In one hour @therealjimdavisTHIS IS A AN AUTOMATIC CAPTION TEXT from YouTube, so it’s not “perfect”.
My advice is to use it just to help people like me that are not english speaking, to understand the Video/Podcast – Not only is there a psychic

warrior now in the fighter,

but now we have a new

rogue called the soulknife.

Tell me about the soulknife.

This sounds terrifying.

– Yes, the soulknife, we have

designed to be a bit scary.

– [Todd] Okay. (laughs)

– Because this is a rogue who

can manifest a psychic blade

out of their hands, or blades,

if they wanna manifest two,

and use them not only in melee,

but they can also throw them.

And these blades deal psychic damage.

And we describe it as

essentially you are stabbing

the other person’s, like

their mind, their soul.

(Todd laughs)

Hence the name, soulknife.

So that alone is scary.

But this rogue also

eventually gains the ability,

using their psionic

abilities to essentially

screen themselves out

of other people’s sight.

So they can just, poof, they’re invisible.

– [Todd] Oh.

(Jeremy laughs)

– And so we describe in

the story text for them

that they are particularly effective

at being assassins because

there isn’t necessarily

any evidence left behind.

Because if you stab someone’s

sort of psychic being,

there’s no wound on their body.

– [Todd] Oh man, what’s

even the implication

for resurrection after

something like that?

– Oh, well, the body is still there.

So they are potentially terrifying,

especially if they were NPCs.

But also really mighty members of a group

because they’re able to couple

the normal versatility

that all rogues have

with these really wonderfully

wicked psychic abilities.

Being able to sneak attack

with psychic damage.

Because we clarify that

these psychic blades

that they manifest do

count as finesse weapons.

And they’re light weapons as well,

so the rogue can dual wield them.

Imagine one of them on the battlefield,

and I think most people would

be quaking in their boots.

– And they can throw these as well.

So they’re just tossing psychic

blades out, all willy nilly.

– Yes.

So you can imagine,

yes, one of these things

(Todd laughs)

coming at you,

and then it hits you, and

it’s, “Where did it go?”

And it would hurt.

It would hurt like a regular blade.

But again, leave no mark.

And leave no evidence.

‘Cause we also specify

that if you toss one out,

immediately after it

hits or misses, it, poof.

– Oh, so in a way, a psychic ninja.

So it doesn’t leave,

like, physical damage.

– [Jeremy] Right.

– Oh, that’s very fun.

Okay, now I’m onto it.

I can’t help–

– Cause these blades are not

dealing slashing, bludgeoning,

or piercing damage.

– You just find a body.

Oh, it’s almost (chuckling)

reminds me of “Dreamscape,”

a very old 1980s film.

But I feel like the inspiration for this

is mostly Lamont Cranston from

“The Shadow,” a radio drama.

Like if you can make people

not realize you’re in the room,

you know, that was always his thing.

Like he somehow hypnotized people

the second he walked in. (laughs)

Which I never quite understood as a kid.

But this is the scariest ninja.

(Todd and Jeremy laugh)

– Right.

I mean, again, throwing mind shuriken.

And again, nothing is left behind.

(Todd exhales heavily)

A soulknife would be a

very favored assassin.

We also, for both the soulknife

and the psychic warrior

in this “Unearthed Arcana”

give some suggestions

for how your character might have become

a member of these subclasses.

And so we talk about how your character

might have just awoken to psionic ability,

but they also might have been

trained in it by a master.

They might have, in the

case of the soulknife,

might have been a member

of a special thieves guild

that cultivates these abilities.

Whereas the psychic

warrior might have been

in a martial academy that trains people

in using both their body

and their mind as a weapon.

So the thing I love about

both of these subclasses

is not only will they

be a ton of fun to play,

but they’re also rich with possibility

for a DM’s world-building.

You know, figuring out what

have these people been up to,

these people with these

strange mind powers

that have a magical quality to them,

but operate in ways

that might shock people.

And I think again, if someone finds

the handiwork of a soulknife,

they are going to be very puzzled.

I could imagine a soulknife assassin

causing even a detective

like Sherlock Holmes

to be very confused.

You know, how did this

person actually die?

And the soulknife,

especially with their higher-level ability

to basically psionically screen themselves

and just go invisible, you could see

they could infiltrate a

masquerade or something else,

deal with their mark, and

then just vanish away.

– Oh.

(Jeremy laughs)

It’s not comfortable.

It’s the stuff of everyone’s nightmares.

Yeah.

It’s got a little bit

of that “Invisible Man”

creepy factor to it too as well.

Yeah, I mean, that’s a perfect assassin.

I mean, for the person who wants to play

that supernatural assassin.

– [Jeremy] Right, exactly.

– ‘Cause the assassin already is filling

a very different niche as a subclass

in terms of, I can talk like

anyone, I can disguise myself.

It’s very “Assassin’s Creed,” kind of.

– Well, and a person could

decide to play a soulknife

and not go in the

assassin direction at all.

Their soulknife might be

very much out in the open,

almost more of a superhero

than a figure of the shadows.

Because again, this is a

person who’s manifesting

these psychic blades sort of

like Psylocke from the X-Men,

and using those in battle.

Which, depending on how

a player describes that

could end up being very flashy

rather than, you know, this

subtle thing of the shadows.

This is the kind of thing

we often look for when we’re coming up

with new character concepts for the game.

We want the character concepts

to be pushable in different directions.

So even here, I’ve described,

you could take the soulknife

and go in a flashy sort

of superheroic direction

or you could take it in

a kind of almost horrific

killer-in-the-shadows kind of direction.

It’s up to you.

returns to Todd Talks with @ToddKenreck to chat about the latest Unearthed Arcana! Join us to share your opinions on Psionics today at 2pm PT on https://t.co/mvfDh3HC5z! pic.twitter.com/jL7S2FF6a7

— D&D Beyond (@DnDBeyond) November 26, 2019

The way the rune knight is flavored makes me kinda uncomfortable TBH. Mechanically it's cool, though. I'm very fond of everything else.

— Kikka 🔜 PAX Unplugged (@KikkaVO) November 20, 2019

Can you unpack that at all?

— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) November 20, 2019

It’s a heavily Norse coded subclass that has like… actual Nordic runes as their power, but they took those powers from the creatures that are some of the main antagonistic forces in a lot of Norse mythology? It’s like… if good paladins of Ilmater got their power from demonsLike not exactly but that's the best parallel I can think of offhand.

— Kikka 🔜 PAX Unplugged (@KikkaVO) November 20, 2019

And considering that Norse runes were also their writing system, it’s sort of adds another level of weirdness to it to have them presented in the way they are in the subclass, IMHO Like, I get that giants are cool and stuff, and people have that whole conceptual link between giants and those old Germanic mythology and cultures, but the execution in this case sort of has a very Halloween costume / pop culture understanding of the history and mythology.

— Kikka 🔜 PAX Unplugged (@KikkaVO) November 20, 2019

But that’s just my initial impression, from my own perspective.

I’m German and Norwegian by heritage and have spent some time doing research to try to connect with some sense of ancestral …identity? idk how to word that precisely. Ah, I getcha.

I can say at least as a top-level look at the Rune Knight's concept, in D&D runes as giant magic isn't a new thing, and goes back at least to the 2e Forgotten Realms sourcebook "Giantcraft."

I'll pass your thoughts along as we move forward into feedback. 🙂

— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) November 20, 2019

There's also a list of some giant runes in Storm King's Thunder, along with depictions of the runes themselves. The images of the runes don't pull from real world tradition. pic.twitter.com/2FuGTViWe9

— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) November 20, 2019

Those are all actual Germanic language words listed there… plus “Kong” for king… Right, I was referring to the images of the runes specifically. The names are most definitely for real words.

— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) November 20, 2019