| Renkosuke |
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This is just a general list of issues I took with the playtest kineticist, as of this moment. Some of these are probably posted elsewhere as well. As a disclaimer, I haven't actually tested anything out in an actual game (since it's still the first day).
--Core Issues--
1) Constitution: I'm on the fence about this one. Thematically I love it, but mechanically it has problems: if it's used for too much, then it becomes a god stat, and if it's used for too little then it feels like a debuff on the class. I don't have a solution for this, but reintroducing burn or even just a "take damage to gain buffs" mechanic might work.
2) Weapon proficiency: This feels unnecessary. Key score constitution already puts a debuff on accuracy, and the other classes that have the same issue (Thaumaturge, Inventor, Investigator) have core features that mitigate it (like Devise a Stratagem) on top of having standard martial proficiency progression.
3) Melee Elemental Blasts provoke AoOs: (Because of the Impulse trait) This is *probably* on purpose, but I feel like it's unnecessary on top of all of the other difficulties that kineticists will have making attacks. If the kineticist had on-par attack bonus scaling with all the other non-fighter martials, then I could live with this staying in.
--Basic Class Feats--
4) Elemental Weapon: The feat makes no mention of damage scaling (only that the damage type is the same as the gathered element). As written, it doesn't gain any benefits from handwrap runes and there's no good method of applying its own runes (aside from holding on to it for a day while someone inscribes runes onto it, and then never letting go ever again). I imagine this is just an oversight and I know you can use elemental blasts through it, but as it's written right now it's actually a debuff since it restricts what kind of blasts you can use. Also, it mentions that you have to choose a one-handed weapon, but I imagine you could still choose a weapon with the two-handed trait (like a Bastard Sword) and end up wielding it in 2 hands anyway.
5) Kinetic Activation: More of a quality of life thing, but adding a line that lets you identify scrolls like a spellcaster would be nice (ie: you can automatically identify scrolls that have spells of your element, without needing a check).
6) Flourish actions: There are none, despite a lot of other classes normally having the flourish tag on a lot of similar actions. Blast Barrage, Cycling Blast, and Chain Blasts come to mind. I can't tell if this is on purpose or not, but I feel like they should probably have the flourish tag (Cycling Blast I can see not needing it as much). If nothing else than to prevent them from being used alongside other flourishes (like skirmish strike or, hamster forbid, flurry of blows).
7) Deconstruct Element: Considering this is both an impulse action, and requires Dedicated Gate, the line at the end allowing you to immediately Gather the Element feels inconsequential. Thematically cool though.
--Air Feats--
8) Soothing Breeze: What's the range of this, or is it supposed to be a 20ft emanation?
9) Fair Winds: Considering there is no save for this ability, it seems... strong. Especially with Aura Shaping. And it automatically distinguishes friend from foe.
10) Wings of Air: At-will flight at level 8? For the whole party at level 14? And it's actually better than all other on-level equivalents? Seems... also very strong.
--Fire Feats--
11) Flame Eruption: The damage from this feels wayyy too low for an overflow ability, even with the hazardous terrain (which in theory ticks a maximum of two times per cast, unless push/pull effects are used). Using Stoke Element to boost its damage makes its damage *reasonable* but costs a total of 4 actions. Either the overflow trait needs to be removed or the damage needs to be increased (2d6 base with +d6 per 2 levels feels like the bare minimum).
12) Blazing Wave: This hits the bare minimum for damage, but still feels kinda bad. The prone effect feels somewhat arbitrary too. I feel that persistent fire damage would be more thematic here (also there seems to be a lack of persistent fire damage in general).
13) Furnace Form: Do the Produce Flame spells from Fiery Body use Charisma? And Trained proficiency? It feels relevant since the 1-action produce flame is bound to be a lot more powerful than your fire blast strikes at that level.
14) Arrive in Conflagration: This ability is great, but the teleport requirements are a bit steep. The only way to actually cause persistent fire damage as a pyrokineticist is to critically hit on an Elemental Blast or with the Horrid Ignition feat, which is curiously the same level as Arrive in Conflagration.
15) All Shall End in Flames: Since kineticists have Evasion, having the option to choose to fail the save against this impulse would make its utility a lot more reliable. Also it's somewhat unclear whether Elemental Immunity replaces Elemental Resistance or simply adds to it -- in the latter case, you would also resist the damage from this impulse, making it even less reliable to use for its utility.
I don't have anything to say about the Earth and Water feats since they seem to be relatively balanced with respect to the rest of the class, and I obviously haven't played them yet to see how their utility/damage output balances overall.
My overall takeaway is that the numbers for this class feel slightly underwhelming but its all-day utility potential is relatively high. Auras and utility feats seem to be the way to go, alongside a few key damaging abilities (Blast Barrage and Chain Blasts come to mind).