the Chronicles of Kivuli Mofanaah (PFS geokineticist playtests)

[Benn Roe]

I had a PFS character number that had been run through We Be Goblins and Silverhex Chronicles with pregens and was a single xp away from 2nd level. I decided to put together an earth kineticist with an eye toward melee combat, and with the ultimate goal of using butterfly's sting and two-weapon fighting to pass crits from a keen rapier to my kinetic blade. Here's my build at 1st level:

KIVULI MOFANAAH
CG Human Kineticist (earth) 1
Init +5; Senses Perception -2
DEFENSE
AC 17, touch 13, flat-footed 14 (+4 armour, +3 Dex)
hp 13 (1d8+5)
Fort +6, Ref +5, Will -2
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee kinetic blade +3 (1d6+5) or MW rapier +4 (1d6+1; 18-20/x2)
Ranged earth blast +3 (1d6+5)
Special Attacks earth blast, kinetic blade
STATISTICS
Str 12, Dex 16, Con 19, Int 13, Wis 7, Cha 7
Base Atk +0; CMB +1; CMD 14
Feats Combat Expertise, Weapon Finesse
Traits Heirloom Weapon (proficiency), Reactionary
Skills Climb +3, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +5, Stealth +6
Languages Common, Terran
SQ burn
Gear MW chain shirt, MW rapier

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 2ND - 1-48 // THE DEVIL WE KNOW, PART IV: THE RULES OF THE SWIFT
Party Composition arcanist 1, medium 4, occultist 1, occultist 1, psychic 1

Combat 1:

Our first combat was against two first-level druids, their dire rat animal companions, and two other dire rats. Our medium sent one or two dancing lights creatures around the corner and the dire rats attacked, while the rest of us readied actions to do various ranged attacks or cast spells against enemies when they entered our various ranges. The rats came around the corner, followed by the druids. I missed with my blast, but on the two subsequent turns I proceeded to use a move action to lessen my burn, five-foot step into melee range, spend a burn to use kinetic blade, and then successfully hit with my rock sword. I am at +3 to hit here, which is pretty abysmal but we were up against AC 13 or 14 across the board, and being bad at hitting is a 1st level tradition. I could have hit more reliably for less damage with my rapier and saved myself the hit points, but I really wanted to hit them hard. With rocks. Up close. In their faces.

Combat 2:

Before our second combat, I scouted ahead since I had a pretty decent Stealth modifier. Unfortunately, it wasn't decent enough and a small earth elemental put me down with a single crit. Luckily for me, I had a 19 Con and didn't outright die from the 22 damage. I spent the rest of the fight trying to stabilize while ruing the bitter irony of being a geokineticist bested by an earth elemental.

Combat 3:

Our third combat was against a ghast, bottlenecked in a hallway. I had no way to get into melee range, so I spent every round of the fight trying to shoot into melee through cover. It's hard to hit AC 18 with a -5 to hit. This combat was really boring, but ranged combat is my back-up and I don't have any of the go-to ranged feats like Point-Blank Shot or Precise Shot which is my own fault.

Combat 4:

Our final combat was against a derro and two mites. This was basically over before it began as one of our occultists had a derro-bane longbow. I didn't contribute meaningfully.

THOUGHTS
1) [These thoughts have been redacted, since my reading comprehension is apparently awful, and I playtested two levels overpaying for the core ability of my build.]
2) I had to spend one of my bonus languages from Int on learning Terran. (: All of my class abilities revolve around earth. I feel like knowing the language should come free with the commitment.

See you at 2nd level!

[Mark Seifter]

Kinetic blade takes only 1 burn :)

[Benn Roe]

Mark Seifter wrote:

Kinetic blade takes only 1 burn :)

I'm obviously determined to find something wrong with this already well-balanced ability. I don't know why you can't just play along. (: For real, though, my reading comprehension is normally not this bad. I could have sworn this said it cost 2 burn.

[Benn Roe]

And here's the write-up for level 2!

KIVULI MOFANAAH
CG Human Kineticist (earth) 2
Init +5; Senses Perception -2
DEFENSE
AC 17, touch 13, flat-footed 14 (+4 armour, +3 Dex)
hp 23 (2d8+10)
Fort +7, Ref +6, Will -2
Defensive Abilities flesh of stone
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee kinetic blade +4 (1d6+5) or MW rapier +5 (1d6+1; 18-20/x2)
Ranged earth blast +4 (1d6+5)
Special Attacks earth blast, kinetic blade
STATISTICS
Str 12, Dex 16, Con 19, Int 13, Wis 7, Cha 7
Base Atk +1; CMB +2; CMD 15
Feats Combat Expertise, Weapon Finesse
Traits Heirloom Weapon (proficiency), Reactionary
Skills Climb +4, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +6, Stealth +7
Languages Common, Terran
SQ burn, kinetic cover
Gear MW chain shirt, MW rapier

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 2ND - EMERALD SPIRE: THE TOWER RUINS
Party Composition alchemist 1, kineticist 2 (fire), medium 1, occultist 1

Combat 1:

I spent my 1 burn at the beginning of the day to up my DR/adamantine to 2. After that, our first combat was roughly the entirety of the dungeon because our medium spent the entire time running between rooms opening doors while combats were happening. We fought a bunch of goblins, some of whom had ranger levels and goblin dogs, and one of whom had cleric levels. We also fought a damaged emerald automaton. This level didn't make for very good playtesting and is included here only for completeness. There was a light effect that prevented people from seeing more than 5 feet away from any light effect unless they had darkvision, which I didn't. I also believed my kinetic blade cost 1 burn more than it did, so I spent a lot of time fumbling around in the darkness and shooting and/or hitting things at a 50% miss chance, since I believed I needed two hands free to hit with my kinetic blade in close combat and couldn't see anything at range. I honestly used my rapier more often than my class abilities.

Combat 2:

This combat was against a bugbear ranger who died really quickly to being swarmed by the party.

THOUGHTS
1) A party full of ranged characters in a dungeon with this particular light situation was really funny. That's not much of a comment for the playtest, though.
2) Lowering my hit points by 2 for the day in order to get DR 2 instead of DR 1 all day seemed like a no-brainer. That doesn't mean I think it's overpowered, but it's worth noting that at 2nd level I would always rather have 21 hit points and DR 2 than 23 hit points and DR 1.
3) Though the playtest itself didn't yield much useful information, leveling up did. For a geokineticist that wants to do melee combat, there are precious few options for pre-6th level wild talents. In fact, for any geokineticist, the pre-6th level options are: extended range, kinetic blade, kinetic cover, kinetic fist, and pushing infusion. That's five options. Very few kineticists are going to want both kinetic blade and kinetic fist, and honestly most are going to want neither. Before 6th level, you get three wild talents, of which you effectively have three choices (or four if you want to involve melee combat). That effectively means your choices are prescribed for you. I realize you want there to be few choices for earth kineticists in particular, but this seems too few. I realized while leveling that the only real choice for 2nd level with what I wanted my build to do was kinetic cover, and that 4th level would effectively be a dead level for me (aka. I just take extended range for those times melee isn't an option).
4) There was never a time when kinetic cover felt worth a standard action. And that includes against the bugbear archer.

See you at 3rd level!

[Benn Roe]

I will be playing through two more levels of Emerald Spire on the 15th, and I'll post playtests for each of those afterward. Preliminarily, I'm excited for feel the burn, so I can hit a little more reliably. I also pick up two-weapon fighting at this level so I can dual-wield rocks and rapier for an extra chance to hit when I get in close. At 5th level, I pick up butterfly's sting and the build really gets going.

[Taenia]

I have to disagree with kinetic cover using it as a readied action to block attacks, locking off enemy attack lanes and can be used to prevent AoOs make it my favorite talent

[Benn Roe]

I don't have an opinion on kinetic cover yet. I've only playtested one session so far where I had access to it. But during that session there wasn't a single time I believed it was the best use of my standard action. That could be the scenario's fault. I have played plenty of games where abilities I know to be awesome never came up. Since I don't know yet for this ability, I just thought it bore mentioning.