Oof. That's a toughie.
What if you're a Large kineticist? Or your ally is Large? Or both?
I would say it's as large as the Kineticist wants it to be. You have some modicum of control over your element, so there's no reason you couldn't make an especially short or especially tall flimsy cover of it, as long as it provides full cover as per the description of the ability.
At certain angles, that would require an arbitrarily tall barrier. Seems like this ability could use some additional clarification.
You call up elemental matter to defend yourself and your allies from attacks. As a standard action, you can select one face of a square within 30 feet of you and move elemental matter to block that face, providing total cover from that direction. The face you select must be supported by the ground, and the kinetic cover cannot support more than 5 pounds of weight. Water, ice, and telekinetic force are translucent, but earth, metal, mud, and the like are opaque and block line of sight. A creature who strikes the cover can easily destroy it. Regardless of its composition, the cover has hardness 0, AC 5, and 2 hit points per kineticist level you possess. You can have a number of kinetic covers in existence equal to your Constitution modifier + 1/2 your kineticist level.
Facts:
- Aether, earth, or water- One 5' square, regardless of the kineticist size
- The square must be supported by the ground (you cant pick a space in the air if you are flying)
- It has to be 1 square within 30' (and square has to be on ground) and so the highest it *could* be is 30' high
The GM will be the final ruler on height required to provide total cover, but yeah they should have just said 5' high or something.
Should work underwater provide the "supported by the ground" condition is met. It is aether, earth, or water only and none of those would conflict with being underwater physically.
well... ice floats. so it wouldn't really be supported by the ground after you create it
Well since water, ice, force, earth, metal, and mud are specifically called out, there is assumption that those will still work. The kineticist's innate power in creating the cover would have to anchor the ice to the seafloor or hold the mud together.
^-^
Silly people, you fail to understand that reality is two dimensional, with an overlaid illusion of a third dimension. Height is just a fantasy.
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Facts:
- Aether, earth, or water
- One 5' square, regardless of the kineticist size
- The square must be supported by the ground (you cant pick a space in the air if you are flying)
- It has to be 1 square within 30' (and square has to be on ground) and so the highest it *could* be is 30' high
Says square, not cube. And the target is one face of that square, not the entire square. Says the facing needs to be supported by the ground, not that the square needs to be supported by the ground. But it doesn't specificy if supported by the ground means touching the ground.
It also does't define ground, which really should be a defined concept in the book somewhere (probably is somewhere, not sure where, though). Is the Deck of a pirate ship on the ground? Is a bridge on the ground? Is the dirt of a flying island on the ground? Is the floor of a building considered the ground? If I can walk on air or water, is that considered the ground?
Here's another one: Can I place a Kinetic Cover on top of a Kinetic Cover? If the first one is supported by the ground, then the second one should also be supported by the ground as long as the first one remains intact. There is a weight limit to kinetic cover, but kinetic cover itself has no listed weight.
And on subject, If the weight limit of Kinetic Cover is exceeded, what happens? For example, if I stand or sit on kinetic cover, does it crumble?
Now I'm getting visions of hydrokineticists using Kinetic Cover to raise sunken ships. Attach enough 5'x5' squares (roughly 2/3 of an inch thick per level, by this table) to a surface, and watch it go.
"and the kinetic cover cannot support more than 5 pounds of weight"
Or you could get a single Hyrdrokineticist with Water Manipulator lol
Just use one per 5 pounds of ship. You might need a specially-trained salvage team of hydrokineticists.
That would only work for a very thin, flat barge made of aluminum or something light.
There are clearly better ways that could raise a ship.
one face of a square would translate to one face of a cube if you need 3 dimensions, but you really don't need three dimensions with this power.
It must be supported by the ground, not another kinetic cover or in midair. It will provide cover for the square you have chosen, not any other squares. A square 5' above that square won't be protected.