Lini

The Golux's page

RPG Superstar 7 Season Star Voter, 8 Season Marathon Voter. 1,103 posts. 1 review. 1 list. 2 wishlists.



Sign in to create or edit a product review.

Our Price: $5.99

Add to Cart

Inaugural Review

4/5

This product was given by Flying Pincushion games in exchange for this review, but the review will endeavor to be objective and not influenced by that.

Of the 40 pages of this PDF, 35 are gaming content, the other five being the cover, title page, table of contents, OGL, and a full-page Sun Tzu quote. Pretty solid ratio to me, and where there is art that takes up large portions of a page, it is generally good quality art and fits with the content.

Archetypes:
There are three archetypes in this section.
The Aetheric Marksman attempts the difficult task of combining telekinetic blasts with archery. It does a pretty decent job of this, increasing the range (though not as far as the actual range of a bow, at least without the extended range infusion) and increasing the critical multiplier to 3 but not allowing you to use feats that give you more shots with the blast. It doesn't integrate expanded elements very strongly, though; they increase the damage of the elemental and elemental burst properties that the archetype lets you add to the arrow-blasts, but that seems to be about it. Otherwise the abilities are more about using the special attributes of magic bows and arrows and doing things like making an arrow shatter into an AOE from excessive telekinetic force or using telekinesis to shoot through one target and into another. You will be using a lot of burn though, since a lot of the tricks require you to accept it and I didn't see anything that lets you gather power with a bow in your hands.

The Hellfire Kineticist will probably see more use by DMs as enemy characters and in evil campaigns than in more traditional parties, but it has a lot of flavorful abilities for that, albeit with a few weird bits. The unique infusions (a sickening brimstone blast and an blast that, if a target has sinned, condemns them to hell while giving benefits to the kineticist if it kills them) don't work with all the things that it seems like they might (again, expanded elements are not that well integrated into this archetype), and the ability that gives them some of the resistances of a devil makes them count as an evil outsider for all spells and effects when they have burn - no note of "in addition to their usual type;" full type changes are usually limited to capstones and this replaces elemental defense at level 2 (they do permanently become a lawful- and evil-subtype outsider at 20, regardless of alignment, so this may be an error). The Imp Familiar is always useful though. It may be possible to play this class as a neutral character, but it would be pretty hard, and they wouldn't be able to use the condemnation ability for sure.

The Wind Whistler is a bard-aerokineticist. Their blasts do added damage based on a perform (wind) check, and I am not sure if they can use masterwork instruments to increase it. They get bardic performances instead of all their infusions, which can be limiting but also useful in a more support role, plus some unique performances. This archetype specifically restricts your first expanded element to "more air" and you don't get composite blasts from it (it's not specified if you get the electric basic blast, though it seems like you don't; I think a sonic blast would be neat to get at some point); instead you get a bardic masterpiece, which you get chances to swap out at higher levels. It doesn't say anything about your second expanded element, so that works as normal presumably? All in all it's a pretty cool idea with a little mechanical oddness, but it should still be able to do a decent amount of damage while supporting the party. I'm not sure why they lose intimidate, though, especially since they still get Dirge of Doom.

Prestige Classes:
There are two prestige classes included in this section. I will be honest: I am not an expert on prestige classes so it isn't easy for me to compare them with other prestige classes strength-wise, but these are unusual for pathfinder prestige classes anyway.

The Aetheric Assailant is a combination martial warrior and telekineticist, a combination that is normally difficult to pull off effectvely. It deals with the fact that kineticists lose a lot by multiclassing both by progressing blast damage and effective kineticist level and also by being only five levels long. It has full base attack bonus and good fort and ref saves, and requires you to have aether as your elemental focus, 2d6 of elemental blast (so level 3 kineticist, normally), and the Kinetic Blade infusion, plus medium armor proficiency and some specific combat feats to enter. You actually CAN enter the class as a single-class kineticist, but it will be much later and you won't get as much benefit. They gain abilities to let them use kinetic abilities while in a barbarian rage, should you choose that as the martial component, and levels in the prestige class also progress effective level in one martial class that the kineticist already had for meeting prereqisites for feats. The specific mix of martial that they get mostly involves using kinetic blade with actual weapons (without harming the weapon), using cleave and great cleave with kinetic blade, and swinging the kinetic blade weapon with threads of aether to get longer range with such attacks. They also gain the ability to channel blasts into armor and shields that they wear or wield, giving them interesting defensive abilities. I think this class still can't gather power with a weapon or shield in hand though, so you will be taking burn to use its abilities to the fullest extent. The capstone (which you can be getting potentially around level 12) lets you take more burn per turn, but you still have a total amount you can take, and every point you take is nonlethal damage that puts you closer to unconsciousness. Overall, this archetype does some cool things, but there are some things it doesn't do that I feel would make it work a lot better.

The Cerulean Star Disciple is the complete opposite kind of prestige class. It's not a way to combine two classes, it's a specific alternate version of the base class's power tied to a specific force, that seems like it could be fun to expand in a campaign setting. In this case, the cerulean fire is the light of blue stars, which is envisioned here as particularly anathema to undead. It has the story-based entry requirement of having been affected by the blight of the undead, in such forms as level or ability drain or mummy rot, as well as already being a pretty accomplished pyrokineticist (it requires the Blue Flame Blast, as well as weapon focus with kinetic blast, so you normally need seven levels of kineticist to qualify). This is also a five-level prestige class, though, and it progresses BAB and Saves at the same rate as a kineticist, and progresses most aspects of the class aside from actually getting new infusions and abilities, so it doesn't detract much from the kineticist abilities. The abilities it grants are as you'd expect from the flavor: Its Blue (now Cerulean) Flame blasts do extra damage to undead and debuff them unless they make a save, then becomes half holy damage like Flame Strike, and as a capstone, entirely holy damage, with increasing additional effects when used on its intended targets and the ability to use the blast in different shapes. They also can use their cerulean fire to heal their allies and cure them of harmful conditions, surround themselves with a concealing cloak of flames that hurts those that attack them, and eventually gains the ability to use less burn to use the blue fire blast that most of its abilities to depend on, bonuses on saves against the abilities of undead, and the ability to actually reduce their burn (though not below 1) when they destroy an undead with their cerulean fire blast a few times per day. This is a very flavor-oriented class that is good for characters specifically devoted to destroying undead, and the idea of blue star fire being anti-undead power and people being devoted to that could be a fun thing to explore in a game world.

New Elements:
This section includes five new kineticist elements, all of which come with a pretty full selection of utility and infusion talents, plus defensive and basic talents and composite blasts, plus a section on elemental saturation. The biggest issue I have with this section is actually that unfortunately they don't necessarily work so well with the archetypes and prestige classes in the previous sections. There are magical and mundane items that support them some, though, and notes for how they work with the Spark of Life and Draining Infusion talents from the base class.

The Bone element is focused on the dead and undead, giving you the ability to attack and defend with bones, including making your fists bony enough to attack with. Most of the other talents involve making weapons out of bone or summoning the bones of the dead to attack or trap opponents. It has a composite blast with the negative energy blast of the void element, and another wild talent does negative energy damage. This element does not actually require a character to be evil or necessarily lead them that way, but it certainly fits in better with a certain kind of crowd.

The chaos element gives the kineticist a variety of abilities based on changing themselves, or the targets of their blasts. They can change their appearances in different ways, from minor alterations for disguises to enough to grow fins and gills or completely transform into a different race or an animal. They can also alter the results of die rolls, suddenly be somewhere other than they seemed, or defy the laws of physics to walk on walls, fly, or weaken or reshape matter. Their composite blasts add a chaotic boost to another elemental blast, or if they specialize in chaos or also use fire, a powerful blast with far more erratic damage than usual (3d6 becoming 1d20 and 2d6 becoming 1d12 when rolling damage).

The Crystal element has a lot in common with the Earth element thematically, but does its best to incorporate different kinds of abilities. Its blasts do more than one type of physical damage at a time, and its infusions and utility talents focus on the traits of crystals being sharp and reflective. Its defense talent is particularly powerful, giving a bonus to AC and Touch AC, but can only be used when touching earth or stone, but its Basic Krýskinesis is limited to making weapons or armor made of fragile crystal or glass as sturdy as their metal equivalents (A GM might allow it to be used on other things made of those materials, since it's still a fairly limited ability). Honestly, while the talents for this element are cool and useful, crystal doesn't stand on its own as an element as well as the others; most of the things here would work as just normal earth-element talents.

The Dream element, appropriately, is based largely on sleep and things that are partly or wholly in the mind. Its blasts mimics other elemental blasts, a la shadow evocation, and its infusions mostly add further mental effects to the blast, though things uneffected by mind-affecting effects are much less affected by any of the blasts. The defense is particularly interesting; in additional to protecting from mental effects, it also allows you to act while affected by a sleep effect, though sluggishly. Otherwise, the abilities mostly deal with communicating with sleepers or contacting the dimension of dreams. This is a very flavorful element that, while its utility abilities are somewhat limited, has a lot of combat versatility, as long as you're OK with the blasts being reduceable on a save.

Time can a tricky element to visualize or use in combat, but there is a Dimension of Time in Pathfinder, so kineticists being able to use its power makes sense. Here, its powers are mostly either based on manipulating aging or gaining benefits from insight into the future in various forms. Its physical blast, is unusual, mechanically taking the form of the quick draw feat plus something like the telekinetic blast, to depict slowing down time as you grab and throw objects. There are also infusions and talents to send yourself or opponents into the future, and a few talents that actually have an unlimited duration but require you to maintain a point of unhealable burn per instance as long as they are in effect, which is a cool mechanic for, basically, spending constant effort to hold things in place in time one way or another. Time as an element adds several useful options but is probably better mixed with other elements than taken all the way through.

New Wild Talents and New Feats:
These two sections are pretty short, including three new universal wild talents and seven new feats. The options presented here are all great ideas that add abilities or options to the class that make a lot of sense and fit very well flavorwise, such as transforming into an elemental or unleashing an aura of elemental energy or matter, and being able to charge with a kinetic blade, craft items based on your element, use your blast nonlethally, or learn to communicate better with other creatures attuned to your element. The only real downside is that some of these options are so fitting and obvious that they seem less creative. Still, having them in print is helpful.

New Magic Items:
There are a couple magic weapons here designed to work with kineticists' abilities, which is nice, since the class seems to generally limit fighting without empty hands, but the thing that stands out to me are two consumable items that mitigate or recover burn. Both are limited, but considering that it's something that official materials pretty strictly avoid, it's worthy of note. There are also two items that give enhancement bonuses on kinetic blasts, with different limitations, but neither one of them has scaling versions with higher bonuses, so I'm not sure how worthwhile they are. One of them, interestingly, also works on spells or spell-like abilities that deal elemental damage, but only if the wearer has psychic abilities.

New Mundane Items:
This section is a little odd. It consists of twelve different items, all costing 300 gold, which are, basically, items aligned with each of the different kineticist elements (including the new ones from this product) which, when held by a kineticist of the appropriate element, gives insight into two skills and a situational defensive bonus, either on saves against a pretty specifc thing or to CMD against a certain maneuver or AC in very specific situations. The idea is pretty flavorful and they could be fun things to find in treasure or rewards or enemy gear, but I don't see many people going out of their way to try to buy them.

Overall Impressions:
This is a solid product for its price for people who like the Kineticist class but want to expand it beyond the classical elements and/or its normal way of doing battle. It's not going to completely redefine the game and there are a few bits of mechanical weirdness, but it could be good for enriching an original campaign setting or adding a rare phenomenon to Golarion or another existing setting.