D&D 5E Psionics in a sci-fi D&D

[Minigiant]

There also seems to be increasingly less trade-offs and downsides that wizards have for the versatility they bring.

That's why the Sorcerer and Warlock have more interesting subclass. More space to move.

 

[Minigiant]

If you look enough in various fantasy you will find psionic that emulate most DnD magic school. Mind manipulation, body manipulation, element, open plane portal, healing, fighting,
in fact all the PHB can be rewritten to be a psionic powered game keeping the same classes.

I don't think it can't be done with the same classes. The current classes have spell lists that fit different themes.



At the very least you'd need a new caster with a new class list.

The main thing about reskinned psionic classes are the new spells and resisting the urge to give those spells to older classes.

 

[Aldarc]

The main thing about reskinned psionic classes are the new spells and resisting the urge to give those spells to older classes.

...only for wizards to get all of them.

 

[TwoSix]

...only for wizards to get all of them.

It's almost like having a broad generalist class in a game otherwise filled with narrower, thematic classes is a bad idea.

 

[SkidAce]

The definition of what is and isn't science in fiction is entirely defined within the fiction itself. Their plausibility outside of fiction is irrelevant. It's why science fiction that falls outside of the narrow category of "hard sci-fi" is still called science fiction and not fantasy. Magic is magic because the fiction defines as so. When magic isn't magic, but just "sufficiently advanced science," again, it's because the fiction defines it so. If psionics is tapping into some "other," like the Force, then it could be plausibly compared to magic, but say if it's the result of using mechanical implants to harness and amplify unused portions of the brain, then it doesn't matter that the concept doesn't hold up under real world scientific scrutiny; pseudoscience is still within the purview of science in a fictional context, not magic.

Quoted for truth.

 

[SkidAce]

...only for wizards to get all of them.

How would wizards get them if the campaign didn't let them? Put a keyword or tag on them for psi use only.

 

[jmartkdr2]

How would wizards get them if the campaign didn't let them? Put a keyword or tag on them for psi use only.

The complaint is: the WotC team has shown a tendency to give wizards everything, so the prediction is any new psionic spells would be exclusive to psions and wizards.

Partially because there's nothing a psion would be able to do that isn't something a wizard might be able to to, since a wizard can be rationalized to do anything.

 

[see]

Words that have no meaning have no meaning. I tried looking up psionics in the dictionary, and guess what: no entry.

The Oxford English Dictionary entry for psionic:
Pertaining to or involving ‘psi’. So psionics n. pl. [-ic 2], (the study of) the paranormal

Same dictionary, defining psi:
2. Paranormal phenomena or faculties collectively; the psychic force supposed to be manifested by these.

Same dictionary, defining paranormal:
Applied to observed phenomena or powers which are presumed to operate according to natural laws beyond or outside those considered normal or known

 

[Crimson Longinus]

The Oxford English Dictionary entry for psionic:
Pertaining to or involving ‘psi’. So psionics n. pl. [-ic 2], (the study of) the paranormal

Same dictionary, defining psi:
2. Paranormal phenomena or faculties collectively; the psychic force supposed to be manifested by these.

Same dictionary, defining paranormal:
Applied to observed phenomena or powers which are presumed to operate according to natural laws beyond or outside those considered normal or known

So in other words, magic.

 

[Mind of tempest]

So in other words, magic.

true but we still mean something other than a wizard or sorcerer.