Unearthed Arcana New Unearthed Arcana: Psionics!

Salthorae · Dec 2, 2019

Arnwolf666 said:
1E PHB and earlier.

As in those things were all present in the 1e Psionics as well?

Arnwolf666 · Dec 2, 2019

Salthorae said:
As in those things were all present in the 1e Psionics as well?

Yes. As early as the 1976 eldritch wizardry, which predates the 1E PHB. And it looks very similar to what was used up through 3.x. Not sure about 4E.

Tales and Chronicles · Dec 2, 2019

My take on a simple Psychic Warrior/Battlemind (I'm partial to the 4e name, personally)

3 Psionic rush:
If a creature you attacked on your last turn move on its own turn, you can use your reaction to teleport next to it. Your next attack against this creature deals +1d6 psychic damage. Increases to 1d10 at level 14.

Meld Armament:
As an Action, you can fuse you 1 armor or shield and 1 weapon with you, becoming one with your body. As a Action you can make your items reappear on you.

7 Psionic leash:
On your turn you can forgo an attack to force a creature within 20' to make a Con save vs Int DC. If it fails, you can pull it 15'.

10 Kinetic Surge:
When you use Action surge, your speed increase by 20 ft and you can you gain the ability to move along vertical surfaces and across liquids on your turn without falling during until the end of your turn. At 17th level, you also have a flying speed equal to your current walking speed. This benefit works only in short bursts; you fall if you end your turn in the air and nothing else is holding you aloft.

15 Unconquerable Mind
When you are subjected to a Wis, Int, Cha save, the enemy provoking it takes half your level in psychic damage. If you use your Indomitable feature on this save and succeed the save, you instead deal your level in psychic damage and the enemy falls prone.

18 Psionic Drive
When you take the Dash action, you can make an attack as a bonus action. You can also unleash the accumulated kinetic energy of your movement to project a psionic field. If the attack granted by this feature hits, the enemy must make a STR save vs Int DC or is pushed 10 ft away from you and held 15 ft aloft in the air until the end of its next turn. You can use this feature a number of time equal to your Int mod/ per long rest.

Fenris-77 · Dec 2, 2019

I'm not suggesting that body alterations arent part of what Psionics has looked like, obvioulsy that was the case, only that it isnt necessarily a front and center core idea. It was only ever part of a sub discipline, and even then not necessarily the largest part. People wanted rational progression here, and I was indexing a different set of rationales. If we want it to feel less like magic, maybe not jumping right in to spell xeroxing is the right approach. Just a thought.

Arnwolf666 · Dec 2, 2019

It is hard to create spells that do psychic damage. They are generally wisdom saves which are hard to pass. If the spell did 1d10 damage like firebolt it would most likely be too powerful. I think vicious mockery is a little low. I would love to see more psychic attacks. Just not sure how to balance it. They could easily become a barbarians worse nightmare. Which may not be a bad thing.

Arnwolf666 · Dec 2, 2019

Fenris-77 said:
I'm not suggesting that body alterations arent part of what Psionics has looked like, obvioulsy that was the case, only that it isnt necessarily a front and center core idea. It was only ever part of a sub discipline, and even then not necessarily the largest part. People wanted rational progression here, and I was indexing a different set of rationales. If we want it to feel less like magic, maybe not jumping right in to spell xeroxing is the right approach. Just a thought.

Yeah. I would have preferred to see less imitation of magic spell. I think IMHO that leaving psycho metabolism to things like biofeedback and controlling your bodies processes would have been better than increasing mass and shape changing. Not because they are too powerful necessarily but to make the psionicist feel different than the wizard in what they are trying to accomplish. I really see ki and psionics being the same thing. Sorry to step on toes on this one. But the monastic and ascetic setting to develop psionics just seems fitting to me. Not that I don’t also like using the sorcerer class to model those abilities. Makes me curious to see how these concepts get developed.

Salthorae · Dec 2, 2019

vincegetorix said:
My take on a simple Psychic Warrior/Battlemind (I'm partial to the 4e name, personally)

@Giltonio_Santos put up an interesting take on Psion with the fighter chassis in this thread here

The results are on there as a PDF. Worth a look if that is a route you're interested in going.

Lord-Archaon · Dec 2, 2019

Body alteration in the sense of melding with objects and other bodies is not something spells currently do, and it has its place in Psionics probably because of Akira's anime movie and related Japanese body horror (and their close relationship with psychic powers).

Lord-Archaon · Dec 2, 2019

Lord-Archaon said:
Body alteration in the sense of melding with objects and other bodies is not something spells currently do, and it has its place in Psionics probably because of Akira's anime movie and related Japanese body horror (and their close relationship with psychic powers).

Not that is a part of Psionics I like, I did it just because it's easy to represent. (Although the part of poison/necrotic being anathema to it was just a weird thing that came to my mind)

Arnwolf666 · Dec 2, 2019

Lord-Archaon said:
Not that is a part of Psionics I like, I did it just because it's easy to represent. (Although the part of poison/necrotic being anathema to it was just a weird thing that came to my mind)

necromancy is tricks. There is definitely a place for psionic that can see and speak with the dead. People like mediums and seers that can sense and communicate with the afterlife. As well as doing psychic battle with such entities.