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Geniekineticists?

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Grand Lodge

With the geniekin now legal in PFS, all of my friends are talking about making various geniekin characters.

I've always wanted to make a Sylph character, but their penalty to Con make them a bad kinetists. Unless I use the Overwhelming Soul archetype

So, i'm contemplating making a Geniekin Kineticist- and to be ironic, have them be of their "opposing" element- Oread Aerokineticist, Ifrit Aquakin, etc.

So, as general question, what should i look at doing if i want to make a Genekineticist?

I would say Ifrit are the best. The only stats you need are CON and DEX so Ifrits and Undines automatically win there.

Ifrits get an initiative bonus that VERY quickly spikes up. Going first is great. In general I think Ifrits have more useful traits.

Overwhelming soul may be a very good idea with sylphs, to be honest. In the case of kineticists, you can check with the air affinity would apply for them as well.

What geniekin would you tie telekineticists to, btw - suli?
Grand Lodge

Since the Overwhelming Soul is a Charisma-based Kineticist,
I was thinking for a Sylph Void-element [Suffocate looks fun. ;)] stat-wise:
Str 12/10
Dex 15
Con 12
Int 12
Wis 10/12
Cha 16

yes, i know i'm dumping a lot of point into Con from the 8 to 12. Strength & Wisdom are interchangeable.

Is there any drawbacks to taking the Void Element? I've seen the other elements, just not void.
Suffocate and Singularity look very entertaining when i get access to them.

I'd steer away from Overwhelming Soul, it's a really weak archetype that gives up a lot and gives back very little.

There's an int based archetype in HA if I remember correctly. It might be slightly better for a Sylph.

As for the others...

Undine and Ifrits make pretty solid baseline kineticists. No con bonus is a shame, but Dex is nearly as important for a large number of builds. Undine definitely have the better stat spread but both suffer from poor racial options, with your affinity trait giving you nothing and your SLA being pretty niche. Neither have very good ARTs to replace them with either.

Oreads have perfect stats for a strength based elemental ascetic. Not a great archetype, but it's solid. Once again you have an affinity and an SLA that you want to dump and once again you don't have much to trade it for. Oread SLA is the worst of the lot.

Suli are a horrible mess, at least for kineticists. None of their stats help a baseline build and even if you bite the bullet for Overwhelming Soul, the strength bonus doesn't help and while it's not damning the int penalty isn't doing you any favors. Again you struggle with racials, negotiator is okay for an overwhelming soul and Elemental Assault is functional if you start full attacking later, but neither are that great and neither have anything you can trade them away for of any value.

Since I said so much about it, I'll just add that Sylphs struggle the least with racials here, being able to swap the affinity for +2 to AC against ranged attacks is pretty sweet.

Between Str and Con, put the 12 into Wis, because your Will save will be poor. Maybe even consider picking up the +1 Will saves Trait (can't think of the name).
Silver Crusade
Selvaxri wrote:

With the geniekin now legal in PFS, all of my friends are talking about making various geniekin characters.

I've always wanted to make a Sylph character, but their penalty to Con make them a bad kinetists. Unless I use the Overwhelming Soul archetype

So, i'm contemplating making a Geniekin Kineticist- and to be ironic, have them be of their "opposing" element- Oread Aerokineticist, Ifrit Aquakin, etc.

So, as general question, what should i look at doing if i want to make a Genekineticist?

I have a Sylph Aerokinetist in society play from a boon last season. (Level 15 now) He demolishes just about everything despite the con dump. I just maxed it out so he still started with a 16. The elemental overflow is really the bulk of a kinetists damage.

Selvaxri wrote:
Suffocate and Singularity look very entertaining when i get access to them.

Void sucks. Both figuratively and literally. If you want it, pick it up as a secondary element.


  • They have very few utility talents available, and some of them are pretty useless. In most campaigns, being able to heal negative-energy based creatures is not a benefit. Not breathing is very situational. And if you already have darkvision, another 30' isn't that great a benefit.
  • Their defense sucks. It's worse than everything expect fire. It's a collection of a couple of really situational bonuses, and a slight boost to fortification. It doesn't even scale the way other elements' defenses do.
  • They gravity blast is pretty much equivalent to any other physical blast. Nothing special here.
  • The negative blast is ineffective against undead. It's likely you'll face more undead than people who are immune to other elements. As a low-level character, being ineffective against a whole class of creatures is not good. As a secondary blast it's great.

Suffocate is available on Air, Aether, and Water as well, so don't feel locked into Void.

Rather than Overwhelming Soul, I'd consider Psychokineticist (or something like that) from Horror Adventures. Wis-based, and burn penalizes your will saves. Being immune to Charm, Hold, and Dominate Person makes that a little safer. Easier to shut down, though, since emotion effects impact you.

The Int archetype is also good, but only figuratively since you have to be evil.

Undine is the best. Pretty much strictly speaking. You can go with Ifrit as well. Buuuut Overwhelming Soul is a bit trash first party. Ifrit would rather have a Con boost than a Dex boost normally. Sadly they don't.
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If you do go with Overwhelming Soul, pairing it with Elemental Annihilator is a fun way to get a mental stat for a two-handed fighting build's damage. Dump strength, grab Weapon Finesse at 1st, and then pre-req free Power Attack at 2nd. Since both archetypes hurt your utility talents and diminish the importance of composite blasts (without actually overlapping), the two stack nicely so long as you go with a physical blast.
QuidEst wrote:
If you do go with Overwhelming Soul, pairing it with Elemental Annihilator is a fun way to get a mental stat for a two-handed fighting build's damage. Dump strength, grab Weapon Finesse at 1st, and then pre-req free Power Attack at 2nd. Since both archetypes hurt your utility talents and diminish the importance of composite blasts (without actually overlapping), the two stack nicely so long as you go with a physical blast.

This is actually a fair smart way to go about it. And goes nicely thematically with an Ifrit.

Scarab Sages

Except you really aren't playing a kineticist with EA, you're just playing a fighter without needing weapons.

Power Attack on a light weapon isn't very great either.
swoosh wrote:
Power Attack on a light weapon isn't very great either.

Good thing it's not a light weapon, then? You and two-hand it for ability-and-a-half. You'll probably want to run it by your GM, but worst case scenario you just go Aether and wield a one-handed weapon.

Imbicatus wrote:
Except you really aren't playing a kineticist with EA, you're just playing a fighter without needing weapons.

You're playing a Fighter with charisma to damage and Power Attack with a strength penalty! I like grabbing Earth to get some nice DR thrown on there, but Water ain't bad for getting a shield bonus (normally tricky on a two-handed build). Plus, in pinch, you just start making ranged attacks instead.

The Mortonator wrote:
This is actually a fair smart way to go about it. And goes nicely thematically with an Ifrit.

Yep! The only catch is that you have to be using a physical blast to make it work, so you can't always pick a matching element.

I recommend Irrepressible as a trait, since now you've got most of your big will saves covered by your melee damage stat.
Silver Crusade
1 person marked this as a favorite.

I have nothing to add to the discussion, I just wanted to say that when I saw the title of the thread, I read genetikineticist, as in a kineticist who manipulates genetics.

I really think this needs to be a thing that exists.
QuidEst wrote:
Good thing it's not a light weapon, then? You and two-hand it for ability-and-a-half. You'll probably want to run it by your GM, but worst case scenario you just go Aether and wield a one-handed weapon.

Well, devastating infusion's melee attack functions 'as if she were using kinetic blade', which lets you create a light or one handed weapon and "using two hands to wield a light weapon gives no advantage on damage"

Though I agree many GMs will probably let it slide because it's not that impressive or scary to allow.
Grand Lodge
QuidEst wrote:
If you do go with Overwhelming Soul, pairing it with Elemental Annihilator is a fun way to get a mental stat for a two-handed fighting build's damage. Dump strength, grab Weapon Finesse at 1st, and then pre-req free Power Attack at 2nd. Since both archetypes hurt your utility talents and diminish the importance of composite blasts (without actually overlapping), the two stack nicely so long as you go with a physical blast.

That may be any interesting tactic, would they really expect a Sylph- still adamant about playing a Sylph- going into Melee.

I wonder if Ride the Blast Wild Talent would help in many a situation.
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