Initial Psychic impressions

[Gaulin]

Like many others, I'm very surprised by this class. It's very unique and very different from 1e. Kudos to you James! Honestly I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I do. This thread is going to be nitpicky, as there's not a whole lot I have major issues with.

Concerns

- Damage. This is one that's really only going to be apparent with playtesting, but this thread is just initial thoughts, and it jumps out a little. Really it's a combination of small problems that add up. One, cantrip damage (at least unamped) on the new cantrips seems a little low. Most of them do area damage, of course, so maybe everything is as it should be, but it feels like 5d6 damage with no flat bonuses at level 20 is not a lot, especially when said cantrips seem to be a major part of the class. It would be pretty rare to get more than two enemies caught in a 5ft burst or 15 ft cone, and things like electric arc or scatter scree do a lot more damage (10D4+stat).
Now to offset this, we have the amp stuff. Which I love, I really do. But when used outside of psyche, they don't compete well with other damaging focus spells are usually 2d6 per spell level. I personally play an elemental sorcerer (admittedly possibly the best blaster around, but there are others like druids, oracles, even some cleric domains that have the same scaling damaging focus spells) and I feel like doing half that damage wouldn't feel great.
And to offset that, there's the psyche stuff. Again, really cool feature. But I could probably count on my fingers the amount of combats I've had that last more than 3 rounds. Part of me loves it, a PC that gets stronger, not weaker as a battle goes on as most casters do. Having a tiny hp pool does scare me a bit though, and as far as balance goes, why wouldn't I just play a different blaster that can just end the fight early instead of hoping the fight lasts longer so I can throw out amp cantrips?
I don't mean to make all of that seem harsh, like I said I actually love the class and those mechanics. Playtesting will be needed but I think damage on the cantrips could use a liiittle boost. Also, to be clear, please keep spell slots as they are and boost cantrips, it's so much more interesting than another spellslot blaster.

- Going to echo what a lot of others have said; please have a wisdom option. It makes sense and we need more wisdom love. Also as another pointed out perception never going beyond trained is rough, more wisdom would help that a lot.

- Bunch of rapid fire feat concerns - how does Mental Buffer (resistance to mental damage) and Become Thought (weakness to mental damage) interact? Does Become Thought make you the age, memories, etc, of the person who knew you? Unleash Reflexive Sustainment is just so much worse that effortless concentration (uses your psyche 'slot', has a drawback, has requirements, can only use after 3 turns) even if it's available earlier, it feels like something worse for no good reason. I dislike the 'drawback' of the subconcious mind option, precise discipline, very much. It's already way too hard to get around spells being interrupted, especially in later levels (some monsters are almost impossible for a caster to fight, see lesser death). Lastly, maybe this isn't fair but all the level 20 feats are either super good or too cool not to take, would be really nice to move a couple of them to at least a level 18 slot.

Things I love

- The focus on cantrips is very cool, and all three of the conscious mind options are really good in their own way. Special call out to arrest trajectory and mental scan (circumstance bonus is so strong, even if it won't ever be higher than a +2, the range is great)

- Psyche options are very flavorful, and most are really good. The only one I'm not sure on is the default original one - it's strong, but -2 AC is really scary. Oh, and unleash poltergeist phenomena, that ones also very cool but risky for the same reason. Dark persona, soaring passions, and self defense are all very cool, strong, and flavourful.

- Tons of feat options that encompass everything I would want a psychic to do, especially feats like sixth sense or the autonomic feats.

This came off a bit more negative than I meant to, but it's a little harder to gush about the good stuff than point out the why's of the bad stuff. I love the class very much, hit it out of the park, really.

[Squiggit]

I don't know how you'd really balance a wisdom option againt the initial offerings, tbh.

But agree the damage seems pretty low.

[Kyrone]

Making that the unsleash affects the cantrips would give a nice boost on damage.

[rayous brightblade]

My big problem with the class is that every combat you can have up to 5-7 uses of amp (2 from points, 5 from lingering psyche) so you want to use them, but action economy makes you want to use your more powerful spell slots. Which makes the one action amp cantrips so much better then their alternatives. Giving people extra moves/attacks(or 1d6 slashing /2 levels with shatter space)[Message], giving large bonuses to hit (+2 is significant and is for 1 full round) [Mental scan] while still having the ability to cast a 2 action spell is better than 1 die size and potential knockback from tk projectile or whatever the heck amp'ed mage hand does.

The psychic gives up 1 or 2 spells per level compared to other primary casters to have these amp'ed spells so the damage ones need to be decent to make up for that loss. And each conscious mind type needs to have at least one 1 action cantrip or it loses out compared to the other types.