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.
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