D&D 5E Unhappy with Psionics requiring Far Realms flavor

[Yaarel]

If a player purchases a Far Realms Setting Guide, then that is where the Setting Guide needs to discuss how Far Realms relates to psionics.

The class has to function in many different kinds of settings, mostly homebrew settings, or settings inspired by popular shows and books.

Keep the baked-in settings away from the class descriptions.



I am unsatisfied with psionics requiring Far Realms flavor:

"
Psionics indirectly originates from the Far Realm, a dimension outside the bounds of the known multiverse.

"

I refuse to purchase products that are baked-in with unwanted flavor.



The Far Realms doesnt exist in my settings. Assuming it exists is inherently disruptive, and unwanted in most settings.

The antihuman implications of Far Realms flavor contradict the personal and humanistic flavor of ones mind.

D&D 1e psionics flavor is strictly about the brain, the mind, and the nature of reality. Far Realms need not apply.

 

[doctorhook]

Yeah, I'm a little confused too, because I definitely thought the consensus was that psionics should be more generic than this. Over the past decade, psionic flavour in D&D has been totally subsumed by Far Realm concepts (even before it was called such). I think that narrowing psionics to this specific flavour has been a liability to the breadth of creative potential in this concept.

I won't go so far as you and say that I refuse to purchase any such product, but I definitely find myself less interested.

 

[bogmad]

I can understand your dislike, but I'm ok with it. It's easy enough to say your campaign doesn't follow the lore set out for the D&D "Brand"

They already have the Weave explicitly called out in the phb; I'll probably ignore that in any homebrew setting I develop.

I did like how the fluff they included explicitly calls out psionics as existing further away from baseline assumptions about standard fantasy settings and might not exist at all, or in only minute amounts in a typical fantasy setting.

The "when things start unraveling" flavor works well for something like Athas, even without the far realm. Like it or not, they're using a standard mulitverse cosmology to try to sell their cross-medium brand, so it doesn't bother me that they are tying some of their lore into things by name checking the far realm.

 

[Tony Vargas]

While I like the idea of Far Realms influence being a catalyst for psionics arising in a setting, I don't see why it'd be presented as the default, let alone with no alternatives. Though it's not really 'required,' a DM can substitute any rationale he wants for psionics in his campaign - it's just that 5e is usually a lot more enthusiastic about pointing out that you can change it's assumptions....

I suspect in the full version, there'll be alternative rationales suggested. Hopefully there'll also be a psionics = magic option.

 

[Paraxis]

It's just fluff, ignore it, I don't read/ignore a huge portion of the books because only the mechanics matter. I haven't read the fluff parts of any of the monsters in the monster manual as an example, don't need it just takes up space that in my mind they could have used better.

 

[Zaukrie]

I don't get the tie.....but I will likely just ignore it. As for the general comment on fluff, it is all over the rules. I use what I want, and change the rest. It is your game, after all.

 

[Mirtek]

I think it was one of the results of the playtest that the majority wanted the rules baked in fluff as opposed to mechanically clean rules without fluff

 

[ninjayeti]

If clerics can work in godless settings like Dark Sun or agnostic ones like Eberron then I am sure you can make Psionics work just fine without a Far Realm.

 

[Nebulous]

I guess you can just ignore any fluff and use the mechanics.

 

[Remathilis]

Even then, its fairly minor; psionics is a result of thinking in dimensions beyond our own. The far realm is a good example of this, but I doubt it will be the only one. I'm sure that Eberron will retie psionics back to the plane of dreams again, for example. Its just a generic idea in leiu of a more specific one. (See also: Dark Sun and gods, Dragonlance and mages).

Re-read the intro stuff, it calls out Psionics as a reaction to Xoriat, the realm of chaos when psionics was in the realm of Dal Quor before. Hopefully, they fix said oversight, but it wouldn't be the first time Eberron's cosmology got pooped on.