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I am used to playing versatile and complicated characters, which usually means casters. Next AP will be Skull and Shackles, and I want to challenge myself by exploring classes I do not know very well, while playing a more laid back character that doesn't need lots of micromanaging in game and between sessions, so I opted for a martial/non-spellcaster.
I would like to play an Undine with the Amphibious alternate racial trait, to have the swim and water-breathing issues solved from the start. I will then pick the Wisdom in the Flesh[Climb] and the Empathic Diplomat traits to get Climb and Diplomacy on Wisdom, both important skills for this AP.
Stats will be: 7-2 17+2 14 10 16+2 7 or 7-2 17+2 16 10 14+2 7, depending on whether I will prioritise Will saves, Grit and Wis-skills (Diplomacy, Perception, Sense Motive, Profession[Sailor]) over HPs and Burn or not.
I will start with 5 levels into Bolt Ace and choose a Repeating Hand Crossbow as my free MWK weapon, and buy an Underwater Light Crossbow for underwater fights. At 5th level, I will select the Underwater Light Crossbow as my favourite crossbow, unless I find another way to bypass underwater fights penalties.
After that, I will multiclass into Kineticist. I will make great use of a Conductive crossbow, which I should be able to afford by level 6. This means that I must choose energy blasts. The first element will be Air: I know it's anti-thematic, but since I am already limiting my potential by using a non-spellcaster, I do not want to further nerf myself by choosing an energy type (Water, i.e. cold) which will be automatically resisted by pretty much any creature living 20ft underwater.
Feats will be:
1 PBS
2
3 Precise Shot
4 Rapid Reload
5 Rapid Shot
6
7 Deadly Aim
8
9 Improved Critical
This being said, I have no further clue on how to continue the build. I have really little knowledge of the Gunslinger and Kineticist classes, so I would really appreciate any feedback on Infusions, Wild Talents, and other ways to improve my versatility beyond simply shooting at a target.
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One thing that particularly perplexes me is the choice of a the second element for the purposes of Composite Blasts, as they are pretty much all physical. Why?
Since I need instead an energy Composite Blast, my choice is limited to:
1) Aetheric Boost. Since it directly boosts the damage of a Simple Blast, it still counts as the Simple Blast for the purposes of Infusions; too bad the final Composite Blast damage is terrible.
2) Blue Flame. The only true energy Composite Blast available, but it's sadly incompatible with the AP, since it has a strong underwater component.
3) Negative Admixture. Damage wise, it's the same as Blue Fire, the problem being that it is incompatible with Infusions.
I really don't understand why Composite Blasts are, by construction, pretty much all physical, except for fire. Since Kinetic Blasts are indeed Spell Like Abilities, I could make fire work in this AP if the Steam Caster feat was applicable to them, the same way Elemental Focus would, but I am not sure it does.
Do you think it works? If so, is it worth the extra feat?
Energise weapon is an infusion that will probably work well for you, and kinetic blade will help if you're caught in a corner. Elemental whispers (not the greater version) gets you a disposable scout which lasts as long as you concentrate and the normal minor familiar bonuses when you're not doing so.
I wouldn't worry too much about composite blasts. Since you normally will want to do a full attack you won't be able to gather power, so you won't want anything which costs too much burn. With the 5 level delay on kineticist as well you may not ever use a composite blast. How high level does Skull and Shackles go anyway?
For late feats mobile gathering for occasions where you do want to move and take a single shot might be worth considering. If the air element for permaflight is your choice then aerial roll might be handy. With fire steam caster probably works and is worth it.
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Energize Weapon seems fine at a first glance, but it would require to spend Burn every round of attack, which is unacceptable. Even if I am willing to Gather Power as a move action (in my case, by moving the first Kineticist level earlier in the build, since at lower levels I cannot full-attack anyway), I still can't since I don't have free hands as I'm wielding a weapon! Unless I am using a gauntlet-like weapon, the two abilities are incompatible, so I am taking damage to add one (1)d6 damage and that's it. What a waste. Of course, Infusion Specialization fixes the problem but, again, not before 5th level, meaning levels 1-4 are simply going to be awful. And this is not even taking into account the specific case of a multiclass build.
Kineticist really gives me the impression that, despite all the apparent customizability of the class, it has only one way to be played: physical blasts and Kinetic Blade, that's it.
I have also given a look at the Esoteric Knight, which seems good as it gives me full BAB, good Will save instead of Reflex, and bonus combat feats. It however halves the blast damage progression, which is the whole point of this build.
Rant over, this is the best build I could come up with so far. Dex enhancements and weapon +1s have been included, although somehow arbitrarily. Average damage was calculated against summary target AC/touch AC of appropriate CR. Target AC was calculated as the round-up mean over the Bestiaries, while target touch AC was calculated as the round-up mean touch AC + 1 standard deviation. This because:
1) Mean touch AC, by itself, was stable at 12 across all CRs of reference.
2) In an AP with lots of rogue-like swashbuckling pirates, you would expect touch AC to be overall in the higher end of the distribution.
Race: Undine, Amphibious alternate racial trait.
Stats: 5 19 16 10 16 7
Traits: Empathic Diplomat, Wisdom in the Flesh [Climb]
I have found a fun thing called Crossbow of the Crab which, while costing 2500gp for some inexplicable reason despite being just a Heavy Repeating Crossbow with the Underwater property attached, is indeed a mundane crossbow, and therefore counts for our complimentary battered starting crossbow. We'll start with one of those, and buy an Underwater Light Crossbow for the first few levels until we can afford to make the Crab one Resizing. If we later find a way to become Large (extremely unlikely, since we do not qualify for Enlarge Person), we can do 2d8 base damage instead of 1d10, for a net of +3.5 for just -1 to hit (and AC/Ref), which is arguably a better bargain than Deadly Aim.
Build:
1 Bolt Ace, Point-Blank Shot
2 Bolt Ace
3 Bolt Ace, Precise Shot
4 Bolt Ace, Rapid Reload
5 Bolt Ace, Rapid Shot
6 Kineticist, {Energize Weapon}
7 Kineticist, Crossbow Mastery, {Elemental Whisp [Compsognatus]}
8 Kineticist, {Thundering Infusion, Elemental Overflow +1}
9 Kineticist, Improved Critical, {Air Shroud}
10 Kineticist, {Extended Range, finally free Energize Weapon}
11 Kineticist, Aerial Roll, {Wings of Air, Elemental Overflow +2, +2 size Dex/Con}
12 Kineticist, {Magnetic Infusion, Aerial Evasion}
13 Esoteric Knight (onward), Improved Precise Shot, Bleeding Critical (swap it for better Crit Feats at higher BAB via Burn)
I'm happy to get rid of anything with .
Damage break down:
1 Dex: 19, Mwk L-Xbow; hit: +7, dmg: 1d8+1, avg: 3.6/3.9 vs AC 16/touch AC 15
...
4 Dex: 20, +1/Res Xbow; hit: +11, dmg: 1d10+2, avg: 5.4/7.0 vs AC 19/touch AC 15
5 Dex: 22, +1/Res Xbow; hit: +11/+11, dmg: 2x[1d10+2+Dex], avg: 19.4/25.9 vs AC 20/touch AC 16
6 Dex: 22, +1/Conduct/Res Xbow; hit: +11/+11, dmg: 2x[1d10+2+Dex]+1d6+1/2Con, avg: 21.4/30.2 vs AC 21/touch AC 16; occasionally +2x[1d6]
7 Dex: 22, +1/Conduct/Res Xbow; hit: +12/+12/+7; dmg: 3x[1d10+2+Dex]+1d6+1/2Con, avg: 26.5/41.7 vs AC 22/touch AC 16; occasionally +3x[1d6]
8 Dex: 23, +1/Conduct/Res/Dist Xbow; hit: +13/+13/+8; dmg: 3x[1d10+2+Dex]+2d6+1+1/2Con, avg: 26.8/45.2 vs AC 24/touch AC 17; occasionally +3x[1d6]
9 Dex: 25, +1/Conduct/Res/Dist Xbow; hit: +15/+15/+10; dmg: 3x[1d10+2+Dex]+2d6+1+1/2Con, avg: 40.8/65.5 vs AC 25/touch AC 17; occasionally +3x[1d6]
10 Dex: 25, +1/Conduct/Res/Dist Xbow; hit: +15/+15/+10; dmg: 3x[1d10+2+Dex+1d6]+3d6+1+1/2Con, avg: 42.6/82.0 vs AC 27/touch AC 17)
11 Dex: 27, +2/Conduct/Res/Dist Xbow; hit: +18/+18/+13; dmg: 3x[1d10+3+Dex+1d6]+3d6+2+1/2Con, avg: 54.6/89.5 vs AC 27/touch AC 17)
12 Dex: 28, +2/Conduct/Res/Dist Xbow; hit: +20/+20/+15; dmg: 3x[1d10+3+Dex+2d6]+4d6+2+1/2Con, avg: 67.5/112.0 vs AC 29/touch AC 18, occasionally +4 to hit)
13 Dex: 28, +2/Conduct/Res/Dist Xbow; hit: +21/+21/+16/+11; dmg: 4x[1d10+3+Dex+2d6]+4d6+2+1/2Con, avg: 63.6/127.5 vs AC 31/touch AC 21, occasionally +4 to hit)
The Distance property is so that we can hit touch AC underwater up to 100ft, but it's not strictly necessary. If our GM allows retraining, we'll pick Light Underwater Crossbow for Rapid Reload and Crossbow Training, and then retrain them to the Crossbow of the Crab at 7th level. Otherwise we'll go with the Crossbow of the Crab from the start, as it's still a repeating crossbow, so we have an autonomy of 3 rounds (2 full-attacks with Rapid Shot and 1 single-shot), which is not too bad.
The biggest problem I see with this build is the fact that accuracy does not scale well at all: at 13th level we should be able to auto-hit average ACs, but it's clearly not the case. This is because after level 5 we get 3/4 BAB progression and no class features or spells to increase our bonus to hit, while at the same time penalties begin to stack with Rapid Shot and Deadly Aim, which was originally included. True, we can hit touch AC, but then we cannot use Deadly Aim. In other words, while a staple of ranged builds, in this case Deadly Aim is not a good feat: when we can apply it, it leads to less damage than if we didn't use it (I actually did the math), and when it would be good to use it, we can't.
Kineticists get elemental overflow as their class attack/damage bonus. Remember to include the dex bonus within it. Yes, it makes them oddly fragile if hard to kill in the same attack that drops them. It's what they have. Esoteric knight doesn't increase this and is very iffy for most kineticists, tho' maybe better for a conductive crossbow wielder who will get no benefit from the bonus to attack rolls with kinetic blast.
Wings of air has a prereq of air cushion or air's leap. Get the cushion. Bleeding critical requires critical focus.
I wouldn't describe the kineticist as especially customisable. It happens to fit a couple of concepts which a lot of people like without much work beyond understanding the class - actually making a standard kineticist blaster is easy.