There’s no class options at all but spells, barbarian instinct, and companions.Eidolon is not a companion but there is.
There's also more familiars.
Burn it doesn't stack with blood magic bonus tho, they're both status. But yeah that's exciting.
If I read it right blood magic is an additional damage not a status bonus. The status bonus is for intimidation. The ", or" separate the sections. If you consider this damage as a status bonus it also breaks Dangerous Sorcery.
Blood Magic Elemental energy surrounds you or a target. Either you gain a +1 status bonus to Intimidation checks for 1 round, or a target takes 1 damage per spell level. The damage is bludgeoning or fire, according to your elemental type (see below). If the spell already deals that type of damage, combine it with the spell’s initial damage before determining weaknesses and resistances.
Burn It! don't stack with Dangerous Sorcery because both are status bonuses.
Why are they casting 10th level fireball and not like cataclysmThe kineticist is good at blowing up scrubs for many rounds of combat per day and picking up a few cool utility or crowd control abilities, but there's nothing OP about it. It's deadweight for most skill challenges, and a spellcaster with good high level slots ready to use them is usually going to contribute a lot more to a tough fight.And then he is out of his three or four high-level blasting spell slots while the Kineticist can go on for the rest of day as long as he likes.
Not saying I'm against that, but I foresee a lot of salty "traditional" caster players in the near future.
Yes It's not only blast but utility too. The ability to repeat many utility impulses freely makes it very good no matter how trivial or dangerous is the situation.
Also blasts are very, very sustainable for kineticists. For example, comparing a top level Fire Elemental Sorcerer with Burn It! with a Fire Kineticists simple damage sum.
1st turn: Cast Fiery Body + Elemental Toss: 10d8 + 1d8 extra from Fiery Body + 5 from Burn It! + 10 from Blood Magic - AVG: 45 + 4,5 + 5 + 10 = 64,5 dmg
2nd turn: Cast lvl 10 Flaming Sphere + Elemental Toss: Flame Sphere = 11d6 + 1d6 extra from Fiery Body + 5 from Burn It! + Elemental Toss = 10d8 + 1d8 extra from Fiery Body + 5 from Burn It! + 10 from Blood Magic - AVG: 38,5 + 3,5 + 5 + 45 + 4,5 + 5 + 10 = 111,5 dmg
3rd turn: Cast lvl 10 Fireball + Sustain the Flame Sphere + Elemental Toss = 20d6 + 1d6 extra from Fiery Body + 10 from Dangerous Sorcery + 10 from Blood Magic + Flame Sphere = 11d6 + 1d6 extra from Fiery Body + 5 from Burn It! + Elemental Toss = 10d8 + 1d8 extra from Fiery Body + 5 from Burn It! + 10 from Blood Magic - AVG: 70 + 3,5 + 10 + 10 + 38,5 + 3,5 + 5 + 45 + 4,5 + 5 + 10 = 205 dmg
To make the math a bit more simple and I was using Blood Magic to add additional damage that don't applies to Cataclysm (because Cataclysm isn't a bloodline spell). In the end both spell damages becomes closer. The main advantage of Cataclysm is it's larger range, area and the resistance reduction.
If I made this example with Phoenix Bloodline I could use Meteor Swarm instead but it will loose Elemental Toss that's add a good amount of damage as 1-action bloodline focus spell.
I mean, only on eidolons, if I'm understanding the change correctly. I don't think anything's been said about the wolf's Knockdown or the fighter's Knockdown or Greater Knockdown, much less the base Trip maneuver.So the God Maneuver Trip will no longer work so easily against big boss evil guys. That is a plus.Monster abilities like Grab no longer succeed automatically, they just give you a MAPless athletics check.what changes?Summoner is getting nerfed too with those changes to monster abilities.Oh, absolutely. Casters are not going anywhere.
If anything, I think they are closer to fill the Summoner or Inventor niche. From the looks of it, quite better than those two.
I know they are changing the critical specialization knockdown effect. It sounds like all monster abilities. And the eidolon. It sounds like animal companions too.
Likely that will be the new standard for all. Which as a DM it should be. Auto-tripping is too powerful. Trip is powerful enough with a high Athletics.
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It's a common mistake but cataclysm isn't 21d10, it's 15d10. Note that 3 damage types are only to water, fly or land creatures.
You call upon the unimaginable power of world-ending cataclysms, ripping a small piece of each cataclysm and combining them together into one horrifically powerful attack. The following effects come down upon all creatures in the area. Treat the resistances of creatures in the area as if they were 10 lower for the purpose of determining the cataclysm's damage. Each creature attempts one basic Reflex save that applies to all five types of damage.
Flesh-dissolving acid rain deals 3d10 acid damage.
A roaring earthquake shakes and bludgeons creatures on the ground, dealing 3d10 bludgeoning damage.
A blast of freezing wind deals 3d10 cold damage.
Incredible lightning lashes the area, dealing 3d10 electricity damage.
Beating winds churn across the sky, dealing 3d10 bludgeoning damage to creatures flying in the area.
An instant tsunami sweeps over creatures in the area, dealing 3d10 bludgeoning damage with the water trait (doubled for creatures swimming in the area).
A massive wildfire burns in a sudden inferno, dealing 3d10 fire damage.
OK I still have a doubt if the tsunami part also don't applies to land creatures too. But I have the impression that these bludgeoning doesn't stack.
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I know they are changing the critical specialization knockdown effect. It sounds like all monster abilities. And the eidolon. It sounds like animal companions too.
Likely that will be the new standard for all. Which as a DM it should be. Auto-tripping is too powerful. Trip is powerful enough with a high Athletics.
Yeah, except kineticist just had auto-prone printed for earth crit spec.
Getting back to the ama, 2 questions:
A) For the impulse junctions, if you have them for 2 elements, do you get both on any 2 action impulse? Do you choose which one? Or are they linked to using a same element impulse (2 action air impulse to get the move, 2 action earth impulse to get the buckler and etc)?
B) For the "changing impulse during prep" class ability, does it follow retraining rules as far as level of impulse is concerned or can you change a lower level impulse to a higher one?
A) It has to be their element. If you use a dual-type impulse (like with the two element infusion), you get both.
B) It explicitly calls out using retraining rules. You also can't change into or out of a composite impulse. You must also retrain into the same element.
I feel like if there is any point that will lead to me disliking my time with kineticist it's gonna be it having spellcaster accuracy progression, I like so much of what I see and then I'm reminded of spellcaster progression
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If you aren't level 20 doing five agile melee blasts on a single target I don't even want to know you.
A) For the impulse junctions, if you have them for 2 elements, do you get both on any 2 action impulse? Do you choose which one? Or are they linked to using a same element impulse (2 action air impulse to get the move, 2 action earth impulse to get the buckler and etc)?
A) It has to be their element. If you use a dual-type impulse (like with the two element infusion), you get both.
Unfortunately, this is wrong. Impulse junctions state that you can never apply more than one to an impulse in a round (so even if they later allow a way to do two separate qualifying impulses in a round only one will get it), even if it's a composite or two element infusion with two actions and two elemental traits that match impulses you have.
What two element infusion feat says is that you can apply both critical effect junctions if you have both. Impulse junctions are the one type of junction that you can't double up (or triple up, with aura/resistance/skill) on, everything else is free game.
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I feel like if there is any point that will lead to me disliking my time with kineticist it's gonna be it having spellcaster accuracy progression, I like so much of what I see and then I'm reminded of spellcaster progressionIt's a bit smoother than full caster due to getting the +1/+2 Item bonuses.
Still, as I pointed above, for a lot of levels you will be trailing a bit behind.
I think it's a fair tradeoff when you consider that a normal routine will be a blast and a 2 action impulse, since those are Save based.
So while your blast is a bit behind, you almost never have to do a -5 Attack.
That said, the above means that relying purely on blasts is not optimal.
Basically the main difference is:
Default Martial:LvL 1: LvL + 2 (trained)
LvL 2: LvL + 2 (trained) + 1 item bonus
LvL 5: LvL + 4 (expert) + 1 item bonus
LvL 10: LvL + 4 (expert) + 2 item bonus
LvL 13: LvL + 6 (master) + 2 item bonus
LvL 16: LvL + 6 (master) + 3 item bonus
Kineticist Blasts:
LvL 1: LvL + 2 (trained)
LvL 3: LvL + 2 (trained) + 1 item bonus
LvL 7: LvL + 4 (expert) + 1 item bonus
LvL 11: LvL + 4 (expert) + 2 item bonus
LvL 15: LvL + 6 (master) + 2 item bonus
LvL 19: LvL + 8 (legendary) + 2 item bonus
Fighter:
LvL 1: LvL + 4 (expert)
LvL 2: LvL + 4 (expert) + 1 item bonus
LvL 5: LvL + 6 (master) + 1 item bonus
LvL 10: LvL + 6 (master) + 2 item bonus
LvL 13: LvL + 8 (legendary) + 2 item bonus
LvL 16: LvL + 8 (legendary) + 3 item bonus
So... kineticist is basically at base martial or lagging behind by 1 for almost all of its career and then jumps to martial +1 at level 19?
Huh.
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I think the reason that the Kineticist has sub-martial accuracy vs. AC is because there are infusions that let you target defenses other than Armor (I think I've seen some reflex ones). That's not something that martials normally get.
I think the reason that the Kineticist has sub-martial accuracy vs. AC is because there are infusions that let you target defenses other than Armor (I think I've seen some reflex ones). That's not something that martials normally get.
The big bulk of non-blast infusions target reflex, a few are fort, a few are attack.
So... kineticist is basically at base martial or lagging behind by 1 for almost all of its career and then jumps to martial +1 at level 19?
Huh.
5 levels -1 and 4 levels -2, and 2 levels +1
Hmnn. Three fewer -1 levels and one less +1 level than an Alchemist. Closer than I was expecting.
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Man I really dislike asymmetrical proficiency growths like this.
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(Monkey's paw curls) Remaster will change martial weapon proficiency to match caster so that it goes away.
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Martial and caster proficiency scales at different levels because AC and saves scale at different levels. And yeah that's weird for spell attack rolls but there is a reason for it
(Monkey's paw curls) Remaster will change martial weapon proficiency to match caster so that it goes away.
I didn't know about this. Do you still have the source?
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(Monkey's paw curls) Remaster will change martial weapon proficiency to match caster so that it goes away.I didn't know about this. Do you still have the source?
It was a joke. That was what he meant by "(Monkey's paw curls)". The point of the Monkey's paw is that it always gives you your wish in the worst possible way.
If you aren't level 20 doing five agile melee blasts on a single target I don't even want to know you.
How would you do this? I could see 4 using Kinetic Pinnacle, but I'm not seeing how you get the 5th.
How would you do this? I could see 4 using Kinetic Pinnacle, but I'm not seeing how you get the 5th.If you aren't level 20 doing five agile melee blasts on a single target I don't even want to know you.
It requires that you be able to somehow drop your aura as a free action. You then you get it back as a free action at the beginning of your turn (with a free kinetic blast) with one of your class features. Then there's a level 18 or so feat that gives you haste (for kinetic blast and maybe something else).
It requires that you be able to somehow drop your aura as a free action. You then you get it back as a free action at the beginning of your turn (with a free kinetic blast) with one of your class features. Then there's a level 18 or so feat that gives you haste (for kinetic blast and maybe something else).How would you do this? I could see 4 using Kinetic Pinnacle, but I'm not seeing how you get the 5th.If you aren't level 20 doing five agile melee blasts on a single target I don't even want to know you.
Ahaaa. Gotcha. Yeah that'd make sense.
So... can you drop your aura as a free action? Is there some way to do it just prior to your turn, rather than during your turn?
So... can you drop your aura as a free action? Is there some way to do it just prior to your turn, rather than during your turn?
Not that I've been able to find? Right now it has "Your kinetic aura automatically deactivates if you’re knocked out, you use an impulse with the overflow trait, or you Dismiss the aura." Dismiss is a single Action, not a free action.
Body of Air, Calcifying Sand, Volcanic Escape are all overflow reactions, so that'd be about the only way to fully achieve the "5 agile blasts per round" strat by triggering one of those reactions every round.
So what I'm hearing is that in order to pull this off, you really want to have a second friendly kineticist who's willing to include you in the blast radius of their impulses so you have something to react to?
Also, the "overflow vs aura" build choice makes a major swerve to the "overflow" side at very high levels.
That's a bit annoying, given that which side of the line you're on is one of those things that you can't retrain, given that a significant part of it is "how many aura junctions did you take"
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Just got my copy. How does the at will protector tree ability scale? Not sure if "spell rank" is a remaster term. There's no way it scales like I think it does right? Seems pretty OP.
I believe "spell rank" is precisely synonymous with "spell level". So you'd say 5th rank spell instead of 5th level spell.
The whole "level means so many different things in these games" has been a problem for 20+ years.
It requires that you be able to somehow drop your aura as a free action. You then you get it back as a free action at the beginning of your turn (with a free kinetic blast) with one of your class features. Then there's a level 18 or so feat that gives you haste (for kinetic blast and maybe something else).How would you do this? I could see 4 using Kinetic Pinnacle, but I'm not seeing how you get the 5th.If you aren't level 20 doing five agile melee blasts on a single target I don't even want to know you.
You'd just overflow at the end of the previous round with your final set of actions and not restore it before your turn ends. Then you start the next turn without any channeled elements, get the free one w/blast, three actions, and your quickened blast.
So you can do five blasts (ignoring chain blast feat) every other round.
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So it scales half as quickly as a max level spell would for your level? That's the way I'm reading it. You get a plus 1 spell level per 4 levels I think. That seems more likely than an at will max level protector treeJust got my copy. How does the at will protector tree ability scale? Not sure if "spell rank" is a remaster term. There's no way it scales like I think it does right? Seems pretty OP.I believe "spell rank" is precisely synonymous with "spell level". So you'd say 5th rank spell instead of 5th level spell.
The whole "level means so many different things in these games" has been a problem for 20+ years.
No, it scales the same as any caster using the spell would scale it if they kept it in their highest level slot. It scales at "a rank half your level rounded up" which is precisely when full casters get a new spell rank. So it would heighten at character levels 3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17 & 19
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So it scales half as quickly as a max level spell would for your level? That's the way I'm reading it. You get a plus 1 spell level per 4 levels I think. That seems more likely than an at will max level protector treeJust got my copy. How does the at will protector tree ability scale? Not sure if "spell rank" is a remaster term. There's no way it scales like I think it does right? Seems pretty OP.I believe "spell rank" is precisely synonymous with "spell level". So you'd say 5th rank spell instead of 5th level spell.
The whole "level means so many different things in these games" has been a problem for 20+ years.
It scales as quickly for you as a max heightened protector tree would be for a druid of the same level. It's just that the tradeoff is "you spent a feat on one spell" while the druid has access to the entire primal list.
So at 3rd level it's a 2nd rank spell, at 5th level it's a 3rd rank spell, at 7th level it's a 4th rank spell, etc.
The Kineticist is supposed to be better at certain things specific to their element than a spellcaster gets to be at those things.
You'd just overflow at the end of the previous round with your final set of actions and not restore it before your turn ends. Then you start the next turn without any channeled elements, get the free one w/blast, three actions, and your quickened blast.
So you can do five blasts (ignoring chain blast feat) every other round.
Okay, but you're actually losing damage that way, because you're *not* getting your free blast for any round following the one where you took 5. (...unless you're doing it with the previously noted reaction overflows)
Basically, your rotation is
- two blasts, two-action overflow impulse
- five lasts
- repeat.
producing a two-action overflow attack, two full attack bonus blasts, two -4s, and three -8s every two turns.
when you *could* be
- three blasts, two-action overflow impulse
- repeat
producing two two-action overflow attacks, two full attack, two -4s, and two -8s. Pretty sure that cashing in a blast at -8 for a two-action overflow attack is a win. Alternately, in any of those rounds you coudl cash in the -8 for that round turnign your two-action overflow into a three-action overflow... which seems that it might sometiems be worthwhile.
Oh, and technically you can't have five agile attacks regardless, as there's no way to make that first free-action channel-and-blast agile... not that it matters.
Okay, but you're actually losing damage that way,You'd just overflow at the end of the previous round with your final set of actions and not restore it before your turn ends. Then you start the next turn without any channeled elements, get the free one w/blast, three actions, and your quickened blast.
So you can do five blasts (ignoring chain blast feat) every other round.
Five blasts was a meme/gimmick, I'm not serious.
Just the critical blast junction.
I'm surprised fire doesn't have any persistent damage effects. At least none I could spot. Am I missing a composite impulse or something that does persistent fire?
The blast critical junction? It's not great, but it qualifies.