Complete Pathfinder newbie here (though I have experience from D&D and other systems). I just received Player Core for a recent birthday and am looking up details to roll a first character. No table yet, but wanted one or two PCs on hand in case I can find an online or pick-up game.
I like magical characters with crowd control and lots of utility. I don't need to have huge DPS, so long as I'm not a liability to my team. Overall "coolness" is more important to me. Storywise, I tend to like natural outdoorsy characters. Mechanically, I like characters with lots of per-encounter or at-will abilities that I can just do rather than having to ration out over the course of a day.
Druid and Kineticist both immediately caught my eye. Untamed Druid would let me shapeshift per battle using the Focus spell, plus having movement and sensory abilities on hand whenever I'd need them. Build looks fairly straightforward, unless I'm missing something, as there's a new Shape feat at nearly every level. Nomming on people sounds cool, especially once you can turn into dragons and dinosaurs, and there's still spells for utility. Probably thinking Dwarf here.
Kineticist seems awesome as well. I especially am drawn to the crazy utility of Air. Even their weaker options involve planet-wide communication, turning into gas to slip through cracks, or flinging people 135 feet away on a whim. I like the free movement and forced movement. I like rouge-like characters, especially if they're not tied to the standard criminal themes. More "tricky" than "thiefy". Human would give me an extra Impulse plus, maybe more importantly, Clever Improviser that'll help with their poor skills issue.
My thoughts there would be how to plan this type of character out in advance. There seems to be plenty of low-level feats I'm interested in, but I'm also drawn to the resistances/immunity and aura benefits. Plus, for a utility caster, I'd need more elements if I'm going to get the most out of something like Base Kinesis. (That seems opposite of what I'm reading online, where it seems more common to pick your favorite element and then poach the utility features from Air.)
Water seems the most thematically compatible, though everything is Overflow which would stop stances and auras and ongoing abilities. Metal/Wood are more tanky than I'd imagine someone so light and mobile. Fire fixes Air's low DPS, but kinda forces you into multiple junctions to improve the damage. Earth has some cool abilities like Swim Through Earth and Igneokinesis. At the same time, this seems opposite of Air flavor and I'd be picking odd things like Tremorsense over the Armor in Earth and Tremors that Earth does best.
Two questions here:
1) Any recommendations of which character I should try first, once I get a chance to play?
2) If I go with the Kineticist, any specific Junctions or Impulses that'd be ideal for someone who wants to play (mostly) as an Air Kineticist, only with an extra gate or two to expand their portfolio?