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PLAYTEST SUMMARY
Overall, I did not enjoy playing this class, despite liking its general direction and structure.
The kineticist feels like it wants to be akin to a non-spell martial caster, but lacks the numbers, options, and action economy to pull this off. I felt mediocre at Striking because of the slower attack proficiency, key ability score, inability to two-hand or dual-wield Elemental Blasts. I felt bad at blasting because I don't have offensive cantrips and the blast impulses deal weak damage. And I felt bad at combining Strikes with blasts because offensive impulses essentially cost 3 actions due to Overflow. Contrast with other martial spellcasters, who typically Strike and then cast a non-attack cantrip.
1. I played an 11th level Strength-based melee kineticist with the fire dedicated gate. I played through the monk monastery dungeon in the first Ruby Phoenix AP volume alongside martial spellcasters.
2. Combat felt surprisingly dull. I spent all my feats on offense, and I still felt like I had few tactical options. Every fight just boiled down to spamming Elemental Blast.
3. The overflow offensive impulses never felt worthwhile. I would rather have electric arc or scatter scree than any of these impulses, and their secondary effects either felt too niche or too ineffective for the action economy cost. I wish there were tactical options with overflow, like an innate ability to boost an Elemental Blast. Or perhaps that offensive impulses have the overflow trait as an option, like how the inventor has the option to add unstable to Megavolt.
4. Impulse rules are annoying and cripple melee builds because all impulses have the manipulate trait and provoke reactions. Lack of medium armor proficiency also hurts melee builds as well.
5. Gather Element is really cool, but the class doesn't really use this ability other than as a punishment for overflow impulses, dropping the element, or using different elements.
6. Build versatility feels a little lacking for what I expected out of the class, but I think some quality of life changes for melee builds and maybe more Elemental Blast options would fix this.
7. I'm happy the CON is still the class's key score, but the "straining yourself to channel the elements" aspect of the class is completely missing. There's also a weird issue where the class punishes melee builds and encourages you to fight from afar while you have an absurd amount of Hit Points. It ends up making ranged builds feel way too safe, and you don't have the option of reducing your Hit Points with lower CON because you need it for your DCs.
I've been playing Pathfinder since 2012, and I'm a Pathfinder Infinite author.
The kineticist was my favorite class in PF1E, second only to the magus. I absolutely loved the flavor and versatility of the 1st Edition incarnation as all four of my kineticists in PFS had completely different play styles. My kineticists in 1st Edition included:
1. A kitsune telekineticist who pilfered things with her mind and telekinetic blasted people with clusters of cards and dice
2. A kitsune chaokineticist who adventured with his twin sister, a hydrokineticist chirurgeon. The two of them combined their blasts using the Interweave Composite Blast teamwork feat.
3. An ifrit pyrokinetic knight who wielded fire like it was a katana using iaijitsu.
4. A merfolk hydrokineticist chirurgeon who used waterdancer to float on a current of water as a means of traveling on land.
Thus, I must concede that my expectations have been colored by my experiences playing a 1E kineticist as well as my experience playing many martial casters (magi and summoners) in 2E.
I tried several combinations of character concepts, but ultimately decided to use Elemental Weapon to recreate my kinetic knight from 1st Edition. The following are notes I wrote as I tried to create my character.
- Elemental Weapon feels mandatory to play a melee kineticist. All impulses have the manipulate trait, which means melee Elemental Blasts provoke Attacks of Opportunity.
- In my initial impressions, the greatest perk of Elemental Blast is that it can be used as both a melee weapon and a ranged weapon. However, the issue with the manipulate trait in impulses severely undermines this perk. While Elemental Weapon avoids this, it also takes away the ability to switch-hit.
- Can't use Elemental Blasts with Striking feats, but generally feels like a fair trade.
- Wanted to use Elemental Weapon to create a katana. Got worried as this class can't use martial weapons, but thankfully it's simple weapon proficiency.
- Why doesnt' the class have proficiency in medium armor? This is supposed to be a martial class, and it doesn't have Dex as its key ability score. Yet another punch in the face for melee kineticists.
- I had to spend a general feat on medium armor. Every melee kineticist would probably be forced to take Sentinel.
- What do you use your off-hand for? A shield?
- I'm struggling to find any blast impulses I like. Flame Eruption is the basic one, but it only deals 4d6 at 11th level. Even for an AoE cantrip, that's low. Its secondary effects feel mostly useless as it only affects a single square and most enemies won't care about the weak damage. It seems only useful for blocking a door, but this niche usefulness is not worth the loss in damage and losing your element.
- The other blasts I'm having similar feelings. At this point, I'd rather have a cantrip like scatter scree or electric arc. Sure, they don't affect as many enemies as Blazing Wave, but the damage is higher, more reliable, and they don't cost me an extra action.
- Really like the utility impulses.
- There's an Elemental Weapon feat. Would have been cool if we could get an Elemental Armor feat, too. Would suit earth element very well.
- Why are there so few feats that use Elemental Blast? It's a core feature of the class.
- Don't really need much equipment other than armor and handwraps
- None of the feats for Dedicated Gate seem attractive, which is annoying as Dedicated Gate has the least versatility out of the three options.
- Considered Stoke Element but the bonus doesn't feel worth the action cost. One action is not worth a +3 damage on my next Elemental Blast. If it dealt +2 per weapon die, then it would be useful and reasonable given that this is a 6th level feat and Elemental Blasts deal as much damage as a one-handed weapon. It might be useful for AoE impulses, but those already have a crippling action cost.
- I'm glad Con is a key score, but it seems to run counter to the entire playstyle of the class. The class encourages you to fight from afar and punishes you for being in close range due to impulses having the manipulate trait. There's no class features that necessitate Con other than just class DCs. So the extra HP feels pointless at best and makes the class feel too "safe" at worst.
- Very few skills. This class doesn't get as many trained skills as most other classes.
- I really, really wish each element got more than one option for Elemental Blast.
- I miss Interweave Composite Blast from 1st Edition. It was a niche feat, but I had a ton of fun with it when a friend and I played twins that combined their blasts. I'm not sure how it would be implemented in this class. Maybe sacrifice a Gathered Element as a reaction to buff an ally's spell/impulse?
Level 11
Ancestry Human (Ifrit)
Background Warrior
Class Kineticist
Inner Gate Dedicated Gate (fire)
ABILITY SCORES
Lv 01: Str 16; Dex 14; Con 16; Wis 12; Cha 10
Lv 05: Str 18; Dex 16; Con 18; Wis 14; Cha 10
Lv 10: Str 19; Dex 18; Con 19; Wis 16; Cha 10
DEFENSES/SAVES
140 HP; AC 29
Perception +18 (T)
Fortitude +21 (M)
Reflex +19 (E)
Will +18 (E)
SKILLS
Acrobatics +19 (E)
Diplomacy +17 (M)
Intimidation +17 (M)
Warfare Lore +13 (T)
Nature +16 (T)
Society +13 (T)
CLASS FEATS
01 Elemental Weapon, Burning Jet, Flame Eruption, Eternal Torch
02 Flexible Blasts
04 Blast Barrage
06 Blazing Wave
08 Solar Detonation
10 Chain Blast
I played through the monk monestary dungeon in the first volume of the Ruby Phoenix AP. I played along side a magus with similar statistics. The following are notes I wrote about the experience.
- Off to a bad start. Struggling to deal any damage to the spiders in A1, but I did have some pretty bad luck.
- Switch-hitting the spiders useful when they kept climbing up and down their webs
- AoEs not useful except for clearing webs
- Got restrained but thankfully escaped. Made me realize that getting grabbed is really *really* bad for this class as almost everything they do has the manipulate trait.
- Tried different combinations of actions, but the best seemed to just spam Elemental Blast.
- Tried the combination of Striking and then using Blazing Wave. The cost of having to Gather my Element on the following turn just didn't seem worth it. The damage is ineffectual. The magus is doing a lot more damage even though they're just Spellstriking with cantrips and recharging.
- Had nothing to deal with the ghosts in A3. Not enough burst to punch through their resistances. Ineffectual the whole fight.
- We had to flee from the haunts. None of us had the right skills to deal with them.
- Halfway through the dungeon, this class just feels really, really dull in combat. I took all combat feats, but every time it's my turn, none of my options feel viable. I took Bon Mot for flavor, but even that wasn't an option for most enemies. So I just ended up Elemental Blasting every turn. Maneuvering around with Flame Jet was probably the most interesting part of fighting. This is a huge contrast with the 1st Edition kineticist where you usually had multiple infusions that either pushed enemies or knocked them prone.
- Chain Blast was nice against multiple enemies. Elemental Barrage is not bad either, but I'm definitely feeling the sting at having a weaker attack roll than the magus.
- I'm super happy Water Dance is a feat. The action economy is awkward, but this impulse means I can recreate my merfolk hydrokineticist, which was one of my favorite characters to play in 1st Edition. It would be cool if there was a feat that lets you use a Swim speed as a land speed.
- Where's kinetic healer? That was such an iconic ability in 1st Edition. Some of the elements have healing abilities, but water is surprisingly one of the worst at them. Why is air the best at healing?
- One thing I liked about the elements in 1st Edition was that they each had their own niches and play styles. While it's cool that each element has its own Elemental Blast statistics, I'm not needing a coherent theme with any of the elements.
- I miss the straining aspect of the original kineticist; the flavor of straining one's body to channel the raw power of the elements. Odd that it's missing given that this is a Con-based class.
- I love Adapt Element and the utility abilities that kineticists get as they level up. Not only does it fill the same role as utility cantrips, but also it's a major flavor enabler. Avoids the trap of the Evolutionist playtest class in Starfinder, which was a shapeshifting class that had no innate way to alter their appearance.
- Fire is the only energy Elemental Blast? No electricity or cold damage? Not even an ice blast with the water element?