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There's been a lot of good feedback on the Kineticist, and I'm not going to shy from it. I have held back because I wanted the time to properly test, run, experience, and examine the class as is, but it's finally time to sit comfortably, grab a drink, and go through a nice old classic wall of text.
First of all, a note on the good elements of the class. The flavour is great, and the idea of developing it with a mix of elemental strikes and active features definitely feels good thematically. Kineticist feels like a martial with a strong area of effect component and that's a good place to have it, if maybe with a bit more wiggle room, and the idea of rejecting spells is something I agree: Impulses are a new, exclusive feature, and should not be forcefully turned into spellcasting despite how close they might appear. However, there are some definite pain points which I would like to explore.
To do so, I will organise this thread in sections: the first will deal with the elemental feats, the selectable features, and the elemental distinctions in general; the second will go over chassis, core features, and those elements that unite all kineticists regardless of personal build; and the third will go into more detail about the general balancing and powering of the class.
As a note of favour for the reader, I recommend having the kineticist feat summaries opened on the side in order to focus on the relevant sections. As for general reference on experience, I have personally played a lv18 Universal Kineticist (to test blasting and overflow) and a lv3 Earth Kineticist (for a melee build test). I was not a major 1e kineticist fan, I did not play Legendary Kineticist, and while I like Con, I am neutral on Burn.
-------------Book One: Water
This book will focus on the more fluid section of the class, which is the the feats, because how they fit together and within a build will strongly determine playstyle, and the different elements chosen will alter the flow of gameplay.
First of all, I have been amazed by the amount of active feats in this class. Almost everything came as a new way to use elements directly in combat, either via auras, blasts, powers, or utility. I love that (my sheet loved it a little less as it was very hard to find the right actions mid play, but that's lv18 for you). However, there's several issues here.
In terms of utility, the Kineticist is more varied than I could make sense of. We range from at-will invisibility at level 6 to the power of raising the water level in a 20-foot burst... at level 18. One lv1 class feat allows the user to cast Light, a lv8 one to buff everyone's speed and damage. It's... confusing at the very least. I did love a few of these, especially those that seem to use the elements in new ways (namely: Whispers on the Wind, Clear as Air, Stepping Stones, Inner Flames, Veil of Mists, Voice of Elements), but I feel like everything else is either underwhelming or not very interesting. A few are clearly needed, such as the one granting people the ability to breathe water, and I'm not against the idea of using existing spells when they can save pagecount (this guy will need enough paper as it is). If anything, I could see a few of these feats allowing Kineticists to cast a short selection of innate spells, perhaps on the lines of those aasimar/tiefling feats that grant two casts per day out of three spells. Or just a selection of thematic cantrips for the low level feats.
Auras have been a mixed bag. Notably, we almost TPK'd to Winter's Clutch during our low-level playtest, because it was impossible to get away from it (our hydrokineticist got entangled in a web. Don't ask me about that day's rolls). The supportive or beneficial auras have been insanely good at all level of play, but anything aggressive felt like it strongly required the lv8 Aura Shaping feat - not a good design when the first aggressive auras show up at lv1. More on this in Book Two.
The Guardians/Summons are all amazing, even the fire one which doesn't do much. I like that it exists as an option, I just wish Fire impulses could take better advantage of it. More on this in Book Three. There's also a few shapechanging feats which I loved thematically, but were generally quite weird - the Fire one lasts one round when you get it, and burns one round just to cast it; the lowest Earth one gives you a new AC, but it's worse than what you'd have. Some have action economy benefits, but Sustain attached to it, and so on. I'd love to turn into an elemental version of myself, but it has to be worth it.
The Walls... are very uneven. This mostly emerges from the fact that the wall spells themselves are very uneven, and that Stone, arguably one of the best, has no Overflow. I think giving Wind some extra benefits and allowing Fire to scale should be at least required.
The healing is.... actually nice, in the fact that each element has its own spin on them. I could use a Fire healing that enhances people's attack or mobility (it's not like Earth isn't a combat heal already).
In general, and taking off from the last line about Fire, I like that each element seems to be trying to do similar things in different ways and with different benefits and outcomes. I think that's a good direction and I especially like that not all feats in the same element feel the same - I can read the feats from one element and feel that they're different from another element, but I can't say "this is the speed element" or "this is the hit point element". There's a hint of a good mix that still maintains distinction, and that is good flow - it just needs some enriching and rebalancing.
-------------Book Two: Earth
This book will ground us in the core elements of the class, namely the proficiency chassis, essential features, and early diversification that all kineticists share, to provide a solid foundation on which we can build.
This of course means that we will start with the core foundation of the class - the traits which govern its abilities. The first thing I noticed when I first opened up the playtest was that Kineticist abilities are based on strong exclusionary language - telling me what this thing is NOT, what it can NOT do, and what it does NOT allow. While I see the point in having impulses be neither spell nor strikes (I imagine because of multiclassing shenanigans, flurry of blows, spellstrike, and all that), it creates a lot of convolution. The Impulse trait having nested Manipulate also created some issues in game - my poor lv3 melee kineticist met a creature with AoO, which made me realise everything I could ever do, including basic attacks and raising my shield, provoked AoO. Not my greatest moment, I went down to a crit because I tried raising my shield (which interrupted the action, so I couldn't even block). I'm a lucky one.
The Overflow trait has been the subject of many discussions. Vanessa Hosking, in an interview with the Rulelord, compared it to a Swashbuckler's rythm of panache and finishers, and I generally agree for the most part - both classes are martial characters with a charge up that lets them do empowered attacks and can be burned off for a bigger impact effect. The primary difference I would note, however, is that Swashbuckler gains panache by doing something useful, while Gathering Elements is purely an action cost. There's a long series of observation on Gather Elements and Overflow made by Gust_of_Wind, which... you can read if you have time... but the short end of the parts I agree with is that it's overpriced, overbearing, and overpresent. Every offensive action has it, 65/96 feats have it, it always costs a future action, and... Honestly, it's not worth it. In my high level test, I used overflow extensively. But I had the power of the Avatar on my side, and several feats dedicated to using action economy tricks to lessen its impact. It felt weak, but not crippling. On my lower level test, I never used it. I wanted to, especially for my shield block, but realised it would have crippled me, because I could do nothing without a gathered element.
In my mind, these two issues are one. These traits are too general to be that impactful. One option that I see is letting Kineticist have access to their elemental strikes at all times (and make them proper Strikes which do not provoke AoO nor get disabled mid-fight), and relegate Gather Element to a recharge function similar to how Magus's spellstrike needs to be reenabled; Another is to add some meaningful payoff to Gather Element, such as tempHP to Gather Earth, ranged manouvers for Gathering Air, stepping for Gathering Fire, and some sort of ally protection for Gathering Water because all I can come up with is Katara. These are just examples. As for the overbearing of Overflow, that depends. If Gathering Elements can be meaningful and useful, then Overflow might just be slapped on everything, but personally I like the idea of it being placed on some feats which are exceptionally powerful, and letting most feats go without. Let's have frequent elemental uses, and then one big boom moment. Then we can decouple some traits, adding Manipulate to most impulses but not all so that there is a slight chance to play this class around AoOs. I believe we discussed the rock shield issue back when Parry was being smoothed.
(Also, as a side note, Overflow as a name doesn't really evoke an endpoint to me, more of a swell. Perhaps we should call it the Exhaust trait? Or something else that evokes the idea of your element getting burned off. Who knows)
Next in line is what you always feared, the key ability score. Let's start with reminding everyone that I like the thematic effect of Constitution representing your ability to withstand elemental forces coursing through you. That's cool. However, if your memory extends even further back... Logan, remember the Investigator playtest? At the time, I told you that I enjoyed the idea of an Int-based martial, but that Int wasn't doing enough for the class. So let me tell you now that I enjoy the idea of a Con-based martial, but that Con isn't doing enough for the class. No judgment, but I gotta call it out.
I believe it's possible to balance Kineticist so that Con-based attacks are not necessary. There's been some discussion in my group that Con might help determine the benefits of Gather Element, but I prefer a different interpretation (because it's easier to write, nothing more): Allow any kineticist to exclude people from their aura based on their Con, starting from level one, and use Shaping Aura as an optional but powerful high level feat that expands range only. That solves the low level aura problem mentioned in Book One and the mandatoreity of the feat in one fell swoop, while also having a powerful, important effect that reinforces Con as the key ability score.
Now we can look at the class features. The flexible feats are amazing and lovely, but I'm not married to the idea too hard and would understand if they were removed. The Adapt Element line, however, feels a little vague. It's basically elemental Prestidigitation - doesn't really do much, and is even counterproductive at times. Why is gathering from the environment slower than gathering from your gate? Why would someone ever do that? If anything, I would love a Kineticist that gathers elements freely when their element is particularly powerful - a fire kineticist fighting in the middle of a volcano should be at its peak, and so is an air kineticist in the middle of a storm. I guess a metal kineticist should find himself in a dwarven forge or in some sort of top-reinforced fortress to get the benefit, but you get my drift. Make me interact with the element.
On that topic, there is the matter of elemental resistance. Resistance to fire is solid, common, and classic... but everything else is so niche that it barely figures. What's the point? Sure, it'll be cool when it comes up, but I'd rather have Earth give me resistance to forced movement or something likely to come up than something that will come up maybe once in a lifetime. Again, make the element matter.
Finally I would like to talk about Gates. I played as both single and universal gate - and for the latter, I think it's great. Having flexible feats I can use to alter my build is great in the context of an ongoing campaign, and access to all the feats was a nice challenge to face and allowed me an amazing level of control and choice. I love it as it is, and in fact I could see the flexible feats as the Universalist's specialty. Single gate... was less awesome. In short, I did not feel like a specialist, just pointed one way. While I like that dual gate has a bonus feat from each (and possibly access to hybrid elements as their specialty), I don't think a third feat was enough to trade off the flexibility. Part of this is probably playtest related as we have less feats than final, but somehow I feel like dedicated gate needs a lv1 feature that makes it feel like a master. Stoke Element comes to mind as an easily resizeable solution.
All in all, the concept of the chassis is solid, but a lot within it needs to be readjusted and tuned. The class is extremely flexible on paper, but stiff as a rock in play, and as good as the concept is, the foundations are shaky.
-------------Book Three: Fire
This book will face the burning question of whether the kineticist actually delivers on its fantasy, as well as delve more specifically into why that may be and on how these assumptions can be used to provide a hopefully more engaging (and spectacular) result.
I will not, however, begin with the feedback. Instead, we are going to take a trip down memory lane all the way to my early conversion projects, when I was happily trailblazing (because it's Book Three, get it? Fire?) my way through unguided calculations and rebalancing, and especially monster crafting. Most of my early work was mediocre, but it did teach me a lot - and one concept that I ended up using over and over since then was the turn budget. A monster can be as overpowered as I want it to be, but so long as it is limited in what it does during its turn, all's fine (or close to). And action costs were an amazing form of control and power enhancement - giving creatures action-efficient abilities, or extra reactions, did wonders for an otherwise underwhelming creature.
I want to bring this up not because I'm going to sell you a monster, but because I think it's a valuable lesson we need to apply to Kineticist. When playing a kineticist, I feel the turn was not spent right. Overflow actions, most of all, feel like there is very little for my time, because they're in most cases 2+1 action activities which deliver a very underwhelming effect - an effect I can multiply via area and use near at will over the course of the day, but which is still incredibly underwhelming in a turn by turn basis. In my previous feedback thread, Psychic Impressions, I bemoaned how psychic felt too faint and low-impact because of its attempt to play a long-term impact character which just never really built up enough. The result was eventually a caster which nobody denies has definite impact, which was a major shift, and while I'm not after that kind of bang I am hoping it will be worth the bucks.
In terms of offensive abilities, the kineticist is underwhelming all around. The overflow impulses are extremely weak, comparable in raw damage with a 2-action Champion strike sequence (however the accuracy multiplier here is lower, because champion strikes against AC while we're looking at saves vs DCs, making kineticist blasts weaker than that). The basic strikes, while amazing for switch-hitting, have no inherent damage amplifiers, again presenting the Champion as the closest comparison. The class as it is is not a very strong attacker, neither as a martial nor an area blaster, and while it can do both and be very flexible, the value of switch-hitting does not come up enough to justify it (especially due to the many ability score requirements). In addition, the scaling on many abilities is so slow that it might as well not be there, marking the ability as low-level only. Aerial Boomerang, Storm Spiral, Ferocious Cyclone and The Shattered Mountain Weeps are the only abilities to cap at more than 2.2 damage per level (our chosen threshold of champion attacks), while Tremor, Rolling Boulder, Flame Eruption and Slippery Sleet cap at less than 1.5/lv. Now, sure, some of these add status effects, but is it truly worth that much? Is the damage even a contribution at that point? Are my two plus one actions as a lv20 character truly worth 24 points of damage and a square of dangerous terrain?
I say no. My two plus one actions as a lv20 character, if I'm looking at area damage against a save, are worth 70 damage worth of fireball, or maybe 82 from a Meteor Swarm. The third action is likely going to be sipping a cocktail or rubbing some lotion, because that's enough explosions to get a tan out of.
But of course we're neither casters nor pure damage dealers, so we should look for what we're good at. I just wish I knew what that is. From what I can read of the Kineticist, the pattern I have is very low damage, Reflex save (on a slightly lower DC), and then Stunned 1... with maybe a push or a shove attached to it. That last bit sounds like a saving grace - weak, faint, but something. I say prop up the juice to a decent amount and then focus on this flavour.
I mentioned in Book Two that I would like to see Overflow become less omnipresent. If so, then we can start to see kineticist impulses as low (but meaningful!) damage accompanied by status effects, with perhaps a bit more of a save spread, and overflow impulses as the showy stuff which make your turn shine. I'd actually prefer if the relationship between overflow and gather were reversed - giving a specific clause that your element is gathered only until combat ends would make Kineticists start the fight with only their strikes, Gather for more powerful attacks, and then fall back down to strikes until they Gather again. And yes, if this is what you want, what you really really want, we could make a feat that lets you burn hit points to Gather as a free action or something. As I said, neutral on that one as long as it's not mandatory.
One more thing. I mentioned in Book One that I liked the distinction between elements in the different ways of doing similar things, and that no element was easily summarisable. I'd like to walk that back one step - elements cannot be entirely summarised, but do have trends. Air has a lot of mobility, flight, and illusions. Earth has a lot of self defense, while Water has some big moments on ally defense (you were also thinking of Katara, I see). Fire is not the "firepower" element, which I like, but has some interestingly aggressive support abilities. I like seeing each list having a certain prevalence for some aspects, but I'd like to recommend one in particular: allow Fire to have more single-action activities than other elements (perhaps as Flourishes). Rapid fire is a good niche to add, especially since it seems to struggle in terms of... honestly almost everything, but combining agile low-damage strikes with a mix of quick flourishes and larger overflows could be a winning formula.
As a last word, the general feats seem all honestly good, and the utility gathering feats (cycling blast, gather amalgamation) were all insanely useful. I expect these to get some changes if my improved gathering idea gets through, but I take it mostly as confirming that the cost of Gather really impacts the class in a significant way.
These are my cabbages. Feel free to add your own thoughts and contributions below, and remember to play nice with each other. There's no war in Ba Sing Se.