Psionics Review: laserllama

The Psion

First published in January 2021 and last revised in January 2023, the laserllama psion is a warlock-inspired take on the class that uses normal spellcasting mechanics instead of introducing a new powers subsystem. The only non-class content are a handful of new spells; this 15 page supplement does not include psionic-themed subclasses for the existing classes, nor does it include psionic GM tools like magic items or monsters.

Cover for laserllama’s The Psion

To preface: the laserllama psion has many similarities to the KibblesTasty Psion, the other Reddit favorite. You can read my review of that work below.

The Psion

Psionics in this work are framed as a sort of innate magical ability, a consistent theme throughout all psions.

Basics. The d6 hit die and Int/Wis saving throws match the wizard, but this psion has a leg up on proficiencies with both light armor and simple weapon proficiency. Two skill proficiencies and zero tool proficiencies are par for the course.

Psionics. The core feature for this psion is their alternative spellcasting method. Each psion has a psi point pool equal to their level + 1, which refreshes on a short rest. Casting a spell requires psi points equal to the spell’s level. This psion matches the 2014 warlock for both cantrip and spells known, which has been well established as a very limiting selection. Like the warlock, normal spell progression maintains pace with full casters until the double digit levels, which is represented by the “Mental Limit” in the class feature table. Like other psions, this one uses Intelligence as the primary ability. One notable feature is that a psion can use themselves as a spellcasting focus at all times, although this does require that all spellcasting has a visible manifestation.

Psionic Awakening and Mystic Talents. The psion has two axes of customization; it gains its subclass at first level, and it gains access to Warlock-Invocation style upgrades called Mystic Talents at second level. Both will be covered more in depth in later sections.

Harmonious Recovery. Starting at level 2, once per long rest a psion can recover psi points equal to their Int modifier as a bonus action; this increases to 2/LR at level 11. A substantial increase to a psion’s daily reservoirs early, this does relatively fall off in later levels after a psion caps out their Intelligence modifier. Nevertheless, this is basically always an additional use of a max-slot spell, handy regardless of level, and should be respected for its efficiency.

Consumptive Power. A staple trope, the psion can spend their maximum hit points at a rate of 2 to 1 in place of psi points. While this shouldn’t be necessary often — it should only be used if you run totally dry — it’s much more useful on a short rest based caster than a long rest based one, as your pool for “going nova” during a fight is far shallower than a comparable wizard.

Interior Gate. An almost direct recreation of the Warlock’s mystic arcanum, one important distinction is that a psion has the RAW ability to replace their selections upon gaining a level. It’s certainly limiting compared to the flexibility of other spellcasters, especially prepared spellcasters like Clerics or Druids who can change up to niche high level spells when needed, but the list still has great general-purpose spells like mass suggestion, plane shift, dominate monster, and foresight.

Limitless. The psion capstone grants resistance to BPS damage, immunity to aging, disease, poison damage, and the poisoned condition. Furthermore, the psion passively replenishes psi points at a rate of 1/minute during light activity, removing the need for a full hour break for a short rest — a classic weakness of warlocks in climactic save-the-world scenarios at the level cap.

Psionic Awakening

Psions choose their subclass at first level, gaining additional features at 3, 6, 10, 14, and 18th levels. Each subclass grants an additional five spells known, one for each level 1st–5th.

Empath

This emotion-themed subclass opens up with Aura Sight, which at the cost of a psi point provides a bonus to Insight and Charisma ability checks equal to the psion’s Intelligence modifier - a potent upgrade that’s better than Expertise until the highest levels. The spells from Empath Spells are the best known enchantment spells for each level, giving a strong telepathy aesthetic.

At third level Emotional Flood provides three new at-will action that are are roughly comparable to cantrips; the mostly broadly useful one is elate, which provides a small amount of temporary hit points, but as long as those remain the Empath’s allies have advantage on saving throws against charm and frighten effects — both of which often come at the start of a fight before most, if any, of a party are damaged.

The sixth level Mantle of Calm provides a paladin-style aura that buffs mental saving throws, an excellent addition on top of the previous elate to completely shut down area control effects. This feature also conveniently removes the psi point cost from Aura Sight.

Empathic Control at fourteen significantly enhances the Empath’s own charm and fear effects, upgrading them to complete incapacitation for a single additional psi point. It also conveniently grants the Empath blanket immunity to charm and fear.

The capstone, Ascended Empath, turns all of the prior features up; it improves the range of Mantle of Calm, turns charm effects into dominate effects, and turns fear effects into stuns. The main downside is by this point there’s a serious risk that enemies are simply immune to charm and fear effects, at which point the empath’s subclass features will do nothing. More than most subclasses its strength is extremely campaign dependent.

Enlightened

This generalist subclass starts off with Third Eye, which pasisvely improves perception checks as well as granting 10’ blindsense. An Enlightened can spend psi points to increase this by 10’ per point for up to a minute, capping out at the psion’s maximum spell slot equivalent. The Enlightened Spells are mostly telekinetic themed, although the 5th level spell is wall of force rather than telekinesis.

The third level feature is Mystical Precision, which effectively provides Subtle Spell at the cost of a single psi point; its usefulness varies by campaign, but psion spell list has some of its best combos. More simply useful is the sixth level feature Focused Psionics, which boosts most spells damage by the psion’s Intelligence modifier. Telekinetic Flight at level 14 is a straightforward passive flying speed, a very useful feature but nothing broken this late in the game.

The capstone, Ascended Form, is a bonus action transformation that lasts for 1 minute; it’s usable once per day for free, with further activations costing 5 psi points. Evaluated as a 5th level spell, it’s quite strong; concentration-free resistance to all damage and phasing, on top of the previous passive flight, is a major defensive boon that ensures an Enlightened is very difficult to pin down despite the class’s naturally low base hit points.

Immortal

This martial subclass starts off with two features in addition to the mobility-oriented bonus spells. The first, Esoteric Proficiency, grants proficiency in a physical skill and allows the Immortal to spend a psi point to substitute Int for the ability check. The second feature, Immortal Training, passively improves the Immortal’s hit points and grants martial weapon proficiency. Unlike many “gish” subclasses these days, it does NOT provide any form of way to replace the Immortal’s main attack ability with their casting ability.

Psionic Smite at third level functions as expected, but only does 1d6 additional psychic damage. It’s also limited to melee attacks, so there’s no longbow or crossbow sniping happening.

The Immortal’s unique Extra Attack allows one of the attacks to be replaced by a cantrip, a useful boon but more treading water than strong given the need to prioritize both Intelligence and Strength or Dexterity.

Immortal Will at fourteen provides a costly contingency against would-be lethal damage; 5 psi points in reserve for returning to ~20 hit points is fine but nothing impressive, given the opportunity costs.

The capstone, Phase Walk, provides one turn of phasing for 1 psi point so long as it occurs while the Immortal is using the dash action. This is another feature that can be situationally useful, but it’s hard not to compare to the general purpose Ascended Form of the Enlightened.

Outsider

This aberration-themed subclass immediately provides Aberrant Form, a unique transformation that triggers when the Outsider runs out of Psi Points and ends when they regain psi points; this provides unique gameplay with Harmonious Recovery, which can allow the psion to more fluidly control this transformation. The benefits are substantial — THP equal to twice the psion’s level (that go away early if you regain psi points), natural weapons with a 1d6 damage die that are keyed to Intelligence and automatic grapple, and a free mage armor level boost to AC. The only downside is you drop all active concentration. The bonus spells are thematic options for a Great Old One warlock.

Alien Evolution at 3 provides four unique feature choices, with the option to take another one at future subclass levels — eventually gaining them all by level 18. Squeezing through tight spaces, swim speeds, crawl speeds, and extra AC are all useful depending on campaign, but the extra AC is probably the best first choice due to its all around utility.

The Outsider’s Extra Attack at level six functions like the Immortal’s, allowing the replacement of a single attack with a cantrip. This is more useful on this subclass due to the Intelligence-based attacks.

Psionic Control is another level six feature that changes the usage of Aberrant Form significantly; shifting can be done proactively as a bonus action at any psi point total, and so long as you retain psi points you can keep concentration during Aberrant Form.

Eldritch Rift at fourteen provides a free 30’ teleport whenever the psion uses their action to cast a spell, a great upgrade that can keep the class totally safe while other people gain focus.

The capstone is Glimpse Beyond the Veil, an aberrant-themed Hurl through Hell, disappearing a target for a turn and dealing large damage unless they’re aberrant. Usage is more modern, however, with one free use per long rest plus the option to reuse it for 5 psi points.

Wilder

This “erratic” psion starts off with Wild Psionics, which grants a 1/8 chance of rolling on a d100 table whenever the psion casts a spell between 1st and 8th level. Results are generally positive, notably lacking the TPK-inducing random fireball of the Wild Magic Sorcerer; negative effects focus on self-CC rather than self-damage. The other starting features are Inscrutable Mind, which punishes enemies that target the psion with mental effects, and a control-oriented spell list from Wilder Spells.

The third level feature Psionic Burst provides decent extra psychic damage in the area around the Wilder for additional psi points; this overall isn’t a very good feature, as a Wilder doesn’t have the hit points to reliably use this and the conversion ratio of psi points to damage isn’t very good, but sometimes the ability to quickly dump power points into area damage will save the day. A more consistent feature comes at sixth level in Mental Force, which is roughly equivalent to the Enlightened’s Focusd Psionics — a d8 of bonus damage is very similar to adding the psion’s intelligence modifier to damage.

Channeled Chaos at level 14 lets the Wilder roll twice and choose between the results on the Wild Psionics table, a handy way to mostly remove the risk of a negative result; however, the low odds of triggering the Wild Psionics (1/8 per cast, or once every two to three combat encounters) means it’s still not a very strong feature. The much better feature is Mental Torrent, which provides an actual reason to get close to enemies — imposing disadvantage on mental saving throws, which synergizes with the Intelligence saves from Psionic Burst. There’s also some continuity from Inscrutable Mind, giving the Wilder a mage slayer style benefit of imposing disadvantage on concentration saves.

The capstone, Ascended Wilder, makes all of the Wilder’s damage dice explode. This is about +0.5 damage per die, which isn’t actually all that much at this stage of the game. This feature also increases the range of Mental Torrent from 15’ to 30’, which does far more than double the area covered. Nevertheless this seems to be the weakest of the capstones - exploding damage dice aren’t that much better than normal ones, even if it is exciting to keep rolling 6s.

Mystic Talents

Like the warlock, this psion has access to additional features from a large pool. Unlike the warlock, the talents are organized into sequences, from rank I to IV; each rank builds on the last. Rank I is available at 2nd level, II at 5th, III at 11th, and IV at 16th.

Celerity. Passive mobility bonuses, including a bonus action Dash, are always helpful on a spellcaster than can otherwise struggle to use their full action economy. The first rank of this is the most useful as it provides the action economy improvement, but later levels aren’t bad either.

Iron Durability. Starting off as a better mage armor — keying AC to Intelligence rather than Dexterity — the middle ranks are fairly psi point intensive for their benefits. The payoff is at rank IV, with a blanket boon to saving throws that can stack with paladin auras.

Metamorphosis. The starting feature provides a soul knife style boon with the cantrip psionic strike, granting the psion Intelligence-based attacks. Rank II gives size changing and a reliable source of temporary hit points that’s far better than Iron Durability for the same psi point cost. Rank III’s personal polymorph is a huge get-out-of-jail-free card given the psion’s relative squishiness, but the high psi point cost on the rank IV huge/dimunitive size change make it less attractive than diversification.

Precognition. Rank I is effectively just the Alert feat without the protection from Unseen Attackers, an investment whose effectiveness varies by DM style. Rank II is an always available but low impact boost to survivability. The Rank III feature is even narrower and comes at a psi point cost, but this is made up for by the potent Rank IV feature that also buffs the effect of the Rank III feature from denying advantage to actively imposing disadvantage while also giving the psion a free full action at the start of every combat.

Restoration. The rank I access to spare the dying is unimpressive, but the rank II feature is basically the paladin’s Lay on Hands — possibly the best healing effect in the game short of the heal spell. Restoration III comes in a bit late for status cleansing even for only 2 psi points, although being able to remove the stunned condition can be singularly helpful if fighting foes that regular impose the condition (e.g. Mind Flayers). The rank IV capstone is an excellent material-free revivify variant, providing insurance in those late game scenarios if the Cleric goes down.

Telekinesis. Of all of the invisible mage hand enhancements, Rank I Telekinesis also increasing the weight limit to 50 lbs. (5x Int mod), a very strong improvement — even ignoring gnomish party member shenanigans, most objects are less than that. The rank II for double mage hands is less impressive, especially with the concentration requirement. Rank III’s telekinesis comes two levels later than it’s normally accessible, and the talent is really lust an additional spell known — not the most impressive trade. Like precognition, the weak rank III option is buoyed by the synergistic rank IV upgrade that’s quite strong, in this case at-will resourceless telekinesis.

Telepathy. The starting feature is a fairly basic and limited telepathy, which gets only modest upgrades with the rank II talent. The ranks III and IV talents still fail to impress despite extending the range significantly and letting the psion act as a conduit for their party; the kicker is that while Telepathy IV can connect a much larger number of creatures than most other forms of telepathy in the game, e.g. a Soulknife rogue’s Psychic Whispers, it comes at the immense opportunity cost of demanding concentration.

New Spells

The supplement concludes with a collection of 8 new spells; two cantrips and a spell for each of 1st through 6th levels. The single target incapacitation and ongoing damage from id insinuation for a 1st level spell slot seems above the curve, while the single target damage for a 5th level spell slot from psychic crush is underwhelming. The other options are fine; mind thrust is certainly a strong damaging cantrip with an unconditional d12 damage die, but even an extra die step above fire bolt isn’t an actually impressive amount of damage given the lack of an ability modifier bonus to the damage. The monkish psionic strike feels slightly out of place here, even in the context of the Metamorphosis talent.

The Analysis

Normally, in this section I bring up production values, as either a highlight or weakness of a work. A work that is well edited, makes effective use of layout, and provides inspiring art brings additional value beyond the mechanical design. However, laserllama does not directly commercially release his products and so uses a broad swathe of arts he does not have direct rights to, instead relying on noncommercial fair use. As such I’m effectively disqualifying these works from production considerations, as it would not be fair to the commercial releases that face a higher barrier in the use of art.

What Went Right

Fixed Short Rest Casting. Like the KibblesTasty psion, the flexibility of point-based casting fixes the traditional issue with the warlock, which is it’s very hard to justify using smaller utility spells that don’t gain substantive benefits from mandatory upcasting. There’s many things to like about the warlock’s class design, and the Psionics feature here fixes the typical pain points.

Fits well within the 5e Tradition. Everything here would be perfectly printable in an official Wizards of the Coast publication, both from a rules language and style perspective as well as the design of the mechanics. There’s no elaborate new subsystems in this design — everything uses normal 5e spellcasting rules.

Clear Psionic Flavor. At the end of the day, this feels like a psion — psychic damage, psi points, and a connection to some of the weirder but core D&D material like aberrations in a coherent package. The Outside is an innovative expansion that marries the the classic lore and mechanics of D&D psionics for a dynamic experience.

What Went Wrong

Hit and Miss Balance. While overall within the range of balance in official sources, that’s not the highest bar — options like the Immortal or the Telepathy talents seem much weaker than their competitors. There’s other options, such as the id insinuation spell, that push the power curve — nothing as offensive as silvery barbs, the high water mark for official new spells, but potent nonetheless. Still, the options in this supplement are largely in the perfectly reasonable range of balance.

Limited Range of Options. This psionics supplement is about as limited as it gets while still providing a full class; the lack of supplementary psionic options, such as psionic-themed subclasses or feats, mean it’s not as helpful for adding just a touch of psionic flavor to a character. Furthermore, there’s very little for a dungeon master here; none of the spells are what you’d want to put on an evil spellcaster.

Playing it Safe. The flip side to the supplement’s studious adherence to 5e style is it’s not really pushing any boundaries. For folks hoping that psionics are different on a more fundamental level, Psion’s Primer or The Talent are much better options.

Conclusion

The laserllama psion is a fair entry for the most requested 14th 5e base class. Unlike its competitors, it’s solely available as a Fan Content Policy pdf— there’s no physical book and there’s no VTT conversions. Its ultimate strength and weakness is its dedication to fitting within the existing paradigms of Wizards of the Coast 5e balance and design.