One day a light blazed forth within you—the illumination of psionic power. Your mind now simmers with this power, the full extent of which you won’t fully grasp for years to come. You can touch other minds with it and alter the world around you by using it to control the magical energy of the multiverse. Will this power shine from you as a hopeful beacon to others? Or will you be a source of terror to those who feel the stab of your mind and witness the strange manifestations of your might?
Among githyanki and githzerai, the powers of Psionic Soul sorcerers are revered and marshaled on both sides of the gith war. In Eberron, many kalashtar dream of discovering this origin’s abilities within themselves, and in Athas, more sorcerers are born with a Psionic Soul than with any other source of power. In the glades of primeval woods touched by the Feywild, children sometimes awaken to the wonders of psionic power. And in communities that survive Far Realm incursions, some folk are mutated into horrific aberrations, while a lucky few not only remain themselves, but also discover that psionic energy now suffuses their minds.
Source: Unearthed Arcana 71 - Psionic Options Revisited
As a Psionic Soul sorcerer, you decide how you acquired your powers. Were you born with them, and did they manifest throughout childhood? Or did an extraordinary event later in life leave you shining with psionic awareness?
Consult the Psionic Origins table for a possible origin of your power.
| Psionic Origins | ||
|---|---|---|
| d10 | Origin | |
| 1 | You were exposed to the Far Realm’s 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. | |
| 2 | 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. | |
| 3 | You or your ancestor were trained by a githzerai monk to unlock the psionic potential within yourself. | |
| 4 | A spirit haunts your mind, lending incredible power to your thoughts. When you sleep, the spirit’s memories invade your dreams. | |
| 5 | Deep in a forest touched by the Feywild, you drank from a glimmering stream, and now your mind shines with power. Beasts and fey creatures are often now friendly to you, as if they can sense the light within you. | |
| 6 | Upon recovering from a near-fatal injury, you found yourself with psionic powers. Whenever you use them, your old wound tingles. | |
| 7 | You were implanted with a mind flayer tadpole, but the ceremorphosis never completed. And now the psionic power is yours. When you use it, your flesh shines with a strange mucus. | |
| 8 | As a child, you had an imaginary friend that looked like a flumph or a strange platypuslike creature. One day, it gifted you with psionic powers, which have ended up being not so imaginary. | |
| 9 | Your nightmares whisper the truth to you: your psionic powers are not your own. You draw them from your vestigial twin! | |
| 10 | You grew up near the lair of a sapphire dragon, and now your eyes glow with sapphire light when you use your newfound powers. | |
Starting at 1st-level you harbor a wellspring of psionic power within yourself, an energy that ebbs and flows as you channel it in various ways. This power is represented by your Psionic Talent die, the starting size of which is a d6.
Changing the Die’s Size. If you roll the highest number on your Psionic Talent die, it decreases by one die size after the roll. This represents you burning through your psionic energy. For example, if the die is a d6 and you roll a 6, it becomes a d4. If it’s a d4 and you roll a 4, it becomes unusable until you finish a long rest.
Conversely, if you roll a 1 on your Psionic Talent die, it increases by one die size after the roll, up to its starting size. This represents you conserving psionic energy for later use. For example, if you roll a 1 on a d4, the die then becomes a d6.
Whenever you finish a long rest, your Psionic Talent die resets to its starting size. When you reach certain levels in this class, the starting size of your Psionic Talent die increases: at 5th level (d8), 11th level (d10), and 17th level (d12).
You can use your Psionic Talent die in the following ways:
Psionic Discovery. You can unlock the ability to cast a mind-oriented sorcerer spell you don’t already know. After meditating for 10 minutes (which can be done during a rest), roll your Psionic Talent die, and choose a sorcerer spell of a level for which you have spell slots and that is in the school of divination or enchantment. You know the chosen spell for a number of hours equal to the number you rolled.
Psychic Sorcery. When you cast a spell, you can use your mind to form it, rather than relying on words, gestures, and materials. To do so, roll your Psionic Talent die. The spell then requires no verbal component, and if you rolled the level of the spell or higher, the spell doesn’t require somatic or material components either.
Telepathic Speech. You can form a telepathic connection between your mind and the mind of another. As a bonus action, choose one creature you can see, and roll your Psionic Talent die. For a number of hours equal to the number you rolled, you and the chosen creature can speak telepathically with each other while the two of you are within a number of miles of each other equal to the number you rolled. To understand each other, you each must speak mentally in a language the other knows. The telepathic connection ends early if you use this ability to form a connection with a different creature.
At 1st-level, as a bonus action, you can calm your mind for a moment and restore your Psionic Talent die to its starting size. You then can’t use Psi Replenishment again until you finish a long rest.
At 6th-level, you have learned to channel additional psychic energy into your spells. Immediately after you deal damage to a creature with a sorcerer spell for which you expend a spell slot, you can roll your Psionic Talent die and also deal psychic damage to that creature equal to the number rolled. You can deal this extra damage only once per turn.
When you reach 14th-level, you can now use the psi that flows through you to give your body extraordinary abilities. As a bonus action, you can roll your Psionic Talent die and spend 1 or more sorcery points to magically transform yourself for a number of hours equal to the number rolled. Until the transformation ends, you gain one of the following benefits of your choice for each sorcery point you spent, choosing a different benefit for each point:
At 18th-level, if your Psionic Talent die is available, you can unleash your psionic power in a crackling aura of psychic energy; as a bonus action, you can magically radiate this transparent, 30-foot radius aura for 1 minute or until you’re incapacitated or lose the use of your Psionic Talent die.
Whenever a creature starts its turn in the aura or moves into it for the first time on a turn, you can roll your Psionic Talent die and deal psychic damage to the creature, equaling the number rolled plus your Charisma modifier. If the creature takes any of this damage, its speed is halved until the start of its next turn.