D&D (2024) WotC Fireside Chat: Revised 2024 Player’s Handbook

In this video about the upcoming revised Player’s Handnook, WotC’s Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins reveal a few new tidbits.

• The books are near final and almost ready to go to print
• Psionic subclasses such as the Soulknife and Psi Warrior will appear in the core books
• Named spells have art depicting their creators.
• There are new species in the PHB.

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[Neonchameleon]

And my point is half of this new-to-the-PHB stuff is in Tasha's.

We are getting a bunch of reprints

Everything from the PHB isn't getting reprinted but revised. I believe they've said that they are also revising the Tasha's subclasses they've mentioned. They're calling it the Revised PHB - which seems to be what it is.

Thanks.

Not really keen on the Psi Knight or the Soul Knife then, but this is the same issue for me as the Eldritch Knight and the Arcane Trickster. That is, I’d have preferred they included more non-magical, non-psychic, and generally non- super-powered archetypes for these traditionally non-casting Classes. It just feels like power-creep to me and there doesn’t seem to be too many clear options for playing non-magical types in the game anymore.

Battlemaster Fighter, Champion Fighter, Hand Monk, two of the Thief, Assassin, and Swashbuckler rogue, berserker barbarian.

The thing is what do you mean "Anymore"? There have never been many more subclasses than that - for good reason. Muggles can't keep up past about level 8 with anything we've seen. And if you're literally parrying a dragon's tail you aren't non-magical.

 

[Charlaquin]

I don't mind the Aberrant stuff being somewhere under the psionic umbrella. I do not like both the main caster options being aberration-themed. There should be a psionic main caster that gains power from enlightenment and meditation and stuff like that.

Since there’s no mechanical difference between psionics and magic in 5e, there’s nothing stopping you from playing a Diviner wizard and saying they’re psychic and gained their power from enlightenment and meditation.

And it should be a full class, not a wizard or sorcerer subclass.

I don’t think that’s in the cards. For whatever reason, WotC seems very averse to making new classes for 5e.

 

[Kurotowa]

In 5e, they are not different at all. “Psionic” is literally just psychic-themed magic.

This is an important point, though it's not one everyone is happy about and accepts. In prior editions, psionics was usually separate from and opposed to magic. Not only was it practiced by different people, it had entirely different game mechanics, which really drove home to the players that it was something other.

Now that's not true. There's some recurring quirks to the psionic themed subclasses, like the psi die or the prevalence of subtle spellcasting. But those mechanics aren't unique to psionics. In general, psionics is just a slightly different and more specialized style of magic, one common to certain well known creature types as well as PCs. It's less disruptive both mechanically and thematically to the game.

Clearly, not everyone likes that. Some people hold psionics in high regard precisely because it's disruptive. But when push comes to shove, something has to give. The current developers of D&D decided they didn't want a highly disruptive psionics included in their books, so it was a choice between cutting it and making it more compatible with the rest of the game. They've clearly gone with the latter.

 

[Charlaquin]

Clearly, not everyone likes that. Some people hold psionics in high regard precisely because it's disruptive. But when push comes to shove, something has to give. The current developers of D&D decided they didn't want a highly disruptive psionics included in their books, so it was a choice between cutting it and making it more compatible with the rest of the game. They've clearly gone with the latter.

Or, rather, the folks responding to the UA playtest polls decided they didn’t want highly disruptive psionics in their books. WotC made multiple attempts at more disruptive psionics, and the feedback they kept getting primarily said “please make this less disruptive.” Or as Jeremy Crawford described it, “please just let me play this cool thing.” Turns out, the majority of 5e players think psychic powers are cool, and don’t want them to be cordoned off into their own section of the rules. They want to be able to play a Diviner or Enchanter Wizard, or a Great Old One Warlock, or whatever, and describe their character’s powers as psychic in nature, without the rules telling them, “no, unless you engage with this disruptive subsystem, you casting detect thoughts or dominate person or telekenesis is magical, and therefore not psychic.”

 

[Staffan]

Since there’s no mechanical difference between psionics and magic in 5e, there’s nothing stopping you from playing a Diviner wizard and saying they’re psychic and gained their power from enlightenment and meditation.

That's partially the same problem as the Aberrant Mind sorcerer. I want psionics to matter in the world. I want there to be a multitude of different types of psions, specializing in various types of powers. I want psionics to have at least as much breadth and variety as magic does. And I want them to be distinct from magic. Not necessarily 2e-level "psionics and magic do not affect one another unless specifically stated" – I'm completely OK with e.g. dispel magic working on a psionic power. But it should work in a distinct fashion.

Playing a reskinned diviner does not do that. It would suffice if I was running a one-shot with pregens and I wanted one of the characters to be a psion. But it does not work for a world where there are multiple different schools for teaching people to develop psychic powers, and with multiple psionic factions around.

"But that's not how the Forgotten Realms is!", some would say. To which I say, "I don't care, because I'm not really interested in playing in the Forgotten Realms."

 

[Charlaquin]

That's partially the same problem as the Aberrant Mind sorcerer. I want psionics to matter in the world. I want there to be a multitude of different types of psions, specializing in various types of powers. I want psionics to have at least as much breadth and variety as magic does. And I want them to be distinct from magic. Not necessarily 2e-level "psionics and magic do not affect one another unless specifically stated" – I'm completely OK with e.g. dispel magic working on a psionic power. But it should work in a distinct fashion.

Playing a reskinned diviner does not do that. It would suffice if I was running a one-shot with pregens and I wanted one of the characters to be a psion. But it does not work for a world where there are multiple different schools for teaching people to develop psychic powers, and with multiple psionic factions around.

"But that's not how the Forgotten Realms is!", some would say. To which I say, "I don't care, because I'm not really interested in playing in the Forgotten Realms."

The problem is that it working this way is mutually exclusive with it allowing people to reskin a Diviner as a psychic. And the reskinners have won that battle. Players who want to play a wizard, pick psychic-themed spells, and call their character a psychic without having the rules say “no, magic and psionics are different things, and if you don’t want to engage with this other subsystem, you don’t get to play a psychic” outnumber the ones who want to play a psion and have the rules treat their powers differently than they treat spellcasters using spells like Detect Thoughts and Tekekenesis. Sorry, but them’s the breaks.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That must have thrilled you when you opened that present. (I guess it's the thought that counts?)

D&D Beyond will drop on the usual release date, except maybe for digital-physical bundle purchasers.
We FLGSes will "only" get the books 11-days early. So September 6 for the PHB, as opposed to the 17th.
(Your profile pic and nickname are awesome, BTW).

It wasn't too bad. My copy is a first printing, and several times I would get called out by folks with newer printing on a wording issue.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That's partially the same problem as the Aberrant Mind sorcerer. I want psionics to matter in the world. I want there to be a multitude of different types of psions, specializing in various types of powers. I want psionics to have at least as much breadth and variety as magic does. And I want them to be distinct from magic. Not necessarily 2e-level "psionics and magic do not affect one another unless specifically stated" – I'm completely OK with e.g. dispel magic working on a psionic power. But it should work in a distinct fashion.

Playing a reskinned diviner does not do that. It would suffice if I was running a one-shot with pregens and I wanted one of the characters to be a psion. But it does not work for a world where there are multiple different schools for teaching people to develop psychic powers, and with multiple psionic factions around.

"But that's not how the Forgotten Realms is!", some would say. To which I say, "I don't care, because I'm not really interested in playing in the Forgotten Realms."

This is why I recommend 3pp.

 

[Faolyn]

I really don't get why they are so intent on making the main psi-caster classes so tied to aberrations. I do not believe that's what most psionics fans want. Psionics fans likely want either Dark Sun, where psionics is super common and considered "clean", or Eberron where some psionics are aberrant-tied but others have connections to dream creatures, and in general have much more to do with crystals than with mucus and tentacles.

I'm not sure most psionics fans really know what they want in the first place. Should psionics be crystals and dreams, or oozes and Far Realms stuff, or New Agey metaphysics? Should it be a type of magic or totally unlike magic? Should it be used with something like spell points, spell slots, or dice? Should psionicists be able to do incredibly powerful effects at a lower level (but at risk of burnout) and therefore potentially be very OP, or should they go up steadily in power like every other spellcaster and therefore be not much different from anyone else? Should they have lots of powers, or only a few highly versatile powers? I'm not sure you're ever going to get a majority of gamers to agree on any one interpretation of psionics. Heck, I'm not sure you'd get a majority of gamers agreeing on if psionics should replace sorcerers or be in addition to them.

I kind of like the Far Realms-style psionics almost entirely because then I can imagine that the D&D multiverse is a magical one and what comes from outside the multiverse isn't magical but something else--but as you point out, that's rather limited in presentation and doesn't mesh with established worlds.

But what other hook should psionics have that hasn't already been taken by one of the existing caster classes?

 

[Kobold Avenger]

The problem is that it working this way is mutually exclusive with it allowing people to reskin a Diviner as a psychic. And the reskinners have won that battle. Players who want to play a wizard, pick psychic-themed spells, and call their character a psychic without having the rules say “no, magic and psionics are different things, and if you don’t want to engage with this other subsystem, you don’t get to play a psychic” outnumber the ones who want to play a psion and have the rules treat their powers differently than they treat spellcasters using spells like Detect Thoughts and Tekekenesis. Sorry, but them’s the breaks.

Or reskinning for players who want to play a Technomancer where "I load an unstable fire element bullet into my experimental multi-pistol" is simply casting Fireball as a spell, even though the Artificer covers Technomancy too.