| Necron_ |
So, I am new to Pathfinder 2e and Pathfinder as a whole. I've played the CRPG Wrath of the Righteous, and even if it was drastically different than both the normal Wrath of the Righteous AP and normal Pathfinder 1e as a whole, I thought I had at least had a good understanding for what the classes were meant to be like.
Then I decided to pick Kineticist for my character as it was a class I loved both in the game and the idea of. And looking at it from a glance, it seemed like it kept the general idea of blasting all day and being still pretty effective.
And now, a couple months later and up to level 5, I am starting to really hate some very critical parts of it.
Kineticist seems like its balanced around being weaker than a Caster for the most part at the cost of not having to deal with spell slots. I'd be fine with it if thats where it ended though.
Its ranged damage is, frankly, nothing impressive. My 2 action Earth Kinetic Blast with Weapon Infusion does 2d8+2+4 at +12 to hit with a range of 50 feet. Where as any Dex based Martial switching to a secondary weapon Composite Longbow does 2d8+2 at +14 with a range of 100 feet. For 1 action!
Fine, maybe its just the Kinetic Blast thats a bit bad, I'm sure the impulses will at least be pretty good. Buuut to actually use most of these impulses effectively and deal solid damage, I need to be right in the enemies' faces. Then at least their damage will probably competitive with that of a melee martial right ? As I have more things that I am juggling at once right ? Oh, no ? Oh okay.
So, I need to hit way more enemies to actually get close to the damage of, say, a Fighter. I need enemies to be within 10 feet of me at all times to make use of my Aura Junction and Thermal Nimbus so I need to not use Overflow impulses, and to also hit them with Flying Flame which has a fairly short reach. And obviously, against Bosses I am fairly useless.
And on top of all that, Kineticist doesn't even get to make use of most things, while being directly turned off by so many things. Our Magus asked me "Does your Kinetic Blasts count as Unarmed ? Should I Runic Body you ?" Lol, no I replied. Fine, they aren't strike. But wait, they also aren't spells! ...Until they are. They are spells for things that are meant to specifically negatively effect you. Why ? Would Kineticist really be that game breaking if I could actually hit magic immune enemies ?
And the arguably worst part: If the enemy has Resistance or dare I say, Immunity to Fire my damage falls off a cliff. Oh but I could Extract Elements them right! Not unless they are specifically "Fire" monsters. And considering that, there are actually a lot of non-Fire monsters that are highly resistant to or immune to fire, I'll have to go back and just twiddle my thumbs, whilst casting very mediocre 2 action Kinetic Blasts.
Are there monsters like this for melee martials ? How common is physical resistance or physical immunity (If that even exists) ? Why is it that martials get to do their thing all day every day against all enemies, whilst I am stuck praying I don't come accross anything vaguely fire-y.
Its also not even my biggest problem, but items. Kineticists get Gate Attenuators. Thats it. No other fancy cool items to help. I would rather not spend my money on consumables, and would rather get permanent buffs like the rest of the party. Thankfully, there is an option this level in the form of the Armor Rune. But I dread other levels where there isn't one.
That's all to say, what is up with Kineticists ? Why are they like this ? Am I missing something ? Is there a specific gimmick to making them stronger ? Is the answer to just wait until I get to level 10 to get Aura Shaping and then to level 18 where my damage skyrockets with Ignite the Sun ?
Is this the general Kineticist experience ? Should I have just gone with a more support orianted one, which seems pretty damn amazing with Protector Tree ?
Though, all of this considered, I love them regardless. They just feel really cozy. Until I think about numbers anyway.