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I was discussing something with several friends over the Kineticist class. All of us loved the class and what the archetypes were doing to it. But a couple of things stuck into our collective craw. The one line in the burn text block that threw us off. "For every burn she accepts she takes one point of nonlethal per character level" Would this mean that we are taking 2 points of nonlethal damage for 1 point of burn at level 2?
If so this basically cripples you. Not only that there is the stipulation that you may only take 1 point of burn per round at levels 1-5 At six you can start taking two. Then one extra point of burn every three levels. Does this mean you can't really use your burn ability until higher levels or what? If so there is some desperate need for errata. Like changing the wording to exclude the per character level or something like that. Cause the higher you go the more likely you are to spend your class ability in three rounds, at level nine, and knock yourself out.
Please help us clarify this any and all help is wonderfully accepted.
I was discussing something with several friends over the Kineticist class. All of us loved the class and what the archetypes were doing to it. But a couple of things stuck into our collective craw. The one line in the burn text block that threw us off. "For every burn she accepts she takes one point of nonlethal per character level" Would this mean that we are taking 2 points of nonlethal damage for 1 point of burn at level 2?
If so this basically cripples you. Not only that there is the stipulation that you may only take 1 point of burn per round at levels 1-5 At six you can start taking two. Then one extra point of burn every three levels. Does this mean you can't really use your burn ability until higher levels or what? If so there is some desperate need for errata. Like changing the wording to exclude the per character level or something like that. Cause the higher you go the more likely you are to spend your class ability in three rounds, at level nine, and knock yourself out.
Please help us clarify this any and all help is wonderfully accepted.
I think the ability to gather power is meant to alleviate most of the damage from burn at low levels. Really the burn mechanic isn't that bad, just make sure to have a high constitution, take the toughness feat and the favoured class bonus that gives extra hit points. If that still doesn't strike your fancy, try the Overwhelming Soul archetype which gets rid of burn entirely.
im looking at the kineticist pregen, and it looks like they took out the per level wording and now says "For each point of burn she accepts, Yoon takes 1 point of nonlethal damage. This damage can be healed only by a full night’s rest, and it can’t be reduced or redirected."
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im looking at the kineticist pregen, and it looks like they took out the per level wording and now says "For each point of burn she accepts, Yoon takes 1 point of nonlethal damage. This damage can be healed only by a full night’s rest, and it can’t be reduced or redirected."
That's because the pregens abbreviate the descriptions to just need-to-know info. If you look at the level 4 and level 7 ones, they say 4 nonlethal and 7 nonlethal, respectively.
If this is the psionic Kineticist I think you may be in the wrong forum.
im looking at the kineticist pregen, and it looks like they took out the per level wording and now says "For each point of burn she accepts, Yoon takes 1 point of nonlethal damage. This damage can be healed only by a full night’s rest, and it can’t be reduced or redirected."
That's probably an error that passed through editing or maybe just simplified wording if the pregen is level one. I could be wrong but I haven't seen any desire to make burn like that in the playtests.
That's how it was in the playtest, I believe, and the theory is that it's not meant to be an all-day thing. You can accept a big penalty for a temporary increase in power, and can make some of the abilities that use burn cheaper through other class features.
After playing the playtest where the kineticist was significantly weaker (2 skill points per level; feel the burn which is elemental overflow's predecessor only granted +1 attack/damage per burn point; drastically limited number of wild talents available to be chosen from or eventually picked up; no internal buffer; no specific kineticist magic item support; infusion specialization only worked for either form or substance each time you pick it), I've learned that as long as you play conservatively with your burn point management (gather energy often and don't shoot composite blasts willy-nilly) and play smart (run away or back away from the things wanting to kill you), there's absolutely no issues with the way burn and the subsequent nonlethal damage is handled.
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It was a s~!~ty mechanic in the Playtest and it's a s@#+ty mechanic now, but at least there's more options to mitigate the effects now (Infusion Specialization applying to, effectively, all Blasts that require Burn for example) so it's an avoidable kind of s&##ty.
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It was a s@%&ty mechanic in the Playtest and it's a s%##ty mechanic now, but at least there's more options to mitigate the effects now (Infusion Specialization applying to, effectively, all Blasts that require Burn for example) so it's an avoidable kind of s+~+ty.
Though a lot of people enjoyed how burn worked in the playtest, Rynjin, you made it clear that there was no way you would. You did a good job making it known why you didn't enjoy the psychology of burn and the tactics of burn management. I wanted to keep the kineticist open to as many players as possible while still respecting the opinions of the majority of playtesters who enjoyed the dynamic, so hopefully you and the others who feel that way will really enjoy the overwhelming soul archetype!
Of course, as always, I'd appreciate phrasing that's more in terms of your personal reaction like "I really dislike this mechanic, but at least there's more options to mitigate it, so I can avoid it," but I know that's what you mean, and I don't consider personal reactions to be less important feedback when looking at making a class; in fact, in the end, the goal of the game is to bring about positive personal reactions to as many people as possible, so if anything, those personal experiences and feelings are among the most important feedback we can find.
I actually really didn't like the Overwhelming Soul archetype. Mostly because it was based on Cha (which kind of misses half the point of the complaints, which is that you can't have the high HP that comes with high Con), and from my quick read seemed to lose more than it gained, which is what I was afraid of.
The current status of the base class makes Burn much more tolerable than the Playtest version, which I'll give you kudos for. It makes the class' upsides outweigh that HUGE downside.
Am planning to play an Elemental Annihilator/Medium (Gestalt) in Way of the Wicked though, as an insane electromaniac serial killer who channels the spirits of his victims for his Seances, so should be fun.
I actually really didn't like the Overwhelming Soul archetype. Mostly because it was based on Cha, and from my quick read seemed to lose more than it gained, which is what I was afraid of.
The current status of the base class makes Burn much more tolerable than the Playtest version, which I'll give you kudos for. It makes the class' upsides outweigh that HUGE downside.
Am planning to play an Elemental Annihilator/Medium (Gestalt) in Way of the Wicked though, as an insane electromaniac serial killer who channels the spirits of his victims for his Seances, so should be fun.
Overwhelming Soul is a way better choice than kineticist if you're going to play a kineticist and never take burn anyway, which several people in the playtest told me they would likely do, and then we brainstormed some of the OSoul stuff for a while in there. You guys helped me out a lot!
If you believe it, I always wanted infusion specialization to work like the final version. There were concerns from those who read it that it was too confusing to apply, so we wound up with the playtest version, but it just didn't work well enough for me, so I sneaked back in the original, ostensibly more confusing version. In any case, I am glad that my efforts to adjust the base class to also work better for people who didn't like burn, without sacrificing anything for people who do like it, saw fruit. I tried to make every change taking into account the varying different opinions in the playtest thread. Given how contradictory they sometimes were, it wasn't easy, but I think I have succeeded, at the very least through archetypes, in moving the class in all directions at once in a way that will address nearly every one of the subgroups among the playtesters.
I will take the fact that you are gestalting two Mark Seifter classes as a really good sign then! Also, that gestalt seems enormously cool. You have to let me know how it goes.
It DOES sound pretty wild. XD That's one of my favorite parts of the gestalt rules, actually - you can combine ideas in ways you'd never be able to do normally.
As for Burn, mmm... when I first read it, I guess it just sounded like using it would take an increasingly large percentage of the character's HP. It definitely felt like a negative to use more than once or twice a day. Still, I love the class regardless, and I'm looking forward to seeing the changes. ^^
It DOES sound pretty wild. XD That's one of my favorite parts of the gestalt rules, actually - you can combine ideas in ways you'd never be able to do normally.
As for Burn, mmm... when I first read it, I guess it just sounded like using it would take an increasingly large percentage of the character's HP. It definitely felt like a negative to use more than once or twice a day. Still, I love the class regardless, and I'm looking forward to seeing the changes. ^^
You're not wrong that burning is a sometimes snack. Don't let the 3+Con modifier limit fool you into thinking you should always use it that often. Think of the things you do with burn as breaking the limits; where other classes just wouldn't let you do it at all until higher level, the kineticist is the class where you can do more, for a price that stays significant throughout play. So for instance, other classes might just limit you to apply infusions on your blasts with a cost equal to your infusion specialization + 1 (for gather power), but kineticist lets you break that limit for a price. A kineticist who keeps herself vigilant to never use more burn than would apply greater elemental overflow bonuses has more than enough options at her fingertips without resorting to further burn (but she has it in case of an emergency).
In my own playtests, I intended not to use burn much if at all with my two 13th-level kineticists (all earth and all fire), but the GM threw an encounter at our all-occult group of five which had, among four other enemies, a CR 17 foe from a third party monster book that had some obscenely-powerful stats other than low hp. After it surprised us with how vicious it was, I did a mega-burn with my geo and killed it in one round. My geo was a wreck after that, but we survived the crazy monster. I was inordinately happy that burn was an option that day! For the record, I quickened a ride the blast up to him and then unloaded a full attack with the most burn I could put on it, including using internal buffer (yeah, my playtest guys had experimental versions of the new abilities, so my pyro had the new fire shapes and infusions).
I will take the fact that you are gestalting two Mark Seifter classes as a really good sign then! Also, that gestalt seems enormously cool. You have to let me know how it goes.
Medium is my favorite class from the final version, at least on paper.
A lot of people seemed disappointed at dropping the Harrow theme, but IMO the Playtest version was very...dense. The final version is a lot more streamlined.
Seems like some of the Taboos are heftier for some Spirits and not others though.
I will take the fact that you are gestalting two Mark Seifter classes as a really good sign then! Also, that gestalt seems enormously cool. You have to let me know how it goes.Medium is my favorite class from the final version, at least on paper.
A lot of people seemed disappointed at dropping the Harrow theme, but IMO the Playtest version was very...dense. The final version is a lot more streamlined.
Seems like some of the Taboos are heftier for some Spirits and not others though.
I can once again thank the playtesters for that, especially the folks who voiced their opinions of alternate directions for the medium. Since I had all those ideas and thoughts rattling around in my brain, once Stephen proposed the idea of mythic paths as the baseline, it all clicked remarkably quickly into something very awesome. I remember the conversation, as roughly:
Me: I'm thinking of doing the 6 ability scores, but I want something cooler as the hook, with roughly 6 options.
Stephen: How about the six mythic paths?
Me: Genius! Wait, the six mythic paths kind of...are the six ability scores embodied, aren't they, in a way?...OK, that's it! Gotta start writing!
EDIT: Also, the taboos are just suggestions. I suggest working with your GM to come up with some of your own that perfectly match each of your spirits!
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Err, my slip up. I meant the Influence penalties.
Like, Archmage ranges from "inconveniencing" to "nonexistent penalties".
Champion is surprisingly light (if you're channeling a Champion you're probably not planing on casting anything).
Guardian is kinda painful...unless you're already Fighting Defensively a lot, in which case meh. =)
Hierophant is like WOAH this hurts.
Marshal is anther one that's either devastating of almost nonexistent. Does give fun images of you literally being nominally in charge, but not really. "This is Captain Medium, our leader. But I'll be making all the decisions."
Trickster is by far the worst. It is actually worse than having ACTUAL Paranoia as per the rules (same effects, but at least you can make a Will save to let people help you).
It's like Archmage, Champion, and Marshal are built on one scale, and then Hierophant, Guadian, and Trickster are on different places on a different scale.
Then again, you're not exactly incentivized to accrue Influence in any case, so not likely to come up too often I think.
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im looking at the kineticist pregen, and it looks like they took out the per level wording and now says "For each point of burn she accepts, Yoon takes 1 point of nonlethal damage. This damage can be healed only by a full night’s rest, and it can’t be reduced or redirected."It looks like they copied and pasted the level 1 text into the 4th and 7th level sheets because that is the effect at first.
The higher level versions are correct; likely The Silence was looking at Yoon 1.
I'm also smelling a whiff of Avatar in the class. :)
I immediately thought of Fury-users from the Codex Alera. Both are probably suitable.
I'm also smelling a whiff of Avatar in the class. :)I immediately thought of Fury-users from the Codex Alera. Both are probably suitable.
I did a bunch of "research" while working on the class, which included reading that series and watching Legend of Korra. That said, it isn't an attempt to mimic either of them, really. It's an attempt to create a chassis to let you play all those elementally-themed characters from even more types of fiction.
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The higher level versions are correct; likely The Silence was looking at Yoon 1.im looking at the kineticist pregen, and it looks like they took out the per level wording and now says "For each point of burn she accepts, Yoon takes 1 point of nonlethal damage. This damage can be healed only by a full night’s rest, and it can’t be reduced or redirected."It looks like they copied and pasted the level 1 text into the 4th and 7th level sheets because that is the effect at first.One thing I could not figure out.. if the Kineticist accepts burn, does that activate everthing that feeds off of it? such as the bonus to hit and damage from Feel the Burn and the damage dice from the fire skin effect? And by accepting burn that means not using things like gather power to defray it?
I'm also smelling a whiff of Avatar in the class. :)
If you wind up with burn for any reason, you get elemental overflow (feel the burn) bonuses. However, more or less everything else in the class that asks you to accept burn is in the form of "accept burn to get benefit X from me." So if you accept burn for your fire skin, you get more fire skin (and having it also triggers elemental overflow), and if you accept burn for a giant blast you get a giant blast (and also elemental overflow). You are correct that defraying burn does not count as accepting it.
I wasn't really a fan of the burn mechanic in the playtest and am not really a fan now but Elemental Overflow does way more so it's a much more desirable to take burn and I'd actually play the base class without really complaining about burn.
Overwhelming Soul seems like something that I would want if I were not going to use burn in the first place, which is awkward since burn is a much more acceptable penalty than in the playtest so it feels like Overwhelming Soul is more of a nerf without enough benefit to compensate. The prospect of having a face-Kineticist is enough to get me to play the archetype but I can see how it's a disappointment given what Feel the Burn turned into.
I wasn't really a fan of the burn mechanic in the playtest and am not really a fan now but Elemental Overflow does way more so it's a much more desirable to take burn and I'd actually play the base class without really complaining about burn.
Overwhelming Soul seems like something that I would want if I were not going to use burn in the first place, which is awkward since burn is a much more acceptable penalty than in the playtest so it feels like Overwhelming Soul is more of a nerf without enough benefit to compensate. The prospect of having a face-Kineticist is enough to get me to play the archetype but I can see how it's a disappointment given what Feel the Burn turned into.
It gets all the static benefits of a fairly high level of burn, the old max benefits from the playtest. It does not receive the benefit of mega-burning yourself that are new beyond the playtest, true, but depending on your composition, you could have someone polymorph you into an elemental for some even more useful benefits, all without taking burn. They're pretty effective overall. They won't beat out someone who is a master of burn management, but they can put on a solid and respectable showing, and given that you don't have to do any management for it, that's what's important.
Granted, I'm even more pleased that the changes to burn are bringing more people into the fold of wanting to try it out!
I wasn't really a fan of the burn mechanic in the playtest and am not really a fan now but Elemental Overflow does way more so it's a much more desirable to take burn and I'd actually play the base class without really complaining about burn.
Overwhelming Soul seems like something that I would want if I were not going to use burn in the first place, which is awkward since burn is a much more acceptable penalty than in the playtest so it feels like Overwhelming Soul is more of a nerf without enough benefit to compensate. The prospect of having a face-Kineticist is enough to get me to play the archetype but I can see how it's a disappointment given what Feel the Burn turned into.
It gets all the static benefits of a fairly high level of burn, the old max benefits from the playtest. It does not receive the benefit of mega-burning yourself that are new beyond the playtest, true, but depending on your composition, you could have someone polymorph you into an elemental for some even more useful benefits, all without taking burn. They're pretty effective overall. They won't beat out someone who is a master of burn management, but they can put on a solid and respectable showing, and given that you don't have to do any management for it, that's what's important.
Granted, I'm even more pleased that the changes to burn are bringing more people into the fold of wanting to try it out!
Well overall its a job well done. I think Kineticist was the weakest of the playtest and at least for me the least desirable to actually play but now it's something pretty exciting that I want to roll up and is less conservative and fun than it's playtest incarnation. I'd go as far as to say that it makes me feel very confident about the Vigilante and it's final version even if all my problems with it aren't addressed.
im looking at the kineticist pregen, and it looks like they took out the per level wording and now says "For each point of burn she accepts, Yoon takes 1 point of nonlethal damage. This damage can be healed only by a full night’s rest, and it can’t be reduced or redirected."
It's in the book as 1 nonlethal per level.
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Honestly iv noticed... mark is lilike... the most active dev i have seen in a game.... ever. You seem to be very proactivr which is really cool.
Honestly iv noticed... mark is lilike... the most active dev i have seen in a game.... ever. You seem to be very proactivr which is really cool.
#SeifterMasterRace
Mark is a bro. Really glad he joined the Paizo team.
Honestly iv noticed... mark is lilike... the most active dev i have seen in a game.... ever. You seem to be very proactivr which is really cool.
Probably helps that he was active forum-goer Rogue Eidolon before he started going by his real name. He knows what we want because he's been there.
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If Gather Power worked for utility and defense infusions, even on a much weaker scale, I think the class would be a pretty solid one. And if Earth had more choices. >.>
I love the Kineticist though, and even made another incarnation of a rather (in)famous goblin of mine just to see how it worked.
In my own playtests, I intended not to use burn much if at all with my two 13th-level kineticists (all earth and all fire), but the GM threw an encounter at our all-occult group of five which had, among four other enemies, a CR 17 foe from a third party monster book that had some obscenely-powerful stats other than low hp. After it surprised us with how vicious it was, I did a mega-burn with my geo and killed it in one round. My geo was a wreck after that, but we survived the crazy monster. I was inordinately happy that burn was an option that day! For the record, I quickened a ride the blast up to him and then unloaded a full attack with the most burn I could put on it, including using internal...
Hi, first time poster here...
I'm not even sure this is the right place to ask, but:
In this, you're saying your geo ".. unloaded a full attack..." does that mean that blasts are iterative? since they are spell-like, my group has ruled them 1/round ability.... (we couldn't find a ruling one way or another so defaulted to the "one spell a round" rule...)
If that IS the case, then would it be reasonable to take any ranged weapon feats (like rapid fire, manyshot, snap-shot, etc.)? The text says you can take feats, but doesn't explain what the criteria would be...
We're (my whole group - we're doing the goblin modules as a group of kineticists - ignorant as they are powerful!) all trying to figure out exactly what is and isn't allowed, because the book text seems very odd.... (the prohibition on vital strike stumped all of us since many ranged weapons never "touch" the ammo - crossbows, sling-staves, blow-darts, et. al.) so none of us were sure what could and couldn't be used? For instance, if you got access to the feat, could you take weapon specialization [element] blast? or not? [and either way - why?]
In my own playtests, I intended not to use burn much if at all with my two 13th-level kineticists (all earth and all fire), but the GM threw an encounter at our all-occult group of five which had, among four other enemies, a CR 17 foe from a third party monster book that had some obscenely-powerful stats other than low hp. After it surprised us with how vicious it was, I did a mega-burn with my geo and killed it in one round. My geo was a wreck after that, but we survived the crazy monster. I was inordinately happy that burn was an option that day! For the record, I quickened a ride the blast up to him and then unloaded a full attack with the most burn I could put on it, including using internal...Hi, first time poster here...
I'm not even sure this is the right place to ask, but:
In this, you're saying your geo ".. unloaded a full attack..." does that mean that blasts are iterative? since they are spell-like, my group has ruled them 1/round ability.... (we couldn't find a ruling one way or another so defaulted to the "one spell a round" rule...)If that IS the case, then would it be reasonable to take any ranged weapon feats (like rapid fire, manyshot, snap-shot, etc.)? The text says you can take feats, but doesn't explain what the criteria would be...
We're (my whole group - we're doing the goblin modules as a group of kineticists - ignorant as they are powerful!) all trying to figure out exactly what is and isn't allowed, because the book text seems very odd.... (the prohibition on vital strike stumped all of us since many ranged weapons never "touch" the ammo - crossbows, sling-staves, blow-darts, et. al.) so none of us were sure what could and couldn't be used? For instance, if you got access to the feat, could you take weapon specialization [element] blast? or not? [and either way - why?]
Blasts do not normally use iterative attacks. As spell-like abilities they are traditionally a standard action. However, certain abilities let you make full attacks with them, such as possessing the Annihilator archetype, or using the the Kinetic Blade or Kinetic Whip wild talents.
Kinetic blats count as weapons for the purposes of feats, though they do not count as specific weapons (other than "kinetic blast"). Point Blank Shot, Weapon Focus (kinetic blast), and Weapon Specialization (kinetic blast) all work fine, but Multishot does not (since that only applies to bows, specifically) and Rapid Shot does not (since Rapid Shot requires a full attack action, which you can't do with blasts). Snapshot, Rapid Shot, and haste might all grant extra attacks if you are an Annihilator, but not so for a traditional kineticists.
In my own playtests, I intended not to use burn much if at all with my two 13th-level kineticists (all earth and all fire), but the GM threw an encounter at our all-occult group of five which had, among four other enemies, a CR 17 foe from a third party monster book that had some obscenely-powerful stats other than low hp. After it surprised us with how vicious it was, I did a mega-burn with my geo and killed it in one round. My geo was a wreck after that, but we survived the crazy monster. I was inordinately happy that burn was an option that day! For the record, I quickened a ride the blast up to him and then unloaded a full attack with the most burn I could put on it, including using internal...Hi, first time poster here...
I'm not even sure this is the right place to ask, but:
In this, you're saying your geo ".. unloaded a full attack..." does that mean that blasts are iterative? since they are spell-like, my group has ruled them 1/round ability.... (we couldn't find a ruling one way or another so defaulted to the "one spell a round" rule...)If that IS the case, then would it be reasonable to take any ranged weapon feats (like rapid fire, manyshot, snap-shot, etc.)? The text says you can take feats, but doesn't explain what the criteria would be...
We're (my whole group - we're doing the goblin modules as a group of kineticists - ignorant as they are powerful!) all trying to figure out exactly what is and isn't allowed, because the book text seems very odd.... (the prohibition on vital strike stumped all of us since many ranged weapons never "touch" the ammo - crossbows, sling-staves, blow-darts, et. al.) so none of us were sure what could and couldn't be used? For instance, if you got access to the feat, could you take weapon specialization [element] blast? or not? [and either way - why?]
He probably used the Kinetic Blade or Kinetic Whip infusion. They will allow a full round attack, but you have to be melee, which is why "Ride the Blast" was a big step to allow him to do so.
Only a guess, as I have a Hydrokineticist who was intending on doing the same at some point.
*ninja'd*
I like burn, and have figured out how to work with it well. The one thing that gets me is that it's based on character level and not kineticist level. It makes multiclassing horrible. I understand that they didn't want people starting out as barbarians to give themselves a hit point buffer so they could burn a lot, but it does harm several concepts.
I like burn, and have figured out how to work with it well. The one thing that gets me is that it's based on character level and not kineticist level. It makes multiclassing horrible. I understand that they didn't want people starting out as barbarians to give themselves a hit point buffer so they could burn a lot, but it does harm several concepts.
I think it would be based off of how hit points are determined. If you roll, then I can see this being quite a hindrance to multi-classing as rolling a d10 or d12 would be better than rolling a d8 most of the time. But if you're taking average (I typically play PFS, so that's what I get), then it really is only a loss of one or two hp as CON will be your main hp determination.
I also like burn, and typically have a few points of it to boost my abilities. It has yet to become a problem. (only level 4 so far, so that may change)
Another burn strategy is to go Aether. If you spend burn on force ward to your overflow limit and boost con with your overflow, then you'll pretty much stay within half of your level of effective hp. (THP+HP-NL). Of course, many of these HP will regenerate, plus you have a buffer to keep you from dying if you go down.
yeah, aether at lv6 can accept 3 burn and have more than their normal HP for the day.
-3xlevel for burn
+level for defense
+3/2 level for empowering defense
+level for con increase
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Ravingdork and Link2000 are correct; I used Blade/Whip. The enemy auto-blocked my Ride the Blast with an ability that blocks one ranged attack per round no matter what, but the melee full attack managed to end it.
If you wind up with burn for any reason, you get elemental overflow (feel the burn) bonuses. However, more or less everything else in the class that asks you to accept burn is in the form of "accept burn to get benefit X from me." So if you accept burn for your fire skin, you get more fire skin (and having it also triggers elemental overflow), and if you accept burn for a giant blast you get a giant blast (and also elemental overflow). You are correct that defraying burn does not count as accepting it.
Considering the number of times I see this question pop up, I would say its worth of a FAQ entry.
I have a somewhat (kind of) related question.
If you use gather energy to reduce the burn cost of an ability, does that let you use the ability at a more potent burn cost than your maximum burn could normally afford you?
I feel like I can't properly word that question. So here's the specific example I'm facing.
I'm a level 2 Aether Kineticist with Pushing Infusion. The infusion costs 1 Burn and pushes them back 5 feet. Being level 2 that is the max I can do normally. It seems I can Gather Energy as a move action to reduce the cost to 0, and then accept one point of burn on top of that to push them back 10 feet instead. Correct?
And further, can I gather Energy for a full round and then my next move action (reducing the cost by 3) and then accept a point of burn (equivalent to paying 4 burn cost) to push them 20 feet?
The part I'm tripped up on here is that the ability increases the push by 5 feet for every additional point of "burn accepted" and I do not understand if this actually increases the cost of the infusion and therefore can be reduced with Gather Energy, or if that burn has to literally be physically taken aside from the cost of the infusion.
I think that when using pushing infusion (and other infusions like it), you get to set the burn cost up front, and mitigate as much of that as you want with gathering power, specialization, whatever. What's not mitigated is what you have to accept, and that amount is subject to your per round cap.
So, If you gathered power for a full round (2 points of burn) and the next move action (a total of 3 points now), you could use pushing infusion with a cost of 1-4 burn. 1st-3rd points would be mitigated, the 4th point of burn, if you chose to go that high, would have to be accepted. 5, is right out! (beyond your cap at level 2). Of course, anything beyond the 1 burn pushing infusion only increases the maximum distance you can push a target, you still have to roll high enough on the Combat Maneuver check
Basically, if the cost is from a blast or modifying a blast, then it can be mitigated with gather power. I can’t think of a single exception.