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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[PsyzhranV2]

Skipped ahead a few pages, but, phew, this is a busy thread.

There's a very good reason for not leaning too hard on what was done before. Mostly at least in 1e and 2e, because what was done before was a horrible, broken mess that was one of the worst sets of mechanics released for either edition. 2e psionics were so broken that you actively had to try not to break the mechanics. They were just flat out awful.

In fact, they were so bad, that I completely skipped psionics in 3e. I have no idea what psionics look like in 3e and I don't care. If psionics requires an entirely new set of mechanics walled behind an entire book, then, well, I hope psionics never comes to 5e. It was garbage back then, and it will be garbage now.

As a DM, no, I'm not going to read an entire book just for your character. Sorry. Not interested. So, any approach to psionics that creates a complete class and whatnot is a total non-starter for me. I will treat it exactly the way I treated psionics in 3e, 3.5e and 4e - it doesn't exist as far as I'm concerned.

And, the same goes for Dark Sun. If I need to buy an entire psionic book just to run Dark Sun, well, again, I'll treat it exactly the way I did in the 90's. Completely ignore it.

So, for me, the sub-class approach is the best way. We get psionics. We don't have to bolt on completely different mechanics, just so one player at the table can get to feel all special. If you can't compromise and meet half way, then, well, there's a ton of 3rd party material out there for you to use.

Good grief, Warlord fans get pooped on for wanting a class that would take up all of three or four pages and would use existing mechanics. We get told that it's too hard, doesn't fit in the game and we should be satisified with what we've already got. Meanwhile psionic fans are demanding an entire book?!?! And they think this is a reasonable goal?

Good luck with that.

Thank you for your utterly insulting mischaracterization of the argument and for demonstrating that you didn't do the reading for this class, exits are to the far right, come back after reviewing the lesson material.

 

[Maxperson]

What if they create both a dedicated psionics class and a psionic subclass of a non-psionic class such as the sorcerer?

I think they should create a psionic subclass of each class, as well as a Psion with a few subclasses of its own.

 

[Chaosmancer]

counterproductive bickering aside, I have a couple of observations about the Wild Talent feat.

1) Wild Talent (Dex) can give a bonus to initiative rolls. Assassins take note.

2) Psi Guided strike could make the whip a more appealing weapon. It's also nice with Pole Arm Master, DB Scimitars, races with claws and for low level variant human monks.

Yeah, I thought it was a bit strange that the feat let you replace a weapon die, and it can eventually get very powerful, but even starting with "all weapons deal at least a 1d6 damage" is pretty dang good, on top of an entire ability score getting buffed.

Thinking about this for a couple of days, it occurs to me that subraces that have a psychic talent would be a nice addition. So a player could play one of the 4 psychic subclasses (includes GOOlocks), or if they wanted to be a Battlemaster fighter instead of a psychic knight, they could have psychic feats (if the DM allows them) and/or be a "mind elf", and of course if you wanted to be extra psychic, you could play a psychic subclass with psychic feats using a psychic subrace like "bighead halfling." That seems like it would have more than sufficient options for Dark Sun.

How would you imagine this backtracking into the already published races? Variant options offered beside the Psionic classes? Like they did with the Variant Tieflings in Mordenkainens?

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Or "Tentaclehead Halfling".

But interesting idea.

I like it, but I was trying to avoid anything so Far Realmy in the general description. It seems to put people off (no accounting for taste, I agree).

If I can't go GOO, I am usually content with "just like a monk, but hits you with his mind instead of his fists"

 

[Aldarc]

Meanwhile psionic fans are demanding an entire book?!?! And they think this is a reasonable goal?

Who are these people you have conjured for your bad faith strawman argument?

 

[Maxperson]

Yeah, I thought it was a bit strange that the feat let you replace a weapon die, and it can eventually get very powerful, but even starting with "all weapons deal at least a 1d6 damage" is pretty dang good, on top of an entire ability score getting buffed.

I suppose one of the subclasses could take Wild Talent, but it wouldn't make much sense. For those non-psionic classes that take Wild Talent, to get anything other than 1d6 they would need to take Telepathic as well. The die size doesn't increase with Wild Talent and the only feat that increases die size is Telepathic.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Yeah, I thought it was a bit strange that the feat let you replace a weapon die, and it can eventually get very powerful, but even starting with "all weapons deal at least a 1d6 damage" is pretty dang good, on top of an entire ability score getting buffed.



How would you imagine this backtracking into the already published races? Variant options offered beside the Psionic classes? Like they did with the Variant Tieflings in Mordenkainens?

I think that would be the best choice. I am not quite sure what to do with races without subraces (one of the problems when they had the UA with the revenant subrace) or ones where the subraces are associated with (so far) nonpsychic outsiders; they might just have to built a new version of goliaths, aasimar, or feat-free game human with psychic abilities replacing something else. For variant tieflings, aasimar, and genasai, I think I would change something the race gets instead of what the subrace gets, but I haven't really thought that through.

 

[Maxperson]

Who are these people you have conjured for your bad faith strawman argument?

He probably yanked them from somewhere over the rainbow.

 

[Umbran]

Mod note:

Some folks here are behaving as if they would prefer to be removed from the temptations of this thread. If you cannot control your own aggression, it can certainly be controlled for you.

If that's not what you want, treat each other with respect, even when you disagree.

 

[Guest 6801328]

I like it, but I was trying to avoid anything so Far Realmy in the general description. It seems to put people off (no accounting for taste, I agree).

If I can't go GOO, I am usually content with "just like a monk, but hits you with his mind instead of his fists"

I was being tongue-in-cheek, but on the other hand, maybe the psionic halflings LOOK normal, but people call them "Tentacled" out of a perverse sense of humor.