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D&D 5E Psionic Mages?
- Thread starter bogmad
- Start date
Jeff Carlsen
Adventurer
To me, a class needs to be a broad archetype that can encompass many lesser types. The mechanics should then flow from that.
The 4E psion has a good, if not perfect, mechanic. Mostly at will mental abilities that can be boosted with power points. These mechanics fit the story of a character who can use mental powers whenever she likes, but can strain herself doing more difficult work. That feels like psionics to me.
It also feels like its own class, with telepaths, telekinetics, pyrokinetics, and others being subclasses.
The 4E psion has a good, if not perfect, mechanic. Mostly at will mental abilities that can be boosted with power points. These mechanics fit the story of a character who can use mental powers whenever she likes, but can strain herself doing more difficult work. That feels like psionics to me.
It also feels like its own class, with telepaths, telekinetics, pyrokinetics, and others being subclasses.
Jester David
Hero
Incorporating psions into the mage is one of the amalgamations I'm least comfortable with. Psionics sould be as different from arcane as divine is from arcane.
We should get a couple different psionic classes.
We should get a couple different psionic classes.
Plaguescarred
Hero
Me too. The wizards always used d4 for HD (There's no HD in 4E so its NA) and for me and my group, its part of the D&D legacy that wizard's HD, magic missiles and dagger use d4 among other things.
Which is?
Jester David
Hero
Different damage types, different spell effects, and different ways of knowing spells. Arcane characters learn spells and divine just know the full list.
Doesn't seem different enough that we can't squeeze some others in there.
I guess I could see something like that working. Ideally, if mechanically they're going to match with other "mages" I'd prefer that psionics be kept distinct in fluff and separated from arcane classes by virtue of having a completely separate powers list that no arcane users would have access to.
If I had my way completely I'd make the powers list for psions much smaller than the spell list, but give each power more flexible use. For instance, what you could do with a "telepathy" power would be much broader than a simple send thoughts spell (not restricted to a message, send images, emotions, etc). Bigger, more creative, effects would require more power point usage but you wouldn't necessarily have to hit the next power level to spend your points that way, you'd just have less of them. And "talent" progression would be slower than a the typical mage spell progression to compensate, though you would gain power points per level.
A completely different mechanic for psions that could be kept "simple" by virtue of making psion players be more creative in their interpretations of a disciplines effect might be nice in my imagination, but getting something folks to agree on one that works would be the hard part.
My guess is that a power point system will get at some of the flavor of escalating powers by letting you cast spells at higher slots by spending more points, and maybe that'll work well enough, though I don't really like psionics where every effect is perfectly analogous to something a spell can do.
If I had my way completely I'd make the powers list for psions much smaller than the spell list, but give each power more flexible use. For instance, what you could do with a "telepathy" power would be much broader than a simple send thoughts spell (not restricted to a message, send images, emotions, etc). Bigger, more creative, effects would require more power point usage but you wouldn't necessarily have to hit the next power level to spend your points that way, you'd just have less of them. And "talent" progression would be slower than a the typical mage spell progression to compensate, though you would gain power points per level.
A completely different mechanic for psions that could be kept "simple" by virtue of making psion players be more creative in their interpretations of a disciplines effect might be nice in my imagination, but getting something folks to agree on one that works would be the hard part.
My guess is that a power point system will get at some of the flavor of escalating powers by letting you cast spells at higher slots by spending more points, and maybe that'll work well enough, though I don't really like psionics where every effect is perfectly analogous to something a spell can do.
