UA Psion: Updated Spells

 For our last post on the Psion Unearthed Arcana, we'll be looking not at the brand-new spells (which I covered in the first post) but rather all the spells that are getting potential revisions. These spells come from either Xanathar's Guide to Everything, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything or Fizban's Treasury of Dragons (the latter of which has the Gem dragons, who all have psionic powers).

Heads up, this could be very short, depending on how much these spells change.

Intellect Fortress:

This spell appears unchanged except adding Psions to the classes that can pick it up.

Psychic Scream:

The only subtle difference here is that it no longer requires a creature to be killed by the damage, only to reduce their HP to 0 to cause their head to explode. This is actually functionally important, as this spell can instantly kill a player character who would otherwise simply go unconscious. (Most DMs have monsters die once reduced to 0 HP, so it shouldn't change things when a PC uses it against monsters/NPCs.)

Raulothim's Psychic Lance:

Again, one subtle distinction: if you can't see the target and use their name to target them instead, you must use their actual name, not a nickname, alias, or pseudonym. Interestingly, this actually makes the importance of "true names" kind of a big deal - it could be a cool lore reveal in the middle of combat, as frustrating as it might be for the player casting this.

Tasha's Mind Whip:

This spell has actually gotten a pair of nerfs. The old version calls for an Intelligence saving throw and deals 3d6 psychic damage on a failed save or half as much on a success, with a failed save also preventing reactions until the end of their next turn and forcing the target to choose between an action, bonus action, or movement on their next turn. The UA version changes this from reactions to just opportunity attacks, and also makes the target choose between an action or bonus action, but they can still use their movement regardless.

    The change to opportunity attacks is likely to prevent this from shutting down a creature with "legendary reactions," such as the stat block for Vecna, which is funny, because the 2025 Monster Manual went back to more traditional legendary actions. Clearly a nerf no matter which way you slice it.

And that's actually it - the other spells, Summon Astral Entity, Telekinetic Crush and Telekinetic Fling are all brand new.

So, given how short this post is:

I think it's an interesting choice to make the Psion use Spellcasting. It's one of those ideas that in theory I find a little safe and boring, but I also understand how this system is tried-and-true, and especially as someone who remembers the craziness that was the Mystic, this is a much more workable solution. It also lets the class dovetail better in multiclassing situations.

I do think it's a bit funny, though, that the Psion's spellcasting is arguably inferior to the Aberrant Sorcerer's Psionic Spellcasting feature, which allows ignoring all spell components. I think there probably needs to be something extra to really make Psions feel like a different kind of spellcaster.

I also worry that their Psionic Energy Die progression simply matching that of the Soulknife and Psi Warrior might wind up feeling insufficient - those subclasses have the rest of their base class to rely on.

Another thing that is just a little peeve of mine is that treating PEDs as both a resource and a die that you can roll leads to some odd moments: you can expend a PED and wind up rolling more than one of them, or even sometimes expending multiple PEDs but only rolling one of them.

I think it would probably work better if they were "Psi Points."

That said, I also think you run into some weird overlap here - many have noticed some similarities to the Sorcerer, and I am left wondering a bit what an Aberrant Sorcerer is if the "Stephen King character with mental powers" archetype is now its own separate class.

These aren't dealbreakers, but given that this would be a brand-new, fully-fledged class, I'd hope we see future iterations of the Psion in future UAs before it gets published (and given that this doesn't match the theme of any announced book coming this year, I suspect we might).

UA Psion: Feats

 Naturally, the giant headliner of the most recent Unearthed Arcana post by WotC was the introduction of a full new class, which, if it sees publication, would be the only the second full-fledged class to be added to the game outside of the PHB for all of 5th Edition, joining the Artificer.

There are some new spells, which I detailed in the initial Psion post (though I didn't go over reprinted/revised spells to see how they might have changed). However, what we're going to touch on here are the Wild Talent feats.

My understanding is that in earlier editions, playing in setting with Psionics like Dark Sun, you'd roll at character creation to see if you got Psionic abilities as a separate thing from your class, representing the in-born ability to use such powers.

Here, Wild Talents are effectively new Origin Feats, but with a rule that you can only take one (normally I'd avoid spending an ASI on getting a second Origin Feat, but if you're, say, a Human who gets two anyway, that might be relevant). These feats will be connected with new, as-yet-unpublished Backgrounds, but for now are considered alternative options to the Sage and Noble.

Let's go through them and see what I think!

Atomkinesis:

You gain the following benefits:

Lightning Jolt: once per turn when you cast a spell or hit with an attack roll and deal bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, or psychic damage, you can change the damage type to Lightning.

    Given how resistance to normal weapon damage has become far, far rarer (and I don't think anything's immune to all three) the value of this is somewhat questionable, though clutch in the right circumstance, but probably useless most of the time.

Psionic Talent: You know the Shocking Grasp cantrip. You also have Fog Cloud prepared and can cast it once per long rest for free, or use spell slots you have for it. These spells require no Verbal or Material components, and you can choose Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as your spellcasting ability for them. When you hit level 3, you get Gust of Wind, which you can cast in a similar way.

    Well, as someone whose longest-running character is a Triton, this is all quite familiar, and thus this feat would be useless to him (other than, I guess, getting Shocking Grasp. Or I guess a second free cast of those two spells). (Actually, my other current character is an Air Genasi, who gets Shocking Grasp and never has a reason to use it).

    Much as I like Lightning damage as an elemental theme, I don't know that this is all that good.

Biokinesis:

You gain the following benefits:

Bend Life Energy: When you cast a spell that restores HP to a creature, you can roll 1d4 and add the number rolled to the total HP restored. You can use this benefit a number of times equal to your PB per long rest.

    Ok, it's not huge, but for an Origin Feat, that's a decent amount of extra healing. Notably, a Battle Smith Artificer's Steel Defender is technically a creature, so you could theoretically use this when casting Mending on it (though it's still limited in uses per day).

Psionic Talent: You know Spare the Dying, and you always have Healing Word prepared, which you can cast once for free per long rest and also spend spell slots on, and you ignore verbal and material components, and choose Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as your spellcasting ability for the spell.

At level 3, you also get Arcane Vigor in a similar way.

    Ok, this is actually really good. Healing Word, especially buffed as it is in 2024, is a very good spell, and being able to take this on any spellcaster is awesome. Genuinely a really good feat.

Clairsentience:

You gain the following benefits:

Minor Foreknowledge: When you take the Search action (as in, any Wisdom skill other than Animal Handling) you can give yourself advantage as part of the action a number of times equal to your PB per long rest.

    With Perception and Insight checks often being really important ones, this is a nice benefit.

Psionic Talent: You know Guidance, and, as in the previous examples, you get Detect Evil and Good, and then at level 3, See Invisibility.

    Yeah, I think these are both good spells to have when you need them. Thumbs up on the feat as a whole.

Cryokinesis:

You gain the following benefits:

Ice Manipulation: this is like Atomkinesis' Lightning Jolt but for Cold damage.

    Again, I don't know that this will be all that good, and arguably not as good as Atomkinesis as more monsters have Cold resistance or immunity.

Psionic Talent: You get Ray of Frost, and then Armor of Agathys and Ice Knife both from the get-go, the latter of two can be cast each once for free per long rest.

    So, Armor of Agathys is very good if you can upcast it (and especially if you can replenish temp HP frequently, as it can now be "recharged" in this way). Ice Knife is decent, though always remember it's a save-for-none spell. And Ray of Frost is a fine ranged cantrip option. So, I think the latter half of this is probably better than Atomkinesis.

Empath:

You gain the following benefits:

Emotional Sense: when you take the Influence Action (which is most Charisma skills as well as Animal Handling) you can give yourself advantage PB times per long rest.

    Ok, sure. Good for a party "face."

Psionic Talent: You get Charm Person, and at level 3, get Calm Emotions, working like other Psionic Talent features.

    Interestingly you don't get a cantrip with this one - I'd think Friends was a pretty obvious choice. Again, both spells can be quite useful, so it's a reasonable feat option.

Flesh Morpher:

You gain the following:

Flexible Flesh: When you make a Dexterity (Acrobatics or Sleight of Hand) check, you can gain a bonus equal to your Intelligence modifier PB times per long rest.

    Interesting that it's those two but not Stealth, which I guess makes sense thematically. Acrobatics comes up less often than you'd think it would, but this could be good for lockpicking. It can make your Intelligence-based character decent at these checks, which is nice (especially if you also have a decent Dex modifier).

Psionic Talent: You get Longstrider and at level 3, Alter Self

    Again, no cantrip. Alter Self is arguably not as good as you'd want it to be, though I think it can be very useful if you have to fight underwater. Overall I think this feat's a bit more niche than some of the others.

Mind Whisperer:

You gain:

Limited Telepathy: As a Magic action, you can choose a creatuer you can see within 120 feet of yourself, gaining a telepathic connection with them for 1 hour, where you can communicate if you're still within 120 feet. You have to share a language. You can use this once per short or long rest.

    Naturally, we're going to need to compare this with the Telepathic feat, which is a General Feat, which gives half the range, but unlimited use of Telepathy and no action required. But, you know, a General Feat.

Psionic Talent: You get Mind Sliver and Dissonant Whispers, as with other Psionic Talent features.

    Both strong spells. The Limited Telepathy is going to be good to keep communication with a party member while scouting, though not terribly far. Yeah, I'm going to say this is a decent feat, though we don't get a 2nd level spell at level 3.

Psi Trickster:

You gain:

Cunning Mind: When you make a Charisma (Deception or Persuasion) check, you can gain a bonus to your check equal to your Intelligence modifier PB times per long rest.

    Again, helps your Intelligence-based character go outside their wheelhouse a bit. These checks can be pretty important ones, depending on the campaign.

Psionic Talent: You get Minor Illusion and Disguise Self.

    Actually this all comes together pretty well thematically, and both of these are popular spells, which might make up for the lack of a 2nd level spell there. Decent feat if you really need to be the one to talk your way into places for the group.

Psykineticist:

You gain:

Psi Boost: When you take the Dash action, you can increase your speed by 10 feet until the start of your next turn (so probably Dash before using regular movement) PB times per long rest.

    Naturally will be better on a class that can Dash as a bonus action, or a Sorcerer with Quickened Spell.

Psionic Talent: You get Telekinetic Fling (as seen in my initial Psion post) and Thunderwave.

    Telekinetic Fling is interesting, though it's a cantrip you'll need to keep buying ammo for (though ammo is also pretty cheap). Thunderwave is decent as a low-level AoE, though of course it doesn't scale amazingly. I'm not sold on this feat.

Pyrokinesis:

You gain:

Firestarter (was just going to make a reference to that Stephen King book, but they beat me to it): Like Atomkinesis and Cryokinesis, this lets you change a spell or attack that deals Bludgeoning, Piercing, Slashing, or Psychic damage to Fire. (Punctuation here is a little unclear, but I assume the damage types refer just to the attack, but it might also mean that the spell has to deal that kind of damage).

    Now, while Fire is among the most resisted damage types in the game, it's also a damage type that you see vulnerability to, and also sometimes affects creatures in specific ways, like shutting down a Troll's regeneration or activating a Flesh Golem's aversion to fire. So this is actually probably useful, especially because you can choose when to use it.

Psionic Talent: You gain Produce Flame, Burning Hands, and at level 3, Scorching Ray

    Obviously Fire Bolt is a better cantrip in most cases, but these are some decent and rather straightforward options. Yeah, I mean, this feat overall might not be amazing, but it sure lets you thematically work with one of the true classic Psionic archetypes.

And there we have it!

That's all the feats in the Psion UA. While somewhat limited in power, one must remember that these are replacements for Origin Feats, not General Feats, and thus need to be judged accordingly. In a lot of ways, they act similarly to the Magic Initiate feat, but balance the lack of choice for which spells you learn by giving you some additional features along with the psionic spellcasting part of it, where you only need to provide somatic components.

Essentially, I think these are pretty good overall.

Hopefully Getting a Chance to Try Out Daggerheart

 My best friend works at an afterschool program that runs D&D games for kids. As such, as a professional expense, he was able to pick up the recently-released Daggerheart Core Set. I also just watched the first episode of Age of Umbra, Critical Role's first major showcase of the final game.

I haven't actually gotten a chance to read through the rulebook (I don't think my friend has yet either, as he got it yesterday) but I am certainly curious to see.

The game is built around dualities, and one element of that is that apparently every class has two Domains, and each shares a domain with another class. The domains give certain abilities and features (again, I've got just the basic gist here - I'm reading the SRD to make sure). What this does seem to imply, though, is that it'll be very hard to add classes to the game, unless they're ok with certain domains getting more representation. That said, if they treat classes as broad archetypes like 5E does, this might not be a problem, at least in these early days.

The central dice roll is 2d12 (so if you're a 5E player and never get a chance to roll those, this will be nice), but also, you make note of which die is which, because a roll can succeed or fail based on the total rolled, but also gives Hope or Fear depending on which of your dice rolled higher. Hope is a resource your character gets to use on certain abilities, while Fear goes to the GM to use against you.

It reminds me of systems like Edge of Empire, the Star Wars TTRPG, which I believe had a similar idea of a kind of "secondary result" for die rolls.

Daggerheart does seem to be intended to tell stories like you'd tell in D&D, being generally built for heroic fantasy.

The combat system seems quite different: while you do have an Evasion value that is functionally similar to your AC, the damage you take is not the same as losing hit points - instead, depending on how hardy you are, you have certain damage thresholds - if it's below your Major threshold, you just take 1 damage, if it's equal to or higher than the Major threshold, but below your severe threshold, you take 2, and if it's equal to higher to your severe threshold, you take 3.

Functionally, this means that I think characters will have far fewer hit points than in 5E, but the real equivalent measure of having a lot of HP would be having higher thresholds. I don't yet know if you get more HP as you level up, or if it's just that your thresholds go higher (I also don't know if there's a way for a creature to inflict more than 3 HP loss at a go).

Armor, then, appears to be a way to reduce damage from one level to a lower one, but is an expended resource and must be repaired to replenish it.

This does address one of the oddities of D&D's AC, which is that there's functionally no difference between an agile monk dodging out of the way of incoming attacks and a heavily-armored fighter absorbing strikes with their shield. Given how damage is effectively simplified here, though, I wonder if that takes care of some of the crunchiness that would result in giving D&D an Evasion vs Armor system.

Anyway, I'm only scratching the surface of these rules, figuring out what kind of characters you can build and stories you can tell. But I hope I'll be able to try the game out at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Kinda Sounds Like I'm Not Going to Get Nightreign

 The announcement of something new Elden Ring-related a few months ago shocked me, coming so soon after the release of the staggeringly massive Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, which could have passed for a sequel if the base game hadn't been even bigger.

Of course, the discovery that Nightreign was a fast-paced multiplayer-focused game built less on the gradual discovery of a massive world but instead on repeatable gameplay loops for teams of three players, I got a little skeptical.

I'm pretty much the only one I know who actually likes these games, and while I'm very happy to write my blog posts and watch hours upon hours of lore analysis videos on YouTube, I've never been someone who loves playing with people I've met online (the exception being the World of Warcraft guild I'm still technically in, but doesn't have enough active players to do any real organized content anymore).

I'm also not even sure to what degree I need to care about the lore of Nightreign, as it appears to be kind of extra-canonical, or rather, has a separate lore canon from the base Elden Ring game. Which means that its label as an Elden Ring game appears to be a mix of branding and an opportunity to re-use assets (which From already did in Elden Ring, re-using plenty of Dark Souls stuff).

Anyway, I don't mean to be the grumpy old man on a porch, and perhaps some people are really enjoying the game (though critics seem to be quite mixed - I've seen 9/10s and 7/10s and maybe even a 6/10). But it does mean that I've got to just sit down and pass on this one while I wait to see what comes out of FromSoft next.

I'd be excited for The Duskbloods, but this appears to also be a multiplayer game. (And I assume not in the way that technically all the Souls-likes have been.)

Oh well.

Medical Metaphor and Plot Versus Meaning

 I've been watching the videos of "Charred Thermos," a YouTube channel that focuses on lore from Bloodborne, and focuses on a particular argument: that Bloodborne is an extensive metaphor for the development of medical science in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The videos are interesting, and make a very thorough and careful argument (if I have a critique, it's that they recap their previous arguments perhaps too often, though in today's attention-lacking culture, perhaps this is a feature rather than a bug).

It's actually quite fascinating, as the author connects Yharnam with the history of medical research in Edinburgh, Scotland, and explores the way in which the elements of the story and its world each connect to various aspects of medical research, with Hunters acting as doctors, beasts representing patients and cadavers, and rituals being cadaver dissection.

While not every argument the channel makes fully convinces me, there's quite a decent amount of evidence to suggest that this metaphor was, indeed, at the center of the inspiration for the game.

Indeed, I might elaborate on some of his metaphorical observations with my own: that the game's metaphorical horror is largely how medical science, for all its benefits to humanity, also requires a kind of dehumanization of the human body, so that a doctor may engage with the visceral in a manner that we are instinctively disinclined to do.

And, indeed, the malpractices and crimes of the medical field tend to come about when doctors (and health insurers, though I don't think they're part of the game's metaphorical structure) dehumanize their patients, thinking them "naught but beasts."

Still, it does raise an interesting question:

The games of FromSoft are famously vague - giving you very little explicit explanation for what is going on or what motivates people, but with a deep and rich hidden story that is revealed (though never fully settled) when you dig into the subtle details.

But I do find myself wondering: to what extent should we interpret this as a story in its own right, or purely as a metaphor?

I remember watching a lengthy (I want to say like six or eight hours) video analyzing Twin Peaks, and making the argument that the entire show was a metaphor for the state of television, breaking down nearly every element of the show as part of that metaphor.

Frankly, the video kind of pissed me off, in part because the video's author, who appeared as a talking head in much of it (for some reason I tend to prefer a faceless voiceover, but this isn't a hard and fast rule) seemed so smug about it, but also because it reduced the human story of the show to something purely in service of the metaphor.

Ironic, especially, because I think a large part of the motivation behind Twin Peaks was humanizing its central murder victim, Laura Palmer - and that I think David Lynch was deeply humanist in his worldview, even if his works were so dreamlike.

Still, though, if the works of Hidetaka Miyazaki and David Lynch both share a refusal to explain themselves explicitly, I'd say that the thing that the former lacks, or perhaps to be less judgmental, simply chooses not to focus on, it's that FromSoft games tend not to get you terribly invested in them on a human level.

Perhaps that's unfair: after all, Solaire from Dark Souls, Warrior Jar Alexander from Elden Ring, and others have become beloved by the games' fandom. But I'd argue that each of these games encourages an almost Brechtian detachment in its audience/players.

Consider this: in the weeks since finishing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, I've found myself kind of agonizing over which of the endings I chose, with the larger part of the internet fanbase seeming to agree that I chose the "bad" ending. COE33 is very much about connecting with the characters on an emotional level - indeed, the reveals and secrets of the game make the entire conceit something quite deeply personal to some of its characters. And so, I'm left really questioning my choice, even if I felt that there was a sound moral and ethical argument in its favor.

With FromSoft games, while there's similarly some ambiguity over which of, say, Elden Ring's endings is the "good" one (though I feel like the one we can probably rule out is the Lord of Frenzied Flame one - that's got to be bad, right?) I think it feels much more like a philosophical and cerebral question than an emotional one.

Perhaps that's in part due to the fact that our player character is something of a blank slate for us (I haven't played Sekiro, the only one of their games with a set protagonist).

Charred Thermos suggests, for example, that the Great Ones we discover in Bloodborne are not eldritch gods, but are actually representations of organs within the body, for example Ebrietas being the lungs and larynx, and the Brain of Mensis obviously being the Brain, and while he doesn't make this argument, most likely Oedon being the blood (formless because it's a liquid).

So, what I find myself wondering is: should we even engage with the surface-level narrative at all, then? Are we meant to ignore it and only pursue the grand metaphor?

I think there's a certain fun to finding out the hidden truths behind a story, and certainly literary analysis (of which this kind of video game analysis is a closely-related cousin) focuses a lot on this exploration of the deeper hidden meaning and themes.

But I also think that there's a danger in pursuing this kind of analytical understanding of art. A work of art that exists purely to convey some kind of lesson can become propagandistic.

I studied screenwriting in college, intending to go out to Hollywood and write movies. While I'm still sort of hoping to make a living writing fiction, I remember in the earlier days attending a screenwriting seminar here in LA, where we'd read and comment on each others' screenplays. I remember one in which a person had a scene from their screenplay or teleplay that had two characters sitting on a bench, and the way it read was essentially that one had perfect wisdom that they were just conveying to the other.

No real dramatic stakes - it was really just a scene to convey what I presumed to be the writer's worldview spoken through the voice of an authoritative character.

Now, there is a philosophical tradition dating back to Ancient Greece, where a Socratic Dialogue is essentially a philosophical essay written not as the author speaking directly to the reader, but as two characters who are discussing a topic, as if it's a little stage play.

But I think that it would be an error to mistake one of these dialogues for a play, even if the line between the two media is blurry. (After all, you can have a compelling story that is just people arguing. Consider 12 Angry Men.)

Anyway, FromSoft's works are naturally works of art - even if the story were pure metaphor and we were meant to see past the surface-level narratives, the video game medium still has artistry in its gameplay and mechanics (if Editing is the unique aspect of film as a medium, gameplay is the unique aspect of video games).

I don't mean to accuse Charred Thermos or any authors who look into the symbolic meanings of these games (another favorite being Tarnished Archaeologist) of reducing the games purely to metaphor. The metaphor is the underlying bedrock of these stories.

But I do think it's interesting that, given how obscure FromSoft's storytelling style is, that these underlying metaphors take perhaps an outsized place within our understanding of their stories.

UA Psion Subclasses: Telepath

 In this last of the Psion subclasses, we'll be looking at the subclass that focuses most on the interaction of mind to mind. Telepathy and Telekinesis are kind of the two most "standard" elements of the psionic fantasy, so let's see what this subclass does with the former.

Telepath Spells:

1st level: Bane, Command

2nd level: Detect Thoughts, Mind Spike

3rd level: Counterspell, Speak with Plants

4th level: Compulsion, Confusion

5th level: Awaken, Modify Memory

    Command is really good, but I'm not sure that we're looking at a profoundly powerful group of spells - instead leaning much more on utility.

Level 3:

Mind Infiltrator lets you expend two PEDs (Psionic Energy Dice) when you cast Detect Thoughts to remove its spell components and no longer require concentration, and also doesn't alert a target that you're probing their mind when they fail the Wisdom saving throw.

    While expensive, this can be very powerful in some tense social encounter. Trying to find some crucial piece of information in the mind of that guy you're pretty sure is working with the evil cult, but who has the social status to make things very bad for you if you aren't careful? This will come in handy.

Telepathic Hub, another 3rd level feature, gives you telepathy to a range of 10 feet (remember that we get a base of 5 feet from the base class). When using a PED with Telepathic Connection to increase the range of the telepathy, for the duration you can simultaneously contact a number of creatures equal to 1 plus the number rolled on the PED.

    So, the hub thing is a little DM-dependent. Generally, because talking doesn't require an action, I tend to let players who are able to speak telepathically with others to convey messages as if they were all on one big group call. Granted, that sometimes makes spells like Rary's Telepathic Bond less useful. It's a bit messy.

Level 6:

Empowered Defense Mode lets you add a d4 to your saving throws while in Defense Mode. Also, while Defense Mode is active, you extend this benefit to anyone you are connected to via Telepathic Connection.

    So, functionally, you're largely going to be using this feature to boost peoples' saving throws, which is nice. By this level, the average range-extension is 45 feet, which I think is on top of your base of 10, so this should usually (unless you get unlucky with a roll) allow you to keep connected to everyone.

Potent Thoughts lets you add your Intelligence modifier to any damage you deal with a Psion cantrip.

    A decent if not huge boost to your damage. Not totally sure why Telepaths get this and others don't.

Level 10:

Telepathic Bolstering gives you telepathy out to 30 feet (which I believe will further increase the range of your Telepathic Hub/Empowered Defense Mode). When a creature you can see within the range of your telepathy fails an ability check or misses with an attack roll, you can use a reaction to expend a PED and roll it, adding the number to the d20 and potentially turn the check or attack into a success. The die is only expended if it becomes a success.

    The wording here probably needs clean-up (technically I'd say "you roll the die" at the start and then "it's expended if the check succeeds or the attack hits as a result"). But, I think this is very good, giving you a Flash of Genius-like boost to help your allies (or you) out. Can't work on saving throws, but still pretty good. And I like the bad-luck protection.

Level 14:

Scramble Minds lets you expend 4 PEDs when you cast Confusion to modify the spell so that the radius of the sphere is 30 feet (up from 10). Additionally, creatures under the spell's effects roll two d10s to determine their behavior, and you choose which result affects them.

    So, Confusion can be very powerful, but is unpredictable. This is a pretty expensive feature to use (on top of a 4th level spell slot) but it lets you hit a ton of enemies with the spell (30 foot radius is massive. By tripling the radius, you're effectively multiplying the spell's horizontal area by 9) and by letting you choose between two results, you're going to much more frequently get the kind of thing you want. Confusion has a 20% chance to just allow a creature to act as normal on their turn, but this will get that down to 4%.

Overall Thoughts:

    I think this subclass is ok, but like the Psykinetic, it feels like maybe it's lacking a little oomph - though perhaps not quite as much so. Unfortunately at this stage I don't really have a sense for how powerful some of the class' base features are going to be, and so it's hard to evaluate subclass features that alter or enhance them.

This concludes the Psion subclasses, meaning that the only stuff left in the UA to examine are the updates to existing spells (we've already covered the brand-new spells) and the set of Wild Talent Feats, which are alternate Origin Feats that will come with new backgrounds, but for the time being are available as alternatives for the Noble or Sage backgrounds.

UA Psion Subclasses: Psykinetic

 Here in our third of four subclass options for the new Psion class, we have the Psykinetic. While perhaps a little overlapped with the Psi Warper thematically, though while the Psi Warper seems more about "moving things" by shifting space itself, the Psykinetic is a little more focused on molding psionic force to create barriers and augment strikes. Let's look at the mechanics.

Psykinetic Spells:

1st level: Shield, Thunderwave

2nd level: Cloud of Daggers, Levitate

3rd level: Slow, Telekinetic Crush (see first article in this UA Psion series)

4th level: Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, Stone Shape

5th level: Telekinesis, Wall of Force

    Big one right there is Shield. Frankly, I think Shield probably ought to be on the base class list, both because as an unarmored d6 class it probably needs it, and also because it feels thematically right. There are some other good spells here, but nothing mind-blowing.

Level 3:

Telekinetic Techniques lets you enhance your Telekinetic Propel in one of the following ways:

Boost lets you increase the target's speed by 10 feet until the start of your next turn.

    Obviously this is for when you target an ally, and will basically let you launch them toward your foes, or away from them.

Disorient prevents the target from making Opportunity Attacks until the start of your next turn.

    Notably, because these don't require the target to fail the saving throw, this can kind of give you bad-luck protection if they succeed. However, I think you still need to choose first, meaning you'd only really need this if you expect to fail - normally shoving someone away from you should make it easy for you to avoid opportunity attacks.

Telekinetic Bolt does require the target to fail the save, but if they do, they take Force damage equal to the number rolled on the PED (Psionic Energy Die).

    It's not a ton of damage, but it's a bit extra on top of whatever you're doing with your action.

    This is the only 3rd level feature, and while getting the Shield spell is pretty huge, I've got to say I'm a tad underwhelmed. Clearly, they intend Psions to use Telekinetic Propel a lot, so maybe I'm undervaluing this feature. But it feels maybe not the most exciting.

Level 6:

Empowered Attack Mode will enhanced, weirdly enough, your Attack Mode, giving you a Fly Speed of 60 feet that allows hovering, and when you cast a Psion spell, you can add your Intelligence modifier to one damage roll of that spell.

    Now, this is freaking good. Concentration-free flight for free twice a day, and by next level, being able to spend just one PED to get it back (though only at the start of combat) is really great. The extra damage is also nice, but the flight's really what makes this awesome.

Rebounding Field, also at level 6, enhances the Shield spell. When the spell causes an attack to miss, you can expend a PED to force the attacker to make a Dex save, and on a failure, they take two rolls of your PED worth of Force damage, and you get Temp HP equal to the same total. On a success, the attacker only takes half damage, and you get no temp HP.

    In an ideal situation, any d6 character is going to avoid getting attacked whenever possible. This is going to make you a bit more resilient when you are attacked, but while this feels a bit like a psionic version of a Monk's deflect attacks, unlike a Monk, we're hopefully not mixing it up in melee (unless we're some kind of multiclass build). So this is a feature we hope to use infrequently.

Level 10:

Enhanced Telekinetic Crush... enhances our Telekinetic Crush spell (which is on the subclass list). The spell can normally deal damage and knock targets prone, but now it will also halve the speed of anyone caught in it, regardless of whether they succeed or fail on the saving throw.

    Naturally, we are likely to be casting this spell a lot, as it's our best equivalent to Fireball (though we might favor Synaptic Static by this level). And both halving a creature's movement and knocking it prone can do a lot to lock a creature down in a place (leaving the typical creature only 7.5 feet of movement after standing up). This feels a bit thin for your entire 10th level feature, though.

Level 14:

Heightened Telekinesis improves the Telekinesis spell. You can expend 4 PEDs to modify the spell to no longer require Concentration. If you do, the spell's duration becomes 1 minute for that casting, and you can target Gargantuan creatures and objects.

    First, a reality check - Gargantuan creatures pretty much all have enormous Strength saving throw bonuses. It's not unthinkable, but you're probably not going to be able to grab one very frequently. That said, Telekinesis is a powerful spell, with great utility and and outside of combat. In the latter case, being unable to drop concentration is nice.

Overall:

While I like the concept of this subclass (it feels in some ways like the most "quintessential" Psion) I think that the features here are a little bit thin. While the spells that it enhances are likely to see a lot of use, some of these enhancements don't really feel big enough for a full subclass feature. I'd like to get some weirder and more unique stuff.

Sadly, though, this is currently my least favorite of the subclasses. Let's get mental with the final one in the next post and check in with the Telepath.

UA Psion Subclasses: Psi Warper

 In our look at the second Psion subclass, we'll be exploring the Psi Warper, which is the subclass built around the manipulation of space, teleporting themselves, allies, and foes.

Psi Warper Spells:

1st level: Expeditious Retreat, Feather Fall

2nd level: Misty Step, Shatter

3rd level: Blink, Haste

4th level: Banishment, Dimension Door

5th level: Steel Wind Strike, Teleportation Circle

    So, while a decent number of these are already available to the class, the theme here is pretty clear: you're going to have a lot of teleportation and mobility options. Misty Step is one of my favorite spells (and a great one for a squishy d6 class). Steel Wind Strike is also a really fun show-stopper.

Level 3:

Teleportation, your first feature, allows you to cast Misty Step without expending a spell slot once per long rest, or if you expend a PED (Psionic Energy Die) to restore a use of it.

    One thing I might need to figure out is how "cheap" our PEDs are. On my 5th level Soulknife Rogue, I don't think I've ever run out of them, but this class is built around using them, so they might be spent more frequently. Still, Misty Step is something you won't need all the time, but making sure you do have it when you need it is very good.

Warp Propel, your other 3rd level feature, lets you alter your Telekinetic Propel (it's a new class, so I won't assume we remember how that works and will explain it below,) you can choose to teleport the target to an unoccupied space within 30 feet of you that is horizontal to you (they still get a saving throw). Normally, you'd be pushing a large or smaller creature within 30 feet of you, expending a PED and rolling it, sending them 5 feet times the amount rolled directly away from you on a failed Strength save.

    Now, we might need some clarification on "horizontal to you." I assume this means we can't toss them up in the air so they take 3d6 falling damage. However, neither the base version of this nor this version requires you to put them on safe, solid ground, so very much do use this on cliffs and over lava.

    Another note here is that it's a flat 30 feet. The base version, when you first get it, is 5x1d6, meaning we're talking about an average of 17.5 (15 or 20 on either side of it). Only by tier 4, when we get d12 PEDs, does this actually fall below our average roll, and only just slightly.

Level 6:

Warp Space alters your Shatter (which is a subclass spell, so you're guaranteed to have it). You can expend a PED to make the radius of Shatter 20 feet (doubling the radius, which means quadrupling its area on a flat map). Additionally, creatures that fail the saving throw are pulled to the unoccupied space closest to the center of the sphere.

    Shatter is a poor man's Fireball - very good in tier 1, but doesn't scale up enough to keep up with the big AoE spells. However, this makes the damage kind of incidental and the concentration of foes the real benefit - which of course also means the larger radius is going to get more targets swept into it. Still, it is a Con save, which many things will have decent saves for (though inorganic creatures, I think, like most Constructs, will have disadvantage on the save).

Teleporter Combat is another 6th level feature that empowers Misty Step. It allows you to cast a Psion cantrip with a casting time of an action as part of the same Bonus Action you use to cast Misty Step.

    This makes our Teleporter feature even better - even if we don't need to teleport, being able to toss out a second True Strike on a turn can mean pretty significant damage. (Also, if we use Teleporter to cast Misty Step, we can still use our action for leveled spell).

Level 10:

Duplicitous Target allows us to take a reaction when we see a creature make an attack roll against us, and spend a PED, choosing a willing creature within 30 feet of us that is not Incapacitated. We and the willing creature teleport, swapping places and the willing creature becomes the target of this attack.

    Now, the range on this is going to be a little restrictive, but if you have a heavily-armored ally, or just one that can stand to take a hit when you really don't want to, this could be clutch. Again, if the ally's AC is higher, this could even turn a potential hit into a miss. It does require favorable battlefield arrangement, but could be clutch.

Level 14:

Mass Teleportation, your final subclass feature, allows you to expend 4 PEDs and choose Huge or smaller creatures within 30 feet of yourself, up to a number equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum 1) and teleport each of them to an unoccupied space within 150 feet of you. An unwilling creature can make a Wisdom saving throw to avoid being teleported.

    Big thing to note: there ain't nothing there that says that the space needs to be on the ground. While there's plenty of utility in potentially Dimension Dooring the entire party 150 feet, you can also potentially use this to toss several bad guys way up into the air and have them take 15d6 damage form falling immediately. It's expensive - even if I've generally thoughts of PEDs as cheap, four of them is still going to be a full third of your total even at level 20. But this could be worth it, and does feel like a reasonable capstone for the ultimate spatial warper.

Overall Thoughts:

    You know, in my initial readthrough of this UA, I found myself thinking "this is cool thematically, but I don't know that I'd be that excited to play it." However, after doing these deep dives on the first two subclasses, I'm feeling a bit more excited about it (I have so many D&D characters I want to play, though!)

This subclass, of course, really leans into utility, but battlefield teleportation is a pretty solid kind of utility. So, like the Metamorph, my instinct is that this is also a pretty good and maybe very good subclass.

UA Psion Subclasses: Metamorph

 The new fully-fledged class in today's (well, yesterday's, as it's just past midnight as I write this) Unearthed Arcana comes, as I expect will be standard, with four subclasses.

I did a pretty exhaustive look at the base class in my previous post, but here I'm going to dive into the first of four subclasses. Just as a refresher, the Psion is a pure spellcaster in the vein of the Sorcerer and Wizard, with no armor, a d6 hit die, (or hit point die as they're now called,) and uses Intelligence as their spellcasting ability. They have spells similar to the Wizard and Sorcerer list, but tend to lack some of the big elemental damage spells and focus more on utility and psychic/force damage, including a couple new spells.

The Metamorph is the subclass that turns a Psion into something akin to a martial class, similar to the Valor (or Swords) Bard or the Bladesinger Wizard (which is getting another revision in the Forgotten Realms book).

Thematically, though, the likely source of inspiration for this subclass is in Akira, the seminal 1980s cyberpunk anime. I have not seen the movie, but I do know that the super-powered character Tetsuo manifests giant, body-horror-like limbs, and, well... yeah, that's where this goes. Your body shifts and reshapes itself to manifest natural (well, "natural") weapons and lets you be a decent weapon-focused combatant.

Metamorph Spells:

As with all the Psion subclasses, you get extra spells known. These are:

1st level: Cure Wounds, Inflict Wounds

2nd level: Alter Self, Lesser Restoration

3rd level: Aura of Vitality, Haste

4th level: Polymorph, Stoneskin

5th level: Contagion, Mass Cure Wounds

    Interestingly, this spell list actually makes you something of a healer - probably not matching a Cleric or Druid, but still, you have some options.

Level 3:

Organic Weapons is your first feature. When you take the Attack action or make an Opportunity Attack (once again, Commander's Strike is left out of the options here) you can reform a free hand into either a Bone Blade, Flesh Maul, or Viscera Launcher. The limb returns to its previous form after you hit or miss.

When attacking with an Organic Weapon, you can use Intelligence rather than Strength or Dexterity for the attack and damage rolls, and you can choose to deal either Psychic or the regular damage type each time.

    So, this is super gross in a cool way. The names, in particular, really sell the body horror of this feature. But, functionally, I think this is pretty cool. You can pick the weapon that works best for you in a given situation, and with both a melee and ranged option, you're always in decent shape. As with a Soulknife's Psychic Blades or a Beast Barbarian's natural weapons, you do run into the problem of not having any magic items that can boost these, so hopefully your DM will do some home-brewing or home-ruling that something like Wraps of Unarmed Prowess work on them.

Bone Blade is a simple melee weapon with finesse that deals 1d8 piercing damage on a hit, and you have advantage on the attack roll if a non-incapacitated ally is within 5 feet of the target.

    Interesting that this has the finesse property. Given that we can just use Intelligence for our attack and damage rolls, why do we care? The answer, I suspect, is that they want this to work for Rogues who are multiclassing. Thus, this becomes a Rapier with built-in pack tactics, which is nice.

Flesh Maul is a simple melee weapon that deals 1d10 bludgeoning damage, and a creature hit by the maul has disadvantage on their next Strength or Constitution saving throw before the start of their next turn.

    While this is your highest damage option, you might prefer to go with the Bone Blade if you're able to get the advantage from it, as this is only doing an average of 1 higher damage on a hit. That said, if you follow this up with a spell that calls for either of these saves, or if you're trying to break a monster's concentration, this is pretty nice.

Viscera Launcher is a simple Ranged weapon with a range of 30/90 that deals 1d6 Acid damage, and once per turn, you can have it deal an extra 1d6 when it hits.

    The Viscera Launcher is actually a bit similar to the Armorer's Lightning Launcher with that once-a-turn extra d6, though the 30 foot normal range is going to be a bit limiting here - not terrible, but you'll need to get a bit closer to monsters than you might otherwise like.

Extend Limbs is your other 3rd level feature, which lets you spend a PED (reminder, this is "Psionic Energy Die") to gain three benefits for 1 minute (all of them, not a choice between them). Your reach increases by 5 feet, your speed increases by 5 feet, and spells you cast that have a range of Touch and a casting time of one action now have a range of 10 feet.

    This is actually a pretty low cost for some not-huge-but-still-pretty-good bonuses. Having a higher speed and longer reach will allow for some hit-and-run tactics that could prove pretty powerful for a squishy Psion, including 10 feet for Cure Wounds.

Level 6:

Extra Attack works similarly to that of Bladesingers, Valor Bards, and Eldritch Knights, giving you two attacks per attack action as well as being able to cast a Psion cantrip that has a casting time of one action in place of an attack.

    So, here's how we could do this: True Strike won't work with your Organic Weapons, but you could easily just attack with a weapon using True Strike, like a Spear or Quarterstaff, and then manifest an organic weapon with your second attack, holding the weapon in the unused hand. Alternatively, of course, you could use Telekinetic Fling or a non-damage cantrip here (like Blade Ward to effectively raise your AC).

Quickened Healing, another 6th level feature, lets you expend two PEDs when you cast Cure Wounds to change its casting time to a bonus action, and you get to add one roll of a PED to the total amount of HP restored.

    This, of course, frees up your action to attack or cast a spell, which is nice, though the cost is a bit high. I could see using this to heal up an unconscious ally and then Dimension Door to safety, though I suspect the more likely use case (or at least what's envisioned as the primary use) is to heal yourself while in the thick of combat.

Level 10:

Mutable Form enhances Extend Limbs, increasing its duration to 10 minutes and adding your choice of Stony Epidermis, Superior Stride, or Unnatural Flexibility.:

Stony Epidermis gives you advantage on Con saves and resistance to your choice of Acid, Bludgeoning, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Piercing, Poison, Slashing, or Thunder damage.

    The fact that this includes "kinetic" damage types is actually pretty enormous. If you're able to assess what kind of weapons a foe is using, this is going to be useful all the time, and could make up for the fact that your AC is mainly being set by Mage Armor, most likely.

Superior Stride says that as long as you aren't wearing armor, you can take the Dash action as a bonus action and you get a Climb and Swim speed equal to your Speed.

    Potentially useful in combat (especially if engaged in underwater combat) but certainly situation.

Unnatural Flexibility gives you a +2 bonus to AC and you and all equipment you're wearing and carrying becomes pliable, allowing you to move through any space as narrow as 1 inch, and allowing you to spend 5 feet of movement ot escape nonmagical restraints and the Grappled condition.

    The AC bump is nice (and I think still works with Mage Armor, so with +2 to Dex, you could get a 17 AC, which is quite decent) and while situational, the Freedom of Movement-like bonus here can be clutch.

    I think the way to evaluate Mutable Form overall really requires you to remember that you can choose one of these every time you activate Extend Limbs, which itself is relatively cheap to do. So, I think this is a really good feature.

Level 14:

Life-Bending Weapons lets you, once per turn when you hit a creature with your Organic Weapon, to expend a PED and roll it. Each creature of your choice within a 10-foot emanation originating from you regains HP equal to the number you rolled plus your Intelligence modifier, and one creature of your choice within the area takes Necrotic damage equal to the number rolled (but evidently not adding your Int mod to that damage).

    So, this isn't a ton of healing, but you could potentially hit a few allies here. The extra damage doesn't actually need to go to the target you hit, though I think unfortunately because it's not adding damage to your attack, it won't get doubled on a crit.

Overall Thoughts:

    I think giving a decent martial kit to a full spellcaster is always going to invite theorycrafters to come up with some really nastily powerful builds. I'm not entirely sure that the Metamorph is going to be all that happy mixing it up in melee, though of course there is a ranged option for your Organic weapon.

What I think potentially makes this subclass really powerful, though, is its flexibility. Being able to choose which weapon to use on each attack is something I wish the Armorer had. And, of course, this is the subclass that gets healing spells, which are always nice to have.

So, I suspect that we're looking at a strong subclass here.

UA: The Psion

 Well, holy crap. For the first time since the Artificer, it looks like WotC is going to be coming out with a new full class (assuming this eventually sees publication). For all my complaints about so many revamps of existing subclasses, this is a true original.

Now, this is not the first time they've tried to make a pure psionics-based class, with the Mystic coming out as UA several years ago, but never seeing print. The Mystic tried to build an entire separate system for using Psionic Talents. It was, frankly, insanely complicated, which is probably why it didn't see print.

Also, notably, MCDM created their Psionic class, the Talent, which worked a bit more like a spellcaster but still used a system very different from spellcasting, and its psionic powers were a separate list from normal spells, despite working somewhat similarly.

With the Psion, the Gordian Knot is cut, and instead, this is being presented simply as a full spellcaster.

This is a full class, so there's a lot to unpack here. I'm going to go through the base class in this post, and do potentially other posts for each of the four subclasses presented.

This being a full spellcaster, the spell list is a really important part of how powerful the class is. Broadly speaking, the focus is largely on "Arcane" spells typically available to Wizards and Sorcerers, though skewing a little away from the big elemental damage spells (sadly no Fireball or Lightning Bolt).

So, we're going to go feature-by-feature, and then I'll put the spell list at the end.

Level 1:

Spellcasting is, of course, your primary class feature. Psions are Intelligence-based spellcasters, and you'll be getting what used to be called "spells known," only able to swap them out when you level up (or when your DM allows you). You have standard full-spellcasters spell progression, getting up to 9th level spells at level 17, and a new level of spells every odd level prior to that. You start knowing 4 spells and will get up to 22 (which I think is the same as Sorcerers), but you'll also get extra spells from your subclass.

The biggest distinction for Psions is that you can ignore any verbal components, as well as any material components that don't have a gold cost or are consumed. Interestingly, this means you'll still have to perform somatic components if a spell has them, so while you will do quite well in an area of silence, you aren't necessarily going to be "subtle spell" casting with everything, meaning you're vulnerable to counterspell (though I'll be making note of how many spells on the list lack somatic components).

Psionic Power actually works a lot like the features for Soulknife Rogues and Psi Warrior Fighters, giving you a reserve of Psionic Energy dice that can be used to fuel various abilities. These begin as d6s, and you get more of them as you level up, and they become higher-sized dice, eventually capping out at 12 d12s at level 17. (The size of the dice goes up by tier of play, similar to a Monk's martial arts dice.)

You get one of these dice back on a short rest, and all of them back on a long rest.

Your default uses for PEDs (should I include an S for plurals when the plural word of die doesn't use an s?) are Telekinetic Propel and Telepathic Connection.

Telekinetic Propel lets you, as a bonus action, move a Large or smaller creature other than you within 30 feet of yourself by a number of feet equal to 5 times your roll on the PED you expend to use the feature, straight away from you. An unwilling creature can make a Strength save (versus your spell save DC) to resist this, and the die is only expended if they fail the save. (Technically a willing creature is voluntarily failing the save, so it'll also be expended).

Telepathic Connection gives you telepathy at a range of just 5 feet. As a bonus action, though, you can expend a PED to extend the reach of that telepathy by a number of feet equal to 10 times the number rolled for a number of minutes equal to your Psion level.

    I'm honestly a little surprised we don't just get the telepathic communication feature that we see with Great Old One Warlocks and Aberrant Sorcerers, but at least the default 5 foot reach could be helpful in social situations if you don't want to spend resources. I think Telekinetic Propel will see plenty of use in combat, and can help not only to get hostile creatures off of your squishy Psion, but can also potentially boost an ally into position (like sending a melee friend further toward distant enemies).

Subtle Telekinesis is your last 1st level feature, and automatically gives you the Mage Hand cantrip, and you can make the hand invisible when you cast it - so sorry if you want to play a Githzerai or Githyanki Psion, but this will be a bit redundant! Still, very flavorful and actually pretty useful.

Level 2:

Psionic Discipline is something akin to Metamagic or Eldrtich Invocations - a short list of special features that can affect some of your spellcasting and other abilities. You get two such disciplines at level 2, and will get an additional two at level 10, and two more at level 17. YOu can also swap one out when you level up. Generally, only one of these can be used per turn unless otherwise stated.

The Disciplines, I'd say, probably bear the strongest similarity to Warlock invocations, with some affecting your spells and others being just kind of bonus abilities and passives. There are 11 of these, so by level 17 you'll have over half of them. It's certainly the kind of thing that could be expanded on in the future. Each gives you new ways to expend PEDs.

(Looking back, I think we need to list the disciplines to get a sense of the power of this feature.)

Disciplines:

-Biofeedback lets you expend a PED when you cast a Necromancy or Transmutation Psion spell, and gain a number of Temp HP equal to the roll plus your Intelligence modifier (minimum 1).

    Seems ok, but only if you are getting hit a lot.

-Destructive Thoughts lets you, when you cast a Conjuration or Evocation Psion spell, and the target succeeds on their saving throw against it, to expend a PED and deal Psychic damage equal to the roll plus your Intelligence modifier (minimum 1).

    This is weird: it's basically a punishment for when a target succeeds against your spell. Feels odd.

-Devilish Tongue lets you expend a PED and add it to an Influence check (in other words, Charisma skills, as well as I think Animal Handling - remains to be seen how much players embrace these "Influence," "Study," and "Search" terms).

-Ego Whip lets you, in place of an Opportunity Attack, expend a PED and force the creature to make an Intelligence save, On a failure, they are allowed by 10 feet and subtract the PED roll from the next damage roll they make before the end of their next turn.

    This could combo well with Dissonant Whispers, but I think it's likely rare that creatures will provoke Opp Attacks from a spellcaster.

-Expanded Awareness lets you expend a PED and add its roll to a Search check (aka most Wisdom checks, such as Perception or Insight).

-Id Insinuation allows you, when you cast an Enchantment or Illusion spell that forces a saving throw, to expend two PEDs and roll 1, subtracting the result from the save.

    So, this is more expensive than the others, but also pretty powerful (especially when you get the level 20 capstone). I think there are a lot of Enchantment and Illusion spells for Psions, so you'll probably get a lot of options for this.

-Inerrant Aim lets you add a PED roll to a missed attack roll, potentially making it a hit. The die is only expended if your attack hits.

    This one I like a lot, especially given that it only costs anything when it works. I'll need to look at how many attack roll spells you're likely to cast, but certainly for the Metamorph or using a cantrip like True Strike, this would be good.

-Psionic Backlash lets you use a reaction to expend a PED and then roll two of them (at this point it might be easier to just call them "Psi Points" and then roll two of them, subtracting this value from damage when you are hit with an attack. In addition, you can make the attacker make a Wisdom save, and deal the amount you rolled in psychic damage to them on a failure.

    Obviously this is a decent defensive option, with a nice punishment effect (albeit one that won't always work).

-Tactical Mind lets you expend a PED and add it to a Study action roll (aka, most Intelligence checks).

    Once again, like the similar ones for Influence and Search, this can be useful, but isn't mind-blowing.

-Psionic Guards lets you, at the start of your turn, expend a PED and gain immunity to being Charmed or Frightened, as well as giving you advantage on Intelligence saving throws. If you're charmed or frightened when you activate this, the conditions end. You can also use this Discipline along with another on the same turn.

    Situational, for sure, but fully canceling out of a charm or fear effect is not bad.

Psionic Modes is your other 2nd level feature. Twice per long rest, you can use a bonus action to enter either Attack Mode or Defense Mode for 1 minute or until you use the feature again.

Attack Mode allows your damage from weapons and Psion spells to ignore resistance to psychic damage, and you can expend a PED to reroll a number of damage dice for a spell equal to your Intelligence modifier.

    So, I don't think there are many monsters with Psychic resistance rather than full immunity. While you might wonder how many weapons do Psychic damage (if you multiclass with a Soulknife Rogue, your Psychic Blades count) but the Metamorph subclass has a few. This will give you effectively the Empower Spell metamagic on every spell you cast for a minute, which could be decent.

Defense Mode gives you resistance to Psychic damage, and you can add a PED to a failed Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma saving throw to try to turn it into a success (this doesn't have bad luck protection, but in a fight where these are a common danger, that could be quite useful).

    I'll have to check in again if there's another feature that allows it, but this does seem like something that you should be able to expend resources to get uses back - otherwise it's strictly twice per day. (Yes, there is, at level 7).

Level 3:

Here, you pick your subclass, the options being the Metamorph (which is kind of the Akira subclass, where you warp your body to create natural weapons and are generally more of a martial/physical combatant,) the Psi Warper (which is all about teleportation and moving things around,) the Psykinetic (which is about creating magical barriers and, you know, telekinesis) and the Telepath (which is of course the most mental, mind-manipulation subclass).

Level 4:

ASI/Feat as usual. With normal feat progression at 8, 12, 16, and an Epic Boon at 19.

Level 5:

Psionic Restoration lets you, once per long rest, restore up to half of your max PEDs (rounded down) on a short rest (I assume you also get the regular one you'd normally get). Not sure why they bother with rounding down, as you always have an even number of PEDs.

But basically, it stretches out your supply a little more, which is good given that it's a major class resource.

Level 7:

Psionic Surge lets you, when you roll Initiative, expend a Hit Point Die (still throwing me that they aren't just Hit Dice, though this name is arguably more descriptive) to regain a use of Psionic Mode (there we go, that's the way to recover uses).

Additionally, you can spend a Hit Point Die when you roll a PED to treat a roll of 1, 2, or 3 as a 4.

    Real quick, let's calculate how much this increases the average roll for each die. By this level, our PED is a d8. So, the average result of 4.5 becomes 5.25. At level 11, this turns a d10 from 5.5 to 6.1. At level 17, a d12 goes from 6.5 to 7. So, at best, this is spending a hit point die to raise our result by an average of .75. Which, you know, if we aren't worried about needing to heal on a short rest, sure, ok, fine. But this bonus is kind of trash.

Level 20:

Yes, that's it for base class features (other than epic boons) until our capstone. Remember, though, it is a pure spellcaster, so we have to consider all those spells as class features.

Enkindled Lifeforce allows us, once per turn, when we expend a PED on a Psion feature or Psionic Discipline, to roll two Hit Point Dice and roll (but not expend) two additional PEDs and add them to the total rolled.

    This is, actually, pretty cool. At 20, we've got a pretty hefty number of Hit Dice (20, to be precise) and might be able to spare a couple for a big move. Because this is adding 2d12 to whatever roll we're making, that's an average of 13. Now, as damage that's not terribly impressive at 20th level (though not negligible). However, if we're using a Discipline like Id Insinuation (maybe I should go back and list all the Disciplines?) which allows you to subtract your roll from a target's saving throw result against one of your Enchantment or Illusion spells (such as, for example, Psionic Scream, which is Enchantment) that's a massive blow to their saving throw. Lowering a result by 6.5 (as with the base use of this feature) is good, but might still not do it if they have a hefty saving throw bonus. But even a creature with a +19 to a save is going to wind up seeing that bonus vanish under an assault of 3d12. If you need freaking Vecna to fail that Wisdom save, this can actually do it for you.

Spells:

Obviously, given that this is a pure spellcaster, the real power of the class is going to be in its spells.

The spell list doesn't list all the components, but obviously somatic-free spells are going to be useful. Let's see what they get:

Cantrips:

Blade Ward, Dancing Lights, Friends, Light, Mage Hand (which we get automatically,) Mending, Message, Mind Sliver, Minor Illusion, Prestidigitation, Telekinetic Fling (a new spell, detailed below) and True Strike.

    A lot of the classic "Arcane" options for utility cantrips. Damage-wise, you only have Telekinetic Fling and True Strike. The latter is pretty good, but you will be limited to Simple weapons.

Telekinetic Fling has a Material component with a cost - a piece of ammunition (arrow, bolt, bullet, or needle) worth 1 CP. You make a ranged spell attack and deal 1d10 Force damage, scaling up by a d10 per tier of play. The range is 60 feet.

    This is decent damage, though you can only attack creatures with it, and you'll need to stock ammo like a ranged martial character. Scaling-wise, you're going to be in the same place where True Strike will keep pace with it for a while if you have a Light Crossbow or Quarterstaff/Spear/Greatclub. As a note, neither this nor True Strike will work, I think, with the natural weapons of the Metamorph subclass (to be detailed in a later post,) which is kind of frustrating.

1st level:

Animal Friendship, Charm Person, Command, Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic, Dissonant Whispers, Feather Fall, Identify, Jump, Longstrider, Mage Armor, Silent Image, Sleep, Speak with Animals, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Tenser's Floating Disk

    One thing I'm noticing is something of a dearth of damage options. Out of all of these, only Dissonant Whispers actually deals damage. Plenty of decent utility, though.

2nd level:

Animal Messenger, Blindness/Deafness, Calm Emotions, Crown of Madness, Detect Thoughts, Enhance Ability, Enlarge/Reduce, Enthrall, Heat Metal, Hold Person, Invisibility, Knock, Locate Animals or Plants, Locate Object, Magic Mouth, Mind Spike, Mirror Image, Phantasmal Force, See Invisibility, Shatter, Silence, Suggestion, Tasha's Mind Whip (as seen in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, updated in the UA), Zone of Truth

    Ok, we're starting to see some more damage options, but still a lot of utility. Utility spells can be a little hard to take on a character who doesn't swap out spells every day, unless they're very broadly applicable. But we start to get some more cool psychic damage spells. I'd really recommend picking up Silence on a Psion, as they can still cast spells within Silence while others who need a verbal component cannot.

3rd level:

Animate Dead, Bestow Curse, Clairvoyance, Dispel Magic, Fear, Fly, Hypnotic Pattern, Intellect Fortress (as seen in Tasha's), Major Image, Nondetection, Sending, Summon Astral Entity (detailed blow), Telekinetic Crush (also detailed below) Tongues

    So, of course, given how much we're drawing from the Wizard/Sorcerer spell list, it's bound to be disappointing to lack Fireball or Lightning Bolt, even if it makes sense on a thematic level. Animate Dead is somewhat surprising to find here. But what about these new spells?

Summon Astral Entity

This works similarly to the Tasha's era (and now PHB-era) "Summon Spells," having a stat block that scales with the spell level. Your Astral Entity is an Aberration, but seems to be themed more as "spatial anomaly" more than "Lovecraftian goo-monster," which, frankly, fits closer to how I imagined my GOO-lock would flavor his summoned aberrations.

The Psionic Spirit summoned with the spell has 40 HP at 3rd level, gaining 10 for each spell level higher (which is a little beefier than most) and comes in Ghostly, Ectoplasmic, and Crystal varieties (ok, actually, I take it back - this is all more kind of "vaguely paranormal" than spatial anomalies. Two of these feel more like Undead, though I guess there's also a kind of Lovecraftian vibe to all three).

Ghostly and Ectoplasmic varieties have Incorporeal Movement. Ghostly also has a fly speed (of 30) while the Crystal variety gets a +2 bonus to AC. The base AC is 11 + the spell's level, so at 3rd level, that's 14 for the incorporeal ones and 16 for our Crystal. If we upcast all the way to 8th level, we're looking at 90 HP and an AC of 19 or 21 in the case of the Crystal.

The Crystal version also has a reaction, allowing them to halve the damage they take when hit with a melee attack, and then teleport up to 30 feet, making this one of the more resilient summoned spirits.

Crystal's attack does 1d10+3+spell level Piercing damage.

Ectoplasmic's attack is ranged (30 feet) and does 1d6+3+spell level Psychic, and on a hit or a miss, slows the target and any others in a 5-foot emanation by 5 feet. for a turn.

Ghostly's attack is also ranged, with a 120-foot range, dealign 1d8+3+spell level psychic damage.

    So, this is good, if a little less interesting than Summon Aberration. The Crystal spirit is going to certainly be the most resilient, but also has to get into melee. Thus, I think the Ghostly entity is probably going to be the default choice, capable of staying at safe range.

Telekinetic Crush

Fun fact, this is available to Psions, Sorcerers, and Warlocks but not Wizards.

With a range of 120 feet (and only a Verbal component) this forces creatures in a 30-foot cube to make a Strength saving throw, taking 5d6 Force damage on a failure or half on a success, and falling prone on a fail as well.

The damage goes up by 1d6 for each spell slot above 3rd.

    While the damage is low compared to a Fireball (the area is comparable) the fact that this targets Strength could potentially make it quite good against a group of enemy spellcasters (who will have a hard time countering a Psion casting it). Lacking Fireball, this is probably going to be a go-to option for Psions, but I might be less inclined to pick it up on a Sorcerer. Warlocks might like it, though.

Back to the spell lists!

4th Level:

Arcane Eye, Banishment, Charm Monster, Compulsion, Confusion, Dimension Door, Freedom of Movement, Greater Invisibility, Hallucinatory Terrain, Locate Creature, Phantasmal Killer, Polymorph, Raulothim's Psychic Lance (as seen in Fizban's), Summon Aberraton

    This has my big 4th level spells, so I can't complain here. Probably redundant to pick up Summon Aberration and Summon Astral Entity. I'm inclined to think Aberration is more useful overall, to be frank, even if I like the vibes of Astral Entity (also, you can get it two levels earlier, though these spells scale much better at even spell levels).

5th level:

Animate Objects, Awaken, Contact Other Plane, Dominate Person, Dream, Geas, Hold Monster, Legend Lore, Mislead, Modify Memory, Rary's Telepathic Bond, Scrying, Seeming, Synaptic Static, Telekinesis, Teleportation Circle

    Again, has the spells I'd expect it to. Synaptic Static can be a good replacement for Fireball in a pinch.

6th level:

Blade Barrier, Disintegrate, Eyebite, Find the Path, Mass Suggestion, Move Earth, Otto's Irresistable Dance, Programmed Illusion, True Seeing

    Even if Disintegrate's not always reliable (sadly, one of my sorcerers always seems to see monsters succeed on their saves when she burns her highest-level spell slot on it) it's a fun spell to have, and one of those real "yes, we're into tier 3 now" spells. Some good options here. Nothing to complain about.

7th level:

Etherealness, Forcecage, Mirage Arcane, Plane Shift, Power Word Fortify, Project Image, Reverse Gravity, Teleport

    Yeah, the big transportation utility spells are all here. No damage spells, though, unless you count Reverse Gravity.

8th level:

Antipathy/Sympathy, Befuddlement, Dominate Monster, Glibness, Maze, Mind Blank, Power Word Stun, Telepathy

    Again, no actual damage options, though I love Maze.

9th level:

Astral Projection, Foresight, Power Word Heal, Power Word Kill, Psychic Scream (as seen in... Xanathar's, I think?) Shapechange, Time Stop, and Weird.

    Notably no Wish here, which is a bummer but also makes thematic sense. Still, Shapechange is quite good.

Overall, I think the spell list feels very much like they went through the existing spells and picked out any that felt like they could be the product of psionic powers.

I really like that they're taking a crack at this, and I'll be curious to see how other people evaluate the class. I'm not always great at recognizing how powerful something can be. Prior to this, I'd have thought of an Aberrant Sorcerer as being more or less the Firestarter/Shining/Stranger Things subclass, and there's naturally a big overlap here thematically. But do the Psion's class features make up for the lack of the Aberrant Sorcerer's access to all the Sorcerer class features?

I don't see the Psion as being quite as capable a damage-dealer, but they'll have a lot of utility. But between the Sorcerer and the Wizard, can they find a way to stand out?

Well, in the next few posts, we'll look at the four subclasses, which might give us a better sense of the role that this class can play.

And then, probably, we'll speculate on what sourcebook this might portend. Dark Sun? A new setting with a late-20th-century vibe? (Aka, what I'd want?) Or perhaps just a setting-agnostic psionic sourcebook? But given that UAs in the past several years have tended to preview unannounced books (shed a tear for Modern Magic) I'm going to go ahead and assume that the Psion is coming, and will make a tag for this first post.

What Am I To Do With the Multiplayer-Ficaiton of Favorite Games?

 This year, two games are coming out that I have very mixed feelings about.

One, coming quite imminently, is Elden Ring: Nightreign. The other is FBC FIrebreak.

Both are quasi-sequels to single-player games that I've utterly adored, namely Elden Ring and Control, respectively (yes, Elden Ring, like other Soulslikes, has always had multiplayer elements, but you can easily ignore them).

Both games are made by studios that I have enormous respect for.

And so, I find myself in this weird place:

Personally, I have never liked competitive multiplayer in games. And neither of these are. In fact, even while Nightreign is still a 3rd-person action-RPG and Firebreak is a first-person-shooter, both have similar structures, sending you on shorter endeavors in a team of three players.

I'll be honest, though, I haven't actually been following either game as closely as I would be if these were more straightforward follow-ups. Remedy has already announced Control 2, which will likely take a similar form to the original game, and FromSoft has assured their fans/audience/customers that the studio is still committed to making single-player offerings.

So what I am then left wondering is whether I should play these games or not?

See, despite the fact that my family has always gotten Apple computers (back in the mid 90s, this was a bolder stance than it is now) I'm sort of philosophically against the idea of brand loyalty. Star Wars was a big deal to me as a kid, but I find that there's a certain "fandom" culture online that tolerates no criticism, claiming you can't be a fan of something unless you like every last thing released under its banner (to be clear, there's also a ton of toxicity on the negative side of things that is arguably more prevalent). The older I get, the more I become aware of how branding and marketing tries to shift our brains to grow a kind of dependency on the familiar.

And it's tricky, because on one side, I think that these studios in particular are places where art is created - and I don't think there's anything wrong with having favorite artists. But there's also a powerful economic incentive to take advantage of those familiar stories, or in corporate jargon, those "IPs," (standing for "intellectual properties") in order to get people to buy into something that they might not be as inclined to try if it weren't for the familiarity with that brand.

I guess in both these cases, I really don't have a sense of whether the creative people in these studios had a brilliant idea for a multiplayer game, or if some corporate suit who couldn't care less about how fun a game is just read some data that suggests that this kind of ongoing live-service multiplayer game brings in big bucks, and that they need to get on that bandwagon.

Now, of course, it's funny, because in 1999, I played Super Smash Bros. for the first time, and it, along with particularly its two-year-later, much-higher-budget (I assume) sequel of Smash Bros. Melee, became one of my favorite games, despite the fact that there's no real like, story-progression. I'd play against bots far more than against my friends. So, maybe I'll find a lot of fun in the gameplay loop of these games as well.

I guess this all just boils down to my hemming and hawing about whether I'm going to play these games or not. And the answer is... Maybe?

Cheesing Simon and Truly Winding Down COE33

 Well, I'm not proud, but it's not like I broke any rules of the game.

I looked up and used a one-shot build to deal with Simon, the ultimate, hardest post-game boss (at least I'm pretty sure he is) in Expedition 33.

I had gotten him to phase 2 many times, but even though I managed to figure out the parry timing on some of those phase 2 attacks, I just wasn't having it.

So, I had a build that essentially let a ton of powerful and multiplicative buffs go to Maelle, who finished the boss off with a single Stendahl, and then rinse-and-repeat for phase 2 (I had thought there was a phase 3, but evidently not).

Anyway, with that, I don't think I really have any major combat challenges left in the game. I've beaten Clea in the Floating Manor and the combined... er, spoilerrific endbosses of the not-so-Endless Tower.

Now, what's left to me are basically Gestral Beach challenges (the volleyball, timed climb, and dodging the energy balls while climbing ones are what I have left - and for Volleyball, just the highest difficulty one) and then just buying up every Picto, finding all the journals, and finding the last two of the lost Gestrals.

It's bittersweet - the game is phenomenal, though I'm still feeling a bit melancholy about the ending. And honestly, even if I felt pushed to pursue this nasty build to take down the ultimate boss, I guess I can feel some satisfaction in the fact that I only did it on this one, and not some of the other profoundly nasty bosses of the post-game (getting the parry-timing on Clea's fight was particularly satisfying).

I don't know if this game was ever intended to be a franchise-starter - while the title feels like it could absolutely be the start of a future "Clair Obscur: Some Other Subtitle" anthology series in the vein of Final Fantasy, I can also imagine that Sandfall might be philosophically opposed to just iterating on the same idea. (It's interesting to me that Dark Souls III feels very much about the need to stop making sequels, but at least on a mechanical level, Elden Ring was transparently a further iteration of the same mechanics - but in a new world with new lore, that, frankly, I actually like more).

Still, I think everyone is going to be looking at what Sandfall does next, even if that project might not be for several years.

I do also wonder if SquareEnix is looking at this and thinking about what they might do in their grand Final Fantasy series. I know that FFXVI has lots of big fans, and there's a lot about the story (mainly the characters) that I like, but I never really wanted my Final Fantasy game to play more like Devil May Cry. The FFVII remake trilogy has show that they have some really cool ideas to make more action-forward combat along with strategic spellcasting and abilities.

But Expedition 33 showed (or perhaps synthesized) that you can do a really compelling form of turn-based, heroes-in-a-line combat system. There's deep strategic depth on top of Dark Souls-like reflex-driven stuff here that, clearly, was a big hit.

Now, I'm not advocating for SE just eating Sandfall's lunch here. I hope that Sandfall continues to make beautiful and original games. But in a sense, perhaps it's an elder statesman like SquareEnix's role to then make games that have that old-school feel while newer studios are experimenting.

I'd have loved to play a version of FFXVI where I got to make more complex strategic choices, and perhaps where Cid, Jill, and Joshua were also playable rather than just coming along for the ride sometimes.

Finding COE33's Mega-Boss

 I think the only things I have yet to finish in COE33 are the Gestral mingames (I did get to the party atop the big obstacle/parkour course, as well as the simpler one,) finding the last of the Gestral children (I want to say I'm at 5/7 or something?) and, well...

The main story of COE33 concludes... well, it's a bit of a spoiler to say where or who the final boss is, but the point is that you're going to be able to do this well before you finish all the optional stuff. Much of the game's high-level challenges are really balanced for someone who has already beaten the main story, and I say this having pretty much trivialized the last "level" of the main story (I was one-shotting some very scary-looking monsters - not as in, killing them without dying on the first attempt; I mean Monoco would use an ability and they'd be dead before they could attack).

As epic and heart-wrenching as that finale is, it's functionally just a little past the midpoint, if even that, of what you can get out of the game.

It is, frankly, a little odd as a decision.

Thinking of another game that I poured tons of hours into, Elden Ring's base game does have quite extensive optional areas, with Miquella's Haligtree/Ephael, Brace of the Haligtree serving, I'd say, as the true "omega dungeon" of the game (a term I borrow from Final Fantasy X, which was the first game I remember playing that had this "harder than the final dungeon" kind of area.)

However, I think you could argue that's not really the case in Elden Ring. The final boss of the game (not counting its DLC) is, actually, up there along with Malenia as a difficult boss. Both required many attempts for me the first time I defeated them, and while I think you could certainly argue that Malenia is harder than Radagon/Elden Beast, they're roughly on par with one another. (Elden Ring is such a profoundly massive game that it has other contenders, like Placidusax or Mohg, though the latter at least I think very few would consider the hardest boss in the game).

The point is, in my 7 or so clears of Elden Ring, I've always done Malenia before Elden Beast, and it never made the Elden Beast a pushover.

So, again, it's an interesting choice on the part of Sandfall to make the conclusion of the story in COE33 balanced for far before you're going to be able to clear the other stuff.

Still, I've been making my way through it. There are some very tough fights - the final boss of the Flying Manor, which itself requires you to beat souped-up versions of four main-story bosses before facing the unique boss of its dungeon (where if the boss gets a hit in, it heals for like 500k, which does give you a long time to practice those perfect parries).

However, what appears to be the true, ultimate final optional boss, is one whose design is 100% a giant tribute to FromSoft, and is, fittingly and frustratingly, every bit as mind-crushingly hard as what From throws our way. Details past the spoiler break: