic AC using Tower of Iron Will.

 

[Hussar]

Let the setting decide the setting.

The setting is beyond the scope of a class.

A class description is more useful when it avoids a setting requirement.

But, that's pretty limiting on classes then. A lot of class have setting requirements. Any divine class requires either gods or some sort of force to power spells. Warlocks come with pacts, wizards come with all sorts of setting requirements. Heck, even barbarians come with setting assumptions. About the only classes that don't would be fighters and rogues. And this has always been true.

The classes in D&D strongly shape any setting.

 

[Davinshe]

As I said earlier: psionics should be a kind of "unlocked potential." One of the ways to unlock that potential should be discipline, training, meditation, and that kind of stuff. Another could very well be "encountering Things Man Was Not Meant To Know", and a third could be "natural talent."

Under the 3.5e paradigm, the first option lends itself well to the psion class, while the second and third probably fit the wilder better, or maybe just a "wild talent"-type ability (along the lines of the Magic Initiate feat).

Y'know, I can get behind this idea. It allows us to have a psion class with different subschools devoted to each version. There can be a wilder for natural talent, and an alienist for the far realm themed psion, and neither one has to be the one true psion. I don't think anyone would really object to far realm exposure being a type of psion, so long as it's not the only type of psion. Multiple options allow for psionics to remain mysterious and weird yet compelling.

 

[Bacon Bits]

I too would like to see psionic powers that mimic the old modes of psychic combat with Id Insinuation, Ego Whip, Mind Blank and Tower of Iron Will ... but they can't be exclusive to psionic users. Perhaps a type of Psychic AC based on wisdom with psionic users being able to attack and do psychic damage. Psychic users could bump up their psychic AC using Tower of Iron Will.

No thanks. The idea of psionic combat is great, but from what I remember it was more like, "Let's play rock-paper-scissors-spock-lizard every round, except with more wasted time and extra die rolling." It was worse than summoned monsters and companions because at least those get beaten up and draw attacks. It was just enough of an interruption every round that everybody lost track of what was going on in the physical world. And it happens every combat.

Cool idea. Amazing flavor. Mechanics Don't work at a live table.

 

[Davinshe]

No thanks. The idea of psionic combat is great, but from what I remember it was more like, "Let's play rock-paper-scissors-spock-lizard every round, except with more wasted time and extra die rolling." It was worse than summoned monsters and companions because at least those get beaten up and draw attacks. It was just enough of an interruption every round that everybody lost track of what was going on in the physical world. And it happens every combat.

Cool idea. Amazing flavor. Mechanics Don't work at a live table.

I only played psionic combat in 3.0 (as I didn't play earlier editions and it didn't appear in 3.5), but I am mostly of the same opinion here. What I would be willing to see would be combining the ideas of psionic combat forms with psionic focus. Like, just spitballing here, suppose you spent your action to enter psionic focus, at which point you have to maintain concentration, can only move at half speed, and all attacks have advantage on you. Then each round you can use powerful psionic attack forms that are either at-will or more powerful for the amount of power points they consume than other attacks of their level. Alternatively, perhaps some powers could have a special rider when where they have an increased effect when used within psionic focus. It feels a bit like the Avatar state from The Last Airbender (increased power combined with increased vulnerability).

 

[Shasarak]

I dunno, the only similarity I can see between the Abyss and the Far Realm is that both are places humans find unpleasant. The Abyss is just a plane with evil monsters on it. The Far Realm can't even be considered a real place by our standards, and the things residing in it aren't really "evil monsters" so much as incomprehensible forces far beyond anyone's power, understanding, and sanity. Cthulu isn't an enemy to be fought. It's the primal fear of being utterly insignificant to the universe at large, completely powerless to make any meaningful difference, and doomed to live out the rest of your meaningless existence knowing all this. This is the essence of the cosmic horror genre. Winning outright against the things that lurk in the Far Realm is an impossibility. Managing to cope with crippling nihilism and total madness long enough to delay their cataclysmic arrival is the best you can hope for.

I guess my problem with Cthulhu in DnD is that really in the DnD multiverse Cthulhu is a monster that you can fight and the reason why the Far Realm has not destroyed the rest of the multiverse is probably because Cthulhu is tired from being punched in the face.

I remember that there was this big move by WotC to make the planes more accessible to Adventurers by removing the planes with negative effects and breaking up the elemental planes into manageable chunks, so adding in the Far Realm just seems counter intuitive.