If I may twist this topic a bit, there's a sidebar about Void and Aether being used elsewhere in Golarion. Is there "a fix" that those elements could bring?
Void could get Void damage (formerly Negative Energy) and Bludgeoning, like Gravity Blast, with Cold as its Versatile Blast. I could see pretty much any utility impulse being related to darkness, such as concealment, as well as illusion effects.
Aether could get Mental damage and Piercing, with Sonic as its Versatile Blast, considering how psychics tend to... scream in agony a lot ^^; I don't know how it could be added without stepping too much in the actual Psychic's territory. Back in P1E, most of your Aether powers were about manipulating objects of all kinds with your telekinesis.
Aether isn't really psychic though. The telekineticist used aether to basically do "Telekinetic Projectile" and had basically no mental stuff.
It was the "you are good at picking up stuff and manipulating stuff with your mind" option.
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I would love to see Aether make a comeback, but air has subsumed some of its former abilities with the invisibility trick, and its main schtick of being a telekinetic master really didn't jive with the other elemental based kineticists.
I'd almost love to see it as its own class, or perhaps an archetype that can be slapped on to other classes to represent mastery of the telekinetic art.
If Aether was going to be a kineticist type, it would need to have a plane to draw from. I don't think I see an appropriate one of those, currently.
Void is easy. It can just draw from... the Void. Aether, though?
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The PF1 aether kineticist drew its power from the ethereal plane, the could just go back to that.
I don't really think the aetherkineticist really has a niche anymore. All of its abilities have seemingly been divided up among the other elements, the psychic, and others.
If they were to introduce an aetherkineticist today, what would it even do that isn't already being done?
Aetherkinesis could... essentially become a Psychic's conscious mind.
I don't see a real problem with introduce aetherkineticist. IMO the argument that's there's no more niche isn't really valid otherwise we didn't have kineticists at all (because we already have elemental sorcerer).
But add another "element" to kineticist means use about 3 pages of a book just for it. Probably it's not a thing that we will see much frequently (yet we got 2 pages of eidolons in RoE).
Maybe in some book more focused in other sphere we may get an aetherkineticist or in a book about The Void we can get an void kineticist (chaokineticist) (curiously the term void is already used in PF1 to negative plane kineticists) or even in a book about Ethereal plane a new Ethereal kineticist (probably force based).
But add another "element" to kineticist means use about 3 pages of a book just for it. Probably it's not a thing that we will see much frequently (yet we got 2 pages of eidolons in RoE).
This is the biggest reason I wouldn't expect to see more kineticist elements ever. In like three years we haven't seen a single investigator methodology or swashbuckler and in four years we've seen like... one wizard thesis, and those are like a paragraph each.
What odds does the kineticist have with how big its elements are?
The kineticist should get more elements, and I'd love to see it. But it's never gonna happen, for the simple reason that there are 6 elements and you can get all of them with one kineticist (only at level 17 and just barely, but still). Adding any more would mean no one could be the avatar, and I very much doubt that the devs want to prevent people from doing that.
I do not believe that this logic is accurate.
There are 10 Witch Patron themes and 17 Sorcerer Bloodlines. A character can only get one of them. And several of each of those have been added since the class initial release.
There are 9 Thamuaturge Implements. A character will automatically get more than one of these. But never all of them.
Perhaps the best examples though are the 4 Bard Muses and 7 Druid Orders. A character has the option of getting multiple of those and can with enough feats get all of them. At least currently. Because like Patron themes and Bloodlines, more of both Muses and Druid Orders have been released since those classes were first published. If that pattern continues it will become impossible to collect all of the options for one character.
I do not see any reason why Kineticist should be any different.
My understanding is that the Avatar only had elemental control over Air, Earth, Water, and Fire.
However, I do acknowledge that adding more elements would have a large, but consistent, amount of single element feat additions, but would have a geometrically increasing amount of dual element feat additions needed. That would be unsustainable indefinitely.
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I would much rather we got a telekinetic heavy psychic which was mistakenly referred to by some scholars as an "aetherkineticist."
I would much rather we got a telekinetic heavy psychic which was mistakenly referred to by some scholars as an "aetherkineticist."
Thematically I would like that aetherkineticist controling forces like gravity and atomic/molecular forces (strong, weak, eletromagnetism) instead of telekinetic. Mechanically will become very close but the flavor is completely different. Also opens space to impulses like "Gravity Well", "Black Hole", "Molecular Rupture", "Quantum Teleport", "Nuclear Fusion".
Some philosophers say 4 elements, some say 5, some say 6. Scientists say there are 118 we know of, and there may be more.
In any case, I look forward to any new stuff for the Kineticist we get in future books. Great class, it will only get better with more expansion. Although more choices will make it even harder to lock down a build than it already is. ^^
I would much rather we got a telekinetic heavy psychic which was mistakenly referred to by some scholars as an "aetherkineticist."Thematically I would like that aetherkineticist controling forces like gravity and atomic/molecular forces (strong, weak, eletromagnetism) instead of telekinetic. Mechanically will become very close but the flavor is completely different. Also opens space to impulses like "Gravity Well", "Black Hole", "Molecular Rupture", "Quantum Teleport", "Nuclear Fusion".
Sorry I mistake aetherkineticist with astralkineticist.
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I feel like the kineticist is pretty solidly complete as-is. It really doesn't need anything more.
Now, if another element or two should happen to show up? I'm not about to turn them away at the door or anything. I just don't feel like they're necessary.
Now, if they really wanted to be squirrely about it... well, SF2 is coming, and, honestly, thigns like "Aether" and "Void" feel more like sci-fi elements than fantasy elements. Dig up a few more fundamental forces past that (Energy? Time? Thought? Life?) and you could build a Starfinder-side Kineticist, with its own set of elements. Heck - given that it wouldn't have to be the same class, it might even make sense to not have quite as many elements to pick from.
So, caveat on that - Starfinder classes should prioritize Starfinder, and I'm not meaning to imply otherwise. At the same time, I feel like Kineticist wound up being awesome enough that it might be possible to assemble some of those parts in a way that Starfinder players would find pleasing and appropriate, and if you could swing it so that the kineticist-equivalents on each side could poach elements from one another...? Well, that seems like it might not be a bad thing. The cross-type hybrid impulses would have to wait for a crossovers book, but it's not like there isn't plenty of reason to eventually have a crossovers book or two.
I feel like the kineticist is pretty solidly complete as-is. It really doesn't need anything more.
Yeah, they really should stop printing new spells and feats. All those existing feats and spells, man. Ugh. So much. Aren't Fighters, Wizards and so on feature complete? Surely they don't need MORE new things yet? ^^
I feel like the kineticist is pretty solidly complete as-is. It really doesn't need anything more.Yeah, they really should stop printing new spells and feats. All those existing feats and spells, man. Ugh. So much. Aren't Fighters, Wizards and so on feature complete? Surely they don't need MORE new things yet? ^^
Hate my words all you like, but don't claim I'm saying what I wasn't saying. I'm saying that the Kineticist was pretty much complete, and I feel that it is. I don't feel like it's really missing anything. Some of the individual impulses or feats need clarification, and a few of them could maybe use a bit of errata. Also, the structure that they have set up already makes adding new stuff... more significant for the kineticist than it is for other classes. If nothing else, reflow elements means that kineticists at level 11+ effectively get "in the spellbook" access to every feat in their elements. Adding more is a meaningful boost, and kineticist doesn't actually need the help. It's doing just fine with exactly as much flexibility as it has.
I said nothing about any other classes, and I do think there's a difference in kind. The kineticist juggles more different kinds of limiting factors than most classes, and allowing for new impulses would empower them in ways that other classes wouldn't get from just getting a few additional feats.
Fighter? I think fighter is fine. It doesn't need any more, but it's not like adding a few more would really hurt anything either. Wizard? I'm waiting to see the remaster before I make comment on that. Kineticist, though, should stay right where it is.
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Hate my words all you like, but don't claim I'm saying what I wasn't saying. I'm saying that the Kineticist was pretty much complete, and I feel that it is. I don't feel like it's really missing anything. Some of the individual impulses or feats need clarification, and a few of them could maybe use a bit of errata. Also, the structure that they have set up already makes adding new stuff... more significant for the kineticist than it is for other classes. If nothing else, reflow elements means that kineticists at level 11+ effectively get "in the spellbook" access to every feat in their elements. Adding more is a meaningful boost, and kineticist doesn't actually need the help. It's doing just fine with exactly as much flexibility as it has.I said nothing about any other classes, and I do think there's a difference in kind. The kineticist juggles more different kinds of limiting factors than most classes, and allowing for new impulses would empower them in ways that other classes wouldn't get from just getting a few additional feats.
Fighter? I think fighter is fine. It doesn't need any more, but it's not like adding a few more would really hurt anything either. Wizard? I'm waiting to see the remaster before I make comment on that. Kineticist, though, should stay right where it is.
Actually, no, Kineticists don't get access to all possible combinations with Reflow Elements. They are still constrained by the highest level impulse they took from any single element and that itself is constrained by how much feats you get. Even with Omnikinesis at level 20 (at which point any campaign is almost over) you only get to change to same/lower level impulses of the highest impulse from an element you got.
And same as with the action economy constraining Kineticists in how much they can do, the number of feats you can get throughout a full 1 - 20 campaign will constrain how much variability any Kineticist will have, no matter how many new impulses Paizo will publish in the future.
Sorry, I strongly feel that gatekeeping you are advocating here is deeply wrong.
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Actually, no, Kineticists don't get access to all possible combinations with Reflow Elements. They are still constrained by the highest level impulse they took from any single element and that itself is constrained by how much feats you get. Even with Omnikinesis at level 20 (at which point any campaign is almost over) you only get to change to same/lower level impulses of the highest impulse from an element you got.
And same as with the action economy constraining Kineticists in how much they can do, the number of feats you can get throughout a full 1 - 20 campaign will constrain how much variability any Kineticist will have, no matter how many new impulses Paizo will publish in the future.
Sorry, I strongly feel that gatekeeping you are advocating here is deeply wrong.
Gatekeeping? You suggest that I'm saying that people should not be permitted to play the game? That my claim that Kineticist is complete and beautiful without further additions is morally wrong?
For the record, I think that kineticists are great. I love them. I am delighted that other people also love them, and I think that every single person who has an opportunity to play and enjoy a kineticist in a game of PF2 is a (tiny) net gain for the world. I'm not involved in any kind of gatekeeping.
Seriously. I think you need to pause for a moment, and maybe dial that one back. We disagree, but that's no call to go hurling inappropriate accusations.
As far as constraints... the kineticist is constrained by a *lot* of things.
- You're constrained in how many impulses they get by total feats to spend
- You're constrained in which impulses they can buy by which levels those feats are for.
- You're constrained in which impulses they can buy by which elements they've unlocked.
- You're constrained further by which elements they had access to at the time they got that particular feat.
- The strong theming on the individual elements means that you're constrained on which kinds of effects they have access to. If you don't unlock wood, and you don't unlock water, then the only way to get healing of any kind is to go mono-air. If all you have is air and fire, then you don't get to have a wall. that actually stops movement.
- Unlocking elements is in competition with potentially significant upgrades of other kinds... and which upgrades you can get are limited by which elements you've unlocked.
- You're limited to one aura stance at a time, and there are antisynergies between aura stances and regular use of overflow.
- The constraints on how many actions you have to throw around are very real, and while there absolutely are things you can do to be more efficient with your actions, those bring strategic restrictions of their own.
...but let's talk elements, because that's where the important stuff is. Often, you're going to want to pick about two of them... and that's going to leave you with a fairly limited pool to draw from. In my experience, I wind up with a few impulses that I like quite a lot, a few I'm basically just not interested in, and a sparse selection to choose from to try to fill in my remaining strategic needs, or to assemble useful tactics. If the two elements I picked don't have any two-action non-overflow attack impulses for levels 4, 8, or 12, then I just don't get any two-action non-overflow attack impulses coming available at those levels. That's a real limitation I need to work around. If there's only two reactions available in those elements and I don't feel like either of them is worth taking, then I don't get to have reactions from my class. Maybe if I wanted reactions, i should have picked an element that offered better ones. These are real limitations, and they're part of what makes the class interesting to build. If you just doubled the impulses available to each element, even if those impulses were no stronger overall than the ones already in existence, it would still be a huge power-up for the class... and kineticist is plenty strong as it is. It doesn't need that.
The feat lists for other classes... aren't like that.
...and before you accuse me of gatekeeping again for my joy in the delightfully restricted CharOp toybox that Paizo has handed us... nope. That's not what's going on here. Thing is, Kineticist is flexible *here*, too. Someone can walk in off the street, decide that they want to play Elsa, Aang, the Human Torch, or whatever, build a kineticist by grabbing randomly at whatever looks like it might be appropriate and kind of fun, and they'll wind up with something playable. They don't need more options to thrive. They're doing fine... and once they've learned enough of the system, they too can find the intriguing puzzle that is formed by its in-built limitations.
As for reflow elements.. okay. Sure. It's not absolute - but ti's still the case that adding impulses to the feat list pretty much inherently adds them as a reflow option... which does the moral equivalent of adding them directly to a sort of psuedo-spellbook for high-level kineticists. Adding more impulses means that high-level kineticists get more options at the beginning of their day. It just does. Even without the earlier described issue, that's a pretty direct bit of power inflation.
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In any case, I look forward to any new stuff for the Kineticist we get in future books. Great class, it will only get better with more expansion. Although more choices will make it even harder to lock down a build than it already is. ^^
Totally agree, I'm looking forward to what else they come up with.
Sorry, I strongly feel that gatekeeping you are advocating here is deeply wrong.Gatekeeping? You suggest that I'm saying that people should not be permitted to play the game? That my claim that Kineticist is complete and beautiful without further additions is morally wrong?
Hey, look, you added an extra word there to what I said (even highlighted it), blatantly changing what I said to some judgement on your person instead of your argument. That's... not a great way to have a conversation.
For the record, I think that kineticists are great. I love them. I am delighted that other people also love them, and I think that every single person who has an opportunity to play and enjoy a kineticist in a game of PF2 is a (tiny) net gain for the world. I'm not involved in any kind of gatekeeping.
Seriously. I think you need to pause for a moment, and maybe dial that one back. We disagree, but that's no call to go hurling inappropriate accusations.
As far as constraints... the kineticist is constrained by a *lot* of things.
- You're constrained in how many impulses they get by total feats to spend
- You're constrained in which impulses they can buy by which levels those feats are for.
- You're constrained in which impulses they can buy by which elements they've unlocked.
- You're constrained further by which elements they had access to at the time they got that particular feat.
- The strong theming on the individual elements means that you're constrained on which kinds of...
Still disagree. Your argument about Reflow Elements is basically the same as saying "The wizard gets more power by having a bigger spellbook", which would make adding a few dozens (or hundreds) more spells to the spell list a power inflation in the sense you described and therefore somehow "bad". Paizo obviously disagrees with that idea, given the number of arcane spells added in pretty much every book which comes out.
Reflow Elements is nothing else but a Wizard changing out a spell from his spell book at the morning. I'm not sure off the cuff if Wizards get the same ability as Rapid Reattunement (still too new to 2E), but I wouldn't be shocked if they did.
Hey, look, you added an extra word there to what I said (even highlighted it), blatantly changing what I said to some judgement on your person instead of your argument. That's... not a great way to have a conversation.Sorry, I strongly feel that gatekeeping you are advocating here is deeply wrong.Gatekeeping? You suggest that I'm saying that people should not be permitted to play the game? That my claim that Kineticist is complete and beautiful without further additions is morally wrong?
You're calling it gatekeeping, and then saying it's "deeply wrong". Given my understanding of what "gatekeeping" means in contexts like this... yeah, I assumed you must be claiming that the wrong was somehow moral. It clearly goes beyond "I happen to want different things than what you want" or "I believe that you are incorrect". How else was I to take it?
Still disagree. Your argument about Reflow Elements is basically the same as saying "The wizard gets more power by having a bigger spellbook", which would make adding a few dozens (or hundreds) more spells to the spell list a power inflation in the sense you described and therefore somehow "bad". Paizo obviously disagrees with that idea, given the number of arcane spells added in pretty much every book which comes out.
You're conflating two different things, and Paizo treats them differently. Adding new spells to the spell list is seen as acceptable and fine. Adding new spells to the spell book is an increase in power that must be paid for. Generally, it requires money, time, rolling a skill check, and arranging access to some source to learn from.
Admittedly, Paizo does get fuzzy about this as well. The above is how they treat witches, wizards, and magi. Clerics and Druids, though, get spellbook access to all common spells of their type just because. By contrast, Oracles, Bards, Psychics, and Summoners don't get a daily swap-out at all. Still, I think it's at least naive to assert that giving additional daily flexibility is not a power increase, and Rapid Reattunement would make it more clearly so, especially given how many kineticist impulses are utility powers, and the fact that it doesn't even cost any spell slots. You reflow, you do your thing, and then you can reflow back if you like. Rapid Reattunement takes 10 minutes each way, and that's often not a particularly significant barrier.
You're calling it gatekeeping, and then saying it's "deeply wrong". Given my understanding of what "gatekeeping" means in contexts like this... yeah, I assumed you must be claiming that the wrong was somehow moral. It clearly goes beyond "I happen to want different things than what you want" or "I believe that you are incorrect". How else was I to take it?
I might have used the wrong word here, then, since I meant it in a way that was to say "I think you are very wrong in your opinion" and wanted to emphasize that. English still is my second to third language, so sometimes I still get stuff wrong (not to mention syntax... three languages with different sentence structures can make something sound right in my mind and a few hours later I spot an obvious error).
Doesn't help that the term "gatekeeping" is floating around the Pathfinder community a lot the last few days. So, sorry if I came off the wrong way here.
Still strongly disagreeing with your opinion, though. ^^
You're conflating two different things, and Paizo treats them differently. Adding new spells to the spell list is seen as acceptable and fine. Adding new spells to the spell book is an increase in power that must be paid for. Generally, it requires money, time, rolling a skill check, and arranging access to some source to learn from.
Admittedly, Paizo does get fuzzy about this as well. The above is how they treat witches, wizards, and magi. Clerics and Druids, though, get spellbook access to all common spells of their type just because. By contrast, Oracles, Bards, Psychics, and Summoners don't get a daily...
I don't think I'm conflating two different things at all. Spells and impulses are very near to each other in function and power and both are limited, one by daily slots, the other by number of feats a Kineticist gets during its runtime as a player character. The normal Reflow Elements ability (even its "two per day upgrade") just adds a bit of versatility to the class, which equates to changing out spells at your daily preparation from what you normally prepare.
Rapid Reattunement is much better, of course, but it is an optional ability which not everybody will take. Saying that you can never ever widen the versatility of the entire class again, because one optional ability exists, is not an argument I find satisfactory.
Ah, yes, Wizards get Spell Substitution as one of their Arcane Thesis options from Level 1, so in essence you want the Kineticist to be a never altered set in stone class because of an optional level 14 class feature which another class can optionally already get at level one. Alrighty, then.
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In any case, I look forward to any new stuff for the Kineticist we get in future books. Great class, it will only get better with more expansion. Although more choices will make it even harder to lock down a build than it already is. ^^Totally agree, I'm looking forward to what else they come up with.
Like I said, they could expand on what's already there:
- They can add 3-element composite impulses.- While they're at it, throw in the 6-element impulse since there's only one to be added :p or 1 or 2 more ;)
- Improved Versatile Blasts could add another damage type for each element.
- Improved Weapon Infusion could more melee and ranged traits.
- There can be more impulses that mimic spells, especially illusion/figment and utility spells.
- I'd love to get general feats that grant a Blast a specific area, like a Line, Cone, Burst, Cylinder, name it. For instance, I should be able to conjure a line with either air, earth, fire, metal, water or wood. We already have some of them covered, but those also grant a special effect as well. For simplicity, just have basic impulses to shape your element.
and all of this is BEFORE they can think to add a new element.
I'd love to see some impulses which attack Will saves, they are currently restricted to air and high-level ones to boot.
I'd love to see some impulses which attack Will saves, they are currently restricted to air and high-level ones to boot.
That... would need to affect the target's willpower or emotions, such as inducing claustrophobia with Earth or Metal, or the sheer sentiment of drowning with Water.
I know Air has some already, but... can you induce extreme vertigo with it? I could see lifting a target a few inches above the ground, but making it lose its balance so much that it becomes sickened with fear of heights.
I'd love to see some impulses which attack Will saves, they are currently restricted to air and high-level ones to boot.That... would need to affect the target's willpower or emotions, such as inducing claustrophobia with Earth or Metal, or the sheer sentiment of drowning with Water.
I know Air has some already, but... can you induce extreme vertigo with it? I could see lifting a target a few inches above the ground, but making it lose its balance so much that it becomes sickened with fear of heights.
Well, the one air impulse is a fascination effect, the other one is a straight illusion of endlessly falling. So I think you don't need to restrict yourself to strictly the element in a physical way.
Actually I practically always pick Omnikinesis over Kinetic Pinnacle when making practice builds, because I like the versatility in combat of changing out an impulse with one action.
The action economy already has been improved enough for the Kineticist by level 20 by taking Effortless Impulse and getting Final Gate, IMO.
I don't think I'm conflating two different things at all. Spells and impulses are very near to each other in function and power and both are limited, one by daily slots, the other by number of feats a Kineticist gets during its runtime as a player character. The normal Reflow Elements ability (even its "two per day upgrade") just adds a bit of versatility to the class, which equates to changing out spells at your daily preparation from what you normally prepare.
Rapid Reattunement is much better, of course, but it is an optional ability which not everybody will take. Saying that you can never ever widen the versatility of the entire class again, because one optional ability exists, is not an argument I find satisfactory.
I believe you're underselling it, but failure to find it satisfactory is your prerogative.
I feel like some of the arguments that you simply chose not to engage with at all are rather stronger than the ones you dialed in on, but that's your choice as well, I suppose.
I do notice that you pivot from this discussion (in which you seem to be arguing that adding more impulses wouldn't increase kineticist power) stright into talking about how there should totally be more impulses that target Will. I can't help but feel that that pretty much directly undermines your earlier position, but perhaps that's just me.
I do notice that you pivot from this discussion (in which you seem to be arguing that adding more impulses wouldn't increase kineticist power) stright into talking about how there should totally be more impulses that target Will. I can't help but feel that that pretty much directly undermines your earlier position, but perhaps that's just me.
Probably only you, since you already wish that the Kineticist doesn't get anything new ever in the future.
Have we discussed omnikinesis? Because omnikinesis has issues. It's not all competitive with kinetic pinnacle, the other level 20 feat.
If it worked to reflow from one element to another, for instance swapping a level 18 fire feat to a level 18 earth feat, it'd be much more interesting. As it is, it's probably too limited to ever be worth taking over pinnacle .
This is a common complain not only valid to kineticists.
Paizo designers considers versatility and power as equivalents in order to trade between them and isn't uncommon to many people don't understand or dislike this. So this is a thing that won't change. The idea is that you have to choose between have more vertical power or more horizontal flexibility not the both.
I do notice that you pivot from this discussion (in which you seem to be arguing that adding more impulses wouldn't increase kineticist power) stright into talking about how there should totally be more impulses that target Will. I can't help but feel that that pretty much directly undermines your earlier position, but perhaps that's just me.Probably only you, since you already wish that the Kineticist doesn't get anything new ever in the future.
It's unlikely that Kineticists don't get new things in the future. This will depend from designers idea to what class the thing that can benefit from a new book inside its thematics. Nothing really prevents them to get new things in a new book.
As far as New Stuff that kineticist might receive:
- New standard feats: Okay. Sure. Whatever. Classes get new feats sometimes. I don't think it's a big deal one way or the other, though. Like, I look at Gunslinger. That's been out for almost two years. The extra feats that it's gotten in this time, after its core book? They maybe offer a bit of customization, but they aren't really changing the class a lot. So I'd expect feats like that to show up, and I don't really expect them to matter in a meaningful way.
- New Elements: They could certainly add new elements without breaking balance. On the other hand, adding new elements properly is going to be a significant amount of work, and a not entirely trivial amount of page space. Finding thematic niches that the other elements don't cover isn't necessarily going to be trivial. Mostly, here, I don't see the need. If Paizo wants to do it, cool. No problem. To my eyes, though, it's significant effort for questionable payoff... and that's before we get into the bit about it straining the currently perfectly-balanced thematics of the class. Still, like I said, it's not like I'm unwillign to enjoy new elements if they *do* show up.
- New kinds of junctions: Technically possible. Could easily run into balance issues. Might be interesting if done well. Seems really unlikely.
- Alternate junction options (like, say, a variant water impulse junction that did some other thing, where you had to pick one or the other): See "new kinds of junctions".
- Additional impulses in existing elements: Here's where I take issue. This is something that it's very easy to want, and it seems like it should be possible without power creep, but it just isn't so. There are a lot of constraints on the impulse options of the standard two-element Kineticist that are fundamentally part of the balance of the class. If Kineticist was weak, then sprinkling in 3-6 more impulses per element would be a really straightforward way to buff the class a bit... but it isn't. From what I'm hearing, Kineticist is pretty much exactly where it ought to be on the power scale... which means that adding any more impulses to the existing elements is a form of power creep. Power creep is seductive, especially when it happens to you, but it's bad.
So that's my take. The forms of "add more stuff" change that I can see would be unnecessary, insignificant, more expensive than they're worth, and/or actively detrimental.
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I don't think "publish some new Kineticist impulses" is really more off the table than "print new feats for any other class." The introduction to Rage of Elements absolutely leaves the door open for new elements too (see the sidebar on page 7.)
The question is just "where do those things fit." If they do an AP that takes place on the Elemental Plane of Air, printing an air impulse and a couple of air composites seems reasonable. Likewise if they print another setting book that deals with the stacked planes they could fit the other two kineticist elements in it.
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I still think they do sort of want to keep the elements balanced against each other (why else print exactly the same number of impulses at exactly the same levels for every element? It's a lot easier to not do that) so I'd have to disagree there.
I mean, of course they want every subclass (Elements being the Kineticist Subclasses in this instance) to be at least roughly balanced, especially in the class's introduction. Though honestly I think it's more that it is the class's introduction is why every element has the exact same number of Impulses at the exact same levels, thus meaning whichever route you take with it you'll always have options at the same levels as anyone else taking the class. I think that's more just laying the appropriate foundations rather than some over-arching goal to never ever let any element have more impulses than any other element though, and honestly I feel like it would be a bit difficult to write feats for Kineticist that aren't impulses, especially at any level where impulses exist, given they are literally the bread and butter of the class.
Also, even if some core team of Paizo devs did want to never have any other Impulses for Kineticist... Paizo has a good number of devs, even more freelancers, and I'm pretty sure they have a pretty sizeable team of editors too. Plenty of points for someone who happens to like Kineticists to see something they can't do currently that said person thinks they should be able to do, sticks in an Impulse (or heck, maybe even an entire section or if things get really crazy a chapter of Impulses) and it slips past that core team's notice and into an official book. So in short, I wouldn't bet too much on them never seeing another Impulse, any more than I would bet on Monks never seeing another Focus Spell feat, or Fighter never seeing another combat feat.
And that's not even to get into Infinite, which while more iffy on being usable in any given game, also is not beholden to any core team of Paizo devs, outside of Content Guidelines of course.
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Based on basically every other class, it doesn't seem like PF2 is particularly invested in making sure every subclass option for a given class is balanced against every other subclass option. Like there's not a lot of concern about the Spirit Barbarian being broadly weaker than the Dragon or Giant or Animal Barbarians, in large part because the Spirit Barbarian shines in an undead-heavy campaign.
This seems doubly likely to be true for the Kineticist whose "subclass" isn't set at level 1 like other classes- no matter how many elements you have now you can get another one in ~4 levels if you want. Like right now, it seems that the 2 or 3 element kineticist is simply stronger than either the 1 element kineticist or the 4 element kineticist, and this is fine.
I would think "there are particular combinations of 2 elements that are not as strong as other combinations" would constitute even more pressure to make more impulses for those elements (including new composites.)