Really bad attempts at humour aside I’m looking to play an Air Kineticist in pfs that is very loosely based on the Emperor. The only similarities I care about is: he wears an evil looking robe (said mini has already been modded and painted by moi.), can throw some serious lightning, flips around like a ninja and has some social skills and brains. While any help is appreciated I’m not looking for an exact emperor build and I’d hate to see people waste their time on something I probably won’t use so I thought I would make that very clear as the last thing I want to do is waste someone’s time. :)
Again any help is appreciated.
So a bit more specific:
Lighting attacks that do decent or better damage
Don’t care about melee combat, in fact I want to avoid it and attack strictly from range and depend on Enveloping Winds to survive return fire. Might use a rapier with weapon finesse or other light weapons depending on dr but want to avoid melee if possible.
Mobile, tumbling ninja that can jump really high
Some brains and social skills
I really dislike dumping strength. I don’t want to dip into other classes.
I’m not super confident in the rules for this class.
Initially I thought human, Air Kineticist
Str: 11
Dex: 16
Con: 16 (14+2 racial)
Int: 12
Wis: 10
Char: 12
Electric Blast, Extended Range
Skills: Acrobatics 1, Bluff 1, Intimidate 1, Perception 1, Knowledge Nobility 1, Stealth 1
Feats: No idea
Infusions and talents that interest me:
Extreme Range, Aerial Adaption, Aerial Evasion, Air Cushion, Air Shroud, Air Shroud Greater, Air’s Leap, Air’s Reach, Wings of Air (I realize I won’t be able to get all of these.)
I did briefly think of the Overwhelming Soul archetype but I think it gives up a lot without burn especially for the defensive talents.
I am open to other races as long as they are not small. Human is preferred though. :)
I guess my damage on first level would be: 1d6+1
Right now all I’m after is help with a first level build and some basics on what to take at higher levels feat and class choices wise. Thanks! :)
I would personally take 18 con and 14 dex over 16/16. You are not going to have trouble hitting (touch attacks) and 18 con gives you another point of damage (about a 20% increase at level 1). Later it will give you more burn to play with as well.
As for feats, I will suggest toughness for any kineticist. It lets you play with burn a little more.
Thanks. Toughness is something I usually take on characters. :)
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As a ranged character, you will want precise shot ASAP. Normally the PBS prerequisite wouldn't be too bad, but you'll have air's reach so spend less time within 30 feet than others. Instead of weapon finesse, you should invest in kinetic blade at some point. This is handy for being able to attack even when you can't 5' step to get out of something's threatened range, and works way better than a rapier.
Consider going dual talent as human, since you need stats more than you need anything else.
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Standard ranged feats (point blank shot, precise shot, rapid shot)
weapon focus - kinetic blast (less needed for energy based since it hits touch AC)
toughness (more HP = more burn)
improved initiative
Put your skill points into acrobatics if you want to be all flippy.
I agree with the more con/less dex for an energy base kineticist, at higher levels you will virtually never miss.
If you take the flying talents, point points in the fly skill, otherwise you will crash into walls a lot. (Unless you are playing in a home game where the GM does not use the RAW flight rules)
I agree with cabbage. Go dual talent and get 16 dex and 18 con, first feat for point blank shot, 3rd for precise shot. Everything else will be gravy.
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Standard ranged feats (point blank shot, precise shot, rapid shot)
weapon focus - kinetic blast (less needed for energy based since it hits touch AC)
toughness (more HP = more burn)
improved initiativePut your skill points into acrobatics if you want to be all flippy.
I agree with the more con/less dex for an energy base kineticist, at higher levels you will virtually never miss.
If you take the flying talents, point points in the fly skill, otherwise you will crash into walls a lot. (Unless you are playing in a home game where the GM does not use the RAW flight rules)
Everything here is great advice, except rapid shot doesn't work with blasts. Just pointing that out to OP.
Oh! And since you're playing human, favored class bonus can go for 1/6 extra wild talent. You may get all those talents you are looking for yet!
Glad I asked, a lot of stuff here I wouldn't have thought of.
Will post again in an hour or so of a possible new build. Thanks. :)
I would flip wisdom and charisma personally, your worst save will be Will, so it would be prudent to have the higher bonus there. Reflex is strong on the class already, and Fortitude will be good if you pump your CON.
Also, because of Gather Power, you never want to have anything in your hands, so most weapons are counterproductive. Equip gauntlets, and if that's not cutting it, look into kinetic blade. Eventually, you'll be flying all the time and melee shouldn't matter.
Toughness, PBS, and Precise Shot are integral. As soon as possible, put ranks into fly.
Later on if you want to "use the force" look into Aether as your expanded element. Basic TK can get your lightsabers out of snowbanks, and TK haul can pull your starfighter out of the swamp.
If you're planning to take a melee weapon and use weapon finesse with it I would recommend just taking kinetic blade over the weapon. Kineticists aren't proficient with rapier and conjuring a weapon made of lightning sounds pretty close to a light saber to me.
Plus since youre taking extended range at lvl 1 youre level 3 and 5 infusion choices are gusting infusion, pushing infusion, thundering infusion, draining infusion, kinetic blade, or kinetic fist. Pushing infusion and kinetic blade are probably the most generally useful ones on that list with a case to be made for thundering if you run into a lot of spell casters.
You can get air leap at level 2 which is pretty force jumpy and sets you up to get wings of air at level 6 and if you pick up air cushion you can bounce around forever without worrying about the fall.
Precise shot+PBS are completely optional as long as you only have energy blasts because touch AC is so easy to hit. Get it if you want but it isn't as needed as if you had a physical blast.
I would skip toughness. As a CON caster you are going to have truck loads of HP and it is a waste of a feat slot IMO. Especially with a desire to completely avoid all melee combat, you shouldn't need the extra 1 hp/lvl which will be dwarfed by your boosted CON.
Weapon focus, improved initiative are good choices. So is Spell Penetration so you can get through SR better, but can wait for later levels when SR starts coming up.
Air's reach is great, it gives you a base range of 60' with extended range becoming 240'. Extreme range isn't all that great because it would only be usable at ranges beyond 240' which, from my experience, almost never comes up.
As an energy kineticist: CON>DEX>all other stats because, as already mentioned, accuracy isn't a big issue with touch AC but with your dmg being +con/2 you want to get it as high as you can.
Air's reach is great, it gives you a base range of 60' with extended range becoming 240'.
this may be a dumb question but does airs reach work with all the blasts under the air umbrella or just specifically with the blast "air blast" and its composites. ive never been sure if electric blast would count for it due to its wording.
Air's reach is great, it gives you a base range of 60' with extended range becoming 240'.this may be a dumb question but does airs reach work with all the blasts under the air umbrella or just specifically with the blast "air blast" and its composites. ive never been sure if electric blast would count for it due to its wording.
Any blast that is from the air element. Air blast, electric blast, and any composite blast that is half air like charged water blast.
Wow so many decisions. Thanks to everyone so far. :)
Okay one. Rapier is right out. I forgot Kineticists only had simple weapon proficiency. That's a bit embarrassing! I like the dual gauntlets, just so I can threaten and keep both hands free. Hmm not that I should be threatening.
Attributes is where it gets a bit trickier. I like the human bonus feat and skill point so as if right now I'm going to keep that.
con over dex vs both equal...I can see arguments for both still considering. High AC and acrobatics being a thing. :)
Extended range is right out as a 240' shot does seem good enough. Shooting people from really far away sounds great but agreed that almost never comes up. I suppose I could fly really high and shoot people. Seems unfair to party members.
Question how does the range increment work? Is it still 30 regardless of what combo of air's reach and/or extended range I use?
So -2 at 31-60 feet etc?
Weapon focus vs PBS and Precise shot, +1 to hit always and a net -3 to shoot into melee vs no issue to shoot into melee and no bonus...kind of want to take all three...
Will post class ability & feat per level shortly. :)
As and aside Rich Parents is not PFS legal correct? I keep having people I play with tell me it is. I think they are wrong.
There's no range increment for the kinetic blast, there's just the range of a kinetic blast.
That is, if you're using an unmodified blast you can hit people who are 30' away, but not 35' away. Aerokineticist can be long range artillery, but the rest of us spend a good part of our careers inside of charge range.
If you use the extended range infusion, you can hit people who are 120' away, but not people who are 125' away. If you use the extended range infusion and you have the air's reach wild talent you can hit people who are 240' away, but not 245' away. With the extreme range infusion it's 480'; add air's reach on top and it's 960'. You really only need extreme range in, like, a nautical campaign (where it rocks) or if you want to pull "ride the blast" shenanigans that require you to move 480' in a round.
Edit: Ah I thought the 240' was the max and the 30 was the range increment but that makes no sense.
Okay so no range penalty. That's awesome. :)
I would skip toughness. As a CON caster you are going to have truck loads of HP and it is a waste of a feat slot IMO. Especially with a desire to completely avoid all melee combat, you shouldn't need the extra 1 hp/lvl which will be dwarfed by your boosted CON.
This is what I thought as well before playing the class. However if you are using your burn to enhance you attacks (and other things) it turns out that you have less overall health than players with 4 or even 6 less con than you.
Look at it this way if you take all the burn you can you base health is going to be what it would have been if you had 4 or 5 con to start with. You really don't want to dump con that much on any character, so toughness will always grant you one extra burn before you cross your comfort zone.
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As and aside Rich Parents is not PFS legal correct? I keep having people I play with tell me it is. I think they are wrong.
Additional Resources says so now, but I think this is a mistake. Because this would assume that none of the others are legal from this book Advanced Player's Guide. I think it may be a typo that is saying these things are legal. That's because those 3 are either kind of ridiculous head start (rich parents), pertain to inaccessible feats (hedge magician, natural born leader), or not relevant to PFS (campaign)
Traits: hedge magician, natural born leader, and rich parents traits, and all of the Campaign Traits.
But I think it may be covered by the
The following parts of the Advanced Player's Guide are NOT legal for play:
even though it is not in the same paragraph
As and aside Rich Parents is not PFS legal correct? I keep having people I play with tell me it is. I think they are wrong.Additional Resources says so now, but I think this is a mistake. Because this would assume that none of the others are legal from this book Advanced Player's Guide. I think it may be a typo that is saying these things are legal. That's because those 3 are either kind of ridiculous head start (rich parents), pertain to inaccessible feats (hedge magician, natural born leader), or not relevant to PFS (campaign)
Traits: hedge magician, natural born leader, and rich parents traits, and all of the Campaign Traits.But I think it may be covered by the
The following parts of the Advanced Player's Guide are NOT legal for play:even though it is not in the same paragraph
Yeah that's the part that made me think it's not legal. Further, with how tight PFS is on gear and crafting I doubt it's legal.
Thanks. :)
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Toughness is almost a required feat for a kineticist. Burn = your level in HP per point, so at level 10, every point of burn is 10 HP...5 burn = 50HP...etc. At low levels it isn't as bad, but at high levels you can KO yourself pretty easily if you are not careful, or drop yourself too low and get 1-shot by an enemy. If you can swing it, I would say start with 20 CON, and get toughness around level 7. Even at that you will still end up wishing you had more HP to burn :)
Okay this is much harder than I thought.
Level:
1:Human Bonus Feat: PBS, Feat: Precise Shot, Infusion: Extended Range
2: WT: Air's Reach
3: Feat: Weapon Focus Kineticist Blast, Infusion: ???
4: WT: Air's Leap
5: Feat: Extra Wild Talent: Aerial Adaption, Infusion: ???
6: WT: Wings of Air
7: Feat: Toughness , Infusion: ??? Expanded Element: Thinking Air...not sure...Pluses and minuses???
8: WT: Air Shroud
9: Feat: Extra Wild Talent: Aerial Evasion, Infusion: ???
10: WT: Air Shroud Greater
Rich Parents is in the Additional Resources document 3 times, 2 of them explicitly call it out as illegal, the third one is poorly formatted, but also illegal.
Thanks. :)
I don't know if toughness is *that* mandatory for all kineticists, since you're going to want to be pushing CON as high as it goes anyway, and 2 points of CON is as good as toughness.
Like I had an 18th level kineticist that had 408 HP after topping off elemental overflow, with 126 occupied by burn *without* toughness. That leaves me 282 HP before I fall unconscious (and DR 10/Adamantine).
Though as an aerokineticist, your defensive talent is not very good, and it's not like you have that many feats you need anyway so take it eventually. But you're not going to find yourself taking a lot of burn at the early levels anyway.
I love how there are so many schools of thought on this. :)
Hard choices everyone makes a great case. :)
I could be wrong, but I don't think that you need spell penetration; what abilities are you using that require you to beat an enemy's spell resistance?
Also, I am in the pro-toughness camp. I couldn't imagine my kineticist without it. It is important to remember that your HP becomes a spendable resource, and riding that razor's edge is what being an effective kineticist is all about; you need to balance how much NLD you take compared to how combat effective you become. Some kineticists want to take as little burn as possible, some want to start the day with burn.
I'm playing an Aether Kin, so it's going to play a little differently, but last session, I went full burn, hit my elemental overflow, had +2 to hit, + 4 to damage, and +2 to both con and dex, resulting in even better to hit and damage, and HP, and initiative, and so on.It's all a matter of running the numbers, and if you can spare the HP, you can really push the limits.
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Going straight air might can work, since you can do a physical air blast or an energy lightning blast, and if you take air as your expanded element at 7, you can get a level 3 infusion 2 levels earlier than dual element builds.
I would say Torrent, it basically turns your lightning blast into a wizards lightning bolt spell (30' line, full damage, save for half)
Str: 11
Dex: 14
Con: 18 (16+2 racial)
Int: 12
Wis: 10
Char: 12
I could be wrong, but I don't think that you need spell penetration; what abilities are you using that require you to beat an enemy's spell resistance?
Also, I am in the pro-toughness camp. I couldn't imagine my kineticist without it. It is important to remember that your HP becomes a spendable resource, and riding that razor's edge is what being an effective kineticist is all about; you need to balance how much NLD you take compared to how combat effective you become. Some kineticists want to take as little burn as possible, some want to start the day with burn.
I'm playing an Aether Kin, so it's going to play a little differently, but last session, I went full burn, hit my elemental overflow, had +2 to hit, + 4 to damage, and +2 to both con and dex, resulting in even better to hit and damage, and HP, and initiative, and so on.It's all a matter of running the numbers, and if you can spare the HP, you can really push the limits.
I put toughness in at level 7. :)
To my knowledge energy blasts can be stopped with spell resistance. Not sure where it says that I guess because it's a spell like ability? I know it says spell resistance doesn't apply for physical blasts.
Most up to date build.
Str: 11
Dex: 14
Con: 18 (16+2 racial)
Int: 12
Wis: 10
Char: 12
Level:
1:Human Bonus Feat: PBS, Feat: Precise Shot, Infusion: Extended Range
2: WT: Air's Reach
3: Feat: Weapon Focus Kineticist Blast, Infusion: ???
4: WT: Air's Leap
5: Feat: Extra Wild Talent: Aerial Adaption, Infusion: ???
6: WT: Wings of Air
7: Feat: Toughness , Infusion: Torrent, Expanded Element: Thinking Air...not sure...Pluses and minuses???
8: WT: Air Shroud
9: Feat: Extra Wild Talent: Aerial Evasion, Infusion: ???
10: WT: Air Shroud Greater
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It sounds like this is going to be for PFS, so lets look at how many HP you will have.
Lets say level 10 (to make the math easier)
Base HP...8+(5*9)=53
Lets say 22 Con...60
Toughness...12
Total = 125 HP
Lets say you start each day with a conservative 3 burn (-30hp)
Figure on spending 1-2 burn per combat (-10 to -20)
Average of 3 combat encounters per PFS scenario puts you at -60 to -90 HP, before you take a single point of damage from an enemy.
Granted, you can play conservatively and barely use burn, but that also greatly reduces your power level and utility.
As for spell penetration...that is a personal call. Lightning is middle of the road for running into resistances (fire is #1 and cold is #2), plus you have the option of going wind blast for physical damage if you run into something strong against lightning.
@TempusAvatar: lightning blast is an energy attack which needs to penetrate SR so it would help at around 6+ where SR starts becoming a thing
So as an air kineticist artillery build (all the range stuff and maximizing your ability to do it from as far away as possible) you should be out of most danger, especially when you can be flying out of range of anything to harm you, you shouldn't need toughness.
L3 infusion: thundering
L5 infusion: pushing (for when you expand to air blast)
L7 infusion/utility: magnetic infusion or celerity (haste for the party if you guys need it)
L9: snake or torrent (one can get around obstacles and the other is a line blast aoe)
Also, you cant take extra wild talent at 5, requires lvl 6 minimum. I would take either improved initiative or spell penetration here and the other at 7, skipping toughness. By then you'll see you really don't need it with your 80+ hp at lvl 7.
Doh I saw that rule on the feat before I wrote the list then made the mistake anyways. Thanks for pointing it out. :)
Will revise selections...shortly. ;)
Do I get the haste effect too or just my allies? I assume I count as my own ally?
Wait I need the expanded element to use pushing? So it won't work until level 7? Can I even take it if I can't use it yet? Or am I confused? :)
Wait I need the expanded element to use pushing? So it won't work until level 7? Can I even take it if I can't use it yet? Or am I confused? :)
Correct. So the infusions don't actually require you to have an associated blast to get the infusion but its just that there aren't any good choices left so I would get the Pushing at that point and then once you hit 7 and expand back into air for Air Blast then it will automatically have an infusion that can be used with it. Infusions can only be applied to blasts that are associated to them so lightning cannot push and air cannot magnetic.
Also, about the haste. You gain all of the other benefits but as a ranged blaster you don't get an extra attack "or blast" from it but it is still a big boon for the party as a whole. If you were to use kinetic blade to full attack then you could get an extra attack with it.
Okay. Thanks. Hmm give me like 5-10 min. :)
After re-reading the rules, Snyper is right. My bad.
No worries. :)
Snyper is really good with the rules. :)
You can take it, even if you can't use it. Yes you need the air blast before you can use pushing, but there are few choices early on. If you plan to go air blast and want pushing grab it where you have room. You wont have room later.
I really like the chain infusion, but it depends on what you are fighting.
Expanding into air vs Not...
Expanding into air gets you another useful talent earlier. Also gives you a composite blast. All of your blasts will still work with air's reach.
Not,
If you don't go air, I think you want to go earth. Main reason is that it's the best physical damage type (slightly above air). Also it may be the best defense talent, but that will cost you another talent.
Your other choice is water. The defense is nice and still has a physical blast and gives you a composite blast.
I would stick with Air most likely.