We are playing a Way of the Wicked campaign and one of us is playing a Kineticist. We recently had a fight with an enemy that had a fairly high AC. Our Kineticist has about a +11 to hit right now if he is within 30 ft. During our last battle, he spent a round and a half gathering power to use his Composite Blast with Empower at a longer range, rolled his attack, got a 10 and missed. It’s pretty anticlimactic to have this big, loud display of charging to fire a blast and miss with a 21 to hit. I was thinking of crafting him an item that could improve his chance to hit when he focuses. Maybe a Cumulative bonus to attack for each action spent Gathering Power? Otherwise a 3/day True Strike Item activated as a Swift action? Does anyone have any suggestions or insight?
Are you the GM? If you are, anything is possible as long as you think it promotes the game.
If you aren't, the GM needs to have time to consider anything you bring up. Creating whole cloth brand new items needs careful consideration. Also there might be additional costs over what you would expect.
Like take for instance the idea of a True Strike item that is use activated. My ever GM instinct on this screams NO. This is a very, very bad idea. Absolutely broken item. Having it activate as a standard action is still something that needs careful consideration, but as a swift? Ridiculous! That would be worth at least 100,000 gp if not a million gp! Really its an artifact like effect. Like you've got a sword that never misses kind of thing here.
There is a way to help the kinetisist out actually. With an item. Make them a conductive weapon. A conductive sling would be really cheap and effective. You could talk to the GM and just make it as a 'wand' so it only works for kinetisists and anyone else that can produce a similar ray attack. As a GM I'd be ok with that.
Looking at existing items using true strike - a ring of serene contortions gives true strike 1/day with the usual standard action to activate. The stag's helm lets you treat an enemy within 30' as flat-footed 1/day as a free action. A cyclops helm is widely regarded as overpowered and lets you choose the result of a d20 roll 1/day as an immediate action. Arrowmaster's bracers give the attack bonus but not the concealment-beating property of true strike as a swift action 1/day (plus some minor powers).
The first suggests that you can simply make a command-word activated true strike item. You're looking at making one with quickened true strike 3/day, which gives a base price of 5 (spell level) * 9 (minimum caster level) * 1800 * 3/5 = 48 600 gp. That this is an effect which would be much harder for a 3/4 BAB non-spellcaster to access normally (1 level for a dip is more imaginable than 9, and it's outside consumable range) might lead to a fudge factor being applied. +50% is about in line with what a 6/9 caster would have to pay to make it, round that off to 75 000 gp.
If you'd rather the item which works off gathering power that's more like a constant bonus. Perhaps with a slight discount because a kineticist doesn't gather power every time, and an extra cost because you can double? the bonus by spending a second round winding up. 5K * bonus squared is how bracers of archery seem to scale, make that 4K for the limitation to gathering power. Make that a morale bonus and the second round can be represented by a second power using moment of greatness, 1 * 1 * 2000 * 1.5 for a second power = 3000 gp tacked on to the price set by the main power.
Ugh. While I don't like how cheap Arrowmaster's bracers are, at least its in a published book. The kinetisist could just buy 3 of them to achieve the same effect. The bracers never say they need to be used on a ranged weapon.
I'll add one small note: kineticists hurt really bad when they miss, because they get -one- shot to do a full attack action or more worth of effort. As such, accuracy is very important to them, but it's just as important to remember that the fighter misses with his last attack or two fairly often and the rogue even more so. Most classes use iterative strikes and miss with some of their hits every turn or so, a kineticist hits more often than not but loses the whole thing when they miss. I'd carefully observe average DPS (in comparison to effort spent on being a damage dealer and what other effects are occurring and such) before custom fixing a problem that may honestly be one of the biggest balancing factors of your party.
Is this at 7th lvl? Attacking touch ac should cause many non 1s to hit. If high touch AC is common in this AP (not played) The PC may want a belt of Dex or take weapon focus.
At 7th lvl
Bab: 5
Dex: 4 (16Dex with +2 size bonus for burn)
Overflow: 2
PBS: 1
I'm currently GMing Way of the Wicked, and have a decent amount of experience with a Kineticist. I might be able to more directly help with this. A +11 to hit within 30 feet seems low for a level 7 Kineticist, especially in Way of the Wicked.
Stat Musing for the Kineticist:
Assuming the 25 point buy (since I can't exactly replicate the Focus and Foible method), human, and the Kineticist not needing much beyond Dex and Con....
Str 10
Dex 17+1 4th level=18
Con 16+2 Human=18
Int 10
Wis 12
Cha 10
To Hit w/in 30 ft at level 7: 5 BAB + 4 Dex + 1 PBS = +10 without Elemental Overflow. They should be taking enough burn to max out their Elemental Overflow each day, boosting their elemental defense, giving a +2 on all attack rolls for a +12 to hit. Once they take 3 points of Burn, they get a +2 size bonus to two ability scores (which should be Dex and Con), for an extra +1 to hit getting them to +13.
I would double check their math, and make sure they're adding everything up correctly. That might help their accuracy woes a bit.
Otherwise, you don't really need to make them a custom magic item to improve accuracy. A Belt of Dex, or a Belt of Physical Might if they have a Belt of Con, would boost accuracy, as would the Weapon Focus feat. Most of a Kineticist's ability to hit comes from Elemental Overflow, so if they're going out of their way to avoid taking Burn (and by taking a round and a half to gather power to use an empowered composite blast, it sounds like they might, unless they were already low on burn), their accuracy will really suffer. It's a delicate balancing game, but Burn is made to be spent, not hoarded.
How was the rest of the party doing against this particular foe? If you'd like to tell me a bit more about the specific enemy, feel free to post a spoiler. I might have some other insight that would help.
I'm currently GMing Way of the Wicked, and have a decent amount of experience with a Kineticist. I might be able to more directly help with this. A +11 to hit within 30 feet seems low for a level 7 Kineticist, especially in Way of the Wicked.
** spoiler omitted **
Otherwise, you don't really need to make them a custom magic item to improve accuracy. A Belt of Dex, or a Belt of Physical Might if they have a Belt of Con, would boost accuracy, as would the Weapon Focus feat. Most of a Kineticist's ability to hit comes from Elemental Overflow, so if they're going out of their way to avoid taking Burn (and by taking a round and a half to gather power to use an empowered composite blast, it sounds like they might, unless they were already low on burn), their accuracy will really suffer. It's a delicate balancing game, but Burn is made to be spent, not hoarded.
How was the rest of the party doing against this particular foe? If you'd like to tell me a bit more about the specific enemy, feel free to post a spoiler. I might have some other insight that would help.
Your math adds up. He has Deadly Aim which is where he gets the +11. We’re level 8 now. The Dex Belt is next on the list and he’ll take WF at level 9. Combined with Arrowmasters Bracers he should be ok for when he needs to get that Composite Blast off. Thanks for taking the time to help!
