Psionics Coming Soon To D&D?

WotC's Mike Mearls has hinted that we may be able to expect some psionics content soon, possibly in the Unearthed Arcana column. He was asked by Ethan Clow on the Twitterweb "any chance we might see a Psionic class for 5e soon? Perhaps in unearthed arcana?" to which he replied "wouldn't be surprised. I *might* have had a couple prior edition psionics books on my desk last week..." (Thanks to Wolf Hunter for the scoop).

 

[dave_in_TX]

If you have arcane magic why even bother with divine magic?

Divine magic is still magic. Psionics just seems unnecessary since you already have magic.

 

[Minigiant]

I know I am a minority.

I want the transparency issues.

I don't think that's a minority issue of hardcore psionics fans. I think slightly over half of the hardcore D&D psionics fans want a psionics and magics mixing issues. But the total nontransparent hardcore psionics fans is a minority of the total D&D fandom which include hardcore psionics fans who are okay with psionics being spells and regular fans who just like psionics, and Dark Sun fans who want psionic for the setting but don't how it looks.

 

[Dausuul]

I predict they will post an Unearthed Arcana article which presents psionic abilities as spells using the DMG spell point rules. There will be a fan outcry. There will be a couple of enigmatic tweets, followed by months of radio silence. Then we will get a treatment of psionics, maybe in book form but more likely as a PDF, which looks quite different from the system presented in UA and carefully avoids using the S-word. Psionic powers will still be, functionally, spells, but they won't be called spells, and everyone will be happy.

 

[Mistwell]

Divine magic is still magic. Psionics just seems unnecessary since you already have magic.

Divine is a different flavor and theme of magic, and psionics is a different flavor and theme of magic. Of course it's called something other than magic, but the purpose is the same - a drastically different flavor, with some differing themes as well. And given it's well-loved by many in our hobby, why not include it?

 

[Morlock]

I'm surprised to read so few mentions of Pathfinder's Ultimate Psionics. Everything I read suggests it's much better than 3/3.5 Psionics. I know I like UP so far, but I'm not familiar with 3e psionics.

Whatever they do with psionics, I hope they throw a bone to those of us who want to rip out arcane & divine magic and replace both with psionics (and call the result "magic" ). E.g., psionic classes that replicate Wizard (with spell lists as broad) as well as Sorcerer, and maybe Bard, Ranger, and Paladin, too; psionics that are as broad in scope as arcane & divine magic taken as a whole.

The majority of nerdrage over 5e seems to be based in nerdLOVE over 5e (it is for me, anyway). As in, "this game is AWESOME! Why can't I buy MORE of it???" I assure you very few 4th edition detractors were out there converting 3rd edition products to play 4e, nor 3rd edition complainers grabbing 2e sourcebooks to convert and play 3e. It is definitely not something I've seen in the game's history since I've been playing.

Like I said in the crystal ball thread...it's just damned odd. I don't have WotC's inside knowledge, obviously, but from here it looks like Hasbro's trying too hard to fight the last war.

I predict psions will use spell.
Psionics fans will be angry at first but they will get of it. No one is going to rewrite all the spells as powers/sciences/disciplines except for book fodder.

If they do this (and I'd be okay with that; it's what I'm in the process of doing myself), my first instinct is to say that's not enough for a hardcover, so they should release the player rules as a PDF, and make the hardcover a DM book, maybe an adventure path cum psionic setting.

EDIT: I think he hinted UA. BUT, in case we somehow need to be reminded, the other way it comes out is they do some DS related story, and this is the bonus material.

Yes, this would mesh well with what they've already done so far. A Dark Sun AP/Sandbox/Setting hardcover, plus a Dark Sun/Psionics Player Guide PDF on the website.

I disagree with Yaarel's insistence on what he describes in MIND-OVER-MATTER FLAVOR. I'd be fine with psionics that have a core of purely-character-powered spells (say, mostly the mental powers like telepathy and such), but also outlying spheres where the character uses mental powers to tap into other power sources. Summoning and conjuration in particular work better for me this way; the mentalist uses his telepathy to contact another plane, call beings there into his reality, that sort of thing. I also prefer the UP model, where Int is the prime stat.

Actually, now that I think about it, maybe limted-scope 5e psionics rules from Wizards would be best. Then we could turn to the 3rd party publishers for something really good, like UP.

I want to see a 1e version of psionics. That way, you won't have everyone and their grandma's dog wanting to play one, but only those hardcore players who REALLY want to deal with it.

Then again, I've never really liked the class in a D&D world. And no, I don't play Dark Sun. I know, I'm weird like that.

You're describing how I used to be about psionics, before 3e. Now I'm trying to figure out how to replace magic with psionics (and then call it magic, lol).

If you have magic why even bother with psionics? It seem redundant.

If you have psionics, why even bother with magic? It seems redundant.

 

[procproc]

I just can't get too excited by the possibility of a future UA article on psionics that might eventually happen at some point.

We won't see anything in print, if we see anything at all, until they're ready to publish an AP tied to psionics anyway. So, maybe Spring or Fall 2016? Mearls is just teasing us again.

Don't forget that the next AP they've announced is Underdark-themed, and there's historically been lots of psionic stuff down there -- illithid and aboleths are iconic baddies for that kind of setting.

That said, I'd really like a full-on, in-print supplement, but I imagine we're just going to see a UA article or two.

 

[Mirtek]

Because the elder races and abberations have psionics and they are an integral part of my world mythos and backstory?

And they are already in the MM. Spell-like abilities with the [psionics] tag and voilà we have psionics in D&D.

If they do seperate psi classes, I hope for full psionic-magic transparency like in 3.x

 

[Morlock]

What is this "psionic-magic transparency" thing people keep mentioning?

 

[Mirtek]

What is this "psionic-magic transparency" thing people keep mentioning?

Dispell psionic = dispell magic, magic resistance = psionic resistance, etc. and vice versa

So magic and psionic are completely interchangeable in how they interact with each other and how creature special abilities interact with them. For example this prevents Tiamat's anti-magic features from being overcome by psionics, just because she was published before any psionic rules and thus don't has extra anti-psionic features

 

[Staffan]

And they are already in the MM. Spell-like abilities with the [psionics] tag and voilà we have psionics in D&D.

If they do seperate psi classes, I hope for full psionic-magic transparency like in 3.x

My personal preference, at least in older editions, was to have them work similary, but have different lores associated with them. So dispel magic would zap psionic powers as well, and detect magic would detect psionic auras... but the auras would be different from magical auras, so you'd need Psicraft rather than Spellcraft in order to figure out what sort of aura it is.

5e doesn't have the same level of granularity though, so I'm not sure a "Psychics" skill to match Arcana is needed or even wanted.