Yes, DR applies to physical blasts.
However
All damage from a kinetic blast is treated as magic for the purpose of bypassing damage reduction.
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my player is arguing that because it is magic it ignores DR.Yes, DR applies to physical blasts.
However
All damage from a kinetic blast is treated as magic for the purpose of bypassing damage reduction.
I'm 99% certain the intended interpretation of that line is that it is treated as a magic weapon for the purpose of overcoming DR - otherwise they would have just said that they're not affected by DR.
I'm 99% certain the intended interpretation of that line is that it is treated as a magic weapon for the purpose of overcoming DR - otherwise they would have just said that they're not affected by DR.my player is arguing that because it is magic it ignores DR.Yes, DR applies to physical blasts.
However
All damage from a kinetic blast is treated as magic for the purpose of bypassing damage reduction.
And they wouldn't give earth an infusion specifically designed for the purpose of hitting substanced based DR.
SEriously though- DR isn't that big of a problem. One big hit and all. After a couple levels, you usually do enough that you always do SOMETHING.
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Physical attacks do bludgeoning. So they can't bypass material DR. Or /slashing and /piercing DR. Thus the Earth blasts get an infusion that lets it bypass material based DR.
All kinetic blasts bypass /magic DR though. And energy blasts ignore such DR entirely, but run afoul of elemental resistance/immunity. As well as spell resistance. Both of which physical blasts ignore. It's a balance issue. To make up for ignoring damage resistances, energy blasts deal less damage. They do d6's and add 1/2 con, while physical blasts do d6+1's then add full con bonus.
By the time DR really matters, a kineticist's physical blasts are doing enough damage to overwhelm the DR. Maybe not by much, maybe only by 5 or 6 damage (depending on roll). But it's overwhelming the DR. Hell, at level 2 my aerokineticist using air blast was more then capable of overwhelming a zombie's /slashing DR and still dealing at least 2-7 damage And that was with a 1d6+1+con blast. Course, point blank shot helped too.
my player is arguing that because it is magic it ignores DR.
Maybe my post was confusing.
Let's break this down, line by line.
Kinetic Blasts are Spell like abilities.
Damage reduction says, "The creature takes normal damage from energy attacks (even nonmagical ones), spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities. "
So I can see why your player things physical blasts might ignore DR.
BUT, and this is important, the FAQ I linked to states that if a magic attack specifically deals piercing, slashing, or bludgeoning damage; DR applies.
So, even though Kinetic Blasts are Sp, and Sp abilities normally ignore DR, physical Kinetic Blasts DO NOT ignore DR because they are magical attacks that deal P/B/S type damage.
The line, "All damage from a kinetic blast is treated as magic for the purpose of bypassing damage reduction," simply means the Kinetic Blasts ignore DR/magic.