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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shardstone" data-source="post: 8674951" data-attributes="member: 6807784">A new month is coming and we have no active Psionics thread? WHAT??? So, here's the idea.People always say how adding non-spell spells (psionics) is too much mechanical complexity for the game and is confusing. This is, even though I don't fully agree, such a widespread sentinment across D&D social media that I essentially have to accept it as fact — a lot of people aren't interested in an in-depth psionics system!But...then I was rereading the current Psionic Subclasses. And I was rereading the battlemaster. And it struck me that psionic powers are literally just maneuvers but with the mind.This realization made me think that psychic abilities could use the battlemaster's maneuver system literally as is and it'd accomplish pretty much what I want it to do. I mean, the Psi Knight's powers function in literally the exact same way. And, if we want to improve it and add some spice, we can say that spending more then 1 superiority die on a psionic power can unlock different effects for that power.Say you have basic telepathy. Roll a psi die, you only lose this telepathy on a 1. But if you willingly choose to automatically expend that psi die, you can put maybe 24 hours of memory into someone. And if you spend 3 dice instead, you can implant up to three different suggestions. Spend 5 dice, you rip information from the last month from the target's brain and learn it. Spend 10 dice, you pull an Emma Frost and rewire someone. Add saves, conditions, etc etc to balance, but this is the base idea.So, this is really no different then the battlemaster. Its actually the same, but with a new axis of spend more dice to use more power. And this uses the same mechanics as the battlemaster, so it isn't like we're learning an entire new system here.As for Psionics vs Magic, I'd make it so basically anything that is anti-magic or dispel magic works on Psychic Powers that expend the superiority dice (or psi dice, whatever). So, basic telepathy or simple telekinesis is no problem. However, if you use your "Rip the information from their brains!" ninjutsu, someone can dispel magic that, counterspell it, etc. For ease, I'd probably say that the amount of dice spent = spell level. So if you expend 1 dice to send someone 24 hours worth of memories, that's a 1st level spell. Anything that cost more then 9 dice is 9th level. You can use class or subclass features to fiddle with this. Recover some on short rest, all on long rest, start initiative without one, regain one when something fails a save by -5, and so on. But ultimately, this would be, in my opinion, a clever and simple way to do psionics that doesn't actually require adding a huge amount of new mechanics in the game. It also is in line with all 3 Psionic Subclasses (who don't get the cool "heighten psionics" feature that an actual Psion would).Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk!</blockquote>

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