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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[Mistwell]

Lukes a Halfling?

You are killing it today, Flamestrike. My whole perception of you has changed in a single thread

 

[Remathilis]

That was most of my point, but you said it better than I did.

Thanks.

 

[Maxperson]

Here is my 10th level Wizard Psion. He's an Enchanter Telepath.

His spells Powers are: Dominate person Greater psionic puppet, Hold Monster Force grip, Modify Memory Mind wipe, Telekinesis Telekinesis, Confusion Psionic Confusion, Clairvoyance Psionic sight, Haste Accelerate, mage armor Intertial armor, Mind spike Mind spike, Suggestion Mind trick, Phantasmal force Implant fake reality, Detect thoughts Detect thoughts, Puppet Psionic puppet, Shield Psionic block, animate objects Move object

His cantrips Minor disciplines are: Mage Hand Move light object, Message Telepathy, Friends Psionic bond, Blade ward Personal matter manipulation.

His spellbook Psionic focus is a crystal. His Arcane focus Psionic amplifier is also an Orb Crystal.

For a feat he took spell sniper and selected Eldritch blast Psychic blast.

The above is achieved simply by refluffing. I didnt even use any of the Psionic spells or Feats in doing it.

He uses V, S, M for his spells, so he's obviously not a Psion who doesn't need those things.

 

[Flamestrike]

He uses V, S, M for his spells, so he's obviously not a Psion who doesn't need those things.

How many of those spells have V, S and M components? They're mostly enchantment spells.

Jedis use S for their powers (pointing at naughty word, squeezing fingers together, waving hands in people's faces etc) and S components are simply the Psion telling his mind controlled victim what to do.

As for any that have M components, that's his crystal focus above.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

He uses V, S, M for his spells, so he's obviously not a Psion who doesn't need those things.

He's also obviously not a typical Psion/Psionicist because he doesn't have real any access to "biofeedback"-type spells. Wizards can't cast any healing spells. Psionicists can heal, as can Psions. Plus he has to memorize spells, he can't spontaneously cast them, unlike a Psionicist/Psion.

He's just a really nerfed Wizard, who doesn't have access to the most effective Wizard spells (and indeed, has access largely only to the spells the DM decides he can find, which may not be the spells listed at all), and in exchange for losing access to those gets a big fat NOTHING. Wizard is a terrible starting point for a Psion. Possibly the worst of all 5E caster classes.

The Bard chassis would be a much better starting point as they have better access to the spells suggested, doesn't have to memorize spells (is a spontaneous caster) and has access to spells that mimic biofeedback stuff. Warlock or Sorcerercould also work. With a Bard you could just remove the M component entirely, and make it so the V & S ones could be suppressed at some limited cost

 

[Maxperson]

How many of those spells have V, S and M components? They're mostly enchantment spells.

Show me one that doesn't have any. I can't think of a single spell that works via thought alone and doesn't have at least one of those components. Even the presence of a single component invalidates that spell as being a psionic power.

Jedis use S for their powers (pointing at naughty word, squeezing fingers together, waving hands in people's faces etc) and S components are simply the Psion telling his mind controlled victim what to do.

This has been disproven ad nauseam, but I'll disprove it again for you.

They only use those things sometimes. Sometimes they use their hands to levitate something, other times their hands are bound and they do it by thought alone. Sometimes they wave their hands and use a mind trick, other times they just stare and use their minds alone.

The motions you see are just movie gimicks to help the audience understand when a power is being used, not some sort of component of the power.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

How many of those spells have V, S and M components? They're mostly enchantment spells.

Jedis use S for their powers (pointing at naughty word, squeezing fingers together, waving hands in people's faces etc) and S components are simply the Psion telling his mind controlled victim what to do.

As for any that have M components, that's his crystal focus above.

He can't learn healing spells, so he's not Psionicist or Psion.

He has to prepare/memorize spells, so he's not a Psionicist or Psion (Sorcerers, Warlocks or Bards don't have this problem).

He gets absolutely nothing in exchange for giving up access to huge numbers of Wizard spells, including many of the most effective spells in the game, so he's a really bad Wizard.

He can't even guarantee he can even cast all these spells, because Wizards only get a small number of spells for sure. He has to count on the DM handing them to him.

He can't suppress usage of V or S stuff, and the Crystal only counts for M in certain situations. He should be at least optionally able to suppress this stuff - I don't have as extreme a position as Max, but you must agree that these powers are not always used with gestures and are rarely used with speech. The default should be to cut out the V and M for free. Cutting out the S could cost some kind of resource. Unfortunately the Wizard has no such resource. Even WotC saw this as a problem. Unfortunately they linked the solution to into turning into a magic space ghost.

I maintain that you could build a reasonable Psion off the Bard chassis (not perfect, but reasonable), but you're failing to demonstrate that you can build one off Wizard, and why even bother when there's a better, naturally closer option right there?

 

[Maxperson]

He can't learn healing spells, so he's not Psionicist or Psion.

He has to prepare/memorize spells, so he's not a Psionicist or Psion (Sorcerers, Warlocks or Bards don't have this problem).

He gets absolutely nothing in exchange for giving up access to huge numbers of Wizard spells, including many of the most effective spells in the game, so he's a really bad Wizard.

He can't even guarantee he can even cast all these spells, because Wizards only get a small number of spells for sure. He has to count on the DM handing them to him.

He can't suppress usage of V or S stuff, and the Crystal only counts for M in certain situations. He should be at least optionally able to suppress this stuff - I don't have as extreme a position as Max, but you must agree that these powers are not always used with gestures and are rarely used with speech. The default should be to cut out the V and M for free. Cutting out the S could cost some kind of resource. Unfortunately the Wizard has no such resource. Even WotC saw this as a problem. Unfortunately they linked the solution to into turning into a magic space ghost.

I maintain that you could build a reasonable Psion off the Bard chassis (not perfect, but reasonable), but you're failing to demonstrate that you can build one off Wizard, and why even bother when there's a better, naturally closer option right there?

To me, being a Psion means that you use your mind alone to do things. If a Psion has to rely on a Psicrystal, then he's not doing it with his mind. I wouldn't mind the Psicrystal being some sort of augment or to make things easier for the Psion. For instance, you can balance the lack of VSM by imposing a penalty of 4 to the initiative of the Psion, unless he uses his crystal which allows him normal initiative. You could use the Psionic Talent die roll mechanic to indicate the crystal running out of power during a day. If it runs to zero, the powers get slower.

Also, 3e had ways to show that a Psion was using his power without VSM. Those could also be implemented again.

 

[Flamestrike]

He's also obviously not a typical Psion/Psionicist because he doesn't have real any access to "biofeedback"-type spells. Wizards can't cast any healing spells. Psionicists can heal, as can Psions. Plus he has to memorize spells, he can't spontaneously cast them, unlike a Psionicist/Psion.

He's just a really nerfed Wizard, who doesn't have access to the most effective Wizard spells (and indeed, has access largely only to the spells the DM decides he can find, which may not be the spells listed at all), and in exchange for losing access to those gets a big fat NOTHING. Wizard is a terrible starting point for a Psion. Possibly the worst of all 5E caster classes.

The Bard chassis would be a much better starting point as they have better access to the spells suggested, doesn't have to memorize spells (is a spontaneous caster) and has access to spells that mimic biofeedback stuff. Warlock or Sorcerercould also work. With a Bard you could just remove the M component entirely, and make it so the V & S ones could be suppressed at some limited cost

He's not a Psion because he can't heal? That's a long bow to draw.

And he has access to every Wizard spell. He just refluffs them.

Heck even Fireball is simply 'mass matter agitation'.

And he's not memorizing spells in the morning. He's meditating on his Psionic Crystal and attaining Psionic focus.

But I otherwise agree. I could fluff a Bard as a Psion also. I could fluff a Paladin or Ranger as a Psionic Warrior as well.

Refluffed Hexblades make for pretty compelling Githyanki 'Antipaladins' also - the patrons name is changed to the Lich Queen, and the Sword they bond to for + Cha is a silver sword.

 

[Maxperson]

He's not a Psion because he can't heal? That's a long bow to draw.

And he has access to every Wizard spell. He just refluffs them.

Refluffing is insufficient.

And he's not memorizing spells in the morning. He's meditating on his Psionic Crystal and attaining Psionic focus.

Then he's not a wizard refluffed. See, a Psion doesn't have to pick and choose which of his powers are available like a wizard does, so...