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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[Dausuul]

So it does! Missed that in skimming, oops!

So, worst case scenario, each Psionic character would have at least four uses per day at low levels. Wonder what the statistical spread for that is in a full adventuring day.

By my calculations, you will average 16 uses before you run out of juice.

If you are allowed to use Psi Replenishment even when your die has become unusable, the average doubles to 32. If not, it increases to 22.

 

[Kurotowa]

Too bad the mystic is done. Cool class with lots of crunch and ways to customize. :/

And that was its downfall. I mean, they address the Mystic issue directly, saying "it was often too complex, too powerful, or both." In other words, for people who lacked system mastery the number of options was overwhelming, and for people who had system mastery the number of options allowed too many routes for optimizing. It wasn't a D&D class, it was an entire miniature point buy character system. Which I mean, I know some people like that, but there's whole other RPGs out there to offer it.

 

[DEFCON 1]

What I find interesting is that there was no mention in the Psionic Soul of switching the sorcerer's primary ability from CHA to INT (the stat they've been trying to emphasize as the psionic stat since the beginning.) Which leads me to think they've either given up the ghost on that (and are biting their tongues about this psionic subclass being CHA-based)... or perhaps they'll add that in as a feature swap down the line where part of the 1st level subclass ability switches the primary stat from CHA to INT.

 

[Parmandur]

What I find interesting is that there was no mention in the Psionic Soul of switching the sorcerer's primary ability from CHA to INT (the stat they've been trying to emphasize as the psionic stat since the beginning.) Which leads me to think they've either given up the ghost on that (and are biting their tongues about this psionic subclass being CHA-based)... or perhaps they'll add that in as a feature swap down the line where part of the 1st level subclass ability switches the primary stat from CHA to INT.

As they aren't pursuing a full Class or spell casting per se, there is no need to have a controllingattribute.

 

[ccooke]

Nope. You lose it until you take a long rest. Which means when to use that bonus action to restore the d4 back to its starting size is a gamble, which is nice.

From the wording, it's not currently clear which version was intended.

However, I would say that having you be unable to use replenishment once the die drops below a d4 would be very unlike anything else in 5e. Consider the mechanically similar ability for Wizards and (Land) druids to regain spell slots. Normally, once you have used up all of your spell slots, they are gone for the day. Full stop. However, using Arcane Recovery, you gain new slots.

I'm not saying that it's impossible that WotC intended the ability to be a gamble as you say, but I think it would be very unlike any other ability they have created. It would also be rife for causing people to hold off on using their psychic abilities once it dropped to a d4 for fear of losing it completely. What's more, the number of abilities that reduce your die size directly (without a roll) implies that this is intended to be a power economy - and several of those abilities are bonus actions, which would mean otherwise that you would be guaranteed losing your psychic ability for the day if you activate them while they are d4s. That strikes me as poorer design than this UA looks to be.

No, on further study I'm going to say that they intended to have the replenishment work if you have dropped below a d4 and just didn't get the wording quite right in the UA.

... Either that or everything good about the design here is a total fluke. I think I'll go for the "good design" option :-D

 

[Parmandur]

By my calculations, you will average 16 uses before you run out of juice.

If you are allowed to use Psi Replenishment even when your die has become unusable, the average doubles to 32. If not, it increases to 22.

I see nothing in the text that would suggest you can't use the replenishment after blowing out the die?

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Too bad the mystic is done. Cool class with lots of crunch and ways to customize. :/

You can still use it, if you have a DM that is open to UA usage. I've always allowed it in my games.

About 2 fiscal Quarters, for UA to final book form. This is about when they tested the final Class stuff for Ravnica and Xanathars Guide in the past. And this looks just about ready for primetime.

Man, if we actually got a Dark Sun, official 5E setting book this year (or even early next year)... that would be incredible.

I'm not exactly someone who understands the implications of rules at first glance, but I really like the psion dice concept. It makes psionics its own special thing, instead of just "more magic." The classes themselves seem pretty fun, and not overpowering either. Psi Knight looks essentially like a Jedi to me.

 

[Parmandur]

You can still use it, if you have a DM that is open to UA usage. I've always allowed it in my games.



Man, if we actually got a Dark Sun, official 5E setting book this year (or even early next year)... that would be incredible.

I'm not exactly someone who understands the implications of rules at first glance, but I really like the psion dice concept. It makes psionics its own special thing, instead of just "more magic." The classes themselves seem pretty fun, and not overpowering either. Psi Knight looks essentially like a Jedi to me.

Crawford said the goal for the last Fighter draft was to be Darth Vader, so that is what they are going for!

If this passes mister with folks, I see nothing missing from the rules for Dark Sun.

 

[zedturtle]

I see nothing in the text that would suggest you can't use the replenishment after blowing out the die?

If it’s a d4 and you roll a 4, it becomes unusable until you finish a long rest.

That seems very straightforward.

Can you return it to its original size when it is a d4? sure.

But can you restore it after you roll that 4 on the d4? no takebacks, it's gone.

 

[DEFCON 1]

As they aren't pursuing a full Class or spell casting per se, there is no need to have a controlling attribute.

True... which perhaps means they have moved on from that idea. We all assumed they made the last psion caster subclass the wizard specifically so that they could have INT be the defining attribute... despite the fact that the fluff of the psion fit better as a sorcerer rather than a wizard (no spellbook, the potential of no verbal/somatic/material components etc.) Enough people must have pointed this things out to convince them not to use the wizard despite the class having the "right" primary ability score.