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Would a Gnome with the Pyromaniac alternate trait gain an increase to their effective level with fire based blasts and Wild Talents? If so, that would dovetail quite nicely with their bonus to Constitution too.
Seems like a pretty cool class. I too vote for the Terrakineticist being renamed Geokineticist... Specially because it opens the possibility of Terrakineticist being used for a new element that focus on wood/plant control! (Make it happen, Mark! I know you can! ^^)
The 2 skill points per level and abusrdly short list of class skills seem unnecessary, though. Really, no PC other than Int-based full casters should ahve less than 4 skill points per level... That's the bare minimum you need to be good at anything involving skills. I know it's a SAD class, but the extra points will either go to Str (if the character wants to fight in melee) or Wis (because weak Will saves are incredibly deadly past 7th level). In fact, 2+Int only encourages players to dump Int (I personally never dump Int, but I can see why someone would do it). I honestly don't understand this idea that classes should have as few skill points as possible... All it does is increase the gap between full casters and other classes.
The Kineticist is a "outdoorsy" class. Shouldn't it have more skill points per level than the caster (of equal intelligence) who spends his life in a church or tower, studying prayers and/or arcane tomes?
Also, this being an element-based class, shouldn't it have Kn(Planes) and Kn(Nature) as class skills? The first would help them to interact with elemental creatures and the second seems appropriate, as being in tune with the natural world could be a nice background story for how a character got his elemental powers. In fact, add Survival to the list of skills that should be class skill.
And what about Climb, Fly and Swim? Wouldn't those be appropriate for a character that can control earth, air and/or water?
Each element adds some class skills, so it does have some more available than it seems.
As for skill points--every time I make a class that has 2 skill points (and even 4), I always think about adding 2 more skill points. In fact, I brought up that very question for the kineticist when I was writing it. It's at 2 for now due to wisdom that the others had--when you're deciding something like this, the playtest is a good crucible and you're never going to see anyone say "This class was perfect except I wish it had 2 fewer skill points".
Don't worry! :) When I say I'm listening to your feedback, though, it's not boilerplate. I'm really listening, and I'm going to make sure to bring the skill points up at the end of the playtest based on everyone's feedback and playtest results!
I would love to see an archetype that grants a sorcerer bloodline. Makes all abilities cha based. Maybe use your burn to us bloodline spells as spell like abilities. Also an option to get bloodline feats instead of a wild talent if you want.
This is my favourite class from the playtest - truely unique. Nice work Mark!
I theorycrafted the following build. I built it quick so there might be some problems with it (using PFS rules)
Jason, awesome build! There's a lot of similarities in build to the (currently 5th level) Eram in my Skull and Shackles game. You did such a great job, I even don't feel a need to post Eram any more. If you get a chance to playtest Jack at all, I'd be thrilled to hear feedback in the other subforum (that goes for people other than Jason who want to give the character a spin).
@Filler feats--maybe go grab some extra wild talents with the feat in the 2dn post of this thread!
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For those of you having a hard time grokking the Burn ratio to HP loss, I hacked together a quick spreadsheet to visualize it for myself.
This assumes a 18 CON and FCB of +1 HP every level.
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Wanted to toss my two cents out there and say that it is a cool looking class. The one thing I would like to see change is a reduce element restriction for many of the wild talents. I think a lot of the talents could be done through multiple elements. For instance, taking the first talent, Burn, you could do the same thing (although the fluff might require a bit of change) with any element.
Hydrokinetist could boil the water, Terrakinetist could create magma, Aerokinetist could create steam clouds... no clue about the Telekinetist, but still. Point being, the character modifies their power in some way to cover their enemies in a painful substance. If you wanted to drop the 'Burn' part, you could just do something else painful. (Water creates ice so cold it burns, Earth creates jagged shards of rock, etc.)
It would create more options for the players. Sure, some could remain entirely with a certain element, but I think a lot more should be opened up for players to customize.
I am trying to build 7th level telekineticist and feel like TK gets short stick comparing to others, who, at this level, get the composite blasts that deal much better damage. At the same time the only composite option for kineticist who picked aether as elemental focus is to go full aether for (gasp) force blast that is really weak for the burn that it inflicts. Picking any other element gives you no composite options - if you pick any other element as your focus and aether as expanded one you at least get (still unimpressive when comparing to other composite blasts) aether boost.
@Jason
Note: This is not a knock on your build, it's awesome and take full advantage of your system mastery
How do you think the class holds up in a non-magic mart scenario? Say an adventure path with randomly rolled loot in shops and random/pre-written loot drops?
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Each element adds some class skills, so it does have some more available than it seems.
As for skill points--every time I make a class that has 2 skill points (and even 4), I always think about adding 2 more skill points. In fact, I brought up that very question for the kineticist when I was writing it. It's at 2 for now due to wisdom that the others had--when you're deciding something like this, the playtest is a good crucible and you're never going to see anyone say "This class was perfect except I wish it had 2 fewer skill points".
Don't worry! :) When I say I'm listening to your feedback, though, it's not boilerplate. I'm really listening, and I'm going to make sure to bring the skill points up at the end of the playtest based on everyone's feedback and playtest results!
I see your point, and I do believe you are listening to feedback (in fact, that's the very reason I decided to even participate in this playtest), but I will point out that if a full caster (or Int-based caster with any spell progression) appeared with 6 skill points per level, I'd certainly point out that it seems excessive.
There is also another reason for 4 skill points per level that I forgot to mention in my last post... The SADness of the class is somewhat negated by its greater need of Con, not only because it's its "casting" stat, but also because it takes additional damage due to Burn... So yeah, it's a SAD class, but it needs a really high attribute (even more so than most full casters, who don't need high save DCs to be effective).
Besides... It'd increase character variety without making the class unbalanced, and that's always good.
Anyway... Now after you mentioned Terrakinesis is more about Nature stuff... Any chance you rename it Geokinesis and make Terrakinesis an Wood/Plant-manipulating kineticist? That'd be awesome! I know quite a few characters that use that trick but are otherwise completely different from Druids.
And how about an archetype that lets the kineticist manipulate positive/negative energy instead (or in addition to) elemental energy?
I was sticking to PFS so no extra wild talents (at least not yet). I just realized that you can't use Spray with Cold Blast so I switched Spray to Kinetic Form. Does Kinetic Form last all day? The AC + CON boost seems crazy.This is my favourite class from the playtest - truely unique. Nice work Mark!
I theorycrafted the following build. I built it quick so there might be some problems with it (using PFS rules)
Jason, awesome build! There's a lot of similarities in build to the (currently 5th level) Eram in my Skull and Shackles game. You did such a great job, I even don't feel a need to post Eram any more. If you get a chance to playtest Jack at all, I'd be thrilled to hear feedback in the other subforum (that goes for people other than Jason who want to give the character a spin).
@Filler feats--maybe go grab some extra wild talents with the feat in the 2dn post of this thread!
It's at-will right now. It's likely that it's going to be more restrictive in the final version. I hadn't gotten to it yet in actual playtests.
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I am trying to build 7th level telekineticist and feel like TK gets short stick comparing to others, who, at this level, get the composite blasts that deal much better damage. At the same time the only composite option for kineticist who picked aether as elemental focus is to go full aether for (gasp) force blast that is really weak for the burn that it inflicts. Picking any other element gives you no composite options - if you pick any other element as your focus and aether as expanded one you at least get (still unimpressive when comparing to other composite blasts) aether boost.
Hmm, you should still get aether boost when going that direction. If not, that may have been an unintended side effect of the streamlining we did on how composites are presented (I used to have a chart of all the combinations instead).
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Is the expected role of the class pure damage? It looks that way from my point of view, but perhaps I'm missing a big piece of the puzzle.
I still think attack bonus is too low for kineticists that choose to not rely on touch blasts. What if Feel the Burn's progression was lessened, but it increased attack and damage by its amount for every burn point? If your Feel the Burn was at +2 and you had 3 burn points, you would be getting +6 to the attack and damage of your blast. That would give the kineticist the very dangerous option of getting close to unconsciousness in order to go all out.
If that attack boost is too much for the touch options, maybe lessen their damage progression?
I am trying to build 7th level telekineticist and feel like TK gets short stick comparing to others, who, at this level, get the composite blasts that deal much better damage. At the same time the only composite option for kineticist who picked aether as elemental focus is to go full aether for (gasp) force blast that is really weak for the burn that it inflicts. Picking any other element gives you no composite options - if you pick any other element as your focus and aether as expanded one you at least get (still unimpressive when comparing to other composite blasts) aether boost.Hmm, you should still get aether boost when going that direction. If not, that may have been an unintended side effect of the streamlining we did on how composites are presented (I used to have a chart of all the combinations instead).
In such case it will require changing prerequisites from 'expanded element (aether)' - which you only meet when you pick aether as second element to something like 'either expanded element (aether) or aether as a focus element and expanded element (any other element)'.
I see your point, and I do believe you are listening to feedback (in fact, that's the very reason I decided to even participate in this playtest), but I will point out that if a full caster (or Int-based caster with any spell progression) appeared with 6 skill points per level, I'd certainly point out that it seems excessive.Each element adds some class skills, so it does have some more available than it seems.
As for skill points--every time I make a class that has 2 skill points (and even 4), I always think about adding 2 more skill points. In fact, I brought up that very question for the kineticist when I was writing it. It's at 2 for now due to wisdom that the others had--when you're deciding something like this, the playtest is a good crucible and you're never going to see anyone say "This class was perfect except I wish it had 2 fewer skill points".
Don't worry! :) When I say I'm listening to your feedback, though, it's not boilerplate. I'm really listening, and I'm going to make sure to bring the skill points up at the end of the playtest based on everyone's feedback and playtest results!
Investigator is pretty much a 6-level caster with 6+Int skills, I suppose. I don't recall calls to lower its skill points, but I may not remember them.
There is also another reason for 4 skill points per level that I forgot to mention in my last post... The SADness of the class is somewhat negated by its greater need of Con, not only because it's its "casting" stat, but also because it takes additional damage due to Burn... So yeah, it's a SAD class, but it needs a really high attribute (even more so than most full casters, who don't need high save DCs to be effective).
Besides... It'd increase character variety without making the class unbalanced, and that's always good.
I follow. I'm certainly keeping it in mind!
Anyway... Now after you mentioned Terrakinesis is more about Nature stuff... Any chance you rename it Geokinesis and make Terrakinesis an Wood/Plant-manipulating kineticist? That'd be awesome! I know quite a few characters that use that trick but are otherwise completely different from Druids.
And how about an archetype that lets the kineticist...
I can't say I haven't also had ideas like adding the wood element. I will say that my classes are already massive page hogs, though, and it would take a good dedication in pages to make that a reality.
This guy feels like a monk. Specifically, the type of monk people have been trying to build to convert Air/water/etc. benders into pathfinder, mostly with MOTFW and the various style feats.
I like it! I do think that either skill points to match the monk at 4+, or D10HD/FullBAB would be worth considering.
I think it would do fantastic with suboptimal gear. Even completely naked you have (10 + 5 dex + 6 shield + 5 NA from elemental body) 26 AC and saves of 12/13/6 - grab some mage armor, fix the will save and you are good to go. The low attack bonus will hurt so you will have to stick to touch attacks (+14 to hit vs AC of 27ish)@Jason
Note: This is not a knock on your build, it's awesome and take full advantage of your system masteryHow do you think the class holds up in a non-magic mart scenario? Say an adventure path with randomly rolled loot in shops and random/pre-written loot drops?
I think we've reached a pretty similar conclusion on something.
The touch based Blasts are really very appealing because of the relatively low Attack bonus.
Maybe we could get an ability that "leaches enhancement bonus" from an obtained weapon? Like we use the weapon as a conduit to enhance our Blasts?
Alternatively I've heard a few calls for D10 hit die. I don't know how the extra HP from upping the hit die would affect the class, but I don't think the increase in BAB would have a negative effect.
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It doesn't feel like a sad class. It makes me happy about it's general direction...
The need for more skill points is particularly needed when building telekineticist because he would surely need more skills that he could use from a distance to make picking telekinetic finesse talent worthwhile.
Okay, so I actually got to play my Kineticist just now. Had a lot of fun; there's just something innately satisfying about being able to look at a problem and say "I throw a rock at it". I don't think there's too much I can say at the moment because most of my neater tricks won't come online until later.
One thing I'm noticing already is that my to-hit is really low, even at this level. It didn't come up much because I was rolling abnormally high today (got three 20's) but I can already see how this is going to be a very Monkish problem going forward. I think the non-touch blasts should count your Kineticist level as your BAB, it would make their to-hit much more in line with other raw damage classes.
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Done a bit of testing.
Using PFS rules (20 point buy and PC wealth), I rolled up a 6th level human Water Kineticist.
For testing purposes I put him up against CR 5/6 monsters from the bestiaries (obviously avoiding Water elementals, and other things immune to his attacks.)
Lorem Ipsum - Kineticist(Water) 6
Stats: Str 7, Dex 18, Con 20, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 7
HP: 69
AC: 20 (23 after using the water shield)
Fort +12, Ref +11, Will +5
Water Blast: +9, 3d6 + 8 bludgeoning
Talents:
Slick
Kinetic Cover
Kinetic Healer
Torrent
Feats: Point Blank Shot, Precise shot, Deadly aim, Weapon Focus(Blast)
Gears: Cloak of Res +2, Belt of Con +2, +2 Mithril Chain
The opponents:
Bearded Devil (CR 5)
Deinonychus x3 (CR 3 each)
Lamia (CR 6)
Babau (CR 6)
Bearded Devil - Dropped to 1 HP, healed self using the gather elemental power ability and Kinetic Healer, then won.
Deinonychus - Easy fight, Torrent made things easier.
Lamia - Took Wisdom drain, failed the slumber save and died. Reset the fight, got dropped really low, but Kinetic Healer + gather power saved the day again. Had significant problems hitting.
Babau - Died twice in a straight up fight. Couldn't punch through the DR, and with the Kineticist's sub-par bonus to hit (only hitting 55% of the time, when not using Deadly Aim), losing 10 damage was killer.
The tests confirmed my initial suspicion, the Kineticist wrecks enemies with low AC and no DR, but falls apart against everything else.
First off, let's discuss DR. As is, only geokineticists can punch through material DR, and there's no way to punch through alignment DR. This puts the Kineticist significantly behind every other combat class in the game when dealing with 6+ CR enemies. But I think that's easily dealt with through new Infusions/items/spells.
Second is the AC vs. Damage conundrum. As is, the Kineticist gets one attack (which has ~50% chance to hit against CR appropriate enemies.) But, you can't just give them a flat bonus to hit, since their single-target damage is insane.
I think the simplest solution is to give them full BAB, but switch their damage scaling to a table (like monks and brawlers). However, I'm sure there's a far better one, which utilizes the systems that are already in place.
Overall, I really like the flavor and this is definitely the class I'm most excited for, but I think it needs some work before it's a viable choice.
Edit:
I also totally support upping their skill points and class skill list. Some of us like contributing outside of combat.
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Investigator is pretty much a 6-level caster with 6+Int skills, I suppose. I don't recall calls to lower its skill points, but I may not remember them.I see your point, and I do believe you are listening to feedback (in fact, that's the very reason I decided to even participate in this playtest), but I will point out that if a full caster (or Int-based caster with any spell progression) appeared with 6 skill points per level, I'd certainly point out that it seems excessive.Each element adds some class skills, so it does have some more available than it seems.
As for skill points--every time I make a class that has 2 skill points (and even 4), I always think about adding 2 more skill points. In fact, I brought up that very question for the kineticist when I was writing it. It's at 2 for now due to wisdom that the others had--when you're deciding something like this, the playtest is a good crucible and you're never going to see anyone say "This class was perfect except I wish it had 2 fewer skill points".
Don't worry! :) When I say I'm listening to your feedback, though, it's not boilerplate. I'm really listening, and I'm going to make sure to bring the skill points up at the end of the playtest based on everyone's feedback and playtest results!
I think that's because of three reasons: It suffers from the alchemists spell-casting limitations, doesn't have the same variety of spell effects as most other casters and it's basically a Rogue that works, so people wanted it to have many skill points.
I can't say I haven't also had ideas like adding the wood element. I will say that my classes are already massive page hogs, though, and it would take a good dedication in pages to make that a reality.
Pfff... Use "Burn" to suffer damage and use Expand Page Count on your game design SLA!
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Wishlist:
1. 4 skills/level, and Knowledge (planes) and Survival always available as class skills
2. Make the non-touch blasts more accurate, or give them something extra to do. Making them more accurate might be possible by...
3. Make Feel the Burn more potent so that I'm tempted to bring myself to the edge of death
4. Give Expanded Element automatically at 7th and 15th. The wonky Wild Talent progression is there obviously so that everyone can take it, and it's such a no-brainer to grab more blast options that I can't see anyone not taking it anyway
Biggest worry is still the attack boost. I just can't seem to make it work without seriously dumping non-vital stats, and I can't see myself enjoying playing such a character.
I think it would do fantastic with suboptimal gear. Even completely naked you have (10 + 5 dex + 6 shield + 5 NA from elemental body) 26 AC and saves of 12/13/6 - grab some mage armor, fix the will save and you are good to go. The low attack bonus will hurt so you will have to stick to touch attacks (+14 to hit vs AC of 27ish)@Jason
Note: This is not a knock on your build, it's awesome and take full advantage of your system masteryHow do you think the class holds up in a non-magic mart scenario? Say an adventure path with randomly rolled loot in shops and random/pre-written loot drops?
I think we've reached a pretty similar conclusion on something.
The touch based Blasts are really very appealing because of the relatively low Attack bonus.
Maybe we could get an ability that "leaches enhancement bonus" from an obtained weapon? Like we use the weapon as a conduit to enhance our Blasts?
Alternatively I've heard a few calls for D10 hit die. I don't know how the extra HP from upping the hit die would affect the class, but I don't think the increase in BAB would have a negative effect.
According to my damage charts, it would require a noticeable decrease of blast damage to make up for the increased accuracy (and then some retooling to rebalance touch with non-touch).
Eram is basically built like Jack (but a halfling), and he's been pretty accurate in Skull and Shackles, even though we don't have a bard or any in-party source of a to-hit buff.
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Maybe adjusting the damage dice to the type of attack would be the way to go? 1d8 (or in 1d10) for ranged attacks, 1d6 for energy ranged touch attacks, 1d4 for force or sonic touch attacks (because resistances are much rarer)?
Maybe adjusting the damage dice to the type of attack would be the way to go? 1d8 (or in 1d10) for ranged attacks, 1d6 for energy ranged touch attacks, 1d4 for force or sonic touch attacks (because resistances are much rarer)?
Actually I like where that is going!
2. Make the non-touch blasts more accurate, or give them something extra to do. Making them more accurate might be possible by...
(...)
Biggest worry is still the attack boost. I just can't seem to make it work without seriously dumping non-vital stats, and I can't see myself enjoying playing such a character.
That's a good point. it's not like the Kineticist can buy a magic blast weapon either (or is there some item that does that without occupying a vital item slot?).
Non-touch blasts might have a really difficult time hitting their target if they don't get a significant boost to accuracy.
First of all, I'm a big fan of this class. I've never had as much interest as right now for a Pathfinder Supplement. Since I'm a big fan of Avatar the Last Airbender and Legend of Korra, I think this explains why.
I haven't playtested it yet (I really want to and I'm trying to convince my DM to let me playtest it in his game), so here's what I think from what I read :
-Skills : I'm with pretty much everyone about the skills. It should be upgraded to 4+int. Having cool abilities is fun, but it's nice to have something for roleplaying. This is even more important since Int isn't a main stats like pretty much every other classes with 2+int (except fighter...poor fighter)
-I see there are some Wild Talents creating wall (like a fire wall and wind wall), but no stone wall equivalent for terrakynecist (geokynecist does sounds better I think). I think it would be interesting (and again, Avatar fan...)
-Earth, Aether and Fire should have two blasts for the expanded element talent. At least, these elements should gain something if selected a second time. At least (and I think it could be better), it should give a boost to the element. When you select 2 elements, not only will you gain a new basic blast, but you also gain the possibility to get other wild talents of the new elements. Even if there is a restriction in level, it seems that you gain a lot more by choosing 2 elements instead of one. Fire immunity also is a huge weakness of mono-pyrokinecist.
-Others talked about the huge amount of damage taken from burn and, while I haven't tested it, it does seem to be a lot. Upgrading hit dice or having it be half level could be a solution. Also, since they can't be healed that day, they pretty much work like lethal damage for a day, which can hurt quite a lot in a dungeon or something like that.
-If I understand correctly, Pure Flame Infusion seems kinda unusable. It costs 4 Burn and can only be used with blue flame which, at this level, cost 1 Burn, for a total of 5 Burn. At 16th level, that's 80 nonlethal damage (and since you can't heal them that day, they pretty much work like lethal damage). It then deals 16d6 + half Con +5 with Feel the Burn (IF you hit. While not being that hard, bad luck happens) for a total of 61 + half Con on average. On average, you take more damage than ou inflict, which is...really not worth it. Also, is it me or while it says blue flame could be used with the Explosion talent, it really is not possible since it costs 4 Burn (or 3 if you specialized) and you can only use 6 in a round (that would bring you to 9 Burn).
-You can have Flame Jet at lvl 6 with Fire, but Wind lets you use fly at the same level. Even worse, Greater Flame Jet is 10th lvl and is still worse than fly. It doesn't bother me that Air would offer better mobility if it becomes a kind of focus while Fire was better in damage (which isn't really the case), but Air gets an ability at 6th which is still better than the one Fire get at 10th. Maybe Fire should have an increased speed since you can only go in a straight line or something to make it more appealing?
I just want to say again that I really love the class concept and I just want to make sure it's really fun to use!
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Done a bit of testing.
Using PFS rules (20 point buy and PC wealth), I rolled up a 6th level human Water Kineticist.
For testing purposes I put him up against CR 5/6 monsters from the bestiaries (obviously avoiding Water elementals, and other things immune to his attacks.)
** spoiler omitted **
The opponents:
Bearded Devil (CR 5)
Deinonychus x3 (CR 3 each)
Lamia (CR 6)
Babau (CR 6)** spoiler omitted **
The tests confirmed my initial suspicion, the Kineticist wrecks enemies with low AC and no DR, but falls apart against everything else.
First off, let's discuss DR. As is, only geokineticists can punch through material DR, and there's no way to punch through alignment DR. This puts the Kineticist significantly behind every other combat class in the game when dealing with 6+ CR enemies. But I think that's easily dealt with through new Infusions/items/spells.
Second is the AC vs. Damage conundrum. As is, the Kineticist gets one attack (which has ~50% chance to hit against CR appropriate...
Note that energy damage avoids DR, just as the AoE form infusions avoid the need for attack rolls.
On the flipside, gathering power to avoid burn on kinetic healer doesn't work - see the first post.
-I see there are some Wild Talents creating wall (like a fire wall and wind wall), but no stone wall equivalent for terrakynecist (geokynecist does sounds better I think). I think it would be interesting (and again, Avatar fan...)
You missed it; earth (as well as aether and water) can use kinetic cover to provide concealment.
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-I see there are some Wild Talents creating wall (like a fire wall and wind wall), but no stone wall equivalent for terrakynecist (geokynecist does sounds better I think). I think it would be interesting (and again, Avatar fan...)You missed it; earth (as well as aether and water) can use kinetic cover to provide concealment.
Walls for everybody!
Consider the defense talents like flesh of stone.I'm confused by the burn entry for wild talents. The burn ability says "Some of her wild talents offer her the option to accept burn in exchange for a greater effect", but all of the wild talents I've read so far list a burn amount, but don't describe a greater effect if you accept burn.
Is it intended that you have to accept burn to use the wild talent at all, and the description of the wild talent is the greater effect? Or is burn supposed to enhance the wild talent, similar to augmenting a mythic spell?
I was also confused by this. Maybe it needs to be worded different. It makes you think that the main point of burn is to cause a greater effect of a wild talent, not use a wild talent.
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Note that energy damage avoids DR, just as the AoE form infusions avoid the need for attack rolls.
But most of the creatures which have DR have comparable energy resistance. The AoEs are useful for damaging a group, but they cost a decent amount of Burn, and have significantly lower single target damage.
On the flipside, gathering power to avoid burn on kinetic healer doesn't work - see the first post.
Dang, I guess Kinetic Healer just got a whole lot worse.
-I see there are some Wild Talents creating wall (like a fire wall and wind wall), but no stone wall equivalent for terrakynecist (geokynecist does sounds better I think). I think it would be interesting (and again, Avatar fan...)You missed it; earth (as well as aether and water) can use kinetic cover to provide concealment.
Ah, yeah. Could be fun to make bigger walls though. A 5-foot long wall doesn't cover much (it is fine for a first lvl kyneticist wild talent). A better version could be available for later levels (or by burning).
You can cut burn by more than one with correct set of specializations and class features. At level 15th you reduce composite blast burn cost by 1. Another point can be shaved from the blast by taking a move action. Up to four points of burn can be negated by infusion specialization if you pick form infusions consequently.
You can cut burn by more than one with correct set of specializations and class features. At level 15th you reduce composite blast burn cost by 1. Another point can be shaved from the blast by taking a move action. Up to four points of burn can be negated by infusion specialization if you pick form infusions consequently.
Indeed. By the time you pick up Pure Flame, if you've built for it, you'll be capable of shooting off an impressive 16d6+1/2 con pure blue flame blast for no burn with an extra move action. All. Day. Long. ^_^
Shouldn't water sense function like blindsense not tremorsense?
You can cut burn by more than one with correct set of specializations and class features. At level 15th you reduce composite blast burn cost by 1. Another point can be shaved from the blast by taking a move action. Up to four points of burn can be negated by infusion specialization if you pick form infusions consequently.Indeed. By the time you pick up Pure Flame, if you've built for it, you'll be capable of shooting off an impressive 16d6+1/2 con pure blue flame blast for no burn with an extra move action. All. Day. Long. ^_^
Oh! Missed this one. Completely forgot it was a substance infusion. You can ignore this part of my comment ^^'
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I did my own theorycrafting. 8th level volcano mage. Started out with Earth as the primary element, since any geologist will tell you it's the debris (well, superheated and poisonous gas, too) that usually kills you, not the lava. Here she is:
My first main issue was how long it takes to gain a second element, as I said earlier. This is the number one issue I have with the class. Dual element characters are really hard to do. I originally wanted to build to 5th level, but I couldn't get fire until 7th. I also couldn't find a way to make earthquakes, and I didn't have enough class skills. I do wonder about my build's accuracy and DR penetration ability, but I leave that to the more experienced. I really do like the class abilities, for the most part, and I love the flavor. This will probably end up being one of my favorite magic users, alongside Alchemist and Witch. I just think dual element should be available at low level, but you should of course have to pay a price for that flexibility. I don't want to wait until level 7 for volcano mage. Yes, that is a massive issue for me.
You can cut burn by more than one with correct set of specializations and class features. At level 15th you reduce composite blast burn cost by 1. Another point can be shaved from the blast by taking a move action. Up to four points of burn can be negated by infusion specialization if you pick form infusions consequently.Indeed. By the time you pick up Pure Flame, if you've built for it, you'll be capable of shooting off an impressive 16d6+1/2 con pure blue flame blast for no burn with an extra move action. All. Day. Long. ^_^
After making a swift list of infusions form specialization seems to be the way to go unless you plan to focus on a specific substance - there is so much more form infusions than substance infusions that the form is much more favorable. (EDIT: I counted 16 forms versus 8 substances)
Also, there should be a third option to follow for specialization for those who focus on utility non-infusion wild talents. What is the point of picking specialization in form/substance for those kineticists who will have neither?
I did my own theorycrafting. 8th level volcano mage. Started out with Earth as the primary element, since any geologist will tell you it's the debris (well, superheated and poisonous gas, too) that usually kills you, not the lava. Here she is:
My first main issue was how long it takes to gain a second element, as I said earlier. This is the number one issue I have with the class. Dual element characters are really hard to do. I originally wanted to build to 5th level, but I couldn't get fire until 7th. I also couldn't find a way to make earthquakes, and I didn't have enough class skills. I do wonder about my build's accuracy and DR penetration ability, but I leave that to the more experienced. I really do like the class abilities, for the most part, and I love the flavor. This will probably end up being one of my favorite magic users, alongside Alchemist and Witch. I just think dual element should be available at low level, but you should of course have to pay a price for that flexibility. I don't want to wait until level 7 for volcano mage. Yes, that is a massive issue for me.
I think that lowering the level requirement for extend element should be doable - composite blasts are still limited by high burn that is harder to lower than in case of forms/substances. Maybe if we trimmed them a bit it would be viable.
Some sort of earthquake should be available at higher level as a wild talent. After all weather kineticist gets access to control weather.
You can cut burn by more than one with correct set of specializations and class features. At level 15th you reduce composite blast burn cost by 1. Another point can be shaved from the blast by taking a move action. Up to four points of burn can be negated by infusion specialization if you pick form infusions consequently.Indeed. By the time you pick up Pure Flame, if you've built for it, you'll be capable of shooting off an impressive 16d6+1/2 con pure blue flame blast for no burn with an extra move action. All. Day. Long. ^_^After making a swift list of infusions form specialization seems to be the way to go unless you plan to focus on a specific substance - there is so much more form infusions than substance infusions that the form is much more favorable.
Also, there should be a third option to follow for specialization for those who focus on utility non-infusion wild talents. What is the point of picking specialization in form/substance for those kineticists who will have neither?
The specialization used to be built into infusions in a way that was confusing to understand from first glance (basically, your total infusion cost decreased as you leveled up at a rate exactly equivalent to the specializations). The specializations provided an easier-to-understand way to do the same math while also providing a class feature that can be traded out by archetypes, so it seemed like a win. However, know that these abilities are basically balancing features of the infusions themselves, given life as features unto themselves for ease of mathiness.