Are you still holding out hope for a D&D Psion, ever? Me too. Here are five other classes that could be cool with psionic powers.
One of the things that’s been surprisingly absent from the D&D Roadmap is a book that could potentially feature the Psion. Or any more psionic subclasses (or psubclasses, if you’re me) for that matter. Which is a shame – but it is also not the end of hope. There’s still the season of Champions. And while that probably also won’t have the Psion (as featured in an in-depth Unearthed Arcana), I still hold out hope that with enough of a runway of other stuff, we could get a book like the Eberron: Forge of the Artificer but for Psions.
Maybe like Dark Sun: Prism of the Psion or something like that. But in an ideal world, we get a full-on Dark Sun book with new lore, monsters, and more. Not just a 114-page splatbook, but a big chunky hefty tome full of new psionic subclasses for the rest of the party. Subclasses to accompany the Soul Knife Rogue, Psychic Warrior Fighter, Aberrant Mind Sorcerer, and Great Old One Warlock.
Barbarian
This one just makes a lot of sense to me. It’s probably my favorite pick for a class that could do with a cool new psionic subclass. And it’s because there’s a lot of stuff you can do with the way the Barbarian works in 5.5E. Now that it has new toys like Brutal Strike and weapon masteries to play with, you could picture a psionic Barbarian whose Rage is like a Psionic Trance, while they swing away with a crystal axe. They could use Psychic Power Dice to do cool Barbarian moves. Or maybe their Rage whips up a powerful psionic storm? Either way, there’s a lot of room to play around here.
Druid
Hear me out. Psionic powers are often closely associated with the alien and aberrant in D&D. The Aberrant Mind Sorcerer and the Great Old One Warlock (plus monsters like Mind Flayers and Aboleths) kind of prove out this concept. What about a Druid that leans into the strange and the alien?
Maybe they can use psychic powers to assume alien forms. Or maybe they get psionic powers that are like a cool extension of nature – it all depends on the “weird/corrupt vs. psionics represent the Force” kind of spectrum that exists out there. Speaking of the latter…
Monk
Psionic power is just as often about harnessing the untapped potential of the mind and the body acting as one. Just look at the Gith’s whole deal – their Zerth Blades are the embodiment of this idea. A psionic Monk would get real deep into the weeds about mastering your internal power, body, mind, and soul. Those elements are already present, and a psionic subclass could just lean into that.
Maybe they are capable of psionic teleportation or fight with psychic strikes that empower their defense even as they attack enemies. Again, I feel like the new Monk design is one of the better untapped fields for 5.5E.
Artificer
Blurring the line between alien and internal alchemy, we have the Artificer. They’re already probably going to get a Reanimator, and we know that WotC thinks of psionics as being spells anyway. So why not give the Artificer a psionic innovator type class, where you’re tinkering with technology to unlock the power of the mind.
Psionic technology is the kind of weird fantasy tech that leans towards sci-fi that could do all sorts of things with psionics as its gimmick.
Paladin
I wanted to say Ranger. But then I thought about how if it had a Psionic subclass it would probably revolve around your Hunter’s Mark and spending your limited Psychic Power Dice to do something cool or cast Hunter’s Mark and then I got sad. So instead imagine the Paladin – psionic smites, crystal swords, they’re already kind of the Jedi of the D&D world, why not go all in and give them Force (telekinetic) abilities?
Happy Adventuring!
