Second Subclass?

[Sanityfaerie]

So, I was thinking about the differences of opinion on the Kineticist. In particular, there are some people who really want it to be the all-day elemental blaster, because they very much want an all-day elemental blaster, and they're pretty sure that if they don't get this one, they won't get one. There are others who really like the utility, and might even be willing to cash in elemental blast entirely if it gave them better access to other things. It occurs to me... it might be possible to run this with subclasses? Now, I'm not looking to get rid of the distinction between gate types. I think that the distinction between gate types is cool... but it wouldn't be the first class that had two intersecting subclass types to play with.

I wanted to toss the idea out there, and see what people thought of it, and what interesting things we might be able to do with it. What subclasses would we want to have?

- First, simplest, a blaster type. Gets some bonus to their elemental blasts - a damage bonus, a cross-the-board proficiency bump for blasts specifically (start at expert, end at legendary) - something. They might actually have some specific limit to what other infusions they can take - like, they lose one off their starter set of elemental feats, and may not spend class feats on elemental abilities or something.

- Second, the flip-side, a caster type. Straight-up loses elemental blast altogether. In return, they get some sort of love on their overwhelm powers

- Third... maybe an aura specialist? Gets various benefits to their aura powers, including increased area, earlier access to party-friendliness, and eventually being able to carry dual auras. Not sure what they should give up for it. Possibly lose access to all direct attack powers other than auras and elemental blast?

- Fourth... why not throw in burn, here? A subclass is chunky enough to allow for a burn mechanic with some meat on it, without having to warp anyone else's stuff. As for a disadvantage... honestly, a burn mechanic is its own disadvantage. Options available for spending urn both for dumping out overwhelms faster and for making your elemental blasts more special.

Ideas and critiques both welcome.

[_shredder_]

That sounds like a great idea, and the cleric doctrines show that it is possible to design a class with differently scaling proficiencies. I just really want to play a magical blaster who is as inflexible, unversatile and hyper focused on single target damage and accuracy as possible. This would be a great way to allow me to play wizard kirby without ruining the avatar fantasies of other players.

[PossibleCabbage]

The Wizard gets two subclasses, one is larger than the other, but they still make two choices.

I have to think something like this might be how they do hybrid elements. This is going to be a significant power boost to dual and universal gate kineticists, so there should be something commensurate for dedicated gate.

[NotEspi]

*cough* ctrl+f discipline *cough*

[Temperans]

It really doesn't need to a subclass unless its a subclass to choose between Legendary in elemental blasts and Legendary in Class DC.

Gates should not be a subclass in the first place.

[YuriP]

I also don't see too much flavor to have 2 levels of subclasses here. Instead maybe switch from dedicated/dual/universalist to something more druid's order like where you select an element to have access and can expand it more via feats (this solves the currently dedicated vs dual/universal unbalances).