Bonded Armor Kineticist or New Vigilante archtype

[McDaygo]

So I have an Idea for a Kineticist where it’s the armor he/she wears that allows them to access their powers. Think like Iron Man if you will but not power armor.

Maybe have it as a vigilante archtype instead. Have it gain kinetic blasts but only when in armor. Instead of Vigilante talents, gain wild talents (only useable in armor). At level 7 they can select a 2nd and and 15 third element. Allow them to craft magical armor as a bonus feat. Bonded armor only works for them. Keep burn the same, keep blast damage and scaling the same as they need to be in their armor to use a ability. Not sure where I stand on keeping metamagic blasts and elemental overflow if this is a vigilante archtype.

I’ll eventually write out a full 20 build table bit idea is roughly brewing. Basically I want to combine the flavor of the Kineticist and Vigilante without making it too powerful. I’ll scrub te other archtypes then make submission of the pitch,

[Legowarrior]

Have you thought about the Occultist? There is a handy Archetype that might fit your needs.

[Nyerkh]

What do you want from the vigilante ?

Because Kineticists already wear armor, so it's not exactly a big deal as is.
Limiting their class features to them wearing armor probably comes with a need for some related goodies, since things good turn sour really fast, but it's not like we don't have archetypes or PrC with ties to very specific types of armor : Hellknights come to mind.
Something to get a bit more out of your suit, and/or some armor training could be enough. Not overdoing it is going to be the thing.

[Legowarrior]

Bonded Armor always makes me think of an Occultist with the Battle Host archetype. Just start with a set of awesome armor, and all your abilities rely on it to some extent.

By taking the evocation School, you can even blast rays out of it if you want.

[McDaygo]

Nyerkh wrote:

What do you want from the vigilante ?

Because Kineticists already wear armor, so it's not exactly a big deal as is.
Limiting their class features to them wearing armor probably comes with a need for some related goodies, since things good turn sour really fast, but it's not like we don't have archetypes or PrC with ties to very specific types of armor : Hellknights come to mind.
Something to get a bit more out of your suit, and/or some armor training could be enough. Not overdoing it is going to be the thing.

Definitely don’t want to overdue it. What I wanted from Vigilante was the social side when not in suit.

The kineticist idea (in full plate) is a “magic” equivalent to power armor but using nature (burn pool) vs. battery to power it. More a flavor build them optimising.

[avr]

The kinetic knight archetype only gets the benefits of elemental defense while wearing heavy armor + shield.

[Nyerkh]

Changing burn is kind of risky. It using your HP is a limiter to the Kineticists power.
Removing that must come with some other way to limit you.
Several Kineticist (or adjacent) archetypes either remove it or deal with that somehow, I'd look at that if you want the armor to be the sole source of power. A fixed small daily pool?
Small reminder that heavy armor is not optimal for ranged combat, btw. Not a big deal.

I'm ignoring the Occultist suggestion because I assume you don't want spellcasting. Otherwise, it's a decent idea.

Also, this probably should be in the homebrew section.

[Temperans]

Btw, I would suggest looking at Havocker Witch and Water Dancer Monk for inspiration.

Notice how they dont have expanded element or metakinesis. And the Wild Talent acquisition rate is 1 every 4 levels after 2, as opposed to every every 2 levels.

For Vigilante, I would reduce how many vigilante and social talents you can get to 1 every 4 levels after 2, but make it so you can choose between Wild talents and Vigilante talents. This would fall more inline with both Havocker and Water Dancer which also have similar distribution.

[McDaygo]

No burn would not change at all.