Kineticist creating party hazards

[Ravingdork]

What kineticist abilities are likely to interfere not just with enemies, but with the party as well? What are some solutions for working around them (other than not taking or using those particular impulses)?

I hope to create a discussion that will forewarn newcomers to the kineticist class and equip them with the knowledge and the tools to use the impulses they want safely and effectively.

[shroudb]

A lot of the stances hit both friendlies and enemies, so Safe Elements (especially after 10 if you go with a 20ft radius) is kinda a must if you are running one of those Stances and don't want to cripple your party.

Walls, which most elements can create, can also be pretty disruptive if positioned wrong/bad timing. No other solution there except learning when and where to place those.

Similarily, there are a couple of options that create hazardous terrain, which can be a big ouchie for your party members if they have to rush through all those tiles to get to the baddies.

Last thing is the same as most AoEs, which kineticists have plenty: position, position, position, although, a 2 action AoE can be safely maneuvered, even though costly in actions to do so, with Safe elements again.

[Dubious Scholar]

Safe Elements is essential to many stances, but since it's level 4 it's pretty easy to grab and you get it before most of the ones that can mess with allies anyways.

For AoE templates, I'd rate the ease of working around allies as as burst>line>cone>emanation. Cone is basically going to require you be in close and emanations are frankly just too hard to place period once they get past 10' or so. (Eidolon's Wrath suffers so hard because of this, but I digress). On the other hand, lines are super flexible and bursts you just center behind the enemies so they're all on the edge of it.

Some AoEs are even better than that under Fire though, since you have a level 1 option that just ignites a 30' path of your choosing, and Ignite the Sun functions similarly on sustain.

[Sanityfaerie]

In general, making good use of terrain modification abilities (water's difficult terrain, water/wood/metal/earth wall creation, hazardous terrain out of metal/fire/wood+earth) is the sort of thing that really calls for party optimization, party buy-in, and overall party strategy that embraces it, and so forth. There are a bunch of kineticist powers that are large areas, too, so if you're in confined spaces, you're going to need to either figure out ways to not hurt your buddies or make sure to pack other options.

In general, if you want to have a kineticist that is easy to get along with tactically for people who are not prepared to really work the terrain modification game, one good way to do it is to build an aura-based kineticist (find an aura stance you like, possibly invest in aura junctions as well, take very few if any overflows) and (if your aura calls for it) take Safe Elements. Most of the potentially problematic effects that aren't themselves auras are overflow impulses, and this will mean that you spend less of your time trying to remember whether your aura is up or not. Now, some elements work better for this than others. Fire can do really very well with an aura-focused build that mostly avoids overflows. Metal and Water? Not so great.

[Dubious Scholar]

Yeah. Water has really good auras but is also heavy on overflow. Bit of a conundrum, but easily fixed with dual gate.

Honestly, Winter Sleet seems borderline OP - a lot of enemies do not have acrobatics values, so they'll have high chances to fail. Even if they can succeed, it's still terrain that doesn't allow Step and they're flat-footed. And every failed save or hit they take makes them save against prone. Crits from you inflict Slowed. It seems like it can devour actions as long as you're willing to be in close.