D&D 5E Psionic Spells

[Yaarel]

Or have the spell count as an 'attunement' slot while it lasts.

This sounds interesting, elaborate?

Put PPs or exp

Heh, no way to xp cost. Too painful.

But maybe requiring extra spell slots/points to use a costly spell could balance out.

That doesn't sound unreasonable.

Maybe, two psionics *should* be able to ‘detect’ each other. That would definitely make a player think twice about whether they want the character to have the ‘Psionic’ tag. But because it works both ways, it seems balanced.

Maybe it is possible to make an attempt to ‘hide’ psionically - but it seems cheesy, like Drow wearing sunglasses or Vampires wearing sunscreen.

But, I'm just going on how I remember it working In The Olden Days - which I don't pretend to remember all that well.

In 1e, there would have to be some kind of telepathy to be able to read someones ‘id’ in order to ‘insinuate’ into it. Maybe two psionics can make an ability check to see if empathy can read the others emotions and mood? Successfully reading the others emotion, necessarily reveals ones own emotion. Such an empathy check seems to parallel a grapple check.

 

[Tony Vargas]

This sounds interesting, elaborate?

Attunement, it's the magic item limitation in 5e. You can only have 3 items attuned at a time, only some items require it.

But maybe requiring extra spell slots/points to use a costly spell could balance out.

Or, like Eschew Materials or foci, they could just use the really expensive components.

Maybe, two psionics *should* be able to ‘detect’ each other. That would definitely make a player think twice about whether they want the character to have the ‘Psionic’ tag. But because it works both ways, it seems balanced.

Maybe it is possible to make an attempt to ‘hide’ psionically - but it seems cheesy, like Drow wearing sunglasses or Vampires wearing sunscreen.

Yeah, cheesy. But maybe some psi monster could do it. The way Sith can hide their natures but Jedi can't...

In 1e, there would have to be some kind of telepathy to be able to read someones ‘id’ in order to ‘insinuate’ into it. Maybe two psionics can make an ability check to see if empathy can read the others emotions and mood? Successfully reading the others emotion, necessarily reveals ones own emotion. Such an empathy check seems to parallel a grapple check.

Not as I recall, anyone could end up with Id Insinuation or any other attack/defense mode, whether they could telepathize or not. Id Insinuation was a subtle attack on the sub-conscious, so wouldn't involve reading thoughts, exactly. Empathy as parallel to psi 'grapple' sounds cool though.

 

[Yaarel]

Sith hide their psionics. I guess it is a thing, but seems good to make it less frequent.



If a spell has a costly component, but doesnt consume it, then it seems fine for the Psionic tag to eschew it.

However, if the spell *consumes* the costly component, there is a problem. Maybe a solution could be something like this?

After casting one consuming spell, it becomes risky to cast an other one again before a long rest. If one does cast it again, the character takes something like 1d6 psychic damage per spell level of the spell, and must make a Will save to avoid falling unconscious.

Heh, would this make the psionic nosebleeders happy?




Alternatively, re attunement.

The goal of the consumable component seems to be to prevent spamming. Maybe when casting a consuming spell for a second time, it expends an attunement slot until after a long rest?

 

[Yaarel]

What the three mental abilities represent is necessary for understanding how psionics relates to them: Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.

The six abilities enjoy a tradition that goes back to origins of D&D. Unfortunately, they lack consistent definitions and are largely meaningless.

Concerning the mental abilities, one confounding is coupling Perception and Will power under the banner of having ‘Wisdom’. For example, since some animals have heightened senses of hearing and smell, compared to a Human, they are often described as being ‘wiser’ than a Human is. For example, the 5e Monster Manual stats a Deer as a mental giant, a genius with a Wisdom 14 on average. The point is to convey a relatively high Passive Perception mechanic. But as Wisdom, it defines a Deer as a tower of iron will and a mystic luminary. The Wisdom ability becomes absurd, lacking any salient meaning. Other creatures have good senses of hearing and smell. But a Human as an extremely sense of sight. With nightvision in black and white, dayvision in a multicolor spectrum, and excellent depth perception, the Human has one of the most powerful senses on this planet. A Human can notice (and understand) what most animals cannot. Yet the Human lacks a Wisdom boost for this excellent sense of sight. Wisdom lacks any consistent definition. The damage is already done, and the lack of clear definitions has consequences already in motion.

The following is an attempt to try reconcile and salvage - and distinguish - the meaning and use of each mental ability.

 

[Yaarel]

Wisdom - Wisdom strictly pertains to ones animal nature. It especially pertains to the five senses, but also to sense of appetite and thirst, sex drive, need for sleep, and so on. For social animals, Wisdom also pertains to companionship and the pain of loneliness. Moreover, Wisdom pertains to territorialism, aggression, and analogous mental states. If some element in the game seems something that a Wolf might interact with, it probably relates to Wisdom check.

Wisdom relates to sensory information. Perception and Passive Perception might detect an unusual phenomenon. But unless this phenomenon relates to some animilistic quality that a Wolf could understand, it is necessary to make an Intelligence (Search) check to identify what it is that is being detected.

The Will save represents the difficulty of going against the instinctive nature and natural impulses of a creature.

Altho Wisdom is strictly animalistic, it can serve an altruistic purpose. Spiritual traditions often value Wisdom because of the sensitivity to the animal needs of others. The need for food, clothing, companionship, safety, shelter, and so on, are aspects that spiritual leaders are especially attentive to. They recognize and focus on the lower basis of the Maslow Heirarchy.

Wisdom is ‘wise’ in the sense of being experiential and relating to concrete realities.

 

[Yaarel]

Intelligence represents the higher mental functions.

Where Wisdom represents the animalistic sensory information, Intelligence represents the human conceptual information.

Intelligence includes intellectual reason and emotional ideals. Intelligence especially involves the mastery of symbols, and is key for language and communication, memory, lore, analysis of systems, psychology of persons, any sciences, and kinds of education.

The Basic rules wrongly describes Wisdom as relating to ‘intuition’. But this seems easy to fix. Instead, Intelligence is responsible for all intuition. Intuition necessarily abstracts beyond the immediate five senses, and conceptually predicts what must be despite what the senses seem to indicate is.

Mechanically, all intuition expresses itself as an Intelligence (Search) check. Search is also used to identify a notable phenomenon.

Because of intuition and compression, Intelligence is useful to psionics.

 

[Yaarel]

Awesome, this is an image of a Norse-esque Frost Giant from the ‘psychic magic’ of the Pathfinder book, Occult Adventures. Possibly, the Frost Giant is psionically controlling the frost via elemental telekinesis - a mythologically accurate way to portray nature spirits who personify and embody such elements.

 

[Yaarel]

spell slots = spell points

A slot is worth a number of points equal to its spell level plus its tier.

Tier 1 (levels 1 to 4): Apprentice (spell levels 1 and 2)
Tier 2 (levels 5 to 10): Journeyer (spell levels 3, 4, and 5)
Tier 3 (levels 11 to 16): Master (spell levels 6, 7 and 8)
Tier 4 (levels 17 to 20): Grandmaster (spell level 9)

So a Level 17 Wizard (Grandmaster Tier) can convert the spell level 9 slot to 13 spell points ( = 9 spell level + 4 tier).

When necessary, lump two slots to form a higher level slot. Or split a slot into two lower level slots.

The 5e spell casting mechanics are spontaneous and continue the feel of the 3e Psion.

 

[Pling]

Here is link to some work I did on using existing rules to represent psionics a while back.

It uses existing spells to represent psionic powers, and then splits these spells into disciplines by way of new spell lists.

The class of psionicist is then created through a mashup of warlock and sorcerer type class features. The idea was to create a class with flexible casting, a more narrow list of "spells" as innate talents, and the ability to cannibalize health as a resource if needed (to represent "pushing" the powers from a mental standpoint.) The final thing is that it highlights a class whose prime requisites are Intelligence and Constitution...

I think that the strength of the class is that it does use existing rules to create the feel of psionic through the life drain possibilities and more flexible casting options. This without adding additional mechanics that create more bookkeeping such as PSPs (which I never particularly thought matched the tone of psionicists "pushing" their abilities anyway.)

If you like, have a look see...

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?429304-D-amp-D-5E-Psionicist-Class-Homebrew