So today I had a chance to try out the Kineticist class. This was a Level 1 playtest in the Pathfinder Society scenario 6-06. Spoilers for that scenario below.
The rest of the party was a Cleric 2, Fighter 1, Fighter 3 (though one level was in a different class, unsure which), a Monk 1, and the Barbarian and Rogue pre-gens (level 1). My own build was a Gnome Hydrocist, with Kinetic Cover as my one non-blast Wild Talent
Starting off, we were tasked with rowing to a spire jutting out of the ocean, climbing it, and investigating the tomb within to retrieve an artifact. Right from the start I got excited that I could use one of my three class skills (Profession: Sailor), but that skill was not particularly needed. C'est la vie :)
At the top of the spire, our first combat was against a group of four raging cannibals. I was able to deal decent damage to a couple of them, and the class's focus on Dex and Con helped make sure I dodged some hits and had enough HP to survive a nasty crit. However, I struggled after the first round to find a position to get off a good shot, between cover and 'firing-into-melee' penalties. This is standard low-level archery stuff, and have a 20ft speed didn't help, but it was somewhat frustrating.
Defeating the cannibals, we then came across another cannibal writhing unintelligably and crying blood in a pit. None of us wanted to get too close when she was spewing blood about, so I was able to knock her out from range without wasting spells or ammo.
Descending down a fissure into the tomb, we passed through a couple of trapped rooms and hallways. There was nothing much I could do to add here, and even though I spent another of my three skills on Know(Nature) that did not end up being helpful at any point.
One room contained a giant leech in a large pool. I and the fighters and rogue were able to deal with it handily from range. The party and I did joke however that I should take care of this because 'this is right up your alley', despite the fact I had no real extra benefits or options even in a combat prominently featuring my element.
The final combat was with a handfull of ghouls and festeroogs, which then became a lot of ghouls and festeroogs (and a ghast!). We blew any attempts at diplomacy (partly due to party makeup/skills- I certainly couldn't help with a negatic Cha and no Diplomacy-and partly due to the players being more 'murderhoboy' than negoiators). As a result, after killing one ghoul who came through a narrow doorway, we had to charge in and engage in an all-out brawl as the enemies were too smart and the geography too big to effective use bottleneck tactics.
This is the fight where I thought Kinetic Cover would really have a chance to shine, but at every point one side of cover would either have been too little an inconvenience or so clear of a plan that the enemies didn't take the bait. As a result, I fell back once again on using my blast. Much like the first fight, the damage was consistently good (1d6+5 when the level three fighter was often just dealing 4-5 per hit due to bad rolls), but I struggled mightily to be able to get off shots without taking a -4 or -8 penalty. We eventually won, barely (at one point 4/7 of us were paralyzed and the cleric was prone), and from there it was more a matter of light exploration and mop-up before we returned to our patron with the magic item we were seeking.
Overall thoughts:
I really wanted to like this class, and its flavor is certainly the best in my mind of the new Occult options. However, I was constantly feeling like I was just a one-trick pony, and that trick (blasting) wasn't especially good. In combat the Water blast option, and I feel all of the non-touch blasts, suffers from all of the issues that plague low-level archers, but without any of the class abilities or even full BAB to mitigate it. I hit often enough, but givne how often eveyrone else did too I think the ACs of the enemies we fought we on the low end.
I did appreciate the consistency of my damage however. At level 1, dealing a minimum of 6 damage per hit is significant.
I had high hopes for Kinetic Cover, but we never fought a ranged creature where the cover would be useful and the hp of the wall is low enough that while a dumb creature will waste a turn/attack battering through it, intelligent opponents will simply get prepared, then break it suddenly once they're ready. Outside of combat, I had very little to do, as with 3 skills (Know:Nat, Prof: Sailor, and UMD) there isn't much you can interact with. I know more skill points are a likely change, but I could even be okay with few 'skills' if there were some more interesting utility options I could use my element for.
I plan on running this character again next week or so, likely swapping out Kinetic Cover for Slick (which I imagine could have been quite useful at a few points, especially as nothing else I do could use burn). If I do, I will be sure to post it here.