Aetheric Boost clarification

[A J Gibson]

The description of aetheric boost makes it sound like it does the same damage as a simple blast with +1 per die, but Force Blast does damage as as a simple blast and it is described differently. How much damage would an aetheric boosted blast do?

[Azten]

If you use it with a Fire Blast, it deals fire damage, but it would deal Bludgeoning damage with a Water Blast.

[A J Gibson]

I get that, but how much damage? Is it simple blast damage +1 or composite blast damage +1?

[Milo v3]

A J Gibson wrote:

I get that, but how much damage? Is it simple blast damage +1 or composite blast damage +1?

(whatever blast your applying it to's damage) +1

[A J Gibson]

Milo v3 wrote:

A J Gibson wrote:

I get that, but how much damage? Is it simple blast damage +1 or composite blast damage +1?

(whatever blast your applying it to's damage) +1

But doesn't that really suck? If you go aether, you basically don't get a composite blast, and on top of that the pure aether composite only does regular damage (granted, it's force, but still).

[someweirdguy]

The total would get a bonus equal to however many dice it has to it. For example, at level 7 when you could first get it, a physical blast would be 4d6+8+Con. An energy blast would be 4d6+4+1/2Con. Overall, it ends up remaining pretty low compared to other composite blasts.

Aether does have a pretty rough time when it comes to Composite blasts until they get to level 14 and get Disintegrating Infusion for free with a Gather. Even then, that's limiting their utility.

Aether can focus better on doing other fun things like being melee with Kinetic Blade and Force Hook (which is their lower level answer to Ride the Blast) or just doing Foe Throw to move enemies around the battlefield.

[Helix7901]

I this the "advantage" that the Aetheric Boost gives you is that it can be applied to a composite Blast, combining its bonus damage to the composite blast damage.

[Chess Pwn]

Yes it is a weak composite blast at lv7 when you first get it, but it's great at lv15 when you can do it with a normal composite blast.

[A J Gibson]

So what is a telekinetist supposed to get a good composite blast? If you grab a different element you get stuck with a weak composite for 8 levels, and if you go expanded (aether) you get force blast, which does half the damage as all the other composites (okay, it's force, but that doesn't make up for the fact). How is aether supposed to keep up?

[Chess Pwn]

It's not supposed to keep up, it's supposed to be cool because of it's utility. (Or maybe if you throw really really big objects as a thrown object?)

[TheDailyLunatic]

Aetheric blast just blows full stop. At practically no point does it make sense to use, when you can just use empower/maximize instead.

It should really have been an extra damage die to damage or something. That would have kept total damage lower than other actual composites, but still in the same ballpark. As it stands, empower makes more sense until you get supercharge and then it's maximize all the way. Even then, you're only doing 77% damage compared to composites with the same energy cost.

[Taenia]

Aether isn't about damage, it does other things, damage being a side.

With that side, prior to 11th composites are generally not the consistent means of dealing damage, you are generally empowering your simple blast to keep burn down. Once you get supercharge, then you can start using your comp blasts regularly and that is where the damage discrepancy lies (and that Aether doesn't nova quite as well after 7)

However consider what you do gain:
Invis
Flight
Foe Throw
TK Maneuver
Touch Sight
Suffocate

With foe throw you can potentially do blast damage to two targets, with TK maneuvers you can grapple at a distance, or dirty tricks.

I have a dwarf Aetherkineticist w/Max con that doesn't blast so much as throw stuff, heal and eventually throw people around. My only regret right now is not being able to get better range on Foe Throw.