D&D 5E Psionics in Tasha

[JiffyPopTart]

Magic dead areas are non-existant. They break too much crap, and cause too many headaches with "Well, My paladin's aura doesn't say it is a magical effect suppressed by anti-magic."

Odd, because a possible massive explosion that breaks the weave and creates a wild or null magic zone when they die is a key component to how Warforged interact with my world.

 

[Magister Ludorum]

My game has no weave. I don't care what the rulebooks say. WOTC can't tell me what exists in my own game. I use the mechanics of the game (except where I choose to change them), but there is no official crunch for me. Period. End of Statement. IMNSHO opinion, D&D Lore is inane and uninspiring. I use only the rules.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Odd, because a possible massive explosion that breaks the weave and creates a wild or null magic zone when they die is a key component to how Warforged interact with my world.

That is cool man, I have no real judgement for people who like it, but everytime I've ever seen it, it starts interacting strangely with an aspect of the lore and begins forcing me to make up things on the fly.

Far easier to just not have it come up. I can deal with magic items and spells in other ways.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

That is cool man, I have no real judgement for people who like it, but everytime I've ever seen it, it starts interacting strangely with an aspect of the lore and begins forcing me to make up things on the fly.

Far easier to just not have it come up. I can deal with magic items and spells in other ways.

My campaign basics is "What if every D&D humanoid was mapped to some real world WW2 country or concept?" Warforged were the wonder weapon (atomic bombs) invented by the dwarves (America) to put an earlier end to the war without risking lives.

Unforseen consequences due to the corruption of the building process by an aboleth meant the warforged developed freewill AND have a small chance of a massive detonation leaving behind magic fallout if they are killed.

Once the world saw the danger that a warforged is, the dwarves semi quietly have been paying to have them "returned" so they could safely be decomissioned. Similarly an underground freedom movement has sprung up to protect them.

Blatant stealing of world history and the Fallout franchise combined with a D&D twist.

The devestated areas are avoided when possible and the high cleric and wizard minds of the time are dedicated to cleaning them up. Most are located in the middle of an area of grassy plains on the site of a battlefield so it's easy to only include them when a plot focuses on them.

 

[Shardstone]

To be honest, this seems like a punt. That may not be a bad idea.

Psionics is now a descriptive term, like Arcane and Divine. We still think of certain classes as "arcane" (wizard, bard, sorcerer, warlock) or "divine" (cleric, druid, paladin, ranger), but really, those terms are holdovers from earlier editions and fluff; both terms are mechanically meaningless. Further, classes are mutable: a sorcerer or warlock might normally be considered arcane casters, but the divine soul and pact of the celestial make them divine powered with no change to their mechanics. Lastly, plenty of abilities could be considered Arcane or Divine without actually being spells; a cleric'c channel divinity or a Eldritch Knight's weapon bind.

Psionics is the same: it describes the power source of certain casters and effects without changing the mechanics. An aberrant soul sorcerer is the psionic equivalent of the divine soul; a change in power source with some new subclass features and spell options but ultimately mechanically the same. Certain powers and abilities (like a mind flayers psychic blast or a kalshatar's telepathy) are likewise "psionic flavored" but the descriptor has no mechanical bearing.

Perhaps down the road, a full psionic spellcaster class will come to exist (Dark Sun?) But I think it will be a spellcaster and not a new mechanic. However, until then think of psionics as fluff, not rules much like how arcane and divine are fluff and not rules.

This convinced me. I'm ok with psionics as spells AND class features (or feats or w/e), with the features having a shared mechanical system. For my own "alternate PHB" of homebrewed classes, the psionic class feature mechanic is eldritch invocations that can be pumped up with psi points for more effects. That + spells has made suitable psionics for me.

 

[Shardstone]

Another interesting idea would be to say, in the description of a psionic spell, that counterspell rolls have disadvantage against them. That would make the spells pretty interesting, IMO.

 

[see]

That was the whole point of psionics from the start....to be separate from arcane and divine magic.

No, the point of psionics "from the start" (1976's Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry) was to be a handful of odd powers held by characters with otherwise-normal classes, plus a psionic combat system.

If your proposed psionics system doesn't have psionic combat, and it does have psionic classes or subclasses, you've entirely abandoned what psionics was "from the start" in favor of doing something radically different.

Which is fine, but don't pretend you're channeling the true nature of D&D psionics, rather than saying, "I feel psionics should be X, not Y".

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

No, the point of psionics "from the start" (1976's Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry) was to be a handful of odd powers held by characters with otherwise-normal classes, plus a psionic combat system.

If your proposed psionics system doesn't have psionic combat, and it does have psionic classes or subclasses, you've entirely abandoned what psionics was "from the start" in favor of doing something radically different.

Which is fine, but don't pretend you're channeling the true nature of D&D psionics, rather than saying, "I feel psionics should be X, not Y".

Wasn't the psionic combat system some awful mess? Like a five-way game of scissors-paper-stone where you only know a couple of the shapes and you can't start the rest of the combat until you've played ten rounds of this?

Do you believe that having that would be a good idea?

 

[Shardstone]

And apparently you are a fan of Nickelback, because you follow the band along and keep listening to their music, but for some reason continue to hope they will change their sound down the line.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with liking Nickelback. Hundreds of thousands of us like Nickelback. But at some point you should accept them for who they are and the music they make, or else stop listening and try a different band.

This is kind of off topic but...

If I accept that WotC puts out medicore to above average content, does that mean I'm allowed to criticize it and call it what it is? I'll proudly admit to liking some mediocre things, but your post just leaves me scratching my head a bit. Is WotC actually just immune to criticism?

 

[Azzy]

Wasn't the psionic combat system some awful mess? Like a five-way game of scissors-paper-stone where you only know a couple of the shapes and you can't start the rest of the combat until you've played ten rounds of this?

Yes, that is an apt summary.

Do you believe that having that would be a good idea?

I don't get the impression that they do think it's a good idea. Instead, I think they're trying to convey that what supposed "traditionalists" are claiming aren't necessarily factual and that psionics in D&D aren't as immutable as some claim. I could be wrong, though.