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

[Maxperson]

The only other exception is costly material components, which makes sense from a balance perspective.

I'd rather they balance it another way, like giving psions a d4 hit points or something.

 

[Maxperson]

Ah! Thanks! I skimmed most of the doc but missed that

Well, at least they get Silent and Eschew Materials Metamagics for free. Not sure why they need to also make a salute in order to think harder, but hey, we’ll take it I guess?

Because otherwise nobody would be able to tell that psionics were being used, which is a balance issue. 3e solved it by having sights, smells, and sounds happen when psionics were being used.

 

[CreamCloud0]

We need to start making players(and employees) uncomfortable again when it comes to making them learn new things. Especially when ONLY a few people actual care about the details OR doing the job right.

i'm not sure i'm getting what you're saying with this here, could you elaborate on your thoughts?

 

[Maxperson]

I liked baby purple dragon rider. A heckuva lot more than the banneret. And maybe if the Lore Police hadn't nuked the survey, we'd have gotten them instead of the wannabe warlord that barely holds it's own weight.

Heaven forbid lore actually means something. You want a baby dragon rider, get it. Just don't make it the purple dragon knight. Then everyone is happy.

 

[Maxperson]

Here is a list of spells levels 0-3, excluding subclass spells.
Light
Mind Sliver
Command
Dissonant Whispers
Feather Fall
Blindness/Deafness
Ego Whip
Knock
Suggestion
Tasha's Mind Whip
Intellect Fortress
Telekinetic Crush
Tongues

That's a fair amount of spells that have no components when used by a psion.

Not spread over 3 levels it isn't. They might do for a single level worth of psion spells, but still seems a bit short.

 

[Silam]

Here is a list of spells levels 0-3, excluding subclass spells.
Light
Mind Sliver
Command
Dissonant Whispers
Feather Fall
Blindness/Deafness
Ego Whip
Knock
Suggestion
Tasha's Mind Whip
Intellect Fortress
Telekinetic Crush
Tongues

That's a fair amount of spells that have no components when used by a psion.

Thanks for going through that. It’s not a ton, but not bad either. And most of these spells do have a "psionic vibe" so hopefully players who care about the lore would pick them up.

And let your eyes glow to let everyone know that you are giving them a piece of your mind. Literally.

Yep, and I was gonna say what @Maxperson said a little after:

Because otherwise nobody would be able to tell that psionics were being used, which is a balance issue. 3e solved it by having sights, smells, and sounds happen when psionics were being used.

To me the way the 3.5 XPH did it with these side effects was nice.

 

[Silam]

Spock reading thoughts required somatic components (particular gestures touching the face), and his transfer of his Katra to McCoy in Wrath of Khan had "My mind to your mind. My thoughts to your thoughts." which sounds like a somatic component to me.

Yeah, if we look at scifi, the components are there… in Star Wars, the Force also has some components. Their mage hand usually requires waving or gesturing at things. And their Jedi Mind Trick has a distinct gesture, on top of the verbal command also, obviously. The lightning attack from Sith lords (Witch Bolt?) also requires pointing at the target. And you might say the light sabre handle is a costly component or focus that doesn’t get consumed when they cast Shadow Blade (or do some Sould Knife kinda thing…).

But then, the definition of hard scifi is "no magic", not "no psionics" … maybe Spock and the Jedis are actually mages or witches or whatever

 

[Remathilis]

Yeah, if we look at scifi, the components are there… in Star Wars, the Force also has some components. Their mage hand usually requires waving or gesturing at things. And their Jedi Mind Trick has a distinct gesture, on top of the verbal command also, obviously. The lightning attack from Sith lords (Witch Bolt?) also requires pointing at the target. And you might say the light sabre handle is a costly component or focus that doesn’t get consumer when they cast Shadow Blade (or do some Sould Knife kinda thing…).

But then, the definition of hard scifi is "no magic", not "not psionics" … maybe Spock and the Jedis are actually mages or witches or whatever

Jedi are frequently called "space wizards" so...

 

[Aurel Guthrie]

They're absolutely still purely mental, the components are there for the psion to trick themselves into believing they're truly casting a spell, then their minds do the rest of the work. Truly, the brain is such a powerful thing. /jk

On a more serious note, like it's been pointed out the psion ignores vocal and material components when casting spells, and only uses somatic components which you can flavor however you want, as long as they're obvious. I personally like to have my Psion's eyes glow, their hair starting to rise, and perhaps their body glowing or their feet leaving the ground for a second while they cast.

 

[Silam]

They're absolutely still purely mental, the components are there for the psion to trick themselves into believing they're truly casting a spell, then their minds do the rest of the work. Truly, the brain is such a powerful thing. /jk

On a more serious note, like it's been pointed out the psion ignores vocal and material components when casting spells, and only uses somatic components which you can flavor however you want, as long as they're obvious. I personally like to have my Psion's eyes glow, their hair starting to rise, and perhaps their body glowing or their feet leaving the ground for a second while they cast.

That is fine fluff but would not technically count as a somatic component by the RAW. Unless somehow you can’t make your eyes glow if you’re tied up with a rope, which would otherwise prevent somatic component spells.

Obviously, whatever your DM agrees to is the law of the land and I’m glad if you make it work satisfactorily at your table.

But I just wanted to point out the difference between 3.5-style visual side effects and somatic components…