Dungeons and Dragons‘ playtest content is material that needs more work before it can be published. Heck, many Unearthed Arcana ideas don’t even make it past the playtesting stages. What I’m trying to say is that, when a new playtest document seems wildly out of balance, we should be a little forgiving. Emphasis on the little, though, because this new Psion playtest is seriously wonky.
In case you missed it, Wizards of the Coast revealed on May 27 that it was designing a new entry for the DnD classes list. The Psion is an Intelligence caster who can spend Psionic Energy Dice to fuel their (mostly utility- and control-focused) powers. It’s a complex class that D&D has tried to introduce in one form or another throughout fifth edition history. Naturally, that complexity makes it a challenging character option to finetune.
This is most evident in the four subclass options presented for the Psion. There are some incredible concepts here, but the actual mechanics seem hit-and-miss.
Of all the options, one seems to have far more potential than its Psion compatriots: the Psykinetic. Based on a deep dive into the document (though no playtesting yet, so take this with a pinch of salt), this seems like the best iteration of the Psion by far.
Firstly, it has my preferred subclass spell list. The Psi Warper and the Metamorph both have a strong selection of always-prepared spells, but the Psykinetic has one thing no other Psion gets: Shield. With zero armor proficiencies, a D6 hit dice, and no real way to defend against incoming damage, the Psion is exceptionally squishy.
Shield is far more cost-effective than healing if you want to keep your Psion standing. Other Psions can grab this with a well-chosen DnD 2024 background or feat, but the Psykinetic has a natural advantage over them nonetheless.
The rest of the spell list feels well-chosen, too, with options that address the class’ shortcomings while enhancing its core identity. Essentially, the Psion is a psionics-focused take on the God Wizard archetype (Treantmonk has an excellent explainer of this). With this control-heavy playstyle in mind, spells like Slow, Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere, Telekinesis, and Wall of Force are excellent picks – and only one of them is available for other Psions.
Perhaps the weakest spells on offer here are those designed to deal damage, but both Cloud of Daggers and Thunderwave are situational rather than outright bad. The Psion also always has the brand-new spell Telekinetic Crush always prepared, which offers some area-of-effect damage. Damage output seems to be a universal weak spot for the Psion, so these spells feel like an acceptable compromise, given that the class is clearly designed to focus on other tactics.
Beyond spells, the subclass features further solidify this Psion’s role as a control machine. It achieves this by modifying and improving many of the base class’ most underwhelming abilities.
First, Telekinetic Techniques alters the Psion’s Telekinetic Propel power. The original is a bonus action that moves a Large or smaller creature if they fail a Strength saving throw. The distance you can push or pull them is, frustratingly, randomly determined by a roll of your Psionic Energy Die. Given how hard it is to guarantee results, it’s an ability we’d usually avoid.
When a Psykinetic uses this ability, they apply one of three additional effects to their target. Either the target’s speed increases by 10 feet, they lose their ability to make opportunity attacks until the start of their next turn, or they take Force damage as long as they failed the original Strength saving throw.
This offers some extra tactics for a Psykinetic. You can yoink an ally out of danger and then give them extra speed to run away with. Alternatively, you can guarantee a friend an escape free of opportunity attacks. Or you can deal an extra nick of damage in those scenarios where neither of the above is useful. These don’t solve the design problems inherent in the original ability, but they at least give the Psion more reason to use it.
At level six, Empowered Attack Mode does exactly as its name implies: it upgrades the Attack Mode option from the core class’ Psionic Modes feature. The original is a bonus action that lets you bypass psychic damage and reroll damage dice.
Now, however, a Psykinetic gains 60 feet of fly speed when using it, and their Intelligence modifier is added to the damage rolls of Psion spells. That extra damage isn’t too exciting when your DnD character build mainly focuses on control, but the power of flight is a big deal for a spellcaster as vulnerable as the Psion. Melee enemies? Never heard of them.
The next feature, Rebounding Field, modifies your Shield spell. When you cast it and cause the triggering attack to miss, you can use a Psionic Energy Die to send Force damage back to bite the attacker in the butt – and you gain temporary HP equal to the damage they take. The target must fail a Dex save for you to deal that damage at all, but that’s about middle-of-the-road when it comes to the rarity of save proficiencies for DnD monsters. Your odds are fairly good.
Also at level 10 comes Enhanced Telekinetic Crush, which modifies your signature AoE spell so it halves the speed of affected creatures, regardless of whether they passed or failed their saving throw. The subclass leans more into damage-dealing here than we’d like it to, but it at least offers a control-focused benefit for your best source of damage. Plus, that speed reduction gives you another way to bully enemies that like to fight in melee.
The subclass’ level 14 capstone allows you to cast Telekinesis without concentration for a minute, as well as move Gargantuan creatures and objects. We love that, but we don’t love that it costs four Psionic Energy Dice. Your pool for this precious resource is pretty limited, and almost every subclass feature relies on you draining it. It feels epic to be able to drop buildings on enemies, but the cost to do so is steep.
Like the other Psions, the identity of the Psykinetic is weakened by its attempts to cover all bases. There are limitations that are so deeply baked into the core class that they cause problems for the subclass, too. Basically, we’re not trying to say that the Psykinetic is perfect. Draft one still needs work. However, this is a darn sight better than the other Psion subclasses we’ve been handed.
The melee-focused Metamorph has weapons that scale poorly and next-to-no way to protect themselves in close combat. Plus, they’re trying to juggle healer along with their many other roles. The Psi Warper offers yet another teleportation focused subclass, which can be useful but feels awful samey in the current D&D landscape. And, lastly, the Telepath is good at telepathy…and basically nothing else.
We can see a lot of potential in the new Psion class, even if the first run at it leaves a lot to be desired. We just hope the next iteration can even the score between its subclasses.
Want to playtest this class yourself? Here’s all you need to know about DnD races when building a character. Or, if you’d like to share your own opinion on the playtest, visit us in the Wargamer Discord.
Source: Wargamer
