UA Psion Subclasses: Psykinetic

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

Psykinetic Spells:

1st level: Shield, Thunderwave

2nd level: Cloud of Daggers, Levitate

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

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

5th level: Telekinesis, Wall of Force

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

Level 3:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Level 6:

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

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

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

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

Level 10:

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

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

Level 14:

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

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

Overall:

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

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

UA Psion Subclasses: Psi Warper

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

Psi Warper Spells:

1st level: Expeditious Retreat, Feather Fall

2nd level: Misty Step, Shatter

3rd level: Blink, Haste

4th level: Banishment, Dimension Door

5th level: Steel Wind Strike, Teleportation Circle

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

Level 3:

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

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

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

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

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

Level 6:

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

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

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

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

Level 10:

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

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

Level 14:

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

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

Overall Thoughts:

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

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

UA Psion Subclasses: Metamorph

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

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

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

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

Metamorph Spells:

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

1st level: Cure Wounds, Inflict Wounds

2nd level: Alter Self, Lesser Restoration

3rd level: Aura of Vitality, Haste

4th level: Polymorph, Stoneskin

5th level: Contagion, Mass Cure Wounds

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

Level 3:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Level 6:

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

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

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

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

Level 10:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Level 14:

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

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

Overall Thoughts:

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

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

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

UA: The Psion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Level 1:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Level 2:

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

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

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

Disciplines:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Level 3:

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

Level 4:

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

Level 5:

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

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

Level 7:

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

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

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

Level 20:

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

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

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

Spells:

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

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

Cantrips:

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

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

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

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

1st level:

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

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

2nd level:

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

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

3rd level:

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

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

Summon Astral Entity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Telekinetic Crush

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

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

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

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

Back to the spell lists!

4th Level:

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

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

5th level:

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

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

6th level:

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

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

7th level:

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

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

8th level:

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

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

9th level:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And so, I find myself in this weird place:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheesing Simon and Truly Winding Down COE33

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Finding COE33's Mega-Boss

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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