Dungeons & Dragonshas revealed a new Psion class in Unearthed Arcana playtesting, emphasizing new opportunities for mental magic that go beyond the options in the 2024 core rulebooks. Unearthed Arcana providesD&Dwith a way to examine the community response to potential additions and revisions by releasing tentative rules and requesting feedback. The 2024 rules revisions went through major changes during Unearthed Arcana playtesting, and there’s no guarantee that anything that appears in Unearthed Arcana will ultimately see the light of day.
As shown in a video on the officialDungeons & DragonsYouTube channel,the Psion class focuses on mental magicand includes four subclasses, new spells, and new feats.D&Dgame designer Makenzie de Armas highlights it as “the mind over matter” class, describing the Psionic abilities of one subclass as powerful enough to “reshape flesh itself.” A full look at the new Psion playtest rules can be found onD&D Beyond.
D&D’s New Psion Class Has New Subclasses & Feats
More Unearthed Arcana Options To Look Forward To
The Unearthed Arcana Psion class covers four new subclasses: the Metamorph, Psi Warper, Psykinetic, and Telepath. Metamorphs focus on the manipulation of flesh and life force, particularly that of the Psion themselves. Psi Warpers manipulate space instead, allowing them to teleport and create vacuums. Psykinetics could be a good option for those who want more blunt force power, with telekinetic options to create barriers or power up attacks. Telepaths are all about the mental aspect, using mind tricks to help and hinder alike.
New spells andreturning ones fromTasha’s Cauldron of Everythingsuit these options, like the mind-fortifyingintellect fortressor the devestatingRaulothim’s psychic lance.Along with these spells and abilities,ten new feats appearas potential options for a Psionic Wild Talent feat. Empath, for example, makes influencing others significantly easier, while Pyrokinesis allows other attacks to be turned into fire damage.
D&D 2024 Is All In On Psionic Characters
Mental Powers Are All The Rage
The new Psion class is yet another addition to the Psionic catalog ofD&D’s 2024 rules revisions, which have put proportionally more emphasis on the concept than the 2014 books did. With some options fromTasha’s Cauldron of Everythingmaking it into the core rulebooks,the odds of a Psionic character showing up in anyD&Dparty have increased. A Psion might not be the right flavor for every campaign, but with some interesting mechanical and roleplaying opportunities, it’s not a bad path to take.
Unearthed Arcana’s dedicated Psion class also bears some obvious resemblance to the Mystic, an earlier Unearthed Arcana experiment that never quite panned out.The new take seems like it will be a bit more streamlinedand less potentially overpowered than the Mystic was, giving it better odds at actually making it into published material. I’m interested to see when and where this one might end up appearing, as it follows on the heels of plenty ofnew Unearthed Arcana subclassesinDungeons & Dragonsthis year.
