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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[Ruin Explorer]

Don't confuse the chatter on Reddit or here for the actual response: WotC has said that the forums are more wrong than right about how people actually respond to material. That's why they don't engage on forums anymore.

Per Crawford in the D&D Beyond video about the reception of the final Artificer UA playtest, the 70% is for the Survey responses posted after the UA are released, which get responses in the hundreds of thousands. Forum talk is not the feedback that they use to make decisions, because our conversation is a drop in the bucket next to the survey data. It is not that they have ignored positive feedback or ignored negative feedback: the positivity or negativity here or on Reddit do not necessarily correlate with what most enfranchised players tell WotC.

And capitalism is democracy through cash payments: WotC does want to sell as many books as possible, and get as many people playing as possible. The feedback loop of asking what people like and then selling that has worked, and there is no evidence they are doing anything else.

I get that you believe this, but having worked in large businesses, I find this so naive and unrealistic that I'm not going to engage further. I am sure you honestly believe this, but to me it is not even vaguely plausible, and I'd want to see the receipts from WotC before I took their word that such a fanciful thing was occurring. Especially your claim is extreme - that they've never ignored feedback or overruled it. That would be pretty much unprecedented in business history. A claim like that requires considerably more evidence than "A nice man said so and I believe him!".

Also, the Eberron example is interesting, because they made massive, un-UA'd and seemingly un-playtested changes to the Mark system, which turned it from a pretty solid system into a total unbalanced mess.

 

[Parmandur]

I get that you believe this, but having worked in large businesses, I find this so naive and unrealistic that I'm not going to engage further. I am sure you honestly believe this, but to me it is not even vaguely plausible, and I'd want to see the receipts from WotC before I took their word that such a fanciful thing was occurring. Especially your claim is extreme - that they've never ignored feedback or overruled it. That would be pretty much unprecedented in business history. A claim like that requires considerably more evidence than "A nice man said so and I believe him!".

So, you have no specific evidence with examples that they aren't following their stated feedback process? Just your feelings?

Occam's Razor would dictate that they are just giving people what they want, in the way they say they are. That's how entertainment works.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

So, you have no specific evidence with evidence that they aren't following their stated feedback process? Just your feelings?

What evidence would you accept? There's none, so don't give me that utter nonsense. You've got no evidence whatsoever that they are - just a feeling.

 

[Parmandur]

What evidence would you accept? There's none, so don't give me that utter nonsense. You've got no evidence whatsoever that they are - just a feeling.

Eight years of a playtest feedback loop producing 5E and the series of very successful books using that feedback loop. The entertainment industry is about giving people what they want: WotC figured out how to find out what people want, so their crass commercial interest is to act on that data.

 

[Flamestrike]

I find this so naive and unrealistic that I'm not going to engage further.

What evidence would you accept? There's none, so don't give me that utter nonsense. You've got no evidence whatsoever that they are - just a feeling.

You just engaged further.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

You just engaged further.

Good point!

 

[Mistwell]

Me: I think you're engaging in some confirmation bias where you toss out, ignore, spin, or mistrust things which run contrary to your bias.

You: No I don't.

Me: Exhibit A

I get that you believe this, but having worked in large businesses, I find this so naive and unrealistic that I'm not going to engage further. I am sure you honestly believe this, but to me it is not even vaguely plausible, and I'd want to see the receipts from WotC before I took their word that such a fanciful thing was occurring. Especially your claim is extreme - that they've never ignored feedback or overruled it. That would be pretty much unprecedented in business history. A claim like that requires considerably more evidence than "A nice man said so and I believe him!".

Also, the Eberron example is interesting, because they made massive, un-UA'd and seemingly un-playtested changes to the Mark system, which turned it from a pretty solid system into a total unbalanced mess.

He gave you a friggen video with the words of the actual head creator telling you you're wrong. You dismissed that evidence, actual direct testimony, because...reasons? Because the small number of other businesses you have experience with operate differently? This is confirmation bias in action. Your very dismissive language of "A nice man said so and I believe him" is deeply telling .

 

[bedir than]

In Dark Sun's classic uber-attribute approach (1/2e) it may make sense to have every PC start with a Feat. Yes, it's a power boost, but that's the Dark Sun I know.

That would also mean that starting as a wilder is easy-peasy based on this UA

 

[Remathilis]

Merfolk Blue Mana users are perfect for the Aberrant Mind as it was laid out in the UA: those initial 12 Subclasses were Theirs bound, if they had been well received.

Doubt it. Even if you could make a connection, there was no way Theros was going to have twelve subclasses and five races, plus the piety and monsters, magic items, lore stuff. More than likely, they were testing a bunch for a variety of projects: some being future books, some being proof-of-concept that might make appearances later, some pet-projects, and some just there to throw us off the scent. When we look at a new UA, we're gazing at clouds trying to make sense of the patterns. Sure, the College of Heroism sounded very Greek Myth and leaned toward Theros, but there was very little to suggest the Order Domain was for Ravnica or the Waterborne ones would make it into the Sword Coast guide.

 

[Eltab]

Heck even flashy powers like Witch Bolt could be refluffed to Force Lightning.

Until Luke hides behind Vader and Palpatine watches his personal special attack just go fizzle.