| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So full disclosure, I have not played Kineticist at all yet, nor have I read through every single detail of the class; I read through the baseline stuff, the default feats, and fire. Along with some air. I'm also not really one for white room math and all that stuff, but I see a lot of recurring comments talking about how CON isn't relevant as a KAS and how people want Burn- in some fashion- to return. However, it feels like people are kind of stuck in a rut of "power at a price" meaning that it has to mean it impacts your HP or CON ability somehow. But instead of that...
What if Kineticist had a resource that was tied to CON?
Clerics get extra slots for Heal/Harm equal to their CHA modifier. Alchemists get infused reagents equal to level + INT modifier. So there's precedent for this kind of thing already. With that in mind, perhaps Kineticist can get some sort of daily resource equal to their CON modifier that they can spend to boost their performance in some way. How? I'm not entirely sure. Maybe you can spend a point in place of expending your gathered element on an overflow ability. Maybe you can spend this resource to amplify your damage- increase your blast or overflow damage die by one size, add CON and/or level to damage, etc. Maybe you can gather elements as a free action by spending a point. Perhaps for X rounds you get certain benefits similar to the above?
This gives Kineticist something that actually runs off of their CON score besides HP/Fort, and it's something that can be used to help Kineticist feel more powerful while also making said power resource-based, thus minimizing what Kineticist needs to sacrifice from its current setup. It also fulfills the "power at a price" theme somewhat since the resource is tied to CON, thematically signalling just how much of this power you can draw out and put to use. It could, potentially, even pave the way for a feat for more traditional burn. Letting players expend X amount of HP to regain the resource, extend it, or replace it after having run out.
The idea is vague, I'm aware, but it's in large part because there are a lot of ways that Paizo could theoretically go about it. It's not an avenue I've seen other people offer up though, so I thought I'd throw my hat into the ring with this prospect. Who knows, maybe it's worth something.