A sorcerer is someone who gets their powers from unusual sources. A psionicist is someone who gets their power from an unusual source. And I'd call out a specific difference between psionics fans and D&D Psionics fans. I've liked Psionics, but long spell lists have always struck me as anti-psionics (possibly because I played GURPS before D&D). And 1e psionics were IMO a mistake.
You don't even have to pick that subclass to replicate that list of "psionlike things" except the ignore component part . Every sorcerer can have spelllpoints and use the spells-that-once-were-psionic-powers.
The sorcerer is not a spellpoint class; you can't treat the whole thing as a spell point pool because conversion from spell slots to arcana points is lossy if you're not an arcanist. Also Dissonant Whispers, Calm Emotions, Sending, and Rary's Telepathic Bond are all on the bard list but not the sorcerer list, but are very much psionic spells. They are on the aberrant mind list of course.
It's rare to find someone complaining about the lack of historical D&D psionics who thinks 5e has psionics in it. To me, other than the terribly made Soulknife e.g. 3.5 didn't have psionics; it had wizards with the serial numbers filed off. But when I've asked why the Aberrant Mind isn't a psion I've only been told "It's not its own class" and "It has tentacles sometimes".
A sorcerer is someone who gets their powers from unusual sources. A psionicist is someone who gets their power from an unusual source. And I'd call out a specific difference between psionics fans and D&D Psionics fans. I've liked Psionics, but long spell lists have always struck me as anti-psionics (possibly because I played GURPS before D&D). And 1e psionics were IMO a mistake.
The sorcerer is not a spellpoint class; you can't treat the whole thing as a spell point pool because conversion from spell slots to arcana points is lossy if you're not an arcanist. Also Dissonant Whispers, Calm Emotions, Sending, and Rary's Telepathic Bond are all on the bard list but not the sorcerer list, but are very much psionic spells. They are on the aberrant mind list of course.
It's rare to find someone complaining about the lack of historical D&D psionics who thinks 5e has psionics in it. To me, other than the terribly made Soulknife e.g. 3.5 didn't have psionics; it had wizards with the serial numbers filed off. But when I've asked why the Aberrant Mind isn't a psion I've only been told "It's not its own class" and "It has tentacles sometimes".
If the psionics you like isn't just a different list of spells then how exactly does the 5e psionics (which is very literally a list of spells that existing arcane casters can take) in any way an improvement over 1/2/3/4e? At the very least, in those older systems psionics had effects not accessible by other characters.
I have bought more D&D books for 5e than any edition (I started back with 1e & BECMI). I've really enjoyed it and I just picked up MOoT. However, I think I am about done. There is already way more content than my group can get through and I just don't know that I want anything more. To clarify, I am not burned out or anything like that. We still have stories to tell and will keep playing 5e for many, many moons. However, I just don't see my buying much more 5e stuff. I have more content than I need. Is anyone else in the same boat?
EDIT: Someone asked for some hard data, so here are some of the player options available. Please note I made this list in novemeber of last year. So it doesn't include Wildemount or Theros. I don't believe it includes anything from AI either. If I get a chance I will update it.
TBH, I've never really cared for a la carte multiclassing as 3rd and 5e do it, so character concepts that rely on it don't interest me much. Though I know this is just my personal taste.
If the psionics you like isn't just a different list of spells then how exactly does the 5e psionics (which is very literally a list of spells that existing arcane casters can take) in any way an improvement over 1/2/3/4e? At the very least, in those older systems psionics had effects not accessible by other characters.
The Aberrant Mind isn't the only psionic subclass and there's no spells to be seen for the Soulknife or the Psi Warrior which is a part of what makes them more than just spellpoint wizards. The Aberrant Mind covers just about everything the classical psion does, but my first psionic character was a Great Old One Warlock - with telepathy (not a spell), invocations (not spells), and some spells with telepathy as the warlock spells.
What the aberrant mind is isn't psionics, but an implementation of the D&D specific Psion.
On thinking about it part of the reason 5e isn't producing gish is that it's going for closer integration for magic or supernatural abilities with fighters. Look, for example, at the Rune Knight, the Psi Warrior, and the Echo Knight. To me we've already got multiple gish and although none are perfect I'd rather see more of what 5e is doing.
I have not seen or played a rune knight but both Psi and Echo are cool for what they do. I still think a dedicated gish is needed not just subclassses I DON'T think that 5e went the right way
I'm of the opinion that an adequate Warlord can be done with a battlemaster chassis, using Direct the Strike for a fighting style - and with a "Spend a superiority dice and your target may spend a hit dice. If they do they recover combined hp, if not they recover a single hp" as a battlemaster maneuver. (And a "Duck" maneuver).
Or, apparently one near enough to the concept that the light from one would take less then ten million years to reach the other as the Battlemaster is absolutely nothing like the Warlord. It's the hollowed out shell of the Next core fighter after the wizard fans in the playtest got done with it.
Or, apparently one near enough to the concept that the light from one would take less then ten million years to reach the other as the Battlemaster is absolutely nothing like the Warlord. It's the hollowed out shell of the Next core fighter after the wizard fans in the playtest got done with it.
I'm on board with the OP. When I look at what I use (the stuff in the bag I take to game) and the stuff I just "have" sitting on the shelf....the latter is, like, a metric ton of stuff. Back in 2015-2016 I remember lamenting the slow trickle of content, but not anymore; its a firehose on the loose now.
All I really use is: the core three, Mordenkainen's, Tasha's, Xanthar's, Volo's (and two of those will be replaced shortly by the Multiverse book), the new dragon book (love it), the 2 Tome of Beasts, Creature Collection, Tome of Horrors (two books), and...um, I like the AAW Spelunking Guide. Probably Ravenloft should be on the list, too. For modules, I think there are maybe 4-5 that I hypothetically will run one day but then I have 50-60 other books on the shelf that are apparently purely ornamental.
Oddly my 3.5 collection looks more useful these days, though; I didn't think that way back when it was all new, but now with years of time passed, and the 3.5 edition effectively a retired legacy product, I have gotten more utility out of all those splatbooks than I ever thought possible. It started looking manageable....but only once the churn had stopped and I had time in subsequent years to absorb and appreciate what I could do with it all.
