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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Neonchameleon" data-source="post: 9361769" data-attributes="member: 87792">Psion, ever since day 1 has been "basic stats and behaviour of a wizard but with the serial numbers filed off the spells". And you yourself are fundamentally defining it in terms of the wizard.1e didn't do it as far as I know. The 4e psionic classes existed but (ignoring the monk) were among the worst in that gameAt present it's a "we have numerous psionic subclasses" situation.This is straight up untrue. Like it or not the Aberrant Mind and Soulknife are psionic.It would be dull by 5e standards - but was one of the first vaguely functional near-gish thing.Well, yes. Psychics in general are rare in fiction - and doubly so when there is magic. But the Psion class is the class that focuses on the mind without focusing on anything they can do with their body. They are the mirror to wizards with the minimal level of skills for any class, no armour proficiencies, and minimal weapon proficiencies. What they are not includes:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Spies and Infiltrators (e.g. Psylocke) who use active mind reading and possibly telekinetics to emphasise and assist their infiltration. Soulknives (always 5e; the 3.5 one was awful) and College of Whispers Bards work far better here.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Councillors with a range of skills and some psionics to back up their skills (e.g. Deanna Troi)  are psychic bards.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Warriors who have honed their mind and body to approach the peaks of human possibility (e.g. Kimball Kinnison). These are either Psychic Warriors, Psi Warriors, Soulknives, or Whispers Bards</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Low level psychics who just have a bit of psionic power. (e.g. Spock or most Valdemar Heralds). These either are members of non-psychic classes with a feat or racial abilities or have a psychic subclass.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">People who claim to be psychic and it turns out ... are. Either these can be background characters (Sybyl Trelawney) or they need to not be psions if they are to come with the party because they need expertise of their own.</li> </ul>Basically the Psion is a "pure" psychic who focuses exclusively on their psychic powers. And even then a lot of those are better off as either Aberrant Minds or GOOlocks with Far Realm influences due to the levels of creepiness they have. Off the top of my head these include:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Professor X (aberrant) and Jean Grey (GOOlock for the Phoenix Force) (as already mentioned)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Emperor Palpatine (I mean, seriously?)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Carrie (seriously, the Psion is ultra-controlled. You need the creepiness for a Carrie expy to work thematically)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mewtoo (who is explicitly unnatural as an artificial clone and is searching for his identity when he is strongly other, especially in the Japanese version of the film)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Babylon 5 Telepaths (definitely Far Realm/GOOlock influenced and possibly where they got the idea from in the first place)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">40K Psykers (directly use the Far Realm equivalent and another possible source)</li> </ul>That's ... quite a list. Especially if we are excluding precogs for not being playable. If of course you want to discard the themes of these characters and just get the kewl powerz then the Psion is fine.I am considering that group to be (a) silly and (b) arguing for something that has a zero chance of happening.</blockquote>

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