Can a kineticist choose to do LESS damage than max?

[Voomer]

I'm playing a telekinetic kineticist. I'm contemplating using throw foe against a potential foe that may not have many HP. Can I choose to do less than my full blast damage of 3d6+7, which might kill the target?

[Vanykrye]

I don't know of anything in the rules that specifically says you can, but if this is for a home game I don't think it would be unreasonable to allow it.

[Mark Seifter]

Per the CRB, you can cast a spell with a lower than full caster level if you want, though it doesn't mention SLAs and kineticist blast damage isn't CL based. I'd allow you to intentionally lower your effective level and decrease the number of dice in my game, but strictly as written, I don't think there's a direct proviso for it.

Barring that, wood element does have a way to go nonlethal.

[QuidEst]

There's also a feat you can take for merciful metakinesis.

[2bz2p]

Now - in my campaign I would not let you lower the power level of your blast. For me power weapons of magic innate abilities are sort of like firing off a gun in modern parlance. "I want my shotgun to do less damage when I fire it at point blank range" kind of thing. I would allow a spellcraft check DC 15 + effective spell level to try and aim it off a bit, let you roll the damage twice and take the lower roll if you succeed. But that's about the end of my stretch.

I mean if this stuff is dangerous, why eliminate the danger, Player risk vs reward- use it or not use it.... No "use it less".

But that's all House Flavor, you know?

[GM Rednal]

Not gonna lie, I'd be totally fine with an errata - or even just a flat-out addition in a new book - saying something along the lines of "You can always choose to use less than your maximum bonuses to damage and/or to roll fewer than your maximum number of damage dice. For example, a 1st Level Fighter with 16 Strength and a one-handed melee weapon could choose to add +2 to their damage roll instead their normal +3, while a 3rd Level Kineticist using Earth Blast could choose to deal 1d6 + 1 damage, rather than 2d6 + 2 + their Constitution Modifier. You cannot lower your damage dice and/or modifiers below the prerequisites of an ability you are using. For example, you cannot lower your effective bonus from Strength to +0 and still use Power Attack, because Power Attack has a prerequisite of Strength 13 (and thus a Strength modifier of +1)."

[Voomer]

Thanks for your thoughts everyone. I'll see what the GM says. I do disagree with 2bz2p's shotgun analogy, because this is a force being generated by the character itself -- it's much more like pulling a punch than trying to do less damage with a bullet.

[Tarik Blackhands]

Voomer wrote:

Thanks for your thoughts everyone. I'll see what the GM says. I do disagree with 2bz2p's shotgun analogy, because this is a force being generated by the character itself -- it's much more like pulling a punch than trying to do less damage with a bullet.

Of course as alluded to above, PF doesn't exactly allow martials to pull your punches beyond trying to inflict nonlethal.

Strength 20 is always going to add +5 to damage (on a 1h weapon), no matter how much you want to lower it. Same thing with stuff like Power Attack. No taking -1 to hit when you have have BAB 10.

[Voomer]

Yes, I agree. Although I would probably allow it in my home game. So I guess that's the answer to the question -- not under RAW but a lot of GMs would allow it anyways.

[Melkiador]

I thought I remembered an FAQ that would relate to this, but I couldn't find it, so maybe I'm misremembering. It had something to do with how a summoner who gains summon monster 3, as their SLA, is still considered to have summon monster 1 and 2.