3 Kineticist Questions

[Sammy T]

You use Move Earth to create a 5' Pit and your foe fails his Reflex Save.

1) Is there a specific climb DC to get out of the pit? Or can they simply grasp the ledge and climb out at the typical 1/4 move speed penalty?

2) If you manage to make the pit 10' deep (or deeper), what is the climb DC of the walls? Create Pit and climb skill state DC 25 (A rough surface, such as a natural rock wall or a brick wall).

Gather Energy and Metakinesis:

3) You can use Gather Energy to reduce the Metakinesis burn cost, correct (i.e. you could GE to reduce the Empower cost from 1 to 0)?

[Shiroi]

Sammy T wrote:

You use Move Earth to create a 5' Pit and your foe fails his Reflex Save.

1) Is there a specific climb DC to get out of the pit? Or can they simply grasp the ledge and climb out at the typical 1/4 move speed penalty?

2) If you manage to make the pit 10' deep (or deeper), what is the climb DC of the walls? Create Pit and climb skill state DC 25 (A rough surface, such as a natural rock wall or a brick wall).

Gather Energy and Metakinesis:

3) You can use Gather Energy to reduce the Metakinesis burn cost, correct (i.e. you could GE to reduce the Empower cost from 1 to 0)?

I feel like the reflex is to avoid being moved with the rock, not to avoid the pit. I could be wrong.

I would agree with the regular Pit climb dc, though I would allow a vertical jump check to grab the ledge at only 10 ft.

Yes, no individual component of burn actually adds separately. They add to the blast template, which you then reduce.

[Sammy T]

I also forgot to ask:

If you put someone in you 5' pit and they are a medium creature, can you kinetic cover the open top and temporarily box them in?

[Shiroi]

As a DM I would rule not unless they crouched, or are naturally under 5 feet tall. Basically short dwarves and halflings. However, if they crouched, or were in a 10 foot hole, or were very short, it would make sense. You could even produce a pit trap by digging a 20 ft hole and covering the top with kinetic cover, then spring it by shooting the square (squares are ac 5) which breaks the cover and drops the target (with a reflex save) then you can cover the hole again. They'd only need to be able to throw something, almost anything, to break it, or pass a climb check to punch it while hanging on the wall, so there's not really that much good it would do.

However, a 7 foot tall elf on a box crouched underneath the cover, storing a move action to break the cover and come up with a fully loaded bow, right behind the passing opponent... or rogue in a box... those are inventive and clever ways to use holes and cover to really mess with someone's day.