D&D 5E (2024) Psionics: What Do You Want?

[Paul Farquhar]

Gain fatigue.

 

[Steampunkette]

My main worry about this is that you end up going nova and then sleep.

....Maybe if the downside was short, like 1 turn?

Overload.
Your attack deals maximum damage and then you are stunned until the end of your next turn.

I went with the noetic "Limit Break"

You expended your Psychic Focus (a strong ability for retaining Psi Dice) to temporarily gain two small (1d4) psi dice. You could then use them to augment powers as you like, but your Psychic Focus was expended until you took a short rest to recover it, and you could only Limit Break once per long rest, anyhow.

So you better make it count when you use it, 'cause you're losing access to an ability and you can't do it, again, for the rest of the day.

 

[mellored]

Gain fatigue.

So you better make it count when you use it, 'cause you're losing access to an ability and you can't do it, again, for the rest of the day.

Which makes you want take a long rest.
Stunned for a turn doesn't.

Unless you gain exhaustion for a turn. That might work. Or some other short term penalty.
Advantage this turn. Disadvantage next.

 

[Steampunkette]

Which makes you want take a long rest.
Stunned for a turn doesn't.

Unless you gain exhaustion for a turn. That might work. Or some other short term penalty.

You're limited in how many long rests you can take in a day, however. So the DM's answer should be "No."

Or, better yet "You don't have time because things are still happening!"

 

[Corinnguard]

(I'm not completely averse to something like pyromancy or cryomancy or the like, but I'm more inclined to have that concept be a separate Elementalist class.)

There is the Kineticist class from 1st and 2nd edition Pathfinder, and the Elementalist class for Level Up from Purple Martin Games.

 

[mellored]

You're limited in how many long rests you can take in a day, however. So the DM's answer should be "No."

Or, better yet "You don't have time because things are still happening!"

You still don't want them to be able to spend all your points and overload in the first battle any more than the paladin doing 3 smites a turn.


Also, I think stunning yourself is thematic for a Psion overload.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There is the Kineticist class from 1st and 2nd edition Pathfinder, and the Elementalist class for Level Up from Purple Martin Games.

The kineticist is a refluffed D&D 3.5 warlock.

 

[jgsugden]

My main worry about this is that you end up going nova and then sleep.

....Maybe if the downside was short, like 1 turn?

Overload.
Your attack deals maximum damage and then you are stunned until the end of your next turn.

My homebrew psion version has this element (which explains why I want it included).

The idea is to replicate the psionic Superhero trope of being able to go all in when you really need to, but risking that you'll do harm to yourself (and potentially others) that is meaningful and lasting, but not forever (usually). In my design psionics work on a power point system. As you advance, you reduce the cost of using powers (eventually making many low level powers free), and increase the amount of power you can spend on a given power safely (increasing damage and effects) - but there is never a cap on how much you can spend. When you exceed your safe cap, you roll dice and check against tables that are specified for each power set and then see what happens. Some of them 'burn you out' without the power taking effect.

A pyrokinetic that attempts to do something too strong could get some of the standard table entries that appear on every table - power points used to no effect, psionic damage that reduces your hp max, intelligence reductions (that can last a short time, til long rest, days or weeks), lost additional power points (which may not come back with the next long rest) and gaining conditions (blindness, deafness, exhaustion, confusion, poisoned, etc...) for lengthy periods. They could get also get something specific to their subclass, or specific to the power suite they are using. So, they might explode in a fireball, encompass themselves in a flame wall they can't put out, or gain vulnerability to cold damage, or might sustain massive burns that lower max hp. While there are entries on the table that just kill you, there is really no practical reason to push yourself so hard that this might happen (as it is not fun).

In practice, people tend to push for this overload late in combats against a big bad for a huge unload - and it has been epic and iconic, as well as being horrifically bad for the entire party. A psion that created mental illusions effectively cast phantasmal force on all of their allies in the middle of a combat - and they all fell prey to it. That was devastating.

 

[ECMO3]

I don't want to derail the official announcement thread but I am very curious:

For those that are not happy with the "psionicist as spellcaster" paradigm, what is it that you actually want to see? Why?

And as a secondary consideration: is it just psionics that you want to be different? How would you feel if sorcery, miracles and spell singing were also completely different than "spellcasting"?

For the record, I have no dog in this fight. I don't actually care about psionics at all. I do think it would be cool if every form of magic was mechanically distinct, but I doubt that would ever occur. But I am very interested in the thoughts of folks that seem to care very much about this issue.

I would prefer no psionics at all, but if we are going to have it making it a spell caster seems the best way to go.

 

[Corinnguard]

The kineticist is a refluffed D&D 3.5 warlock.

So is the Dragonfire Adept class from 3e.

Dragonfire Adept – Class – D&D Tools

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The only class in D&D where breathing is an essential part of the class.