New PH3 Class....The Psion!

[Stalker0]

So the DDI has just given us the early release of the Psion class.

Important Notes:
1) Its a controller
2) One of the builds is a telepath, that uses charisma as its secondary. The other build will be wisdom (that build hasn't been released yet).
3) Psions don't get encounter powers, they instead get more at-will powers, and those can be augmented with power points to increase their power and flexibility. Power Points recharge after each short or extended rest.


I've glanced through the power selection, here's my brief take:
1) Weaker dailies than the wizard, definitely designed to make more use of their at wills.
2) Lots of attack other, dominate type powers.
3) Has a few leader like powers, can give skill bonuses, extra saves, and grants allies extra damage to attack their afflicted target.



Overall, my first reaction is that I wish the augmentation idea had been added to powers in the first place. Its simple and clean to use, and I definately think it adds some good flexibility without going too far.

Opposed to that, I feel the psion gets too few at wills, he has to trade out his at wills at lot as he gets higher level and the new at wills don't seem that much better than the old ones (though they do have more powerful augments).


But definitely a neat new direction for 4e, let me tip my hat to the WOTC designers who thought of the augmentation idea.

 

[Phaezen]

The acompaning article for the COmpendium and Character Builder release can be found here

Nicely includes commentary from Andy Collins, Bruce R. Cordell, Mike Mearls,
and Stephen Schubert giving insight into design decisions that were made.

Oh yes and count me blown away with this class design

Edit:
Second Build from PHB3 will focus on force powers and there will be a total of 4 Psion Paragon Paths in the book

 

[Trolls]

It seems like the second build is specialised in telekinesis, and I expect one of the discipline focus powers will be similar to mage hand.

 

[Rechan]

Class features?

How many PPs does a psion get? Does it increase as level? Is it very point-based magic/class, or is it more a half-and-half point buy and 4e aw/encounter/daily + point pool class?

 

[Stalker0]

How many PPs does a psion get? Does it increase as level? Is it very point-based magic/class, or is it more a half-and-half point buy and 4e aw/encounter/daily + point pool class?

2 PP at 1st, 2 more at 3rd, and it scales up from there (although not linearly).

For the most part, the PP structure is an augment to the normal power system. You have at-will and daily powers...and they work just like those normally do. However, you can spend power points on the at-wills to jump them up to encounter power status, and something even a little beyond. Just like the psion of 3.5, you can do little augmenting and have more powers for the encounter, or go nova and spend quickly for more raw power. The difference is degree, you can't spread the powers out or nova as much as you could in 3.5.

Most powers have two augment levels, spend X points and you get the upgraded effect, spend Y points and you get an even better effect.

 

[Trolls]

Class features?

Discipline Focus - Grants a couple of telepathy themed encounter powers. The other build (which we haven't seen) grants a different set.
Psionic Augmentation - No encounter powers, just augmentable at-wills.
Ritual Casting

How many PPs does a psion get? Does it increase as level? Is it very point-based magic/class, or is it more a half-and-half point buy and 4e aw/encounter/daily + point pool class?

They start with 2, and that increases as you level up.
Daily and utility powers work exactly the same as with other classes.
Rather than the usual at-will and encounter powers, you only get at-will powers at every level you would usually get new encounter powers. You get a maximum of 3 at-will powers, so have to retrain them after the one you get at 3rd level. Each at-will power has a couple of augments, which cost somewhere between 1 and 4 power points to use.

 

[Nymrohd]

The Psion has no encounter powers. He starts with two at-will powers and gains a third at level 3, and can replace an at-will for another one of higher level at each level a player would normally get or replace an encounter power. Psion at-will can be augmented with power points of which the psion has a small pool that resets every short rest. He is presented with two paragon paths, both of which have an encounter power that can be augmented and both of which increase the power point pool.

He is a controller with Int primary, Cha secondary for the previewed telepath built, Wis secondary for the telekinesis built.

 

[Rechan]

So a psion at 1st level wcan get into 3 encounters, and he only has enough PP for 2 augments (2 encounter power uses, equivalent). Where a 1st level character would get to use their encounter power 3 times.

Odd.

I imagine humans will be the defacto psion due to the number of AWs they get?

Discipline Focus - Grants a couple of telepathy themed encounter powers.

So they have at least some encounter powers.

Wis secondary for a tk build? Odd. Here I could have seen CON secondary for TK.

I imagine psions will also like multi-classing, for getting access to encounter powers without needing to spend PPs; unless that loophole is closed somehow.

So, how do they hold up as a controller? And, what are they good at?

 

[Phaezen]

So a psion at 1st level wcan get into 3 encounters, and he only has enough PP for 2 augments (2 encounter power uses, equivalent). Where a 1st level character would get to use their encounter power 3 times.

Odd.

Power Points refresh with a short or extended rest, so they are encounter powers. so he can minor augment 2 at wills or major augment 1 in an encounter at 1st level

 

[Nymrohd]

Your power points reset every short rest, so you can augment 2 one power per encounter or augment 1 two powers. Also at-wills gained in any other way than through the class cannot be augmented with the psion class feature (though maybe there will be another way to augment them).

As for the powers, the few I've seen feature heavy penalties to defenses and attack especially if they are augmented. Telepath seems like a primary single target control that denies or degrades actions with the option to augment for more targets.