ButlerWizard's page

I'm not a DSP dev, just a player and sometimes DM, but I think I can answer some of these

Thanks for taking the time to consider my questions!

1 - Dimensional Swap: I don't think ally has a game term definition, or willing for that matter, but in that case use common sense. So yes ally is the same as willing and also means some one who's friendly or helpful towards your character.

No, the guard you want to kill is not your ally.
Unwilling Participant forces someone into the collective, but he still gets a save as per the Special part of the feat.

Yeah, it's not "try all day". But a mid-level manifester (with Share Power as Quintain pointed out) would still be able to force a few saves on the guard, possibly doubled with Persistent Power, and that seemed overpowered for a 2nd-level power.

It was puzzling for the DM as well, who ruled that "willing" wouldn't be enough, you'd need a Charm Person or something on the guard - so possibly Bluff/Diplomacy would get them to be friendly to you. Or would you also need to convince yourself that you were their friend? Or just the latter? Or their willingness plus your benign intent qualifies, even when they don't particularly like you or want to help you? (I can think of PC's who accept aid but have no intention of returning the favor.)

3 - Mind Stones: Expanded Knowledge is called as not working, so why would the thing that works as Expanded Knowledge work?

The racial bonus doesn't call out Expanded Knowledge, it just has a similar effect (including the limit on "1 level below highest-level power known"), and not even identical wording. I don't know if racial bonuses modify class abilities or act as a separate (stacking) effect.

Side note for Quintain,

Hard stop at the end of this sentence. Do not take explanations of what other things do not work as an invitation to believe that other things do work.

I haven't read enough to have any impression one way or another on that front, but I have noticed a lot of people emphasizing that a standard vocabulary is used (in Pathfinder) as a deliberate way of indicating consistency - which, in the study of law at least, implies a break with the usual meaning when the usual language is absent. (You'll see this in contract law disputes as well - I've seen cases where a party that argued for strict interpretation of the letter of their documents, on the grounds that they deliberately inserted the language and the other party never objected, pleads in a new case for leniency where "obviously they intended the usual wording", but the judge shuts them down because of the established history of being attentive to such details.)

All the cross-class complication you are bringing up is immaterial.

For the Expanded Knowledge question specifically, or for the entire cluster of related questions? The absence of "Expanded Knowledge" from "When dipping cross-class for bonus feats, can those feats be used for enhancing class abilities of a different class?" was deliberate and significant: there are (e.g.) collective-enhancing feats which might have to be taken every other character level, taking generic (e.g. crafting) feats with the dips, and the timing of level progression would be even trickier if non-class feats were anchored to the class advanced in at that level.

Celestial Totem only applies to the Barbarian

Skald-granted Rage powers - with a Sycophant's Ring for every captive in 30 feet. (Who cares if they fail Will saves when they're tied up anyway?) Or a collar slot for small enough pets, though I'm not sure that works without recrafting an item to change the type of slot it uses. Gets really expensive really fast, though.

(Cheese? You underestimate the proclivity of this party to engage in suicidal tactics. Also, the DM would like to waste less time at the beginning of each game session rolling up new characters for everyone. Those of us helping certain players roll up new characters every game session would like to reduce the fatality of their mistakes, too.)

6 - Persistent Power: First metapsionic feats do not work with psi-like abilities, much like metamagic feats do not work with spell like-abilities. Second Collective is a (Su) ability, that means it's Supernatural not Psi-like. Unwilling Participant is also Supernatural not Psi-like.

Ah, so that's what the "Su" meant. I was wondering about those. (They didn't seem to be a reference to anything else I was reading in the class description.) Reading up on it, I'm surprised the tables don't have Detection, but found an answer elsewhere.

I'll advise the DM this doesn't work (anymore) (though he may decide he prefers his house-ruling to the RAW).

7 - Samsaran: The second one. You're capped at four but only pay two. Not sure if there's an actual rule to back this up, but the other way stinks of shenanigans and minmaxing.

I was thinking the second one was min-maxing, myself; it would make sense that a Samsaran's connection to the cycle of life/death made healing powers easier for them (instead of empowering their healing beyond common limits), but then you'd have a high-level Samsaran healing ridiculous amounts for 1 PP - the first one is overpowered to the point of being useless (nothing has that many hit points), but to be overpowered the manifester has to be maxing out their current limit already (and will run out of PP before they can do it much), wasting most of their healing in the process.

Samsarans need only spend 1 point for "2 points worth of augmented effect".

Is that a quote from JBE's book? (Let me know which one and I can buy it to show the DM.) I'd be kind of puzzled if so, because these bonuses apply every level. I discarded the interpretation that "1/2" meant "halve the cost" because that would be 1/16th the cost at 4th level, and humans who get (e.g.) "+1/2" on the Disguise Bonus for Vigilantes aren't giving +50% (linear or cumulatively x1.5) to the total roll - the meaning is usually "earn a fraction of this bonus each level you take this benefit".

8 - Senses: Yes, but you still need line of effect.

Aha, more phrases to look up. I really appreciate you calling out specific rules to research, it makes this much easier than just "read hundreds to thousands of pages hoping I stumble across the answers Google wasn't showing me (and perfectly understand them on my first reading)".

I can see how the text of Burrowing Power was meant, now - it's not saying that physical (projectile) powers can go through solid barriers, but that any power (since all powers would have this limitation) can work through scrying. This makes it more powerful than I had realized.

It works with Sensitivity to Psychic Impressions and Enter Image, and using it and Collective to share on those visions is a really cool non-cheesy idea. Weall done on that one.

Hurray!

(I've been helping the DM by running NPC's for the party (intending to hand them off when players mature enough to accept a support role), and one of my primary goals with power selection was to give him ways of telling the campaign world's background story (since this was his primary purpose in running the campaign), but I was really hoping to be less of a "talking head" and enable him to narrate directly to the group.)

9 - Psychic Bodyguard: Right on the first account, you protect the whole party, but it discharges when the first of them needs to roll a save.

So unless the enemy is using single-target spells and I don't know who may be targeted next, there's no real point in spreading it over multiple recipients - may as well just pick one. Which relegates it almost entirely to the "daily buffs, powered by sacrificial meals" area. I may ask the DM if he wants to house-rule the simultaneous-target part, depending on which "difficult decision" he'd prefer to create.

11 - Steal/Drain Health: That's actually a good question. Might be a error. It's worth noting the Life Leech can use Drain Health on an Unwilling Participant, but Vitalist can't, so it may be a trade off for the increased range.

Good catch! I'd been looking at the "slaughter things at will" vs "restore health" trade-off, but range is definitely a consideration as well (30 feet at level 7, vs 680 feet with Enlarged Collective at the same level). With no way for an Unwilling Participant to remove themselves for 24 hours, and unlimited uses of Drain Health, a Life Leech could murder entire villages with scrying - kingdoms at 12th level when range becomes "the entire plane of existence").

It was meant as a way to prevent the Life Leech to have packs of low hd creatures used as HP batteries by using unwilling participant to add them to the collective and suck them dry.

Using the same wording as from Steal Health would have accomplished that, and I'm glad they didn't, because this way a Life Leech (of say the 1st level) can't tag a high-level character and slowly drain 2 hp (1 hp per save) each round until the trapped character runs out of healing or figures out they need to literally run (away) until they are out of range (collective persists out of sight/effect once established).

Not sure how they'd figure it out if the Vitalist has been suppressing their displays (DC 16?), and especially if the free telepathy has been deployed to deceive them about what is going on.

13 - Strenght of my Enemy: This is cheese and DMs have the right to hit you with the book

I'm not sure what country you live in, but around here they don't have that right - whereas I, if they did, would have the right (and a professional obligation) to report them to the local authorities for battery (and probably would - someone with that little impulse control is a danger to others, and I wouldn't be surprised if the local game stores banned them too).

If you meant in a figurative manner, I apologize; I've come across the saying before and it's never been clear whether people are actually advocating for a moral right to enact physical violence. It's dangerous to encourage that kind of thing, even when joking, because when you can't control who's listening there may be that person at the back who takes it very seriously.

if you mention using abilities on a bag of rats.

I was going to suggest the Lawrence Watt-Evans ruling to my DM; if you drain all the strength of a rat, you have now increased your strength by exactly the strength of that rat (which was probably worth a 1-point increment of yours).

14 - Expanded Knowledge, part 2: Not sure if this is RAW, but the way I use it, you use the stat and manifester level of your class. If you have more than one manifesting class, you choose which class at the moment you take the feat, so if your int for Psion gets higher than your wis for Vitalist you still use wis.

Having to plan out class levels in advance (to be sure of best future use), then. Options with drawbacks: I like it.

15 - Strenght of my Enemy, part 2: It works with a bow. Bow is the weapon, arrows are ammo.

I was thinking of "Range: Personal" and "Target: You" as the argument for that; "One of your natural or manufactured weapons becomes the instrument of your desire", but the only comparable power I saw for weapons (Metaphysical Weapon) had the arrows as an alternate effect. I don't see why they would have that unless - wait, never mind, that could be for "giving enchanted arrows to multiple archers instead of one bow".

17 - Unknown Powers: No and no. That isn't allowed on the section talking about manifesting unkown powers, and the session on the skill only talks about using it with power stones. so it only works wit power stones.

There's a bit of background here which isn't explicitly invoked by the psionics rules, namely UMD and wands (or staves) - the individual pages for wands and staves don't mention any possibility of an exception, but the UMD page does (and then there are lots of confused people across the internet trying to figure out exactly what can be emulated). I had to read all the pages to figure out what all the rules were.

Here, the restrictions on manifesting powers from another source describe it by reference to power stones (including, even, "Characters that can’t use power stones for any reason are also banned from attempting to manifest powers from the knowledge of other psionic characters."), which lets me speculate that the other sources are being treated as power stones. Add in Harmonic Resonance, where it's not clear whether the feat adds a previously-unavailable capability or merely replaces an optional UMD roll (automatically impossible by the non-UMD pages) with an automatic success.

UMD only helps with items, not spells, and a person isn't an item (unless the intention was to treat them as one for the purpose of accessing their powers), so this ruling does make sense, but I want to point out that this is a confusing area of the rules. I figured I could easily be wrong, or more likely, missing something.

18 - Collective: Detect Thoughts to notice someone is having a party in his head. Mind Blank at high levels. There isnt much to do against it, but on the hand there isn't much danger in being in a Collective, since even Life Leechs and Sadists abilities still allow for a save throw

Well . . . see #11 (above), the save is only for half damage, so it's actually potentially fatal to be in a collective. This came up in a game session when a PC wanted to kill a 9-year-old girl so he could steal her inheritance, and the group's NPC leader (an evil-aligned bully I've been playing to help the DM keep the party on-mission and away from intra-party conflicts) had the Vitalist 'curse' him to begin losing 1 hit point for each word he spoke in favor of doing so. (Words have consequences. Literally.) At another point it was going to be used for assassinating the leader of an army outside the fortress walls, but we didn't need to find a defense because the leader said "let me use Bluff+Diplomacy to whisper in his mind and make him think this is his own idea". (The voices in your head are not to be trusted.) NPC leader has highest CHA skills; Enter Image will be amusing when the face of everyone in the party is disguised as the party's Face.

To recap:
Dimension Swap probably doesn't work with Unwilling Participant, but I'm still not sure exactly what conditions "ally" is looking for.
Untouchable Aura works either with Shared Power or only ever on self, but without an extra feat for Shared Power it'll be a few levels before I have to worry about this.
Human bonus powers don't expand Mind Stone limit. Feats, even when granting multiple powers, still don't.
Expanded Knowledge adds its power to a class list selected when the feat is taken. (Some dissent on this.)
May other feats enhance class features of any class other than the one a character goes up a level in when they gain that feat? No to bonus feats gained from classes, though the dissent later (#16) may apply here as well; implicitly yes (though not directly answered) for character-level advancement.
Celestial Totem combos beautifully with psionic healing and the collective.
Persistent Power (and other metapsionic feats) apply only to manifested powers, not class abilities.
Samsaran, unless whatever book it's from is very clear to the contrary, uses the weakest interpretation: augmentation cost is reduced after capping at the manifester limit.
Share Senses works with Sensitivity to Psychic Impressions, Synesthate, and Enter Image, but Line of Effect thwarts the manifestation-through-scrying.
Psychic Bodyguard can be manifested upon an entire group at once, but expends itself in one save upon the vitalist's pick of whoever needs it.
Inevitable Strike, like Psychic Bodyguard, expends itself when the first person makes an attack roll. (Some dissent on this.)
Drain Health having a different wording than Steal Health is absolutely essential to preventing murder sprees. Whether intentional or not, it's necessary; keep it.
Skills As One can take skills from one person and then give the newly-acquired skills to everyone else.
Strength of My Enemy can deal non-lethal damage, but has to deal full damage, so it'll probably one-shot the rat anyway (better hope there are lots of rats) unless everyone is only using their bare hands. Hits have to land at the attacks-per-round frequency, and the benefit stops once their Strength hits 1 (since it can't go lower).
Strength of My Enemy can be used through a ranged weapon; all projectiles count as completing a hit.
Psychic Warrior: dip-friendly? Dissent, sadly. Don't have to worry for a few more levels, though.
Manifesting another's powers known: doesn't work with UMD, and, notwithstanding the confusion, it's less confusing than magical UMD.
Low-level non-psionic defenses against Unwilling Participant rest upon whether it's considered a mind-affecting effect (since the life drain almost assuredly isn't). I'll talk with the DM about certain factions distributing anti-necromancy talismans (which happen to work against life-leeching too) for everyone in the game world, though I acknowledge this won't address the problem for anyone else who may come by looking for balance.
The common definition of "Sadist" is actually fluff (not good precedent for "ally", incidentally), so it can be adjusted to something appropriate (like the masochistic slave of the party leader, whose healing powers are spurred by seeing the evil Face murder her new pets for food).

I've heard of people playing it as concentration+1 minute per level, which means that when you stop concentrating the 1 minute per level duration kicks in.

Excellent.

I can bring "anecdotal evidence from both sides of the house-rule aisle" to the DM, now; he'll decide what is appropriate for his campaign's power-level.

(I'm not sure the player will want it since I've also figured out, as of last night, what he was looking for: the psychokineticist, "Psions who specialize in psychokinesis are known as kineticists". With the right feat, he can read minds.)

Well, if the DM says yes, he'll have two options. Thanks for sharing what you've heard!

I feel like everyone in those forums you linked wanted the answer to be different so they created a controversy that isn't there. It would in fact be awesome to be able to do 1000 lbs per level as concentration, but c'mon.... do you reeeeally think thats RAW or RAI? reasonably not.

Yeah, at-will (and permanent) powers are generally nerfed, it seems. If ever-so-slightly ambiguous wording is a pin, though, the magnet is a munchkin.

The player (of this Kineticist) is a 2nd-edition player with no prior experience at Pathfinder - somehow he had the idea that it was a super-powered "I can blast things all day long! And read minds!" type. (He took a Kalashtar, but when helping him through chargen, I pointed out that neither Mindlink nor any of his class abilities would enable him to read minds. There also appear to not be any Favored Class Bonuses, and I offered to redesign/retcon a Vigilante Warlock, but if he has a useful enough ability for the group, it would take less time to figure that out and sell him on it.)

But.... if you want to really control an airship, you should just play any class with the spell possess object. It's hours per level, and you ARE the airship :D

But then your enemies have an airship to steal/sabotage when left unguarded. (Now, for a spell to sabotage an airship with . . . ) A small platform (enough to cover with an Eversmoking Bottle) could float along slowly, high over the ground, looking much like a cloud. Who needs long-term invisibility when your appearance is utterly innocuous?

Combining my two recent posts from DSP's giantitp.com FAQ:

The target of Dimension Swap is listed as an "ally". I have scoured the web looking for a definition of this (re: willing), but only seen whether you can be your own ally. The power would be too strong if you could just use Body Equilibrium to walk over the lake, then stand looking up at the guard atop the castle walls, and several rounds later be inside the castle with the guard suddenly drowning in the lake. Was it kept not "willing" to prevent this from working with Unwilling Participant, or was "ally" accidentally used instead of "willing"? If "ally" is effectively the same as "willing", but you still used the other term deliberately, what is the distinction?

Untouchable Aura has a Range of Aura, which leaves me uncertain whether to use it through a collective (range: greater than Personal) (target: "you", which is presumably a willing creature), or use it with Shared Power (range: Personal?) - was it meant to be impossible to manifest for others with either of these, or which does it qualify for?

"A character can only benefit from a number of mind stones equal to half his powers known from his manifesting ability. Extra powers known from feats like Expanded Knowledge or from effects like psychic chirurgery do not increase this limit."
Does the human's Favored Class Bonus (which works identically to the Expanded Knowledge feat) count as a power known from their manifesting ability? Does the bonus Talent from a Vitalist's Knacks (if not replaced by an archetype) count as one of these powers? If they take the Access Psionic Talent feat, do those five powers count as more of these powers?

Are powers gained from Expanded Knowledge available for manifesting with each class of a multi-classed character? (Assuming that the manifester level with each is high enough to do so.) When dipping cross-class for bonus feats, can those feats be used for enhancing class abilities of a different class? When dipping cross-class for bonus feats, must any Expanded Knowledge feats be calculated based on the manifesting level in whichever class went up a level when the bonus feat was gained? Combining these, can a Vitalist (level 7) dip into Psion for an Expanded Knowledge feat to gain a 3rd-level power from any class list, even though they cannot manifest 4th-level powers as a psion?

Rage power: Celestial Totem, Lesser
The non-spell examples given are still divine magic; does this interact with psionic healing? Can the additional healing be redirected (over a collective), or does it only kick in when the final recipient of some healing has been resolved? Must each recipient receive at least 1 point if they are to get a bonus from Celestial Totem, or can the entire psionic healing amount be redirected once the Celestial Totem healing kicks in?

Can the Persistent Power feat be used with the psi-like power in the Vitalist class, "collective"? Normally a free power (to add one or more new members to the collective), would paying a total of 2 PP require Unwilling Participant to make two saving throws, with the failure of either bringing them into the collective? If so (if someone was added to the collective with Persistent Power), must they later make all saving throws against other powers (class or psionic) as if still affected by the Persistent Power, fueled by that original payment instead of needing to pay another +2 for each further power?

Vitalist: Reduce the power point cost to augment powers that heal hit point damage by 1/2. [JBE:BoHR:AFCO]
How does the Samsaran favored class bonus (Vitalist) work? The "golden rule" explicitly limits the PP that may be spent, so a 4th-level manifester augmenting their Natural Healing power five times - normally a cost of 6 PP - would reduce that cost by 2, with the leftover (4) no greater than their manifester level. Or is it the amount they would spend that is capped at their manifester level (4), and then they expend less energy (reduce by 2) (leaving 2) to manifest it?

Can you manifest powers on targets you can only see through a member of your collective upon whom Sense Link has been manifested? Can you use the "share my senses" augment with extra-sensory powers that grant you sight, such as Clairvoyant Sense? Can you use that augment with Synesthate? (When seeing sound, and sharing sight, will those you share with see through your eyes when you cannot? If you are feeling light, will they gain the +4 bonus to Perception since their eyes are still working? Can you use that augment with extra-sensory powers like Sensitivity to Psychic Impressions, bringing everyone in on the same vision? Can you use one manifestation of Sense Link to see through the eyes of an ally using Enter Image, and another to let others in the group see what you are seeing through the ally's view from their image?

I've been assuming that Psychic Bodyguard, when augmented via the Vitalist's collective, can protect many people at once but collapses once a Will save is replaced for any of them. Can a Cap of the Free Thinker be used for that one saving throw? If a hostile power can affect more than one target and affects two members of your collective, do you make one roll to protect all of them from the power, or do you have to decide which member you will protect first?

When using Shared Power to bestow Inevitable Strike on every member of your collective, does it remain in effect for one attack each of them attempt, or does any one of them using it cause the power to immediately end for everyone?

Vitalist core Steal Health "A vitalist may use this ability on creatures with a total number of hit dice less than half his vitalist level, but he gains no healing from it."
Life Leech's Drain Health "may not be used against creatures with a total number of hit dice less than half the life leech’s level"
I've been reading this as "the Vitalist may steal health (lethal damage) from enemies who are not in the collective" (only the healing they gain from it cares about victim HD), but "the life leech cannot damage creatures in their collective if the HD are too low". That seems unusual, since the core vitalist is then better than the life leech at the damage side of things. A core Vitalist (level 5) would be able to murder 2nd-level commoners at will, whereas a life leech using their equivalent power would be utterly ineffectual. Was the intent for Drain Health to use the same wording as with Steal Health? (Should we treat it as having that wording?)

"If your rank in that skill is higher, the target uses your ranks in place of his own ranks (maximum 5 ranks), and vice versa. If a target’s skill ranks are replaced by this power, they are treated as though they actually had the shared ranks in the skill for all purposes (including class skill bonuses and the use of trained-only skills)."
Can the Skills As One power be used within your collective to relay skills? If you are treated as though you actually had those ranks in the skill "for all purposes", can you manifest it through the collective to acquire skill ranks from one member (who has them) and then share them with another member (who, like you, does not), effectively enabling the first member to share their skill ranks with the second (even though they cannot use the power) using you as a conduit?

"Damage: This damage does not actually reduce an ability, but it does apply a penalty to the skills and statistics that are based on that ability. For every 2 points of damage you take to a single ability, apply a –1 penalty to skills and statistics listed with the relevant ability. If the amount of ability damage you have taken equals or exceeds your ability score, you immediately fall unconscious until the damage is less than your ability score. The only exception to this is your Constitution score. If the damage to your Constitution is equal to or greater than your Constitution score, you die."
Strength Of My Enemy: can we pull a rat out of the Bag of Tricks and spend a few rounds (before battle) petting it with our weapons to max out the Strength bonus? There's no chance of killing it, provided we avoid even any non-lethal damage (though if that's a concern we can always have an NPC hireling there who is willing to be alternately beaten up and healed in return for a living wage). Once its penalties are maxed out, can we still gain any Strength bonuses from it? If we don't have to deliver a fatal blow and the target is completely willing, how rapidly can we 'hit' them to trigger the power? As written it would trigger multiple times in one round if we had multiple attacks; if we're trying to hit a willing target, how fast can we do that?

Powers taken with Expanded Knowledge: do they use the primary stat of the class they are being manifested with? I want to have Untouchable Aura (which, with Shared Power, can simultaneously ward the entire party), but the effectiveness of its protection is limited to my DC for a Will save. In the case of Untouchable Aura, a Dread power, is the DC set by original class (in the Dread case, using my Charisma bonus), by my class, or may I select which to use if, e.g., my permanent Charisma stat is actually higher than my primary casting stat? If, on the other hand, my Charisma is lower than 10, the power would be keying off of a dump-stat, and then I cannot manifest it at all. If the manifester has multiple classes which might manifest the power from a single Expanded Knowledge feat, may they select per manifestation which class they manifest it from to use the stat that is highest at that moment?

Strength of My Enemy only calls out "natural or manufactured weapons", not melee vs ranged - can this power affect a bow and then trigger when each of the arrows loosed by it hits an enemy? Or would this have to be "pick one arrow per manifestation"?

Starting at 1st level, "a psychic warrior gets a bonus combat-oriented feat", but the same text later goes on to note that they "must be drawn from the feats noted as combat feats or psionic feats". Is this "or" meant as "you may take a combat feat" and "you may take a (non-combat) psionic feat", or "take any 'combat feat', looking in both the 'combat feats' area and (any combat-specific psionic feat from) the new 'psionic feats' area"? In short, is the Psychic Warrior dip-friendly for 1-2 levels of non-combat psionic feats?

When manifesting unknown powers as when addressing a power stone, can Use Magic Device (psionics version) be used here to pretend your class is the one with that power on its list? Would this change the automatic failure on Spellcraft check #2?

The class ability "collective" has no PP cost - with effectively infinite use, line-of-sight becomes "I try until my target rolls a 1 on their save". We're looking for low-level spells that protect against it. Protection From (Evil/Good/Chaos/Law) would prevent possession, which this isn't, and prevent mind control, but a collective isn't controlling anyone's mind, so the spell would provide a +2 bonus on Will saves. Are there any high-level detection spells that would interact (assuming less than full magic/psionics transparency) with a collective? Are there any high-level countermeasures? (If it matters, our transparency level is "distinct fluff"; Spellcraft won't help with psionics (have to dedicate ranks to Psicraft instead), detect magic doesn't register psionics; the Inspired recently arrived in Stormreach but Gather Information didn't mention anything about their unusual magic, so it seems likely that most magic-users won't have heard of psionics yet.) How can a magic-user who is unprepared for psionics defend themselves?

Many animals are listed as having 1 HD - can a Sadist bring one into the collective, let someone else kill it (since per my reading of Drain Health, above, they can't simply snuff out the poor creature's life on their own), and then have a bonus PP to use on buffs before cooking and eating the animal? Do they need the animal to suffer, or is this fluff that can be readjusted for a painless mercy killing?

Last question I think I figured out an answer to myself, though it did take me a while: Persistent Power has no minimum level to reach before taking the feat (so it can potentially be taken at level 1), but the +2 PP makes it almost impossible to use at first level - the only exception I can think of being Wilder+Overchannel (or possibly a Torc of Power Preservation, if wildly exceeding WBL guidelines). Even a talent wouldn't work, because focus must be expended to reduce a talent's cost below 1, and Persistent Power also requires expending focus to use. Apart from the wilder+overchannel combo I can see this being left open because it's another feat that can be taken before third level, and the +2 PP does effectively hold its immediate usefulness back. So this does reasonably seem like a non-omission.

Telekinetic Haul - duration: "increases" Basic Telekinesis' to 1 minute/level
Basic Telekinesis - duration: unspecified (but references Mage Hand, which has duration: concentration)

I'm seeing (e.g. Telekinetic-Haul-Duration) (also Telekinetic-Haul-a-Whole-New-World and Two-questions-about-the-Kineticist-talent) several "this is how our DM runs it", but nothing official. Is this "the consensus of houserules is acceptable, so there's no need to issue a correction" or "any houserule is fine, it's utterly up to the DM exactly how Telekinetic Haul works"?

I am not the DM in this case, nor am I the player of the kineticist - but I do have a keen interest in finding out whether that character can function as an airship with limited daily lift-offs.