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I was incredibly excited to see Wood and Void added into the Kineticist element list. A friend of mine and I have some long-standing OCs that these respective elements would have been incredible for. Only thing is Wood turned out a bit lackluster compared to what I'd hoped. So I figure, you know what, can I do any better? Let's find out, eh?
Light
Kineticists who focus on the element of light are called photokineticists. They can bend and shape light to their will to create illusions, dispel darkness, and create searing beams.
Photokineticists have a strong sense of the location of the sun, moon, and stars in the sky in relation to their current location, and are more adept at fooling others into seeing things as what they are not. They gain Disguise and Knowledge (Geography) as class skills.
Light Blast
Element(s) light; Type simple blast (Sp); Level -; Burn 0;
Blast Type: energy; Damage lightYou fire a shimmering beam of light at the foe.
Sun Blast
Element(s) light, fire; Type composite blast (Sp); Level -; Burn 2;
Prerequisite(s) light blast, fire blast
Blast Type: energy; Damage half light, half fireYou form a globe of blistering solar energy that you then launch at an enemy.
Lunatic Blast
Element(s) light, void; Type composite blast (Sp); Level -; Burn 2;
Prerequisite(s) light blast, negative blast
Blast Type: energy; Damage half light, half negative energyYou conjure power from the moon, creating a crescent-shaped blast of light that you fling toward the foe.
Laser Blast
Element(s) light, air; Type composite blast (Sp); Level -; Burn 2;
Prerequisite(s) light blast, electric blast
Blast Type: energy; Damage half light, half electricYou create a penetrating beam of light that you fire at an enemy.
Stellar Blast
Element(s) light, aether; Type composite blast (Sp); Level -; Burn 2;
Prerequisite(s) light blast, telekinetic blast
Blast Type: varies (see text); Damage varies (see text)Star-shaped points of light form at your fingertips. You may fire these immediately, in which case your stellar blast deals damage as a simple energy blast, and using half as light damage and half as force damage. You may instead use this blast as part of a telekinetic blast and treat the points of light as if they were unattended objects with 0 Hardness, 1 HP, and no other special qualities, and the points of light dissipate immediately after being used for the telekinetic blast even if the attack misses. If this is used as part of a telekinetic blast, you may not apply a form infusion to the telekinetic blast.
Illusory Blast
Element(s) light; Type composite blast (Sp); Level -; Burn 2;
Prerequisite(s) primary element (light), expanded element (light)
Blast Type: energy; Damage lightYou consolidate light into phantasmal shapes that surround and attack the foe.
Blinking Form
Element light; Type defense; Level -; Burn 0
Your body emits an eerie glow that acts as a shell to protect you from ill effects. You receive a +1 enhancement bonus to Will saves, which increases by 1 for every 6 Kineticist levels beyond 2nd. You may accept 1 point of burn to increase this bonus by an additional 1, up to as much as your Kineticist levels would naturally grant, until the next time your burn is removed. This bonus stacks with the bonus from the emptiness defense wild talent. Whenever you accept burn while using a light wild talent, you may apply half this bonus to your Fort and Ref saves for 1 round.
You can dismiss or restore this affect as an immediate action.
Ray Infusion
Element(s) aether, air, fire, light, or water; Type form infusion; Level 1; Burn 1
Associated Blasts blue flame, cold, electric, fire, force, illusory, laser, light, lunatic, stellar, sun
Saving Throw noneYour kinetic blast takes the shape of a straight beam, and is treated as a ray as well as a kinetic blast for the purpose of feats (such as weapon focus (ray)) and any other effects that would affect rays (so, for example, your blasts would not incur the normal miss chance against enemies affected by enveloping winds whom haven't accepted burn on an air talent that round).
Positive Energy Infusion
Element(s) aether, light, or water; Type substance infusion; Level 4; Burn 3
Prerequisites kinetic healer
Associated Blasts water, force, light, sun
Saving Throw noneYour infused blast is charged with positive energy. If it hits a target that would be healed by positive energy, that target is healed by 1/4 the amount of damage the blast would have normally caused. If the target is undead (or would otherwise be damaged by positive energy) the blast deals damage as normal.
Mirror Trap Infusion
Element(s) light; Type form infusion; Level 6; Burn 4
Associated Blasts illusory, laser, lunatic, light, stellar, sun
Saving Throw noneYour blast manifests as a mirror image of yourself (as the silent image spell) that persists for 1 minute. If a creature enters within 30 feet of the image, the image automatically and instantly transforms into the infused blast and attacks that creature, dealing half that blast's damage; this effect can be canceled as an instant action if the creature is within your line of sight. The image dissipates as soon as it is triggered, and will also dissipate if you are further than 120 feet from it, it is successfully dispelled, or you use another mirror trap infused blast.
Shimmering Infusion
Element(s) light; Type substance infusion; Level 6; Burn 4
Associated Blasts illusory, laser, lunatic, light, stellar, sun
Saving Throw Will negatesYour infused blast creates a dazzling display. Those within 20 feet of the target (or are within the area if the blast takes the shape of a line, cone, or area of effect) must make a Will save, and if they fail, become fascinated for 1 round. This does not affect creatures that take damage from this blast, nor does it affect creatures that cannot see or are immune to illusion effects.
- Brilliant Infusion: Now associated with all light blasts and considered light element.
- Chain: Now associated with laser blast. Each successive hit from laser blast reduces its damage by 2d6 rather than 1d6.
- Cloud: Now associated with illusory and light blasts and considered light element.
- Explosion: Now associated with sun blast.
- Flash Infusion: Now associated with all light blasts and considered light element.
- Pure-Flame Infusion: Now associated with sun blast.
- Torrent: Now associated with laser, light, and stellar blasts and considered light element.
Basic Photokinesis
Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 1; Burn 0
You can create floating lights, as the dancing lights spell, except they last for 1 hour, cannot be made permanent, and the ability is close range. The range of this ability becomes medium if you posses the extended range infusion wild talent, or far if you possess the extreme range infusion wild talent.
You may also create minor glamours as a form of disguise or to trick enemies. This grants the target creature a +2 bonus to Disguise checks and a +1 dodge bonus to AC against ranged attacks (but not against ranged touch attacks such as rays or against especially large projectiles like ballista bolts). This bonus lasts 1 hour or until Basic Photokinesis is used again, whichever comes first.
Imaginary Friends
Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 4; Burn 2
This functions as the shadow conjuration spell, except that it may only mimic summon monster III.
Imaginary Friends, Greater
Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 9; Burn 4
This functions as the greater shadow conjuration spell, except that it may only mimic summon monster VI.
Lightshaper
Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 3; Burn -
When you use a light blast, light wild talent, or composite blast that include light that require a Reflex save, your target must make a Will save as well and use the lesser result against it.
Glowing Form
Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 6; Burn 1
Prerequisite(s) Blinking FormThe illusions surrounding you glow brightly until the next time your burn is removed. This creates bright light around you to a radius of 10 feet, and increases the level of light two stages up to 20 feet away and one stage up to 40 feet away. This otherwise functions as shimmering mirage.
Brighteyes
Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 2; Burn -
Functions as eyes of the void.
Brighteyes, Greater
Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 5; Burn -
Prerequisite(s) BrighteyesFunctions as greater eyes of the void.
Light Step
Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 2; Burn -
You can walk across beams of light as if they were solid surfaces. The beam must be visibly brighter than the surrounding area and in a shape that could feasibly be walked upon were it truly solid. If the light vanishes, you fall as if a solid object you were walking on had simply blinked out of existence.
Light Disc
Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 5; Burn 1
Prerequisite(s) Light StepYou can create a disc of light upon which you may stand that can be ridden into the air. As a move action, you may have the disc move in any direction, including vertical, at you normal walk speed. You may also accept an additional 1 burn to move the disc as a swift action instead.
Gemini Image
Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 9; Burn 0
This functions as the psychic image spell, except it may only be used for a number of rounds equal to your Con modifier per day, and you may extend that by an additional round by accepting 1 burn.
Dawning Light
Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 9; Burn 2
You create a brilliant orb of light in the sky as bright as the sun, illuminating the surroundings within a mile radius as if it were daytime, regardless of the actual time of day. You must concentrate to maintain this effect, or you may accept an additional 1 burn to maintain it for 10 minutes without the need to concentrate. Once the duration ends, the affected area will slowly return to the appropriate level of light for the time of day over the course of 1 minute.
- Kinetic Cover: Add light element.
- Kinetic Healer: Add light element.
- Veil of Mists: Add light element.
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I like the idea of a light kineticist but there's no such thing as "light damage." I consider it pretty bad form to invent new types of energy damage for a variety of reasons. It's one thing that really ticked me off in 4th Edition and 5th Edition, which added a bunch of new types of damage that made it feel very video gamey.
I gotta side with Cyrad here. New damage types usually add little of value to the game and only makes things really hard to balance and integrate with pre-existing material.
You could possibly make the light stuff half cold and half fire? I'm not sure why, but it strikes me as thematically appropriate for light, for some reason. You could then add a higher-level wild talent later on that deals a portion of its damage in the form of "pure light", functioning like the divine damage inflicted via the flame strike spell.
Otherwise, I also like the idea of a photokineticist; it definitely feels like something that's missing.
Cheers,
- Gears
I like the idea of a light kineticist but there's no such thing as "light damage." I consider it pretty bad form to invent new types of energy damage for a variety of reasons. It's one thing that really ticked me off in 4th Edition and 5th Edition, which added a bunch of new types of damage that made it feel very video gamey.
Pathfinder already has light damage - it's just used very rarely. Searing light, sunbeam, etc. Because it's rare, you didn't find any defenses against them. It made it very effective.
Likewise there are other rare damage types that are great for bypassing resistances when you can get them.
4e standardized the types of damage. There are ten types. Because they aren't corner cases, there are ways to get resistances against them so you don't have one uber-type.
I'm not sure that is technically true, Philo Pharynx. I mean, I agree that you could call the sort of damage done by searing light "light damage"; the fluff of the spell certainly implies you're using light to deal damage. That is not, however, quite the same thing as there existing such a damage type. I mean, it never says it deals "1d8 points of light damage per two caster levels (maximum 5d8)", it only says "1d8 points of damage per two caster levels (maximum 5d8)".
Be that as it may, I don't think it's terribly germane to the point at hand. The problem with creating a kineticist element that gets to deal "light" damage at will is that, as noted, no creature is resistant or immune to it. It is effectively force damage, except it has none of the drawbacks of force damage (few in number though they are).
The point here is that it will be much easier to balance this element if the "light damage" thing is swapped out for something conforming to the standard, common damage types.
Cheers,
- Gears
Force damage is granted at 50% because it bypasses all DR and resistance. "Light damage" should have restrictions on it or be treated the same way. The simplest option is to treat it like fire, but you could also have it use d4s (much stronger than 50%). It could give a fort save for half, perhaps? Maybe it doesn't affect fey or those with fey-like Magic (gnomes, Druids, fey bloodline users, and GM discretion) putting it in line with Void.
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Light kineticists as a concept seems okay. Name wise, they should be called Photon Kineticist's, deriving their power from some Alternate mix of elements rather than some core elemental plane(much like Wood kineticist draw their power from the first world grinding against the elemental and material planes of fire, Water, Earth, and Air). Maybe for that mix you could get the closest thing to a Photon based beam attack.
Also How does light not have the ability to temporarily blind opponents with a blast of light.
I like the idea of a light kineticist but there's no such thing as "light damage." I consider it pretty bad form to invent new types of energy damage for a variety of reasons. It's one thing that really ticked me off in 4th Edition and 5th Edition, which added a bunch of new types of damage that made it feel very video gamey.
I gotta side with Cyrad here. New damage types usually add little of value to the game and only makes things really hard to balance and integrate with pre-existing material.
You could possibly make the light stuff half cold and half fire? I'm not sure why, but it strikes me as thematically appropriate for light, for some reason. You could then add a higher-level wild talent later on that deals a portion of its damage in the form of "pure light", functioning like the divine damage inflicted via the flame strike spell.
Otherwise, I also like the idea of a photokineticist; it definitely feels like something that's missing.
Cheers,
- Gears
Understandable. I was a little concerned by the typing myself, honestly. There's a few possibilities I can think of that might work in place of using light as an energy type:
- Have each blast deal, in full or in part, a physical type of damage, except used as an energy type. Light blast and illusory blast could be choice of physicals, laser blast would be piercing/electric, lunatic blast would be slashing/negative energy, sun blast would be fire/bludgeoning or piercing, and stellar blast would be force/choice of physicals. That would be a bit odd since it makes the blasts susceptible to most types of DR on top of spell resistance, but it's one solution.
- Another possibility is making it all positive energy, but with the stipulation that it deals half damage to creatures that would normally resist or be healed by positive energy. This would really make it hard to use if your campaign is sparse on undeads and other beasties affiliated with negative energy.
- As Gears suggested, I could just have "light" damage be half cold, half fire. This seems a little odd to me, though, especially in conjunction with the Fire and Water elements. And how would I treat the composite blasts' damage? Would laser blast be one third each energy type damage, or would it be a quarter cold, a quarter fire, and half electric? It seems a bit too math-oriented to me, and I don't much like the idea of stepping on Fire and Water's toes too much (especially Fire, since this element's taking a lot of things from it).
- Instead of having it deal a specific type of damage, have all light blasts and composites that use light treated as illusion (pattern) spells with the light descriptor? This somewhat defeats the purpose of them by allowing enemies to use both their Will and Dex saves to ignore the effects, and one of the draws of energy attacks is that they hit more easily (since they go against Touch AC rather than regular AC).
Honestly, though, I'm thinking just having Light as a damage type isn't that big of a problem. Considering this is a homebrew element anyway, any DM who allows it could easily enough gear his campaign to help balance its usefulness out (such as giving some of the mobs resistance to light or using enemies with high levels of spell resistance; a photokineticist would have to either rely on their secondary elements' physical blasts, Pure-Flame Infusion, or a physical weapon to handle such enemies).
The main goal I had for the photokineticist was to have something that can utilize purely energy attacks without sacrificing a lot of power. There are a number of ways to get nothing but energy blasts: pure fire, fire/fire/water, fire/fire/air, fire/fire/void, fire/air/void, fire/air/water, fire/water/void, and water/air/void (with water limited to cold blast, air limited to electric blast, and void limited to negative blast). The problem is that you can't go with the triple-element variants and get more than a simple blast's damage; you NEED blue flame blast to do that. Adding photokineticist to the mix provides four composite energy blasts that actually deal damage as composite blasts, and adds an interesting side option for aether users (albeit not the most useful one). Light/air/fire would be an interesting one, given that you get laser and sun blasts, both of which are great for handling clusters of mobs with chain and explosion infusions, respectively. Fire/fire/light would also be a good alternative to pure fire, allowing you to have sun blast act as an alternate to blue flame blast in the event that there's enemies that neutralize or resist fire damage.
Anyone have thoughts on the individual wild talents, damage type issues notwithstanding? Too many, too few, too strong, too weak?
Ah, additionally, there's a couple of errata I want to make involving some of the new wild talents I made for the light element:
Shimmering Infusion
Element(s) light; Type substance infusion; Level 6; Burn 4
Associated Blasts illusory, laser, lunatic, light, stellar, sun
Saving Throw Will negates
Your infused blast creates a dazzling display. Those within 20 feet of the target (or are within the area if the blast takes the shape of a line, cone, or area of effect) must make a Will save, and if they fail, become fascinated for 1 round.This does not affect creatures that take damage from this blast, nor does it affect creatures that cannot see or are immune to illusion effects.This is treated as an illusion (pattern) [mind-affecting] effect, and does not affect creatures that cannot see, and it automatically fails against creatures damaged by the infused blast.
Brighteyes
Element light; Type utility(Sp)(Su); Level 2; Burn -
Functions as eyes of the void.
Brighteyes, Greater
Element light; Type utility(Sp)(Su); Level 5; Burn -
Prerequisite(s) Brighteyes
Functions as greater eyes of the void.
Lightshaper
Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 3; Burn-0
When you use a light blast, light wild talent, or composite blast that include lightthat require a Reflex save, your target must make a Will save as well and use the lesser result against it.you may choose to have it treated as an illusion (phantasm) effect. If you do, targets must make a Will save instead of a Reflex save to negate. This does not affect shimmering infusion's effect.
What this means is that by taking this defense wild talent (either by choosing light as your primary element, or by picking it as an expanded element and gaining the expanded defense wild talent), here's what your Will save bonus will look like:
1st - +0
2nd - +1 (0 from class, 1 from BF)
3rd/4th/5th - +2/3 (1 from class, 1 from BF, up to 1 from burning BF)
6th/7th - +3/5 (2 from class, 1 from BF, up to 2 from burning BF)
8th - +4/6 (2 from class, 2 from BF, up to 2 from burning BF)
9th/10th/11th - +5/8 (3 from class, 2 from BF, up to 3 from burning BF)
12th/13th - +6/10 (4 from class, 2 from BF, up to 4 from burning BF)
14th - +7/11 (4 from class, 3 from BF, up to 4 from burning BF)
15th/16th/17th - +8/13 (5 from class, 3 from BF, up to 5 from burning BF)
18th/19th - +9/15 (6 from class, 3 from BF, up to 6 from burning BF)
20th - +10/16 (6 from class, 4 from BF, up to 6 from burning BF)
The whole purpose of the talent is to shore up your Will saves; the bonuses end up ranging from slightly less than Fort/Ref to a fair bit better. I'm honestly worried this may be imbalanced, even with blinking form having no other bonuses, but hey, maybe not...
In addition to feeling like lazy design, adding new damage types annoys me because new types very rarely have any in-world analog or lore behind it. Both of these things are very important in a roleplaying game. Fire, acid, cold, and electricity damage all have explanations to how they work and what they are. There's entire real-world fields of study dedicated to thermodynamics, electromagnetics, and chemistry. D&D/PF even explains how positive and negative energy work, where it comes from, and how it's integral to the multiverse. Pulling a new type of damage out of your bum without any significant narrative behind it adds nothing to the game except more needless complication.
Understandable. I was a little concerned by the typing myself, honestly. There's a few possibilities I can think of that might work in place of using light as an energy type:
I honestly suggest turning this into an archetype rather than introducing an entirely new element. This gives you additional creative freedom without the burden of supporting an entire element. You can focus on what sets your concept apart. For example, maybe you could grant abilities that cause your blast to deal fire damage or cold damage depending on whether you attack with sunlight or moonlight.
I like the idea of a light kineticist but there's no such thing as "light damage." I consider it pretty bad form to invent new types of energy damage for a variety of reasons. It's one thing that really ticked me off in 4th Edition and 5th Edition, which added a bunch of new types of damage that made it feel very video gamey.Um...what?
5e added two damage types that didn't already exist in 3.PF.
5th Edition inherited necrotic, radiant, poison, and psychic damage from 4th Edition. Radiant and necrotic are not the same as positive and negative energy. Positive/negative energy exist as an actual phenomena in the game world. 4th Edition removed that lore, lumped the concepts with alignment-descriptors (despite positive/negative energy having almost nothing to do with alignments), and then abstracted it as a type of damage in a video gamey fashion.
I like the idea of a light kineticist but there's no such thing as "light damage." I consider it pretty bad form to invent new types of energy damage for a variety of reasons. It's one thing that really ticked me off in 4th Edition and 5th Edition, which added a bunch of new types of damage that made it feel very video gamey.Pathfinder already has light damage - it's just used very rarely. Searing light, sunbeam, etc. Because it's rare, you didn't find any defenses against them. It made it very effective.
Searing light and sunbeam deal typeless damage. There's no such thing as "light damage." The spell needs to specifically say so.
Radiant and Necrotic are Positive Energy & Negative Energy with snappier (and in my opinion more evocative) names. The only thing that was different about them was that Radiant could sometimes hurt living creatures, but then the Positive Energy Plane explodes people who stay there long enough already.
Radiant and Necrotic are Positive Energy & Negative Energy with snappier (and in my opinion more evocative) names. The only thing that was different about them was that Radiant could sometimes hurt living creatures, but then the Positive Energy Plane explodes people who stay there long enough already.
I admit those are more evocative names, but they're not the same, especially in 4th Edition. In 4th Edition, fiends are vulnerable to radiant damage.
Two things:
1) I agree that a "light" kineticist using positive energy (and fire? something else?) would make sense, especially with void using negative energy (and gravity).
2) Fire is probably the closest element, especially since lasers (in the Technology Guide) do fire damage. You could probably have "light blasts" do fire energy damage, but bypass force effects and ignore cover from transparent physical barriers (as with laser weapons).
In addition to feeling like lazy design, adding new damage types annoys me because new types very rarely have any in-world analog or lore behind it. Both of these things are very important in a roleplaying game. Fire, acid, cold, and electricity damage all have explanations to how they work and what they are. There's entire real-world fields of study dedicated to thermodynamics, electromagnetics, and chemistry. D&D/PF even explains how positive and negative energy work, where it comes from, and how it's integral to the multiverse. Pulling a new type of damage out of your bum without any significant narrative behind it adds nothing to the game except more needless complication.
I know where you're coming from with this, but I really don't fully agree. You seem to be implying nobody's studied the dynamics of how light works in the real world, or that it's impossible for a DM to create some backstory to support light if he chooses to accept it or offer it as an option. Or they could adapt some rules from 4th/5th, bringing in creatures that have some interaction with radiant damage and treating "light" damage as such. If you were to use a ready-made campaign, yes, light damage would be a problem, but if you're not using a homebrew campaign, why would you allow a homebrew kineticist element?
Understandable. I was a little concerned by the typing myself, honestly. There's a few possibilities I can think of that might work in place of using light as an energy type:I honestly suggest turning this into an archetype rather than introducing an entirely new element. This gives you additional creative freedom without the burden of supporting an entire element. You can focus on what sets your concept apart. For example, maybe you could grant abilities that cause your blast to deal fire damage or cold damage depending on whether you attack with sunlight or moonlight.
I don't think an archetype would quite work, though. An archetype alters the existing rules of a class, replacing certain features of that class for other features. However, I'm trying to have something that will work within the mechanics of the class as they are now. Essentially like adding a slew of homebrew spells to include in the bard spell list, or creating new hexes for the witch and shaman classes.
That said, what you describe would be an interesting archetype. Reminds me a bit of Shaman's Wandering Spirit feature. Perhaps have it apply to both extended elements, at the cost of being unable to use talents native to those elements, but automatically gaining a kinetic blast and all descending composite blasts.
But that's neither here nor there when it comes to this light element. Having it shift based on the time of day is not what I wanted to achieve with this, and I don't want it to play much more differently from any other element versus how differently the official elements play from one another. Honestly, I'd be happy just to consider this sonic damage if that would make sense, but I want this all to be based in light, and light is a visual, not auditory. And acid would make more sense as a basic energy blast attached to wood or earth, not really needing a whole new element. I'm not especially a fan of combining cold and fire damage on a basic element, either, for reasons I already stated (the damage splitting for composite blasts becomes too complicated, and it just brings this element too close to fire for what I want for it).
I suppose in the end, the main reason I want this is to enhance the energy type elements in some new way. For example, a light/fire kineticist would be a stronger healer thanks to sun blast, which would work with positive energy infusion, explosion, and fire's fury (although I think I could tweak PEI to halve the amount for the healing rather than quarter it). A light/air kineticist would be able to deal insane damage to clustered enemies via laser blast with chain infusion. It helps out water without water even needing to use light, since one could utilize PEI with extended range or spray or torrent, or do a full-action kinetic blade/whip to heal more than kinetic healer would and without applying burn to the target (though, again, I'd need to adjust PEI's numbers for that to work well). Aether users could PEI to safely anchor onto objects and allies via force hook without needing to risk them being destroyed.
Perhaps I could do as was earlier suggested and switch the "light" damage to positive energy, but under the stipulation that it deals half damage to those that would normally be healed by or immune to it? I don't much like the idea of changing the rules for how a type of energy works, but using light as a type of energy damage is clearly not proving any more popular, and there's not a lot of other solutions I'm liking much that'd make a lick of sense. And void already alters how negative energy works with negative blast/negative admixture/void blast. I'm fully against having it as fire, however; if I was going to do that, I'd just have associated this whole slew of abilities directly to fire and ended up making fire incredibly OP versus every other kineticist.
Yeesh. I never would have gotten this much guff if I'd tried making an audiokineticist. XD
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Light being only positive energy probably does't work out well. If you are dealing out -5 5d6 points of damage and 5d6 points of damage against certain enemy types, the element is inferior to some of the other better options. This i agree with Onyx completely.
How this could be dealt with and still include context for its connections to the positive energy plane is to do a similar thing to the wood kineticist, with the power being more drawn from the sudden violent flaring of the fires of creation(the cosmic fire) like cinders 'popping' of an actual fire. These 'cinders' or flares penetrate or bounce off the main elemental plains, gathering additional elemental energy from them as they are repelled, their wavelengths to similar to allow passage though, like a stone hitting the hard earth rather than the less ridged surface of water.
To make this work you have to take these other elements into account and also how these flares return back to the material plane and interact with it. a ray returning from the plane of fire could be fierce and scorching like a heat ray, but also potentially warm and life giving like the sun. its this potential precise versitile nature that help make photokineticist unique. Void for example had 2 blast types. the first was physical(gravity) while the other was directly linked to negative energy. Maybe Photon blast(a lower damage dice of untyped energy damage) and creation blast(a Positive energy blast type, with some tweaking done).
These are just some rough ideas on how to do this but i hope this helps.
Edit. Photon blasts are(in my brain space) fromed from the positive energy flares losing energy with distance and passing through all the elemental planes, being reflected/refracted off the astral and potentially picking up some elemental energy from the planes it passes through, some more than others sometimes, before returning to the marterial plain. A normal photon blast picks up energy but the elements cancel each other out, leaving a blast with no true element. This is used more for offence by kineticists. The creation blasts however are still charged with some energy from the positive energy plane, causing limited harm to living beings and devastating harm to creatures that draw on the negative energy plane to support their existances. This tends to be weilded more as a tool to purge creatures of negative energy, or to heal the wounded or afflicted.
Actually, I really like Dragonchess Player's suggestion of using Technology Guide's lasers. Making the blasts fire (or cold for moonlight) with effects that interact with creatures and objects differently sounds like the best approach to creating an element using light.
Yeesh. I never would have gotten this much guff if I'd tried making an audiokineticist. XD
I've never been a big fan of sonic damage, but at least it makes some sense and is already an established energy type in the game. Damaging light doesn't make any sense unless you intend to design spells that cause skin cancer. If it burns things, then it should be fire damage.
To me, it would be like if you made a "water" energy type. It's unnecessary and hard to justify why it couldn't be cold or bludgeoning damage.
Another thing to consider is that making a new energy type would require you to greatly weaken your element. By virtue of having less effects and resistances in the game that interact with the energy type, the tlement would end up stronger than the other elements.
Aight, I'm studying the current spells in the game that deal untyped "light" damage, such as Sunbeam, Judgement Light (Destruction), Burst of Radiance, Searing Light, etc., trying to see common threads that could make the damage from these light blasts balanced without either making an actual new damage type or switching this to another type. So far, the things in common are about what one would expect: extra damage against undead and light-sensitive foes and a lean toward the divine when it comes to who casts them. I've also dug through illusion spells, but don't seem to find a whole lot that deal damage (although that was pretty much expected).
Thematically, though, it seems like illusions of the shadow subtype so more or less what I imagine things like light blast do, only mine is a bit of a subversion on that. As I say in the description, photokineticists bend and shape light to their will, as if it were a form of matter. I like how ErisAcolyte brought photons in as part of the mechanics for how this works, and I think I'd go a similar route, having the light used for photokineticists be photons psychokinetically compressed into something not unlike actual matter. This means I could feasibly give it a physical type of damage while leaving it an energy attack, or I could just leave it untyped and give it and its composites special properties, much like how negative blast's negative energy was treated such that void blast and negative admixture can still be used to damage undead (although in those cases it'd only make sense if the undead is in a cluster with other living enemy targets, but is an undead you'd still want to remove the un- prefix from).
I think ultimately having this damage the same way the sunbeam and sunburst spells damage would be best. Against creatures for which sunlight is harmful or unnatural, as well as undeads, fungi, mold, oozes, or slimes, the d6s are advanced to d8s. Against constructs, objects, and creatures that are naturally blind, they become d3s. This means that a photokineticist would be a strong combatant in campaigns where your party invades a vampire's lair or traverses a dank cavern rife with ooze monsters, but would be less useful fighting in an ancient tower protected by golems, or for trying to destroy a lich's philactory.
That said, I should go ahead and do an errata update:
Element(s) light; Type simple blast (Sp); Level -; Burn 0;
LightPhoton Blast
Blast Type: energy; Damagelightspecial (see below)You condense photons into a blast of pure light energy.
When rolling damage dealt by this blast or any of its composite blasts against undeads, fungi, mold, oozes, slimes, or any creature for which sunlight is harmful, roll d8s for the untyped portion of this damage rather than d6s.
Against constructs, non-living objects, and creatures that are naturally blind (but not those that are affected by non-permanent blindness), roll d3s instead.
Anything that would ordinarily have "light blast" as a prerequisite uses "photon blast" instead. The blasts that use "light" as a partial damage type would instead read "half X, half special (see photon blast)." As an example, at 20th level, only taking its raw damage into account, sun blast would normally be rolled as 20d6+Con (half fire, half untyped), but against light-sensitives it would be rolled as 10d6 fire and 10d8 untyped damage + Con, and against non-living things it would be 10d6 fire and 10d3 untyped + Con.
Illusory Blast
Element(s) light; Type composite blast (Sp); Level -; Burn 2;
Prerequisite(s) primary element (light), expanded element (light)
Blast Type: energy; Damagelightbludgeoning, piercing, or slashing (see below)You consolidate light into phantasmal shapes that surround and attack the foe. Creatures that are unaffected by illusions take no damage from this blast; otherwise, it deals your choice of bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing energy damage.
Positive Energy Infusion
Element(s) aether, light, or water; Type substance infusion; Level 4; Burn 3
Prerequisite(s) kinetic healer
Associated Blasts water, force,lightphoton, sun
Saving Throw none
Your infused blast is charged with positive energy. If it hits a target that would be healed by positive energy, that target is healed by1/41/2 the amount of damage the blast would have normally caused. If the target isundead (or would otherwise be damaged by positive energy)damaged by positive energy, the blast deals damage as normal.
Pathfinder Unchained, page 101, section regarding Removing Alignment
It is out of context, but they do mention Radiant and Shadow damage replacing Holy and Unholy respectively. *shrug* Thought it might be useful for you in your regards to thinking about damage type.
Either way you decide to go, I love to see new takes on the Kineticist.
EDIT: I should mention that it means in regards to overcoming DR that states DR 5/Good changing to DR 5/Radiant.
Just a couple notes on some minor things I noticed on a quick read-through.
Blinking Form (the defense talent) provides a "+1 enhancement bonus to Will saves". I don't believe saving throws ever gain enhancement bonuses - they generally receive resistance bonuses instead. This would also mimic the other defense talents (water, phyto) that replace items. That said, perhaps an untyped bonus is a better idea to allow stacking with a Cloak of Resistance - because the bonus (usually) only applies to a single save, I don't think I can see most characters forgoing the cloak.
Also, the Positive Energy infusion says "If it hits a target that would be healed by positive energy, that target is healed by 1/4 the amount of damage the blast would have normally caused." You probably want to change that line to "... that target is instead healed..." to clarify that the target doesn't gain the healing in addition to the regular damage :)
Shimmering Infusion reads "must make a Will save, and if they fail, become fascinated for 1 round." I believe the typical phrasing is "must make a Will save or become fascinated for 1 round." Additionally, the term is generally "sightless creatures" rather than "creatures that cannot see". I'd suggest tightening up the wording to "This does not affect creatures that take damage from this blast, sightless creatures, or creatures immune to illusion effects."
A couple balance notes:
Imaginary Friends (and Greater) is an interesting idea, but I don't think it's ever worth the burn. The worst use of Shadow Conjuration is for Summon Monster - you get 20% HP, and sometimes 20% damage. (Incidentally: is the Will save Constitution-based? 10 + Con + 1/2 level?)
In the other direction, Lightshaper seems really strong. Forcing a second save is generally worth around +3 to +4 to the save DC. The fact that it's a Will save instead of a Reflex save doesn't really offset that in my opinion - I think that in many cases it will be more advantageous to force a Will save.
For an always-on thing, it seems a little much. Perhaps those better versed in theorycraft will disagree, but that's my gut reaction.
The problem you don't quite see there I think is modifiers. If you deal 10d6+cha, going to 10d3+cha is devastating. If I do 10d6+con+empower+overflow+misc+3d6 from my headband, going from 10d6 to 10d3 is losing me an average of... 3.5x10=35, 1.5x10=15, 20 damage. This is nothing compared to the 90 I'd be doing, oh no Im *only* doing as much damage as the Pyro does vs a resist 20 monster. How sad for me. And nothing is immune ever, and some things take more.
Adjusting damage dice alone will be sadly insufficient to deal with this kind of situation. It helps, but a static 1/2 damage would do *far* more to make thsee numbers reasonable, since so much of our damage is done by bonuses.
Gotcha. I didn't want to make it a straight 1.5x or 1/2, but it seems like it'd be better to do it that way both due to simpler wording and better balance. Do you think I should make constructs and objects immune to this damage instead of halving it, though? And what sort of multiplier would seem fair to apply to sun-haters? Would 1.5x be good enough, or should it be increased or decreased?
Pathfinder Unchained, page 101, section regarding Removing Alignment
It is out of context, but they do mention Radiant and Shadow damage replacing Holy and Unholy respectively. *shrug* Thought it might be useful for you in your regards to thinking about damage type.
Either way you decide to go, I love to see new takes on the Kineticist.
EDIT: I should mention that it means in regards to overcoming DR that states DR 5/Good changing to DR 5/Radiant.
Much appreciated on that. This offers me two possible options: either do like I'm doing now with the untyped, specialized multipliers, or just call it radiant damage. I think the problem there is that I don't want photokineticists to be forced into good alignment, and allowing an evil character to bypass DR/good might give him too powerful a niche against other evil creatures that many other evil players might have trouble handling. But then that could easily just be up to the DM to determine, since that'd give an evil photokineticist his time to shine in the campaign (pun only somewhat intended).
Just a couple notes on some minor things I noticed on a quick read-through.
Blinking Form (the defense talent) provides a "+1 enhancement bonus to Will saves". I don't believe saving throws ever gain enhancement bonuses - they generally receive resistance bonuses instead. This would also mimic the other defense talents (water, phyto) that replace items. That said, perhaps an untyped bonus is a better idea to allow stacking with a Cloak of Resistance - because the bonus (usually) only applies to a single save, I don't think I can see most characters forgoing the cloak.
Also, the Positive Energy infusion says "If it hits a target that would be healed by positive energy, that target is healed by 1/4 the amount of damage the blast would have normally caused." You probably want to change that line to "... that target is instead healed..." to clarify that the target doesn't gain the healing in addition to the regular damage :)
Shimmering Infusion reads "must make a Will save, and if they fail, become fascinated for 1 round." I believe the typical phrasing is "must make a Will save or become fascinated for 1 round." Additionally, the term is generally "sightless creatures" rather than "creatures that cannot see". I'd suggest tightening up the wording to "This does not affect creatures that take damage from this blast, sightless creatures, or creatures immune to illusion effects."
A couple balance notes:
Imaginary Friends (and Greater) is an interesting idea, but I don't think it's ever worth the burn. The worst use of Shadow Conjuration is for Summon Monster - you get 20% HP, and sometimes 20% damage. (Incidentally: is the Will save Constitution-based? 10 + Con + 1/2 level?)
In the other direction, Lightshaper seems really strong. Forcing a second save is generally worth around +3 to +4 to the save DC. The fact that it's a Will...
Thanks for the criticism on the wording and balance for these abilities. There's a couple of them that you missed my later errata on, but for the most part I appreciate the advice. I'll take it one ability at a time:
Blinking Form: Easy fix. It doesn't need to be typed, really, and giving it a type that it normally wouldn't get is no different from not giving it a type at all.
Positive Energy Infusion: Again, simple fix. I errata'd it to be 1/2 healing instead of 1/4 though. You didn't mention the 1/4 being imbalanced... do you think 1/2 would be too much for that 3 Burn? Doing so would allow a sun blast to heal as much as kinetic healer, but at range and without the option of applying burn to the healed creature.
Shimmering Infusion: More wording fixes. I can do that.
Imaginary Friends: For this, I was intending to make photokineticist slightly better at summoning than the average kineticist by allowing them to summon illusion monsters. Shadow conjuration seemed the closest equivalent, but I may need to rework this.
Lightshaper: This one's gotten an errata change beforehand. Rather than being something that's always on, it allows the player to choose whether those affected by a particular light blast use a Ref save as normal or a Will save, rather than having the affected roll both and take the lesser regardless. This makes it a little more balanced IMO since, unless the player is using the blood kineticist archetype or has some means to know whether the target has a better Ref or Will save, it's something of a gamble.
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Alrighty, I'ma just go ahead with a full rewrite on the entire element. There's a lot of errata to include, and I also wanna expand a little more on the infusions and utility talents. Anyone who happens to be watching this or have interest, please refer to this as the current "canon" version. (As a side note, it's a shame I can't edit my first post to say as much...)
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Kineticists who focus on the element of light are called photokineticists. They can control light particles in the same way most kineticists control matter, bending and shaping them as they will. This allows the use of powerful attacks made of pure light, illusions that can be used to trick others, and dispels the darkness around them.
Photokineticists' sensitivity to light allows them to more easily track the movements of the sun, moon, and stars in relation to where they are, as well as giving them skill in disguising themselves with their illusory techniques. They gain Disguise and Knowledge (Geography) as class skills.
Photon Blast
Element(s) light; Type simple blast (Sp); Level -; Burn 0;
Blast Type: energy; Damage special (see below)You condense photons into a blast of pure light energy. Damage dealt by this blast or any of its composite blasts against undeads, fungi, mold, oozes, slimes, or any creature for which sunlight is harmful is increased by 50% for this portion of damage. It does not affect constructs, non-living objects, or to sightless creatures (but does affect creatures affected by temporary blindness).
Illusory Blast
Element(s) light; Type composite blast (Sp); Level -; Burn 2;
Prerequisite(s) primary element (light), expanded element (light)
Blast Type: energy; Damage bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing (see below)You consolidate light into phantasmal shapes that surround and attack the foe. Creatures that are unaffected by illusions take no damage from this blast; otherwise, it deals your choice of bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing energy damage.
Laser Blast
Element(s) air, light; Type composite blast (Sp); Level -; Burn 2;
Prerequisite(s) electric blast , photon blast
Blast Type: energy; Damage half electric, half special (see photon blast)You create a penetrating beam of light that you fire at an enemy.
Lunatic Blast
Element(s) light, void; Type composite blast (Sp); Level -; Burn 2;
Prerequisite(s) negative blast, photon blast
Blast Type: energy; Damage half negative energy, half special (see photon blast)You conjure power from the shadows, creating a crescent-shaped blast of light that you fling toward the foe.
Stellar Blast
Element(s) aether, light; Type composite blast (Sp); Level -; Burn 2;
Prerequisite(s) photon blast, telekinetic blast
Blast Type: varies (see text); Damage varies (see text)Star-shaped points of light form at your fingertips. You may fire these immediately, in which case your stellar blast deals damage as a simple energy blast, and using half as force damage and half as nontyped damage that functions as described in photon blast.
You may instead use this blast as part of a telekinetic blast and treat the points of light as if they were unattended objects with 0 Hardness, 1 HP, and no other special qualities, and the points of light dissipate immediately after being used for the telekinetic blast even if the attack misses. If this is used as part of a telekinetic blast, you may not apply a form infusion to the telekinetic blast.
Sun Blast
Element(s) fire, light; Type composite blast (Sp); Level -; Burn 2;
Prerequisite(s) fire blast, photon blast
Blast Type: energy; Damage half fire, half special (see photon blast)You form a globe of blistering solar energy that you then launch at an enemy.
Blinking Form
Element light; Type defense; Level -; Burn 0Your body emits an eerie glow that acts as a shell to protect you from ill effects. You receive a +1 bonus to Will saves, which increases by 1 for every 6 Kineticist levels beyond 2nd. You may accept 1 point of burn to increase this bonus by an additional +1, up to as much as your Kineticist levels would naturally grant, until the next time your burn is removed. This bonus stacks with the bonus from the emptiness defense wild talent. Whenever you accept burn while using a light wild talent, apply half of this bonus to your Fort and Ref saves for 1 round.
You can dismiss or restore this affect as an immediate action.
Mirror Trap Infusion
Element(s) light; Type form infusion; Level 6; Burn 4
Associated Blasts illusory, laser, lunatic, photon, stellar, sun
Saving Throw none
Your blast manifests as a mirror image of yourself (as the silent image spell) that persists for 1 minute. The image is treated as having a threat range of 30 feet, regardless of its size. If a creature moves through the image's threatened spaces, the image automatically and instantly transforms into the infused blast and targets that creature, dealing half that blast's damage; this effect can be canceled as an instant action if the threatening creature is within your line of sight. The image dissipates as soon as it is triggered, and will also dissipate if you are further than 120 feet from it, it is successfully dispelled, or you use another mirror trap infused blast.
Positive Energy Infusion
Element(s) aether, light, or water; Type substance infusion; Level 4; Burn 3
Prerequisite(s) kinetic healer
Associated Blasts water, force, light photon, sun
Saving Throw noneYour infused blast is charged with positive energy, replacing its normal damage types. If it hits a creature that would be healed by positive energy, that creature is instead healed by 1/2 the amount of damage the blast would have normally caused. If the creature is normally damaged by positive energy, the blast deals its damage to that creature as normal.
Ray Infusion
Element(s) aether, air, fire, light, void, or water; Type form infusion; Level 1; Burn 1
Associated Blasts blue flame, cold, electric, fire, force, illusory, laser, light, lunatic, negative, stellar, sun
Saving Throw noneYour kinetic blast takes the shape of a straight beam, and is treated as a ray as well as a kinetic blast for the purpose of feats (such as weapon focus (ray)) and any other effects that would affect rays (so, for example, your infused blast would not incur the normal miss chance against creatures affected by enveloping winds whom haven't accepted burn on an air talent that round).
Shimmering Infusion
Element(s) light; Type substance infusion; Level 6; Burn 4
Associated Blasts illusory, laser, lunatic, photon, stellar, sun
Saving Throw Will negatesYour infused blast creates a dazzling display. Those within 20 feet of the target (or are within the area if the blast takes the shape of a line, cone, or area of effect) must make a Will save to disbelieve or else become fascinated for 1 round. This is treated as an illusion (pattern) [mind-affecting] effect, and does not affect creatures damaged by this blast, creatures immune to illusions or mind-affecting effects, or sightless creatures (but may affect creatures affected by temporary blindness).
- Brilliant Infusion: Now considered fire or light element, and is associated with blue flame, fire, illusory, laser, lunatic, photon, plasma, stellar, and sun blasts.
- Chain: Now associated with electric and laser blasts. Each successive hit from laser blast reduces its damage by 2d6 rather than 1d6.
- Cloud: Now considered air, light, or water element, and is associated with blizzard, illusory, sandstorm, steam, sun, and thunderstorm blasts.
- Explosion: Now associated with blue flame, fire, photon, and sun blasts.
- Flash Infusion: Now considered fire or light element, and is associated with blue flame, fire, illusory, laser, lunatic, photon, plasma, stellar, and sun blasts.
- Pure-Flame Infusion: Now associated with blue flame and sun blasts.
- Spray: Now considered light or water element, and is associated with charged water, lunatic, photon, stellar, sun, and water blasts.
- Torrent: Now considered air, fire, light, or water element, and is associated with air, blizzard, blue flame, charged water, electric, fire, laser, magma, mud, photon, plasma sandstorm, steam, stellar, thunderstorm, and water blasts.
Basic Photokinesis
Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 1; Burn 0You can create floating lights, as the dancing lights spell, except they last for 1 hour, cannot be made permanent, and the ability is close range. The range of this ability becomes medium if you possess the extended range infusion wild talent, or far if you possess the extreme range infusion wild talent.
You may also create minor glamours as a form of disguise or to trick enemies. This grants the target creature a +2 bonus to Disguise checks and a +1 dodge bonus to AC against ranged attacks (but not against ranged touch attacks such as rays or against especially large projectiles like ballista bolts). This bonus lasts 1 hour or until Basic Photokinesis is used again, whichever comes first.
Brighteyes
Element light; Type utility (Su); Level 2; Burn -Functions as the eyes of the void utility wild talent.
Brighteyes, Greater
Element light; Type utility (Su); Level 5; Burn -
Prerequisite(s) BrighteyesFunctions as the greater eyes of the void utility wild talent.
Dawning Light
Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 9; Burn 2You create a brilliant orb of light in the sky as bright as the sun, illuminating the surroundings within a mile radius as if it were daytime, regardless of the actual time of day. You must concentrate to maintain this effect, or you may accept an additional 1 burn to maintain it for 10 minutes without the need to concentrate. During this effect, magically-created darkness is obliterated from any place the light from this ability can reach. Once the duration ends, the affected area will slowly return to the appropriate level of light for the time of day over the course of 1 minute.
Eversight
Element light; Type utility (Su); Level 4; Burn -
Prerequisite(s) brighteyesYour expertise with the light allows you to see more clearly even through the brightest light and the most intricate illusions. When rolling to avoid being blinded by an effect with the [light] descriptor, add half you kineticist level as a bonus. You may also accept 1 burn to add this bonus to a save made to disbelieve an illusion; this must be done before you make the save.
Gemini Image
Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 9; Burn 0This functions as the psychic image spell, except it may only be used for a number of rounds equal to your Con modifier per day, and you may extend that by an additional round by accepting 1 burn.
Glowing Form
Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 6; Burn 1
Prerequisite(s) blinking formThe illusions surrounding you glow brightly until the next time your burn is removed. This creates bright light around you to a radius of 10 feet, and increases the level of light two stages up to 20 feet away and one stage up to 40 feet away. This otherwise functions as shimmering mirage, except it functions while your blinking form is active rather than shroud of water.
Imaginary Friends
Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 4; Burn 1This functions as the shadow conjuration spell except as follows: the ability may only be used to simulate summon monster III, does not allow spell resistance, and creatures summoned in this way have their full hit points and AC bonuses.
Imaginary Friends, Greater
Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 7; Burn 2
Prerequisite(s) imaginary friendsThis functions as the shadow conjuration spell except as follows: the ability may only be used to simulate summon monster VI, does not allow spell resistance, and creatures summoned in this way have their full hit points and AC bonuses.
Lightshaper
Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 3; Burn 0When you use a photon blast, light wild talent, or composite blast that includes photon blast that requires a Reflex save, you may choose to have it treated as an illusion (phantasm) effect. If you do, targets must make a Will save instead of a Reflex save to negate.
Light Step
Element light; Type utility (Su); Level 2; Burn -You can walk across beams of light as if they were solid surfaces. The beam must be visibly brighter than the surrounding area and in a shape that could feasibly be walked upon were it truly solid. You may also walk on any illusion that others can see, even if you or anyone else disbelieves the illusion. If the light or illusion vanishes while you are standing on it, you fall as if a solid object you were walking on had simply blinked out of existence.
Light Disc
Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 5; Burn 1
Prerequisite(s) light stepYou can create a disc of light upon which you may stand that can be ridden into the air. As a move action, you may have the disc move in any direction, including vertical, at you normal walk speed. You may also accept an additional 1 burn to move the disc as a swift action instead. You may destroy the disc as an immediate action; otherwise, it remains until you are 120 feet away from it or the next time your burn is removed.
Trick of the Light
Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 3; Burn 0
Prerequisite(s) basic photokinesisChoose any one 0-level spell from the universal or illusion schools or that have the [light] descriptor. You may cast this as a spell-like ability at will, but you cannot use any effect that does not create light or a visual illusion (for example, using trick the eyes to cast haunted fey aspect will not allow you to sound like a fey creature, and prestidigitation may only be used to change an object's color). Any time your burn is removed you may change which spell to use. You may take this wild talent multiple times, and choose an additional spell for each time you take it.
- Kinetic Cover: Now considered aether, earth, light, or water element.
- Kinetic Healer: Now considered aether, light, or water element.
- Spark of Life: Photokineticists using this ability with their light element summon positive energy elementals.
- Veil of Mists: Now considered light or water element.
I like Radiant/Necrotic because it allows you to have cantrips of that damage without creating infinite healing for living/undead.
Call it Positive energy damage instead of light, like how void has negative energy damage. Also stipulate that because it is such raw and powerful positive energy, it does not heal, it only hurts.
The plane of positive energy can actually harm you, if you are far enough into it, so it fits well.
Positive energy plane doesn't actually do damage to you. In fact, it's the opposite -- it overheals you. Even negative energy effects hostile to undead don't damage them but instead inflict status conditions.