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So I really like the kineticist.
I also really like the Wounds and Vigor system.
However, these two are at odds with each other. The Kineticist is primarily a Constitution based class, however in the Wounds and Vigor system, a character does not gain any bonus Vigor from a high Constitution. Which means that taking Vigor damage for each level of kineticist when you take burn, is far more crippling than for your regular kineticist. Especially since you can't recover that vigor by any means short of an 8 hour rest.
So a couple of options:
1) Remove the clause that non-lethal damage can't be healed as long as you have a single point of burn. Pro: A few hits from a happy stick (aka Wand of Cure Light Wounds) can keep you up all day. Con: Burn damage has no real drawback, other than costing some money to remove.
2) Burn is taken as Wounds instead of Vigor. For each point of Burn taken, the character takes 1 Wound. Pro: Easy to track. Con: The wounded condition is pretty hefty, and you risk actual death rather than unconsciousness if you take too much burn in one hit.
3) Vigor damage from Burn no longer scales. Burn damage is tracked separately and can not be healed without rest. 1 Burn = 1 Vigor Damage Pro: Burn damage isn't as significant so the character doesn't have so much to worry about. Maximum Burn is still capped by Kineticist Level + Con Mod. So a level 5 Kineticist will take a maximum of 8-9 burn out of about 26 vigor. But then a level 15 kineticist will take 20-24 out of 71 vigor.
Con: Constitution doesn't do as much for you other than raise DCs and in fact only means you will lose a larger chunk of your vigor to burn damage.
4) You do not take damage from Burn, until you hit maximum burn. This can never cause wound damage, but could conceivably burn a huge chunk of your vigor for the day.
Pro: Vigor won't take such a significant hit, and Constitution becomes incredibly important because you increase your burn threshold. Con: Smart players will almost never take Burn damage by refusing to take that last point of burn.
Right now I'm leaning towards option 3 or 4. But perhaps there's a suggestion I'm not thinking of, anybody want to chime in with their thoughts, particularly on anything I might be missing?
Usually the way wounds work, you don't need to nerf vigor by removing the CON bonus to vigor points, so you can boost that back; just let them have double CON as wound points and their HD+CON mod (I usually give unnamed npcs HD+1/2 mod (min +/-1)) since there are so many ways to pierce vigor. Assuming you aren't the GM, talk to whomever it is about it.
Secondly, you get all your vigor points back after "resting" for an hour, so if you aren't taking that time anyway for whatever reason, then you're doing something wrong.
It's not a tweak to fix the class, but a tweak to fix the system. I didn't mention your class for that reason.
To me this is really simple. (Also for reference I play in a game where the kineticist is allowed (but only shows up as NPCs because none of the PCs picked it) and Wounds and Vigor are used.)
Burn is taken normally.
It affects only vigor.
The vigor it effects cannot be healed, but you otherwise can regain vigor points. (Essentially, it reduces your maximum vigor.)
You can't burn if it would cost more vigor than you have remaining.
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The math on that doesn't work out so great.
A 12th level kineticist under normal hp rules would have roughly 129 hp. If he takes burn he loses 12 hp (so roughly 10%, probably slightly less though because he'd increase his Constitution with Elemental Overflow)
However Constitution bonuses to Elemental overflow don't apply to vigor. So a 12th level W&V kineticist would have 57 vigor, and 20 wounds (perhaps 24 wounds with elemental overflow). When he takes 1 point of burn they lose 21% of their hp (more than DOUBLE). They can never take maximum burn because that's a whopping 108 damage.
As written a kineticist is basically unplayable using Wounds and Vigor.
The math on that doesn't work out so great.
A 12th level kineticist under normal hp rules would have roughly 129 hp. If he takes burn he loses 12 hp (so roughly 10%, probably slightly less though because he'd increase his Constitution with Elemental Overflow)
However Constitution bonuses to Elemental overflow don't apply to vigor. So a 12th level W&V kineticist would have 57 vigor, and 20 wounds (perhaps 24 wounds with elemental overflow). When he takes 1 point of burn they lose 21% of their hp (more than DOUBLE). They can never take maximum burn because that's a whopping 108 damage.
As written a kineticist is basically unplayable using Wounds and Vigor.
Problems that arise should be met with reasonable solutions. If the problem seems to be the the constitution bonus from elemental overflow exists to compensate some burn it should be changed to be a bonus to maximum vigor.
Each point of burn under normal rules would take 10% of your HP in non-lethal damage right?
Just houserule it so that each burn takes 10% of your Vigor points.
Simple as that...
Wow.... DM seems to have the right idea here and I think #2 doubled is the only viable option.
OK, so RAW: every point of burn takes HP basically equal to what's gained by having 1 extra CON mod. In W&V, every point of CON mod gives you 4 wounds instead, only half of which is treated as "positive HP". Ergo: every point of burn should cost you 2 wounds that heal instantly every night.
Think about it this way: A 10th level telekineticist with 20 CON and 40WP could take 3 burn for 6WP while using Force Ward to gain a 30HP force shield with 2HP regeneration/minute. Elemental overflow gives +3 to attack & +6 to damage, as well as 4 WP from +2 CON. Worth it? YEAH. You're getting f***tons of bonuses for a net -2WP.
It's inelegant, but makes a LOT of sense. Also, if you burn yourself past 1/2 wounds, you have to make checks to stay awake. Makes sense to me. Sounds like a good candidate for the Toughness feat.
By that math, even at maximum burn 3 + 5 you're looking at only 16 WP, which is easily less than half WP.
Normal rules:
HP is 48 base average plus 50 from Con = 98HP. The kineticist can accept maximum 8 points of burn for a total of 80 HP, which puts them at 18/98. HP is a little over 18% of max.
AJ W&V:
VP is 48 base and WP is 40. The kineticist can accept maximum 8 points of burn for a total of 16WP, which puts them at 48VP & 24/40WP. Over threshold WP is exactly 20% of max.
The maths have spoken. 2WP per burn it is!