D&D 5E What's wrong with this psion?

[Paul Farquhar]

No.

The Bard's magic tune is a formula.
The Sorcerer's blood has runes and their fingerprints have the arcane word for magic hidden in it.
Ra does the formula and gives it to his light clerics.

D&D's magic system is not a soft magic system. It has rules, science, and logic.


EDIT:
The Fireball Spell is a VSM spell.
It has a verbal component
It has a somatic component
It has a material component

The sorcerer, wizard, fiend warlock, efreeti genie warlock, artilierist artificer and light domain cleric all must do a verbal component, a somatic component, a material component to cast fireball.

The wizard does the hand symbol for fire and says "Furdonix Flamba"
The sorcerer points 3 fingers and says "Fireball"
The light cleric holds up his amulet and says "By the strength of Ra"
The fiend warlock draws an X with his finger in the air and says "'I summon the Fires of Phlegthos"

Them's formulas.

No. The wizard has a formula, which they must get exactly correct in order for the spell to work. But the sorcerer can say anything they like, make any gesture they like. That is not a formula. An artificer can cast a spell with a screwdriver, or a hammer, or conical flask - pretty much whatever they have to hand. That is not a formula.

 

[Minigiant]

No. The wizard has a formula, which they must get exactly correct in order for the spell to work. But the sorcerer can say anything they like, make any gesture they like. That is not a formula. An artificer can cast a spell with a screwdriver, or a hammer, or conical flask - pretty much whatever they have to hand. That is not a formula.

Where does it say a sorcerer can say just anything to cast spells?

Just because it isn't based of advanced magic and arcane formula doesn't mean a sorcerer doesn't need to do specific actions and say specific words to cast spells.

If they could do anything, the V and S components would not matter because a sorcerer could quickly squeak and gesture a single fingertip to cast fireball.

 

[Minigiant]

Remember, the PHB is Mikie's List of Gameplay Suggestions, not Dr. Mearls's Dissertation on Fantasy World Physics.

The VSM are game rules.
The wizards spellbook is a rule.
Spells known is a rule.

Ignoring these is homebrew.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Where does it say a sorcerer can say just anything to cast spells?

The same place it says they must incant a specific formula.

Nowhere.

It's up to the DM to decide how any kind of magic works in their setting.

If they could do anything, the V and S components would not matter because a sorcerer could quickly squeak and gesture a single fingertip to cast fireball.

Sure, they can do that, but they still can't cast a spell with a V component if they are silenced, or and S component if they are immobilised.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I can see the logic of lower level psion using component and then evolving beyond them. They're like mantras, yogic practices etc. But once you are enlightened enough you have your 'there is no spoon' moment and do not need the training wheels any more.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

The VSM are game rules.
The wizards spellbook is a rule.
Spells known is a rule.

Ignoring these is homebrew.

The game rules are all homebrew: Gygax's homebrew, Anseson's homebrew, Monty's homebrew, now Mikie's homebrew.

They are "guidelines to follow in designing your own fantastic-medieval campaign. They provide the framework around which you will build a game of simplicity or tremendous complexity — your time and imagination are about the only limiting factors, and the fact that you have purchased these rules tends to indicate that there is no lack of imagination — the fascination of the game will tend to make participants find more and more time...New details can be added and old “laws” altered so as to provide continually new and different situations. In addition, the players themselves will interact in such a way as to make the campaign variable and unique, and this is quite desirable. " (M&M p.4)

 

[Aldarc]

The game rules are all homebrew: Gygax's homebrew, Anseson's homebrew, Monty's homebrew, now Mikie's homebrew.

This is not what "homebrew" conventionally means, not without obfuscating the meaning beyond the point of being meaningful.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

This is not what "homebrew" conventionally means, not without obfuscating the meaning beyond the point of being meaningful.

OD&D has a nice definition of OD&D, which I feel makes all versions of the game, and perhaps all RPGs, published thereafter homebrew:

"They are guidelines to follow in designing your own fantastic-medieval campaign. They provide the framework around which you will build a game of simplicity or tremendous complexity — your time and imagination are about the only limiting factors, and the fact that you have purchased these rules tends to indicate that there is no lack of imagination — the fascination of the game will tend to make participants find more and more time...New details can be added and old “laws” altered so as to provide continually new and different situations. In addition, the players themselves will interact in such a way as to make the campaign variable and unique, and this is quite desirable. " (M&M p.4)

"With the various equipage listed in the following section, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS will provide a basically complete, nearly endless campaign of all levels of fantastic-medieval wargame play. Actually, the scope need not be restricted to the medieval; it can stretch from the prehistoric to the imagined future, but such expansion is recommended only at such time as the possibilities in the medieval aspect have been thoroughly explored." (M&M p. 5)

I see no difference between WotC's homebrew and any other. They're all homebrew versions of OD&D.

 

[Aldarc]

OD&D has a nice definition of OD&D, which I feel makes all versions of the game, and perhaps all RPGs, published thereafter homebrew:

"They are guidelines to follow in designing your own fantastic-medieval campaign. They provide the framework around which you will build a game of simplicity or tremendous complexity — your time and imagination are about the only limiting factors, and the fact that you have purchased these rules tends to indicate that there is no lack of imagination — the fascination of the game will tend to make participants find more and more time...New details can be added and old “laws” altered so as to provide continually new and different situations. In addition, the players themselves will interact in such a way as to make the campaign variable and unique, and this is quite desirable. " (M&M p.4)

You are certainly entitled to your feelings, but understand that your uses of "homebrew" falls outside of the norm of conventional usage. The very nature of the term homebrew presumes a non-homebrew baseline, much as the cognitive concept of "island" is defined by the water that surrounds it.

 

[Minigiant]

The same place it says they must incant a specific formula.

Nowhere.

Ackually
page 201 of the PHB says spells are specific actions.

Sure, they can do that, but they still can't cast a spell with a V component if they are silenced, or and S component if they are immobilised.

There's not immobilized condition. There is only paralyzed that takes away full movement.
If sorcerers can say or gesture anything, only full paralysis and antimagic fields stops sorcerer spellcasting.

The game rules are all homebrew: Gygax's homebrew, Anseson's homebrew, Monty's homebrew, now Mikie's homebrew.

And you're following them
.If you deviate then you are not following the "main homebrew" where psionics is notspells and your opinion is unimportant to matters of core, lore, and logic.

Either you are following the game rules or you're not.