D&D General So… psionic powers are no longer purely mental?

[Bae'zel]

I'd rather curate a setting to have Psionics OR Magic, not both at the same time, personally.

This default to kitchen-sink fantasy settings is getting dull to me.

 

[Vael]

Psionics using a completely different system than magic means it just doesn't get used at the table.

It requires much more of a buy in from the DM who has the power to approve or disapprove what's used at the table if it's different than magic.

Many DMs don't want to learn a completely new system just because some player wants to feel special and have something that's
"beyond magic", so that leads to Psionics simply being banned by the DM.

Special Snowflake Psionics also spreads the impressions that Psionics are overpowered which leads to more DMs banning psionics.

Which is why 5.5e has the right idea, use the same magic system like everything else. Since it requires less of a DM buy in and is less of a Special Snowflake thing, it's more likely to get used.

Psionics using the same system as magic, because it is magic really, means it'll get more support and later books beyond the book it was introduced in.

I'll agree, which sucks, because I am one of those that enjoy alternate magic systems; I'm one of the dozen that loves Incarnum from 3.5.

But I remember the 3.5 era, and Psionics was always a bone of contention because it was different, it lead to confusion. It also meant a lot of duplication of powers, so many "Psionic X" powers. That was the Mystic's challenge when it was in UA, can't just use the Suggestion spell, have to make the Psionic-y similar power.

 

[Emerikol]

I'd rather curate a setting to have Psionics OR Magic, not both at the same time, personally.

This default to kitchen-sink fantasy settings is getting dull to me.

I couldn't agree more. I can see a world with Psionics as a central theme and there existing a whole variety of psionic types.

Personally if I were designing D&D I would just start out with the core four in the first release. Fighter, Wizard, Cleric, Rogue.

Then add books for other types. It made a DMs life far easier to just not include a book as to have to excise classes out of the core book. I think playing with everything D&D offers these days all at once is pure insanity more than once.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Like everything else with Psionics, it widely varied. The 2e psionicist had to pick a primary discipline (one of the five options) and then picked sciences (major powers) and devotions (minor). They could pick other disciplines as they leveled, but never more than half their powers could be from other disciplines. In 3.5, you picked a discipline, but it just gave you a list of bonus powers you could learn in addition to the generic psionic list. Very similar to how the original 5e warlock worked. I think 3.0 was similar, but I think you had to pick so many from your primary discipline like in 2e. And I don't know how 4e worked (was long gone when it came out) but I think there was no limitations on the powers you chose.

So a 2e psionicist focused on one thing and picked up a smattering of everything else and a 3e could pretty much pick whatever, but got special access to unique powers based on their discipline. I would put it on par with a wizard focusing on a specific school or a cleric with a domain.

4E had class lists for psionic powers that fit the theme of their class, with the usual subclass favoring certain set of powers. However, the powers were actually a bit different than the other powers, because Psionic spells were basically at-wills, and they had power points that they could use to improve them, which roughly worked out to be as effective as encounter powers of non-psionic classes. I think Daily Powers still worked like for any other class. Monks had the regular AEDU system without power points, but every Monk Encounter and At-Will power also came with a Movement power you could use in the same turn you used the attack power (regardless whether you used the movement and attack power or only one or the other, the power was then expended).