Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana Revisits Psionics

The latest Unearthed Arcana from WotC revisits some psionic rules! “Shine with the power of the mind in this installment of Unearthed Arcana! Today we revisit several psi-themed options that we released in the past few months. Studying your feedback on those options, we’ve crafted this new collection of subclasses, spells, and feats, found in the PDF below.“

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[ccooke]

... That's the happiest I've been reading a psionics ruleset in a long, long time. I've not looked at the balance much yet, but it on first glance it looks okay. What's more, I can see character concepts I want to try out with pretty much everything there.

I look forward to finding out how people are going to hate it :-D

 

[Inchoroi]

I like the fighter and rogue, but I still wants me a full psion class...

Admittedly, I do like the psionic die mechanic. Its interesting.

 

[Leatherhead]

I dont have time for a deep dive right now.( thanks to being an essential worker) But I have to say it tickles me that they opened up with a page to discuss the history of psionics, because that's really the biggest problem with making psionic classes: there are no less than three different design philosophies they could be using.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

The Mystic as a 5E class is dead, but everything presented looks interesting. I like how they give examples of how the sub-classes apply to various settings and I see Athas gets mentioned a lot. That should get the rumor mill going. lol

 

[Inchoroi]

I dont have time for a deep dive right now.( thanks to being an essential worker) But I have to say it tickles me that they opened up with a page to discuss the history of psionics, because that's really the biggest problem with making psionic classes: there are no less than three different design philosophies they could be using.

Hello, fellow essential worker! I'm making faucets that I can't afford!

Personally, I want psionics to be two things:

1. It has to be magic; this is to make it balanced with everything else.
2. It shouldn't copy spells wholesale. I know, it seems kinda counterproductive with point 1, but there we are.

I do like the psionic die, though. Its interesting and fun, although it'd be hell for a DM to NPC one with that mechanic (unless they just go with averages).

 

[Bitbrain]

I LOVE THIS!

Took me a second to figure out the Psychic Talent die size for the Psi Knight (you can potentially use it every turn), but it’s REALLY COOL, and the flavor text explains why it’s a matter of mental discipline and restraint.

EDIT
Ooh! Psionic Soul Sorcerer, also cool. And so much better than another Wizard subclass!

 

[DND_Reborn]

No no no! I know people seemed psyched by the psion-thing, personally I don't like this direction. I would like to see:

1. A Psion class with a new mechanic (not just spells, more warlock/ki-oriented maybe). Use Soulknife, etc. as a base for the subclasses maybe. I don't want to see Psi-subclasses for all 12 classes.

2. Latent Psionics for any class or race much like AD&D.

I don't think we need 3 or more classes for this.

Tracking Psychic Talent die just becomes a hassle. It is also explosive in a way when you get lucky to get a larger die. How does it make sense? You roll low on a die, and the next time you have more, roll low again and you get more? I don't know, at first glance it seems a needless hassle.... And why would you randomly choose to use more or less power when making the attempt to use it. It seems like you are a psion who has little control over your ability.

Maybe further looking will reveal something worthwhile, but for right now yawn.

 

[R_J_K75]

Personally, I want psionics to be two things:

1. It has to be magic; this is to make it balanced with everything else.

Full disclosure I havent read any of the UA articles on psionics. Im going to wait until theyre done and official if even then. But I'd prefer them to be separate from magic. One of the things that I liked about psionics in 2E when we used them was that unless you had a wild talent or were a psionic class you had zero defense against a psionic attack. Thats what made creatures such as Mind Flayers for feared and deadly, and why Psions were so rare, when you ran into one you knew you were in trouble. Id like to see that approach again.

 

[ccooke]

Hello, fellow essential worker! I'm making faucets that I can't afford!

Personally, I want psionics to be two things:

1. It has to be magic; this is to make it balanced with everything else.
2. It shouldn't copy spells wholesale. I know, it seems kinda counterproductive with point 1, but there we are.

I do like the psionic die, though. Its interesting and fun, although it'd be hell for a DM to NPC one with that mechanic (unless they just go with averages).

Honestly, they already have a perfectly good set of tools for how a monster/NPC statblock could work with psionics. A collection of recharge-on-die-roll actions and tempo-based actions (That is: Do a lesser thing this round to set up a more powerful thing next round; I like that because the party can learn them and start to react)

 

[RSIxidor]

I honestly find these kind of boring, and I guess that could be a good thing? Seems fairly good on the balance side.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Honestly, if we can't get a full-fledged Psion class (which obviously there seem to be real issues in creating one in the 5e system), then the psionic-based sorcerer they have here would look to be a pretty reasonable substitute.

 

[Fenris447]

Tracking Psychic Talent die just becomes a hassle. It is also explosive in a way when you get lucky to get a larger die. How does it make sense? You roll low on a die, and the next time you have more, roll low again and you get more?

One of us must be reading it wrong. Because I came away with the understanding that if you roll the max number, your die size decreases for next time. This basically means you expended too much power and are somewhat weakened. If you roll the minimum number, your die size increases for next time, but only to a maximum size of what it started at. So it's a little bit of a shifting balance. Do well now, be a little less strong next. Do poorly then, and you're back to full.

I agree it's another darn thing you have to track, but it's not the most overly-complicated thing I've ever seen.

 

[Quickleaf]

Seems like they went back to the OD&D Eldritch Wizardry version by Gary Gygax and Brian Blume, and then built and improved from there using various appearances of psionics through the editions as touchstones. See attached image below from Eldritch Wizardry.

They even settled on three subclasses to "carry" the psionic powers, which echoes the original framework of psionic power lists being tailored to fighting men, magic-users, and clerics; only in the UA it's fighters, rogues, and sorcerers.

Looks really promising!

I think the "psionics is sometimes magic and sometimes not" approach will lead to a bit of dissonance down the line – e.g. a monster referring to psionics with some attack/trait, a monster with the (psionics) tag on its spellcasting with mind thrust on its spell list, and a PC with mind thrust on their spell list strangely without the (psionics) tag.

But the choices for which psionic powers are treated as magic looks well-balanced – i.e. psionic invisibility and teleportation being magical, and thus detectable with see invisibility or preventable with forbiddance, respectively.

 

[ccooke]

On balance, I rather like the psychic talent system. The ability to take a bonus action to reset it is a saving grace, and the costings of the abilities look basically good to me. Every one of those subclasses and feats will be a major change for the character, giving them solid abilities that make a difference in play.
On a second read, I'm still not spotting any serious issues with either under or over power. I'll have to do a proper comparison to some other subclasses later.

 

[DND_Reborn]

One of us must be reading it wrong. Because I came away with the understanding that if you roll the max number, your die size decreases for next time. This basically means you expended too much power and are somewhat weakened. If you roll the minimum number, your die size increases for next time, but only to a maximum size of what it started at. So it's a little bit of a shifting balance. Do well now, be a little less strong next. Do poorly then, and you're back to full.

I agree it's another darn thing you have to track, but it's not the most overly-complicated thing I've ever seen.

I suppose one of us is then. Nothing in the article seems to me that you are limited to your initial die size. As I see it, at 3rd level, your start d6, roll a 1 and now use d8. You continue to use d8 until you roll a 1 or an 8. Roll another 1 and now you use d10. It doesn't reset until you finish a long rest.

It also means that with two "unlucky" rolls, a 6 and a 4, at 3rd and 4th levels you are done with your psionic powers for the day.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

2. Latent Psionics for any class or race much like AD&D.

Unless it works like the feats that add a few spells to a character, I think you're going to be disappointed in this one, at least in 5E.

 

[Fenris447]

Nothing in the article seems to me that you are limited to your initial die size.

Under all the "Changing the Die's Size" sections, check the second paragraph. The first sentence ends with "it increases by one die size after the roll, up to its starting size."

 

[DND_Reborn]

Under all the "Changing the Die's Size" sections, check the second paragraph. The first sentence ends with "it increases by one die size after the roll, up to its starting size."

Got it. Sorry I missed that, but that makes it even more useless IMO. lol

 

[Weiley31]

I like the fighter and rogue, but I still wants me a full psion class...

Admittedly, I do like the psionic die mechanic. Its interesting.

I fully believe that any "die" feature used for a class is one of my fave aspects about 5E.