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New Unearthed Arcana: Psionics!
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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7867613" data-attributes="member: 996"><p>To be fair, psionics is just a set of more scientific-sounding terms applied to the same sorts of supernatural powers people had been claiming as 'magic' or 'miracles' or whatever forever. Reading minds, viewing remote locations, predicting the future, levitating, vanishing from sight, conjuring things from nothing, etc. </p><p></p><p>In the decades between that trend and the actual coining of the term 'psionic,' and the further decades before D&D came out, and the decades since, though, Psionics has taken on a life of its own. It's not <em>just</em> magic with the serial numbers filed off for use in science-fiction that was embarrassed about ripping off fantasy/legend - but it's still going to overlap with magic, and, at the same time, the modernized/scientific-jargon-sounding terms that started being used back in the 19th century have, some of them, become generic, to the point they're readily applied to magic, superpowers, psionics, etc...</p><p></p><p>Something like "mage hand" to move an object around at a distance sounds magical, while "telekinesis" intentionally sounds psionic, but is also arguably generic at this point. Same with 'teleportation.'</p><p></p><p>Not helpful, I know...</p><p></p><p>...and...</p><p></p><p> Consolidating mechanics is a legit way to simplify a game. If a martial arts move, a spell, and a psionic discipline all send enemies sprawling, you can just have one mechanic to model that, and use if for all three. While 5e gets mad props for being 'simpler' or 'rules lite,' that expedient was openly repudiated in the playtest, thanks to the edition war talking points about 'fighters casting spells' (the power format & use of keywords for PC class abilities from spells to prayers to martial 'exploits' to psionic disciplines, even though no actual 'power' was re-used, unmodified, by two classes until the Essentials Druid(Sentinel) with given the Cleric(Warpriest)'s Healing Word.) And, while openly repudiated, that didn't stop it from being used: rather than make spells, prayers, primal nature-magic, monk ki powers, totem barbarian rituals, mechanically distinct, they all just recycled spells. </p><p></p><p>That's problematic when trying to add a Psion, because the concept-first, don't-make-the-classes-"samey"-like-wrongbadfun-4e, rationalizations for having 5e, at all, demand it be mechanically distinct, while the simplicity mandate demands it just re-cycle spells like everyone else.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 7867613, member: 996"] To be fair, psionics is just a set of more scientific-sounding terms applied to the same sorts of supernatural powers people had been claiming as 'magic' or 'miracles' or whatever forever. Reading minds, viewing remote locations, predicting the future, levitating, vanishing from sight, conjuring things from nothing, etc. In the decades between that trend and the actual coining of the term 'psionic,' and the further decades before D&D came out, and the decades since, though, Psionics has taken on a life of its own. It's not [I]just[/I] magic with the serial numbers filed off for use in science-fiction that was embarrassed about ripping off fantasy/legend - but it's still going to overlap with magic, and, at the same time, the modernized/scientific-jargon-sounding terms that started being used back in the 19th century have, some of them, become generic, to the point they're readily applied to magic, superpowers, psionics, etc... Something like "mage hand" to move an object around at a distance sounds magical, while "telekinesis" intentionally sounds psionic, but is also arguably generic at this point. Same with 'teleportation.' Not helpful, I know... ...and... Consolidating mechanics is a legit way to simplify a game. If a martial arts move, a spell, and a psionic discipline all send enemies sprawling, you can just have one mechanic to model that, and use if for all three. While 5e gets mad props for being 'simpler' or 'rules lite,' that expedient was openly repudiated in the playtest, thanks to the edition war talking points about 'fighters casting spells' (the power format & use of keywords for PC class abilities from spells to prayers to martial 'exploits' to psionic disciplines, even though no actual 'power' was re-used, unmodified, by two classes until the Essentials Druid(Sentinel) with given the Cleric(Warpriest)'s Healing Word.) And, while openly repudiated, that didn't stop it from being used: rather than make spells, prayers, primal nature-magic, monk ki powers, totem barbarian rituals, mechanically distinct, they all just recycled spells. That's problematic when trying to add a Psion, because the concept-first, don't-make-the-classes-"samey"-like-wrongbadfun-4e, rationalizations for having 5e, at all, demand it be mechanically distinct, while the simplicity mandate demands it just re-cycle spells like everyone else. [/QUOTE]
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