burn and immunity to nonlethal


Rules Questions


so kenetisist burn gives non lethal damage how would that interact with immunity to non lethal damage would it just make you not take damage but acumilate burn or would it prevent you from getting the burn and allow you to use burn abilities all day


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"Burn (Ex): At 1st level, a kineticist can overexert herself to channel more power than normal, pushing past the limit of what is safe for her body by accepting burn. Some of her wild talents allow her to accept burn in exchange for a greater effect, while others require her to accept a certain amount of burn to use that talent at all. For each point of burn she accepts, a kineticist takes 1 point of nonlethal damage per character level. This damage can’t be healed by any means other than getting a full night’s rest, which removes all burn and associated nonlethal damage. Nonlethal damage from burn can’t be reduced or redirected, and a kineticist incapable of taking nonlethal damage can’t accept burn. A kineticist can accept only 1 point of burn per round. This limit rises to 2 points of burn at 6th level, and rises by 1 additional point every 3 levels thereafter. A kineticist can’t choose to accept burn if it would put her total number of points of burn higher than 3 + her Constitution modifier (though she can be forced to accept more burn from a source outside her control). A kineticist who has accepted burn never benefits from abilities that allow her to ignore or alter the effects she receives from nonlethal damage."


You'll need an archetype like Overwhelming Soul or Psychkineticist.


aww


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Lady-J wrote:
aww

"If it seems too good to be true, you're probably cheating."


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Nonlethal damage immunity would mean the kineticist would be unable to accept burn. If the kineticist can't accept burn they can't do anything that costs burn. So gotta Gather Power for lots of stuff but if Gather Power/Supercharge and Infusion/Metakinesis Specialization doesn't reduce the burn cost to 0, can't use it. Utility wild talents burn costs are also unable to be reduced with gather power so would be useless for a kineticist immune to nonlethal damage.


If the power confers burn, being immune to non-lethal damage means you can't use the power unless you invoke mechanics to reduce the Burn Cost to Zero... such as Gather Power.


QuidEst wrote:
You'll need an archetype like Overwhelming Soul or Psychkineticist.

both would be pointless for what i had in mind as overwelming soul cant use any of the burn abilities(composite blasts) and psychkineticist would lose all kenetisist abilities because undead immunities


Lady-J wrote:
QuidEst wrote:
You'll need an archetype like Overwhelming Soul or Psychkineticist.
both would be pointless for what i had in mind as overwelming soul cant use any of the burn abilities(composite blasts) and psychkineticist would lose all kenetisist abilities because undead immunities

You can gather power to reduce composite blasts to 0.


Texas Snyper wrote:
Lady-J wrote:
QuidEst wrote:
You'll need an archetype like Overwhelming Soul or Psychkineticist.
both would be pointless for what i had in mind as overwelming soul cant use any of the burn abilities(composite blasts) and psychkineticist would lose all kenetisist abilities because undead immunities
You can gather power to reduce composite blasts to 0.

Yeah, at level 11, gather power covers 2 burn- enough for a composite.

And at level 16, you get composite specialization, which reduces the burn by 1, allowing room for an empower metakinesis.

So this mostly just prevent you from going nova by accepting burn to get more power. But the growth of a kineticist's power is generally base on how much they can pull off without using any burn at all.

It constrains and slows the class, but doesn't necessarily cripple anything other than utility power picks.

....except the fact that a huge part of your character progression comes from elemental overflow. It comes in two different flavors of attack/damage booster since it covers both your in class buff and your weapon enhancements.

So you had better grab overwhelming soul so you only end up a bit subpar.


gather power is not action economy friendly so it doesnt solve anything especially since the stupid blast i need should be a normal blast in the 1st place and not a composite blast as it only does 1d6/2 levels instead of 2d6/2 levels


gather power is the full attack of the kineticst. I don't get how it being a move action is not action economy friendly?


What's the blast you were planning on using ?

I'm also not very clear on the whole "forced to accept burn from a source outside your control" what happens if you are immune to nonlethal damage in that case ? You just ignore the burn and live happily ever after ?


Lady-J wrote:
gather power is not action economy friendly so it doesnt solve anything especially since the stupid blast i need should be a normal blast in the 1st place and not a composite blast as it only does 1d6/2 levels instead of 2d6/2 levels
Chess Pwn wrote:
gather power is the full attack of the kineticst. I don't get how it being a move action is not action economy friendly?

Yeah, that is pretty much how the blast progresses.

1-4: basic blast- 100%
5-10: blast with empower- 150%
11-15: composite blast- basically 200%
16-20: composite with empower- 300%

It is basically a bit like how your damage scales with iteratives. This of course assumes that later iteratives are worth less damage on average because of decreasing accuracy.

So it is just your full attack.

Also, I think action economy is a low priority even without that. A lot of blasts are going to be ranged attacks, often with a 120' range. You main act of the round doesn't need you to get close to the opponent (unless you are blade focuse), so you aren't using that move to close in. The only thing you miss out on is maybe a retreat. But that is a rather low priority for a lot of kineticists, since a lot of elements have great defenses.


Force Blast

Element(s) aether; Type composite blast (Sp); Level —; Burn 2
Prerequisite(s) primary element (aether), expanded element (aether)
Blast Type: energy; Damage force (see text)

You throw a burst of force at a foe. Force blast deals damage as a simple energy blast instead of a composite energy blast.

only blast they have that does what i want but costs 2 burn to use and only deals 1d6 damage so as some one immune to non lethal i cant use it with out spending a my move action which i need to kite things properly or get into better shooting positions


Going aether for the kineticist is a deliberate choice to choose utility (you get at-will invisibility and the best mage hand ever) over offense. Aether has terrible composite blasts and few good infusions (though there's few better feelings available in this game than landing a well-timed foe throw) as a tradeoff for having the best utility of all the elements. The opposite end of the spectrum is fire, which does very little save for "hurt people."

Having played a few telekineticists, you have to play the class more as a cool rogue than as artillery.

Composite blasts are for nova-ing prior to level 11 anyway (when you get supercharge), so it's not a good idea to build around using one a lot. I wasn't using composite blasts reguarly as a kineticist who started with aether until level 16 (by which time I had two other elements to combine for a blast.)


Force blast is a touch attack that doesn't have to worry about any resistances. Which is what I guess is what you're wanting to do. But because that effect is strong is why they hide it behind a composite blast.


thing im wanting tho is the unlimited no need to worry about immunity blast kiteing ability of the warlock through paizo content(asked dm about warlock convertion i found but the answer was no for now) and literally all of the other blasts are terible


well, it's a little odd that many say this class is good and you say they are garbage.

EDIT: so I just found out that you play in a heavily modified game than normally assumed. If the GM is playing favorites with the boosts he's adding to classes then just stick with the favorites.


Chess Pwn wrote:

well, it's a little odd that many say this class is good and you say they are garbage.

i only say it as so as i see that what they were going for as the kenetisist seems to be sort of based off the warlock but they just failed horably by not making the touch attacks ignore resistance/immunities and the ones that can do so dont go vs touch ac which defeats the point imo


The Kineticist is a good class between like 50-80% optimization. Less than 50%, just choosing stuff at random, and the class is no good. If you want bleeding edge "POWER", of the kind that's liable to distort games if other people aren't at a similar level, and the class won't work for you. I love the class because we all assiduously avoid that "game warping power tier."

In practice though, you don't really need to worry about immunities. My last kineticist was Aether into Air (picking electric), so I could do B, P, S, and electric damage and attack either AC or touch. Even if I encountered the odd monster with super-high AC and electric immunity, your plight isn't really worse than the plight of the archer against swarms (and everybody will love having you around when there are swarms).

But a lot of the immunity problems can be circumvented through campaign specific considerations. If you know you're going to be fighting devils/undead/demons don't pick fire/cold/electricity. Stuff that absolutely nothing has an effective defense against should be fairly hard to make effective.


i think the kineticist is far less based off of the warlock than people think it is. It's an elemental blaster, which as you are seeing is hard to fit the warlock's non-elemental blasts.


A big difference between the Kineticist and the Warlock too, is that unlike the Warlock, the Kineticist can be seriously tanky. Build a Kinetic Whip character who ends up with huge HP, DR, good AC, and a replenishing temp HP pool while making thunderous AoOs out to 20'+ and you're the character other people want to kite to stay away from.

IIRC, the Warlock also couldn't throw down good AoE or debuffs either. Making the Kineticist capable of being built as an effective tank or a battlefield controller helps resolve a lot of the issues people had with the 3.5e Warlock being a "greedy" class.


I wouldn't discard the telekinetic blast so easily hitting is not really an issue and the damage is good enough even if you don't bypass the DR of creatures besides magic.
Of course accuracy and damage rely on elemental overflow, which is a problem if you can't take burn.
You're also tossing away Kinetic Healer, which can be a lifesaver


DR is practically a non-issue after a while. You are a one big blast build- DR only comes up once. You practically ahve a constant cluster shot going. So it would only ever take a small chunk out after the first few levels.

AC for physical blasts is not too much of an issue either. You always hit at full BAB with the blast. The blade might have some trouble, I suppose.

I could understand frustration with things like fire. Dealing with straight immunities when you only have 1-2 concepts is a pain. And concealment/other miss chances is a pain for everybody (since you are much more likely to have your entire round wasted compared to other classes).


Lady-J wrote:
Chess Pwn wrote:

well, it's a little odd that many say this class is good and you say they are garbage.

i only say it as so as i see that what they were going for as the kenetisist seems to be sort of based off the warlock but they just failed horably by not making the touch attacks ignore resistance/immunities and the ones that can do so dont go vs touch ac which defeats the point imo

Kineticist is a lot more balanced than the Warlock.

Overwhelming Soul was designed for undead Kineticists, giving them a bit of burn that they can spend.

Composite blasts are best viewed as early-access options, too. You effectively get them at 11th level (when you can gather enough energy to use them for free), but you're given the option to hurt yourself to use them earlier. One of the drawbacks to undead is not being able to take that option.

Aether's composite blast shouldn't be used, though. It's really not worth it in most situations- just ones where you need to hit incorporeal creatures harder. When you expand elements, Void might be a good choice instead (taking the void blast). Against other undead, golems, and things with SR, telekinetically throw things. Against anything else, use your void blast for an almost guaranteed hit that is difficult to defend against- there are no energy resistance spells for negative energy. It fits the undead theme well, too.


While this is an old issue, could you not use the feat flagellant?
Granted, you have to worship an evil god...


Burn wrote:
Burn (Ex): At 1st level, a kineticist can overexert herself to channel more power than normal, pushing past the limit of what is safe for her body by accepting burn. Some of her wild talents allow her to accept burn in exchange for a greater effect, while others require her to accept a certain amount of burn to use that talent at all. For each point of burn she accepts, a kineticist takes 1 point of nonlethal damage per character level. This damage can’t be healed by any means other than getting a full night’s rest, which removes all burn and associated nonlethal damage. Nonlethal damage from burn can’t be reduced or redirected, and a kineticist incapable of taking nonlethal damage can’t accept burn. A kineticist can accept only 1 point of burn per round. This limit rises to 2 points of burn at 6th level, and rises by 1 additional point every 3 levels thereafter. A kineticist can’t choose to accept burn if it would put her total number of points of burn higher than 3 + her Constitution modifier (though she can be forced to accept more burn from a source outside her control). A kineticist who has accepted burn never benefits from abilities that allow her to ignore or alter the effects she receives from nonlethal damage.

No, they foresaw effects like that.

Grand Lodge

Kineticists are much closer to element benders from Avatar than they are to Warlocks.

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