Everything I know about the Psion I learned on the Internet

If you're enjoying the content here, check out our new site, Thoughtcrime Games. Thanks for visiting!

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

I gathered some of our staff and one of my buddies to playtest a few classes I haven’t seen yet. I cared most about the Psion however. I’m actually someone who has always liked psionics in D&D, and will use it wherever it makes sense. Mentalists certainly have a place in fantasy as I see it, so I was very eager to get the 4e version on the table. Was it broken? Did it need fixing? Was it the end of the world? Most importantly, is it fun?

Since everyone is spread across the states, this was going to be an online game. Skype + Fantasy Grounds II are my weapons of choice, and after a brief tutorial for those who had not used it, off we went.

I ripped the 5th level delve straight from Dungeon delve. This is the one where the party chases the necromancer through the Tiefling Empress’ tomb. Insert obligatory warning about spoilers here.

The party consisted of

Nah’tal, elven monk
Orloch, deva shaman
Eldarune, half-elf swordmage
Thegal Omaz, tiefling Psion

Again, everyone was using 5th level characters. I like to do paragon but PCs either take too long adjusting to the powers or they try to rush and don’t use a third of what the character can do. 5th gives a good feel without overwhelming.

Boneshard skeletons and wights populated the first encounter. The players got stuck near a cluster of boneshard skeletons and got hit with burst after burst of, umm, shards of bone. Right near the end the monk and swordmage dropped by the boneshard’s dying burst. Didn’t see too much of the psion here. He hung in the back, picking at the encounter with at-wills. After this encounter I discovered tha the believed power points recharged after extended rests, not short rests.

Armed with that knowledge, the psion and monk wrecked the next encounter almost singlehandedly. One word — Betrayal. It was particularly strong in this fight because the two enemy types (chillborn zombies and blazing skeletons) conflicted nicely with each other, a little fire and ice for the endtimes. The Chillborn zombies took (a lot of) damage from the blazing skeletons aura and vice versa. The Psion used Betrayal twice to trap the zombies and skeletons next to each other, smothering them and doing unbelievable damage. The monk was able to herd them all together as well so the undead could smash each other.

The last encounter found the PCs hammering away at a Zombie Hulk and a necromancer. Betrayal was not so useful here, but Dishearten and Distract contributed strongly to the overall team effort. With the hulk dispatched, the necromancer begged for mercy. And wouldn’t you know the PCs had just ran out of mercy? Bad day for necromancy.

All in all, a real fun time.

A few other things to note about the psion:

• Distract is very good. It gives free combat advantage in any situation you’d want it, or you can use it purely for an attack boost. it pairs great with daily powers, you distract then strike them with your big guns.
• Psions need to be waaaay in the back. They seem to be the most fragile class, more fragile even than wizards. Psions lack the escape powers that wizards take for granted. They have options, but none so overwhelmingly good that you want to be anywhere a sword. In. The. Back. Stay there.
• I can definitely see some problems with being able to spam the same ability. Being able to spam Betrayal multiple times in one encounter pretty much broke the encounter wide open. Psion powers are definitely going to have to be a little weaker on the 2-Augment than normal powers. The last thing you’d want to see is something like Disruptive strike or Righteous Rage used 2-3 times in an encounter. It’s not a big deal, really, just a note (that I’m sure WotC already made) regarding how strong augments can be.
• I semi-complain about Betrayal, but I actually love this power. As I see it, abilities in RPGs can be powerful in two ways: Mechanically, and openly. Being mechanically strong means that the numbers are just superior to other options. “Open” powers are strong based on how you use them. The mechanics are open to your own creativity and imagination to make them work. Betrayal is one of these powers. You grab any enemy you can hit, move them, and make them hit another enemy. Simple, right? But the permutations and possibilities get limited only by what is in front of you (this power sucks for solo fights) and how you think to use it. Pretty awesome. Besides getting enemies to whack each other (always fun), you can use it to cluster enemies for a burst/blast attack, slide a monster so an ally can move freely, use a monster with a special effect on his attack to place that status on his friends…I could go on an on about this one. Maybe I just did?
• The 1-Augments seem mostly superfluous. Our psion didn’t use them at all the whole session. It seems to be 0 or 2, but it may change at higher levels.
• I could see some players getting a little antsy with only three at-wills at one time. It didn’t seem to bother JackofHearts, our intrepid psion PC…I think in general many people see the powers as limited when they see them on paper, but tend to spend about 15 minutes looking over all the things they can do. The Psion has less powers, but with more options at any given time, so that’s not really a problem for the class.

These are all my thoughts, but hey…I’m just the GM! JackofHearts will post his impressions as the PC using the psion later in the day.

Similar Posts:

•      DDI In-Play: The Psion
•      Beneath the Surface: Has anyone played the Psion yet?
•      Multiclass Monday #11 – Miscellaneous Power