D&D General What’s The Big Deal About Psionics?

[glass]

A 3e Wizard can use spell points to cast a spell slot. A 3e Psion can too.

Nobody can "cast a spell slot" because that is nonsense.

A 3e wizard uses spell slots to cast spells. Points do not enter into it.

A 3e psion uses points to manifest powers. Slots (or spells for that matter) do not enter into it.

The spell lists of the 3e Wizard and the 3e Psion are nonidentical but mostly share the same spells.

A 3e psion does not have a spell list at all, it has a power list. Some (nowhere near most) powers have similar or identical names to spells, and may work similarly, but not identically because they are not spells.

Spontaneous spell casting is new for the 5e Wizard, but is normal for the 3e Psion.

5e wizards (etc) are not spontaneous, they use a non-vancian form of preparation (Monte Cook called it readying in Arcana Unearthed, but sdaly that terminology did not catch on both Paizo for the PF1 arcanist and WotC for 5e chose to overload the term "prepare").

TLDR: In the immortal words of Luke Skywalker, "Amazing. Every word of what you just said was wrong."

_
glass.

 

[Yaarel]

Nobody can "cast a spell slot" because that is nonsense.

The Psion spells themselves are organized into spell slots.

For example, Animal Affinity is a 3e spell in the Psion spell list. It is spell slot level 2.

One can spend a slot 2 or spend 3 spell points to cast this slot level.

A 3e wizard uses spell slots to cast spells. Points do not enter into it.

3e has a spell point system for the Wizard if players want to use it.

For the 3e Psion the spell points are default.

 

[James Gasik]

The 5e Wizard functions a lot more like a spontaneous caster than the 3e Wizard. Having a large pool of spells they can pick and choose to use with their spell slots may not be purely spontaneous, but it ate enough of the Sorcerer's versatility (given the tragically small list of Sorcerer spells known) that you could easily say the Wizard ripped the Sorcerer off.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

The 5e Wizard functions a lot more like a spontaneous caster than the 3e Wizard. Having a large pool of spells they can pick and choose to use with their spell slots may not be purely spontaneous, but it ate enough of the Sorcerer's versatility (given the tragically small list of Sorcerer spells known) that you could easily say the Wizard ripped the Sorcerer off.

Sure, Sorcerer is redundant.

 

[Maxperson]

Annd 5e already lets spellcasting classes stack spells, power, slots, and features. I fear the psion/wizard or wilder/warlock/sorcerer.

I don't. Players like to feel super duper and it's not as if you can't still challenge them. It just takes more powerful monsters, which given the stopping point levels of most games, allows them to encounter new things. That's good!

 

[Maxperson]

To be fair, I and others want the 3e Psion. This D&D psionics is magic spells.

You and others want a new mechanics for psionics that has never existed before, and is technically not D&D.

The bolded part isn't true. D&D has had different systems for psionics and other classes, so new mechanics for something is D&D......................if it's in D&D.

 

[Yaarel]

I don't. Players like to feel super duper and it's not as if you can't still challenge them. It just takes more powerful monsters, which given the stopping point levels of most games, allows them to encounter new things. That's good!

The cost of broadening spells via multiclass, is slowing down access to higher level slots, and losing out on the highest slots.

 

[Maxperson]

I feel it would be far more constructive to discuss how the psion class could be built using the current framework (I.E. spellcasting,) as that actually has some chances of happening.

We have seen different incarnations of the mystic and we've seen the psionic die. WotC has shown a willingness to come up with new stuff for psionics, so that actually has some chance of happening, too.

 

[Minigiant]

Sorry, but this is completely nonsensical. If the designers are cognisant of the issue, they can easily avoid it even with a spell using Psion, and if they aren't, then they will not be motivated by this line of reasoning for creating a parallel mechanic to begin with.

They aren't cognizant of it.
They are actually supporters of the problem as a shortcut.

That's my whole point.

 

[Jer]

The cost of broadening spells via multiclass, is slowing down access to higher level slots, and losing out on the highest slots.

With the 5e multiclassing rules, not so much the slots for the multiclass caster (as my kid discovered when I pointed them at the multiclass rules for their Ranger/Druid that they'd neglected when they made their character - their 5th level character has access to 2nd level spell slots despite their 3rd level Ranger or 2nd level Druid not having 2nd level spells).

They do lose out on higher level spells in their classes, but the slots are still there, so they can at least upcast lower level spells with those slots.