D&D 5E Telekinesis Is A Bad Spell, For The Game

[doctorbadwolf]

So, I don't mean that it's poorly designed.

The problem is that it is vastly too high level, and I'm pretty sure that this is why various lower level telekinetic powers in the game...well, suck. Really badly.

The Telekinetic feat is terrible as a feat. Great. Invisible mage hand, greater range on it if I dedicate a cantrip to it from another source, and a...a ranged shove attack. A ranged shove, really, not a shove attack. A very weak one, at that.

The Psi Warrior is supposedly meant to let you play a character like Darth Vader, but it fails utterly. Literally just give it Move Object from star wars saga edition with a new name. Like...what the hell is this?

There is no telekinetic monk!? How!? The closest we have is a spirit projections monk with glowing magic arms.

Telekinesis is a huge part of like...tons of fantasy properties. Like a lot. It's very common, and it's usually not something you have to really master magic in order to do. Why are we waiting until level 9 for anything better than move light object and some abilities that can like, throw a rock or push a guy 5ft.

The only two solutions I have are to do one of:

• remove the telekinesis spell completely, and allow other sources to do what it does, at lower levels with scaling
• Make it a level 1 spell, and scale it from the size of stuff you can yeet with catapult all the way up to where you can move around multiple huge creatures at once because you cast the spell at level 9

Am I the only one bothered by this? Anyone got other ideas?

 

[pukunui]

Am I the only one bothered by this?

Yes, it occasionally bothers me too, but not enough to want to do anything about it. I'm afraid I don't have any alternative ideas.

I just wish WotC wasn't so conservative with their design in general. While I still like 5e, I would love an "unleashed" version where they crank things up to 11 and just let the PCs do all the cool things instead of limiting them so hard.

 

[Stormonu]

Telekinesis, Telepathy and Ice Storm all bother me for how high level they are. I'd probably put a telekinetic yeet at 3rd level, but as a 1st level shove (on par with a focused thunderwave), that sounds perfectly fine. Heck, you could probably refluff thunderwave as a vaderish yeet as it is.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Yes, it occasionally bothers me too, but not enough to want to do anything about it. I'm afraid I don't have any alternative ideas.

I just wish WotC wasn't so conservative with their design in general. While I still like 5e, I would love an "unleashed" version where they crank things up to 11 and just let the PCs do all the cool things instead of limiting them so hard.

Agreed. Just let us do the thing. Before 15th level or whatever.

Telekinesis, Telepathy and Ice Storm all bother me for how high level they are. I'd probably put a telekinetic yeet at 3rd level, but as a 1st level shove (on par with a focused thunderwave), that sounds perfectly fine. Heck, you could probably refluff thunderwave as a vaderish yeet as it is.

A bigt part of my issue is that all the lower level stuff is yeeting, rather than being able to just like, hold stuff in the air, move it out of the way safely, drop it on someone, etc.

 

[Lanefan]

"Yeet"? What's that?

If you want a game where the PCs are pretty much supers right out of the gate, start at 15th level and hugely slow down the advancement such that it still takes just as long to get to 20th. Or - and yes I'm going to say this - use a different system; as D&D is and always has been centered on variants of the zero-to-hero path.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I just wish WotC wasn't so conservative with their design in general.

I mean, that was pretty much literally the point of 5e, so....

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Heck, you could probably refluff thunderwave as a vaderish yeet as it is.

Catapult (level 1, XG) is the Vader spell. I have it on my Aberrant Mind sorcerer.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Catapult (level 1, XG) is the Vader spell. I have it on my Aberrant Mind sorcerer.

Prolly my favorite offensive 1st level spell for just this reason. Well, that and for yeeting things that go boom.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

"Yeet"? What's that?

To throw dramatically or strongly. Or to toss, or to get rid of

If you want a game where the PCs are pretty much supers right out of the gate, start at 15th level and hugely slow down the advancement such that it still takes just as long to get to 20th. Or - and yes dI'm going to say this - use a different system; as D&D is and always has been centered on variants of the zero-to-hero path.

It’s not about starting as “supers”, I’d just start at like 6 for that, 5e isn’t that 0 at the start as it is. It’s about telekinesis not being an inherently high level concept in fantasy, and the game all sorts of “throw this x feet” telekinesis stuff at low level, but no direct low level version of the 5th level spell. It’s frustrating.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think "yeet" is from American football. Although (and I have to admit I'm not an expert on the rules) I don't think using it on things that go boom is encouraged.