New idea for balanced burn (and a fix to action economy)

[Verzen]

Make each overflow impulse into a 1 action activity.

But make each one cast HP damage in burn. So at level 1, tidal hands could cost 12 hp but use 1 action.

Let's say gather elements made me resistant = four times my level on my next impulse cast. Stackable an unlimited number of times.

So I can gather elements twice to gain 8 resistance to my next overflow impulse. Tidal hands only cost 4 hp now.

If I gain a level, I can then use tidal hands for free, but only its level 1 capability. Each ability would let me scale down so I don't use hp to damage me.

Note: the numbers definitely need tweaking and work to be balanced. This was just an idea for gather elements to reduce burn and incorporate burn.

[kripdenn]

Sounds like a lot of dead kineticists and even worse action economy.

[Verzen]

kripdenn wrote:

Sounds like a lot of dead kineticists and even worse action economy.

Not really. It changes actions into HP damage.

Casting mountain that weeps is 4 actions total, but with this I can cast it for 3 actions and take some damage rather than 4 actions.

[Nothing To See Here]

That sounds like a lot of complexity for something that could be solved by having a burn feat that lets you take damage or some other penalty to avoid losing your gathered element when you us and overflow impulse.

[Lollerabe]

I get the idea but it's a metric ton of fiddily bookkeeping, compared to any other pf2e class.

If they reintroduce burn it has to be opt in, if they wanna satisfy both camps (the love burn, absolutely hate burn camps that is).

I'd prefer a system where you have X amount of resource (let's call it conduit power for now)

Conduit power can increase damg, aoe, add debuffs, whatever. When your conduit pool is empty you can CHOOSE to to use more conduit power but each time you do that, you get drained.
If you dislike pain for power, you never go beyond your freebie limit. If you want to however, you can.

If you make burn a baseline mechanic then players who dislike it will feel like crap, because they are playing a watered down version of the class. With the above design (if done right) it becomes a choice

[Verzen]

I'd support burn being a feat

[Lollerabe]

In which case it can't be a base mechanic the class is balanced around. Which is fine, but it will probably be pretty tame then.

Unless they make it pretty universal. Reducing ap costs by burning hp would be cool. It would need to be a flourish tho.

Otherwise it's pretty ripe for abuse.

Increasing damage dice by 1-2 steps could be another option, but less interesting

[Martialmasters]

No hp for power for the love of god