D&D 5E (2024) What Should a Psion Be Able To Do?
- Thread starter Flights of Fancy
- Start date
Incenjucar
Legend
Psionics is based in supernatural beliefs that have been popular for thousands of years and indeed are now more believed in than wizardy stuff.
Scribe
Legend
Wizard - I study ancient lore, I investigate the flow of magic throughout the world.
Druid - I tap into the magic of the natural world.
Sorcerer - Magic flows through my blood. I could not be anything but a conduit for magic itself.
Bard - I search for hidden mysteries, stories of great deeds and magic.
Warlock - I made a deal, part of that deal was granting me access to magic.
Cleric - My relationship to the divine grants me the ability to work miracles.
Paladin - An oath is a powerful thing, I wield magic in its defense.
Psion - We are magic. It is within us, around us, and through study and insight into myself alone, I can manifest it.
Reynard
aka Ian Eller
That's not accurate. There were no "psychic beliefs" before the Victorians. It was all just "magic." Only Victorian pseudoscientism allowed for something distinct like psychic abilities.
Incenjucar
Legend
:/ The world is a lot bigger than Europe.
Scribe
Legend
You can trace a ton of what forms the common view of the Psion, to Eastern thought/belief/religion.
Paul Farquhar
Legend
Sure, but that doesn't make it science, or more real than western magical beliefs. Read up on Doctor John Dee. He basically tried to scienceify witchcraft.
Last edited:
CreamCloud0
Hero
i agree with what you're saying but i think the issue most lies in that initial statement for some people, 'everything supernatural is a derivative of magic' feels like a backwards classification to us in the same way that 'the entire EM spectrum is a derivative of ultra-violet' feels backwards.
EzekielRaiden
Follower of the Way
I'm of the opinion that psionics should be organized in a more...pseudo-scientific manner.
That is, spells, even with the cleanup brought by 5e, remain kinda all over the place. Some things are assigned to schools that don't really make any sense (e.g. why on earth is pass without trace an Abjuration spell?? It's literally concealing! It even uses the words "concealing aura"! It should absolutely be an Illusion!)
With psionics, since we're starting from scratch, we can organize things into cleaner, more focused (& better-balanced...), more categorically cohesive groupings. Further, because psionics generally has involved the use of "power points" in various ways, we can build from that baseline to create something that works fundamentally differently from spells.
So, from the jump, I would want to either (a) define all the categories of psionic stuff I want psions to do and then invent an adequate number of powers to fill those categories, or (b) set out a bunch of powers I'd want psions to have access to and then organize those into discipline categories that have a clear, logical arrangement.
Just doing one of those two things would instantly make psionics and spellcasting distinctly different from one another--but I'd like to go a step further. We've seen some things that suggest the idea that some supernatural power doesn't work the way spells do, where a spell is a discrete mechanical package which might be able to do the exact same effect but more strongly, or more widely (e.g. affecting more targets), or for a longer duration, if you power it with more mojo. Instead, there are gentle suggestions here and there that some supernatural effects are more like they have a core baseline A, and then as you get stronger you gain the option of B (but it costs more resources), and later the option of C--where A, B, and C are all related but separate effects.
That's what I would want to see psionics do. So, for example, you could have under the Kinesis discipline the Cryokinesis talent. By knowing Cryokinesis, you start off with (say) a Frost Shield power that gives THP based on how many PP you sink into it (but those THP take double damage from fire--not your actual HP, just the THP provided by Frost Shield). Then when you reach a new tier of powers, the very fact that you know Cryokinesis unlocks a new power, say Stalagm-Ice, which allows you to manifest spears of icy cold from the ground. Two different powers, same talent.
By doing this, Psions are forced to make tough choices. They have to invest into only a limited set of talents, but each talent provides a mix of offense, defense, and utility, depending on the theme and flavor of the talent. Then, subclasses can be designed which offer inbuilt elements, and possibly favor or support specific playstyles, e.g. a "Psychokineticist" subclass might need 1 less PP (to a minimum of 1) for using any power belonging to the Kinesis discipline. Psionics then becomes extremely diverse, but inherently bounded--no Psion can do EVERYTHING, but Psions collectively can do almost anything. This creates a structure that is much easier to balance than the "I learn ALL THE SPELLS" of the Wizard, and yet still quite open and supportive of player choice and style.
That is, spells, even with the cleanup brought by 5e, remain kinda all over the place. Some things are assigned to schools that don't really make any sense (e.g. why on earth is pass without trace an Abjuration spell?? It's literally concealing! It even uses the words "concealing aura"! It should absolutely be an Illusion!)
With psionics, since we're starting from scratch, we can organize things into cleaner, more focused (& better-balanced...), more categorically cohesive groupings. Further, because psionics generally has involved the use of "power points" in various ways, we can build from that baseline to create something that works fundamentally differently from spells.
So, from the jump, I would want to either (a) define all the categories of psionic stuff I want psions to do and then invent an adequate number of powers to fill those categories, or (b) set out a bunch of powers I'd want psions to have access to and then organize those into discipline categories that have a clear, logical arrangement.
Just doing one of those two things would instantly make psionics and spellcasting distinctly different from one another--but I'd like to go a step further. We've seen some things that suggest the idea that some supernatural power doesn't work the way spells do, where a spell is a discrete mechanical package which might be able to do the exact same effect but more strongly, or more widely (e.g. affecting more targets), or for a longer duration, if you power it with more mojo. Instead, there are gentle suggestions here and there that some supernatural effects are more like they have a core baseline A, and then as you get stronger you gain the option of B (but it costs more resources), and later the option of C--where A, B, and C are all related but separate effects.
That's what I would want to see psionics do. So, for example, you could have under the Kinesis discipline the Cryokinesis talent. By knowing Cryokinesis, you start off with (say) a Frost Shield power that gives THP based on how many PP you sink into it (but those THP take double damage from fire--not your actual HP, just the THP provided by Frost Shield). Then when you reach a new tier of powers, the very fact that you know Cryokinesis unlocks a new power, say Stalagm-Ice, which allows you to manifest spears of icy cold from the ground. Two different powers, same talent.
By doing this, Psions are forced to make tough choices. They have to invest into only a limited set of talents, but each talent provides a mix of offense, defense, and utility, depending on the theme and flavor of the talent. Then, subclasses can be designed which offer inbuilt elements, and possibly favor or support specific playstyles, e.g. a "Psychokineticist" subclass might need 1 less PP (to a minimum of 1) for using any power belonging to the Kinesis discipline. Psionics then becomes extremely diverse, but inherently bounded--no Psion can do EVERYTHING, but Psions collectively can do almost anything. This creates a structure that is much easier to balance than the "I learn ALL THE SPELLS" of the Wizard, and yet still quite open and supportive of player choice and style.
Paul Farquhar
Legend
Because it protects you from being detected.
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