I'm sort of disappointed the only way you can use composite elements is blasting. Makes me not want to waste my wild talents on getting an extra element even though it seems nearly required.
I mean, you can't be a metal bender or a sandbender or a plasma manipulator or anything. I was hoping their might be a PrC or something to assist with filling that hole but apparently there wont be able PrC's with occult adventurers and any psychic PrC's would be in latter books....
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Composite Utility. Like a wild talent you can only take if you have air and earth, which lets you do something thats like the Water Manipulation talent but with sand, or that lets you create a small sandstorm around yourself, or quench fires and stuff or something... I mean, metal manipulators can't even make metal walls with Kinetic Cover.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
About defenses:
What if fire defense:
1: Infused the kineticists body with elemental might, providing a +2 bonus on saves against mind-affecting, poison and disease effects? The bonus could scale up to +8 at 20th and be increased by 50% with burn. Each +2 could come with a 5 point resistance to fire.
2: Gave the kineticist an energy boost, providing a +2 bonus on initiative and +1 dodge to ac? The bonus could scale to +8/+4 at 20th and be increased by up to 50% with burn.
3: Made him resistant to burn, allowing him to have 1 temporary burn point that regenerates every minute? The point could be spent without suffering damage and the amount of free points would scale up to 4 at 20th.
4: Cauterized his own wounds, turning 1 point of lethal damage from each attack into non-lethal? The damage converted would increase up to 10 or 20 at 20th level and could be increased by 50% with burn.
5: Inflamed his will, providing his Constitution bonus as a morale bonus to will saves?
What if Aether defense:
1: Regenerated every round, or more by spending actions? Still not as good as earth (as it can be depleted) but more useful.
2: Acted as a deflection bonus to ac against non-damaging attacks? It makes no sense that a force field would not protect against those.
3: Provided blind-sight against melee attacks, as the force filed detects approach?
4: Created a field of orbiting objects, giving cover?
5: Could be exploded, ejecting adjacent enemies in a repulsion blast?
6: Gave static bonuses to STR and DEX as the kinetic field helps the movements of the body? Tactile telekinesis...
I actually played a magmakineticist using mainly grapple maneuvers combined with Searing Flesh and Kinetic Fist for extra damage. Expanded defense for having both fire and earth defenses was useful to reduce damage taken while grappling.
The real thing I liked from Searing flesh was dealing damage both to the grappled creature and to enemy's allies that wanted to help free him. Also many foes relied on their natural attacks to fullattack while they were being grappled... Fire immunity was not a concern, because I could still grapple and attack using the earth side.
Thing is, I really enjoyed playing this guy and had fun, and Searing Flesh demonstrated as an Ok class ability.
What was unfun is that fire resistance/immunity is a common one among monsters, rendering fire wild talents useless, cause they are lacking other capabilities to contribute other than damage-dealing.
|
Yup. I still carry a +1 buckler on her in case I'm doing a full attack with kinetic blade or moving about (or flat-footed), just since 1000 gp is nothing at level 13. She also is a big fan of wands and staves that have shield in them, which she could avoid if she had shroud. She probably wouldn't part with her armor though as it gives her flight 1/day if she needs it.couldnt you just use a buckler then? sure a bit less ac but still its a shield to upgrade that lets your hand be free lolGather Energy would use the hand the Buckler is on, negating its bonus to AC, as per Buckler rules.
At level 13, consider a Ring of Force Shield.
Activating and deactivating are free actions.
I feel like the best way to handle mono element builds is to just automatically upgrade your core element at 7 and 15 (so, Earth automatically gets metal blast and water automatically gets cold or water (depending on what you started with).
That way, mono element specialists don't have to take expanded element at all, and their advantage is having extra wild talents. Personally, I would love to have ice for coolness (pun intended), but I would really like aether as a secondary to represent using water to lift and move stuff and ice pick locks and stuff.
I feel like the best way to handle mono element builds is to just automatically upgrade your core element at 7 and 15 (so, Earth automatically gets metal blast and water automatically gets cold or water (depending on what you started with).
That way, mono element specialists don't have to take expanded element at all, and their advantage is having extra wild talents. Personally, I would love to have ice for coolness (pun intended), but I would really like aether as a secondary to represent using water to lift and move stuff and ice pick locks and stuff.
But then again, that's what we have now. You currently automatically upgrade your element... unless you don't, and instead get a second element... unless you don't, and instead get a talent.
If you only had the choice of upgrade your base element or don't upgrade it, everyone would upgrade it even if they didn't use it, because why not?
If you make it a choice then mono didn't get an advantage they made the decision to be mono. If you don't make it a choice everyone else gets it too.
We are concerned about different things here. I am here thinking it's goofy that water can make ice walls at level 1, but has to spend their precious expanded element choice to hit people with that ice.
I'm curious. Aside from the number of Wild Talents-- which we've been outright told will be adjusted upwards-- what exactly is disincentivizing you from going mono-element?
The fact that, currently, there is no advantage whatsoever to being mono-element, unless you're Fire.
Composite Blasts all do the exact same amount of damage. Except Aether's, whose is even worse., and Fire's, whose is more.
So, the only difference between most Composite Blasts is that dual element types have less of a hard time with elemental resistance.
No new Talents are unlocked for mono-element Kineticists with Expanded Element.
You end up even weaker not taking it at all, since elemental resistances are universal at high levels.
There is zero advantage to not expanding into a new element.
How about an archetype that disallows Expanded Element, but lets you ignore certain amounts of DR, Energy Resistance, and/or SR with your chosen element (and you still get the composite blasts associated with expanding your own element, so Metal for Earth, Blue Flame for Fire, etc.).
The moment I saw Flame Jet I knew I had to make Tsuna from "Reborn!" as a pyrokinetic fist, but the damage scaling on kinetic fist, low attack bonus, and lack of a composite option for Fire+Cold makes it a pretty weak build. On top of that, Fire doesn't get access to Torrent, so I can't even do the X-Burner! I hope the final version will fulfill my reluctant-mafia-boss-rp dreams.
Random thoughts:
What if defense keyed off of your Feel the Burn bonus? Its basically the same thing but it FEELS like Feel the Burn does a lot more.
Likewise I'd love to see a bunch of ('Feel the Burn') feats that keyed off the Feel the Burn bonus. Like bonus movement, AC, saves, skill checks, weapon stuff. Off the top of my head, allow you to transfer some energy to your weapon so it does 1d6 bonus energy damage for each FtB bonus.
One thing I felt missing was more status effects for elements.
It's extremely explicit that you do change size with Kinetic Form. "As Elemental Body X" means "It works just like this spell, unless we tell you otherwise". We're told otherwise for some of the abilities, but not size, so size changes.
No, no it's not. The higher level Elemental Bodys work as the previous Elemental Body, except it also allows X. With X being elemental size increases.
Then, in a separate sentence, it states the bonuses you gain depend on the elemental chosen, and then limits the choice to only the energy type of the elemental, but not the size of the elemental chosen.
For example, Elemental Body III, in it's complete text, would read as follows:
This allows you to assume the form of a: Small air elemental, Small earth elemental, Small fire elemental, or Small water elemental; Medium air elemental, Medium earth elemental, Medium fire elemental, or Medium water elemental; Large air elemental, large earth elemental, large fire elemental, or large water elemental.
The abilities you gain depend upon the type of elemental into which you change. You are also immune to bleed damage, critical hits, and sneak attacks while in elemental form.
- Air elemental: If the form you take is that of an air elemental, you gain a +2 size bonus to your Strength, a +4 size bonus to your dexterity, and a +4 natural armor bonus. You also gain fly 60 feet (perfect), darkvision 60 feet, and the ability to create a whirlwind.
- Earth elemental:If the form you take is that of an earth elemental, you gain a +6 size bonus to your Strength, a -2 penalty on your Dexterity, a +2 size bonus to your Constitution, and a +6 natural armor bonus. You also gain darkvision 60 feet and the ability to earth glide.
- Fire elemental: If the form you take is that of a fire elemental, you gain a +4 size bonus to your Dexterity, a +2 size bonus to your Constitution, and a +4 natural armor bonus. You gain darkvision 60 feet, resist fire 20, vulnerability to cold, and the burn ability.
- Water elemental: If the form you take is that of a water elemental, you gain a +2 size bonus to your Strength, a -2 penalty on your Dexterity, a +6 size bonus to your Constitution, and a +6 natural armor bonus. You also gain swim 60 feet, darkvision 60 feet, the ability to create a vortex, and the ability to breathe water.
Remember, because of the way it's written, it functions exactly as the previous spell except where noted differently. So you use the exact same text as the previous spell, but with the changes in the text from the original included.
So... after watching this video, I think there needs to be an option to be able to create throwing weapons out of your element. The idea in my head, is for a hydrokineticist to create 'snowflake shuriken' as weapons.
Yup. I still carry a +1 buckler on her in case I'm doing a full attack with kinetic blade or moving about (or flat-footed), just since 1000 gp is nothing at level 13. She also is a big fan of wands and staves that have shield in them, which she could avoid if she had shroud. She probably wouldn't part with her armor though as it gives her flight 1/day if she needs it.couldnt you just use a buckler then? sure a bit less ac but still its a shield to upgrade that lets your hand be free lolGather Energy would use the hand the Buckler is on, negating its bonus to AC, as per Buckler rules.At level 13, consider a Ring of Force Shield.
Activating and deactivating are free actions.
I did consider it, but for that price, I'd rather have a staff of minor arcana and just up my shield addiction.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
So, after fire defense, I've started looking at aether defense. I'm considering the following augments:
1) Your regen per minute goes up by 1 for every 2 you spend on it, so you always take 1 minute per level to refill it. I like the balance with minute per level spells. This way, Arthantos's comment is now guaranteed to be true--if you didn't get to fill up your force ward, the wizard's minute per level spell is still up for that next fight.
2) In a hectic fight, force ward can make it so the burn mostly hurts you later instead of now. Whenever you accept burn for any reason, the force ward regains a number of hp equal to your character level per burn (up to its normal maximum). This is equal to the amount of nonlethal you just took, so since you also gained temp hp, the burn actually didn't put you any closer to a KO...for now! Basically when the power surges through you that's burning your body, as it cascades off you in aetheric strands, the force ward captures that energy and uses it to recharge.
Yeah, I love that second one. I think the first is still too slow. Why not encourage more Burn spent on Force Ward and just add Burn to the recharge rate?
Yeah, I love that second one. I think the first is still too slow. Why not encourage more Burn spent on Force Ward and just add Burn to the recharge rate?
Sorry, that's what I'm trying to say but failing! It adds half the burn spent on force ward to the recharge rate.
Yeah, I love that second one. I think the first is still too slow. Why not encourage more Burn spent on Force Ward and just add Burn to the recharge rate?Sorry, that's what I'm trying to say but failing! It adds half the burn spent on force ward to the recharge rate.
So... if I were 10th level and spend 4 burn on my Force Ward, my Force Ward would have an HP total of 30 HP and a regen rate of 3 per minute? I'd have taken 40 points of non-lethal damage, but that sounds like a decent trade off.
Then, if Force Ward were to be depleted from a hit, and I took a point of burn to maximize my blast, my Force Ward would instantly regain 10 hp? If I took the 2 points of burn, it would regain 20 HP, but the regen rate wouldn't increase because the burn was spent elsewhere?
If the above is true, this sounds really nice and interesting. In fact, it kind of makes me want to make a Hydro(base)/Aether Kineticist.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Yeah, I love that second one. I think the first is still too slow. Why not encourage more Burn spent on Force Ward and just add Burn to the recharge rate?Sorry, that's what I'm trying to say but failing! It adds half the burn spent on force ward to the recharge rate.So... if I were 10th level and spend 4 burn on my Force Ward, my Force Ward would have an HP total of 30 HP and a regen rate of 3 per minute? I'd have taken 40 points of non-lethal damage, but that sounds like a decent trade off.
Then, if Force Ward were to be depleted from a hit, and I took a point of burn to maximize my blast, my Force Ward would instantly regain 10 hp? If I took the 2 points of burn, it would regain 20 HP, but the regen rate wouldn't increase because the burn was spent elsewhere?
If the above is true, this sounds really nice and interesting. In fact, it kind of makes me want to make a Hydro(base)/Aether Kineticist.
You've got it perfectly Tels! I'm glad I elucidated it in a way that wasn't too sesquipedalian.
Have you thought about something similar for Searing Flesh? Maybe for every point of burn spent agumenting Searing Flesh, enemies making melee attacks take a cumulative -1 penalty on attack rolls. Enemies with the fire subtype or that are immune to fire ignore this penalty.
[Edit]Searing Flesh makes me think of when we build bonfires up here in Alaska. If you get too close to the fire, it becomes hard to see as the heat hurts your eyes and makes you squint. Perhaps a fortitude save to reduce the penalty by half each round?
First off, my apologies for reiterating anything that has been brought up (68 pages of posts is too much to read through). We just finished our first game with me playing an 8th level Telekinetic Sylph (Con 16). There were a few balance issues that we felt should be reviewed a bit. Admittedly, Sylph was likely not the best race to use for any sort of kineticist, but I'm just stuck on them.
My first thing I noticed, since I started out as an Aerokinetic, was the overwhelming push towards using Air instead of Electricity. Electricity is spell resistant and does less damage. While I don't mind that perse, it felt off. :/ I switched to Telekinetic because air felt so redundant to me. I could create a Wind Wall, but the rest was useless (since I already have a free feather fall, and Cloud Gazer feat). While happy with the choice I felt weak...
For the blast to be at all effective, I really had to take both the Extended Range Wild Talent (1 burn) and the Force Blast to make it "Touch" Ranged. This cost be 8 HP everytime I did it (offset the cost of the Force Blast, but not the Extended Range) and 16 HP if I tried to Empower it. Not so bad... but the 1st 2 times I tried this trick, losing 32HPs in the process, I missed on my d20 roll... unlike spells, we're so dependent on an attack roll, and we have a medium BAB for it, despite the Blast really being all we do (and a hefty cost if we succeed or fail). Obviously, after that I did my best using just a Ranged attack un-Empowered, but even with good rolls, I was missing regularly. I got to the point that I felt I'd be better off with a ranged weapon.
If I were to make a recommendation, I'd say the blast needs to use the Kineticist level in place of the BAB for attacking, and a natural Enhancement bonus needs to be available (or an Item that enhances your blasts).
I soon quit trying to blast things, and started trying to use my TK most ineffectively. Lifting enemies 30 feet into the air was controversial with the GM though with my complete lack of damage output, he was allowing it which at least gave me some battlefield control. Pretty sure I'm going to forego the Force Blast in tomorrow's test and just get Extreme Range to allow 60' of movement (free if unempowered), or Foe Throw (with Extended Range, only pay 1 burn to use) so that I'm guaranteed to do some damage...
Also, the "nearby" is undefined in the Telekinetic blast, so we translated that to within 30'. Perhaps clearly defining it as "Close" (25' + 5'/2 levels) would be a good idea. It might even be a good idea to just change all the 30', 120' and 480' into Close/Medium/Long (which are predefined).
Aside from damage, which I see I'm terrible at, I see that I'm also terrible at defense since all I get are 8 temp HP. Is there a reason a medium BAB only has light armor and no shield?
So with mediocre offense, poor defense, I started to realize my evaluation had to be on Utility. I had Light Touch, Self Telekinesis, Telekinetic Finesse and Telekinetic Haul. Fortunately, all 0 Burn abilities... I think in the last fight, I spent most of my time trying to be effective with these things. The mobility was nice, but it wasn't enough.
All in all I love the class, as you could see from my posting history, elemental and psychic are themes I love very much (in particular telekinetic and air). But, I don't feel it is comparable to other classes in terms of power (despite that, I'll continue playing because I love the idea more than the mechanics). I will test again with my DM tomorrow, maybe move things around a bit more...
The suicidal damage we take doesn't pay out.
The damage, when we do damage, is nice, but not appreciable to what offensive classes do (and damage is all we really do).
Too much effort into the blast, not enough into utility or defense.
All the things done for offense could have had similar defensive options. The only defense wild talent is picking up another element's defense talent.
I realize there's likely a slew of feats and items that will address these things, but right now it's just too weak in my opinion. Still, the telekinetic aspect will keep me in this class for pretty much, forever. However, at its current incarnation, it can only work with a lot of house rules to balance it up some. I'll let you know how tomorrow goes. :)
Mark, are you guys taking a stance on the playtest of number of posts = enough feedback?
I'm curious, because I play the game Destiny a lot (the only Xbox One game I own so it's kind of moot), and the people over at Bungie are taking the stance that number of hours played = enjoyment, when the truth is anything but. Destiny is a game that requires hours and hours of mindless grinding to get the things you need to level up. It's even 3 times the grinding if you play all 3 characters.
While it's true the Kineticist has the most number of posts, I see a lot of people think it could still do with a second round of playtests so we could test the things that would be used to fill the clear holes in the class as it exists.
Yeah, I love that second one. I think the first is still too slow. Why not encourage more Burn spent on Force Ward and just add Burn to the recharge rate?Sorry, that's what I'm trying to say but failing! It adds half the burn spent on force ward to the recharge rate.
No, I u understood that, I was just advocating for a 1:1 exchange rather than 2:1. And base it on your actual Burn, not just on the Burn you spent specifically on Force Ward. It's stronger and much easier to track.
The problem I see with connecting it to the idea of caster buffs that are 1 min/level is that you'll be looking for the opposite pace as them. They are going to be pushing to blitz through encounters so their buffs are more efficient and you want a more leisurely pace so your Force Ward is more efficient. Unless you have a whole party using Force Ward, you're going to lose that argument every time.
Yeah, I love that second one. I think the first is still too slow. Why not encourage more Burn spent on Force Ward and just add Burn to the recharge rate?Sorry, that's what I'm trying to say but failing! It adds half the burn spent on force ward to the recharge rate.No, I u understood that, I was just advocating for a 1:1 exchange rather than 2:1. And base it on your actual Burn, not just on the Burn you spent specifically on Force Ward. It's stronger and much easier to track.
The problem I see with connecting it to the idea of caster buffs that are 1 min/level is that you'll be looking for the opposite pace as them. They are going to be pushing to blitz through encounters so their buffs are more efficient and you want a more leisurely pace so your Force Ward is more efficient. Unless you have a whole party using Force Ward, you're going to lose that argument every time.
This is something I see often enough in games. People want to push forward so they don't feel like they wasted a spell slot. Especially if there is a round/level buff like Divine Power or Haste active.
First, you're noting that there's a disincentive to take Electricity... but then you're taking Force Blast for Ranged Touch? Electric Blast is also Ranged Touch and costs zero burn.
Second, why were you moving so much? You're noting that you gave up on Empowered... but move action gather energy, standard action Empowered Blast is our basic 'full attack', and costs zero burn.
Third, Feel the Burn is meant to be the "natural enhancement bonus". YMMV on how effective you find that.
Foe Throw can't be used with Extended Range, both are Form Infusions.
Every element gets a sort of super-defense talent that has their baseline defense as a pre-req. Water gets a constant Blur, for example. If memory serves, Aether gets the ability to make Walls of Force around themselves.
Missed the Range Touch on the Electric attack, that definitely makes it worth the lower damage.
My GM was saying that the Move Action to gather energy was creating an Attack of Opportunity, so I spent a lot of time making sure I was never close enough to deal with that since I have no real defense.
Wall of Force version of Force Ward isn't til 10th level. :( Til then, it's just Temp HP = Level.
The Feel the Burn (+2 to attacks at my 8th level) was there often enough, but not on the first (and most important) round, and at too high a cost.
First, you're noting that there's a disincentive to take Electricity... but then you're taking Force Blast for Ranged Touch? Electric Blast is also Ranged Touch and costs zero burn.
Second, why were you moving so much? You're noting that you gave up on Empowered... but move action gather energy, standard action Empowered Blast is our basic 'full attack', and costs zero burn.
Third, Feel the Burn is meant to be the "natural enhancement bonus". YMMV on how effective you find that.
Foe Throw can't be used with Extended Range, both are Form Infusions.
Every element gets a sort of super-defense talent that has their baseline defense as a pre-req. Water gets a constant Blur, for example. If memory serves, Aether gets the ability to make Walls of Force around themselves.
Missed the Range Touch on the Electric attack, that definitely makes it worth the lower damage.
My GM was saying that the Move Action to gather energy was creating an Attack of Opportunity, so I spent a lot of time making sure I was never close enough to deal with that since I have no real defense.
Wall of Force version of Force Ward isn't til 10th level. :( Til then, it's just Temp HP = Level.
The Feel the Burn (+2 to attacks at my 8th level) was there often enough, but not on the first (and most important) round, and at too high a cost.
What you've missed in the thread is that actually using Burn in combat is a mistake unless it's the boss fight and you're going nova. Your best plan is to spend Burn on your defense(s) and all day buffs (Shimmering Mirage or Kinetic Form) up to the Feel the Burn amount. Then, never spend Burn again. Always uses the Move Action to reduce Burn (it definitely doesn't provoke by the text, but if your GM is going to houserule it, stay out of reach, obviously). Early on, you can use any 1 Burn infusion for free and at 5th+, you can Empower. It's definitely weak, we all know it (including Mark), but it's certainly much better than your experience.
...You wouldn't happen to be referring to Starvation Gultch would you?
[Edit]Searing Flesh makes me think of when we build bonfires up here in Alaska. If you get too close to the fire, it becomes hard to see as the heat hurts your eyes and makes you squint. Perhaps a fortitude save to reduce the penalty by half each round?
Ah, no, sorry, I'm on the Kenai. I attended SoHi and three big highschools (Kenai, SoHi, and Skyview) have bonfires every year (roughly 500 pallets each). We also have fires in our yard, and my family makes a big bonfire every year for Samhain (the host insists on calling it Samhain), Yule, New Years, and just about any reason he can think of to host a bonfire. Bonfire being a bit of a misnomer, the bonfire we build as a family is more of a 10-20 ft. radius fire in which we burn everything from dead trees, to scrap lumber, to pallets etc.
Anyway, so in my experience, once you get too close to a fire, the heat hurts your eyes, and your skin and it becomes harder and harder to approach. I imagine that Searing Flesh could work much the same way, with a scaling penalty on melee attacks as the heat he generates from his skin makes it hard to look at him and creatures become unwilling to attack from just the sheer heat, even before the fire damage dealt.
Holy crap. I just realized, if you have a Pyrokinetic in your party, you never need to 'gather wood for a fire' again as the Pyro can just use his Searing Flesh to cook all of the party's food and provide warmth during cold nights/winter.
Mark, can we stick Pyrokineticists inside a steam engine as a source of free energy?
Ring of Sustenance and the Pyro never needs to leave right?
I'm kind of getting an idea for a pyrokineticist slave market for a steam punk setting...
Mark, can we stick Pyrokineticists inside a steam engine as a source of free energy?
Ring of Sustenance and the Pyro never needs to leave right?
I'm kind of getting an idea for a pyrokineticist slave market for a steam punk setting...
That's a pretty awesome plot point. I guess it's similar to the use of firebenders for energy in AtLA.
I haven't crunched the numbers on this, but if the burn mechanic remains largely as-is, how about adjusting FtB so that it adds bonuses to attack/damage based on the total amount of burn you've accumulated, as opposed to just the highest amount spent at any single time? The risk/reward dynamic would certainly be less punitive, but the bonuses would likely need to be adjusted since trading 1:1 would be too vulnerable to abuse.
I too fear that mono-element builds may not receive adequate support, which is especially troubling since I imagine that most character concepts are grounded in the idea of using a single element.
It is based on total burn :)
It is based on total burn :)
Ugh, this is certainly not the first time I've misread something this playtest and I doubt it will be the last. Thank you for catching that.
Well, perhaps then consider raising the cap to +1 for every 2 kineticist levels, as opposed to 3?
Also, I like others' ideas about changing fire's defense so that it makes it difficult for enemies to hit because of the heat/glare/burning eyes. Still keeps it limited to melee, creates a functional boost to AC (by imposing penalties to enemy attack rolls), and would be useless in the rare instance that you're fighting a creature that doesn't rely on sight.
Cap is 3+Con, and you really can't afford to eat much more Burn than that before it just drops you unconscious.
Sorry, I shouldn't have said cap. I was referring to the max FtB bonus, not max total burn in and of itself. Though I suppose the point is immaterial, regardless.
I'd like to see Feel the Burn come online at levels 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20, but each level of Feel the Burn offers a +1 bonus on attack and damage, but the bonus is doubled on the Kineticists blasts.
If my understanding is correct, FtB is currently calculated at 1:1/3, where you get +1 to attack and damage to each point of burn per every three levels (assuming you burn to the max every day). I could see the rationale for boosting it, by either 2:1/3 or 1:1/2, which is slightly weaker, but still more powerful than the current model.
A 6th-level kineticist maxing out their FtB currently only gets +2 attack/damage for 2 burn.
A 2:1/3 FtB progression at 6th-level would grant max +4 attack/damage for 2 burn and a 1:1/2 progression would grant +3 attack/damage for 3 burn.
A 12th-level kineticist maxing out their FtB currently only gets +4 attack/damage for 4 burn.
A 2:1/3 FtB progression at 12th-level would grant max +8 attack/damage for 4 burn and a 1:1/2 progression would grant +6 attack/damage for 6 burn.
Okay, so I think doubling the bonus provided by FtB is actually way too much, but scaling the progression to be 1:1/2 as opposed to the current 1:1/3 model would go a long way to improving the damage and accuracy of the class. Especially in the absence of magic-weapon equivalents.