D&D: Give Any Character Psychic Powers With New Wild Talent Feats – Open The Gates Of The Mind
The Psion isn’t the only character capable of throwing around mind powers – any character can with the Wild Talent feats in the new UA.
Wild Talents are a D&D staple, back to the earliest days. In fact, before the Psion was even a thing, there were psychic powers which some characters might have had access to. You could, as the legends go, roll a percentile dice, and if you rolled a small enough chance, your character would be psionically empowered. From there, they’d have access to psionic attacks and defenses like Ego Whip and Fortress of Intellect.
Now, of course, it’s a little easier to have psychic powers. Especially since WotC introduces a bunch of new Feats designed to do exactly that – the Wild Talent Feats are there to give your characters a psionic leg up.
Wild Talent Feats – Unleash Psionic Powers In ANY Character
So how does WotC end up bringing back psionic powers? The answer is Feats. There are ten new feats all in all, each one gives you access to some spells and a “Psionic Talent” which lets you cast the spells without needing to use components. All in all pretty standard for “cast the spell with your mind”.
Each feat ties back to a different psionic archetype. You can find shades of the old Psionic Disciplines that WotC introduced with the Mystic back in the 5E playtesting cycle here. Which is enough to make me miss the variable class – but we won’t get bogged down in what might have been. That way lies madness.
Instead, we’ll dwell on Wild Talent Feats. Of all the ways WotC could’ve handled giving characters psionic powers, I think starting with Feats is a great way of handling it. These are akin to Origin feats, in that they’re unlocked with certain backgrounds. And here, from the Wild Talents section, we get a glimpse of what WotC has planned for whatever book the Psion and its friends might appear in:
“Also included are a collection of feats that provide characters with a way to tap into psionic powers. Backgrounds representing their connection to wild talents will be included with these feats in a future book if they become official, but in the meantime a character who takes the Noble or Sage background can choose a Wild Talent feat in place of that background’s Origin Feat, and any character can choose one of these feats when their class normally allows a feat choice.”
That last part means you can snag a Wild Talent feat if you really want to. But, the question remains, will you really want to? To answer that, let’s crack into the new feats.
Wild Talent Feats – Atmokinesis Is VERY Different From Atomkinesis
Each of the feats follows the same general format. You gain an always on benefit, as well as a selection of spells. They work in concert to give you the feel of your chosen psionic talents. How, you ask? Let’s take a look.
- Atmokinesis is the power to change the atmosphere with your mind. Specifically to make it full of lightning and/or fog and/or wind. With this feat you gain the ability to change your Bludgeoning, Piercing, Slashing, or Psychic damage to Lightning damage instead.
- As a psionic talent, you gain the ability to cast the Shocking Grasp cantrip, and can cast Fog Cloud once per day without a Spell Slot. At level 3, you can also cast Gust of Wind.
- Biokinesis is the power to bend living matter. This one’s for healing: whenever you cast a spell that heals someone, you can heal an extra 1d4 up to your Proficiency Bonus times per day.
- As a psionic talent, you learn the Spare the Dying Cantrip and can cast Healing Word once for free. At 3rd level, you can caast Arcane Vigor.
- Clairsentience is all about farseeing. When you take the Search Action, you can give yourself Advantage up to your Proficiency Bonus times per day.
- As a psionic talent, you learn the Guidance cantrip, and can cast Detect Good and Evil oncer per day for free. At level 3 you also gain See Invisibility.
- Cryokinesis is for people who just wanna be chill. With its Ice Manipulation power, you can change your bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, or psychic damage to Cold damage once per turn.
- As a psionic talent you learn the Ray of Frost cantrip and can cast both Armor of Agathys and Ice Knife once each for free.
- Empath is for those who are in touch with their feelings. You can give yourself Advantage on an Influence checkup to your Proficiency Bonus times per day.
- As a psionic talent, you can cast the Charm Person spell once for free. And at 3rd level, you can also cast Calm Emotions.
But Wait There’s More
You start to see the pattern emerging from each of the feats. But again, these are all feats that I think any character could benefit from. Especially since with the feats you get to decide what your spellcasting ability modifier is (Int, Wis, or Cha) when you pick up the Wild Talent. There’s a little question as to if you would if you didn’t start with one.
They don’t grant an ability score bonus and that makes them feel a little lacking in the early game, when most characters are trying to rush to get their primary ability score to max out at 20. At any rate, here’s the other half of the feats.
- Flesh Morpher is a horrible name, but not nearly as visceral as “flexible flesh” which lets you add your Intelligence modifier (minimum of +1) to your ability checks when you mmake Acrobatics or Sleight of Hand checks.
- As a psionic talent, you can cast Longstrider once for free. And at higher levels, you can also cast Alter Self.
- Mind Whisperer is for those who like their psychic powers a little more traditionally psychic. You gain the ability to psychically connect with one creature you can see within 120 feet.
- As a psionic talent, you gain the Mind Sliver cantrip, and can cast Dissonant Whispers once for free. You don’t gain a second spell.
- Psi Trickster is a feat for the persuasive ones. This Wild Talent feat lets you add your Intelligence modifier to your Deception and persuasion checks.
- As a psionic talent, you know Minor Illusion cantrip and can cast Disguise Self once for free.
- Psykineticist is not to be confused with Psykinetic, the new subclass. This lets you increase your speed by 10 feet when Dashing, making it great for Rogues and Monks.
- As a psionic talent, you can know the Telekinetic Fling cantrip and can cast Thunderwaave for free.
- Pyrokinesis is for setting things on fire with your mind. Like the other damage changing cantrips, thisone lets you change your damage to fire damage.
- As a psionic talent, you know the Produce Flame cantrip, and can cast Burning Hands once for free. At 3rd level, you can also cast Scorching Ray.
Of course, now that you know how they work,, it’s time to playtest them. Be sure and check out the feats and fill out the survey at the link below. That way you can let WotC know what you really think about their upcoming take on psionics.
Psionic scions sigh on command!
