sure it would be easy to create a 'generaslist' who is just a wizard clone with blasts and ports and a small list of cantrips, but to this I SAY NO!
:embarrass
psionics of 2ed had some good points to it. I won't go into all of them here but here are my ideas for a 4thed psionicist. let me know what you think, I will continue to add as I have more ideas.
okay 1. character role deffender? nope, controler? nope, striker? sort of, a leader? not so much... so what role would I use for the psionicist class?
simple: utility the utility classes offer their unique set of skills, traits and powers to a party as a kind of tool box. an aristocrat could concievably have "powers" of nobility; rights, seals, oaths and inheritances, as well as being a good face for the party, unlike the warlord the aristocrat's tool box would extend outside of "how the character leads" to "what power he has by birthright and blood". so class builds, special tactics, aristocrat options, the aeformentioned rights, seals, oaths, and inheritances etc... would be different from the warlord class and could potentially deserve it's own role...
now the psionicist of 2nd ed had 5 disciplines: clairsentience, lifeshaping, psychokinesis, psychoportation, and telepathy. so right of the bat we have different kinds of psionicist to work with indeed each should be considered it's own class. with it's own set of special options, builds, and tactics.
for example a clairsentience character could be viewed as;
a blind-warrior (*use the 6th sense to overcome the loss of sight),
a fangbreaker (*use precognitive combat and supernatual boons to fight the monsters of the world),
a luck/fate manipulator (*observation can change an outcome),
a spiritualist (*Ancestral spirit guides you and empowers you),
yes even a vanilla clairvoyant.
it should be noted that a clairsentience character could technically purchase a wide varriety of powers and just alter the flavor text to suit the role playing archetype. for example a spiritualist might be "shown" a vision rather than have one... the same spiritualist could ask his guardian spirit to move that tea set to the other table instead of performing telekinesis...
so, since we established that psionic characters as suggested by this post are not wizards with cantrips, what would be their special abilities?
for one "psionic combat" the ability to strike at the mind and all it affects in the target. psionic combat occurs in the psychic realm and thus ignores cover and concealment.
but what about this "utility" class thing, I was getting arround to it.
In addittion to utilitty powers the psionic character has "trance"...
now, there are various types of trance:
1. the altered state, which is one where the psionic character is using a different mode of conciousness to promote certain effects. plenty of mechanical/ crunchy options here.
2. meditation, this could be a varriation of "rituals" with similar time and resource costs but a different mechanic. where a ritual might involve diagrams, reagents, arcane lore, and special devices/ locations, a psionic meditation could behave differently and offer the psionics character only the result.
3. a focus, a utility power availiable to the specific psionic disicpline of the character. for example, a teker could reasonably have some form of telekinesis while a telepath would focus on telepathy. this is not to be mistaken as restricted elemental focuses like sorcerer might have or a wizards would have or a broad set of cantrips.
skills list and number known it would have a number of skills aviliable akin to the ranger and perhaps a similar skill list espcially if psionicists are perceptive and in hidding.
saving throws,, +2 will obviously
hitpoints like the rogue class,
armor profs cloth and leather armor, light shields
weapon profs simple weapons and a choice of one military melee weapon. (* stating a preference for light, one handed, weapons. as powers are precise and weapons are looked apon as crude tools).
Psionic combat psionic combat occurs in the psychic realm, thus it ignores cover and concealment.
primary disicpline, with a +1 bonus to their use
archetype a role playing based character build with a focus power,
sound cool?
okay now here is where it gets a little radical.
1. the psionicst character has the standard of: at will, encounter, daily, and utility powers. but how they use them differs from other power sources.
a martial character uses an encounter power and can not use it again normally durring that encounter, why because the foes have seen it used and would likely prepare a counter for it if the martial character used it repeatedly. the forced choices causes the player to utilize the most tactical power for that turn, or whatever is left...
a wizard prepares spells in advance by studying them from a spell book I guess you could say "memorizing" them and thus would not be able to repeated cast the same encounter power. forcing the wizard to prepare and cast more than one "elemntal" effect and minimizing the likelyhood of the player limiting the class to just say fire effects.
but the psionic power source can use tokens to represent uses of psionic power and could thus "spend" those tokens on the same power over and over again. however, would have a more narrow set of powers.