Often volatile and notoriously unpredictable, kineticists embody the very essence of nature itself. With the ability the channel the elements and bend them to their will, they are very often seen as a force to be reckoned with. Some of these talented individuals dare to branch out into other fields of training; seeking more effective ways to employ the craft of the kineticist.
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This installment of Flying Pincushion Games’s Tides of War-series clocks in at 6 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!
This review was moved up in my reviewing queue at the request of my patreons.
After a brief introduction (with a nice full-color artwork), we move on to the feats:
-Burn Cushion: Requires mutagen. 1/day, when brewing a mutagen that would allow for a Con-bonus, you can choose to accept 1 point of burn. If you accept burn while under the influence of this specially modified mutagen, you may reduce the bonus to Constitution granted by the mutagen by 2. I *assume* each such reduction only covers 1 point of burn; RAW it can be read as applying to ALL burn you’d accept. Limits on burn per round still apply.
-Burst Protection: Accept one point of burn when channeling energy to bestow the effects of the defensive wild talent to all creatures affected by the channel until the start of your next round. Cool!
-Hex Kinesis: Choose one single-target hex that can affect a living creature. When you successfully hit with a simple or composite blast against a single target (nice catch!), you can accept 1 point of burn and reduce damage dice by one step. If you do, the hex’s effects are added to the blast. Kineticist levels stack for the purpose of hex-DC and when thus used, the save DC is governed by your Con.
-Kinetic Summons: When summoning a single creature via summon monster/nature’s ally (not properly italicized), you may accept 1 point of burn if the creature’s subtype matches your elemental focus to bestow the advanced simple template. You also use your HD as your CL. This one looks simple, but managed to avoid a whole array of pitfalls. Kudos.
-Mind Your Element: +4 competence on all Knowledge checks pertaining elemental focus. Bonus improves to +6 if you stick to the element with expanded element.
-Pool Push: If you have a pool (like ki, grit, phrenic, etc.), you can, as a free action, accept 1 point of burn to replenish one point in the pool. Hard daily cap of 1 + Con-mod prevents abuse. Nice!
-Raging Kineticist: You can accept 1 point of burn when entering rage/bloodrage. If you do, a kinetic blade forms and you use your total HD as BAB and add Strength-mod to Con-mod to damage when attacking with it. Pretty much a numerical escalation. Not the biggest fan here.
-Sheathed in Wisdom: While defensive wild talent is active, you gain resistance versus the 1st level element equal to Wisdom modifier, stacking with resistances gained from other sources. Minor nitpick: It’s electricity resistance, not “electric resistance”. (Yes, it codifies the base elements.)
-Tactical Defenses: When using tactician while the defensive wild talent is active, you may accept 1 point of burn to bestow its benefits on allies benefiting from tactician for 3 rounds. Cool!
-Wilder Talent: Choose one talent from a non-kineticist class, with usage measured in rounds or minutes or daily uses. You can accept burn for an additional usage increment. Hard cap of Con-mod times per day prevents abuse of a complex, cool and hard to get right feat. (Yes, discoveries, tricks, etc. qualify explicitly.)
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting on a formal level are very good; not perfect, but still rather well done. Rules-language-wise, the pdf is precise and leaves nothing to be desired. Layout adheres to the 2-column full-color standard of the series and the pdf sports really nice full-color artwork – public domain though it may be, I haven’t seen these used before. Kudos! The pdf even has bookmarks, in spite of its brevity!
David S. McCrae’s multiclass kineticist feats are creative, offer a wide array of support and are interesting as a whole. I found myself enjoying quite a few of the feats herein and while not all are pure amazing, they should provide some food for thought for multiclassing characters. Considering the low and fair price-point, my final verdict will clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded up for the purpose of this platform. Very much worth getting for the fair cost.
Tides of War: Kineticist/X Feats is a short supplement containing feats for multiclass kineticists. Much like the similar product I reviewed earlier (Bard/X Feats), it contains a page and a half of feats, all designed to be taken as early as character level 3rd. None are a simple “Count your level as X for the purposes of Y” – rather, they all add new ways to use a kineticist, in particular, the burn mechanic.
Many of the feats require you to accept burn to utilize them, with a note in the introduction of the product stating that the burn cost cannot be reduced by any means, including gather power. Examples include the ability to reduce the bonus to Constitution granted by a mutagen instead of accepting burn, add a hex to a kinetic blast, add the advanced template to summons, or funnel burn into one of many ‘pool’ class features to restore points to them. My personal favourite may be Raging Kinesis, which allows a raging character to form their kinetic blade as a free action and keep it activated for the duration of their rage!
Generally, the kineticist class doesn’t lend itself to multiclassing, but these feats provide new and interesting ways to do so. Pick it up if you’re interested in expanding your kineticist, or playing in a gestalt campaign – it’s cheap and worth it.
I wanna start off saying that I like the idea of feats for multiclassed kineticists. Anything that makes people want to even dip my favorite class is good. However, there is a balancing factor that I both understand and dislike as it makes a some of the feats less likely picks.
Each of the following feats costs 1 point of burn that cannot, in any way, be reduced. This includes Gather Power. Now on to the feats.
Burn Cushion(Kineticist 2, Mutagen class feature): Once per day you can take a point of burn when making a Mutagen that increases your Con score to make a special Mutagen. Instead of taking Burn you can reduce the Con bonus instead. The mutagen continues even if the bonus reaches 0.
Burst Protection(Kineticist 2, elemental defense, Channel Energy class feature): When you channel to heal you can take burn to grant your elemental defense to your allies until your next turn.
Hex Kinesis(Kineticist 2, Hex class feature): Accept a point of burn and reduce you kinetic blass damage to add a hex to it. Your kineticist level stacks with the class giving you a hex to determine the hex's power, so that's nice. Hex DC is Con based this way, and you can take it more times to be able to apply different hexes.
Kinetic Summons(Kineticist 2, ability to cast or SLA Summon Monster/Nature's Ally): Accept a point of burn when summoning an elemental that matches your first element(Not your expanded if you have one) to add the advanced template. Not a bad one, though still pricey.
Mind Your Element(Kineticist 2, Bardic Knowledge class feature): No burn here. Just a decent bonus to knowledge checks that are connected to your first element. The bonus increases once if you pick the same element when you can expand.
Pool Push(Kineticist 2, and “pool” class feature): A small number of times a day you can accept a point of burn to get back a point in your pool. One example would be a psychic accepting burn to get their phrenic points back. Potentially useful.
Raging Kinesis(Kinetic blade infusion, kineticist 2, rage or bloodrage): Accept burn when entering your rage to form your kinetic blade, keep it your entire rage, and use your HD as your BAB. This is definitely a feat I'd take on a character, and that's before getting to the part where you add your Strength mod to the damage on top of your Constitution mod.
Sheathed in Wisdom(Kineticist 2, AC bonus class feature, defensive wild talent): No burn. You gain a minor energy resistance based on your first element. It stacks with the resistance from other sources too, which is a rare thing in this system.
Tactical Defenses(Kinetitcist 2, defense wild talent, tactician class feature): Remember Burst Protection? This is the same, but instead of channeling energy you accept burn when using your tactician ability and it lasts longer.
Wilder Talent(Kineticist 2, “talents” class feature from another class): Spends a point of burn to regain a use of a limited duration(uses, rounds, or minutes). You have to pick the talent when you take this feat, just like Hex Kinesis, and just like Hex Kinesis you can take it multiple times for different talent.
That's all the feats. They all have their uses, and some are certainly really good, so I'm happy to give this 3.5 stars(rounding up).
Any taker? Come on folks, I know there are feat folks out there just chomping at the bit to talk about FEATS.
Free copy for the low, low, really LOW price of a fair review, no money required!
All I need to know if you email address, and by the power of the net, you can be reading awesome new kineticist focused feats in almost no time at all!
What? I had nothing to throw fireballs at, and can't let all those spell slots go to waste! Now to figure out how metamagic feats work with my signature spell!
I keep seeing this bumped, but I'm still working on my reviews of your last two bard products. How about I claim a free copy of this to review, after I get those others posted? >.>
Indeed, we appreciate you taking out the time during this busy holiday season to give us some cheer with an excellent review El Ronza. The entire TFPG staff wishes you and yours only the best in 2018!
