UA: Telepath mk. II

 Given that the Psi Warper subclass was skipped this time (not dropped, but evidently so well-liked that they decided it didn't need further testing) we come to our last Psion subclass for the second round of UA testing.

We've been getting a lot of UAs lately, and I think especially after the delay on Eberron: Forge of the Artificer (FOTA as our default abbreviation?) it's been feeling like a lot of testing and not a lot of official content. But I guess that's ok, and I'm certainly happier to see brand-new stuff (well, at least non-reprint stuff) here with the Psion.

Telepathy is, I think along with Telekinesis, one of the absolute core fantasies of a psionic class. In fiction, these often come hand in hand. I'd argue that you might combine it a bit with what we'd term in D&D as Divination - I'm thinking about Danny Torrance in The Shining getting crucial warnings from his imaginary friend, or Eleven from Stranger Things being tested on whether she can listen in on Russian spies via remote-viewing. I don't think that this subclass focuses on that very much, but we'll see.

Once again, I'm looking at this fresh. My recollection was that the version that came out in May was a bit underwhelming, and given that I first read this UA a good while ago, I have only at the outset of this post the impression that this is, also, a bit underwhelming. Let's take a look.

Telepath Spells:

1st: Bane, Command

2nd: Detect Thoughts, Mind Spike

3rd: Counterspell, Slow

4th: Compulsion, Confusion

5th: Modify Memory, Yolande's Regal Presence

    So, Command is a strong spell, especially as a pure caster. It's basically The Voice from Dune, a big influence on Dark Sun's psionics. Counterspell is not as powerful as it used to be, but still useful (and newer monster design often works in actual spellcasting to multiattacks). My friend's Bard in my Ravnica game has been having a lot of fun knocking foes around with Yolande's Regal Presence - I don't know if it's a great spell, but it's very fun.

Level 3:

Mind Infiltrator:

When you cast Detect Thoughts, you can expend a PED to modify the spell so it doesn't require spell components or concentration, and if you push deeper into someone's thoughts, they are unaware that you're reading their thoughts if they fail the saving throw.

    Players often use this spell without realizing that you are going to need to wave your arms around - I like that in Baldur's Gate 3, the Githyanki guy who uses it on you very clearly performs the spell components. It's not subtle. But it makes sense that you should be able to use this spell without people noticing you doing it. I'd love for this to just prevent the creature from realizing you were reading its thoughts regardless, but it makes sense that on a save, perhaps the reason that they prevent you from reading the thoughts is that they know what you're trying to do. Very flavorful. Also, you can maintain this with some other spell you might already be using.

Telepathic Distraction:

When a creature you can see within range of your telepathy (30 feet by default, and can be extended with the level 1 Psionic Power feature) hits with an attack roll, you can take a reaction to roll one PED and subtract it from their attack. If this causes the attack to miss, you expend the die.

    A kind of more wildcard Shield spell, but nice that you don't expend any resource if it fails to work. PEDs start at d6s, meaning it's probably going to block less than a Shield spell, but at higher levels, you'll actually tend to be more effective - though only against a single attack. Still, you can protect a friend, and generally DMs will call out what they roll, so if you know that you only need to reduce the attack by like two or three, it's probably worth it to try the reaction.

Level 6;

Bulwark Mind:

At the start of your turn, you can expend a PED to give you a few benefits for 10 minutes. You get resistance to Psychic damage, and whenever you make an Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma saving throw, you add a roll of your PED to the save (this doesn't expend it). You can't use this benefit if you are incapacitated.

    So, on one hand, I feel like you should just get blanket Psychic resistance. However, adding to all mental saving throws for 10 minutes (and with no action required to set it up initially) is pretty good, even if Intelligence and Charisma saves are very rare.

Potent Thoughts:

You have telepathy out to 60 feet, and you add your Intelligence modifier to the damage of any Psion cantrip.

    The "spellcasting mod on cantrips" is a pretty standard damage boost at level 5 or 6 on a pure spellcaster, so that's fine. The telepathy range of course also extends the reach of your Telepathic Distraction.

Level 10:

Telepathic Bolstering:

When you or a creature you can see within range of your telepathy (now 60 feet, plus potentially more if you boost it) fails an ability check or misses with an attack roll, you can use a reaction to expend a PED, rolling it and adding it to the d20, potentially changing it to a success. The PED is expended only if hte check succeeds or attack hits.

    I feel like this could be phrased better - just say you roll it and then mention it getting expended at the end. What this is is essentially reaction-speed Bardic Inspiration that doesn't work on saves. The reaction speed element is kind of cool, and certainly there are high-stakes ability checks and attack rolls. I assume the flavor here is that you're mentally aiding the character. It's a little dry, flavor-wise, but useful.

Level 14:

Scramble Minds:

You can cast Confusion without expending a spell slot by instead expending four PEDs. When cast this way, you can modify the spell so that its radius becomes 30 feet (way bigger, the standard is 10 feet) and you can choose one creature in the spell's area to automatically succeed on the save. Additionally, when a creature under the spell's effect starts its turn, you choose its behavior instead of rolling.

    The latter part is the really powerful element here. Yes, you get a one-ally Careful Spell, but the key here is that Confusion is a pretty random spell - there's a 20% chance that an affected creature just gets to take their turn as normal. As a note, the random movement from this has no caveat to prevent them running into something dangerous, like off a cliff. Confusion also doesn't function as a charm, so creatures immune to being Charmed can still be affected. I honestly like this, though I might like this more if you could modify the spell when cast with a spell slot by expending, like, 1 PED.

Overall Thoughts:

    So, I think there could be some more here, but I don't hate this as much as I thought I would. I think that Telepathic Bolstering and Telepathic Distraction both feel a little unmoored from the flavor of the subclass - both useful features, but kind of blah. Again, I think there's room to play with some of that "remote viewing" element from genre fiction that has psionics. I think this would be functional, but again, I feel like there's a cooler way to implement this fantasy.

The only thing left from this UA to look at are the spells. A lot are just reprints (though with some revisions) of spells from Tasha's and Xanathar's. Unless we get some new UA before I can get to it, we'll probably take a look at those next.

UA: Psykinetic mk. 2

 Moving on to the next Psion subclass in the revised UA, we have the Psykinetic. When it comes to psionic character, there are basically two guaranteed, necessary styles of Psion - one that focuses on Telepathy, and another that focuses on Telekinesis. The latter, I'd argue, is easier to make a monster-fighting hero with, and could be argued as the default subclass for such a class (notably, Draw Steel's Talent has both a Telekinesis and a Telepathy subclass).

Looking at my review of it back in May, my general impressions for the previous UA version of this were that I liked it conceptually, but wanted them to do a bit more with it. Let's see how we feel about the revision.

Psykinetic Spells:

1st: Shield, Thunderwave

2nd: Cloud of Dagger, Levitate

3rd: Slow, Telekinetic Crush (a new spell)

4th: Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, Stone Shape

5th: Telekinesis (naturally,) Wall of Force

    Notably, now that Shield is a universal spell option for Psions, this is a little less exciting, but it at least frees up one of your spell options. I imagine practically every Psion will take Shield, so this just gives you that default. The spells here are mostly pretty thematic, though I suppose Stone Shape and maybe Cloud of Daggers are a little more of a stretch (though I think flavoring Cloud of Daggers like you're going all Carrie could work.

Level 3:

Stronger Telekinesis:

Your Mage Hand (which all Psions get automatically) has its range increased by 30 feet (to 60) and it can now carry up to 20 pounds.

    This is fine, but I imagine it's rare that the distinction here will really come up much.

Telekinetic Techniques:

When you use Telekinetic Propel, you can roll 1d4 and use the number rolled instead of expending a PED.

Additionally, when the target fails its save against Telekinetic Propel, you can impose one of the following on them:

Boost: The target's speed increases by 10 feet until the start of your next turn (obviously this would be used when you target an ally and they voluntarily fail the save).

Disorient: The target can't make opportunity attacks until the start of its next turn.

Telekinetic Bolt: The target takes Force damage equal to the number rolled on the PED.

    Interesting question: can your free 1d4 roll deal the damage with the bolt? If so, that's kind of a free bonus action cantrip (admittedly one that does very little damage). The main benefit of this feature, I think, is the ability to do more substantial knockbacks for free. Situationally, these other benefits could be useful (and damage is damage,) but it's nothing major.

Level 6:

Destructive Trance:

At the start of your turn, you can expend one PED to enter a destructive state for 10 minutes. During this time, you have a Fly speed of 20 feet and can hover, and when you cast a Psion spell with a spell slot, you can roll your PED and add the number rolled to one damage roll of that spell - this does not expend the PED.

    The speed here could probably be higher, but the general idea of this seems solid. On AoE spells, the extra die would be a bit like upcasting the spell, for a relatively low investment.

Rebounding Field:

When you cast Shield, and the triggering attack misses, you can expend one PED. The attacker makes a Dex save, taking Force damage equal to the amount rolled on the PED plus your Intelligence modifier. On a success, they take half damage. In either case, you gain temp HP equal to the damage dealt.

    So, this is a bit weird: it's a punishing move but also shores up your defense, and you get more THP if they fail their save. But they also have to miss the attack, and but it can only be the attack that triggers the spell. Personally, I think it would be cooler if this instead pushed targets that attacked you back while your shield was up. Maybe damaging them as well.

Level 10:

Enhanced Telekinetic Crush:

First, for reference:

Telekinetic Crush is a 3rd level transmutation spell that takes an action to cast and has a range of 120 feet. You create a field of crushing energy in a 30-foot cube within range. Each creature inside makes a Strength save. On a failure, the target takes 5d6 Force damage and has the prone condition. On a success, they take half damage only. Upcasting adds a d6 for each level above 3.

So, this feature says that when you cast Telekinetic Crush, you can expend one PED to modify the spell so that affected creatures, regardless of whether they succeed or fail on the saving throw, have their speed halved until the start of your next turn. You can also roll the PED and add the number rolled to one damage roll of the spell.

    I get that it's standardized language, but this is a spell with only one damage roll, so... oh well. The speed-halving on top of potentially knocking the targets prone is interesting: it really makes it hard for them to move from their spot (a big creature with a 40-foot movement speed will only have 10 left to move after standing up). I guess I'm not really inspired here.

Level 14:

Heightened Telekinesis:

You can cast Telekinesis without expending a spell slot by expending 4 PEDs. When you cast it this way, you can modify it so that it doesn't require concentration, but the duration is now 1 minute. However, while casting it this way, you can target Gargantuan creatures and objects.

    4 PEDs is not a tiny number, but if it means a concentration-free 5th level spell and saving the spell slot, that's probably worth it. Telekinesis can be very strong, and it's obviously the most thematic spell for the subclass.

Overall Thoughts:

    Nothing here is bad per se, but I definitely don't find it as exciting a subclass as, say, the Metamorph, which seems to really be doing something new. I think there's probably too much conservatism in the design: a psionic telekinetic feels like they should get a free hovering fly speed or something by level 10. I'd also love to have the ability to throw massive objects at foes. Really, it just feels a bit uninspired, and also overcautious in power.

UA: Metamorph mk. 2

 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!

UA: Psion mk. II

 Well, after what feels like a very recent revision of the UA Arcane subclasses, we're getting yet another UA today with a second pass on the Psion class.

If published, this would be only the second non-PHB class (published by WotC) to appear in all of 5E, and the first to be made with the 2024 revisions already locked in.

I've given the class a once-over, and while I haven't compared it directly to the previous Psion UA, overall the class appears to be fairly similar to that incarnation: it's a squishy spellcaster that incorporates some of the Psionic Energy Dice from the Soulknife and Psi Warrior subclasses as a base feature. You get to ignore verbal and most material components on spells, and the spell kit is largely built around spells that are less traditional elemental effects and more blasting with force, psychic, and a little bit of necrotic damage and affecting the minds of foes.

This UA comes with three subclasses (down from the four in the previous one) and several spells, which are either revisions of spells found in Xanathar's and Tasha's or brand-new ones.

In this post, I'm going to look at the base class. I think we're going to just take this on its own terms rather than comparing it with the previous version. I'll cover the three subclasses (Metamorph, Psykinetic, and Telepath) as their own posts, and then do a separate post for the spells.

Psions will naturally draw comparisons with Sorcerers and Wizards, as they are unarmored d6 classes. Like Wizards, Psions use Intelligence as their spellcasting ability, and get Intelligence and Wisdom saving throw proficiencies if they're your level 1 class.

Level 1:

Psionic Power:

This feature gives you a number of psionic energy dice that scale up in both number and value as you level up. To start with, you have 4d6. At level 5, they become 6d8. At level 9, they're now 8d8. At level 11, they're 8d10, at level 13 they become 10d10, and finally at level 17 onward you have 12d12.

You can use these dice to fuel various class features. At baseline, you have two: Telekinetic Propel and Telepathic Connection. Some require you to expend dice. You regain one expended PED (Psionic Energy Die - not going to be typing that out over and over) on a short rest, and all of them on a long rest.

PED features that have a DC use your spell save DC.

Telekinetic Propel: As a bonus action, you can choose a large or smaller creature you can see within 30 feet. They make a Strength save and move 5 feet straight toward or away from you on a failure. Alternatively, you can roll a PED and the distance becomes 5 times the number rolled on the die. The die is only expended if they fail the save.

Telepathic Connection: You have telepathy out to a range of 30 feet. As a bonus action, you can roll a PED and increase the range of your telepathy by 10 feet times the number rolled. You can do this once for free per long rest, and then expend the die for any subsequent uses.

    I like the fact that there are free versions of each of these.

Spellcasting:

You have the Spellcasting feature, learning two Psion cantrips, and gaining another at levels 4 and 10. Psions are a "learned spells" caster, so you can only swap out a single prepared spell when you level up (or if your DM allows, of course).

Intelligence is your spellcasting ability.

Special for Psions, you have Psionic Spellcasting, which allows you to ignore the verbal and material components for your psion spells, except when the material component is either consumed or has a cost associated with it.

    In other words, no need for a spell focus. I will say that I wish you could also ignore somatic components, as I feel that's the usual benefit of psionics - that people have no way of knowing you're the one casting the spell unless there's some other obvious thing going on.

    The spell list is too extensive to list here - Psions are full casters, with up to 9th level spells. You aren't going to get a lot of the classic elemental damage spells like Fireball or Cone of Cold, so I feel like I really need to see these in action to get a sense of how their own spells compare.

Subtle Telekinesis:

You know the Mage Hand cantrip and can cast it without somatic components. You can also make the hand invisible.

    So, not very exciting if you wanted to play a Githyanki or Githzerai, but certainly a shenanigans-enabler.

Level 2:

Psionic Discipline:

Psions have a list of Psionic Disciplines that are fueled by your PEDs (yes, I realize that the plural acronym would also just be PED, shush). You learn two of your choice, and can replace one on level up. You also get new disciplines at levels 5, 10, 13, and 17.

You can only apply one discipline per turn unless otherwise noted. There are 11 total.

These are, I think, fairly core to the class, so I'll list all 11 here.

Biofeedback lets you expend PEDs up to your Int mod when you cast a Necromancy or Transmutation spell, and gain Temp HP equal to the total rolled plus your Int mod.

    Temp HP can be nice if you're getting attacked a lot, though in general, you'll want to stay out of the way.

Bolstering Precognition lets you expend a PED when you cast an Abjuration or Divination spell and choose a creature you can see within 60 feet and give them a bonus to their next d20 test equal to the amount rolled.

    This could potentially be a nice little support boost, but not terribly flashy.

Destructive Thoughts lets you expend up to your Int Mod of PEDs when you cast a Conjuration or Evocation spell that forces a creature to make a saving throw. The creature takes Psychic damage equal to the amount rolled plus your Int Mod, regardless of whether they make the save or not.

    I like this, getting some guaranteed damage, though as a note, there are limited options for low-level Conjuration and Evocation spells that call for saves.

Devilish Tongue lets you add your PED to the roll for an Influence action, and you expend the die only if you succeed.

    Eh, this feels kind of throwaway unless you're in a campaign where everyone's going to have to be able to talk their way through high-stakes situations.

Expanded Awareness lets you add your PED to the roll for a Search action, and you expend the die only if you succeed.

    Search is probably the most common ability check action, but I'm not really excited by this.

In Insinuation lets you expend a PED when you cast an Enchantment or Illusion spell that forces a creature to make a saving throw, subtracting half the number rolled (rounded up) from the creature's save.

    There's a lot of Enchantment and Illusion magic on the Psion list, and given that these are often "save for none" kind of effects, giving you a way to make it more likely that they fail their save is pretty attractive.

Inerrant Aim lets you expend a PED when you miss with an attack roll, adding the amount to the attack and only expending the die if you miss.

    If you're an attack-focused character (the Metamorph is kind of built for this) this could be really great - a 9th level Soulknife feature gained at level 2 and more flexible.

Observant Mind lets you add your PED to the roll for a Study action, and you expend the die only if you succeed.

    Like the other similar ones, this is pretty situational. As Study typically uses Intelligence skills, you'll often be better at these checks, but also, your party might rely on you to succeed on those checks more often.

Psionic Backlash lets you use a reaction when you're hit with an attack to roll a PED and reduce the damage you take by twice the rolled number plus twice your Intelligence modifier, and the attacker makes a Wis save, taking the amount the damage is reduced as Psychic damage on a failure.

    I like this: it's going to be pretty universally useful, even if we're going to try to avoid getting hit as much as we can. It's also a pretty beefy damage reduction.

Psionic Guards lets you expend a PED at the start of your turn. Until the end of your next turn, you have immunity to the Charmed and Frightened conditions, and advantage on Intelligence saving throws. This will end those conditions on you if you're already affected. You can also use this with another Discipline on the same turn.

    This will be absolutely clutch when you need it, but it's definitely situational.

Sharpened Mind lets you expend a PED at the start of your turn, and gain the following benefits for 1 minute or until you're incapacitated: Damage from your weapons, psion spells, and psion features ignore resistance to Psychic damage. Once per turn, if you deal psychic damage to one or more creatures, you can replace the number rolled on one of the damage dice with the number recorded when you rolled for this discipline. You can also use this with another Discipline on the same turn.

    This one is interesting: I don't think there's much in the way of psychic-resistant monsters (it's one of those damage types that I think immunity is more common for). Also, if you use this and roll like crap on your die, the secondary part might not be great. That said, if you roll well, it's potentially some nice damage every turn. I think it's maybe weird enough to make it a cool choice.

Level 3:

Here, you just choose your subclass and get 2nd level spells.

Level 4:

As with most classes, you get your first General feat, and get more at levels 8, 12, and 16 (with 19 giving you an Epic Boon).

Level 5:

Psionic Restoration:

You can meditate for 1 minute to regain all your expended PEDs. You can do this once per long rest.

    So, effectively, you can say that you've got twice as many PEDs per day, as 1 minute is a pretty reasonable time to gather them up. I really think the intent here is that you should be quite liberal with PEDs, which is good, because classes should feel comfortable expending their resources.

Level 7:

Psionic Surge:

After you roll one or more PEDs, you can expend a Hit Point Die and treat any roll on the PED of 1, 2, or 3 as a 4.

    So, this is interesting. Using your own hit dice is a way to spend your own vitality without directly taking damage or otherwise losing life. Now, how does this change your average roll? At this level, your PEDs are d8s. Now, on average that's a 4.5. The thing is, because we choose to use this after  we roll, we're only improving the roll of one of these dice, so "averages" aren't really the right way of looking at this feature. What it means is that, for a cost, you have a floor of 4 for any of these rolls. Considering a feature like Id Insinuation, this could be a pretty big deal - minus 4 to a save is the best you can get out of a spell like Bane. Given how opt-in this is, I think it's probably better than a lot of those "if you roll low, upgrade the result" features.

Level 18:

Yes, no unique core features from level 8 to 17, but remember that we're also going to be getting higher level spells and more Disicplines, along with subclass features.

Psionic Reserves:

When you roll initiative, you regain PEDs until you have 4 if you started with fewer.

    This is the best format for this kind of thing: no need to spend every last PED to get the benefit from this, but it means you'll have your core class thing in every fight (and honestly, with 4, there's a good chance you'll never really run out of these in combat).

Level 20:

Enkindled Life Force:

Once per turn, when you roll one or more PED for a psion feature, you can expend one or two of your Hit Point Dice. For each HPD expended, you can roll an additional PED without expending it and add those numbers rolled to the total.

    So, at this level, your PEDs are d12s, meaning that for the cost of a bit of short rest healing, you can add an average of 13 to any of these PED rolls (on top of the 6.5 on average you're getting anyway). Truly, I think this can make a massive impact - say you were attacking the Tarrasque with some Metamorph flesh weapon and use Inerrant Aim. If you rolled a natural 2, perhaps at this level you have a +11 to hit, so you're only at 13 for your attack roll, which is just over half of the thing's AC. You add your single d12, which would only turn that into a hit if you maxed out the roll. But with 3d12 now, that's adding an average of 19.5, meaning that there's honestly a very good chance you can hit the highest (base) AC monster in the game. (Hell, you'd also be likely to hit Sul Khatesh even if she uses the Shield spell, and she's notably not immune to psychic damage). Use this with Psionic Backlash, and you're talking about probably reducing an incoming attack's damage by 49.

Overall Thoughts:

    I think there are some cool ideas here. In terms of power, I don't know that it's going to necessarily live up to the Wizard and Sorcerer. The class will live or die based on its spell list, and I don't feel very good at evaluating the list we have. But I think that even if it is behind those two (and I could be wrong about that,) there's a lot of cool and thematic stuff here that could make the class a lot of fun to play.

I'd love for there to be some option - maybe a Psionic Discipline - that allows you to skip the Somatic components of spells. I'd highly recommend considering Silence, which is a Psion spell, as you can use it asymmetrically against enemy spellcasters.

I'll try to go over each of the subclasses in their own posts.

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 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.