another dragon Plus livestream with me
as his wants to do every other episode
is Jeremy Crawford pretends lead
designer of the players handbook and
thank you always good to be here I am
just barely dodging this dragon’s fire
at the moment I’m the this.get Soraya’s
using his psionic powers to protect me
and I am boarding an ember on ship so
that I can fly off to this terrifying
skull castle behind me yes I think
Skeletor is hanging out in there that is
skeletor’s Winter Palace in ever on one
thing I never understood about he-man
was Skeletor was a skeleton yet was as
muscle-bound
as he-man just a skeleton of a face and
the rest of him was you know skin and
muscle you know it is possible the skull
was a mask and the body was real or
maybe he was just skeleton and the body
was just a muscle suit I like that so
for folks that are tuning in we are
going to be returning to the topic at
hand that we touched upon last week with
Jeremy we started to dive into the most
recent unearthed Arcana columns and we
ended on the psionic options revisited
that were released as a PDF on April
14th so as mentioned we do have many of
the questions that came in during chat
during the livestream to get through we
also want to dive in a bit more to the
actual material itself but but before we
do again we wanted to let folks know
speaking of virtual backgrounds onto the
indie website we’ve been maintaining the
stay at home play at home program page
for folks during this time as of
yesterday we’ve added some back I think
we have to call them general backgrounds
that are suitable for resume
conferencing not necessarily assume
backgrounds but and yesterday’s release
of free material we dropped our first
batch of backgrounds and suitable for
zoom with a bit of a pepper on thing
this is one of the ones that I’m using
Jeremy looks like he’s wrangled some art
from a previous book this this is from
Morgan Keenan Stumbo those yes I
remember I remember the gift Yankee and
good sir I fight that we livestream that
one on one occasion I in any case we do
hope that folks are staying safe and we
are pleased as always that you’re taking
the time out of your schedule to tune in
if you do have any questions regarding
today’s material or anything in general
please do put it in chat please do
preface it with question if we don’t get
to it immediately we do compile and go
through all the questions later date but
before we get into the questions Jeremy
how are you doing sir how how is this is
week seven for work from home for us
here in Seattle how are you hanging in
there we are we really up to week seven
this is midway through week seven oh my
gosh so this has just become so much the
new normal for me that I have completely
lost track of how long we have been
doing this so I my days my days are not
a whole lot different from when they
were before the quarantine in that I
spend most of my days working on D&D the
big difference is I’m at home instead of
at the office but thankfully I still get
to
see you and the rest of the team thanks
to how we’re connected through
technology but I am starting to miss you
know real face-to-face interaction our
daily walks that we have outside
definitely help to you know stretch our
legs and be reminded there’s a world out
there but yeah otherwise you know sort
of here in my my D&D study just working
away well hang in there and it’s
everyone else please do hang in there as
well things that you might be last I
failed on my homework assignment my
homework assignment was to touch base on
Final Fantasy 7 redo but I did not I
failed
oh my goodness that knee deep in
fortnight and starting to watch devs
on the FX which was a bit captivating
things you are reading watching and
playing these days so first before I get
to stuff I’m doing I’m not sure I
mentioned in our episode last week that
there is a free demo for the Final
Fantasy 7 remake so so you have zero
cost associated with trying that out
other than the time of course and it was
playing the demo that that’s what got me
to get the game it captivated me right
away as for when I’m playing I’m
continuing to make my way through Final
Fantasy 7 I think I’m on chapter 13 now
there are 18 chapters in the game so I’m
hoping to wrap that up sometime in the
coming week I haven’t watched much TV
since you and I last talked on this show
other than watching an episode or two of
the new amazing story series which is
one of the programs on Apple’s new
streaming service and so far it’s very
well done
Steven Spielberg’s executive producer I
don’t know if you ever saw the old
amazing
stories TV show I did this this is a
revival of that show I still remember
the episode of the guy who was too drawn
into his TV programming and they kept
coming out of the screaming yeah know
that that is the one streaming platform
I think we don’t have in this house
Netflix Amazon Hulu Disney Plus ESPN
plus it’s it’s all there see honestly
we’ve been going through devs is quite
good community dropped to Netflix shits
Creek we never watched that is now a
binge worthy show for us zero zero zero
on Amazon I’m starting to get into so
yeah I mean actually having having more
evenings at home than before the
quarantine has certainly driven driven
home how many shows there are to watch
because I I in a typical week don’t
watch a whole lot of TV but you know
sometimes I get in the mood but I’ll
only be able to like sort of you know
see a little bit of this a little bit of
that but now with more time some of
these weeks I’m like my gosh there are
all these shows and of quality I mean
yes might not all be Grand Slams but a
lot of them are certainly home runs or a
double at least yeah I mean you and I
are of an era where you got ABC NBC and
CBS and you got the programming you got
if you were a lucky NBC would run a V
miniseries which was you know the height
of content oh my god now I’m gonna be
thinking of lizard people well let me
let me put my money where my mouth is
and actually get to some of the
questions that folks had written in with
the last time in chat so that we
do actually cover them and so again
we’re gonna get it into the unearthed
Arcana psionic options revisited a
little bit more into depth um but some
of the questions that came in and during
chat last time and I’ll just go through
the top of the order here
astronomy affair astronomy I furry I’m
gonna mispronounce all of that many of
many of these screen names were never
meant to be set out loud no it’s it’s a
it’s a clever take on astronomer and I’m
sure I’m butchering it completely
however they asked how are you guys
handling the action economy balance of
the summoning spells and and we talked a
little bit about the summoning abilities
last time
summoning summon the Beast fuel spirit
is cool but can be compete with pulling
out eight challenge rating one eight so
as I mentioned last time most of the
summoning spells that are currently in
the game’s books require a minute or
more and so most of them don’t see use
in the midst of combat now of course if
you’ve summoned the creature outside
combat then you get to benefit from its
assistance once battle starts now one of
the big exceptions to this is the conger
animal spells in the players handbook
that spell is one action and so druids
and others who have accessed that to
that spell can on the spot summon up
some nature spirits to take the form of
animals and assist them in the heat of
battle now one of the ways that the new
summon beast eale spirits spell sort of
is balanced with conjurer animals in
existence is difference in level and
also the creature itself that you get
with the beast eale spirit is generally
better than many of the animals that you
can summon that all said there are going
to be certain
Constance’s we’re having a bunch of
critters will simply be more powerful
than having one and so there there will
be situational differences between the
two and if someone beast eale spirit
makes it into print we will certainly
you know do some careful fine-tuning to
make sure it is an appealing option for
its level in a game that also has condor
animals
okay I’ve been this question just came
in today as well but I saw from last
time and this one I think I can’t
pronounce because it’s black ace 13
unless the XIII are actually meant to be
pronounced but they asked does psionic
recovery make of a dye usable again
alright so now we’re diving into our
under Turkana and and so by a psionic
recovery I am assuming they’re referring
to the feature that’s called SCI
replenishment and if that is in fact
what they’re talking about yes SCI
replenishment does give you access to
your psionic talent die even if it has
been expended because you rolled a four
on a d4 so sky replenishment is a way
for you to get your dye back but you can
do that only once per day you get to you
know focus your mind use the spoon s
action and get your dye back and we
thought we we put that in by the way
because you know after testing it out
and what not we need to make sure there
was a way to get the dye back at least
once if you happen to have a horrible
run of luck and just burned through your
die in you know your first few rolls so
this is an in relation to the sign
Knight and their psionic talent so I
know we’re gonna be diving into some of
these subclasses yeah so so again they
must have meant the feature called SCI
replenishment and well let’s talk about
something that is not in psionic options
revisited hekimae asks psionic and blast
was as cool spelled for wizards and
warlocks is there a reason why it was
yes if we present something in under
their Cana that later doesn’t make it
into one of our books and in this case
we we actually did the rare thing of
letting people know that something
didn’t even make it to the next round of
unearthed Arcana that that is usually
because it didn’t score high enough in
satisfaction for us to go further with
it when it comes to seismic blast it
actually scored just okay so by our
standards it didn’t fail but it also
barely passed and when we looked at the
feedback we we saw that the spell
actually had enough overlap with other
effects in the game especially with also
now accounting for spells in explorers
guide to wild mount that we decided not
to pursue it one of the things that was
fascinating that came up with psionic
blast is a number of playtesters were
confusing it with the mind flayers mind
blast and expecting it to work the same
way even though they don’t have the same
name we just decided to move on because
the the effect we were able to replicate
elsewhere in the game and that was true
with all of the spells in the psyonix
revisited article all of the ones that
we mentioned that that we’re not moving
forward with at this time it’s usually
because they are there they didn’t score
you know spectacularly when it comes to
satisfaction from play testers and or
they had enough overlap with things
already in the game that there wasn’t a
whole lot of motivation for us to
continue on with them because with
spells were often looking for new ones
to fill a functional or story gap in the
game and it’s very hard to justify
adding potentially adding this spell
eventually to the game as an official
add on if it’s basically doing something
very close to one another spell is doing
or or a particular classes features
might be doing we generally are looking
for it to fill some kind of gap in the
game like that sometimes that’s as
simple as oh we realize we don’t have
enough spells that deal psychic damage
for instance that that was actually on
our minds when we did the spells for
Zenith ours guide to everything there
are a number of spells there that are
filling gaps that we identified in the
game and that that is one of the reasons
why a couple of hundred arcanas ago we
had a a odd acid spell mixed in with
some summoning spells it’s because
actually we realize we needed some more
acid options in the game and not in our
normal yes please don’t we’ve got enough
to worry about
yeah we’ve got a couple more questions
I’ll just roll roll through these before
we get into the discussion max
ximena’s asks and none of the psionic
abilities from the recent unearthed
Arcana seem to be keyed to any ability
score do you have any intention of doing
so with future on earth rubber cannons I
wouldn’t imagine most people associate
psionics with intelligence even if the
sonic wizard and mystic are described
so if you think about other types of
supernatural power in D&D most of them
are not associated with a particular
ability score for instance we have
sorcerers and wizards who both wield
what what in the D&D multiverse is
referred to as arcane power and wizards
do it with their intelligence and
sorcerers do it with their charisma I
you see this you know again throughout
the game where there are different
ability scores associated even sometimes
with the same source of power so when it
comes to the psionic options revisited
article there is some variation the sigh
knight uses intelligence the soul knife
actually doesn’t have any particular
ability associated with their psionic
talent the the psionic soul sorcerer
uses charisma as is normal for a
sorcerer and then if you look at the new
feats that were in this most recent
unearthed Arcana you’ll see there that
you have a number of ability options and
they tend to be either what we think of
as mental abilities or physical
abilities so in some of these feats you
choose if your psychic power is
associated with say your intelligence
wisdom or charisma or in the case of the
metabolic control feat you decide if it
is associated with your strength
dexterity or Constitution the idea here
is that psionic power might for a
particular person be a manifestation of
a powerful intellect but it could also
be a manifestation of really strong
emotion it could be a manifestation of
what in some stories is just referred to
as Hart and here I don’t mean the
the organ the heart but sort of your
spirit your soul or in the case of
metabolic control you have tapped into
psionic power in your very body and we
went this direction rather than tying it
all to intellect or you know again the
score name intelligence because in
stories of people who have psychic
abilities it manifests in very different
ways if you think you know some of them
if you think of a character like
Professor X he’s sort of a classic you
know big brain character but you have
other characters with psychic abilities
where their psionic manifestations are
much more emotional you know that they
you know when they get angry or sad then
often that’s or are happy or joyful
that’s often what triggers their power
to manifest yeah I mean Iran comes to
mind is this somebody from an anger
perspective that might manifest some of
the strength yeah because the jet the
Jedi are another example of characters
in non D&D fiction who have abilities
that could be described as psionic let
me ask one more before we dive into the
material itself and this one came from
Twitter ukelele emblem last livestream
you mentioned whenever possible we
repurpose design in regards to the SCI
wizard among other ideas was the star
druid star a form inspired inspired
sorry by the site Wizards platform so I
would say the story form was inspired by
the thought-form but there was a
definitely parallel design going on
sometimes we will be working on things
and we’ll have an idea that we’re
interested in exploring and we might
explore it in parallel in in several
different manifestations
and so we were interested in exploring
the sort of transformative feature where
the spellcaster takes on this new form
we explored it in both the psionics
wizard and in the circle of the stars
for the druid how those two are
connected is that internally after
looking at the play test feedback we
decided to step away from the psionics
wizard which then made us confident to
move forward with the starry form for
the circle of the stars because if we
had seen the play test feedback for the
psionics wizard and it looked like oh
we’re going to move forward with this
then it would be less likely for us to
do a very similar feature in the circle
of the stars but by that point we were
already pretty sure the psionics wizard
wasn’t gonna make it
and so we’re like alright we’ll move
forward with the starry form in the
circle of the stars okay many of the
questions that had come in last time so
we thought we would do a little bit of a
deeper dive into the material itself
Germany you wanted to discuss a bit of
the subclasses class by class I believed
and and again for folks that are tuning
in please do keep those questions coming
and we’ll compile those as we go either
an hour for the future so where should
we begin for folks that are following
along at home we’ve got psionic options
revisited and we have I believed three
subclasses that were discussed in this
video how about we started the talk with
the fighter subclass the sigh Knight so
all three of the these subclasses are
revisions of subclasses that we’ve we’ve
shared in unearthed Arcana in recent
months the Sai Knight is a revision of
the psychic warrior a subclass they
would that was out a number of unearthed
Arcana installments ago
right away people will see we changed
the name we changed it largely because
playtests feedback came in and there was
some confusion about why was this thing
called a psychic warrior and again
psychic not only as an English meaning
but in D&D it’s also associated with
psychic damage when this subclass is
much more about telekinetic abilities
rather than dealing psychic damage to
people it was a fair thing to bring up
it was a blind spot for us because when
we did the first version of the subclass
we were picking up a name from an
earlier edition of the game that’s where
the psychic warrior came from and we’re
really using the word psychic in its
english sense because the wording in
english can just refer to basically any
kind of mental power and so we thought
well this is a fair comment this
subclass really isn’t about what D&D
called psychic damage and so we are
exploring a new name the Sai night which
is pretty straightforward it is a you
know a fighter who who is channeling a
sigh which is the you know psionic power
and we chose the word night because
partly because we’ve been doing this a
little bit with the fighter and we have
the eldritch night in The Player’s
Handbook and we recently did the room
night and it just sounded cool so we’ll
see what people think you know it’s it’s
a part of the plato’s process especially
when we get feedback on names then we
see you know well does the new name
stick or you know do we do we continue
to iterate now when it comes to the
abilities themselves some of the psychic
warriors abilities from the previous
unearthed Arcana still exist here but
not in their original form and one of
the big reasons for that is our decision
I mentioned this in the previous episode
to come up with a mechanic that all of
these subclasses would have that would
give them something in common as psionic
characters because one of the pieces of
playtests feedback we got was hey these
subclasses are really cool but it would
be even cooler if there was something
mechanically connecting them you know
where if you know whichever one you
played they would do something at the
table beyond just the feel of it I mean
because of course we were already you
know they already had like telepathy and
telekinesis cetera so beyond the effects
themselves some game mechanic that would
make them feel like they they had
something in common and so we developed
this psionic talent dye which is you
know this dye you roll for certain
psionic abilities and the dye can get
bigger and also smaller representing an
ebb and flow of your power and a certain
amount of uncertainty because I thought
it would be fun as a person playing one
of these characters to have almost this
mini game you’re playing of like alright
you know am I is my is my sonic power
going to swell or is it gonna start
diminishing and you know have that feed
into some of your decision-making as you
decide which features to use at
different points in an adventure now the
each of the three subclasses gets a a
feature called psionic talent which is
the feature that supplies them with this
sign on a talent die now even though
each of them have a feature with the
same name this the thing they have in
common is simply this is where their get
the Scion a talent die if you then dig
into the meat of each of these features
they’re radically different because in
each case they’re able to do different
things with that Sun on a calendar
so the dye represents the raw psionic
power that they have but then they get
to use that power in different ways so
in the case of the cyanide that power at
third level can be used to create
protective fields to shield people can
be used to make side powered leaps this
was something we added in because people
when giving us play test feedback on the
psychic warriors said hey how come I
can’t use my telekinetic abilities to
make you know super-powered leaps so we
added that in and then there is also the
ability to use the dye to make
telekinetic strikes we were very mindful
about making sure there was an offensive
option a defensive option and then an
option that was not necessarily combat
related because the sign powered leap
could be useful not only in combat but
also in parts of an adventure when the
characters are simply exploring like hey
you know syenite can you leap up there
and check that area out that the rest of
us can’t reach and so this is the
collection of options the cyanide has up
front before then getting their next
batch of psionic abilities starting a
sentence level now one thing I’ll say
about the psionic talent guide before I
move on is the unusualness of it in that
a lot of D&D things you always want to
roll high and we preserve that with the
psionic talent die in that if you roll
high the immediate result will be good
like if you if you are doing a
telekinetic strike and your your psionic
talent die is a d6 and you roll a six
you’re happy because you just dealt more
damage than if you would say rolled one
right but the twist that is special
about the psionic talent die because we
want it to represent the ebb and flow of
your power
is that if you roll the highest number
on the die so on a t6 if you roll a six
what happens there is yeah you just did
a cool thing but you also just spent a
little too much of your power and so the
die then drops one size so it goes from
if it was a 76 it goes to a d4 now the
opposite is also true
if let’s say you roll the die and you
get a one and this is true no matter
what the dice aya the dies size is if
you roll a one on it kind of bummed cuz
I only I only did one more you know if
you’re doing telekinetic strike in the
case of the Sinai I did a whopping one
force damage to the person but because
in that expenditure of power you managed
to actually conserve some the dye now
increases in size so then the next time
instead of rolling if it was a t6 the
next time you get to roll a d8 now
that’s assuming that the starting size
of your die is a d8 because the die can
never get bigger than your starting size
that’s a question I’ve seen come up on
Twitter and so I want to make sure
that’s clear to everybody your guy can
never increase past its starting size
which is one of the reasons why it’s
then so cool when you reach higher
levels and your die starts getting
bigger you know when a or get when you
get to fifth level it becomes a d8 when
you hit an 11th level it becomes a t10
17th level you’re rolling in d12 so you
know and which means then a d12 is the
the biggest thing I can ever become I
like the idea that it’s not the die type
that changes in size it’s the actual
physical size of the die that you’re
using I’m not rolling a d6 the results
are still gonna be the same but it’s a
bigger died it’s more aggressive yeah
it’s it’s a it’s a it’s a an interesting
mechanic it’s making my head spin in a
good way and I’m thinking
for no other reason then playing games
can imagine why lately playing games
with kids as I’m doing now it’s an
interesting rollover mechanic to say to
them hey sometimes you roll in the one
sometimes you’re low 22
soften the blow if you choose to go down
that road as opposed to hey what the
dive ball would May if you choose down
to go down the road of well you roll the
low this time but you didn’t expend your
effort so you’re going to be able to
have a little bit more effort left in
the tank and get a bonus on it seems
like there’s an applicability that that
is is it very useful here but in other
areas
yeah and that that that feeling that you
just described is exactly what I’m
wanting us to explore and you know who
knows this could be a kind of thing we
could explore elsewhere in the game
perhaps at another time but but right
now I felt it was a really neat way to
express your power a being and flowing
we’ll see we’ll see what play testers
say if they dig it I hope people do I
think it’s fun but hey I like rolling
dice and and honestly I think often
uncertainty is fun there there are
plenty of things in the game too that
will give you certainty but one of the
reasons why idea D&D uses so many dice
is you get to be surprised even then
even the DM gets to be surprised because
you don’t know what that guy is going to
show you that it could you know it could
be an epic success it could be an epic
failure even the epic failures though
have good memorable moments so when when
it comes to leveling up as a syenite of
course
at seventh level you then get the
psionic thrust ability which now we need
as telekinetic strike means you have a
chance to knock the person prone because
of the telekinetic force that hits them
or you have the ability to move them ten
feet in any direction or horizontally so
you know you could that means you could
use this to draw them closer to yourself
to hurl them away and in this theme of
of telekinesis at seventh level the
syenite also gets the ability to move a
creature an object with their mind and
this is this is sort of like levitation
but and in fact a little view behind the
curtain initially we had this as just
using the levitate spell but the closer
we got to releasing the unearthed Arcana
we realize we wanted this to be more
specific for the sign ight and to have
the flexibility that you see here a
tenth level you you get a scienced
metabolism letting you resist some
certain types of damage and to be immune
to the poisoned condition and then you
have the bulwark of force which lets you
protect people this is very similar to
an ability that was in the psychic
Warrior in its previous version but it
is now allowing you to use your psionic
talent dying to give yourself more uses
of it if you want and then finally the
subclass culminates in the knight being
able to cast the telekinesis spell but
to do so by means of their psionic power
so when they cast this spell it requires
no verbal or somatic or material
components and they are using their
psionic talent die to fuel the use of
this spell so when they use it their die
then automatically decreases by one guy
sighs it’s almost sort of like a spell
slot you’re spending but in this
case it’s your you are burning your die
so you could if your diet at this point
was a d12 you could just turn it to a d8
and cast telekinesis and if anyone
hasn’t read the telekinesis spell in The
Player’s Handbook it is a juicy spell
there is a lot you can do with it and
this is actually a pretty high level
spell for this fighter to be able to toy
around with but we sort of felt you know
if if this if this subclass is all about
telekinesis it would be a big miss if
they were unable to actually access the
telekinesis spell I’m looking it up now
on handy dandy demon you’re like oh what
can I do with this juicy magic I mean it
is it is not just prestidigitation plus
oh no you’re talking about moving
objects up to a thousand pounds yes up
to thirty feet in any direction yeah
huge or smaller creatures so yeah it is
it is a juicy spell I mean cuz this is
this is you know any story where you’ve
seen somebody use their mind power to
like hold up a bridge or you know hurl a
massive statue across the room you know
that kind of thing that’s what the
telekinesis spell is all about npnp it
is it is mighty mighty magic shall we go
into the soul night yes I’m looking at
him now so that is the Stein night but
the second subclass was for the rogue
and that is the soul knife so how to
discuss the soul knife all right so the
soul knife is the one subclass in this
article who did not get a new name it
was called the soul knife the last time
people saw it the the name of this one
did not cause any static in the plate s
feedback and it’s a it’s also a name we
adopted going back a couple of addition
from a couple of additions ago and right
away just like in the Sinai the soul
knife gets the psionic talent
but this time rather than having you
know the telekinetic leaps and strikes
and you know telekinetic barriers the
soul knife being a rogue who is all a
brat about using their psionic powers
for infiltration and whatnot they are
able to use their psionic power one to
create a sort of mini telepathic network
with people using their psychic whispers
ability because we thought soul knives
as rows would be sought after in certain
places in the D&D multiverse because
wouldn’t you want an infiltration group
that never has to utter a word to each
other because they are they are all
whispering to each other telepathically
so that was the story idea behind this
psychic whispers feature and then they
also have this feature called the side
bolstered neck now big part of being a
rogue is not only sneak attack which is
often what people think of because of
combat in the game but another major
part of row row being a rogue is being
amazingly skillful rogues have typically
have more proficiencies than anybody
else in a group they have all sorts of
tools that there’s disposal for getting
out of tricky situations and so the idea
here is that the soul knife is this this
person who with their strange mind
powers is able to turn failure into
success so what this lets you do is if
you fail an ability check using a skill
or tool with which you have proficiency
you can roll your psionic talent die add
it to the check and potentially turn
that failure into a success so you can
imagine you know this this rogue trying
to unlock a door and the DM tells them
well you failed well then you know the
rogue uses their mind powers and and
then they’re like I succeeded because
because because
you know they’re they’re able to use use
the shine of their of their psychic
abilities to figure something out about
the lock that their mundane abilities
didn’t at first notice the toddler’s
happened to fall into place whether or
not my pick I made yeah now this this
featured the side bolstered neck is is
intentionally very broad
it applies to any skill or tool that the
rogue has proficiency with so this also
could apply to say persuasion or
deception you know the the soul knife
might be infiltrating a masquerade ball
and might be trying to deceive people
about their identity and let’s say the
DM asks the soul knife to make a
deception check and then the DM tells
after the roll tells them they failed
well again maybe the soul knife decides
to lean into their psionic ability and
somehow manipulate the social situation
and if they roll well enough on their
psionic talent dye turn that failure
into a success and suddenly because of
of using their their psychic abilities
that guard who is about to disbelieve
the soul knife’s lie suddenly believes
it so again they’re all there all sorts
of ways that the side bolstered nack can
be used in you to really flavor some
scenes in D&D in interesting ways now we
get to the ability that gives the Soul
knife their name and that is their
psychic blades their ability to manifest
psychic daggers or short swords however
you want to imagine them but while other
rogues are usually relying on a physical
finesse weapon or ranged weapon soul
knives typically rely
on these psychic blades that they
manifest and i i love the the scariness
of this I even made sure we we put into
the flavor text this idea that some some
thieves guilds and monarchs and others
love having soul knife assassins because
there are no wounds left behind when a
person is is damaged by a a blade made
out of pure psionic energy and
investigate that yeah yeah exactly and
these blades have the finesse and thrown
properties meaning because of the
finesse meaning they do work with the
rogues sneak-attack ability and because
it has the thrown property it means you
can also hold them and so if the road
wants to throw these blades made out of
psychic energy they can do so and we’ve
pointed out that these blades do
immediately vanish so no one can pick up
your psychic blade and throw it ahead
packet we we have also built in the
ability for you to make a bonus action
attack with your psychic blades this is
essentially a replacement for the two
weapon and fighting rule in the combat
chapter we didn’t want the soul knife to
have to loop through that rule and so we
built an alternative to it right into
the psychic blades part of the reason
why it wouldn’t actually work to loop
through the two weapon fighting rule is
that rule is built assuming the person
using it is holding weapons in their
hands whereas the soul knife is not
holding these in their hands they just
they manifest as you attack and then
vanish and so they simply wouldn’t work
with the regular the regular rule and we
also wanted to do something different
these allow you to add your ability
SCOR modifier to the damage of this
puzzle bonus attack
unlike the true weapon fighting rule in
the combat chapter of The Player’s
Handbook but in this case the die size
is different so normally the psychic
blades have the d6 whereas if you do
this bonus action attack they have a d4
now the 9th level feature of the full
knife it’s called soul blades builds on
your psychic blades feature from level 3
but first is the homing strikes again
we go to this theme of of the soul knife
able to turn failure into success so
just as the sigh the sign bolstered neck
back at third level let you turn a
failed ability check potentially into a
success if you roll high enough on your
psionic talent die this this allows you
to do the same kind of thing but with an
attack role so if you miss you can roll
your sign a Cal and I add the number you
rolled to the attack role and which then
might cause that miss to instead hit
your target now if you do hit your
psionic talent died recently so the
number you rolled we put this in here
because we realized if we didn’t this
would actually be too good because if
you had if you had really good luck on
your psionic talent die and it didn’t
ever drop you could just turn miss into
hit after missing to hit after this
don’t just keep going and going and
going so this ensures that you know you
you do lose some of your psionic power
if you manage to cause the strike that
was about to go over there too suddenly
home in and hit the person a couple
quick questions that have been coming in
as we’ve been talking about the psychic
blades first could a monk deflect a
psychic blade thrown
that’s a good question but asked me the
other ask me the other one I’m gonna
look at the exact wording of deflect
missiles ability second question being
could they penetrate anti-magic
protection if you know the psychic blade
is different than then magically so the
psychic the psychic bleeds features
specifically says that the blades are
magic blades okay so they are still
deflated deflected by anti magic sure
yes they are I said it that way because
I am endlessly fascinated by how many
questions come up about anti magic field
a spell which the typical campaign will
never see in use but and by the way this
is this has been true for multiple
editions of D&D we have actually at the
office have talked for years about the
fact that few spells get as much
conversation relative to how often
they’re immunes as anti magic fields
because if you go on the internet you
like let’s say let’s say to someone
we’re visiting from Mars and they knew
nothing about Dungeons & Dragons and
they just went to forums and Reddit and
Twitter and thought let’s just see what
this game is about they would leave
thinking that man every session of D&D
must include a casting of anti-magic
field because of the amount of
discussion surrounding that spell now I
think the reason for it is the spell
poses some interesting metaphysical
questions and many of us who love D&D
love it because of the world building
that is not only explicit in D&D but
also implicit and so I think a lot of
the anti magic feel the fascination is
ultimately a fascination with begin
world-building and so I sympathize with
it while also being amused by it because
it’s like again wowzers this is a lot of
conversation about something that a
typical session will never see now now
that’s a call the challenge accepted if
someone you know that scenario where
either the NPC is protected by an anti
magic sphere and you can undermine them
or some trick or trap that you have to
manipulate is protected by an anti magic
sphere how do you get through it
so yes gent was also and I saw this as
well the way that you’ve got your zoom
background it looked like you were
pulling your book out of the head of the
dread dragon so we so in the psychic
blade this is going back to the deflect
missiles question the monk would not be
able to catch it because we specify that
the blade vanishes immediately after it
hits or misses its target and whereas in
deflect missiles it’s you can use your
reaction to deflect or catch the missile
when you are hit by a ranged weapon
attack so as essentially the instant the
monk is hit the the psychic blade is
vanished but what if the monk is wearing
gauntlets crafted out of anti-magic
spear material so the moment we actually
create such gauntlets I will ask that
question I know answer that question now
now the monk the monk can still deflect
you know in in other words use the
damage reduction part of deflect
missiles but again there’s just the monk
can’t actually catch it because as soon
as like they put their hand around it
it’s gone
all righty
so that is the sole knife waylaid the
conversation by the time we got to the
ninth local power we have not gone
through the 13th or 17th level powers
all right so the ninth level one though
before we move on also includes the
ability to throw one of your psychic
blades and teleport to the place where
you throw it honestly this was a bit I
put in here simply because I thought it
was cool so I hope I hopefully testers
think so one of the reasons why I was
enchanted by the idea is again this
notion of soul knifes being great at
infiltration and so really what I was
imagining was sure this has combat uses
but I was actually more enchanted by the
non combat uses like trying to sneak
into a guard tower and curling one of
these these knives up at like a window
and then you know teleporting up there
again just just neat neat narrative and
exploration possibilities the psionic
veil very similar to something that was
in the soul knife before which is proof
we’re invisible and then they have the
ability to to stab directly into a
targets mind with their their psychic
blades and stun the person so we only
have five minutes left and we have a
whole other subclass to go through the
psionic soul the one thing I’ll say
about the psionic soul right away and
this this was previously the aberrant
mind is the psionic soul got really
positive playtests feedback from before
so a lot of the aberrant minds core
functionality is present here in the
psionic soul but now using the cinetic
talent guy we’ve also been asked on
Twitter and elsewhere why the removal of
the aberrant flavoring a big part of
that was we had an
of people in the play test feedback say
we love we love this subclass but do we
have to have so much mucus and tentacles
if we want if we want to get these
psionic powers and our answer was no
there was actually nothing inherent to
the abilities of the aberrant mind that
required tentacles and mucus and so what
we did what we did is we took we took
the core functionality preserved it and
then presented an array of aesthetic and
story options for your psionic origin
and so I would encourage people who want
to who still want some some juicy flavor
for the psionic soul sorcerers psionic
power take a look at the psionic origins
table if you loved the tentacles and
mucus from the aberrant mind we have got
you covered with option number seven
which is you were implanted with a mind
flayer tadpole but the Serra morphosis
never completed and now the psionic
power is yours when you use it your
flesh shines with a strange mucus and
and you will see that in each of these
origin options we have not only given
you a story suggestion for the
origination of your psionic power but we
often also give a flavor suggestion for
how your psionic powers manifest so in
that case this this person who survived
mind flare Sarah Moore phasis they
they’re shining with mucus but it could
also be that you have optioned to where
a psychic wind from the astral plane
carried psionic energy into your being
when you use your powers now
faint motes of light sparkle around you
but if tentacles are your jam because
again we’ve actually got you covered
twice if you liked the aberrant mind you
can go with option one you were exposed
to the far realms warping influence you
can now use your mind in ways you never
thought possible and you’re also
convinced that a tendril is growing upon
you we will leave it to you
where that tendril is manifesting and
we’ll also leave it to you to decide
whether it’s real or not we purposefully
left it here that you know maybe maybe
it is a hallucination maybe you do in
fact have such a thing growing from you
so we we created a array of options all
of them pointing at wherever this power
came from you now have extraordinary
psionic ability and and it is
extraordinary because not only do you
have the features that are in the
subclass including a psionic talent
feature just as the cyanide and soul
knife and the sign an account feature
but the scientist will sorcerer also has
access to the entire sorcerer spell list
and is able to marry their psionic
ability to the capabilities of that list
and use their psionic power to manifest
the effects represented by those spells
and so we can get into that more in our
next episode yes less the mucus and
tentacles there you what if what it
would have fine thoughts to leave with
so yes we will return if not next week
then the week after we’ll figure out
that scheduling and will continue the
conversation about the psionic options
revisited I know folks have been adding
in questions along the way so again
we’ll be compiling those and getting to
those next time so again we’d like to
thank everyone for taking an hour out of
your day to spend it with Jeremy and
myself
this is the dragon post livestream so
speaking of Dragon Plus we’re going to
have that next issue out I believe
on Monday for sure we’re gonna be
talking in its digital pages with Jeremy
as well regarding mythic odyssey’s
barrows and Wes will be talking about
big creatures and battlefields and
taking a look over the wall at magic and
the quarry asset I saw Dan Dillon in
chat as well and if you’d like to take a
look at one of his creature creations
you can look at the dragon rat in the
current issue of Dragon Plus always for
free on iOS Android and so thanks again
for everyone thank you to Jeremy for
joining us in the Dragons tail you got
to watch out for the dragon behind you
he hasn’t the fires haven’t reached you
yet they looked awfully close now again
it’s think to its thanks to my guests
arrived friend over here and his anti
magic sphere I don’t even think that’s
anti magic field
[Laughter]
alright everyone I know we’re gonna be
tuning out but we will see you next time
bye everyone