The Talent – D&D 5e Class Optimisation Guide

Become a master of psionics with this psychic 3rd party class from MCDM.

At a glance

Talent features

Hit dice and proficiencies (Lv1) – 2/5

The talent is probably most comparable to a sorcerer here. The hit dice are the same (d6) which is the lowest of any class. They do have constitution proficiency, like a sorcerer, which is perhaps the best option for a spellcaster (or spellcaster equivalent) and talents do maintain concentration, so these saving throws remain important. In fact, talents can maintain concentration on multiple effects simultaneously so this is arguably even more important for them.

I’d say their intelligence proficiency is weaker than the sorcerer’s charisma proficiency due to how common these saving throws are. However, talents make up for this with light armor proficiency making them a bit more resilient without having to expend resources on mage armor.

Talents do have more options for skill proficiencies than a sorcerer, including the same face skills. But talents aren’t really built for face skills being an intelligence “caster”. Knowledge skills are a decent option, but face skills are more commonly needed and more useful making the sorcerer better in this department. Ultimately, you don’t want to be relying on a talent for skills anyway due to the effects of strain, but more on that later.

Overall, the only strong element here for a talent, is their constitution proficiency, everything else is average or weak. That’s OK, talents are built for other things. Just be prepared for a relatively vulnerable character that’s poor in the skills department.

Psionic powers (Lv1) – 5/5

Bear with me on this. It’s a long analysis, but this is an entire alternative spellcasting system.

Psionic powers are a lot like spells, but they are distinct too. Multiclassing into spellcasting classes won’t let you cast psionic powers with spell slots for example. In fact, talents don’t have spells slots. You can just keep using psionic powers until the strain of them kills you (or you decide to stop)!

The mechanics of psionic powers are quite broad so I’ll handle a few aspects separately here.

Powers known

To start with, talents are slightly behind other full spellcasters in the known powers/spells department. They’re so similar that we can compare directly. The mechanics for learning new psionic powers is simpler (learn a new one of an order you possess whenever you increase a level).

However, a sorcerer, for example, starts out learning 2 new spells each level (this slows down later in their progression). This eventually leads to the talent being behind the sorcerer in powers/spells known by up to 4 (between levels 9-11). The talent eventually catches up, but remains 1 spell/power behind the sorcerer at level 20. This essentially means a bit less flexibility.

This is arguably a little less important as you don’t have to manage spell slots of 9 levels to fit your powers around, but it remains a disadvantage.

Spell slots and power uses

These don’t exist for the talent. You can cast as many powers as you like so long as the strain doesn’t kill you. Powers of order 1 don’t even cause strain so are the equivalent of cantrips. It’s hard to compare whether this grants you more uses or less of levelled spells/powers. Much will depend on the luck of the dice and the strain you gain.

We can work out an average number of powers used at each level based on your manifestation die and the amount of strain you’ll potentially gain and compare this with your maximum strain at each level. The calculation looks like this:

Maximum strain ÷ (Strain gained for each number rolled on the manifestation die added together ÷ size of the die)

So at level 1, you have a maximum strain of 5 and have a manifestation die of D4. If you’re using 2nd order powers then the possible levels of strain for each die roll are:

• 1 = 2 strain
• 2 = 1 strain
• 3 = 0 strain
• 4 = 0 strain

If we add these together, we get 3 strain. We get an average strain each time we use a 2nd order power by dividing by the number of possible options, so 0.75. We then divide our maximum strain by the average strain per roll to get 6.7. So we’d expect a talent to be able to use nearly 7 2nd order powers before being overcome by the strain.

I’ve popped this into a table below for each level and each order of power. Mixing and matching orders of powers is too complex for this, but it’s illustrative of how much a talent can use powers.

Level	Manifestation Die	Maximum Strain	2nd Order	3rd Order	4th Order	5th Order	6th Order
1	d4	5	6.7	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
2	d4	6	8	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
3	d4	7	9.3	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
4	d4	8	10.7	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
5	d6	9	18	7.7	N/A	N/A	N/A
6	d6	10	20	8.5	N/A	N/A	N/A
7	d6	11	22	9.4	N/A	N/A	N/A
8	d6	12	24	10.3	N/A	N/A	N/A
9	d6	13	26	11.1	6	N/A	N/A
10	d6	14	28	12	6.5	N/A	N/A
11	d6	15	30	12.8	6.9	N/A	N/A
12	d6	16	32	13.7	7.4	N/A	N/A
13	d8	17	45.3	19.4	10.5	6.5	N/A
14	d8	18	48	20.6	11.1	6.9	N/A
15	d8	19	50.7	21.7	11.7	7.2	N/A
16	d8	20	53.3	22.9	12.3	7.6	N/A
17	d8	21	56	24	12.9	8	5.4
18	d8	22	58.7	25.1	13.5	8.4	5.7
19	d8	23	61.3	26.3	14.2	8.8	5.9
20	d8	24	64	27.4	14.8	9.1	6.2

If we approximate that 2nd order powers are similar in power to 1st and 2nd level spells, then there’s a fair bit more casting power here than for full spellcasters. Even as we go up the orders, it feels like we should be averaging more castings of increasingly powerful spells. That doesn’t even take into account the fact that you can reduce strain on a short rest using hit dice (and without sometimes at later levels).

The side effects of that is the debilitation that strain gives as you amass more of it.

Strain

Strain is the mechanic for debuffing your talent as they use psionic powers. Considering how much more a talent can generally use their powers than other spellcasters can use spells, the trade off is necessary.

Because you can split your strain between body, mind and soul options, you can choose (to some extent) the negative effects you receive. It’s slightly more complicated than just working down a list, but means you can pick options that’ll be less problematic for your character, which I like.

I’d argue that you can take 8 levels of strain before hitting an option that’s genuinely a problem. 3 early options are all about skills which you’ll almost never need to use as talents aren’t really built for skills. It may mean some weaker knowledge skills which is probably about all a talent is good for in this department. It’ll also mean you’re easier to grapple and can’t dash from danger, but ideally, this isn’t happening a lot. As you accumulate more strain though, you’ll likely discover all sorts of problems like halved speed, reduced maximum hit points and losing proficiency on concentration saving throws.

It turns your talent into even more of a glass cannon than the sorcerer is.

Concentration

It’s also worth noting that talents can concentrate on multiple concentration powers simultaneously (equal to their proficiency bonus). This is quite a big buff, though concentration can still be lost by taking damage etc. but talents also happen to be the kings and queens of maintaining concentration.

How powerful are psionic powers?

But the main way to understand the power of psionic powers is how psionic powers compare to equivalent spells.

Order 1 is very much comparable to cantrips with damage even scaling at higher levels in the same kind of way. I might argue that some powers are weaker or stronger than the average cantrips, but the powers are of a similar magnitude.

2nd order powers seem to straddle the line between 1st and 2nd level spells. For instance, Again feels like a slightly lesser form of Silvery Barbs (a strong 1st level spell). Choke feels like a slightly better Tasha’s Hideous Laughter and ignite is better than Inflict Wounds. There’s definite variety in power, but they do seem in this rough ballpark.

3rd order powers seem to straddle the line between level 2 and 3 spells and sometimes even level 4 spells. Cure Ailment is like Lesser Restoration, elsewhere is like Vortex Warp (a level 2 spell) but with more targets making it probably more of an equivalent to a level 3 spell. Icon of Fear is slightly less potent than Fear, but easier to target multiple targets and avoid friendly fire. Then there’s Embrace the Deep which is a much better Water Breathing making it more comparable to a level 4 spell.

4th order powers seemed to be in the region of 5th level spells and 5th order in the region of 6th level spells. I don’t think the 6th order powers hit the same level of power as 9th level spells. I think they’re closer to 7th or possibly, in some instances, 8th level spells.

This probably makes sense considering how many more powers/spells a talent can use compared to a full caster.

I think at low to mid levels, this makes talent more potent than other full casters. While they may be blasting more powers at later levels, they won’t be using powers as potent as the likes of Wish or Power Word Heal.

Strain to maintain (Lv1) – 3/5

Failed concentration saving throws can be maintained by gaining strain equal to the sum of all the orders of these powers. A potentially high cost, but potentially at a high gain.

Psionic exertion (Lv3) – 4/5

This is basically metamagic but you gain strain for the privilege of enhanced spells. This does make it inferior to a sorcerer’s metamagic as it basically eats into your psionic powers usage rather than being an additional economy to work from and you become weakened as a result.

Some psionic exertions are better than others. For example, destructive power can be a decent damage boost, expanded power leads to double-sized AoEs, shared power let’s you target a 2nd creature and overwhelming power can force a creature to reroll a saving throw with a penalty. These are all top options and ones to prioritise. On the other hand, options like dynamic power only push or knock prone, which is comparatively weak, even when the amount of strain is taken into consideration.

Psychic boost (Lv7) – 3/5

An important way to manage your strain and the fact you can do it in the midst of battle with a bonus action is really useful. It’s not a lot relative to your maximum strain, but that could still be an extra use of one of the higher order powers you have available to you, and you get more uses at higher levels.

Psionic bastion (Lv11) – 3/5

Psychic damage is less common than most, but still useful to have this resistance. Immunity to charmed and frightened is useful as 2 of the more common conditions. Solid defensive feature.

Shielded mind (Lv18) – 4/5

The advantage on intelligence, wisdom and charisma saving throws is a strong resilience feature. The immunities are nice bonuses, but rare enough that you may never see them used.

Ignore strain (Lv20) – 4/5

You can ignore the effects of one of the types of strain. Pick the type with the most debilitating effects. I’d probably favour mind, but body is a good option too. Considering how much you’ll spend with levels of strain, this will give you 8 levels with no side effects.

How good is the talent?

The talent is very much a glass cannon class. Its power levels are high but it’s resilience is low and using powers comes at a cost. There’s also an element of fortune involved too. Too many poor manifestation rolls can lead to some really diminished impact, especially at lower levels.

One way that the talent impresses is by creating an alternate spellcasting system to make the talent unique in ways the recent Unearthed Arcana fails to do with the Psion. For this, the talent can be applauded for making something that is much more distinct than the sorcerer. And it feels like it should work too.

I think we will see some unevenness in combat with the talent at times outshining their allies, and at others underperforming. This isn’t necessarily balanced mechanics in a strict numbers sense, but I think it feels within the right realms of power. I also wouldn’t want all classes to be mechanically so precise. This makes for dull class design.

Personally, I’d be happy to include the talent at my table and consider it a more unique and fun option than MCDM’s illrigger class.

4/5

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Optimising a talent build

Building a strong talent is most like building a strong spellcaster with a wizard or sorcerer the closest classes. I’ve given some guidance below on how you can build your talent.

Ability scores

Recommended options

• Dexterity: You’ll mainly need this for your AC. Grab studded leather and get this as high as you can to make yourself a little less vulnerable.
• Constitution: Constitution is both important for your hit points and your concentration saving throws so worth having at least a decent amount in here.
• Intelligence: Your main ability and the one that fuels your powers, including saving throw DCs and psionic power attacks. This should usually be your first priority for ability score increases.

Options to avoid

• Strength: Talents are all about mind powers. You’ve got very little use for strength so I’d dump this.
• Wisdom: You should dump wisdom, you’ve got too many other ability scores to focus on.
• Charisma: The same goes for dumping charisma.

Ability score	Point Buy	Standard Array
Strength	8	8
Dexterity	15	14
Constitution	15	13
Intelligence	15	15
Wisdom	8	12
Charisma	8	10

Skills

Recommended options

• Arcana: Knowledge skills are probably a talent’s best options with your high intelligence.
• History: Same goes for history.
• Investigation: A high intelligence makes this a good option too.
• Perception: You won’t make it as the party scout, but perception is always useful.

Options to avoid

• Animal handling: Not a hugely important skill and this relies too much on wisdom.
• Deception: You won’t have the charisma to capitalise on this and it’s too high stakes for talents who regularly gain debuffs to skills when under strain.
• Insight: Both a wisdom and a face skill which isn’t great for a talent.
• Persuasion: Good skill, but I’d leave it for better conversationalists than a talent.

Races

As a talent, you’ll likely want your race to help you with certain aspects of your build including:

• Toughen up: Talents are incredibly vulnerable so anything that can make them last longer will be helpful.
• Safety: Alternatively, you can try and avoid danger altogether. Flight is a good option here, as are options like teleportation that can help you avoid danger.
• Innate spellcasting: Talents have the intelligence to be quite good at spellcasting, just be aware that they lack any spell slots to repeat cast these spells.
• Knowledge skills: You generally don’t want to rely on talents for skills as a little bit of strain will weaken their skills quickly, but low stakes intelligence skills are good options for them. Especially as intelligence classes are rare.

Recommended options

• Aarakocra: Flight is the main thing here. Fly up high and stay out of reach of enemies.
• Astral Elf: Having a free teleportation feature as a bonus action is handy for a very vulnerable character. Plus you get a free cantrip, perception proficiency and proficiency in a changeable skill (probably a knowledge skill is best).
• Autognome: Improved AC without is great for your durability. Built for success means more reliable attacks or even saving throws and resistances and advantage on saving throws makes you more resilient.
• Fairy: Another option for a flying race that can keep you out of danger.
• Forest Gnome: Even more resilience for saving throws just beware it conflicts with your level 18 feature, but most talents won’t reach that level anyway. The minor illusion cantrip and the ability speak with small beasts are decent options too and you get an intelligence boost.
• Owlin: You’re mainly here for the extra evasion that comes from flight, but it really is that effective for one of the most vulnerable classes in the game.
• Warforged: Warforged have a bunch of resilience features like improved AC, resistance to poison, advantage against the poisoned condition and more.

Backgrounds

Primarily, you want your background to pad out your skills. Talents are notoriously poor with skills, but they can work for knowledge skills.

I’d recommend the following backgrounds for a talent:

Name	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency	Languages
Acolyte	Insight, religion	None	2 of your choice
Astral drifter	Insight, religion	None	2 of your choice
Cloistered scholar	History and 1 of arcana, nature or religion	None	2 of your choice
Faction agent	Insight and 1 intelligence, wisdom or charisma skill	None	2 of your choice
Sage	Arcana, history	None	2 of your choice

Choosing your subclass

At level 2 talents get their subclass, known as a psionic specialization. There are 7 to choose from which are:

Feats

From level 4 (or at level 1 if you’re playing a Human) you can grab a feat in place of an ability score increase.

Just be aware that many feats that might feel like a natural fit for an alternative spellcaster, are not that great for a talent as they are specific to casting spells rather than using psionic powers. For example, war caster could be a great option, but it’s specifically written to work only with spells.

With that in mind, I’d suggest the following are some of your better options for a talent:

• Alert: Blast off psionic powers earlier in combat with improved initiative.
• Fey touched: Misty step is a great safety spell and an extra spell choice means you have another option if you’re feeling a bit strained from psionic powers.
• Magic initiate: If you want some spell options, especially for when you’re feeling strained or want some cantrip options too, then this is a good choice.
• Resilient: A good option for gaining dexterity proficiency.
• Lucky: More reliable d20 tests is great for anyone.
• Tough: More hit points means you can last a bit longer.

Weapons

You mostly want to be using psionic powers for your attacks so weapons are mostly obsolete. You can grab something like a dagger or light crossbow as a backup, though even things like anti magic fields won’t affect your psionic powers.

Armor

You only have proficiency in light armor and studded leather is cheap enough that you should get it as soon as you can for maximum AC.

Other class guides

Not sure a talent is for you. Not to worry. Why not check out one of our other class and subclass guides.