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.

 

[Raunalyn]

No idea I got bored with UA years ago. I pay attention when the forums do.

I down loaded the Mystic for example, knew it would go nowhere and put it in the meh pile.

Lots of extra archetypes a few that probably won't go anywhere eh. Psionics I do look at because it's different.

I saw the 43 class variants and haven't even downloaded it let alone read it.

The 43 class variants, to me, was one of the best UA's in years. I liked that they were looking at new ways to use the 5E rules to create more customization for characters. I hope they continue with that line of thought.

 

[Aaron L]

Yuck.

I liked the Mystic class just fine. This is extremely underwhelming.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Here's I think the big stumbling blocks Crawford et. al. are going to have to deal with after they start getting the surveys back, and will make them decide whether or not there needs to be a new class or not.

- People will say the psionicist can't be a Wizard subclass because they don't want a spellbook, and they want the character to have its abilities from Level 1.

- People will say the psionicist can't be a Sorcerer subclass because they want it to use INT rather than CHA.

- People will say the psionicist can't be a spellcaster at all, because they don't want to use spell slots for their abilities.

But when you look at it through that lens... it just means you are creating a class that uses the spell point option from the DMG, and is a sorcerer that uses INT.

Does that really warrant being an entirely "new" class... seeing as how it really isn't a "new" class at all? It's just a sorcerer that uses INT and the spell points option? From that point of view... they're going to have to decide if its worth using 4 to 5 pages in whatever book they put it in just to get those couple changed rules down on paper... as opposed to making it a Wizard subclass (for example) and just tell people "You can call yourself your subclass identity at Level 1 even if you don't get your first "unique" feature until Level 3, and all we need to do is give you a Variant Class Feature (a la that previous UA) that allows you to exchange 'Spellbook' for 'Psicrystal'."

And as far as the few spells that require GP spell components... if it matters that much to players they can just not take those spells and they never have to worry about the potential brain injury of having to question why a psionicist has to spend gold pieces to use their abilities.

 

[Lucas Yew]

Psionics should never be limited by the availability of a *tongue and/or *fingers. That's their biggest aesthetic selling point, anyways, for me.

* (or other organs required for vocalizing sound based languages)
** (or other organs able to make weird complex movement in a spacial dimension)

 

[DEFCON 1]

Psionics should never be limited by the availability of a *tongue and/or *fingers. That's their biggest aesthetic selling point, anyways, for me.

* (or other organs required for vocalizing sound based languages)
** (or other organs able to make weird complex movement in a spacial dimension)

Do you actually use spell components now? And if we assume that the psionicist ends up being a wizard subclass, aren't you going to just ignore the spell components then anyway? Does WotC really need to spend 15 to 20 pages on a new class and new psionic disciplines just to make sure the words "spell component" is not included in their descriptions?

At some point, WotC has to just decide whether or not some isolated players have to take their own personal responsibility to just ignore parts of the Player's Handbook they don't like, rather than try and re-write every single facet of the game so that it's written down on paper exactly the way those players need the rules to be.

 

[dave2008]

At some point, WotC has to just decide whether or not some isolated players have to take their own personal responsibility to just ignore parts of the Player's Handbook they don't like, rather than try and re-write every single facet of the game so that it's written down on paper exactly the way those players need the rules to be.

And the issue here as well is that according to Crawford the Psion as a class is very rarely used. I have personally never played with psionics in my D&D game and I started playing in the 80s.

 

[Salthorae]

And the issue here as well is that according to Crawford the Psion as a class is very rarely used. I have personally never played with psionics in my D&D game and I started playing in the 80s.

I personally have played and LOVE psionics as a system distinct from vancian magic.

That said, I don't think we NEED a new class just to mimic the historic system types they used to use/have. I can use Spell point sorcerers and just change their stat to INT. I can use the other UA/published psionic options and make do.

The biggest thing missing is the upcasting with more point... oh wait they have that now for all casters. So now the only thing really missing are the power descriptions and their groupings under different Psionic Science/Devotion groupings

 

[Kobold Avenger]

There needs to be a base class in addition to a bunch of subclasses in every other class for psionics.

So for know it's a wait and see about what they do. Mearls was playing around with the ideas for a Psion with a Telepath, Nomad, Kineticist, Shaper/Summoner and Metamorph subclasses. They were going to be a class that's like a Wizard with a focus on Cantrips that could be enhanced with spell slots. The Archivist Artificer had a feature just like that.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Psychics' material components should be mad mushrooms, black lotus powder, or Spice, like Weird Tales and Dune intended. If there isn't a good chance that your PC won't wake up from a long rest (or at least not wake up the same person), you aren't doing psychics right.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I think they will eventually have a base psion class. I think it is easier (and works better) to go from simple (like the subclasses) and work up to something more complicated (a full psion class) then to start complicated and work down.

I would like the class to be something like a barbarian, in that you are more or less normal and then go supercharged (your brain instead of your body) for a short while. I think that gets to taping your internal reserves (and as you level up, "a short while" can increase in duration) and no other caster has anything like that, so that would also fit the "make it different from the wizard."