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I have seen in other guides - and it seems particularly reasonable - to rate something orange/green or green/red and then provide context in the description. I think the convention is helpful when you've got a class where a power may or may not be useful based on very different playstyles (e.g. melee vs. bombs alchemist)At this point I think it might earn green just due to its competition, so I think I'm going to fold to peer pressure and pop it up to green with a new description. I'm not happy that it's green simply due to its competition, but I think it really needs to be emphasized how much better it is than the options it's competing with now.
EDIT: in the same vein, metakineticist is bumped to green, although I'd probably separately rate maximize as red. Also I believe metakineticist din't have it's rating changed after Mark's clarification, which also makes sense to why it was still orange.
Other guides like this alchemist one?
See, I do plan on getting to that eventually, and there's a solid chance I'll be giving the entire talent section another sweep, but realize this is the beginning of a guide that you're seeing being made, and not the full example like that above. There's going to be re-writes and such, and maybe a little more exploration into kinetic blade/elemental annihilator as a fully developed role, so I'm asking that people stay patient.
Maybe you shouldn't rate basic abilities of the class at all, and just rate the abilities of archetypes by what it's replacing?
The reviews for the actual class features are useful as it gives me a chance to also talk about how I feel about each feature aside from just rating it vs. its archetype replacements. It also lets me mention which abilities that people should be trying to use more, and where they can relax on trying to squeeze the value out of something.
Note on Skilled Kineticist: you get a class skill and you add half your level to Perception. (Or anything else on the Kineticist class skill list.) This is not quite as bad as you thought, although the pre-req is a pain.
Note on Skilled Kineticist: you get a class skill and you add half your level to Perception. (Or anything else on the Kineticist class skill list.) This is not quite as bad as you thought, although the pre-req is a pain.
No, you don't. You get it to "skills your primary element added to your class skills", for example, with Aether: Sleight of Hand and Knowledge (Engineering)
Note on Skilled Kineticist: you get a class skill and you add half your level to Perception. (Or anything else on the Kineticist class skill list.) This is not quite as bad as you thought, although the pre-req is a pain.No, you don't. You get it to "skills your primary element added to your class skills", for example, with Aether: Sleight of Hand and Knowledge (Engineering)
Dang it, meant to include "Greater" in there. Yes, the regular one is still weak.
Dang it, meant to include "Greater" in there. Yes, the regular one is still weak.Note on Skilled Kineticist: you get a class skill and you add half your level to Perception. (Or anything else on the Kineticist class skill list.) This is not quite as bad as you thought, although the pre-req is a pain.No, you don't. You get it to "skills your primary element added to your class skills", for example, with Aether: Sleight of Hand and Knowledge (Engineering)
Thus the question becomes, with only 10 Utility Talents in total, of which most are "powers", is a steroid version of Skill Focus worth 1/5th of them. In theme, perhaps, but this is an optimization guide, with options being everything from a fly speed, to haste, to invisibility, etc, etc... By the time you have "spare" utilities to assign to these talents, you're hopefully not all that worried about skill checks any more.
Dang it, meant to include "Greater" in there. Yes, the regular one is still weak.Note on Skilled Kineticist: you get a class skill and you add half your level to Perception. (Or anything else on the Kineticist class skill list.) This is not quite as bad as you thought, although the pre-req is a pain.No, you don't. You get it to "skills your primary element added to your class skills", for example, with Aether: Sleight of Hand and Knowledge (Engineering)Thus the question becomes, with only 10 Utility Talents in total, of which most are "powers", is a steroid version of Skill Focus worth 1/5th of them. In theme, perhaps, but this is an optimization guide, with options being everything from a fly speed, to haste, to invisibility, etc, etc... By the time you have "spare" utilities to assign to these talents, you're hopefully not all that worried about skill checks any more.
True- the guide probably shouldn't list it as making two things class skills, though, since that's much worse.
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I'll update it in a bit, gotta head out soon, and I've yet to get a music recommendation to listen to while writing, come on people!
Something by "Earth Wind & Fire?"
...I'll let myself out.
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EVERYONE BOO THIS POSTER!I'll update it in a bit, gotta head out soon, and I've yet to get a music recommendation to listen to while writing, come on people!Something by "Earth Wind & Fire?"
...
I'll let myself out.
Check out 2nite EP by TWRP? Or maybe just Frankenchrist if you want something clasic?
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Edit: I just couldn't resist-
I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire.
The Water Song.
Earth Song.
Fly Like an Eagle.
Waterfalls.
In the Air Tonight.
Ring of Fire.
in the archetype section you mentioned the Elemental Aesthetic, care to tell me more? ;)
This could also work
Earth, wind, fire... air? What even?
in the archetype section you mentioned the Elemental Aesthetic, care to tell me more? ;)Boop.
(Psst, i was pointing out a misspelling)
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(Psst, i was pointing out a misspelling)in the archetype section you mentioned the Elemental Aesthetic, care to tell me more? ;)Boop.
Yeah, I was half dead when I wrote that, any misspellings are the fault of said death. Sorry for the lack of work on the guide, had more work than I was expecting today, I'm hoping to get some of the feat section done tomorrow after I get some other stuff written.
Are you planning to add any comments about the Conductive Weapon property and how it acts with Telekinetic blast?
Telekinetic Blast can be used to damage with the thrown weapon instead of blast damage, so with that and a conductive weapon (or enough weapons for Flurry of Blasts, possible a Dagger of Doubling or enough daggers and a Blinkback Belt) you can deal full damage with an energy blast with each flurry. Aether/Air is a good combo for this. I might write up a full build if you are interested.
It took them a year to Errata ACG, I'm not holding my breath.
In the mean time, for a complete guide it should be commented on at the least.
So I've been browsing for feats that work with the kineticist, and I seem to be just drawing a whole bunch of blanks.
From what i can tell, the best feats I can find are point-blank shot, precise shot, weapon focus(kinetic blast), and for the melee users, weapon finesse. Also, toughness, because burn.
Every other feat seems to either not apply to the kineticist, or is something unrelated to the kineticist's damage output. Just what am I supposed to do with feats for this kind of character?
Deadly Aim works for the physical blasts. Then Point Blank Master maybe?
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So I've been browsing for feats that work with the kineticist, and I seem to be just drawing a whole bunch of blanks.
From what i can tell, the best feats I can find are point-blank shot, precise shot, weapon focus(kinetic blast), and for the melee users, weapon finesse. Also, toughness, because burn.
Every other feat seems to either not apply to the kineticist, or is something unrelated to the kineticist's damage output. Just what am I supposed to do with feats for this kind of character?
Every build I've created has been VMC for this reason.
Every build I've created has been VMC for this reason.So I've been browsing for feats that work with the kineticist, and I seem to be just drawing a whole bunch of blanks.
From what i can tell, the best feats I can find are point-blank shot, precise shot, weapon focus(kinetic blast), and for the melee users, weapon finesse. Also, toughness, because burn.
Every other feat seems to either not apply to the kineticist, or is something unrelated to the kineticist's damage output. Just what am I supposed to do with feats for this kind of character?
Now I'm looking at VMC, and so many options seem to compete with what the kinetecist is trying to do.
What VMC options have you been taking?
Paladin, Barbarian, and.. cleric or oracle, maybe? I don't have my book in front of me, but those might be decent choices.
Sorcerer bloodlines look like they'd be right up the Kinetecist's alley as well.
I looked at barbarian and it almost seemed awesome, but by my reading you won't be able to use any blasts while in a rage, since they're spell-like abilities.
From a cursory(heh) scan I couldn't seem to find anything that stands out to me as nice for the oracle. If only freezing spells was for spells or spell like abilities, but alas.
For paladin, lay on hands is decent, I guess, but everything else seems pretty meh.
Cleric... I don't really have the resources to look into deities, so I can't comment on what might be good here.
Sorcerer is something I wanted to look into, but I noticed that you only gain bloodline powers (and one feat), not any arcana. So you'd have to find powers that specifically work with the kinetecist, which seems a bit less likely.
Maybe I'm being a little too picky, though.
VMC Rogue seems like it could be useful, you get trapfinding, evasion, a couple sneak attack dice (occasional damage boost, nice), and the uncanny dodge and improvved uncanny dodge abilities, overall seems ok
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Having read through both the guide and the comments in this thread I have two things to mention at the moment.
The Black Mages, as a playlist. Decent writing background music, some of the songs are much better than others but almost all are worth at least checking.
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I'd emphasize the main feature of that defense, because any noob who reads this guide needs to know this isn't a trap option giving you half the health you stick into it back with a slow regen. It's a very versatile window of invincibility and immunity that shouldn't be overlooked at higher burn concentrations. After all, since pure aether doesnt have any decent composite blasts, what else did you plan to spend your burn on today?
*edit* also someone mentioned not liking air defense at higher levels because it only blocked a few of the many...
I'll check them out, I've been listening to the Mad World soundtrack recently, totally recommend it.
I'd say if I had a rating for 'valued with burn', aether would be the highest. At default, I'm not in love with it, but with 1-2 points of burn investment, it becomes a lot better. I suppose I could mention that it's also counted as a dodge though, which does make it somewhat better.
So I've been browsing for feats that work with the kineticist, and I seem to be just drawing a whole bunch of blanks.
From what i can tell, the best feats I can find are point-blank shot, precise shot, weapon focus(kinetic blast), and for the melee users, weapon finesse. Also, toughness, because burn.
Every other feat seems to either not apply to the kineticist, or is something unrelated to the kineticist's damage output. Just what am I supposed to do with feats for this kind of character?
Yeah, feats don't seem like a huge factor for kineticist, especially melee ones, I'm going to do a lot of VMC scouting since your feats aren't exactly the most valuable, although the standard suite of ranged feats are for the most part still golden.
A whip kineticist that takes Whirlwind and uses the talent to increase their size could be stupid fun in the right situation. Whirlwind Kinetic Whip every enemy within your 20 ft reach? Yes please!
A whip kineticist that takes Whirlwind and uses the talent to increase their size could be stupid fun in the right situation. Whirlwind Kinetic Whip every enemy within your 20 ft reach? Yes please!
I'm not entirely sure that works. From the last line of whirlwind attack feat: "When you use the Whirlwind Attack feat, you also forfeit any bonus or extra attacks granted by other feats, spells, or abilities."
This seems to mean that you'll only be making an attack roll at your BaB, and it almost seems like you can't even use it with a blast.
A whip kineticist that takes Whirlwind and uses the talent to increase their size could be stupid fun in the right situation. Whirlwind Kinetic Whip every enemy within your 20 ft reach? Yes please!I'm not entirely sure that works. From the last line of whirlwind attack feat: "When you use the Whirlwind Attack feat, you also forfeit any bonus or extra attacks granted by other feats, spells, or abilities."
This seems to mean that you'll only be making an attack roll at your BaB, and it almost seems like you can't even use it with a blast.
Kinetic Whip doesn't give you any extra attacks though, it just gives you a weapon with which you can make the attacks you would normally be capable of.
All Whirlwind does is allow you to make a single attack against any enemy within reach. Kinetic Whip gives you a weapon with reach that also lets you attack adjacent squares (not normally possible). Kinetic Form can increase your size, and which gives you reach as well (stacks with Kinetic Whip). So you now threaten a huge area with Kinetic Whip and if you use Whirldwind Attack, you get to make a single attack against every enemy within reach.