I've found there are a few reasons why people like playing psionics. The best reason is because it used to be the third type of "magic," with divine and arcane being the other two, allowing for a different option (IMO the sorcerer took this niche away, being the "inner power" source). Early D&D was influenced by Science Fantasy, where the two genres mix, and psionics is a staple for this type of play. A few settings have significantly incorporated psionics as a fundamental aspect of the game, primarily Dark Sun. Quite a few just want to play something weird for the sake of being weird (I personally hate this type of player). In earlier editions there were quite a few who found ways to manipulate the mechanics to gain a lot of undeserved advantages, especially when it was considered to be different than magic (and thus there was almost no existing defense against it).
D&D 5E What is the appeal of psionic characters for players?
- Thread starter Phion
- Start date
Dragonsbane
Proud Grognard
If I was playing Darksun I would use them, but I have found in my games it is the player who wants to play something weird as mentioned above, or in 3E it was powergamers, as magic didn't shut down Psionics and was like spell points. Great for some settings, but in general not for me or my table.
dave2008
Legend
In 5e psionics can be dispelled just like other types of magic.
DND_Reborn
The High Aldwin
I won't, though I hardly need your approval or blessing.
Unfortunately, as long as the rest of you continue to support poor design efforts, WotC will continue to produce subpar material. I suppose it was too much to expect anything better.
Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
The Sorcerer has never had inner power, though. The Sorcerer since its inception has been innate/intuitive understand of how to manipulate the external power of the weave. There's no internal power there.
Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
Magic did shut it down. Dispel magic and anti magic zones worked just fine on psionics in 3e. 3e did have a paragraph where it told DMs that they could choose to make it separate, but warned that it would overpower things if they did that. The default, though, was for psionics to be a different sort of magic than arcane and divine, but fully interactive with them.
Dragonsbane
Proud Grognard
Is that the way it was in Darksun? It's been 20 years at least, but we played with it not being affected by magic.
Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
No. Dark Sun came out for 2e and I don't believe it was like that during that edition. 3e versions of Dark Sun would have had psionics that interacted with magic, though, unless the DM opted out of it.
I haven't played a psionic character in 5e yet (and honestly haven't been able to be a player in very many 5e games), but I played them with some regularity in 2e - 4e. They have been a natural part of the game since I started playing in the late 80s, partially because Dark Sun was broadly accepted in my gaming groups (even with its alternate rules). Psionics was incorporated pretty thoroughly into the game back then - I remember the Ravenloft setting having rules for them.
Each edition gave us a different reason to want to play them.
2e had power checks, with target numbers for bigger effects. An entire skill-based "magic" system - which is something that would be pretty damn awesome as a rules variant for 5e. You could achieve effects beyond what you could do with regular magic - if you rolled very, very well. There were some harrowing situations that were survived because our psionicist made his power score. These made some of my best memories in the game.
3e gave us a functional spell point system and a great way to replace metamagic feats. Your 3e psion was more customizable than any wizard you could make, and there were psionic varieties we hadn't seen before.
4e's psionics had good flavor, though their powers functioned about the same as any other class. I will also say that 4e worked very well for Dark Sun, and the psionic characters were needed additions to that setting.
Each edition gave us a different reason to want to play them.
2e had power checks, with target numbers for bigger effects. An entire skill-based "magic" system - which is something that would be pretty damn awesome as a rules variant for 5e. You could achieve effects beyond what you could do with regular magic - if you rolled very, very well. There were some harrowing situations that were survived because our psionicist made his power score. These made some of my best memories in the game.
3e gave us a functional spell point system and a great way to replace metamagic feats. Your 3e psion was more customizable than any wizard you could make, and there were psionic varieties we hadn't seen before.
4e's psionics had good flavor, though their powers functioned about the same as any other class. I will also say that 4e worked very well for Dark Sun, and the psionic characters were needed additions to that setting.
Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
I think what makes them a weird fit for many fantasy worlds is the inherent distinction between psionics and magic. When telepathy and telekinesis are established as being effects reproducible with specific spells, it’s kind of weird to say “this character is telepathic/telekenetic, but it’s not magic, it’s the power of their mind!” Having psionics exist alongside magic that is capable of producing the same effects invites difficult to answer questions about the nature of magic. What makes one preternatural effect magic when some people do it and the same exact effect not magic when other people do it? There are of course ways to answer these questions, but they can have the effect of limiting what magic can be, in a genre defined in large part by the presence of magic.
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