latest Unearthed Arcana release revolves around the Psion, a class of characters who can wield powerful psychic powers. Unearthed Arcana is a series of DnD playtesting materials, put out periodically by Wizards of the Coast via D&D Beyond. UA typically allows players to try out new classes, items, encounters, and more prior to their official release in DnD sourcebooks.

While psionics already exist as a DnD mechanic, they've historically been handled by race and feats, not by a dedicated psionic class. That's a niche the Psion is attempting to fill, and, as of today's Unearthed Arcana, it has four new subclasses to test out.

1 Metamorph Lets You Manipulate Your Own Physical Form

Stretchy Psions

The first, and by far the weirdest and the wildest, of the Psion's four new subclasses is the Metamorph. The Metamorph's main feature, per Unearthed Arcana, is the ability to "psychically sculpt life and flesh." In practice, this means they can wield psionics to change the shape of their body, making them a flexible fighter who can power up their own abilities and use their limbs as weapons. For a cultural touchpoint, imagine a DnD character with abilities roughly equivalent to those of early-days Luffy, or Mr. Fantastic.

At level three, Metamorphs receive two core abilities: Organic Weapons and Extend Limbs. Organic Weapons allows them to mold their limbs into the shapes of various weapons, using them as they would synthetic weapons to attack enemies. There are three weapon options listed in Unearthed Arcana, each of which has unique effects in addition to their damage.

Extend Limbs allows the Metamorph to augment their reach, speed, or touch as a Bonus Action. The duration of Extend Limbs then increases to ten minutes at level ten, and comes with a new set of bonuses that the player can choose:

• Stony Epidermis: Advantage on Con saving throws; resistance to damage type of the player's choice
• Superior Stride: While not wearing armor, can use Dash as a Bonus Action; gain climbing and swimming speed equivalent to base speed
• Unnatural Flexibility: +2 to AC; can through spaces as narrow as an inch, and can spend five feet of movement to escape from restraints or grapples

Finally, at level 14, the Metamorph gains Life-Bending Weapons. This powers up their Organic Weapons, allowing them to use a Psionic Energy Die whenever they hit a creature with one. Creatures of their choice within ten feet will regain Hit Points equivalent to the result, and one creature within the same range will take that much Necrotic damage. Ultimately, this sounds like a really fun class to play, with lots of weird abilities that increase their movement and grant them new options for attacking.

2 Psi Warper Bends Space & Time

(Teleports Behind You)

The next Unearthed Arcana subclass introduced for the Psion is the Psi Warper. Where the Metamorph manipulates their own body, the Psi Warper manipulates space, folding long distances into short hops to leap across the battlefield at a moment's notice. This subclass is all about mobility, mobility, and more mobility, as evidenced by its prepared spells, which include expeditious retreat, feather fall, blink, haste, and dimension door. They can even cast misty step without using a spell slot once per long rest - although they can recharge the ability instantly by expending a Psionic Energy Die.

In addition, at level three, the Psion can start warping its targets around the battlefield using Telekinetic Propel, instead of simply pushing them as the base skill allows. Beginning at level six, they can extend the range of Shatter to a 20-foot sphere, pulling creatures caught within it directly towards the center. At that same level, they can also cast a Psion cantrip as part of the Bonus Action required to cast misty step, leaving them with an Action to spare.

Level ten grants the Psi Warper Duplicitous Target, an ability that allows them to swap places with another willing creature ahead of an attack, effectively letting a party member take the hit for them. Finally, at level 14, they get Mass Teleportation, which lets them teleport large numbers of creatures within a 150-foot radius. Psi Warper isn't the strongest Psion subclass, but it does have a lot of mobility. If combined with the right spells and feats, that can turn them into a force to be reckoned with.

3 Psykinetic Molds Their Own Psionic Powers

Create & Destroy

Instead of using their powers to mold other forms of matter, Psykinetics can shape and alter the nature of their psionic powers themselves. They can manifest energy into physical forms, creating barriers to defend themselves and strike back at their enemies. This is effectively a subclass that can buff its own abilities and debuff enemies. Psykinetics learn spells to those goals, like levitate, shield, and wall of force.

At level three, Psykinetics can apply various effects to the targets of their Telekinetic Propel:

• Boost: Increases target's speed by ten feet
• Disorient: Target can't make Opportunity Attacks until its next turn
• Telekinetic Bolt: On a failed saving throw, target takes damage equal to Psionic Energy Die roll

Later, at level six, the Psykinetic gains flying speed of 60 feet, and can add their Intelligence modifier to damage rolls for Psion spells. They also get Rebounding Field, which allows them to reflect attacks back at enemies while shield is active. Level ten grants them the ability to enhance their telekinetic crush with a Psionic Energy Die, halving the target's speed regardless of whether they succeed on the saving throw. Finally, at level 14, they learn Heightened Telekineses, which removes the concentration requirement from the telekinesis spell.

Psykinetics seem to learn how to do a lot of different things with their psionic powers, but, at least for me, they don't seem to coalesce into a specialized class just yet. With a carefully curated list of psionic spells on your side, you can probably make the Psykinetic subclass pretty powerful, but it's not at the top of my list. Still, that's what Unearthed Arcana is for: testing different possibilities and seeing what does and doesn't work before releasing them to a wider audience.

4 Telepaths Are Masters Of The Mind

Yours As Well As Theirs

Finally, let's take a look at the Telepath. Telepath Psions specialize in mind control, affecting their own brains as well as their allies' and enemies', to strengthen and weaken at will. They can either be played as master manipulators, wielding their always-prepared spells like compulsion, command, and detect thoughts, or as powerful s with spells like confusion or bane.

As far as inherent subclass abilities go, at level three, you'll gain Mind Infiltrator and Telepathic Hub. The former lets you modify detect thoughts so you don't need concentration to cast it, and so that the target doesn't know you're reading their thoughts if they fail the Wisdom save. Telepathic Hub allows you to telepathically creatures within ten feet of you; you can use Psionic Energy Dice to expand the range and number of potential targets.

Next, at level six, Telepaths empower their Defense Mode by adding 1d4 to any saving throws made while it's active. This benefit is also available to anyone they're telepathically communicating with. Also at level six, they gain Potent Thoughts, which adds their Intelligence modifier to damage dealt with poison cantrips.

At level 10, Telepathic Bolstering extends their telepathy range to 30 feet, and, whenever a creature within that range fails a check or misses an attack, they can add the result of a Psionic Energy Die to the roll. The die is only expended, though, if the attack hits with the additional bonus. Finally, at level 14, Telepaths gain Scramble Minds, which increases the range of confusion to a 30-foot sphere. Usually, an enemy hit with confusion will roll a d10 to determine their behavior:

Instead, though, with Scramble Minds, Telepaths force their targets to roll two d10s, and can decide which result they want to keep. Overall, Telepath sounds like a fun, chaotic class to play, even if it's not the most powerful new option for the Psion in Dungeons & Dragons' latest Unearthed Arcana playtest.