Psionics Review: Past Editions
Expanded Psionics Handbook and the PHB3
This is the first entry in the Psionics Review series, looking at the first party takes on psionics from 3rd and 4th edition. Psionics existed in D&D before this era, but the system-wide changes from 2e to 3e make it a lot harder to compare, and their age means they matter less for people’s expectations as a whole. For clarity, certain explanations will use more 5e-style language rather than the native language of the game’s edition, such as referring to distances of 4e powers in feet rather than squares.
3.5: The Expanded Psionics Handbook
Considered perhaps the most iconic take on psionics in the D&D ecosystem, the 3.5 supplement Expanded Psionics Handbook (XPH) is an over 220 page book released in April 2004. The classes include the following:
The Psion (“A seeker after psionic secrets; a master of the mind and the thoughts of others.”)
The Psychic Warrior (“A warrior who combines combat skill with psionic powers.”)
The Soulknife (“A warrior who fights with an idealized blade of personal mental energy.”)
The Wilder (“A passionate, reckless talent who wields uncontrolled psionic power.”)
In short, the psion and wilder are the psionic equivalent of the wizard and sorcerer, while the psychic warrior and soulknife are hybrids who mix psionics with martial prowess. Rather than using spell slots to cast spells, manifesters use a pool of power points to manifest powers. However, the soulknife, despite being psionics-themed, does not actually have a power point pool.
Psionic powers are a separate but parallel system to the magic of clerics, druids, or wizards. Rather than the eight schools of magic, psionics are divided into six disciplines (Clairsentience, Metacreativity, Psychokinesis, Psychometabolism, Psychoportation, and Telepathy). Instead of components, powers have displays (Auditory, Material, Mental, Olfactory, and/or Visual). In third edition, spells do not automatically gain effects when cast in higher level slots (That requires selecting metamagic feats), but powers do gain more effects the more power points a manifester spends on them.
The Psion. The psion has the most expansive list of powers to choose from, and at first level must pick one of the six disciplines to specialize into. This unlocks an exclusive list of powers; for example, only a shaper (specializing in metacreativity) can manifest astral construct. The feats expanded knowledge and epic expanded knowledge allow you to bypass these restrictions, but at the cost of a valuable feat slot.
The only other feature are a bonus feat every five levels, a common design pattern this edition (in 3rd edition, feats progress completely separately to ability score increases). At first level you can use your bonus feat to pick up Psicrystal Affinity, which gives you the psionic equivalent of a familiar. One unique feature of psicrystals is you need to pick a personality, such as Meticulous, and the choice of personality gives a benefit to a different type of skill.
The Psychic Warrior. This class perhaps most embodies the peculiarities of 3.5 era design; the psychic warrior has no unique class features, instead boasting 3/4 base attack bonus progression, good Fort save progression, bonus feats every 3rd level, and partial power progression (capping out at 6th level powers, compared to the psion’s 9th level). The power list is far more limited than the psion, with a heavy focus on the psychometabolism and psychoportation disciplines. However, the psychic warrior does have a few unique powers as well as access to several egoist and nomad-exclusive power.
The Soulknife. Despite not having power points, the soulknife fits with the pattern of psionics offering wide-open build decisions. The core mind blade feature allows the soulknife to create a magical sword, which later class features further customize. The customization hooks into the core 3e magic item balance rules via “Enhancement Bonus Value”. Beyond the mind blade alterations, the soulknife learns a few tricks with the mind blade, such as the ability to throw it, psychic strike (which trades your move action for bonus damage), and the cleaving bladewind against all nearby enemies. At high levels, a soulknife can use knife to the soul to trade off the bonus damage of a psychic strike for ability score damage against one of the target’s mental stats.
The Wilder. Like its arcane compatriot the sorcerer this edition, the wilder gains a number of class features in exchange for significantly limited numbers of powers known (11 at max level compared to the 36 of the psion or the 20 of the psychic warrior) as well as slightly slower maximum slot progression (e.g. gaining 3rd level powers at 6th rather than 5th level). The primary strength of the wilder is their wild surge, a feature which lets them break the usual limits on augmentation and manifest extra strong powers. Rather than being limited by uses per day or additional power point costs, wild surges are balanced by psychic enervation, a chance of backlash that dazes the wilder and drains them of power points. At later levels, successful wild surges grant the wilder bonuses through surging euphoria. Wilders also gets a unique defensive feature, volatile mind, which taxes additional power points from manifesters who target the wilder with powers.
Prestige Classes. While the base classes of 3.5 were blank canvasses for customization (with many options being made intentionally inferior as part of ivory tower design), the prestige classes are much more flavorful and interesting.
Cerebremancers mix arcane magic and psionics.
Elocators are especially mobile melee combatants.
Fists of Zuoken give monks to access psionic powers.
Illithid slayers specialize in hunting mind flayers.
Metaminds trade higher level power access for additional power points.
Psion uncarnates abandon their corporeal bodies to become pure psionic consciousness.
Pyrokineticists burn it all down
Thrallherds acquire an army of mentally-dominated followers
War Minds gain access to a unique chain of martial techniques leveraging psionic powers.
Magic-Psionics Transparency. Prior to the XPH, the interactions between magic and psionics was messy; dispel magic wasn’t a reliable answer to a psionic effect. The XPH flipped that paradigm on its head, making psionics interact with magic normally, and relegating the “Psionics is Different” version to a variant rule. It also offers a compromise variant, where magical answers to psionic attacks and visa versa operate at a diminished effect. This variant rule is strongly cautioned against in the text and an interesting window into the past, where the designers rebuke the decisions of their forebears in the explicit name of game balance.
Other Rules. The XPH introduced a number of other rules, ranging from new skills to new monsters. Some The book writes up a number of races, including the dromite, duergar, elan, githyanki, githzerai, half-giant, maenad, thri-kreen, and xeph. Some of these may be familiar to 5th edition players, while others are unique to the book.
Further System Support. The XPH received one primary supplement, Complete Psionic, in addition to forming the backbone of setting supplements like Secrets of Sarlona. Complete Psionic added three classes — the ardent, divine mind, and lurk — as well as an enormous well of feats, powers, prestige classes.
Themes and Takeaways
Flexibility. The signature feature of psionics is the power point system, which represents freedom from the rigidity of spell slots. Furthermore, the augmentation system can be seen as a direct ancestor of 5e’s upcasting rules, freeing the power list from the bloat that afflicted spellcasters with their Summon Monster I - IX progression.
Direct Parallels. Psionics is a separate system, but it avoids being too different from spellcasting. Rather than fireball, a kineticist manifests energy ball. This is reinforced by the magic-psionics transparency rules; a clear goal of the XPH is to avoid some of the radical mechanical weirdness of past takes on psionics (including 3.0’s Psionics Handbook), ditching rules like psionic combat or anything else that might make psionics stand out and feel not like the rest of D&D.
4e: Player’s Handbook 3
The fourth edition release structure was an evolution of the 3.5 schedule; while WotC persisted with regular releases of sub-200 page books, the edition did not release full blown classes and alternate play systems in separate books a la the XPH, Tome of Battle, or Tome of Magic. Instead, new classes were exclusively released in core rulebooks and setting books (like the artificer in the Eberron Player’s Guide).
The Player’s Handbook 3 (PHB3), released in March 2010 (little less than 2 years after the PHB1 released), brought four psionic classes to the edition — the Ardent, Battlemind, Monk, and Psion. In 4e terms these are respectively the psionic leader, defender, striker, and controller.
Psionic Augmentation. Three of the psionic classes (sorry Monk) have augmentable powers, which provides a pool of power points that refresh upon taking a short rest. These classes present a significant break from the design ethos of 4th edition up to this point; every other class strictly followed the AEDU format (At-Will, Encounter, Daily, Utility), earning powers of each of these types at an identical pace. The psionic classes do not have encounter attack powers; instead, they gain new and more powerful at-will powers at those levels, which can be augmented with power points. This design both keeps the overall resource parity that was core to 4e’s fix for the adventuring day, but innovates on the structure by re-introducing a power point pool.
The Ardent. As a leader, the ardent’s primary class feature is Ardent Surge, which fits the mold of 4e healing powers with a 25’ range and usable twice per short rest (both of these upgrade at level 16, in addition to gaining bonus healing). The unique bonus is tied to your choice of ardent mantle; either way you’re doing the 4e thing of providing a small, stackable bonus, in this case to attack rolls or defenses. In addition to enhancing ardent surge, ardent mantles grant a 25’ aura that improve a set of combat statistics and a pair of skills. Furthermore, each mantle grants access to a unique encounter power that triggers when you are bloodied (reduced to half health), again affecting allies or enemies within 25’ of the ardent. In terms of powers, the ardent is a melee weapon user with charisma as their primary stat and power effects tied to constitution and wisdom; unlike many other 4e classes, an ardent’s choice of mantle does not influence what power riders are available, and many powers simply don’t utilize the ardent’s secondary stats at all. Within the constraints of being a melee character whose radius of influence is strongly tied to their 25’ aura, ardents are flexible leaders with powers every conceivable way of supporting their allies.
The Battlemind. One of 4e’s most durable classes, the battlemind stands out as being one of the handful of characters whose primary stat is constitution. Battlemind’s Demand is their primary defender mechanism, marking a creature within 15’ until the end of the encounter or until they use the power again; this class power ties into their augmentation, allowing a battlemind to spend a power point to mark two creatures within range instead of one. In addition to their mark, battleminds get Blurred Step and Mind Spike. The former allows a battlemind to shift along with an enemy who tries to escape, while the latter punishes a marked target for attacking one of the battlemind’s allies with a portion of the damage the target dealt. Because Mind Spike takes the battlemind’s reaction, a battlemind can have trouble keeping the focus of two creatures even if both are marked. The battlemind build choice comes from psionic study, which grants special reactions that trigger at or near the start of combat. Battlemind powers emphasize incredible durability and single-target dueling prowess; while not as single-minded as the 4e paladin, the class has far fewer multi-target options than other defenders. One unique vein of daily powers are the aspects, which have the polymorph keyword and give the battlemind an encounter-long benefit, including a new augmentation rider that can be used as an alternative to the existing augments on a power.
The Monk. Reinvented from its orientalist roots, the 4e monk ties its mastery of the body to the psionic mastery of the mind, integrating the two to become a lethal weapon. While monks do not join the other psionic classes in having power points, they do have a unique mechanic called full disciplines; powers that provide not just a unique attack, but a unique mode of movement that can be used on the same turn. Otherwise, monks class features are unarmed combatant, unarmored defenses, and their monastic tradition. A monk’s choice of monastic tradition enhances certain encounter powers as well as providing a unique take on flurry of blows, the monk striker feature. Unlike other editions, monk class features do not include a mish-mash of generally irrelevant features that play into orientalist tropes, such as speaking all languages or slowed aging.
The Psion. Continuing its legacy as a counterpart to the wizard, the psion is an intelligence-based controller. Like other controllers, there isn’t a core controller feature like a defender’s mark or a striker’s bonus damage; instead, the psion has discipline focus, calling back to the psionic disciplines from the XPH (Telekinesis and Telepathy here, with the Shaper coming in Psionic Power) with unique encounter powers per discipline. The other feature is ritual casting, granting access to the wide range of noncombat encounter tools the edition attempted to separate from combat capabilities. Psion powers offer a range of debuffs, forced movement, and other control tools, themed to the disciplines available. Like the 4e wizard, the psion has a handful of close range tools available, but the vast majority of powers have a range of 50’, leaving them vulnerable to a charge if otherwise unprotected.
Other Rules. The PHB3 introduces the githzerai, minotaur, shardmind, and wilden races, as well as the diamond soul, godmind, invincible mind, and war master epic destinies (Thri-Kreen returned in the Dark Sun Campaign Setting book, while half-giants came in the form of goliaths in PHB2). A small bounty of feats and magic items support the race and class options in the book, but there are no psionic monsters, unlike the XPH. The PHB3 also includes the seeker and runepriest classes, which are non-psionic.
Further System Support. Psionic Power, released in August 2010, expanded on the four psionic classes by introducing new feature options, powers, paragon paths, feats, epic destinies, magic items, and generally elaborating on the lore of psionics and how it fit into the world. Many psionic monsters saw edition updates in the Monster Manual 3, released in June 2010.
Themes and Takeaways
Fresh Designs. In an edition often criticized for cookie-cutter classes, the psionic classes massively innovated with power design through the augment system. Not only did the augmentation system show a fresh take on balancing per-encounter, but the battlemind’s aspect powers further pushed these ideas. Even the monk, who lacked augmentable powers, tried out new things with its full disciplines.
More Lore. The XPH is a fairly lore-light book; its contents are light on details and written to fit into a generic fantasy setting sprinkled with signature WotC IP like mind flayers. By contrast, the PHB3 and especially Psionic Power leverage art, sidebars, and the text to build up psionics as the material plane’s response to incursions by the Far Realm. This matched the rest of the edition, which aggressively pushed both expansive player options but a clear vision of the new World Axis cosmology.
Conclusion
First party takes on psionics by Wizards of the Coast have created an expectation that any psion uses power points to fuel their abilities. In third edition, these power points refresh with a long rest, while in fourth they refresh on a short rest. The psion is regularly accompanied by character options that integrate psionics and martial prowess. Finally, the overall role of a psion in a party is as an alternative to the wizard; both are fragile, ranged characters with high intellect and a capability for controlling the battlefield.