Has the Updated Psion Unearthed Arcana Playtest Improved the new class?

Diving into the updated Psion playtest.

If you want to check out the full playtest material, you can find it all here.

What did I think of the original Psion playtest?

Largely, I liked the idea of the Psion and felt there was some strong flavour and unique ideas beyond the usual tropes and ideas used for character options. However, I had a few criticisms in my previous analysis:

• Too many different types of expendable resources
• Psionic mode wasn’t impactful enough
• Some unnecessarily confusing subclasses
• Too many dice rolls for some features
• Not enough psionic dice/ways to recharge psionic dice, especially when so much of what fuels a Psion are linked to these dice

The good news is that the designers have stated they want to address a lot of this in their designer notes as well as revamping the spell list as well which others highlighted as an issue.

Interestingly, I really enjoyed the psi-warper and this was deemed good enough in its current state to not need playtesting again.

Has the Psion improved?

The easy answer to this is yes, it definitely has. Whether it’s improved enough is a question I’ll dive into below.

Spellcasting

Some people had hoped the Psion would have it’s own unique mechanics for spellcasting (like the warlock), but that hasn’t changed. What has changed is the spell list itself which has had a load of additions including the likes of:

• Life siphon (new)
• Sanctuary
• Shield
• Thunderwave
• Ectoplasmic trail (new)
• Ego whip (new)
• Levitate
• Bleeding darkness (new)
• Enemies abound (new to 2024)
• Life inversion field (new)
• Mental prison (new to 2024)
• Psionic blast (new)
• Thought form (new to 2024)
• Abidalzim’s horrid wilting (new to 2024)
• Antimagic field

Some of these feel really important like bringing shield into the main class out of some subclass spell lists (and giving some really important protection). Likewise, thunderwave gives an important level 1 damage option and levitate feels like an obvious utility inclusion.

A bunch of the spells are new (or at least new to the 2024 rules). I think some new psionic spells is important to help differentiate the class and adding a few more of these helps, though there’s a part of me that would like to see more psionic exclusive spells.

It’s also great that they’ve brought back some old favourites too. I love enemies abound so I’m really glad that’s been refreshed, and it’s suitably psionic in nature too.

How good are the new spells?

There’s not a lot of new spells, but there are a few unique ideas in here (though they are a bit hit or miss):

• Life siphon – Expending hit dice for extra damage is interesting, but it’s an expendable that doesn’t really beat your cantrips for damage, at least not for long. The main appeal is supposed to be with upcasting where damage increases exponentially, but it will remain weaker than AoE spells like fireball by a long way. Even cast as a level 2 spell, it doesn’t outperform magic missile at level 2 when you factor in a 65% chance of hitting. Basically, I don’t see a reason to take this spell other than to harm your ability to heal during short rests.
• Ectoplasmic trail – An interesting, high risk spell for a squishy Psion. It only takes a bonus action, letting you do other things, but will slow down and hurt creatures you pass through automatically. There’s no save for this. The next turn also allows you to do damage through your movement. The challenge is having enough movement to pass through lots of enemies. Things like the speedy feat, haste, being a Wood Elf and dashing can help you out here. You’ll likely want to cast this at the start of a turn so you can benefit from it for 2 turns.
• Ego whip – This one doesn’t seem quite right to me. When someone takes a charisma saving throw or ability check, they must make another charisma saving throw to then determine if they reduce that initial save or ability check by d8. This feels a bit convoluted when something like silvery barbs at level 1, works automatically. It also states the range is 120ft, but it can only be cast on someone within 30ft. Think this one needs a bit more work.
• Bleeding darkness – It’s not high damage, but it is a continuous effect so it’s gentle on your spell slots and can be moved around. The closest comparison is moonbeam at level 2. Bleeding darkness gets you a bigger area, a bit more damage and the blinded condition. Pretty good in my opinion.
• Life inversion field – This relies on too many factors in your favour. You need to be close to enemies (not great for a psion, though better for a cleric) and be getting healed. Problem is, there’s not a big amount of damage caused to enemies when you’re healed and even with plenty of healing support, you likely won’t be getting healed loads, even if you engineer things with a friendly cleric.
• Psionic blast – Big damage, big area, causes stunned for a turn and uses an intelligence saving throw (which creatures are rarely good at) makes this a really solid spell.

Psionic power

Telekinetic propel and telepathic connection can now be used without expending psionic dice (either once, or in a weakened way). This was an issue before as you basically had no psionic options if you ran out of psionic dice, or had to be very sparing with what you could do here.

I like that telekinetic propel can just attempt to move someone 5ft away as a handy safety feature or a bit of battlefield control. Sadly, using psionic dice still means making a roll. Maybe the randomness of distance is a little fun, but it is an extra roll of the dice when there’s already a saving throw.

Sadly, telepathic connection means you do need to track whether you’ve used your free version or not which is another thing to track. Still, it’s good that there are some always available psionic abilities, but I’d still like to see this streamlined further.

Psionic modes

This has been removed. I’m glad it has. It was an extra expendable that could be a bit underwhelming compared to something like a sorcerer’s innate sorcery. Some of this has been rolled into sharpened mind, a new psionic discipline. It’s weaker in this new state, but also more streamlined, and in line with the power levels of other psionic disciplines.

Psionic disciplines

The number of these you learn is now more spread out across levels so you’ve got halfway points where you learn one more, rather than waiting 9 levels to learn 2 at the same time. It’s definitely better this way.

They’ve also updated a lot of them. For example, biofeedback and destructive thoughts get better scaling by letting you use multiple psionic energy dice in one go allowing for more temporary hit points or extra damage at once.

I wonder if swift precognition ended up being too powerful when one psionic energy dice would let you use true strike as a bonus action (so a big damage bonus action for your level) with the flexibility to cast a spell with your action or make attacks, while only spending one psionic energy dice (which far outperforms what one psionic energy dice can currently do). It’s a bit less exciting, but the change to bolstering precognition does seem a little more in balance with other psionic energy dice uses and fits the theme of the spells a bit better.

You also have some of these disciplines that only expend psionic energy dice on a success now (which is kinder on your resources).

Overall, I think these changes are good and generally make your psionic disciplines more impactful while also balancing out those that were too prolific with just one psionic energy dice.

Psionic restoration

Recovering psionic energy dice is a bit better now. Like before, you recover 1 die each short rest and all of them on a long rest. But you can also take a minute to recover all dice once per long rest (this previously took a short rest to recover half your dice).

It’s late game, but you also always start combat with at least 4 psionic energy dice when you reach level 18.

Handily, I think this approach is much more streamlined and more generous on your reserves of psionic energy dice. Combine this with minor psionic effects that are free to use and it should be easier to use psionics more often.

And what about the subclasses?

As mentioned, the designers were really happy with the feedback on the psi warper (and so was I), so that doesn’t need a new playtest. The rest have undergone some changes though.

Metamorph

The metamorph really struggled as a gish subclass. It lacked the resilience in particular to handle being a melee combatant. There were hit and run capabilities baked in here, but it wasn’t enough.

For example, the update grants temporary hit points when you enter mutable form. At level 6, you also get flesh weaver which lets you add 2 AC when you activate mutable form and allows you to enhance your spells. I do feel like tying enhanced healing to being in mutable form is a weird interaction and feel like this should be separate, but the extra AC is welcome defensively.

To help with damage scaling, life-bending weapons doesn’t expend psionic energy dice for the extra damage either.

One odd change is that you now have to prepare your organic weapon in advance by using a magic action rather than it constantly transforming and untransforming when you attack. It’s a little less flexible which seems a shame, and a bonus action might have made this a little more fluid.

I’ve been trying to understand the reason this changed and I wonder if things like true strike became an issue when you’re casting without a weapon for instance (of course the weapon value could be an issue as organic weapons don’t have a monetary value, but I’d personally allow this anyway).

Psykinetic

I thought the psykinetic was pretty decent, but my main issue came down to its heavy reliance on psionic energy dice and them having very little to do if these were depleted.

This has been addressed. Telekinetic propel can be used for free as part of the base Psion class. But the psykinetic can do this in a more powerful way without expending psionic energy dice.

You also get a more potent mage hand with greater range and carrying capacity. As a cantrip, this is a nother free resource with loads of utility (even more than a standard mage hand).

Destructive trance can deal extra damage without expending the psionic energy dice used. Heightened telekinesis on the other hand, only expends psionic energy dice rather than a spell slot too.

There are a couple of other improvements too like rebounding field’s temporary hit points always working and extra damage from enhanced telekinetic crush.

Largely, I think the psykinetic has addressed my issues with the subclass. It’s now less resource heavy and can do more when resources are depleted.

Telepath

I found the original telepath playtest to be kind of messy. There were confusing rules to features, different forms of the same thing and so many expendables. All of this mushed together to make something that was quite confusing and unnecessarily complex.

Fortunately, the biggest offender here, in the form of telepathic hub, has been removed. It’s been replaced with the much better designed, telepathic distraction. There’s not really a crossover in capabilities here either so this feature is uniquely useful, and commonly so.

Upgrading detect thoughts is much less draining on your expendables which is handy. Bulwark mind (the new name for empowered defense mode) got a better boost (a roll of a psionic die) but only affects wisdom, intelligence and charisma saving throws (which does make sense for mind protection).

With the removal of telepathic hub, you now get a straightforward boost to the range of your telepathy making you both a better telepath and not needing to expend psionic energy dice on enhancing this feature.

Finally, scramble minds makes confusion actually good by increasing the radius, protecting an ally and, most importantly, being able to choose the effects of the confusion.

Has the Psion update improved the class enough?

It’s not perfect, but the designers have definitely addressed the feedback and the Psion is mechanically much tighter. I’m sure there’s a bit more fiddling to do, but the class feels in a decent place now.

However, it is worth asking whether the Psion could easily have been a subclass or 2, perhaps for a sorcerer?

It certainly could have been. It would be difficult to pack a full Psion metamorph into a sorcerer. A telepath might have worked more easily, so I’m a bit on the fence on this point. I think it does just about justifies itself, but it doesn’t depart from a sorcerer in big ways.

My other quibble is with the spells. Quite a few of them definitely need work, but I’m sure we’ll see those changes in the main release.

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Regardless, I’m excited to get my hands on a brand new class and I’m intrigued to see the book it comes with.

What do you think of the updates to the Psion in the latest playtest? Let me know in the comments below.

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