Psionics Review: Tasha's Cauldron of Everything
A first-party 5e take on psionics
Released in November 2020, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is the only first-party take on psionic player options released in 5e’s decade-long run. Wizards of the Coast did experiment with a full psionic class, the Mystic, but the last UA for the Mystic was six years ago - dead and buried by UA standards.
Psionic Subclasses
While past editions have set the expectation of psionics as a dramatic expansion of the game, Tashas’ Cauldron chooses an alternative interpretation, building out three subclasses that hope to echo the classes of the Expanded Psionics Handbook. In the UA process a psionic wizard was proposed (you can also see earlier drafts of the published Psi Warrior and Soulknife), but ultimately the wizard was replaced by the sorcerer as the “full psionic spellcaster”.
Psi Warrior
“Awake to the psionic power within”, the Psi Warrior mixes telekinetic powers with martial prowess. Their core mechanic are Psionic Energy dice, which are fully recovered on a long rest and recover one use per short rest. A psi warrior has dice equal to twice their proficiency bonus (so 4-8 uses/day in the most played levels of 3-10), and the size of the dice scale based on your class level; a d6 for levels 3 & 4, a d8 for 5-10, d10 for 1—16, and then d12 for 17+. These dice are used to fuel your other features, and when rolled add the Psi Warrior’s intelligence modifier as a source of secondary scaling.
3rd Level. The Psi Warrior starts with three powers. Protective Field uses your reaction reduces incoming damage by a roll of your die. Psionic Strike adds bonus force damage equal to a roll of your die once per turn to a target within 30’. Telekinetic Movement lets you move an object or a willing ally up to 30’ as an action; you get one free use of this power per short rest, with further uses requiring expending a Psionic Energy die.
7th Level. Psi Warriors gain two new powers. Psi-Powered Leap doubles your speed and converts it to flying as a bonus action until the end of turn; you get one free use of this power per short rest, with further uses requiring expending a Psionic Energy die. Telekinetic Thrust improves Psionic Strike, effectively giving you a free shove whenever you deal the bonus force damage.
10th Level. The sole feature at this level is Guarded Mind, which grants resistance to psychic damage and lets you use your Psionic Energy dice to end the charmed or frightened conditions.
15th Level. Bulwark of Force turns the Psi Warrior into a mobile fortress, granting half cover (+2 AC and to Dexterity saving throws) to nearby allies as a bonus action.
18th Level. The Psi Warrior gains access to the Telekinesis spell, compensated for the use of their action by gaining a bonus action attack. This is usable once per long rest, with further uses requiring expending a Psionic Energy die.
Class Context. The base fighter doesn’t have a lot going on besides improving Extra Attack and its complementary Action Surge. The class lacks consistent ways to use its reaction or bonus action besides the base weapon rules and the ways it can enhance those through feats (which it gets a few extra of). The mobility from Psi-Powered Leap and the protection from Bulwark of Force naturally complement the fighter’s capabilities. While fighters tend to place more emphasis on their opportunity attacks than other classes, taking feats like Sentinel to better control space, Protective Field is the main way to “go nova” and spend two Psionic Energy dice per turn.
Furthermore, the Psi Warrior does a reasonable job supporting ranged weapon choices. While the 30 foot limitation on Psionic Strike isn’t ideal, the mobility and utility provided by the rest of the features do a much better job of enhancing a bow or crossbow wielding fighter than most other subclasses.
Stat-wise, the emphasis on Intelligence may somewhat conflict with the usual impulse to only pump the physical stats. The upside to this is it improves the fighter’s ability to contribute outside of combat by selecting key knowledge proficiencies the rest of the party lacks.
Compared to the premiere fighter subclass, the Battle Master, the Psi Warrior is rather lacking in build options. This gap is only exacerbated by the introduction of new, skill-boosting maneuvers earlier in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, which added significant flexibility to the subclass and dramatically increased the competition between options. In addition, levels 3-6 of the Psi Warrior can feel lacking in power compared to the Battle Master due to the simplicity and limitations of the initial features. However, starting at level 7 the subclasses substantially differentiate themselves, and the Psi Warrior gains new and interesting upgrades while the Battle Master is relegated to picking up options that weren’t good enough to make the initial cut.
Archetype Fantasy. The lack of build options make the Psi Warrior fairly thematically constrained; the emphasis on telekinesis allowed the designers to deliver a subclass that hit specific notes well, but anyone looking for the personal enhancement powers from prior editions will find them totally missing. The other subclass in Tasha’s, the Rune Knight, is probably the best option to reflavor for someone looking to create 4e’s battlemind or a psychometabolism oriented psychic warrior.
Soulknife
Like the Psi Warrior, the Soulknife leverages Psionic Energy dice for its abilities. There’s more flavor here, referring not just to the general idea of psionic powers but also a possible tie between fey magic and the psionic power of the Soulknife. Unlike the Psi Warrior, the Soulknife does not use any secondary stat in its abilities, freeing the rogue up to choose what skills to naturally bolster.
3rd Level. The Soulknife has two powers. Psi-Bolstered Knack reinforces the rogue’s excellence at skills, allowing the soulknife to add their Psionic Energy die to a skill after it’s been determined it would fail; it’s even removed the risk of expending the die to no effect, as the die is only expended if you roll high enough to convert to a success. Psychic Whispers allows the Soulknife to set up telepathy for a portion of their party; the duration is hours equal to a roll of their Psionic Energy die, it can only link a number of creatures equal to the Soulknife’s proficiency bonus, and the range is only 1 mile. Fortunately, the first use per long rest is free.
The Soulknife’s signature feature is Psychic Blades, which grants a finesse thrown weapon with a range of 60 feet that does 1d6 psychic damage. Furthermore, the Soulknife can always follow up their first attack with a bonus action, although this second attack only does 1d4 psychic damage. One unfortunate gap in the rules here is that it apparently leaves the Soulknife unarmed in between turns, leaving the rogue completely unable to leverage their punishing opportunity attacks.
9th Level. Soul Blades provides two new powers; Homing Strikes is part of a new trend of abilities that let you turn misses into hits, this time with a roll of the Psionic Energy die. Psychic Teleportation provides medium-range bonus action teleportation, with the distance equal to 10x a roll of the Psionic Energy die.
13th Level. The 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons has a murky understanding of what constitutes a “magical effect” compared to its predecessors, with Psychic Veil raising rules questions around Dispel Magic and other such effects. As an action a Soulknife can become invisible for up to 1 hour, but unlike the invisibility spell this does not require concentration (like invisibility, offensive actions remove the benefit). Like several other features, this one comes with one free use per day.
17th Level. Edging in on the monk’s territory, Rend Mind allows a Soulknife to stun a target for up to 1 minute. This ability is resisted by a Wisdom saving throw, which is repeated at the end of each turn the target is stunned, but is tied to the rogue’s Dexterity, all but guaranteeing a DC of 19 to shake. Unlike the other powers, Rend Mind costs three whole Psionic Energy die to reuse, a full quarter of the Soulknife’s pool at this level.
Class Context. The 2014 Rogue has the longest wait for their second subclass feature, lasting from levels 3 to 8 on just their initial set. Given that many published adventures such as Wild Beyond the Witchlight and Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos barely include gameplay beyond level 8, any Rogue subclass has to be evaluated under the assumption that you may never get to enjoy the higher level class features. This reality is a major part of why the Arcane Trickster is so popular, as it gives you more consistent reinforcement of subclass themes and provides a power spike at level 7 with second level spell slots.
Given that, the Soulknife performs admirably. Psi-Bolstered Knack generally supports whatever category of skills you choose to excel at, while Psychic Whispers competes with a 5th level spell (Telepathic Bond) for split-party coordination. Thematically, Psychic Blades makes the subclass feel distinctive from every other rogue while providing a consistent damage option at melee and range.
Like the Psi Warrior, the Soulknife lacks build options compared to the popular PHB alternative; however, the features provided at higher levels are plenty powerful and generally applicable, so there’s no reason to feel bad for opting out of higher complexity. The features the subclass does have complement the base rogue well and encourage you to keep investing in the class, something other rogue subclasses can struggle to do with how many of the best rogue features are in the first 11 levels.
Archetype Fantasy. Unlike the Psi Warrior, the Soulknife has historically been a more one-note type of character and so there’s not an expectation of a wide range of archetypes. By situating the Soulknife within the rogue class, the psionic abilities get to go beyond “cutting things with mind blades” and support a mobile assassin with supernaturally boosted skills. While this does come at the cost of not being able to inflict status effects until tier 4 with Rend Mind, the personal utility is easily worth the loss in crowd control compared to other iterations of the archetype.
Aberrant Mind
The most lore-forward of the three subclasses, the Aberrant Mind sorcerer even brings a table titled Aberrant Origins to help you understand psionic’s role in the multiverse. Unlike the Psi Warrior or Soulknife subclasses, the Aberrant Mind does not use Psionic Energy dice; according to Jeremy Crawford, this is because the sorcerer already has two resource pools, with its base Spellcasting feature as well as Sorcery Points.
1st Level. The first and perhaps most controversial feature of the subclass is Psionic Spells, which massively expands the sorcerer’s spells known by granting them an additional two spells for each of the first five spell levels, as well as an additional cantrip. Furthermore, an Aberrant Mind is not actually limited to the spells on the list - they can select any divination or enchantment spell from the sorcerer, warlock, or wizard list, although this alteration is still tied to leveling up and the sorcerer lacks the ritual casting feature to make some of the options truly effective.
The second feature is Telepathic Speech, which allows the Aberrant Mind to form a link with a single other creature; while there’s no limit on uses per day and the distance is generous (Charisma modifier miles), the duration is only Sorcerer level minutes; unless you’ve got a fast mount, it’s strongly limited by proximity.
6th Level. The power of the Aberrant Mind’s bonus spell list is expanded, with Psionic Sorcery giving what amounts to a free subtle spell metamagic in addition to a discounted sorcery-point-to-spell slot conversion when you cast a spell from the expanded spell list. The second feature here is Psychic Defenses, which grants resistance to psychic damage as well as advantage on saving throws against the charmed or frightened conditions.
14th Level. In some ways a callback to the psychometabolism discipline of old, Revelation in Flesh allows the Aberrant Mind to spend a bonus action and sorcery points to gain one of several exploration benefits; see invisibility, a flying speed, a swim speed, or even the ability to squeeze through small openings. This feature also reinforces that the Aberrant Mind is, well, aberrant. This is not a generic psychic-damage sorcerer subclass but one literally oozing with flavor.
18th Level. The capstone for the Aberrant Mind is Warping Implosion, a high-impact “GTFO” ability that acts as a stronger version of Thunder Step; the range is 120’, the damage radius is 30’, creatures affected are sucked towards the space you left, and it doesn’t have the audible thunder. While this ability is only usable once per long rest unless you spend 5 sorcery points to re-use it, a sorcerer hopefully doesn’t need to escape so dramatically more than once per day.
Class Context. Historically, the chief complaint about the sorcerer is a lack of spells known prevents players from picking fun but niche utility spells. The Aberrant Mind doubles the effective spells known, an absolutely enormous increase that makes it possibly the best subclass available (which is why I wrote similar “bonus spell lists” for older sorcerer subclasses in my home game). Furthermore, the other features are no slouch either - Psionic Sorcery significantly extends the amount of spellcasting one can do in the day, and the utility spells on the Psionic Spells list greatly appreciate being enhanced with a free subtle spell metamagic.
Unfortunately, while Psychic Defenses are absolutely useful, they run into a common 5e issue where thematic race/subclass pairings overlap in their offerings. More specifically, the feature offers very little to a Kalashtar who already started the game with resistance to psychic damage as well as advantage on all Wisdom saving throws, not just ones that inflict the charmed or frightened conditions.
Archetype Fantasy. Up until the level 14 feature, the Aberrant Mind sorcerer can easily be framed as a generic psion that even has a collection of points that can be used to enhance their spells. While they may not be called powers, the reality is that there’s always been a lot of parallels between psionics and spellcasting, so Psionic Spells does a pretty good job of shortcutting the need for a separate list. In terms of delivering the Psion fantasy, this subclass gets you 80-90% of the way there in just the text of a subclass, a remarkable accomplishment.
What the Aberrant Mind lacks is the full range of options a dedicated psion could support; the flavor is narrowly proscribed, especially with Revelation in Flesh, and the spell list focuses on replicating the Telepath discipline with little attention paid to the unique capabilities of shapers or nomads. Reflavoring could allow for recreating a kineticist, but even that lacks the mechanical uniqueness that has usually attracted people to a blaster psion.
Other Options
In addition to subclasses, the book provides two feats and three spells
Feats
Tasha’s introduces two psionic feats that can be used to add a bit of psionic flair to any character, or conversely to bolster the capabilities of an already psionic character. Their themes build upon the two disciplines already represented by the classes in the book, invoking psionics essentially as the force from Star Wars with the ability to sway minds and manipulate objects.
Telekinetic. As a half feat, Telekinetic provides an enhanced mage hand somewhat akin to the Arcane Trickster’s Mage Hand Legerdemain, although the list of benefits is slightly different and would still be a worthwhile pickup for an Arcane Trickster. More importantly, the feat provides a consistent bonus action for any character that lacks one, even if it’ s only a 5’ shove that doesn’t have the alternative to knock prone.
Telepathic. Also a half feat, Telepathic provides one-way telepathy alongside a once a day subtle cast of detect thoughts. Compared to other spell granting feats, such as Fey- and Shadow-touched from the book or Magic Initiate from the PHB, Telepathic is a much more narrowly focused feat that relies on a component-free detect thoughts being a useful ability; it’s a major asset in any socially-oriented campaign but may not do much in a wilderness or dungeon exploration oriented game.
Design Analysis. Like the Aberrant sorcerer, a clear emphasis for psionic abilities is that they lack visible spellcasting components, rather than the alternative manifestations of 3.5. Given the limitations on what can be made component free (you still need to have proper Subtle Spell if you want to cast fireball unidentified), this seems like a good way to capture pop-culture psionics as hidden capabilities. These feats are interesting and compelling, unlike many PHB feats which are fortunately being revised in the 2024 core rulebook updates. (My opinion is that the announced changes are akin to 3.0→3.5 or 4e to 4e essentials, rather than a brand new edition)
Spells
Characters hoping to engage in psionic combat got a few new spells, but these still fall far short of assembling an entire psionic spell list across all spell levels.
Mind Sliver. A low damage cantrip, Mind Sliver is a strong enabler for another spellcaster with its bane style reduction on the target’s next saving throw. Even without someone else to take advantage of the penalty, the duration means it can enhance the spellcaster’s next turn, a bit of self-enablement even if slow by the standards of 5e’s frenetic combat.
Tasha’s Mind Whip. A simple single target damage and disabling second-level spell, the bonus effect mimics the dazed condition from 4e (a condition that has been brought back not only in the recent playtest documents from WotC but MCDM’s upcoming Flee, Mortals!). This spell is almost as good as a stun against the typical melee brute between the intelligence saving throw and the restriction from being able to attack after moving into position. Of course, like many 5e spell effects, its utility is greatly diminished if the target goes right after the spellcaster in initiative order, an unfortunate flaw in how 5e handles combat and spell durations.
Intellect Fortress. A straightforward single target protection third-level spell, Intellect Fortress is a great choice if a spellcaster is expecting to face off against psionic threats. Against a mid level threat like a Mind Flayer it can still help a 10 intelligence fighter, but against higher DC threats the mere advantage won’t fix a +0 bonus.
Design Analysis. Like the feats, these three spells can help add psionic flavor to existing characters, so long as that flavor is narrowly defined as representing telepathy. The summon spells in the rest of the chapter could be given psionic trappings, such as summon construct conjuring a creature formed from ectoplasm, but I don’t think fans of Astral Constructs will find they quite scratch that itch. Even for a telepath type character, gaps in the spell options can feel overly limiting - there’s no 3rd level spell that deals psychic damage, and the “psychic blast” spell at 4th level (Raulothim’s Psychic Lance) wasn’t added until Fizban’s Tome of Dragons.
The Analysis
With just three subclasses, two feats, and three spells, how did Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything do?
What It Got Right
Feeling Like Psionics. While some may disagree due to expectations from previous editions, in actual play these character options feel distinctly psionic. Emphasis on mental abilities, ready access to telekinesis and telepathy, and plenty of force and psychic damage sell the psionic fantasy effectively.
Edition Coherency. The psionic options fit well within the existing paradigm of character options; there’s no subsystems just for psionic classes, everything is as self-contained as any other fifth edition character. Whereas psionics were a frequent discussion for bans in 3.5 (even if the reasons for these bans were ill-considered), nobody is going to bat an eye at the options provided here.
Mechanical Balance. All of the psionic options are on the higher end of the power spectrum, but only Aberrant Mind is truly record breaking. Given the generally lower base power but especially utility of the Fighter and Rogue, the Psi Warrior and Soulknife do exactly what subclasses for those two classes should be doing - providing potent, thematic utility that allow the classes to go beyond the limitations of their core chassis. The Aberrant Mind is more controversial, as arguably the PHB subclasses undershoot the power level of the total build package and so the power creep within Tasha’s is an actively good adjustment. I personally think Aberrant Mind is a bit of an overshoot given that Spellcasting is still a very good feature, but I don’t think it’s a gross power outlier in the way that the Tasha’s cleric domains are. As for the feats, they do what feats should do - I like them so much in fact that I was excited to find four more just like them in the next product I’m reviewing, Chronicles of Eberron by Keith Baker. The spells are solid additions to the game given that WotC clearly expects psionics to just use the same spells as everyone else this edition.
What It Didn’t
Bare Bones Flavor. While Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is in some senses a PHB3 (Xanathar’s being PHB2), it still could have done more to convey what psionics is. Perhaps the ascendancy of nerd culture means it’s not necessary to explain exactly what telepathy or telekinesis are, but it reinforces the feeling that 5e is afraid to say what kind of system it is in case some portion of its large audience stops being able to project their desires onto the game. Given the more recent Monsters of the Multiverse failed to convey any sense of worldbuilding either, this is unlikely to change. While some may prefer a lack of flavor because makes it easier to customize, strong thematics allow for more interesting and nuanced design that might have avoided the overlap of Psionic Defenses with the Kalashtar racial traits.
Lack of Depth in Character Building. While Monte Cook may be right that building characters is primarily a form of “lonely fun”, 5e is generally allergic to giving martial characters build options at higher levels beyond the occasional bonus feat (spellcasters, of course, have the arguably overwhelming depth of spell selection). The upside is you can’t choose wrong, but it means that any two Psi Warriors are going to be mechanically very similar. The utility of telekinesis or the various Soulknife abilities means there’s good diversity within the session, but once someone plays a campaign as either of these subclasses there’s little to return to explore with a second character. This of course is not a unique issue to the Psi Warrior or Soulknife, but it is something basically every third party creator has tried to improve upon.
Missing Archetypes. While the options here provide for the most popular conceptions of psionics - the Psi Warrior is basically a Jedi Knight - more obscure character ideas from past editions are difficult to pull forward to 5e. Forced teleportation a la a Nomad isn’t even in the spells section of the book, instead appearing in Strixhaven with Vortex Warp as the signature spell of Quandrix. A shaper could be made with the new summon spells, but they lack the flexibility and options of even a 4e shaper.
Conclusion
For fans clamoring for official psionics support in 5th edition, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything accomplishes a remarkable amount in less than half a dozen character options. Unfortunately, it’s fundamentally limited by that minimal word count, so people looking for more robust options will need to look to third party publishers.