The science fiction setting of Esper Genesis uses the core rules of 5th edition — the six ability scores, d20 action resolution, and a mostly similar skill list — but entirely replaces the list of available races, classes, and equipment to achieve its genre goals. Today’s review focuses specifically on the psionics “Talent” system, which could be cleanly transplanted into a traditional fantasy 5e game.

To address the obvious question of “Science fiction? 5e???” — the space opera subgenre shares a similar origin to fantasy, with some of the most popular works in the genre (Star Wars) releasing when bookstores didn’t bother to separate Fantasy from Science Fiction. There’s a lower-case c conservatism to these stories: Things used to be better, everything would be fixed if we just anoint the correct bloodline to supreme authority, and an emphasis on a few individuals enacting violence to achieve structural changes. These are all tropes that D&D 5e supports, and changing out the classes and equipment accomplishes exactly what the Esper Genesis core manual cover above advertises: Fantasy style stories but with lasers. There are many other systems that support the science fiction genre and space operas, but the relative familiarity of the core 5e mechanics may make Esper Genesis or another science fiction 5e supplement preferable.

Esper Powers

Narratively speaking, psionics are the domain of “Espers” - creatures that have achieved “Esper Genesis” and gained supernatural powers from an interaction with the mysterious crucibles that scatter the galaxy. As far as explanations, this is pretty standard sci-fi faire, comparable to the Biotics of Mass Effect.

Mechanically, Esper Powers are split into two categories - talents, which are channeled in a renamed spell points system, and techniques, which are forged in a renamed spell slots system. Of these, talents are the more directly psionic; techniques are tied to the Engineer class and have a distinctly technological aesthetic. As a brief refresher, spell points provide a single pool of resources, with costs ranging from 2 points for a 1st level spell to 13 for a 9th level spell. The total resource pool is equivalent to spell slots, making it a strict upgrade in flexibility, you can only cast a spell of each level 6 or higher 1/day.

Differences from Spell Points

While it is mostly the DMG spell points system, there’s a few differences beyond the renaming to Talent Points and the term “Prime Talents” in place of cantrips.

Upcasting Costs. “Upcasting” a talent requires a constant 2 points per additional rank and is ordinarily capped at rank 5 (see Force Breach below), even though the jump between ranks is almost always just 1 point — putting a privilege on powers that are less flexible in their minimum values.

Limit Breaches. A channeler can attempt a “Limit Breach” up to mod/day (read: 3-5/day), which requires passing a moderately difficult saving throw to perform one of two effects: a force breach, which allows upcasting to rank 6 or higher, or a zero beach, which allows additional talent usage even after hitting zero points. Each fulfills a different function and are reasonably difficult; a level 11 melder probably has +9 to Intelligence saves and would need to pass a DC 14 saving throw to perform a force breach to upcast to rank 6, while they probably have a +2 Constitution saving throw and would need to perform a DC 13 saving throw to successfully zero breach. The consequences also differ; a failed force breach results in ~15 psychic damage (resistance or immunity would help), while a failed zero breach results in a level of exhaustion.

While Limit Breaches with Talent Points are objectively an upgrade over normal 5e spellcasting, they’re not large ones and so must be judged in the broader context of how the supplement empowers other classes (guns!) as well as if any talents are rebalanced.

Talent Domains

While Esper Powers otherwise largely work the same as 5e spells — durations, ranges, areas, etc. — one other difference is swapping spell schools for talent domains. The domains are Alteration, Clairsentient, Elemental, Kinesis, Metaphase, and Psychogenic; these largely map to the traditional six psionic disciplines used in the 3.5 Expanded Psionics Handbook and by several of the other psionics supplements reviewed in this blog. Psychokinesis is split into Elemental and Kinesis while most summoning oriented powers are instead Forging techniques (Forging techniques do not have any sense of “school”).

Talent Options

The list of powers is nearly 60 pages, although many effects should be familiar to anyone who’s familiar with 5e. It’s not just a transplant of the 5e spells list, for example the rank 3 fire damage spell is a line effect named flame blast. The split between talents and forging techniques is far more explicit here than the arcane/divine split of 5e, but given that many powers are both talents and forging techniques it’s clear this isn’t meant to be a hard divide as much as it is a flavorful one to separate the Engineer from the Melder.

The more novel powers are ones that interact with Esper Genesis specific mechanics, such as forge vehicle. If you were to transplant any of the Esper Genesis classes to a mainline fantasy 5e game it would be wise to review these kinds of powers for whether they’re appropriate for your setting, although if you’re already looking to blend sci-fi and fantasy it’s likely that these powers are an upside rather than something to work around.

Psionic Classes

While 6/8 of the classes in Esper Genesis wield some form of esper, only three of them use the talent system outlined above. The overall class balance is largely in line with core 5e — several classes are 1:1 recreations of base 5e classes — so if your game’s aesthetics are broad enough you could bring these into a game with the official 5e classes.

Adept

A “Psion who channels specific forms of energy through sheer force of will”, the adept is the obvious choice for anyone looking to bring Esper Genesis psionics into a more traditional 5e game. One important difference from other publisher’s psions, however, is that this is a Charisma-based class; the Melder (described later) is the book’s Intelligence based caster.

Basics. A d8 hit die, no armor proficiencies, and only simple weapons are only slightly better than a Wizard. Saving throw proficiencies in Charisma and Wisdom are moderately better than Intelligence and Wisdom on the basis that Charisma seems to be more popular than Intelligence, but in a campaign against Mind Flayers the Intelligence would be preferable. No tool proficiencies and two skill proficiencies are par for the course.

Channeling. The Adept matches the PHB sorcerer in its spells talents known progression, but has one fewer prime talent than the sorcerer has cantrips. This is an extremely limited selection, which isn’t alleviated by subclasses. Furthermore, the adept’s talent point growth slow down relative to spell points at 10th level; the net result is that a level 20 adept only has 114 points instead of 133. In short, while the adept is still benefiting from the relatively high power of 5e full spellcasting, there are many more restrictions on it than most full casters.

Intellect Fortress. Starting at level 2, all adepts have blanket advantage on saving throws against the charmed and frightened conditions. Coupled with Wisdom saving throw proficiency this makes it extraordinarily hard for an adept to be affected by either of these conditions, even though an adept is unlikely to have a Wisdom modifier higher than +1.

Esper Recovery. Once per day an adept can recover between 3 and 12 talent points, basically equivalent to a max rank talent of the adept’s highest rank. This is nice, but weaker than the sorcerer’s Font of Magic.

Psionic Combat. The most distinct ability of the adept comes online at level 3 and amounts to limited use of some spell-like abilities. With only 2/LR uses baseline, improving to 3/LR at level 10 and 4/LR at level 17, this doesn’t really make up for the Adept’s limited channeling options. Also, a level 3 adept must choose two of the three options to have available, only gaining the third at level 13.

• Improved psi blast adds a low damage AOE to the psi blast prime talent, turning a psychic damage fire bolt into more of an ice knife type limited AOE.

• Mind Spike is a single target nuke that adds a crippling slow if the victim fails a secondary Wisdom saving throw. What’s confusing is the level scaling doesn’t match the cantrip progression of improved psi blast and instead goes up at proficiency bonus levels, but doesn’t improve at level 17.

• Mental Barrier provides a reaction that can grant immunity to psychic damage or resistance to elemental damage, upgrading to full immunity to elemental damage at level 11.

In all honesty these aren’t very strong abilities, generally lagging behind an actual spell cast. Compared to the sorcerer’s Metamagic, it’s nice that this is a separate resource pool from Esper Recovery, but the actual power and creativity of the effects lacks enormously.

Psionic Recovery. The capstone for the adept is… an additional use of Psionic Combat per day, but only if you’ve had a chance to take a short rest. While in line with many of the disappointing capstones of the Player’s Handbook, later publications should be held to a higher standard.

Psychic Paradigms

Unfortunately for the adept, while each of these subclasses has a list of additional talents, they follow the PHB Warlock model of adding to the options rather than being additional talents known. In addition to these additional options — which do reinforce the flavor of the subclass, although beg the question why they’re only available to that subclass — each gives features at levels 1, 6, 14, and 18. Furthermore, each of the level 1 features upgrades at level 8.

Animota

This telekinetic subclass starts off by giving tricky fingers (mage hand) as a talent known for free… and that’s it. The level 8 upgrade improves this to bonus action usage, but unlike any sorcerer subclass you’re without meaningful class features until tier 2.

The level 6 feature Transient Repulsion is a 1/SR “impose disadvantage on an incoming attack”, which if successful in thwarting incoming damage gives you advantage on your next attack roll. While not silvery barbs — the feature must be used before the attack roll rather than after — this can help set up the high impact but limited use attack rolls available to the adept.

Volitation at level 14 is genuinely powerful as an always-on flight, in addition to an upgrade to Transient Repulsion that reflects half damage back at the attacker.

The 18th level feature Opposing Force is a blanket resistance to nonmagical BPS — unfortunately, by this level many foes naturally have magical weapons.

Battlemind

The first level feature for the Battlemind, Combat Senses, is similarly minor — it negates the advantage gained by Unseen Attackers. The level 8 upgrade imposes disadvantage on attacks made against you if you’re surprised, a useful defensive benefit that is cancelled out by simply superior abilities (such as a weapon of warning) that entirely negate surprise.

The level 6 feature Empowered Psi Blast is an OK damage boost, but is oddly specific (only boosts a single prime talent, rather than all damaging talents) and should not be compared to Agonizing Blast, as psi blast does not have additional rays — you’re only dealing the bonus charisma damage once per turn, rather than potentially multiple times.

Level 6 also brings a new Psionic Combat option, Psychic Crush — another single target damage effect, this time directly tied to a Wisdom saving throw. The damage is fairly good for single target — better than Mind Spike, with the added benefit of dealing half damage on a successful save — and provides lingering psychic damage. Strangely, none of the damage on this ability scales, so it does begin to fall off mid tier-3.

The level 14 feature Psychic Recoil is an automatic source of psychic damage as a reaction, with the potential to knock foes down and away. As far as melee deterrents go, this is very effective at shutting down any single attacker who approaches the battlemind but isn’t going to save you from multiple.

The capstone Tracing the Curve effectively negates the effects of cover, so the utility is going to be highly DM dependent — in theater of the mind this probably does nothing, but on a heavily gridded and tactical combat this can be an enormous boon.

Dreamshaper

This subclass gives a very basic 30’ telepathy at first level, improving to 60’ at level 8. Expert Telepath is a fine feature

Level 6 brings two features; Mind Blank is a full action to end a debilitating effect, which while useful overlaps with the preventative measures provided by Intellect Fortress. The more useful of the two is Ego Whip, a Psionic Combat option that forces a Wisdom saving throw versus incapacitation in a 15’ cone. While dangerous to use due to its limited range and having mediocre damage (4d6 psychic), the incapacitation is guaranteed to last a full turn with no break on other sources of damage, allowing the Dreamshaper’s party to freely choose how to take advantage of the shutdown effect.

The passive level 14 feature Thought Shield shuts down any kind of psychic duels, providing both resistance and full damage reflection to incoming psychic damage. If a game includes large amounts of psychic damage and thought reading, this is invaluable, but it won’t protect you if you need to go slay a dragon.

Aura of Dominance at level 18 preventing knowledge of charms is hugely useful in a political campaign, which some tier 4 games are, but it’s still a boost to charm effects at a level where many creatures have passive resistance or immunity to them.

Cybermancer

This intelligence-based class is in most ways a renamed warlock — most of its features are 1:1 recreations of the PHB warlock, including using “Talent Slots” instead of points. Eldritch Invocations are Complex Patterns, the Pact Boon is an Advanced Interface, and their subclasses are called Persona Forms. As such I won’t be reviewing those mechanics, instead focusing on the unique subclasses. As a core idea, “warlock as chassis for psionicist” has been done thoroughly by both KibblesTasty and laserllama.

Breaker

This reflavored Pact of the Fiend subclass is less tired to fire as a damage type, in part because many of its expanded talent options no longer deal fire. However, its level 6 and 14 features have been replaced compared to the PHB warlock.

Motion Lag replaces Dark One’s Own Luck, providing 1/SR “impose disadvantage on an incoming attack” that’s functionally identical to the Animota Transient Repulsion, giving the cybermancer advantage on a single attack roll - a far weaker boon when your main offensive tool is split into many smaller attack rolls.

Shatterform at 14th level is a 1/LR use of devastation, a single target necrotic damage nuke that does half damage on a successful Constitution saving throw. This is somehow weaker than Hurl Through Hell — it does only marginally more damage, requires a separate action rather than being a rider on an existing one, and providing a save to mitigate the damage, on top of not actually inflicting a status effect.

Controller

This mind manipulation subclass starts with a 1/SR “charm or frighten everyone in a 10’ cone” ability named Mind Hacker, which while technically area crowd control is extraordinarily limited in range, area, and impact. It’s frankly more useful in social situations where the aesthetic of charm/frighten is good and the action cost is irrelevant.

Level 6 brings a 1/SR post-facto advantage on an attack roll, which has some thematic overlap with the Breaker’s Motion Lag feature. Being on demand is good, but the problem remains that the Cybermancer’s primary damage source is broken up into many attack rolls.

Maintain Pattern is a generally useful ability — passive resistance to necrotic damage can be campaign dependent but does a ton of work when it’s relevant, and a bonus action to remove charm, frighten, or stunned is a huge boon at avoiding lockdowns. (Note: This appears to rely on a ruling that while the Incapacitated Condition prevents “actions and reactions” that doesn’t include bonus actions. I’m not sure if that’s actually RAI for the condition and this feature should probably have wording about losing your bonus action to end the stunned condition).

Stun Lock is a powerful nuke 1/LR: 14d8 psychic damage on an Intelligence saving throw, with half on a success. A creature that fails its save remains stunned for up to a minute, ending early if it takes damage but otherwise not offering a re-save. Of the various features that cost actions, this seems obviously useful as a way to take an enemy off the board even if the ~63 psychic damage doesn’t do that itself.

Ghost

This infiltrator gets trigger device and virtual display for free, two prime talents that only really make sense in a sci-fi setting. The other level 1 feature, Machine Hacker, is far more useful in a sci-fi setting than traditional fantasy, as 1/SR “charm some constructs” is only reliably useful if there’s lots of constructs to charm.

Data Shift at level 6 is another sci-fi specific feature, providing an up to 60’ teleport as a reaction to taking damage if there is an electronic device to teleport to. Otherwise, it’s only 10’ of teleportation.

The level 10 feature, Cybermasking, is generally useful — it’s very effective at shutting down attempts to track the Ghost. Not all campaigns feature intelligent enemies who try to gather intelligence on a party of disruptive adventurers, but this subclass is well suited to campaigns who do.

The capstone, AI Feedback, works on all creatures, not just constructs. The psychic damage is good — although not as good as the Controller’s Stun Lock — and the use of suggestion rather than a stun can be more useful, although at this point of the game a stun is probably more uniquely helpful.

Melder

This wizard equivalent does use talent points in place of spell slots, as outlined in the general analysis in the prior section. In place of “Arcane Traditions” it has “Melder Disciplines”, which are reviewed below. Compared to the wizard, it lacks the ability to dynamically acquire spells but its “Talents Known” is equal to a wizard’s baseline spells in spellbook: 6 + 2 per level after 1st. This is an enormous number, more than double the adept. So long as the melder is remotely judicious about its choices of known talents it is an enormously flexible class on that basis, even though it lacks the Wizard’s unique ability

Celestian

This star-themed subclass class starts off strong with Stellar Expertise, which boosts Astrophysics and Xenobiology — while these are setting-specific skills, any Int class with expertise in knowledge skills is always a fun thing to have. This feature also replaces Dexterity with Intelligence as the primary stat for initiative rolls, effectively a +2 to +3 bonus depending on build choices.

The other level 2 feature, Cosmic Flux, is a 1/SR bonus damage and impose disadvantage on the next attack roll; while not major, it’s basically free (only costs a bonus action) and is on top of Stellar Expertise already being a great starting feature.

Sudden Shift at level 6 is a 1/SR 20’ reaction teleport that also freely negates an incoming attack. This is far stronger than the other level 6 defensive features in this supplement as it automatically negates the attack rather than just imposing disadvantage on top of having a long enough teleport melee foes may no longer be able to effectively follow up.

Focused Phase at 10 is another powerhouse ability, removing the need to make saving throws to maintain concentration after taking damage. This does still leave crowd control as an option to break powerful concentration effects, but it means stray arrows or other ranged attacks are no longer an effective solution.

Cosmic Ward at 14 provides passive radiant and fire resistance as well as some minor damage reflection to radiant damage. This is a good feature and shouldn’t be overlooked, but the other features in this subclass are nevertheless far stronger.

Defender

This combat caster starts off with a blanket +Int to initiative rolls, an always good feature that helps all melders. The other level 2 feature, Force Shield, has Int/LR reactions to increase their AC or saving throw by 1d6, a solid defensive boon that works best in conjunction with the standard wizard strategy of “don’t be close enough to get hit in the first place” — this is much less effective if you’re constantly targeted and run out of uses in the first combat encounter of the day.

Focused Targeting at level 6 allows the melder to trade the equivalent of a 2nd level spell slot to gain advantage or impose disadvantage on a talent that does elemental damage — another way of looking at this is it’s the Heighten Spell metamagic. This is a good feature but the resource cost is an important balance point, as is the one target limitation.

The level 10 Extended Shield reinforces that this subclass is not a frontliner — being able to share Force Shield with allies within 60’ is great, and it’s even better if you’re not getting hit in the first place to need to use it on yourself.

Reactive Shield at 14 continues the love affair with damage reflection, providing the targets of your Force Shield with damage reflection until the end of your next turn.

Metakinetic

This subclass is a renamed School of Evocation, except for the level 14 feature which is still named Overchannel and the removal of Evocation Savant. It’s a solid and straightforward subclass, but some innovation could’ve been used — the UA Wizard published last year shows that there’s definitely refinement possible with the concept of “blaster mage”.

Psychogenic

This mind mage starts with Mesmerize, a feature that… reference a condition that’s never defined in the book, “dazed”. This is a book that has reprinted the full 5e rules for reference since there’s a number of changes, and this condition does not appear in the the conditions appendix. Elsewise, the text also refers to the target as “incapacitated”, so this is a direct CC effect that must be channeled as an action and breaks if the target takes damage or you move more than 10’ away, so it’s only useful outside of combat anyways. The upside is that it’s 1/LR per target, so you can freely re-use it on an infiltration mission so long as you’re not trying to use it to go in and out the same way.

The level 6 feature is another active ability, trading an action for a saving throw that turns off reactions and imposes disadvantage. Barring some newer monsters that use reactions in place of legendary actions, this is worse than a cantrip on action economy and is a non-feature.

The actual reason to take this subclass is the level 10 feature, Secondary Mind — it’s a free Twin Spell for every psychogenic talent (still using the “must target exactly one creature” restriction). There’s a large number of high power single target psychogenic talents that make this good.

Memory Sculpting at level 14 gives expansive “delete memories” functionality to your charm effects. This is mostly better than the Dreamshaper capstone (you can only memory sculpt one creature per charm effect, which limits its utility with Secondary Mind), but falls into the same limitations it has with not doing anything against creatures that are immune to charm effects and generally relying on a politics-and-intrigue focus.

Protoweaver

This subclass starts of with a whopping three expertise — Astrophysics, Lore, and Xenobiology — as well as a conditional expertise in Investigation checks related to scientific files. The second feature, Elemental Alterist, provides elemental damage swapping Int/LR alongside a small flat bonus to saving throws after damage swapping. Generally speaking this saving throw bonus works against the feature, as things are usually resistant to the same damage type they’re dealing; you'll basically only use it for one half or the other.

The level 6 feature, Talent Splicer, is a metamagic-like feature usable Int/LR that also costs a bonus action and 4 talent points; even without the innate usage limit, the talent point cost is very high for the benefits and really only the “+d4 to your Talent save DC” is maybe worth it.

Dynamic Focus at level 10 is good — it lets you make Intelligence saving throws in place of Constitution for maintaining concentration — but nevertheless highlights how extraordinarily strong Focused Phase is, given that CC effects that end concentration do so automatically, so the only time this would be better than automatic success against damage is if there’s a lot of “ship shakes and you have to save” that’s nondamaging.

Prime Resilience at 14 is conditionally good, providing blanket resistance and advantage against “talents and techniques” (spells). The problem is that many NPC abilities are neither, an issue that Gnome players know all too well. At least in the context of Esper Genesis there isn’t the big shift to redefine spell like abilities as not actually spells, but there’s still a huge range of foes that aren’t using actual talents and techniques.

The Analysis

Psionics as a trope trace their roots to sci-fi, more specifically longtime Analog Science Fiction and Fact editor John W. Campbell. Their inclusion in D&D is a product of the fifty year old game predating what we now see as a hard split between fantasy and sci-fi, so it’s only appropriate that someone would see if the game can support the sister genre. Esper Genesis isn’t the only example of this, of course — Star Wars 5e, Mass Effect 5e, Dark Matter, and the upcoming Voidrunner’s Codex — and it’s likely the psionics from these will get reviewed on their own terms here.

What Went Right

Expansive Sci-Fi Theming. Esper Genesis hits all the notes you'd want from a science fiction setting: androids and aliens, cosmic mysteries, and space ships. Even though much of the book is mechanically identical to 5e, it does so with an eye towards playing to the strengths of both the system and the genre, with smart reflavorings and renamings that keep things familiar but on-point.

Production Value. The art is fantastic and further reinforces the prior point; the cover (pictured at the top of this article) is just one of many pieces that. My only caveats here is the book could do a better job indicating which artist did which piece (there’s no per-page credits, only the main credits page), and there’s no alt text for screen readers. Beyond the art, the book is well laid out with effective use of headings and easy to read text.

Clean Compatibility. Despite the aforementioned name changes, the mechanics here are ultimately tweaked core 5e mechanics. Only one of the subclasses is strongly tied to the distinctly sci-fi elements, while the rest could easily be transplanted; the knowledge expertise options of some Melder subclasses could be reassigned without trouble.

What Went Wrong

Balance. Despite mostly copying base 5e mechanics and swapping in spell points, the balance here is suspect. The adept — the actually unique psion option here — comes across as just a worse sorcerer; you’d have a more compelling psion by just taking the TCOE Aberrant Mind and giving it spell points. Conversely, the melder is somehow a stronger wizard — already one of the strongest PHB classes — and the Celestian discipline is stronger than any wizard arcane tradition.

Limited Design Exploration. There’s just not a lot that makes this distinct from literally using spell points out of the DMG; Limit Breaches are a neat addition but that’s about it. Even within its own context there’s a few tools that get repeated several times rather than exploring the potentials for sci-fi 5e. It’s all serviceable but the alternatives do better than that.

Sci Fi Clashes. At the end of the day, this is not a fantasy gaming supplement, and if you’re looking for psionics that are fantasy-first, this supplement simply isn’t trying to be that.

Conclusion

As an entry to science fiction 5e, Esper Genesis is well suited to subgenres like space opera that already traffic in fantasy tropes despite the technological veneer. As a unit of production, this supplement is well put together in a way that sells the aesthetic. As a piece of game design, the psionics of Esper Genesis are underwhelming.