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This weekend at Gamehole Con in Madison WI. I had the chance to play the first three levels of the Emerald Spire with a new kineticist (aether).
My Build:
Halfling Telekineticist, Str 8, Dex 18, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 9
1st level feat: point blank shot, 1st level wild talent: extend range
2nd level wild talent: kinetic blade
3rd level feat: precise shot
Level 1 / Emerald Spire 1
This level was painful to play. The adventure by its nature made my character mechanically disadvantaged. When I was able to use my blast I felt like I was always missing (hit 26%, 5/19), due to cover and using my blast into combat. I never used my wild talent.
Level 2/ Emerald Spire 2
I felt that my character considerably improved during this level, I was hitting quite a bit more (hit 50%, 5/10). I used 3 burn to get my force ward to 5 temp hps and it prevented a 5 hp attack. I never used either wild talent.
Level 3/ Emerald Spire 3
I felt great going into this level having finally gotten precise shot and an increase in blast damage. I used burn to get my force ward to 5 hps again and also gain the benefits of feel the burn. Force ward again prevented an attack and also prevented an additional effect the would have occurred from that attack. I hit 55% of the time (6/11) although due to a color spray I sat out most of one battle. Again I never used either wild talent.
Thoughts:
This class needs 4+ skills. Because the combat for a kineticist is so straight forward, I really wanted to be able to do more out of combat.
I also felt the telekinetisist should get disable device instead of knowledge (engineering) as a class skill or telekinetic finesse should make disable device a class skill.
I really wanted to be able to throw things from different directions around the room. The current description of telekinetic blast states an unattended object "nearby". I felt this meant within 5' but that was only my interpretation.
Thus, I feel there should be an aether wild talent that allows a telekineticist to use an unattended object from close range (25+5/2 levels) or else this should be a regular part of the telekinetic blast. This was also something brought up by different players at my tables.
I felt the AC was good for this class.
I think the burn mechanic is good at these levels.
The force ward ability was good when burn was used to increase it. But I think it would be better if each point of burn increased the force ward by the kineticist level instead of by 1/2 the kineticist level.