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Ranged Weapon Damage: Objects take half damage from ranged weapons (unless the weapon is a siege engine or something similar). Divide the damage dealt by 2 before applying the object's hardness.
Ineffective Weapons: Certain weapons just can't effectively deal damage to certain objects. For example, a bludgeoning weapon cannot be used to damage a rope. Likewise, most melee weapons have little effect on stone walls and doors, unless they are designed for breaking up stone, such as a pick or hammer.
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Vulnerability to Certain Attacks: Certain attacks are especially successful against some objects. In such cases, attacks deal double their normal damage and may ignore the object's hardness.
Where do the various kinetic blasts fall into this?
Are their damage cut in half because they are traditionally ranged attacks? Could repeated air or water blasts (eventually) take down a solid stone wall? Could fire blasts melt it, or earth blasts break it? Or is it wholly ineffective because I'm not using a pick or hammer?
What if I was using a kinetic blade metal blast in the shape of a pick or hammer? Would the damage be reduced or negated then?
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That whole section is really up to GM interpretation. Some GMs halve fire damage to wood, some apply hardness, and some do neither. It's left intentionally vague, IMO.
But ever since I first read the Kineticist playtest document I've been joking that every siege needs a small handful of low level Aerokineticists.
The ability to infinitely buffet a stone wall (hardness 8) from 400+ feet away would likely be the deciding factor in any castle siege.
Anyone else care to weigh in?
I'd say to refer to how spells interact with objects. Many blasts deal energy damage like spells.
Kinetic Blade is a melee attack and yes, the damage type you pick will affect what objects can be damaged. A slashing blade will not dent a stone wall, but will cut a rope, and vice-versa for a piercing or bludgeoning blade. All in all, check the damage type and see how that can damage objects.
As for being ranged attacks, I wouldn't call them "traditional/standard" ranged attacks.
You do have to do enough damage to get past hardness if you're using a physical blast. Otherwise you can sit there forever and get nowhere, if you are per say a first level caster with only 1d6 for damage.
Just wanted to point out that hardness also applies to energy attacks.
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The ability to infinitely buffet a stone wall (hardness 8) from 400+ feet away would likely be the deciding factor in any castle siege.
This brings up the interesting question about how far a blast would go out. Normally the range is 30 feet. One can extend it farther but not to 400ft. And to extend the range adds burn costs.
Taking into account negatives for range increments, wouldn't the "attack" against the wall fail automatically?
A high level aerokineticist can launch air or electricity attacks (or both) from as much as 960 feet away without suffering any burn whatsoever. Though that's within maximum range for longbows and heavy crossbows, the marksmen will be hard pressed to hit the kineticist due to ranged penalties and the miss chance from enveloping winds. If the kineticist has a wind wall up, then they're basically limited to retaliating with siege weapons and spellcasters of their own.
It's also possible for the aerokineticist to hide behind total cover and launch an assault with snake infused blasts, though that limits the range from the wall to ~240 feet with air's reach.
Well, in a discussion of what consitutes an effective attack....
hmmm.... welll, there are several rules involving blasts that make them VERY different from normal ranged attacks. I mean...they deal full damage to swarms since they are a big chunky mass of elemental matter. So that seems like it would be more effective in destroying a wall than a small arrow pinging against it.
Now....is it similar to a siege engine? Well, an earth user can hurl a lump of rock that deals 10d6+10 damage (before empower), or a lump of steel for 20d6+20. And looking at siege engines, a light catapult's ammo weighs 50 lbs (which you can launch with a basic telekinetic blast at level 10)
So for our pure physical blast users, I would say- Absolutely. Sure, go ahead. I might but a bare minimum level thing for the blast to work on proper walls (assuming that your attacks start out as small, arrow like things, and they eventually become huge boulders), but past that- sure. For water/air/elemental blasts.... eh. That might need more negotiation.