Psionics Review: MCDM

The Talent and Psionics

After two years of development — the first open playtest was May 2022 — MCDM has released The Talent, their third and final 5e class after the pet-oriented Beastheart and the hellish Illrigger. At 109 pages, the PDF contains not just a new base class with over 20 pages of powers, but a revised ancestry, new feats, new magic items, psionic foes for the DM to use, K&W integration, and even some short fiction about The Society written by Matt himself.

Comic-book style cover by Grace Cheung

Like Psion’s Primer, the psionics in this supplement are conceived of as an entirely separate system from the spellcasting presented in the PHB. The differences here are even more radical; powers are fully immune to not just counterspell but dispel magic. There is a note that certain protections, such as Magic Resistance, should be turned into “Supernatural Resistance” that protects from both magic and psionics, but the theory seems to be a general separation of psionics and magic. Similarly, powers have six unique “specialties” rather than using the eight spell schools; unlike other third party takes on the psion, these specialties do NOT map to the six disciplines of 2e/3.5.

One final difference to note here is that powers are divided into six “orders” rather than nine spell levels. The progression of orders directly matches proficiency bonus; 3rd-order powers come online at level 5, 4th-at level 9, etc. 1st-order powers are the equivalent of cantrips, but the mapping afterwards isn’t quite linear; 2nd-order powers are approximately 1st or 2nd level spells, but 6th-order powers are usable much more frequently than 9th level spells and are balanced as such, despite both becoming available in tier 4.

The Talent

The meat and potatoes of the supplement is the Talent. The introduction addresses the obvious question of “Why isn’t this class called the psion”

Sages in our fantasy worlds would have a technical term for these kinds of powers—metaphysics, which might more rarely be known as psionics One issue, though, is that “psionics” can sound a bit like science fiction We don’t normally refer to the human beings in a fantasy RPG as Homo sapiens So we imagine that the people in our fantasy world would use more natural phrases to describe this phenomenon, which they don’t really understand They might refer to someone who uses these powers as “having a rare talent,” or “possessed of a special talent ” Over time, they’d start calling someone who uses these powers “a talent ” And something that started as a vague and broad description of a mysterious power becomes the actual name for it.

The book focuses on the talent as fantasy superheroes; people with unusual and rare abilities that have formed secret societies and elite academies to hone their innate abilities. Thematic comparisons to sorcerers are obvious, but the capabilities of psionics are distinct from magic; the differences between spell schools and power specialties highlight this gap.

Basics. Featuring a 1d6 hit die, light armor proficiency, and a handful of simple weapon proficiencies, the Talent is comparable to a wizard who’s spent a first level spell slot on mage armor; a boon at low levels, but not an important advantage past level five or so. Proficiencies in both Constitution and Intelligence are very helpful, especially with the Talent’s greater emphasis on concentration (more on that in a moment). The zero tool proficiencies and two skill proficiencies are perfectly standard.

Psionic Bastion. Moving slightly out of order by focusing on the non-psionics related features, this level 11 defensive feature protects talents against charm, frighten, and sleep effects as well as granting resistance to psychic damage. This kind of benefit certainly isn’t unusual amongst psions but is notable that it’s a base class feature that comes at the start of tier 3 rather than being gated to later levels.

Shielded Mind. This 18th-level feature provides blanket advantage on mental saving throws as well as outright immunity to a number of divination effects. The first half runs into the problem that while advantage is always useful, it’s at its best when you already have meaningful odds of success. Wisdom saving throws are the most common of the three mental saving throws, and the Talent is neither a wisdom-based spellcaster nor do they have proficiency with Wisdom saving throws. As such, advantage on a DC 20 Wisdom saving throw (a frankly low DC by the time you hit level 18) with only a +2 bonus from 14 wisdom raises your odds of success from 10% to 19%, not even equivalent to a mere additional +2. This feature is very strong at helping against Intelligence saving throws, but the other two are going to require the talent to pick up proficiency or other flat bonuses (like a paladin’s Aura of Devotion, which has upgraded to 30’ range at this point) for it to do much in most games.

Psionics

Rather than having a predetermined pool of resources from which to manifest powers, the talent has a push-your-luck system where the talent has a chance at accruing “strain” each time the talent manifest a power. As strain accumulates, the talent divides it between one of three tracks (body, mind, soul), each of which impose penalties — although importantly none of these penalties are directly to power manifestation; there’s no “death spiral”. If the talent’s total strain go over their strain limit, the penalty is death (or fail to manifest the power and fall to 0 hp). Player preferences (for roleplay or strategic reasons) determine the distribution, although my initial impression is that soul has the least severe consequences. Only the odd steps of each track impose penalties, with even steps being a “free space”.

Powers of the 1st-order are exception; as the cantrip equivalent, they automatically scale with overall character level and do not induce strain. They’re also learned the same way, as talents start with four 1st-order powers and learn an additional two over their career, while powers of higher orders are handled similar to the leveled spells of a sorcerer.

Concentration. Unlike spellcasters, who are limited to concentrating on one spell at a time, talents can maintain concentration on a number of effects equal to their proficiency bonus. Powers are balanced around this dynamic; almost every effect with a duration requires concentration, so while a spellcaster might have a major effect they’re concentrating on and more minor ones they’ve simply created, a talent will need to use their multiple concentrations on each. Concentration checks are bundled together; one constitution save (which the talent is proficient in) to maintain or lose all concentration effects together. With the first level feature Strain to Maintain, a talent can instead choose to succeed on a failed concentration save by taking strain equal to the sum of those power’s orders — effectively having to pay the worst cost of re-manifesting them but saving the action economy of doing so.

Manifestation Tests. To actually determine if manifesting a power of 2nd-order or higher adds strain, the talent rolls their manifestation die and compare it to the power’s manifestation score. A power’s manifestation score is its order, plus one for each power they’re currently concentrating on — an important additional cost and consideration to the talent’s many concentration powers.

The manifestation die starts as a d4, upgrades to a d6 at level 5, and upgrades again to a d8 at level 13. If the die roll exceeds the manifestation score, there’s no strain cost. If it’s equal, the talent takes 1 strain. And if it’s less than the manifestation score, the talent takes strain equal to the power’s order. You always manifest the power, the question is just at what cost.

Powers can be manifested at higher orders for additional effects; unlike spells, those additional effects involve far more variety than simply additional targets or damage, and some powers even have multiple different ways to boost them with higher order manifestations. The cost is this raises both the manifestation score and the strain cost of a failed manifestation test.

Strain Maximum and Clearing Strain. Talents have a strain maximum equal to their level plus four. Each individual strain track has 8 steps, so a talent can’t even reach the end of a track until level 4, and can fully max it out at level 20. All strain is removed on a long rest. In addition, talents can trade hit dice for strain on a 1:1 basis during short rests, effectively raising their “daily maximum” from level+4 to 2*level+4. This does diminish in faster-paced games, as in the 2014 Player’s Handbook hit dice only recover at a rate of half your maximum per long rest (a rule which may change in the 2024 revisions).

Two other class features impact strain; the Psychic Boost feature, which has 1/2/3 uses at levels 7/12/17, clears strain equal to the talent’s proficiency bonus (which is always equal to the max order power they can manifest). The second, Ignore Strain, is a level 20 capstone that lets you fully ignore the effects of a single strain track (Body or Mind seem most appealing).

For a first level talent with a strain limit of 5, they can fail the manifestation test for two 2nd-order powers with a point to spare (with their single hit die that could be a third manifestation). A fifth level talent with a strain limit of 9 has at least three 3rd-order powers before dipping into their hit dice. Looking at the far end, a 20th level talent could manifest four 6th-order powers before dipping into their hit dice or Psychic Boost; with both of those pools a max level talent has a strain pool of 62. Compared to the DMG spell points rules (which are derived from the sorcerer’s Font of Magic), by about level 5 strain seems to be valued at a ratio of about 2:1 against spell points; a tier 1 talent appears to have a much better reserve of resources than a tier 1 full spell caster. Accounting for the fact that a talent will pass some manifestation tests, it seems that the main balancing dynamic here is

1. Talents are more flexible in how they manifest powers; if you want, you can pretend you’re a warlock and only ever use max-strength effects.

2. Talents suffer debilitating conditions as they push themselves, so while a full spellcaster starts to see reduced effectiveness as they burn through top level spell slots and move to lower ones, the talent suffers elsewhere from reduced mobility and defenses. Furthermore, while the talent is certainly encouraged to pull on their hit dice to cure strain, that reduces their effective durability even below the wizard — without the benefit of high-impact defensive spells like shield.

Learning New Powers. Baseline, a talent has a number of 2nd-order and higher level powers equal to their level + 1, which they can exchange on a 1:1 basis as they gain levels for another power of equal or lower order. So, a 5th level talent will have at most one 3rd-order power plus five 2nd-order powers; a 20th level talent can have four powers of each order from 3–6 and five 2nd-order powers.

This automatic progression is not the only way to learn new powers, however. Where a wizard can learn new spells from scrolls or a spellbook, a talent can learn new powers by seeing others manifest powers, whether it’s an ally giving a demonstration or an enemy manifester. This also leverages the manifestation die; you must beat the order of the power on the die roll to learn it. In combat, this consumes the talent’s reaction. The guidelines for talents at higher levels suggest this is expected to happen about once per two levels, but it’s not a major balance point; a talent should be plenty capable even with just the baseline progression.

In addition to the powers within this book, there are unique powers distributed throughout MCDM’s other release this year — Flee, Mortals! — that are only available to be learned this way. None of those powers sticks out as some secret reserve of OP abilities (The Olothec’s piscine transformation is action-inefficient but very funny control spell). This mechanic actually reminds me of the “Rare Spells” from A5E, but in a way that feels more coherently executed by attaching these new abilities to pieces a DM can use.

Psionic Exertion. Starting at 3rd level, talents gain access to a metamagic-like feature called Psionic Exertion. They know 1/2/3/4 options at levels 3/7/11/15, neatly filling in the odd levels where spellcasters gain new spell levels but the talent doesn’t gain access to a new order of powers. The options are like a tuned up version of the metamagic list, with some weaker options combined (Distant Spell and Extended Spell combine for Magnified Power), while others are increased in both cost and impact (Destructive Power maximizes half the damage dice in exchange for several points of strain). There’s 9 options in total, so even a high level talent won’t know half of the options.

Psionic Specializations

The talent has access to seven subclasses, one for each psionic specialty plus the Maverick as a generic option. Subclass features come at levels 2, 6, 10, and 14. For review purposes each of these subsections covers not just the subclass but also the powers within that specialty, even though those powers are available to all talents.

Each non-Maverick subclass has an “X Adept” feature at first level that encourages them to use powers of their specialty. The first half of the feature grants advantage on the manifest die roll to learn a power; the second half allows the talent to reroll their manifest test when they manifest a power of the matching specialty, up to their intelligence modifier times per day. This is a much better way to encourage choosing thematic and matching powers than the 2014 Wizard’s “X Savant” features, conveying a sense of familiarity and ease without creating incentives to not learn the appropriate powers on level-up.

Chronopath

These masters of time work on their own schedule. This specialty doesn’t have a clear equivalent in the traditional six disciplines; time manipulation was a subtheme within psychoportation, but there’s support and memory manipulation powers within chronopathy that would fit within psychometabolism, telepathy, or clairsentience. The 1st-order chronopathy power glimpse is illustrative of several themes. It’s a bonus action Help, granting an ally advantage on one attack roll. However, it requires the talent’s concentration, impairing their ability to manifest reaction powers without further strain. It also has a range of only 5’ on an extraordinarily squishy class.

Speaking more broadly to their powers, the Chronopath powers are a mix of powerful disables and weak single target necrotic damage spells. The 1st-order power time thief and 3rd-order ravages of time are very low impact; a 1d4 cantrip, even one that gives back temporary hit points, just isn’t very useful. Similarly, the measly 5d8 damage on Ravages is simply not a lot at 5th level when martial characters can do an equivalent amount of damage with Extra Attack at comparable odds of success. Fortunately, the more supportive tools — such as the aforementioned again or the 6th-order rejuvenate — are all plenty powerful. If you are interested in doing damage as a Chronopath, it seems prudent to look to the other specialties.

The first subclass feature, Rapid Manifestation, lets you reduce the action cost of powers. Talents are subject to a bonus action power rule that’s similar to spellcasters, limiting the impact of reducing a power from an action to a bonus action. What’s more useful here is reducing a reaction power to no action, effectively gaining the Chronopath an extra reaction during the round so long as they don’t need both in the same turn. This pairs well with the power again, which is a 2nd-order power that grants an ally a reroll on a missed attack; a simple but effective support tool. Another good use is detonate, a 5th-order pyrokinesis power that plants a seed within a target that takes a second action to pay off with massive damage; Rapid Manifestation can reduce the initial plant to a bonus action, denying foes the ability to spread out from the initial target.

The second feature, Decay, is more niche; it’s targeted object destruction that has a secondary option as a single target inflict wounds style nuke on a construct. The third feature Fickle Readiness is more broadly useful as initiative manipulation, but protection from surprise rounds isn’t a unique or strong ability given the existence of weapons of warning as well as the Alert feat. The fourth feature, Time Pocket, is a banishment style effect that removes a creature from a fight for several rounds on a failed Charisma saving throw.

Metamorph

These body manipulators most obviously match to the psychometabolism discipline in the traditional disciplines, but the cadre of vision-manipulation powers from clairsentience help round out the support options.

The actual metamorphosis powers contain a surprising number of area-effect damage spells. The straightforward cone of psychic damage from flay may not quite match burning hands at only 2d6 damage, but Intelligence saves are harder to make and a low-level talent can throw out more powers than a low-level wizard can throw out spells. Beyond those options there’s just a wide range of support powers, from mobility enhancements to defensive reactions to the aforementioned vision improvements. The other unusual pair of powers the discipline is home to are iron and steel, both of which grant the talent potent melee attacks.

The core subclass feature is Psionic Toughness, which is improves a creature’s maximum and current hit points; the action cost means it should be used before combat begins, but the actual hit point value is better than a whole hit die improvement. The 6th-level feature Mind Surgeon is an OK heal at 1d10 per point of strain; the more useful part is neutralizing poisons and diseases for only 1 strain per affliction. The other feature at that level, Super Senses, is a very straightforward boost to perception.

The truly signature ability for the subclass is the 10th level feature Death Foiled; once per long rest and for 8 strain, a Metamorph can undo death. The closest comparison is raise dead, as both abilities have hour long cast times. This singular ability is probably the reason to consider Metamorph in campaigns that go to double-digit levels, as it can’t simply be chosen as a power by other specialties.

• Pro: Death Foiled doesn’t have a costly material component, so if acquiring diamonds is difficult it’s more reliably available

• Pro: Death Foiled can restore missing body parts. While 5e doesn’t have specific rules for dismemberment as a consequence of combat, it foils a common. anti-resurrection countermeasure.

• Pro: Death Foiled, in some circumstances, can restore the Metamorph to life; a useful benefit if the Metamorph would be the only one with resurrection capabilities.

• Con: The time limit is 8 hours, rather than 10 days; unless you’re an elf or other ancestry that has shortened long rests, if you’re totally tapped out on strain for the day you can’t recover.

• Con: 8 strain is a larger cost than a 5th level spell slot; a 10th level Metamorph has a strain max of 14, with a total capacity of 28 accounting for Psychic Boost. This especially harsh in conjunction with the prior point that you can’t rez the next day if you stop reserving the resurrection capacity. It’s a legitimate point of optimization to prefer efficient sleepers as a Metamorph just so you have time to long rest after a bad battle and still have time to raise the dead.

The final feature, at level 14, is Psionic Evolution. Creatures enhanced by Psionic Toughness gain immunity to poison and disease, additional movement speed, and an additional 5 damage per turn. While generally useful, the specific immunity to poison and disease is either the most or least useful of these three pieces; against a poison-themed boss like an ancient green dragon, this neutralizes their most powerful effects. In fairness, poison immunity can also be achieved with heroes feast which comes online three levels prior, so it’s not an unreasonably unique benefit.

Pyrokinetic

Whereas other psionic systems have a generic “psychokinesis” discipline, the Talent has a singularly focused damage option: Pyrokinesis. Unlike an evocation wizard with fireball, the pyrokinetic is a complex damage dealer that requires setup but brings more utility in the process. The main damage powers work quite well even without the specific subclass features, but a Pyrokinetic is absolutely more strongly themed to their specialty powers than any of the other subclasses.

The most important pyrokinesis power is kindling, a 2nd-order power that gives a creature vulnerability to fire, or degrades the immunity/resistance of a creature that has protections from fire damage. One important balance factor here is that it has a built-in size limitation and needs to be manifest at an increased order to affect creatures above a size of Medium, which are also the creatures who are most likely to have the hit points to be worth spending a turn setting up damage combos. Even so, by itself it pays off after a single turn of dealing fire damage. Most of the other powers are unique takes on area damage; smoke cloud is a 3rd-order power that sits somewhere between the raw damage of fireball and the battlefield control of stinking cloud. Perhaps the most unique option is heat transfer, a 6th-order power that deals cold damage and restores hit points to an ally.

The core feature of the subclass is Flame On, which gives the Pyrokinetic an eldritch blast like attack that scales in the number of attacks and adds the manifestation ability to the damage roll. The damage is baseline lower, starting at 1d6 and only scaling to 1d8 with the 10th level feature Heat Seeking, but this basic damage source synergizes and scales with the talent’s powers much better; for example, the 4th-order power flame form is an action that adds an additional 1d6 of damage on top of defensive and mobility benefits like a fly speed and immunity to fire and cold damage. A pyrokinetic that has time to “warm up” is a much deadlier threat than a comparable warlock, but the action costs of enabling powers make this plan less powerful when dropped into a fight.

The other two features are Bend Flame at 6 and Immolate at 14; the former allows the pyrokinetic to exclude their allies from area powers, while the latter is another damage boost by catching enemies on fire.

Resopath

This controlling subclass mixes the classical psionic disciplines of metacreativity and psychoportation, as well as elements of illusion and enchantment spells that might get shuffled under telepathy in other takes. More so than the others, this wants to be played in gridded combat; features that control space are much more satisfying when everyone has to count out their exact movement.

Power-wise, resopathy is the least damage-oriented specialty. Every single offensive power disorients and redirects foes; there’s a few that can do damage, by virtue of getting enemies to attack each other, but only the 1st-order power psionic bolt actually lets the talent roll the damage dice. Resopathy is also home to extinguish, a psionic version of dispel magic; while maybe not reliably useful as a player, it’s extremely useful for an NPC talent that’s meant to disrupt a psionics-wielding PC.

The level 2 feature is Manipulate Terrain, which creates a large zone of difficult terrain that only impedes your enemies as a bonus action. This is usable multiple times per day and lasts for a minute per use but only one instance can be active at a time. This feature upgrades with the level 14 feature Nightmare Terrain, which does do flat damage equal to your level against up to three enemies inside the zone at the start of each of your turns.

The feature I have the most problem with is Manifest Ally, which conjures a Beast with a challenge rating comparable to a Circle of the Moon wild shape. From a pure effectiveness standpoint — the fair strain cost, the efficient action economy (bonus action to summon + obey free action verbal commands) — it’s a good ability. But it reinforces using the Monster Manual as a compendium of player options, which has a direct impact on the design and balance of Beasts as a creature type. While the damage is already done — the Resopath is certainly not the only example of this type of design, as demonstrated by the earlier comparison to the Circle of the Moon — it’s something designers should be moving away from. From a layout perspective it’s obviously the preferable option, as templates would take up another page of space and throw off the splash art/one page of subclass content spread, and the good animal stat blocks in Flee, Mortals! certainly help, but it’s nevertheless a ding against this subclass.

Telekinetic

Exactly what it says on the tin, telekinetics are a classic archetype that finds a home in every take on psionics. The powers do what would be expected of them; knock enemies down, throw them around, and eventually mass choke. The most iconic fantasy character of modern media, Darth Vader, is a telekinetic, and this subclass delivers on that fantasy.

The first feature, Invisible Armor, is like a shield spell that can be applied to the Telekinetic or their allies, but it doesn’t start at full strength; the bonus is equal to the talent’s Intelligence modifier. The uses also scale with the talent’s Intelligence modifier, reinforcing the need for Telekinetics to prioritize ability score increases. This feature improves at level 10 with Reflective Armor, which gives the telekinetic a free shot at returning an attack that triggered Telekinetic Armor back at its source; against monsters that make fewer, larger attacks, this can be a tremendous amount of damage.

The 6th level feature, Strong Mind, is both a plain boost to telekinetic powers as well as defensive insurance to convert Strength and Dexterity saving throws to Intelligence saves, an often +8 or higher effective bonus for only 1 strain. The 14th level feature by contrast is a straightforward and powerful ability; Mind Wings flat out grants a passive 60’ fly speed, alongside a bonus action no-save “slide a creature 15 feet”. This can move creatures up into the air, dealing 1d6 bludgeoning damage from the fall as well as knocking the target prone for free.

Telepath

Another iconic form of psionics, like telekinesis this has many of the abilities you’d expect of it. The main caveat is some specific forms of mind-bending have been poached by other specialties, especially resopathy; you can still pick them up as a telepath, but they won’t benefit from the Telepathy Adept or Truth Hurts features.

The baseline feature is Greater Telepathy, which is easily the most versatile and flexible form of telepathy in 5e. It combines both fluid close-range communication as well as the “forge a bond” style long-distance link of telepathic bond or the soulknife rogue’s Psychic Whispers. However, while telepathy is certainly useful, there’s many sources of it and lacks the kind of concrete combat benefits the other subclasses get at first level. This changes at 10th level with Shared Connection, which allows each linked character to Help each other as a bonus action across any distance. This is great paired with allied fighters and other classes that struggle to use their bonus action every turn, but less powerful with rogues or other classes that have reliable bonus action options.

The Telepath is also a good party face; the 6th-level feature Emotional Intelligence adds the Telepath’s intelligence modifier to the three Charisma skills and Insight; because this is adding rather than replacing, a Telepath with decent Charisma can make a great expertise impression, or boost their check results to the stratosphere by actually acquiring expertise as part of a feat.

The other two Telepath features, Not in the Face at 6 and Truth Hurts at 14, straightforwardly improve your existing abilities. Not in the Face works as a great deterrent for protecting the otherwise-squishy Telepath, while Truth Hurts can be an overwhelming damage boost (the strain => damage conversion is uncapped!) or a unique mid-combat interrogation tool.

Maverick

Not tied to any specialization, the maverick is the generic option of talent subclasses. Once per short rest they can use Reduce Stress to halve the strain gained from a power activation. Compared to the “X Adept” features, it’s a more reliable source of stress reduction for an individual activation, especially considering how concentration can boost the target number for manifestation tests. However, the additional uses of the Adept feature in a typical adventuring day (Int per day > 1/SR) means this is only better if you’re truly using a wide range of powers and would not reliably get to leverage all uses of the Adept feature.

The other starting feature, Raw Power, is a baseline cantrip upgrade. While it’s not comparable to Agonizing Blast — you can only do the bonus damage 1/turn — it does mean that at level 5, when 1st-order power damage upgrades, they’re competitive with 2nd-order powers.

Energy Unleashed at 6th level is free bonus damage upon failing a manifestation test or otherwise gaining strain. Not costing an action to deal 1d6 psychic damage per strain is just good; the only downside is it’s not very effective against enemies with strong Wisdom saving throws.

The level 10 feature Shock Absorption is like the rogue’s Uncanny Dodge but for any damage source; this is much more useful because non-attack damage sources are more likely to be singular large instances, such as a dragon’s breath weapon. This does cost a reaction so it can’t be used with other defensive powers like Fortify, but it does stack with other sources of damage resistance.

The final feature, Full Force, reinforces the subclass identity as a straightforward blaster. When a Maverick acquires this feature the best combo is with detonate for 80 fire damage. At 17th level or higher, brain overload offers a whopping 140 points of psychic damage to a single target. Sometimes the best solution is just raw, overwhelming damage.

Psionic Player Options

Beyond the Talent itself, this book includes a number of psionic player options that can enhance a talent in ways beyond their class or provide psionics to non-talent characters.

Gemstone Dragonborn

Much evolved from their Strongholds and Followers incarnation, the gemstone dragonborn of The Talent and Psionics are otherworldly compared to the minorly psionic gem dragonborn of Fizban’s Tome of Dragons. Rather than a breath weapon and Gem Flight, these dragonborn wield minor psionic abilities; a 1st-order psionic ability from a limited list as well as a unique ability keyed to their dragon type. Like the versions from Fizban’s they have a 30’ telepathy, but instead of damage resistance they have an unarmored AC of 13 + Dex.

Broadly speaking, MCDM seems more invested in both making gem dragons feel different from the ones in the Monster Manual, whereas WotC keeps them more similar. Which is the better path is a matter of taste; for the Eberron campaign setting, where gem dragons are from a radically different timeline, I’d prefer this version.

Feats

This book contains five feats; three require a character who already has the ability to manifest psionic powers, while the other two are more of the “dip into psionics” variety. These latter two are good candidates for first level feats, based on current UA design trends, while the other three are better gated to levels 4+.

For the talents, Augmented Force is a better Elemental Adept for powers (it also turns immunity into resistance). This feat is much better suited to Telepaths who need help with their psychic damage, as Pyrokinetics already have access to kindling as well as their level 6 feature to mitigate resistance, while force resistance is practically nonexistent for Telekinetics.

Battlemind is a psionic take on War Caster, granting the similar advantage and opportunity attack. Powers already don’t have components, so instead it gives 1d4 THP whenever the talent gains stress (reminder that THP doesn’t stack). The real strength of War Caster is spells like booming blade; talents have far fewer powers that perform as exceptionally as a reaction, even though they benefit more from the advantage on concentration and have the added temporary hit points.

Better Under Pressure is a fairly substantial boost to d20 rolls over the course of a day; getting to add upwards of +3 after a roll is a flexible and powerful upgrade. This feat is limited in effect at low levels because a talent simply can’t accrue that much strain or very quickly, as well as competing against Intelligence increases, but once Intelligence has been capped this should be a talent’s top priority for their ASI.

Psionic Initiate is a psionic version of magic initiate, granting two 1st-order powers and a 2nd-order power 1/SR. There’s some interesting options here; kindling of course for magical pyromaniacs, but the variety of bonus action psionic powers seem appealing. This is the most likely way to run into an important caveat on psionic concentration — you can’t concentrate on one or more psionic powers and a spell at the same time. Minor Acceleration doesn’t require concentration, however, and is a straightforward +10’ to movement speed for the psionic initiate or anyone else within touch range at only the cost of a bonus action.

The more utility-oriented Psionic Trick provides a neat menagerie of effects; 60’ telepathy, psionic shift, and ranged fire-starting represent a nice menagerie of “wild talents” and can help fluff up a character with minor psionic abilities without committing to the entire talent class.

Psionic Items

Three pages of psionic items round out the player options. It introduces a new type of item — psionic crystals are a new form of consumable. The two examples are the crystal of rejuvenation, which can clear strain, and the power crystal, a psionic equivalent to a spell scroll.

Four of the magic items are a miscellaneous helpers for all talents. The rare bedroll of vim improves hit dice recovery per long rest from half to full, which while technically usable by anyone is most obviously helpful for the talent since they use hit dice for strain. By contrast, the multi-rarity orb of psionic might exclusively boosts attack rolls and saving throws of powers. The other two, the rare headband of power storing and very rare armor of psionic absorption are further talent-oriented items that can help a tier 3 or 4 talent feel uniquely empowered.

Six the items are very rare staves tied to each of the specialties that can only be attuned to by a talent. They have 10 charges and four powers; manifesting a power from the staff requires charges equal to the power’s order. The staves regain 1d6+4 charges at dawn, for an average of 7.5. In addition to the power options each staff has a unique ability that can also expend charges, for example the staff of resopathy can grant 30’ of true sight for 1 minute for a single charge. A notable caveat on these powers is that a talent cannot use their reaction to learn powers manifested from an item.

The final item listed here, while psionic themed, is generally usable by anyone. The legendary hero’s cape provides an incredible 90’ of flying movement at all times and comes with what amounts to a 4th-order flay that deals 6d6 psychic damage in a cone. Frankly, this legendary item seems best suited for a fighter or barbarian; the saving throw DC is fixed, and the movement and cone are most useful on a character who thrives in melee. The cape itself is presumably what the central antagonistic figure on the cover is wearing.

Psionic Bestiary

The psionic antagonist options help increase the value of this product even in games where none of the players want to play a talent; perhaps a foe manifesting a power is all the incentive a player needs to dive into psionics!

Psionic foes have a few ways they work differently from the talent. First, they don’t have to track strain or make manifestation tests; powers are instead limited by normal recharge and rest mechanisms. Second, melee powers can be used as opportunity attacks. Third, psionic foes can use more than one 2nd-order and higher powers per turn; a bonus action jaunt won’t prevent them from also using their biggest attacks on the same turn.

Gemstone Dragons

Six gem dragons of varying CRs are presented in this section, from the campaign-ending CR 29 Chtrion Uroniziir to the CR 7 Nelisardrim. In addition to a trio of lair actions, each features MCDM’s signature Villain Actions, a replacement for legendary actions. Only one villain action can be used each round, and each can only be used once. Even if not used directly, each of these foes is inspirational material for designing your own solo psionic threats; multiple layers of well-designed abilities help make fights dynamic.

One comment that’s necessary here is a comparison to MCDM’s first major venture, Strongholds & Followers. The psionics in that book feel very tacked-on, the result of a Kickstarter that went wild and a production team that tried to cram every idea they had in it. That Kickstarter launched in February 2018, and the team clearly learned a lot from it; just looking at the gem dragons between the two books and personal experience using them, the old versions were clearly the result of a team that was approaching monster design like it was 3.5 and you had to “build the monster” organically rather than focus on an end result that was cinematic and fun. The S&F versions punched far below their weight class, even by 5e late game CR standards, and the action design was clunky and the coolest abilities were often the least effective to use. These six dragons, by contrast, each offer a whole medley of compelling abilities with use at the table in mind.

NPCs

Each of the seven subclasses is presented at CR 4, 8, and 12, wielding 3rd, 5th, and 6th order powers respectively. These 21 stat blocks are the easiest way for a DM to include psionics in the game on their side of the screen; instead of spellcasting enemies, include any of these. They’re also a great way for a PC talent to learn new powers as they watch their foe manifest abilities. It’s also worth calling out that each of these NPCs has their own quarter-page art piece that’s distinct from the full page subclass art pieces, conveying a much more antagonistic relationship that can easily be used by the DM as a VTT token or as visual reference in live play.

Like most NPC stat blocks, their usefulness reflects the base mechanics of 5e. Player characters are squishy but have high damage output, while enemies are more durable and do less damage. The CR 4 talent has 65 hit points, courtesy of 10d8 hit dice and a +2 Con modifier; any player-run talent with that many hit points would already be manifesting 4th-order powers, even if you assume a talent built with a +3 Con modifier to make up for their natural d6 hit die. This all serves the end goal of fights that feel fair and last just long enough — poorly designed NPCs, such as those in early MCDM publications as well as many WotC books, are simply too squishy and turn combat into “rocket tag” where the initiative roll largely decides the fight.

Flee, Mortals!

I would be remiss not to mention that the MCDM monster book also contains psionic foes. An independently useful title, it reflects many of the design thoughts that form the bedrock of their upcoming TTRPG. The monster stat blocks designed with references to psionics in mind (e.g. debilitating conditions calling out cure ailment as an alternative to greater restoration).

One important note is that the classic D&D psionic monsters are also in the protected class of Product Identity; WotC doesn’t own the idea of goblins, but it can use the OGL to protect their depiction of mind flayers. MCDM has opted to make their own versions that are legally distinct and fit into their original setting, the Timescape, but are clearly designed to sub in for the WotC versions of these creatures As a result, the psionic monsters in Flee, Mortals! are the Olothec (Aboleth), Time Raiders (Githyanki), the titanic Goxomoc, the Kraken, Voiceless Talkers (Mind Flayers), Deep Dreamers, and several of the NPCs listed in the chapter 3 villain parties.

The Analysis

At its core, The Talent and Psionics is opinionated and well-produced. This supplement executes on its design well, augmented by high production values in art, layout, and editing. It is preferable to have an opinionated design — something that some people will love even if others aren’t so sure about it — than try and make something bland that appeals to everyone, a principle that MCDM clearly knows well from their marketing.

What Went Right

Art. The visual design of this supplement is fantastic. There’s nearly a dozen full-page art pieces — including one for each subclass — and each is astonishingly gorgeous. Importantly, they help sell the fantasy of the talent as a fantasy superhero; the outfits marry silver-age comics with retro fantasy in a satisfying fashion.

Design and Balance polish. This is a book that has been worked over extensively; other takes on psionics often have options that are noticeably over- or under- powered, make basic errors in 5e mechanics, or otherwise feel amateurish. Front to back this is a refined product with many deliberately balance tunings; the closest thing to a “trap option” are some of the direct damage options because the talent is not meant to be a direct blaster. This is an important positive given the struggles of MCDM’s early products, Strongholds and Followers and the illrigger class. Whereas Matt is credited nearly singularly for the “Writing and Design” for S&F, he’s moved back to “Design Director” on this product, with James Introcaso taking the role of Lead Designer and an extensive list of playtesting credits. MCDM is not “Matt publishes some homebrew”; it’s a full indie publisher with full-time staff members, and that shows in the polish of the product.

Innovative Archetypes. Almost everyone else has relied on mimicking the legacy disciplines cemented in 2e; The Talent and Psionics goes back to the drawing board and source material. The Chronopath is the most obvious result of this; time manipulation certainly exists in other D&D archetypes, but chronopathy truly stands out as mastering time itself. The distribution of abilities is also an important part of this; metamorphosis is about far more than just growing back and gaining metal skin, but a whole range of body modification abilities, including outright laser eyes.

What Went Wrong

Large Departure from 5e Convention. Despite working hard to alleviate balance concerns, MCDM’s goal with this new class was not to conform to 5e tradition. For some, this is actually a positive thing (see the previous section), but if you’re looking for psionics to basically just be purple magic, the approach in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything or the Keith Baker products is much more in line with that philosophy. The strain system in particular — while balanced around the normal adventuring day — carries risks of unintended interactions with other third party content. None of those issues are insurmountable, but it’s important to consider when introducing something like a magic item that provides a large reservoir of hit dice under the assumption that the worst that could happen is the party has some extra healing during short rests (I’ve seen similar issues with “Blood Magus Sorcerer” type archetypes in other 3rd party products). Furthermore, the insistence that powers are not spells for certain kinds of antimagic effects can either be a fun addition to worldbuilding or a frustrating exception. 6th-order powers aren’t as fundamentally warping as high level spells, so it’s not as fundamental of an issue as it might be under another system that does try to match high level powers to high level spells, but it’s still a consideration when talking about a magic-aware world.

A Break from the Past. The Talent shows no allegiance to the specific psionics of 2e or 3e; it’s a complete re-imagining of what it means to be psionic. Archetypes that you might consider iconic — such as a shaper who crafts a custom golem from pure ectoplasm — simply aren’t present. There’s no psicrystals, psionic lightning, or soulknives. Of course, the rules for psionics here are good, and it’s definitely possible to homebrew those missing archetypes using the tools provided in this document. But they’re not here, and it’s perfectly reasonable to prefer a system that delivers those fantasies out of the box.

Conclusion

This is a good product that delivers what it set out to do. If the ideas in the product are appealing to you, I would strongly recommend it. If they don’t, that’s perfectly reasonable; it’s not for everyone. Out of all of MCDM’s products, this one seems to give the biggest look at what ideas are going into their upcoming TTRPG — the role of psionics in both the world and the broader “Timescape” are not only implicitly but explicitly a key part of their worldbuilding, and it’s exciting to see where they go with their setting and fiction.