Gestalt Kineticist / Kineticist allow or not?


Advice


I generally use the rule of cool when determining if something is allowed in our games. One of my players wants to play an Aero-kineticist/Hydro-Kineticist. I'm thinking it would make for a cool/fun character, but I'm not all that familiar with the Kineticist so I'm not 100% sure of what I'm getting into.

1) Would you allow it?

2a) If so, Any suggestions on how to make it work? I'm thinking 2 separate burn pools, maybe not?

2b) If not, What would you point them towards as their second class?


I'd allow it. They can still only blast once per turn as it's a starndard action, so what they're gaining is some flexibility and talents from another element. Even with a burn pool twice the size (wich might make them unconscious... unless you reduce each burn to half total level non-lethal, rounding up), they're not gaining as much as they would complimenting it with, say, a class that provided spellcasting and a good will save.

In fact, I'd talk to your player to tell them the potential disadvantages, and maybe sugest ranger for full BAB+favoured enemy/cleric with an elemental domain for utility, spellcasting and will saves. Unchained rouge might also be fun, depending on how you rule on sneak attack on blasts (double damage if they don't gather energy?).

Silver Crusade

They probably want the defenses of the Aerokineticist and the Hydrokineticist at the same time, with all the utility of both (flying, Shimmering Mirage, Cold Snap, Wind Sight, etc). Basically they're just trying to be a better/more versatile Kineticist.

I would allow it but with certain rules made clear to go along with it. Make sure they aren't invalidating anyone else and make decisions that keep them on par with the other members. Give a read through the Wild Talents (particularly the Utility Talents) to see all the options they will have open to them. If everyone is doing very synergistic gestalts, then maybe give the player more. Here's what I would consider some rough guidelines:

-Same abilities don't stack. You don't get twice the bonus from gathering energy, you don't get two Internal Buffers, etc.
-You can't take more burn than normal.
-They only get Expanded Element once (either at 7 or some other later level depending on how long your campaigns tend to go), or maybe even not at all. Getting all of the elements as well as twice as many talents as normal means they will be able to do just about everything.

This will make them not necessarily a lot stronger, but at least much more versatile with all the little tricks they're probably looking to get, which is what they're trying to do.

You can always ask them if they're looking to do it for power or for versatility and go from there.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Since they would be taking burn damage out of a single HP pool, wouldn't get a better BaB, saves or skill points or better action economy out of the deal, I'd let them but they might grow rapidly disappointed with how little they'd improve over a single element Kineticist/Fighter or Kineticist/Ranger


Quote:
They only get Expanded Element once (either at 7 or some other later level depending on how long your campaigns tend to go), or maybe even not at all.

I feel this would make a much weaker character. If they were going with any other class this restriction would not be there so...

The player also plans to do just Water/Air, so I think this isn't as large of a deal compared to expanding into more elements.

Quote:
If everyone is doing very synergistic gestalts, then maybe give the player more.

Do you have suggestions?

Quote:
-You can't take more burn than normal.

This is one I was wondering about. Should I still enforce the 3 + con modifier or should I give them double? I Like the idea of 2 pools one for each of the elements, but that may not work out like I was hoping and it might be more beneficial to just do one pool all together. Also the extra tracking would be somewhat annoying.

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they might grow rapidly disappointed with how little they'd improve over a single element Kineticist/Fighter or Kineticist/Ranger

What makes these classes synergistic with Kineticist? I see full base attack bonus. What classes do you suggest for better action econ?


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For a suggestion- warpriest might have fairly good synergy for a kineticist.

Since your blast can qualify as a weapon for weapon focus and such, it seems like you could use it as your sacred weapon. That gives options for enhancement bonus and special weapon properties like holy ghost touch. That means that the physical blasts can get through a lot, which makes them an even better option than ever.

Also, swift action divine favors makes up for the lack of full BAB (especially since you are already adding the enhancement bonus you never had), and healing (channel, use of fervor as lay on hands, etc.) makes you far more durable. Plus, a good will save, access to armor and shields, and spells.


I would allow it...and then immediately try to talk them out of it. There's essentially no benefit here.

I'd suggest classes with either full BaB and bigger damage bonuses, or good Swift action uses like Inquisitor (Eat my Dragon Bane water blast!) or Warpriest, since Kineticist needs Move actions and Standard actions, but doesn't have anything that uses a Swift besides Quicken (which you will NEVER use).


So, I just realized that the burn part dealt damage per level (I thought it was only 1 damage). This changes things a bit. I will keep the 3+ con limit.

Also, will talk to them and make sure they realize it's 1 per level.

Shadow Lodge

1) I would allow it but inform the player that it's a mediocre gestalt at best, for the reasons described above. It increases versatility, but most gestalts will increase your versatility significantly, and many of them give you other benefits like better BAB, HD, saves, skills, etc.

2a) Two pools is annoying, and yes, taking more burn than the limit is not a great idea anyway thanks to the damage (which also steeply limits the ability to actually use your second set of shiny abilities). Conceptually it works just fine effectively getting one version of elemental overflow, gather power, etc and just doubling up on the types of blasts, infusions, and utility talents, plus elemental expansion - though again, mechanically lacklustre.

2b) Warpriest is a very good option if you will let the character use Sacred Weapon to grant weapon properties to their blast (I don't think the RAW actually allows this). However I think the best compromise between effectiveness and the player's concept is Kineticist//Druid. You get a good will save, full casting including a bunch of elemental spells, and the ability to turn into an elemental at level 6, including gaining a fly speed. Note: stat bonuses from wild shape don't stack with elemental overflow so some tactical finesse is necessary.

Aziraya Zhwan wrote:

-They only get Expanded Element once (either at 7 or some other later level depending on how long your campaigns tend to go), or maybe even not at all. Getting all of the elements as well as twice as many talents as normal means they will be able to do just about everything.

This will make them not necessarily a lot stronger, but at least much more versatile with all the little tricks they're probably looking to get, which is what they're trying to do.

I don't think that getting two expanded elements would really give you more versatility than the Kineticist//Druid.


Rylar wrote:

So, I just realized that the burn part dealt damage per level (I thought it was only 1 damage). This changes things a bit. I will keep the 3+ con limit.

Also, will talk to them and make sure they realize it's 1 per level.

And that is why having your gestalt do healing can be important.

No, not because it heals the nonlethal damage- that is unhealable by anything other than a good night's sleep. No, I say self healing can be important because you limit your HP pool on your own. If you use burn a lot, you are, in practice, as squishy or squishier than a wizard. So self healing can preserve your precious little effective health.

EDIT- weirdo- I am not sure if kine/druid is necessarily better... or at least across all elements. Air/earth could give a lot of the benefits that air form would give you (DR, flight, size from kinetic form, etc.). Heck, fire/earth would eventually give you similar versatility (since fire gets flight via two infusions). And as you said- the stat bonuses don'y stack too well. As such, you might want a different class with a non-conflicting boost mechanic. OR heck, a nature fang druid (cause hey- studied target bonuses, and flurry of blasts might stack well with sneak).

I agree that kine/kine is poor overall, but one of the main draws of druid- wildshape- loses a lot of its luster when dealing with kineticists. So you are mostly getting a spell list...one balanced around the idea that you have super amazing transformation powers (druid list isn't bad...but not a wizard's, y'know?).


Honestly I think it's as legal as (and an even worse idea than) a gestalt between cleric of two different deities, sorcerer with two bloodlines, or conjurer and transmuter.


Perhaps Stonelord Paladin? It's a d10 class with a free action CON booster, Smite Evil, and some DR.

Shadow Lodge

lemeres wrote:

No, not because it heals the nonlethal damage- that is unhealable by anything other than a good night's sleep. No, I say self healing can be important because you limit your HP pool on your own. If you use burn a lot, you are, in practice, as squishy or squishier than a wizard. So self healing can preserve your precious little effective health.

EDIT- weirdo- I am not sure if kine/druid is necessarily better... or at least across all elements. Air/earth could give a lot of the benefits that air form would give you (DR, flight, size from kinetic form, etc.). Heck, fire/earth would eventually give you similar versatility (since fire gets flight via two infusions). And as you said- the stat bonuses don'y stack too well. As such, you might want a different class with a non-conflicting boost mechanic. OR heck, a nature fang druid (cause hey- studied target bonuses, and flurry of blasts might stack well with sneak).

I agree that kine/kine is poor overall, but one of the main draws of druid- wildshape- loses a lot of its luster when dealing with kineticists. So you are mostly getting a spell list...one balanced around the idea that you have super amazing transformation powers (druid list isn't bad...but not a wizard's, y'know?).

Like I said, it may not be the best - I'd lean Geokineticist//Paladin for that - but it's still fairly effective and it's also very thematic.

Wildshape overlaps with elemental overflow but it doesn't become totally redundant. For example, at 6th level you can turn into a medium air elemental for +2 Dex, +2 Con, +2 natural armour, fly 60ft, and darkvision 60ft. Then elemental overflow adds +2 to Con and, just in case you need it, Str, in addition to the attack and damage bonuses. It would be slightly more effective if you could stack another Dex bonus on wild shape but you're sporting way more bonuses than a kine/kine, which can't stack its bonuses at all - or the kine/wiz, which doesn't have a second set. At level 11 the air elemental gives you +4 Dex, +4 nat AC, and immunity to crits, sneak attack, and bleed - and elemental overflow adds +4 Con. You're ahead 2 Dex, 4 nat AC, and three immunities on the kine/kine. Or go water elemental for a net +2 Strength, +2 Dex (-2 wild shape +4 kineticist), +6 Con, +6 natural armour if you want to pump 2 more points into Con over the kine/kine (at this level you can have wings of air even with air as a secondary element). The wild shape bonuses are generally better than the kineticist's, and don't require burn, but the kineticist's are flexible enough that you can stick them where they can still do some good.

The kineticist's at-will utility talents are very nice, but it's definitely better to add the variety of druid casting then to have a second set of at-will powers, especially when you can cherry-pick a lot of the best ones with expanded element and Extra Wild Talent, using druid spells to fill in gaps. Check out these sample selections:

Human Hydrokineticist//Aerokineticist:

1 - Weapon Finesse, PBS, Cold & Wind Blasts, Kinetic Blade, Extended Range
2 - Shroud of Water, Enveloping Winds, Slick, Air's Leap
3 - Precise Shot, Gusting Infusion, Draining Infusion
4 - Voice of the Wind, Veil of Mist
5 - Weapon Focus, Thundering Infusion, Entangling Infusion
6 - Wings of Air, Waterdancer
7 - Expanded Element (Air - Electricity, Earth; gain blizzard, sandstorm, thunderstorm), Celerity, Spell Penetration
8 - Windsight, Expanded Defense (Earth)
9 - Magnetic Infusion, Snake, Extra Talent (Flurry of Blasts)
10 - Kinetic Whip, Shimmering Mirage
11 - Chain Infusion, Chilling Infusion, Improved Critical
12 - Suffocate, Tremorsense
13 - +1, Impale, Extra Talent (Earth Climb)
14 - Kinetic Form, Shift Earth
15 - Expanded Element (Fire, Earth) Cloud Infusion, Fragmentation, Extra Talent (Rare-Metal Infusion)
16 - Weather Master, Earth Glide
17 - Grappling Infusion, Unraveling Infusion, Greater Spell Penetration
18 - Tidal Wave, Greater Shift Earth
19 - Explosion, +1 FEAT
20 -

Human Hydrokineticist:

1 - Weapon Finesse, PBS, Cold Blast, Kinetic Blade
2 - Shroud of Water, Slick
3 - Precise Shot, Extended Range
4 - Veil of Mist
5 - Natural Spell, Entangling Infusion
6 - Water Manipulator
7 - Expanded Element (Air - Wind; gain blizzard), Weapon Focus
8 - Air's Leap
9 - Flurry of Blasts, Extra Infusion (Snake)
10 - Wings of Air
11 - Chilling Infusion, Improved Critical
12 - Shimmering Mirage
13 - Wall, Extra Talent (Windsight)
14 - Suffocate
15 - Expanded Element (Air - Electricity; gain thunderstorm), Extra Talent (Magnetic Infusion)
16 - Ride the Blast
17 - Cloud, Extra Talent (Fragmentation)
18 - Tidal Wave
19 - Grappling Infusion, Spell Penetration
20 - Weather Master

The second list hits most of the high points, albeit a little later than the first. The first also runs out of really good infusions at low levels - hence taking both gusting and thundering infusion, and not caring what to slot in at 13 and 19.

Merely by taking the air domain for nature bond the druid gets access to wind wall at level 3, gaseous form at level 5, and chain lightning at level 11. They can get earth glide at level 6 from wild shape on a whim, instead of having to spend two utility talents and take earth as an expanded element. Ditto swim speed and water breathing. Add to that some long-duration buffs like barkskin, resist elements, death ward, and freedom of movement that can be cast well before combat starts, leaving more rounds to blast in-combat. You get healing that doesn't cost you a utility talent - or burn - and can heal more than just HP. And a good will save, without having to give up your armour. And you ignore nonmagical difficult terrain and get immunity to poison and at-will alter self (at this level, retrain veil of mists).

Shadow Lodge

Darn, lost major edits when post timed out. Summary:

1) Wild Shape still provides meaningful stat bonuses despite overlap, and has additional utility, like scouting.

2) Compared to kine//kine, advantages of kine//druid are increased flexibility, good will save. Get access to more magic, and can duplicate many talents with spells or wild shape as needed, rather than having to lock them into the build.

3) Compared to kine//wiz, advantages of kine//druid are diminished prep requirement (no spellbook, wild shape always on hand), ability to wear armour, and access to healing. Also thematics. Disadvantage: sightly less powerful spell list, but having a less powerful spell list than the wizard shouldn't be a deal-breaker.

4) Look specifically at Storm Druid which gets two strong and thematic domains to cast spontaneously from, and a windsight substitute at level 4. With Hydrokineticist, expanding element to aerokineticist, will really feel like a master of wind and water.


The problem with it being thematic is that it is only thematic for some kineticists (this is more of a general discussion on the gestalt- yes, this thread assumes air/water)

Because not all elemental forms are equal. Thus, you would almost always end up with air (which air kines need the least) due to the flight. This form is the most useful to the elements that it is not appropriate for.

Heck, that might be the entire reason why they made over flow into size bonuses. Cause elements like earth and fire cannot really benefit from grabbing the appropriate elemental body (since even those that go wtih the blade usually just grab weapon finesse, as far as I am aware). Everyone would end up as air elementals or water elementals (water since its stat boosts have the best palcement).


What about barbarian or bloodrager? Can you still use Kine Blast while raging?

Is it possible to use Kine Blade to duel wield? Maybe ranger is what I should point her towards? Or Monk (unchained) could she use kine blade with flurry (making a monk weapon)?

Then she could go Air/Water/Air and get all the blasts that she would really get anyway (I could even give air and water blast at the same time for flavor as they are identical).

Shadow Lodge

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No, you can't use the blast while raging because it's an SLA. You might allow the character to use it while bloodraging if they take the Mad Magic feat (which lets you cast another class's spells in bloodrage - SLAs are not explicitly mentioned but are a reasonable leap). However that strikes me as a REALLY potent combination so I might not suggest that unless your other players also have really good combos.

No, you can't TWF with kinetic blade unless you take the elemental annihilator archetype, and that gets rid of the utility that your player almost certainly wants. You can't flurry with it, either - you can take Kinetic Fist and add energy damage to your UAS, but that's a little meh, and I expect your player wants more utility and elemental versatility, not punching power.

Air and water blasts have different associated talents and composites so they're not quite identical, but I'd certainly suggest letting the character pick up an extra type of blast in some way. I'm adding a feat for it in my own games for now.

@lemeres: Yes, I believe Mark confirmed that the uneven stats are why they shifted the size bonuses from kinetic form (which worked more like elemental body at the time) to elemental overflow. Though fire body does grant a dex bonus similar to the air elemental - it's just earth that grants Str. And it's not hard to make a Str build as a kineticist//druid if you want to be an earth elemental, because the way wild shape overlaps with elemental overflow makes your stats MAD anyway. At 4th level you're sporting +2 to all stats any time you wild shape with overload, and at level 16 earth could have +8 Str, +4 Dex, +4 Constitution, +6 natural armour - which is really about even with air's +4 Str (pointless), +6 Dex, +6 Con, +4 natural armor, when you consider that the Str build has an extra feat and can for example take Toughness instead of Weapon Finesse.

The nice thing about wild shape, though, is that you can use whatever form you need as you need it. As a single-classed druid, I used water elemental form the most because I was the group's frontliner and water elementals are ridiculously tanky. But in combats when I wasn't engaged in melee, or my enemy was flying, air elemental was there. And in the handful of situations where I really wanted earth glide or fire resistance, or needed to smash or burn things, earth and fire were there.

I can see why it might be thematically awkward for a geokineticist//druid to turn into an air elemental. But they don't need to do it often - just when you're screwed if you can't fly. And it requires NO investment or pre-planning. Compare a kine//kine, where you either need to make a significant investment by selecting air as an expanded element and then taking two utility talents, or you can't fly under your own power at all.

If you want one pure element then kine//druid may not be for you, but if you're considering gestalting kine//kine at all then you must want at least two elements to work with. That gives the druid a lot of flexibility in thematic choices. Instead of a geo//fire kineticist, for example, you could go geo//druid, and take fire powers and a bit of earth with your druid (Fire domain, fire elemental shape, prepare magic stone, produce flame, and stone call, etc). At 7th level you can be on fire and hurling metal at people, which is pretty cool. And if you really need to, druid can branch out from the core concept with a day's notice or less - kine//kine can't.


What about monk and flurry? Also would the shroud of armor get in the way of that and other monk abilities?


Weirdo wrote:
I can see why it might be thematically awkward for a geokineticist//druid to turn into an air elemental. But they don't need to do it often - just when you're screwed if you can't fly. And it requires NO investment or pre-planning. Compare a kine//kine, where you either need to make a significant investment by selecting air as an expanded element and then taking two utility talents, or you can't fly under your own power at all.

A geokine is only really screwed later on if he went str build to match his elemental form, and thus he doesn't have the dex for ranged blasts.

With a high power and consistent ranged attack, the ability to dimension door up to 480' with ride the blast, and a climb speed/earthglide... the number of situations where you are consistently 'screwed' seem to be limited to when you have to get up next to an enemy... which seems more like a build problem for this class.

And again...I don't think kine/kine is good either. Just that it isn't as ripped up as kine/druid. I would be much more inclined to go kine/cleric, and grab the trade domain for overland flight, or something along those lines. You get about as many benefits as you do from the air elemental wildshape.

Silver Crusade

Rylar never said what the other characters are doing. For all we know, they're just doing regular characters while this one person is asking to do a gestalt of the two. That's why I gave certain guidelines in general with the caveat of "If others are doing gestalt as well, give them more".


Stonelord paladin? Nobody?

Grand Lodge

Rylar wrote:

I generally use the rule of cool when determining if something is allowed in our games. One of my players wants to play an Aero-kineticist/Hydro-Kineticist. I'm thinking it would make for a cool/fun character, but I'm not all that familiar with the Kineticist so I'm not 100% sure of what I'm getting into.

1) Would you allow it?

2a) If so, Any suggestions on how to make it work? I'm thinking 2 separate burn pools, maybe not?

2b) If not, What would you point them towards as their second class?

I'm not a big fan of gestalt, because of the potential for abuse as above and the fact that there are no Pathfinder rules for it. It was okay in 3.5, but base classes are a lot stronger now.

Your player was no different than someone trying to gestalt sorcerer/sorcerer or wizard/wizard.


As a general rule, the most powerful gestalts are those whose two classes cover very different ground.
Gestalting the same class twice is almost always a terrible idea. This player's character will be much weaker than the rest of the party (I'm assuming the entire party is gestalt).
It's a lot like if someone asked to play a commoner. They might be okay with being the weak-link, but they might just not know what they are walking in to. You should make sure they know what they are signing up for before the game starts.

Silver Crusade

Unless its.. A fullcaster. Wizard/Wizard or Sorc/Sorc would be pretty scary and powerful.. not to mention the Stupid amount of spells.

God Helps you if they are a Cleric/Cleric or a Force of Nature as a Druid/Druid


There's a paladin archetype or feat that gives you the ability to auto lay on hands yourself if you pass out. Useful for a potentially burned out kineticist.

You might be able to take weapon proficiency blast as a fighter, with full BAB and a nice ac boost to boot.

I agree with the stone lord paladin for sure, it's both mean and flavorful if someone wants geo in their mix.

But for things to make a single class gestalt work better?
Try this on for size.

Gather energy grants -1 more burn than usual.
You do get extra talents, but each class uses separate talent pools so you must have a full aero set, and a full hydro set. They'll get them all eventually anyways because of how few there are right now.
You get to expand elements if you want, but can't expand into one you took from the other class (so you can't expand both of them into geo at level 7, then expand geo once more later to get the +1 to dcs).
You are treated as 2 lvl higher for the purpose of talents using your level. This gives you a few minor bumps on a few minor things for the most part. It's biggest factor is increasing the defense talents, which can help make up for the fact that you don't get extra armor proficiency, a bigger hd, or a better will save from your gestalt.
+2 skill points per level, because let's face it you kind of need them when everyone else is averaging a 6+ or better and most of them have more use for int than you do.

Not all of these at once, probably, but maybe some of them together as needed.


The paladin ability is a spell. Last Stand or something like that.


Given it seems to be a rather weak choice, I'd give him two separate burn pools. For the purpose of becoming unconcious, the higher burn counts.


Endoralis wrote:

Unless its.. A fullcaster. Wizard/Wizard or Sorc/Sorc would be pretty scary and powerful.. not to mention the Stupid amount of spells.

God Helps you if they are a Cleric/Cleric or a Force of Nature as a Druid/Druid

While potent, you'd still be better off gestalting different classes. Sorc/Sorc can learn a wider variety of spells than a normal sorcerer, but you'd be even better off gestalting sorcerer//cleric or sorcerer//druid and using one of the ACFs that swaps your casting stat (and even if you don't for some reason, you can still keep two stats high enough to cast your highest level spells). You can primarily use your sorcerer spells known for spells that aren't on the cleric list, and end up with more versatility than you could without gestalting.

But yea, you won't exactly be a commoner.

Shadow Lodge

I like kineticist//paladin a lot in general, especially for the geokineticist - you get really good defenses and can bypass DR with smite evil. But the geokineticist is hypothetical. The player actually wanted a hydro//aerokineticist, and I don't think they would have made that request if their first priority was damage & toughness.

@Endoralist - those are still pretty bad. Not only do you not get any improvement in saves, HD, skills, but many of your class features are redundant (wild shape twice is particularly pointless) and getting access to the same spell list twice isn't as good as getting two different spell lists. Wizard is stronger than alchemist, but Alchemist//Wizard is stronger than Wizard//Wizard because it gets better HD, all good saves instead of just Will, and a new set of magical bombs, extracts, and mutagen rather than just picking more wizard spells.

Rylar wrote:
What about monk and flurry? Also would the shroud of armor get in the way of that and other monk abilities?

No, kinetic blade doesn't work with flurry because it's not a monk weapon. Kinetic Fist does work since it modifies your unarmed strike instead of giving you a new weapon - it's probably an OK option for a Kineticist//Monk, though I haven't looked closely at the damage. Shroud of water grants an armour bonus but it's not armour, so it doesn't get in the monk's way. Your player may want something with more diverse magical/elemental options, however.

lemeres wrote:
A geokine is only really screwed later on if he went str build to match his elemental form, and thus he doesn't have the dex for ranged blasts.

Str builds can have decent dex. With a dwarf and 20pb you could start with 16, 14, 16, 10, 14, 6, or drop the mental stats to 8/13/5 for 15pb or an 18 Con. Perfectly respectable for a character with a primary melee focus and ranged and casting backup options, especially with the bonuses from combined wild shape & overflow. And this the weakest elemental theme for kine//druid - someone who really wants to go all-in earth rather than branching out into at least one other type of elemental magic on the druid side. The OP's water/air concept would be able to dump Str and use earth wild shape only if they wanted to earth glide (an ability that they would otherwise be very costly).

lemeres wrote:
With a high power and consistent ranged attack, the ability to dimension door up to 480' with ride the blast, and a climb speed/earthglide... the number of situations where you are consistently 'screwed' seem to be limited to when you have to get up next to an enemy... which seems more like a build problem for this class.

Ride the blast is first available at level 12, which makes it a late-game option. And the general comment is not about flying specifically so much as it is that any individual kineticist has a fairly limited number of tools in their toolbox. Wild shape adds a lot of tools, and full casting adds even more.

lemeres wrote:
And again...I don't think kine/kine is good either. Just that it isn't as ripped up as kine/druid. I would be much more inclined to go kine/cleric, and grab the trade domain for overland flight, or something along those lines. You get about as many benefits as you do from the air elemental wildshape.

Have you played a druid? I feel like you're overfocusing on specific forms & stats adjustments and underestimating the utility of wild shape in play. No single form makes wild shape so awesome - it's the access to ALL of them. Getting any of swim & water breathing, earth glide, or diminutive size (we haven't even mentioned animal forms yet!) on a whim. I used raven form once to impersonate a divine omen and start a revolution. That's not something you can duplicate with overland flight - which isn't even available until level 9, 5 levels after the druid is turning into an eagle.


Aziraya Zhwan wrote:
Rylar never said what the other characters are doing. For all we know, they're just doing regular characters while this one person is asking to do a gestalt of the two. That's why I gave certain guidelines in general with the caveat of "If others are doing gestalt as well, give them more".

We always play gestalt now. Last time we tried not to was an AP that we all agreed would be much cooler if we could gestalt (so we changed). This character is for a future character/campaign, not for one we are prepping to play now. Currently the group is a Dragon Disciple (sorcerer)/Paladin, a Gunslinger/Inquisitor, and a Sorcerer/Oracle.

Quote:
Given it seems to be a rather weak choice, I'd give him two separate burn pools. For the purpose of becoming unconscious, the higher burn counts.

Two burn pools wouldn't help anything as using up just one puts them at 3 health per level. Exploring the class I've realized that it doesn't want to access burn all that often.

-Druid Stuff-
She wants to control the elements, not change into them(nor anything else).

Quote:
No, kinetic blade doesn't work with flurry because it's not a monk weapon.

I thought it made any weapon you wanted as long as it was 1-handed?

Looking for a full BAB class to compare characters to at level 8 or so. Having trouble finding one that is thematic (Wind/Water elemental controller). Working well with the wind/water blades/whip is an option. Looking for something that enhances the class rather than takes it in a different direction (mechanically and flavorly).


Rylar wrote:
Quote:
No, kinetic blade doesn't work with flurry because it's not a monk weapon.

I thought it made any weapon you wanted as long as it was 1-handed?

Looking for a full BAB class to compare characters to at level 8 or so. Having trouble finding one that is thematic (Wind/Water elemental controller). Working well with the wind/water blades/whip is an option. Looking for something that enhances the class rather than takes it in a different direction (mechanically and flavorly).

The infusion calls it out as purely cosmetic. No change in damage dice, crit modifier/range, or special weapon properties (or lack there of).

Shadow Lodge

Rylar wrote:
She wants to control the elements, not change into them(nor anything else).

Druid spell list:

1 - Air Bubble, Alter Winds, Frostbite, Ice Armor, Obscuring Mist, Snowball, Snow Shape, Wave Shield
2 - Aggressive Thundercloud, Chill Metal, Fog Cloud, Frigid Touch, Frost Fall, Gust of Wind, Gusting Sphere, Ice Slick, Slipstream, Unshakeable Chill
3 - Air Geyser, Aqueous Orb, Call Lightning, Cloak of Winds, Hydraulic Torrent, Ice Spears, Sheet Lightning, Sleet Storm, Wind Wall,
4 - Greater Aggressive Thundercloud, Air Walk, Ball Lightning, Calm Air, Control Water, Creeping Ice, Geyser, Globe of Tranquil Water, Heavy Water, Ice Storm, River of Wind
5 - Call Lightning Storm, Control Winds, Fickle Winds
6 - Path of the Winds, Sirocco
7 - Control Weather, Scouring Winds
8 - Seamantle, Stormbolts, Whirlwind
9 - Storm of Vengeance, Tsunami, Winds of Vengeance

And that's just the spells that directly manipulate or produce wind, water, cold, or electricity. Add in earth or fire spells, summoning elementals, or spells like water breathing, air walk, or resist energy that help targets to interact with the elements, and you've got more than twice the list. You can even get earth glide as a spell if you want it but don't want Wild Shape.

If she doesn't want shapeshifting then she can take Nature Fang. It's not compatible with the massively thematic Storm Druid archetype, but it does give you a decent combat boost from studied target in addition to all the thematic spells and the good will save. Or take Storm Druid and just don't use Wild Shape. It's a bit of a waste but it's still a big improvement on Kineticist//Kineticist and it's one of the few ways to get your player what she wants.

Rylar wrote:
Looking for a full BAB class to compare characters to at level 8 or so. Having trouble finding one that is thematic (Wind/Water elemental controller). Working well with the wind/water blades/whip is an option. Looking for something that enhances the class rather than takes it in a different direction (mechanically and flavorly).

I don't think there is one. The only full-BAB class with any decent elemental flavour I can think of is Bloodrager, and that causes problems with using blasts in bloodrage either being impossible or extremely potent. And even then, you end up with elemental body as a rage power. Maybe if you were willing to fiddle with bloodrage a bit in the "Unchained" style - granting a bonus to melee attacks and temp HP, but not actual stat bonuses? That would prevent bloodrage to doing crazy things to already hefty blast damage and DCs, but still give a decent bonus. Swap out elemental body with Primalist for something generic like Improved DR, or maybe the elemental totem rage power.

You could also gestalt with Slayer and downplay that class's flavour - unlike paladin you can just portray slayer abilities as a fighting style, and you get more useful stuff for a kineticist than gestalting with fighter. Or you could give her the kine//kine gestalt with full BAB and a d10 or even d12 HD. That would make the combination somewhat more effective, especially if she wants physical blasts for which better accuracy is a bigger deal, though probably still weaker than using paladin, slayer, or druid.

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