Basic Chaokinesis (and the void kineticist in general)

[swoosh]

Am I missing something or is this utility talent really not good? Protection from bright light apparently doesn't actually do much of anything and the other two skills seem really, really situational.

But I'm going to expand that to the void kineticist in general. Am I missing something or does the whole category seem weak? Your energy blast is the worst of both worlds where you can't deal with enemies immune to it but can't use it to heal either and you've got a lot of powers that seem to only apply in very, very specific situations beyond that.

[logan grayble]

I don't think many Kineticist elements could stand by themselves. Void seems best mixed with Earth to me.

[Ryzoken]

Basic Chaokinesis: +4 Jump is quite handy at low levels, +50% carry capacity is quite good as well if you dump Str like most kineticists. Armor alone eats through most of your encumbrance, leaving very little to fit your bags of holding, haversacks, clothes, and other tools. BC fixes that by giving you another chunk of weight you can manage. Or, throw it on the party fighter and watch him carry off half a ton of stuff.

What other talents do you have issues with? No Breath is handy for any underwater excursions you may want to do, as well as providing you a solid defense against inhaled poisons or dudes trying to suffocate you. The see in darkness stuff is obviously needed for you to see through your own darkness infusions, and is also handy for general exploration and for fighting drow and demons/devils/daemons/some undead. I guess there's Void Healer, which I agree is pretty niche, but with all the other talents available, you can just skip this one and grab the other cool stuff?

While the negative energy blast does interact strangely with some enemies, it isn't the only blast you can select. I started my chaokineticist with gravity blast precisely due to my worries about facing undead early on, and haven't really regretted it. I'll pick up the negative energy blast at 7, and suspect I'll do just fine with it against the majority of monsters. After all, it's only undead, constructs, and a vanishingly small number of other opponents where the blast is ineffective, and for those I can easily pop back over to gravity nukes.

[lemeres]

The light thing of basic chaokinesis suffers from the same problem that overwhelming souls suffers- it isn't for the usual PCs.

Protection from light would be fantastic if you have light sensitivity, as seen with drow, some dwarf subraces, etc. Most of those races have an option where you abandon the better darkvision option so you can lose light sensitivity. Basic Chaokinesis allows you to avoid having to make that choice.

Also, as I said- it fits into the same niche as overwhelming soul- it can be used by undead kineticists. When you use negative energy, you can heal yourself with void healer. Even if you aren't undead, you can help with a party necromancer.

[Faelyn]

Take a look at the Caligni races from Beastiary 5 and you'll see why Basic Chaokinesis can be amazingly awesome! That race is perfectly suited to being a Chaokineticist.

[Imbicatus]

lemeres wrote:

Also, as I said- it fits into the same niche as overwhelming soul- it can be used by undead kineticists. When you use negative energy, you can heal yourself with void healer.

Unless you are an overwhelming soul, you can never heal yourself with Void Healer if you are undead. It works like Kinetic Healer, and you cannot pay the mandatory burn cost because undead are immune to nonlethal damage and cannot accept burn.