A creature inside the cage can't leave it by nonmagical means. If the creature tries to use teleportation or interplanar travel to leave the cage, it must first make a Charisma saving throw. On a success, the creature can use that magic to exit the cage. On a failure, the creature can't exit the cage and wastes the use of the spell or effect. The cage also extends into the Ethereal Plane, blocking ethereal travel.
Basically, this question comes down to whether or not psychic teleportation is considered magical. If it's not, then it just flat out doesn't work as an escape method in this scenario. If it is, however, the soulknife can escape as long as they succeed on a charisma save.
Here is the text of psychic teleportation. We'll get to the emphasized portion in a moment, so keep it in mind but don't worry about it for right now.
As a bonus action, you manifest one of your Psychic Blades, expend one Psionic Energy die and roll it, and throw the blade at an unoccupied space you can see, up to a number of feet away equal to 10 times the number rolled. You then teleport to that space, and the blade vanishes.
To determine whether the feature is magical, let's reference the Sage Advice Compendium entry on such things:
Determining whether a game feature is magical is straightforward. Ask yourself these questions about the feature:
Is it a magic item?
Is it a spell? Or does it let you create the effects of a spell that’s mentioned in its description?
Is it a spell attack?
Is it fueled by the use of spell slots?
Does its description say it’s magical?
If your answer to any of those questions is yes, the feature is magical.
Is psychic teleportation a magic item? No.
Is psychic teleportation a spell? Or does it let you create the effects of a spell? No.
Is it a spell attack? No.
Is it fueled by the use of spell slots? No.
Does its description say it's magical? No.
This seems fairly obvious, but here's a counterpoint. Psychic teleportation directly builds off of the 3rd level psychic blades feature, as you need to manifest one of your blades in order to use it. So, is psychic blades magical? Here's the relevant feature text.
You can manifest your psionic power as shimmering blades of psychic energy. Whenever you take the Attack action, you can manifest a psychic blade from your free hand and make the attack with that blade. This magic blade is a simple melee weapon with the finesse and thrown properties.
The answers to the first four questions are all no, so I won't go back over them. Let's take a closer look at the last one, though. The description says that the blade is magical, but I don't think that's a super compelling case. There's actually a similar feature in the game already that we can compare this to, though: the echo knight's manifest echo feature. Here's the relevant text of that feature so that we can compare the language used. You'll notice some distinct similarities between manifest echo and psychic blades/psychic teleportation.
You can use a bonus action to magically manifest an echo of yourself in an unoccupied space you can see within 15 feet of you. This echo is a magical, translucent, gray image of you that lasts until it is destroyed, until you dismiss it as a bonus action, until you manifest another echo, or until you're incapacitated.
. . .
As a bonus action, you can teleport, magically swapping places with your echo at a cost of 15 feet of your movement, regardless of the distance between the two of you.
Take a look at the text I've bolded in these features:
manifest a psychic blade (psychic blades) / manifest one of your psychic blades (psychic teleportation) / magically manifest an echo of yourself (manifest echo)
magic blade (psychic blades) / This echo is a magical, translucent, gray image of you (manifest echo)
You then teleport to that space (psychic teleportation) / you can teleport, magically swapping places (manifest echo)
Notice that manifest echo specifies that you're magically manifesting a magical echo and magically teleporting to swap places, and that psychic blades and psychic teleportation specify that you're manifesting [not magically] a magical blade and teleporting [not magically] to the spot you throw it to. So, while the psychic blade itself is magical, I believe that the actual ability to manifest the blade and teleport to it are nonmagical, and therefore will not work at all to escape the forcecage.
That's how I read it, at least, but I'd like some outside opinions on the matter.
An immobile, invisible, cube-shaped prison composed of magical force springs into existence around an area you choose within range. The prison can be a cage or a solid box, as you choose.
A prison in the shape of a cage can be up to 20 feet on a side and is made from 1/2-inch diameter bars spaced 1/2 inch apart.
A prison in the shape of a box can be up to 10 feet on a side, creating a solid barrier that prevents any matter from passing through it and blocking any spells cast into or out from the area.
The assumption in this case is that the forcecage is in the cage configuration, not the solid barrier configuration.
I think the intention is that it's magic. (Echo Knight is a baaaaad example from which to establish precedent, btw.)
But in the interest of satisfying the "psionics isn't magic" crowd, I might allow it. Then again, I'll be forced to bend a lot of rules for that and they'll never really be satisfied, so maybe not.
This is a case where my ruling as DM would probably come down to how the player has chosen to flavor their character's abilities. As Choir suggested, if they were very insistent that their psionic abilities were not magical... well OK, then the teleportation isn't magical, so enjoy your cage.
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Active characters:
Askatu, hyperfocused vedalken freedom fighter in Wildspace (Zealot barb/Swashbuckler rogue/Battle Master fighter) Green Hill Sunrise, jaded tabaxi mercenary trapped in the Dark Domains (Battle Master fighter) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Soul Blades seems to be written as an extension of / function of Psychic Blades. Psychic Blades are explicitly magical - magic items, in fact. If a magic item had a function that teleported you, it would definitely be magical teleportation. So I'd rule this as magical, per the SAC guidelines.
Edit: For OP, I would add the additional text of Soul Blades, rather than just looking at the teleportation text:
Your Psychic Blades are now an expression of your psi-suffused soul, giving you these powers that use your Psionic Energy dice:
So this is a feature explicitly provided to you by a magic item.
I fully acknowledge the muddiness of the situation, though.
Only way to make psychic fair is to consider it magic. Otherwise too many rules based on the assumption that anything powerful is magic starts to break.
Comes down to DM deliberating for full ramifications beyond just this one spell. Add another type of magic for further consequences:
If a Soul Knife's psionics facilitate escape from a Force Cage, then an anti magic field will negate the Soul Knife's psionics.
If the Soul Knife is powerless against a Force Cage, then they can operate within anti-magic fields.
(I'm thinking given the option, most PCs would opt for confinement under one spell for greater freedom to use class features in an anti magic field or zone).
While UA efforts at psionics I think were more specific on what mechanically psionics were and weren't, the Soul Knife and Psi Knight weren't as detailed. So right now, barring SA clarification, non explicitly spell casted psionics (or maybe you can quibble over the Aberrent Mind) could be "non magical" or "magical" and let the individual consequences of those rulings play out in the rest of the game (like anti-magic).
Or you could go with a very liberal interpretation of "non magical" to be simply piercing, slashing, bludgeoning damage that's unassisted by magic so most "powers" (rage, ki, pisonics) could bust the character from the Force Cage. This would be a very generous bordering on aggressively wild interpretation of what "non magical means" that would likely dilute the potency of spellcasting magic over other character features.
I consider psychic/psionics to be magical (ie- just another means of manifesting or manipulating magical energy), that being said, I would only allow this when the force cage has bars.
Psionics being magical has always been up to the DM with yes/no/sometimes options all supported in the 2e/3e psionics books ( and what I have read of the 5e psionics abilities and subclasses) so by and large it’s going to be up to the individual DM. That said in the box case it should be a clear no it won’t work as the force wall blocks the psychic daggers from leaving. In the case of the cage you might look again at this: Or does it let you create the effects of a spell that’s mentioned in its description?
it is duplicating the effect of a magic spell called teleport so it could be argued that the answer to this is actually yes allowing it to be used in this case - possibly even if magic and psionics are not the same.
In the current case, the question may be moot if Soulknife psychic blades are interpreted to interact with objects physically, in which case they would not be able to exit a solidly formed force cage.
Psychic Blades
3rd-level Soulknife feature
You can manifest your psionic power as shimmering blades of psychic energy. Whenever you take the Attack action, you can manifest a psychic blade from your free hand and make the attack with that blade. This magic blade is a simple melee weapon with the finesse and thrown properties. It has a normal range of 60 feet and no long range, and on a hit, it deals psychic damage equal to 1d6 plus the ability modifier you used for the attack roll. The blade vanishes immediately after it hits or misses its target, and it leaves no mark on its target if it deals damage. ...
Soul Blades
9th-level Soulknife feature
Your Psychic Blades are now an expression of your psi-suffused soul, giving you these powers that use your Psionic Energy dice:
Homing Strikes. If you make an attack roll with your Psychic Blades and miss the target, you can roll one Psionic Energy die and add the number rolled to the attack roll. If this causes the attack to hit, you expend the Psionic Energy die.
Psychic Teleportation. As a bonus action, you manifest one of your Psychic Blades, expend one Psionic Energy die and roll it, and throw the blade at an unoccupied space you can see, up to a number of feet away equal to 10 times the number rolled. You then teleport to that space, and the blade vanishes.
I think the official word is psionics are just a different kind of magic. So it's still magic.
This makes logical sense to me, but I cannot find where this is laid out in the rules.
There is a section in SCAG that could be read as Wysperra states. It in chapter 1, "Supernatural Powers and Psionics'"
In short; it is thought by sages, that the "Unseen Art" (psionics) is magic that is different from how other spells function. However it isn't definitive.
So, your choices are:
Psionics are a different form of magic.
Pro: Makes it simple to adjudicate rule wise.
Con: Thematically doesn't fit. Doesn't match prior lore.
Psionics are different.
Pro: This is probably what is intended. There are quite a number of monsters with psionic versions of Misty step. This means they potentially can't be dispel magic, or counterspelled.
Con: a lot of corner cases.
I admit to leaning to Psionics are different because of working with it in 1st edition. That's my bias. And it makes Psionics weird strange and powerful. This means that the wording on the spell Forcecage stands (can't escapce), and it also means that spell works on Githyanki, Githzerai, and Mindflayers (the first cases of non-magical teleport I could find).
I usually rule things that specifically say they are magic to be magic and nothing else. In the event of psionics, or at the very least the soul knife as not magical. Here is why;
Aside from it not saying it is magical, it being nonmagical means that it can be used in places where magic can not like within an antimagic field like that from the eye of a beholder. This also means it can be used against things that have resistance/immunity to magic or magical effects like a lot of fey. This gives a certain mechanical benefit that makes it kind of unique and allows for an additional reason to use the psionic abilities. I treat Monks Ki the same way.
While it is a little weird to say that teleportation isn't magical, in a world where magic exists at the same time as a flying machine powered by steam and crystals I have no issue with saying it's not magical.
That's pretty dubious, but I think it's the best we're going to get.
Best I could find in official material. I guess I understand that some DM's want some latitude here, but this isn't an area that should need that. Plus, imagine the argument on what the official rule is for Adventurer's League.
Non-5e wise, it is clearly not magical (1st through 4th). But, looking at Mindflayers (the other psionic race besides the Gith), under the Alhoon there is an entry that says: "Arcane Temptation.Elder brains forbid mind flayers from pursuing magic power aside from psionics" which depending on how you read that, may imply that psionics IS magical power.
I was recently gushing over d6 Star Wars treatment of the Force into Control/Sense/Alter skills where Jedi powers are controlled by one or a combination thereof, so this got me thinking about what are the D&D physics or metaphysics in 5e for things psychical. What I'm wondering is like The Force which sentient beings have many different ways of making manifest from Jedi and Seth to Bendu and Nightsister witchcraft, does psionic power interact with the weave, and if not what is the mechanism?
Part of this is nomenclature derived. Bards often start with a base cantrip that does psychic damage, and most Bards have some way of doing further psychic damage, considered magic, in class features (Whisper Bards, other Bardic taunts) and I believe in the description of the Bard, its said a lot of the super powered Bardic features are are result of the Bard's arts interaction with the Weave. Rather than create a "mentalist" or "mystic" (the latter kinda implies the power wielder has tapped into some mechanism of the brain, the latter implies the mind's engagement with something "bigger" ... like the Weave) class, WotC put the Aberrent Mind as a Sorcerer subclass and when I recognize that, whether it's WotC's intent or not WotC provides a logic of seeing the A.M. Sorcerer as well as the Psi Rogues and Fighters as having the ability to with their mind work with the Weave to alter the functions of reality. In other words, and this isn't a fully formed argument or something I'm vigorously defending, just food for thought, psionics are simply yet another way characters can affect the world through the weave. Yes, this isn't "how it's been" but the way 5e frames things, it's more plausible given 5e's lack of psychic lore/mechancial infrastructure.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Relevant text for forcecage:
Basically, this question comes down to whether or not psychic teleportation is considered magical. If it's not, then it just flat out doesn't work as an escape method in this scenario. If it is, however, the soulknife can escape as long as they succeed on a charisma save.
Here is the text of psychic teleportation. We'll get to the emphasized portion in a moment, so keep it in mind but don't worry about it for right now.
To determine whether the feature is magical, let's reference the Sage Advice Compendium entry on such things:
This seems fairly obvious, but here's a counterpoint. Psychic teleportation directly builds off of the 3rd level psychic blades feature, as you need to manifest one of your blades in order to use it. So, is psychic blades magical? Here's the relevant feature text.
The answers to the first four questions are all no, so I won't go back over them. Let's take a closer look at the last one, though. The description says that the blade is magical, but I don't think that's a super compelling case. There's actually a similar feature in the game already that we can compare this to, though: the echo knight's manifest echo feature. Here's the relevant text of that feature so that we can compare the language used. You'll notice some distinct similarities between manifest echo and psychic blades/psychic teleportation.
Take a look at the text I've bolded in these features:
Notice that manifest echo specifies that you're magically manifesting a magical echo and magically teleporting to swap places, and that psychic blades and psychic teleportation specify that you're manifesting [not magically] a magical blade and teleporting [not magically] to the spot you throw it to. So, while the psychic blade itself is magical, I believe that the actual ability to manifest the blade and teleport to it are nonmagical, and therefore will not work at all to escape the forcecage.
That's how I read it, at least, but I'd like some outside opinions on the matter.
The assumption in this case is that the forcecage is in the cage configuration, not the solid barrier configuration.
I think the intention is that it's magic. (Echo Knight is a baaaaad example from which to establish precedent, btw.)
But in the interest of satisfying the "psionics isn't magic" crowd, I might allow it. Then again, I'll be forced to bend a lot of rules for that and they'll never really be satisfied, so maybe not.
I can't see myself ruling that teleportation isn't magical, so I'd allow it.
This is a case where my ruling as DM would probably come down to how the player has chosen to flavor their character's abilities. As Choir suggested, if they were very insistent that their psionic abilities were not magical... well OK, then the teleportation isn't magical, so enjoy your cage.
Active characters:
Askatu, hyperfocused vedalken freedom fighter in Wildspace (Zealot barb/Swashbuckler rogue/Battle Master fighter)
Green Hill Sunrise, jaded tabaxi mercenary trapped in the Dark Domains (Battle Master fighter)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Soul Blades seems to be written as an extension of / function of Psychic Blades. Psychic Blades are explicitly magical - magic items, in fact. If a magic item had a function that teleported you, it would definitely be magical teleportation. So I'd rule this as magical, per the SAC guidelines.
Edit: For OP, I would add the additional text of Soul Blades, rather than just looking at the teleportation text:
So this is a feature explicitly provided to you by a magic item.
I fully acknowledge the muddiness of the situation, though.
Only way to make psychic fair is to consider it magic. Otherwise too many rules based on the assumption that anything powerful is magic starts to break.
Comes down to DM deliberating for full ramifications beyond just this one spell. Add another type of magic for further consequences:
If a Soul Knife's psionics facilitate escape from a Force Cage, then an anti magic field will negate the Soul Knife's psionics.
If the Soul Knife is powerless against a Force Cage, then they can operate within anti-magic fields.
(I'm thinking given the option, most PCs would opt for confinement under one spell for greater freedom to use class features in an anti magic field or zone).
While UA efforts at psionics I think were more specific on what mechanically psionics were and weren't, the Soul Knife and Psi Knight weren't as detailed. So right now, barring SA clarification, non explicitly spell casted psionics (or maybe you can quibble over the Aberrent Mind) could be "non magical" or "magical" and let the individual consequences of those rulings play out in the rest of the game (like anti-magic).
Or you could go with a very liberal interpretation of "non magical" to be simply piercing, slashing, bludgeoning damage that's unassisted by magic so most "powers" (rage, ki, pisonics) could bust the character from the Force Cage. This would be a very generous bordering on aggressively wild interpretation of what "non magical means" that would likely dilute the potency of spellcasting magic over other character features.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I consider psychic/psionics to be magical (ie- just another means of manifesting or manipulating magical energy), that being said, I would only allow this when the force cage has bars.
Psionics being magical has always been up to the DM with yes/no/sometimes options all supported in the 2e/3e psionics books ( and what I have read of the 5e psionics abilities and subclasses) so by and large it’s going to be up to the individual DM. That said in the box case it should be a clear no it won’t work as the force wall blocks the psychic daggers from leaving. In the case of the cage you might look again at this:
Or does it let you create the effects of a spell that’s mentioned in its description?
it is duplicating the effect of a magic spell called teleport so it could be argued that the answer to this is actually yes allowing it to be used in this case - possibly even if magic and psionics are not the same.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
I think the official word is psionics are just a different kind of magic. So it's still magic.
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In the current case, the question may be moot if Soulknife psychic blades are interpreted to interact with objects physically, in which case they would not be able to exit a solidly formed force cage.
Y'all. Keep up. :P
This makes logical sense to me, but I cannot find where this is laid out in the rules.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
There is a section in SCAG that could be read as Wysperra states. It in chapter 1, "Supernatural Powers and Psionics'"
In short; it is thought by sages, that the "Unseen Art" (psionics) is magic that is different from how other spells function. However it isn't definitive.
So, your choices are:
I admit to leaning to Psionics are different because of working with it in 1st edition. That's my bias. And it makes Psionics weird strange and powerful. This means that the wording on the spell Forcecage stands (can't escapce), and it also means that spell works on Githyanki, Githzerai, and Mindflayers (the first cases of non-magical teleport I could find).
Have fun!
That's pretty dubious, but I think it's the best we're going to get.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
I usually rule things that specifically say they are magic to be magic and nothing else. In the event of psionics, or at the very least the soul knife as not magical. Here is why;
Aside from it not saying it is magical, it being nonmagical means that it can be used in places where magic can not like within an antimagic field like that from the eye of a beholder. This also means it can be used against things that have resistance/immunity to magic or magical effects like a lot of fey. This gives a certain mechanical benefit that makes it kind of unique and allows for an additional reason to use the psionic abilities. I treat Monks Ki the same way.
While it is a little weird to say that teleportation isn't magical, in a world where magic exists at the same time as a flying machine powered by steam and crystals I have no issue with saying it's not magical.
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Best I could find in official material. I guess I understand that some DM's want some latitude here, but this isn't an area that should need that. Plus, imagine the argument on what the official rule is for Adventurer's League.
Non-5e wise, it is clearly not magical (1st through 4th). But, looking at Mindflayers (the other psionic race besides the Gith), under the Alhoon there is an entry that says: "Arcane Temptation. Elder brains forbid mind flayers from pursuing magic power aside from psionics" which depending on how you read that, may imply that psionics IS magical power.
This is a lack of clarity we don't need.
I was recently gushing over d6 Star Wars treatment of the Force into Control/Sense/Alter skills where Jedi powers are controlled by one or a combination thereof, so this got me thinking about what are the D&D physics or metaphysics in 5e for things psychical. What I'm wondering is like The Force which sentient beings have many different ways of making manifest from Jedi and Seth to Bendu and Nightsister witchcraft, does psionic power interact with the weave, and if not what is the mechanism?
Part of this is nomenclature derived. Bards often start with a base cantrip that does psychic damage, and most Bards have some way of doing further psychic damage, considered magic, in class features (Whisper Bards, other Bardic taunts) and I believe in the description of the Bard, its said a lot of the super powered Bardic features are are result of the Bard's arts interaction with the Weave. Rather than create a "mentalist" or "mystic" (the latter kinda implies the power wielder has tapped into some mechanism of the brain, the latter implies the mind's engagement with something "bigger" ... like the Weave) class, WotC put the Aberrent Mind as a Sorcerer subclass and when I recognize that, whether it's WotC's intent or not WotC provides a logic of seeing the A.M. Sorcerer as well as the Psi Rogues and Fighters as having the ability to with their mind work with the Weave to alter the functions of reality. In other words, and this isn't a fully formed argument or something I'm vigorously defending, just food for thought, psionics are simply yet another way characters can affect the world through the weave. Yes, this isn't "how it's been" but the way 5e frames things, it's more plausible given 5e's lack of psychic lore/mechancial infrastructure.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Is the solid configuration intended to be lethal?