Yep, finally getting back to the Psion UA.
As a note, the Psi Warper subclass was not included in this UA, but for happy reasons: the response was so overwhelmingly positive that they didn't feel a need to revise it. My feelings on the Psi Warper back in May (wow, I guess it has been a while since the first UA) were quite positive, so good on it.
Once again, looking at the Metamorph, we've got the "Akira" subclass, in which psionics allow you to reshape your body to act as a martial-melee hybrid, the Psionic equivalent of a Bladesinger Wizard.
Now, some base Psion features did get changed - like the removal of its combat modes. I believe the subclass reintegrates elements of that. The core, though, is going to be the use of your Organic Weapons, which give you significant martial capabilities.
Metamorph Spells:
1st: Cure Wounds, Inflict Wounds
2nd: Alter Self, Lesser Restoration
3rd: Aura of Vitality, Haste
4th: Polymorph, Stoneskin
5th: Contagion, Mass Cure Wounds
Interestingly, this introduces a lot of healing spells to a class that generally doesn't get any. I think the intent is to give you some more resilience, but as a full caster with access to healing, you could probably really help out your party when they're in need. Remember that Cure Wounds is much better than it used to be, and upcasts decently. Obviously, some other spells like Polymorph and Haste can be quite powerful (though I think Haste is one of those spells I used to think of as absolute top-tier, but I think you could argue it's not that amazing).
Mutable Form:
As a bonus action, you can expend a PED (Psionic Energy Die - we're going to be sticking with that acronym) to transform, stretching your limbs, for 1 minute. You roll the die and gain Temp HP equal to the number rolled plus Int (minimum 1 THP). You also get an extra 5 feet of reach, an extra 5 feet of speed, and you can cast Touch-ranged spells that take an action to cast with a range of 10 feet.
So, the Temp HP (how are we liking THP?) is nice, but pretty minor - I think 17 at absolute most at tier 4, if you roll maximum on your die. But the other benefits are fantastic. The "reach" on your touch spells means you can reach in to cure wounds an ally and potentially not put yourself in danger. Reach in general I think is an underrated feature.
Organic Weapons:
As a magic action, or when you take the attack action, you can reshape a free hand into either a Bone Blade, Flesh Maul, or Viscera Launcher, becoming a weapon (if you do this with the attack action, you can use the organic weapon to attack). The limb remains transformed until you take a Magic action to change it into a different organic weapon or you have the Unconscious condition, or you return the limb to normal (no action required). When you attack with the weapon, you can use Intelligence instead of Strength or Dexterity.
Before we get into the weapons themselves, this is a great change: namely that the weapon persists even when you're not attacking with it. One of the technical issues with a Soulknife Rogue is that the weapons only exist while you're attacking, and while they did add that you could make an Opportunity Attack with them in 2024, you technically can't use them with a Battle Master's Commander's strike (though as a DM I'd for sure allow that). The UA also promises that there will be magic items that enhance these weapons. I hope any such items will also work on other subclass-granted armaments like the Beast Barbarian's natural weapons or the aforementioned psychic blades).
One other note: while Psions get True Strike as a cantrip, which would seemingly be a great option for this subclass given that they later get Bladesinger-style extra attack (actually, can we call that Eldritch Knight-style now?) on a technical level, you can't use True Strike with these because they don't have a cost associated with them. Again, as a DM I'd allow it - the reason for the cost is to make it so that you cannot use a spell focus for the spell and thus not have a weapon to attack with. Frankly, I think spells like this or Booming Blade, etc., should just refer to the weapon as part of the spell, like Magic Weapon. Just as Cure Wounds doesn't make sense as a spell without a creature to heal, True Strike doesn't make sense as a spell without a weapon to enhance.
One last note: one change, and slight nerf, to the organic weapon from the previous UA is that you used to be able to swap their damage type for Psychic. I'll grant that I don't know that that makes a lot of sense flavor-wise, but it was helpful, especially given a later feature.
The Organic Weapons are as follows:
Bone Blade: A blade of bone springs from your forearm. It counts as a simple melee weapon with the Finesse property, and deals 1d8 piercing damage on a hit. You have advantage on the attack roll you make with the blade if at least one of your allies is within 5 feet of the target and is not incapacitated.
You might wonder why Finesse is on this given that you can attack with Intelligence. It's so that you can use it as a multiclassed Rogue! The Pack Tactics effect is semi-redundant for Rogue/Psions given that the ally would be giving you Sneak Attack anyway, but advantage is still nice to get in any scenario. You can also use this weapon for a feat like Defensive Duelist, as it'll stick around to parry with.
Flesh Maul: Your fist and forearm coalesce into a hardened mass of flesh and bone. The maul is a simple melee weapon that deals 1d10 bludgeoning damage. A creature hit with the maul has disadvantage on the next Strength or Constitution saving throw it makes before the start of your next turn.
I don't believe you can swap weapons mid-attack action, but naturally this is a great concentration-breaker, as they'll immediately have to make that Con save.
Viscera Launcher: Your hand and forearm transform into a crossbow made of muscle and sinew firing bolts of bile. It's a simple ranged weapon with a normal range of 30 feet and a long range of 90 feet, and deals 1d6 Acid damage on a hit. Once on each of your turns, when you hit, you can deal and extra 1d6 Acid damage to the target.
A bit like a much-grosser Armorer's Lightning Launcher. This is probably going to be the obvious default weapon if you want to stay away from your foes and let beefier characters tank them. The 30-foot normal range is quite low (equivalent to a Pistol) and if you often use Mutable Form, you'll already have a 10-foot reach on the other weapons. The extra d6 of damage does mean that this might win out in terms of overall damage. Once we get extra attack, it falls behind the Flesh Maul (2d10 is 11 average, 3d6 is 10.5 average) but the range is, of course, good.
Level 6:
Extra Attack:
We get extra attack, and like Eldritch Knights and Bladesingers, you can cast a Cantrip in place of one of those attacks.
Given that we can attack with Intelligence anyway, certainly True Strike (if the DM isn't a stickler and lets you use it with your Organic Weapons) works great here, but other Psion cantrips can also work. Telekinetic Fling and Mind Sliver are both damage cantrips, but you can also consider something like Blade Ward to effectively boost your AC, or various other cantrips to accomplish non-combat tasks mid-fight.
Flesh Weaver:
When you use Mutable Form, you can expend a second PED to gain additional benefits, increasing your AC by 2 and allowing you to expend a PED when you cast a spell with a spell slot that restores HP to add to the healing equal to the roll of the PED.
The AC is great, and probably worth the PED. I don't love spending a PED for the privilege of spending more PEDs to add honestly marginal healing to a spell you're already spending a spell slot on. Granted, on Mass Cure Wounds the die is effectively being multiplied, but I'd say this aspect of the feature is niche at best. But as one of two 6th level features, the other being the always-powerful Bladesinger Extra Attack, I can't complain.
Level 10:
Improved Mutable Form:
The duration of Mutable Form increases to 10 minutes, and you gain one of the following benefits that last the duration.
Stony Epidermis gives you advantage on Con saves to maintain concentration. You also get resistance to your choice of acid, bludgeoning, cold, fire, lightning, piercing, poison, slashing, or thunder damage.
Just off the top, this is really good - especially if you get a sense of what kind of damage is coming at you before you use this. The fact that this includes the three "kinetic" damage types means it's going to be useful in nearly every fight.
Superior Stride lets you, if you're not wearing armor, Dash as a bonus action and gives you a Climb and Swim speed equal to your speed.
Also pretty good, though less universally necessary. (Again, the fact that we choose this each time we activate it means that niche utility is good to have).
Unnatural Flexibility grants a +1 bonus to AC (potentially on top of the +2 from Flesh Weaver) and you and all your worn equipment becomes pliable, letting you move through any space as narrow as 1 inch, and you can spend 5 feet of movement to escape from nonmagical restraints and end the Grappled condition.
Once again, situational (well, the AC is always good) but really clutch when you need it.
I will say overall that I kind of feel like Flesh Weaver should probably be folded into this, maybe with this coming at 6 or something, as they feel kind of like they're aiming to do the same basic thing: enhancing Mutable Form. Of the two features, I like this one more than Flesh Weaver.
Level 14:
Life-Bending Weapons:
When you hit a target with your Organic Weapon, you roll 1 PED and the weapon deals extra Necrotic damage equal to the damage rolled (the die is not expended). Alternatively, you can expend the die to cause each creature of your choice within 30 feet to regain HP equal to the number rolled on the PED plus your Intelligence modifier. Once you do this (the healing version) you can't do so again until the start of your next turn.
So, at base, you're dealing 1d10 (at this level) extra Necrotic damage on every hit with your weapon. That's very solid way to keep your weapon scaling with magic weapons that martial character might be using. The heal isn't going to be massive, but given that it will likely hit several allies (yourself included,) it's pretty good. And that could be off-turn, like on an opportunity attack.
Overall Thoughts:
I think this is a solid subclass. It's flavorful (in a very gross way) and also mechanically sound. You will need to deal with the fact that you're a d6 class with no armor who is trying to mix it up in melee, but Psions will have access to Mage Armor, the Shield Spell, potentially Blade Barrier, extra AC from Mutable Form's various enhancements, as well as potentially resistance to whatever damage type the monsters are using most, and reach weapons with Mutable Form, and you start to look pretty capable of getting into the mix.
And if you're worried about doing so, you're still a full spellcaster.
Again, my only real complaint here is that I feel like Flesh Weaver and Improved Mutable Form feel too similar, but that's a philosophical issue and not an actual problem with how the subclass works. I'll be giving it a green mark in the survey!
No comments:
Post a Comment