Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition offers players a plethora of ways to play, create, and customize their own characters for campaigns and one-shot stories. Aside from the core content, there is a multiverse worth of expanded content ranging from official material to homebrew creations, all of which offer powerful yet balanced options for players looking to shake things up.
Among these expansions is Tausha’s Cauldron of Everything which features a new subclass for the Fighter: the Psi Warrior build. Harnessing the power of the mind, the Psi Warrior combines martial prowess with psychic abilities.
In this guide, we will explore the intricacies of building a Psi Warrior, including the subclass features, recommended Race picks, and strategies for effective play.
Making your Psi Warrior Build: Choosing a Race
Race selection is important as it determines a variety of scenarios and situations that will appear during play. First and most importantly, your chosen Race offers inherent advantages to various Ability Scores so your character’s effectiveness in roleplay and combat will be determined by these advantages.
As a second point for why Race matters, your backstory and point of view on your game’s world will be influenced by your Race, and NPCs will feel certain types of ways about the Race you choose at times. Because of these reasons, you may want to opt for a Race that fits both your class optimization goals as well as your flavor goals.
1. Best Race Pick – Human
The Human and the Fighter go together like peanut butter and jelly. Humans are versatile and adaptable, allowing players to choose which Ability Scores get a small increase whereas other Races are preset in the boosts that are received. The Variant Human also allows for an additional feat to be taken upon creation, giving you the flavor you are looking to fulfill in your character’s fantasy.
2. Second Best Pick – Half-Elf
Much like the Human, the Half-Elf possesses adaptability and versatility. You gain a bonus to Charisma and proficiency in two skills of your choice, creating a character that quickly becomes useful in many talents.
3. Third Best Pick – Warforged
The Warforged is a unique and underused class. As a construct given life, you gain an increase to Constitution and the ability Integrated Protection, which grants increases to your Armor Class.
These can help the Psi Warrior stay in fights longer without needing to spend actions or resources on escapes, support, and healing.
Step 2 – Allocating Ability Scores
After choosing your Race, you will want to allocate your Ability Scores to your liking. The choices you make will determine which skills are good early and which will be considered dump stats. Because of this, it is important to invest in the proper Ability Scores if you want to find success as a Psi Warrior.
1. Best Pick – Strength/Dexterity
As a Psi Warrior, you get to choose to focus on Strength or Dexterity depending on your preferred weapon and armor choices. If you enjoy melee combat with heavy weapons, choose Strength as your primary attacking stat. If you enjoy ranged or finesse weapons, choose Dexterity as your primary attacking stat. Once you have made a choice, the other option can be ignored until you are content with all your other Ability Scores that see use.
2. Second Best Pick- Constitution
Constitution is always a solid choice for investment as it determines your Health Points. The higher this stat, the more hits you can take, which leads to more turns in prolonged fights. As a Fighter, you will become a priority target for many enemies due to how close you will be to them as well as how much damage you will be putting out, so consider your Health when creating your character.
3. Third Best Pick- Intelligence
Intelligence is your primary spellcasting stat as a Psi Warrior. While you will not be casting spells a whole lot in battle, investing in this will support your saving throws and can contribute toward additional skill proficiencies. Once your Strength/Dexterity is as high as you would like and your Constitution ensures you will survive difficult encounters, invest in this Ability Score for maximum optimization.
Step 3- Pick Psi Warrior
The Fighter’s subclass is called the Martial Archetype, and we will be taking Psi Warrior for our Martial Archetype in this guide. Here, we will explore the new combat styles and techniques gained for becoming a Psi Warrior.
Psionic Power
Immediately upon taking this Martial Archetype, you begin to feel psionic energy course through your body. The amount of energy available is represented by a number of d6 equal to double your proficiency level.
Upon a long rest, you gain all psionic dieback, and once per short or long rest as a bonus action, you may regain a single psionic die during combat. Additionally, you gain the following three psionic abilities, each of which spends one psionic die: Protective Field, Psionic Strike, and Telekinetic Movement.
The strongest of these is likely to be Psionic Strike as it functions as a straight damage boost, but Telekinetic Movement can become quite powerful with a bit of creativity. Telekinetic Movement is nice in that it does not cost a psionic die to use once per short or long rest, but can be used an additional time at the cost of a psionic die.
Telekinetic Adept
By Fighter Level 7, you gain two more telekinetic-themed abilities: Psi-Powered Leap and Telekinetic Thrust. The former only costs a psionic die if you use it more than once per short or long rest and allows the user to fly equal to twice their walking speed for the duration of the turn, while the latter empowers the already strong Psionic Strike without the cost of any additional psionic die.
Guarded Mind
At Fighter level 10, you gain resistance to psychic damage. This is quite powerful as this is a popular damage type among mid to high-level bosses.
Additionally, if you are charmed or frightened at the start of your turn, you may spend a psionic die to remove every effect causing those conditions immediately.
Bulwark of Force
At Fighter level 15, you gain the powerful support skill, Bulwark of Force. As a bonus action, you may shield any number of creatures equal to your Intelligence modifier, including yourself, with psychic force, granting them half cover for up to 1 minute or until you are incapacitated.
This can only be used once per long rest unless you refill it with a psionic die.
Telekinetic Master
At Fighter level 18, you master your psionic abilities. You can cast the Telekinesis spell without any components and with your Intelligence as your spellcasting ability stat.
On the turn you cast the spell as well as each turn you concentrate on the spell, you can make one attack with a weapon as a bonus action. Casting Telekinesis with this feature can only be done once per long rest or by expending a psionic die to refill the one-time use.
Step 4 – Finish your Build Plan
We have covered the basics of your class; however, there is still a lot of room to make the character truly yours. It is unlikely for any two players to follow this guide and end up with similar characters at the table unless they planned to do so.
In this section, we will cover some of these more open-ended options, as having your character fully planned out will help expedite the leveling process when the time comes.
- Level Progression: Consider your desired level balance. If you are choosing to multiclass due to the Psi Warrior’s ease of access to other classes, take note of which skills you will miss out on, how your level spread will be, and which features and power spikes complement the character you are trying to build.
- Fighting Style: Your Fighting Style is taken at Fighter level 1, meaning it comes before you take Psi Warrior at all. Defense, Great Weapon Fighting, and Dueling are all excellent choices for a Psi Warrior, but you may want a different style if you are looking for a specific flavor or are multiclassing.
- Feats and Ability Score Increases: As a Fighter, you gain access to a variety of feats. Choose ones that complement your playstyle. Also, you gain regular Ability Score Increases throughout the class’ progression, so consider these as power spikes when deciding between possible class splits or if the choice is between a new feat or an ASI.
Conclusion on making a strong Psi warrior build in dnd
Building a Psi Warrior in Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition offers a unique blend of martial prowess and psychic abilities. The subclass itself may seem straightforward, but the options offered are vast and important, unlike some classes where an illusion of choice is created around a single best skill.
With a bit of creativity and the right gear, your Psi Warrior will be able to excel in both close-quarters combat and ranged telekinetic battles.
Unlock the secrets of the mind and break the limitations on your character’s psychic abilities when entering your group’s table with your new and powerful Psi Warrior.