Correct Kineticist Damage

[Opuk0]

I'm making a kineticist character for the first time as a side boss for a mythic campaign (kineticist is not mythic) and I'm trying to figure out if I'm getting the damage right.

For character context, I'm basically making Kulve Taroth as a human with a metal-based template from the green ronin folks. I'm going with earth/earth/fire.

I have no idea how to play kineticist, and I've already sifted through a lot of the wild talents trying to get her right. Atm, at 20th level, what I have for her damage with metakinetic mastery in empowered is 'metal blast (20d6+20+8 for deadly aim +6 for overflow +9 for Con)x1.5 for empower'

If anyone's got suggestions, especially on burn management cuz I just can't wrap my head around it fully, I'd love to read it. And yes I've read N. Jolly's guide for kineticist.

[avr]

With a physical blast using deadly aim seems like a poor idea. OTOH that overflow damage seems low, the damage bonus is twice the attack bonus.

As an NPC enemy managing burn isn't what you do. Throw everything at the PCs ASAP unless you're doing the annoying 5' step into/out of the ground sniping trick using earth glide, then you might - maybe - last long enough for it to matter.

[Opuk0]

I'd still like to learn burn management in general incase I decide to make a kineticist for myself.

Also, I thought metal could only be a physical blast, hence deadly aim, is that wrong?

[avr]

You certainly can use deadly aim with a physical blast. It's just that taking a -4 attack penalty to get +8 damage is a poor bargain when you're doing about 160 damage on a hit without it. 20% less chance of hitting with that ~160 is worth 30-odd damage.

As a geokineticist your defence talent gives you DR, with 1 point added to that DR for each point of burn. At low levels that's very useful, at L20 it's mostly forgettable despite having scaled up. And there's elemental overflow as you've noticed which remains useful even at L20. As against that you probably want to spend a bit of burn during the day so you don't want to start the day with the elemental overflow bonuses maxed out usually. So you start with a few burn and add a bit more over the day by using big blasts in tough combats. Usually you restrict yourself to what gather power/infusion specialist can cover. I know that's vague, but without a specific scenario it's hard to go into detail.

[Opuk0]

No that's perfectly fine, and you're right on the deadly aim bit.

I'll work on her a bit more and post a stat block to give a better idea of what I'm trying to do with her.

[Opuk0]

Okay here's an incredibly rough draft of what I have, I've spent more time on looking through the talents than anything.

Spoiler:

Lead-clad human geokineticist 20
LE Medium humanoid (human)
Init +3; Senses Perception +20
DEFENSES
AC 11, touch 8, flatfooted 11 (-2 Dex, +3 natural armor)
hp 353 (20d8+220+20 Toughness+20 Favored)
Fort +23, Reflex +10, Will +8; +2 vs mind-affecting effects
Defensive Abilities light fortification; DR 10/adamantine; electricity 5
Immune divination immunity
Weaknesses -
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft., burrow 20 ft., earth glide
Melee slam +16 (1d4+2)
Ranged earth blast +15 (2d6+6)
Special Attacks elemental overflow +6/+12, kinetic blast, metakinesis (empower)
Kineticist Wild Talents Known
Defense—flesh of stone, searing flesh
Infusions—entangling, extended range, fragmentation, impale, magnetic, rare earth, wall
Kinetic Blasts—earth blast (1d6+10+11), magma blast (20d6+20+11), metal blast (20d6+20+11)
Utility—basic geokinesis, basic pyrokinesis, earth walk, earth glide, elemental exile, enduring earth, expanded defense (fire, searing flesh), flame shield, kinetic form, ride the blast, tremorsense
STATISTICS
Str 14, Dex 7, Con 32, Int 5, Wis 5, Cha 14
Base Atk +13; CMB +17; CMD 15
Feats Toughness, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Improved Iron Will, Steadfast Personality, Strong Comeback, Heroic Will
Skills Intimidate +25, Perception +20
Language Common
SQ basic geokinesis, basic pyrokinesis, burn (3 points/round, maximum 13), expanded element* (earth, fire), gather power, infusion specialization 6, internal buffer 1, metakinetic master (empower), supercharge

Starting stats: Str 13, Dex 13, Con 18, Int 7, Wis 7, Cha 16 (25 pt buy)
Human: +2 Con
4th level boosts: +1 Str, +4 Con
Inherent bonus: +4 Con (Stat boost tome)
Lead-clad: Divination immunity, +3 nat, -6 dex, +4 con, -2 int/wis/cha, -10 speed, light fortification, 5 elec res

[avr]

Assuming a belt of +6 dex/con and a headband of some sort, a kineticist's diadem, some sort of armor, and a cloak of resistance a lot of those stats will change a lot. Base attack +13 should be +15, and your internal buffer is up to 3 points max. You get fire blast as well BTW.

Expanded defence (searing flesh) is bad enough that almost anything would be better - kinetic awe perhaps since you've maxed intimidate.

Anyway, infusion spec 6, no combination of infusions there will add to the cost, metakinetic master makes empower free. Composite blasts cost 1 burn, quickening a blast adds 3 burn, firing 2 blasts in one action costs 4 burn and all these stack. Gather power + supercharge on a move action reduces the total burn cost by 2. Your zero-cost option is gather power and an empowered metal blast (possibly with infusions too). Doing the same and also firing a quickened empowered earth or fire blast (possibly a wall?) costs 2 burn that round. Gather power and firing 2 empowered metal blasts in one standard action costs 3 burn. That's probably as far as you want to go.

In a serious fight you might open with one of those burn-costing blast options, or you might skip gathering power and fire a metal blast (1 burn), activate tremorsense (1 burn more) then 5' step underground.

[Firebug]

Expanded Metakinesis for Furious Spell has been brought up in similar threads a few times. Essentially add your level to damage for 1 burn since the appropriate spell level is ~half your level. Not better then Empower on a Composite blast, but comparable on a Simple blast. Empower will multiply the Furious damage though, so Empower + Furious is way better than a Maximize. I mean, Empower alone is basically better than maximize and costs less burn. With the static damage you listed in your last build Composite: 20d6+31 *1.5 = 151.5 average empower vs 120+31 = 151 maximize. Simple: 10d6+21 *1.5 =84 empower vs 60+21 =81 maximize. And Furious just tacks 30 damage on each of the Empower examples for the same burn as a Maximize.

Looking at the napkin numbers it looks like Furious + Empower is a good choice on a simple blast over a plain non-empowered Composite between Supercharge and Composite Specialization for a 0 burn option. Though its better for an energy simple since they have a bit less static damage. Once Composite Specialization kicks in, Supercharge Empowered Composites for 0. Then Empowered Furious Composites with Metakinesis Master.

As far as nova options go... Contingent Action says 'it cannot be used to cast a spell or use a supernatural ability' and Kinetic Blast is a spell-like ability. This brings up the whole 'are spell-like abilities spells for some things and not for others' argument, but once they said that you can't use them for prestige classes because they aren't spells I think it works. Anyway, Contingent Action is a 3rd level spell that isn't personal, so its potion-able. Just ready an Empowered Simple blast for 0 burn contingent on something fun, like someone else targets you with a spell. Enjoy telling the party caster they need to make a DC 100 concentration check.

[Temperans]

The way I have always seen it, as far as burn management goes, you want to take advantage of gather power and other burn reducing abilities as much as possible. Leaving the use of burn for 3 cases: Use of utility (Ex: Kinetic Form), Nova (Spend as many points as possible on metamagic and infusions), and Defense talent (Ex: Force Ward).

Utility and Defense are usually pay at the start of the day and be done with it. This allows you to divide your pool into: Combat and Out-of-combat. This way you can have clear limit on how many points can be spent on attacking without eating into your reserves for utility talents. (Important for elements like air which have many utility expenditures).

As far as tips/suggestions for playing as a Kineticist. Its very important to think outside the box and be creative. The at will nature of their power lends itself to creative solutions. Take advantage of your very liberated feats, item slots, and gold; The fact that you have no required feats or items means you can go for some of the weirder options (much like the Strong Comeback feat, that I didn't even knew existed).

* * The basic damage formulas are:
-> Physical: 1d6 +1 +con + 1d6+1 for every 2 kineticist level.
-> Energy: 1d6 +0.5 con + 1d6 for every 2 kineticist level.
For composite just replace any 1 with 2. So your Earth Blast is: 10d6 +5(0.5*con) +any other bonus.

*************
So just to summarize, to manage burn: Plan ahead how much you expect to use outside and inside combat: Avoid going nova (expending all your burn) unless you really have too: And, make use of gather power as often as you can.

If you are having trouble with calculating when metamagic comes into play (I will admit there are a lot of number changes). Make a note of the different values for each metamagic, that way you can have them as quick references. *Autocalc sheets are also great for making things faster.