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The
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<blockquote data-quote="Sparky McDibben" data-source="post: 9038020" data-attributes="member: 7041430"><p>Invasion of the Planet of the Tarrasques is specifically mentioned in the inspiration section, I believe! And the authors are pretty big fans of Mr. Introcaso's work, so that 100% tracks. </p><p></p><p>Alright folks, let's get started with a brand-new class in this book, the psion! Buckle up, kids. This one's very unique.</p><p></p><p>So the psion is drawing from a bunch of different sources, only instead of the designers saying, "How do we make X in D&D?", they're asking, "How can D&D handle X?" That's a subtle distinction, but you'll hopefully see what I mean in a minute. But basically, the psion is a midranking jack-of-all-trades utility and support caster with wildly different mechanics that draw heavily from DMG variant rules.</p><p></p><p>Rather than run down the class, let's look at how it would go about behaving in combat. For one thing, you use power points to fuel your wacky abilities. These are a bit like spell points in the DMG, except weirdly crossed with ki points. Power points refresh on a short rest, and you can burn more of them to apply specific effects to various abilities. </p><p></p><p>Those abilities are determined by your disciplines, and there's only like six disciplines, each with four levels (the book says five, but all of them have four levels, so I'm assuming that was a typo). You get up to 10 total "discipline levels" across your career, so you have some severe opportunity costs here. The disciplines are things like Telekinesis (which starts out with moving objects, size determined by how many power points you spend, and proceeds from there up the "hurt things creatively" ladder). Psychoportation, for example, lets you teleport (distance determined by how many power points you use), switch places with folks, and lock down bad guys. </p><p></p><p>These abilities are fascinating, but are still carefully balanced to let you use your abilities roughly in step with more normal casters. Sure, you can use Psychoportation to teleport 500' at level 5 with the right discipline selections. That sounds OP, right? You basically get <em>dimension door </em>three levels early! Except 1) You can't take anyone with you (one of the best uses of <em>dimension door</em>), and 2) You zero out your power points to do that, so I hope you didn't need to do anything interesting once you teleported. So yeah, some of these might look OP, but it's never a clean, 1:1 comparison. I think that's a strength of the design, honestly. </p><p></p><p>However, a weakness of the design is that it's going to throw anyone who's used to 5E class designs for one helluva loop. I get that they're trying to create the "Build-A-Bear" psionic class, because they don't know how you want to play it, but it's going to be confusing for new players and old ones alike. That may be enough of a break for some people to avoid it, but honestly, if we're playing in a sandbox with beetles who are sentient only in the sunlight, uh... well, you should probably brace for weirdness.</p><p></p><p>The subclass options revolve mostly around how you channel your psionic power, and include everything from honest-to-God crystal psychics to a full-on Sith Lord subclass. That sounds great, until you realize that the class only has a d8 Hit Die, so have fun not dying. Maybe. </p><p></p><p>Also, one more thing: the humor / references. As an example, there's literally a discipline ability called "Sight Beyond Sight."</p><p></p><p><img src="https://media1.giphy.com/media/TYTsDyUBP7Z2U/200.gif" alt="Thundercats GIF" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>These might get a little much for some DMs. Personally, I figure that these are actually pretty important to the material. One of the biggest things I'm looking for in a class ability is, "How am I supposed to adjudicate this at the table?" So that's a <em>huge clue to me,</em> right there in the ability name! You run it like friggin' Lion-O. Moreover, the designers have included sidebars and footnotes that help detail their thinking about how this ability should play at the table, and that's extraordinarily helpful, too. </p><p></p><p>Alright, folks, Sparky's moving slow these days because the kids are on summer vacation, but I want to get to the next twelve (12! XII!) subclass options in the book, where they go wrong, where they go right, and everything in between. Until next time, friendos!!!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sparky McDibben, post: 9038020, member: 7041430"] Invasion of the Planet of the Tarrasques is specifically mentioned in the inspiration section, I believe! And the authors are pretty big fans of Mr. Introcaso's work, so that 100% tracks. Alright folks, let's get started with a brand-new class in this book, the psion! Buckle up, kids. This one's very unique. So the psion is drawing from a bunch of different sources, only instead of the designers saying, "How do we make X in D&D?", they're asking, "How can D&D handle X?" That's a subtle distinction, but you'll hopefully see what I mean in a minute. But basically, the psion is a midranking jack-of-all-trades utility and support caster with wildly different mechanics that draw heavily from DMG variant rules. Rather than run down the class, let's look at how it would go about behaving in combat. For one thing, you use power points to fuel your wacky abilities. These are a bit like spell points in the DMG, except weirdly crossed with ki points. Power points refresh on a short rest, and you can burn more of them to apply specific effects to various abilities. Those abilities are determined by your disciplines, and there's only like six disciplines, each with four levels (the book says five, but all of them have four levels, so I'm assuming that was a typo). You get up to 10 total "discipline levels" across your career, so you have some severe opportunity costs here. The disciplines are things like Telekinesis (which starts out with moving objects, size determined by how many power points you spend, and proceeds from there up the "hurt things creatively" ladder). Psychoportation, for example, lets you teleport (distance determined by how many power points you use), switch places with folks, and lock down bad guys. These abilities are fascinating, but are still carefully balanced to let you use your abilities roughly in step with more normal casters. Sure, you can use Psychoportation to teleport 500' at level 5 with the right discipline selections. That sounds OP, right? You basically get [I]dimension door [/I]three levels early! Except 1) You can't take anyone with you (one of the best uses of [I]dimension door[/I]), and 2) You zero out your power points to do that, so I hope you didn't need to do anything interesting once you teleported. So yeah, some of these might look OP, but it's never a clean, 1:1 comparison. I think that's a strength of the design, honestly. However, a weakness of the design is that it's going to throw anyone who's used to 5E class designs for one helluva loop. I get that they're trying to create the "Build-A-Bear" psionic class, because they don't know how you want to play it, but it's going to be confusing for new players and old ones alike. That may be enough of a break for some people to avoid it, but honestly, if we're playing in a sandbox with beetles who are sentient only in the sunlight, uh... well, you should probably brace for weirdness. The subclass options revolve mostly around how you channel your psionic power, and include everything from honest-to-God crystal psychics to a full-on Sith Lord subclass. That sounds great, until you realize that the class only has a d8 Hit Die, so have fun not dying. Maybe. Also, one more thing: the humor / references. As an example, there's literally a discipline ability called "Sight Beyond Sight." [IMG alt="Thundercats GIF"]https://media1.giphy.com/media/TYTsDyUBP7Z2U/200.gif[/IMG] These might get a little much for some DMs. Personally, I figure that these are actually pretty important to the material. One of the biggest things I'm looking for in a class ability is, "How am I supposed to adjudicate this at the table?" So that's a [I]huge clue to me,[/I] right there in the ability name! You run it like friggin' Lion-O. Moreover, the designers have included sidebars and footnotes that help detail their thinking about how this ability should play at the table, and that's extraordinarily helpful, too. Alright, folks, Sparky's moving slow these days because the kids are on summer vacation, but I want to get to the next twelve (12! XII!) subclass options in the book, where they go wrong, where they go right, and everything in between. Until next time, friendos!!! [/QUOTE]
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