Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
Title. If psionics are just going to be a flavor of spell anyway, why not make a dedicated psionic spell list, the same way they’re doing for Arcane, Divine, and Primal? Seems like a no-brainer.
D&D (2024) We have Arcane, Divine, and Primal lists now. Why not Psionic?
Parmandur
Book-Friend
I mean, they may give that a go.
Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
I hope so!
I think Wizards has painted themselves into a corner regarding psionics.
In D&D5, and seemingly even more so in 5.1, pretty much everything magical has been streamlined into regular spellcasting. Warlocks dared to have a slightly different take on casting, but now they're back in the fold (a better way of giving warlocks more spells, which would also make other parts of the system better, would have been to change a short rest to 5 minutes, thus making their spells actual encounter power, instead of sticking with the ridiculous hour-long period).
But those of us who are psionics fans generally like it because it is different from spellcasting, and because it's an alternative magic system. Feats and sub-classes is not enough – we want 2-3 classes with a full complement of sub-classes that explore different psionic niches. Basically, what the Expanded Psionics Handbook was for 3.5e.
And that's not going to happen. They've made a few attempts at making psionic classes that fit into the 5e mold, and failed. So they put some psionic bits and pieces into Tasha's, and I'm guessing they're not among the most popular bits. People who want to play telepaths don't just want the ability to communicate silently and to read someone's mind once per day. They want to use mind blasts, various flavors of mind control, psychic illusions, and so on. Basically, to do the stuff Professor X does. Sure, at appropriate levels, but still.
Plus, in order to give psionics a good place to be, they'd have to eat a good portion of the wizard's lunch. Wizards (and other arcane casters) can already do most of the things a psion should be able to do. Not to the same degree perhaps, but the arcane list has both small- and large-scale telekinesis, force fields, mind reading and control, and so on. And they do it (mostly) where the levels where those effects are appropriate. So either the arcane list gets nerfed to make room for psionics (which will make people who like Enchanters and Illusionists howl), or psionics get to do the same thing but better (which would be broken), or psionics will just get to do a sub-set of the arcane stuff at the same level arcanists do (which will make people ask "why should I be a psion when I could be a wizard?").
In D&D5, and seemingly even more so in 5.1, pretty much everything magical has been streamlined into regular spellcasting. Warlocks dared to have a slightly different take on casting, but now they're back in the fold (a better way of giving warlocks more spells, which would also make other parts of the system better, would have been to change a short rest to 5 minutes, thus making their spells actual encounter power, instead of sticking with the ridiculous hour-long period).
But those of us who are psionics fans generally like it because it is different from spellcasting, and because it's an alternative magic system. Feats and sub-classes is not enough – we want 2-3 classes with a full complement of sub-classes that explore different psionic niches. Basically, what the Expanded Psionics Handbook was for 3.5e.
And that's not going to happen. They've made a few attempts at making psionic classes that fit into the 5e mold, and failed. So they put some psionic bits and pieces into Tasha's, and I'm guessing they're not among the most popular bits. People who want to play telepaths don't just want the ability to communicate silently and to read someone's mind once per day. They want to use mind blasts, various flavors of mind control, psychic illusions, and so on. Basically, to do the stuff Professor X does. Sure, at appropriate levels, but still.
Plus, in order to give psionics a good place to be, they'd have to eat a good portion of the wizard's lunch. Wizards (and other arcane casters) can already do most of the things a psion should be able to do. Not to the same degree perhaps, but the arcane list has both small- and large-scale telekinesis, force fields, mind reading and control, and so on. And they do it (mostly) where the levels where those effects are appropriate. So either the arcane list gets nerfed to make room for psionics (which will make people who like Enchanters and Illusionists howl), or psionics get to do the same thing but better (which would be broken), or psionics will just get to do a sub-set of the arcane stuff at the same level arcanists do (which will make people ask "why should I be a psion when I could be a wizard?").
Parmandur
Book-Friend
Well, same reason as for Bards or Sorcerers, I reckon.
MGibster
Legend
I'm not a fan of psionics in D&D, and I'm not saying that because I want to be a jerk in this thread, I'm just wanting to be forthright here. But I'm in agreement with you, if you're going to have psionics then it should be different from regular spellcasting. Otherwise what's the point?
Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
I mean, I don’t disagree, but since it’s clear that they’re not going to do that, and since spell lists are seemingly going to be by power source in 2024, a psionic list seems like the obvious way to go. Yet we don’t see it in the playtest.
MGibster
Legend
We don't. Why would we? If psionics is just going to be the same as magic then who needs it?
Because there isn't going to be a Psionic class in the 2024 PHB and any implementation of Psionics isn't going to appear in a book until 2025 at the earliest?
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