Unearthed Arcana New Unearthed Arcana: Psionics!

There’s a new Unearthed Arcana article out, and it’s all about psionics! "Their minds bristling with power, three new subclasses arrive in today’s Unearthed Arcana: the Psychic Warrior for the fighter, the Soulknife for the rogue, and the tradition of Psionics for the wizard."

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In this 9-page PDF, there are also some new psionics-themed spells (including versions of classic psionic powers like id insinuation and ego whip) and two new feats.

 

[Salthorae]

"Someone who innately has psionic power"

Even in all the lore back to the earliest days that Innate psionic power was just a seed that PC/NPC's had to spend years/decades practicing and honing... very much in line with Monks or Wizards in how they grow their powers.

Sorcerer's always seemed more like "oops, the power happened to me!" to me. While Psionicists worked and studied and labored and practiced hard over their skills and powers.

It's why 3.x had the Wilder... the psionic version of the Sorcerer, to reflect that difference/divide.

 

[Von Ether]

Release a campaign setting with one psionics friendly race then immediately release psionics playtest material while a psionic heavy setting is waiting in the wings.

Looks like a lot of Kalashtar players are going to help WotC fine tune Dark Sun.

 

[Staffan]

I'm not a big fan of these. The powers of the Psychic Warrior and the Soulknife are locked in, which is boring, and I really, really don't like the idea of psionicists being a wizard tradition. It might be easier to balance that way, but it's not true to the way psionics worked in any previous edition.

I'm OK with the idea of having psionics use the same spell slot system as casters do in 5e, but I'm not fine with them being wizards with spellbooks and tools and stuff. A psion should be as different from a wizard as a cleric or bard is.

 

[Fenris447]

Or just integrate Psionics into the ASI/feat system. Every time you are eligible for an ASI, you can take a regular feat or a Psionic feat instead. That way, you can be a telekinetic Paladin, or a mind-blasting Rogue, or an Astral-Projecting Wizard. By level 8, your Human Fighter could be a Clairvoyant, Levitating, Telepath.

This is the kind of thing I could get behind. I'm always interested in implementations that can "slot in" to the existing designs. It makes it easier for players to grasp when you're just making a change to what they already know.

 

[TwoSix]

After being excited by the last UA pushing the rules into some new directions, this UA pretty much falls flat back onto WotC's most conservative tendencies. Other than the light psionic skinning of "psychic and force" damage, the mechanics of these could be used for pretty much anything. Nothing about "do 1d4 extra psychic damage" or "increase speed by 5 feet" is remotely interesting.

The wizard subclass isn't too bad, fortunately, although I don't think a "spellbook psion" also fits the psionic fantasy. I would have rather seen it as a sorcerer with a class feature to use Int as a casting stat.

As is usually the case, there are several homebrew solutions that tackle the concept in a much more interesting manner than WotC.

 

[Salthorae]

A psion should be as different from a wizard as a cleric or bard is.

In terms of 5e casting, in your mind, how exactly are Wizards different from Clerics or Bards?

They all have Foci or Component pouches. They all have the same exact spell slots. Bards are different in that they don't have to prepare spells... and that's it mechanically.

Spell lists are different, sure. But other than that they are pretty much exactly the same.

What would make the Psionicist different from these other three but still have them using the Neo-Vancian slot casting?

 

[Salthorae]

I would have rather seen it as a sorcerer

They basically already did that with the Aberrant Mind UA though not Int based, it was the "Psionic Sorcerer" for lack of a better descriptor.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

My recollection of how it went was more like:

• First, the DM got harangued until they included Psionics
• Then, at character creation, the player said that they rolled a 100 on a 1d100 to see if their character possessed psionic abilities.
• Next, the player said they rolled dice to randomly determine what psionic abilities their character possessed but the list they came up with always seemed specifically cherry-picked.

Granted, we were very young back then, so take all that with a grain of salt.

The way it worked in 1E was definitely at odds with 5E's design philosophy. I just went back and checked the 1E PHB, and this is basically how it worked:

• First, the DM decided whether to include Psionics or not (most games didn't).
• Then, at character creation, the player rolled 1d100 to see if their character possessed psionic abilities. If they rolled 100, then they did. (The chances improved if they had high a Intelligence, Wisdom, and/or Charisma).
• Next, the player rolled dice to randomly determine what psionic abilities their character possessed. The character wouldn't start out with all the abilities at once, but acquired them gradually as they leveled up.

 

[AriochQ]

The way it worked in 1E was definitely at odds with 5E's design philosophy. I just went back and checked the 1E PHB, and this is basically how it worked:

• First, the DM decided whether to include Psionics or not (most games didn't).
• Then, at character creation, the player rolled 1d100 to see if their character possessed psionic abilities. If they rolled 100, then they did. (The chances improved if they had high a Intelligence, Wisdom, and/or Charisma).
• Next, the player rolled dice to randomly determine what psionic abilities their character possessed. The character wouldn't start out with all the abilities at once, but acquired them gradually as they leveled up.

And the worst thing was to roll psionic ability then roll low on the power chart. It basically opened you up to psionic attacks and everything could kick your butt! Attacks on non-psionics were limited to a single attack type.

The other quirk, psionic combat happened once each segment. We used to joke that when two psionics meet, someone's head explodes, then we do melee.

 

[lkj]

I'm not a big fan of these. The powers of the Psychic Warrior and the Soulknife are locked in, which is boring, and I really, really don't like the idea of psionicists being a wizard tradition. It might be easier to balance that way, but it's not true to the way psionics worked in any previous edition.

I'm OK with the idea of having psionics use the same spell slot system as casters do in 5e, but I'm not fine with them being wizards with spellbooks and tools and stuff. A psion should be as different from a wizard as a cleric or bard is.

As noted above, I think that a full psionic class is coming. Mearls was taking a two pronged approach to psioncis-- subclasses to cover concepts he thought fit well within the existing class system and a full class to capture the full fledged psion. I don't think it's an accident that the psionic subclass for wizard is called a psionicisit instead of a psion. Psion is coming.

<disclaimer: probably>

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