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What are some unusual, fun, interesting, or worthwhile character concepts you have for the kineticist class?
I really enjoy androids for pyrokineticist. Lasers anyone? Metallokinesis could also be fun for a "fleshless" terminator vibe.
Automatons are similarly thematic if you want something similar, but with a more magical basis, rather than technological.
A fleshwarp phytokineticist could be a mutant with out of control biology, spontaneously growing healing postules, man eating tumors, generating fleshy formations, or the like.
I'm particularly interested in hearing about themes, rather than limiting ourselves to just mechanics, but go ham.
If you're more interested in mechanical synergy, ancestry combos, and the like, I recommend checking out Sanityfaerie's thread.
I feel like a Conrasu wood kineticist makes a lot of sense. They just went into it a bit more hardcore than their fellows. That doesn't really get you the "offbeat", though.
You could do some interesting things with a Changeling(rust hag) Metal kineticist. In particular, there's some kind of cool themes to be chased about fighting against your inherent nature, and the whole metal/decay theme.
...and I have this image of a Shoony hydrokineticist who just really liked the water with a sort of relentless doggy enthusiasm, and wanted to be able to have it wherever they went. Would not get along well with Yoon.
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This is an expansion of a concept I came across on Reddit that inspired me.
Ancestry: I like something anthropomorphic (amurrun, tengu, ysoki <wink>, kitsune and shoony are my favorites)
Background: Cook
Elements: You could go single gate Fire, but I like the idea of having all 6 elements at your disposal.
With all 6 elements (and given the investment you'd have to make to get them all), any GM worth their *salt* would let you use Basic and Expanded Kinesis to set up one hell of a camp kitchen, spawn some ingredients and cook some killer vegetarian meals.
Air: air feeds fire, air *frying*, air drying, rising dough, vacuum sealing
Earth: salt, ovens, tandoors, crockery, teacups/teapots, glassware, sodium hydroxide (lye) for pretzels
Fire: heat, flame
Metal: pots, pans, cutlery, knives, skewers, sheet pans, tins, cooking utensils, barbecues, grills, scrub pads
Water: washing, steaming, boiling, refrigeration, chilling, ice, sous vide, blanching, braising, poaching, sauces, soups, stews, broths, stocks, dough, pasta, drinks
Wood: herbs, vegetables, fruits, grains, seaweed, legumes, tea, coffee, chocolate, wood for fire, cutting boards, rolling pins, cooking utensils, chopsticks, beer, wine, liquor, liqueurs
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I'm still pretty proud of the Vishkanya "Wood" Kineticist whose Poison/Vitality Blasts are their own blood. They could even go Dual Gate (Water) for some more healing, as well as spraying enough crimson to act like waves.
The thought of them damaging Tian undead with the raw life energy of their own arterial spray is fun to me!
Another variant on the laser eyed construct would be a Toy or Windup Poppet with Shiney Button Eyes to shoot the lasers out of.
I also like the idea of a Toy Poppet that is a wind spinner. Make them an Air Kineticist with Aerial Boomerang at the start. Build up towards Cyclonic Ascent.
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Hmmm.
Poppet ancestry can be a toy that came to life.
The Earth/Metal hybrid impulse is literally an enormous whirling top of death.
Surely there's some way to combine these two.
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I made a fire and metal Kineticist around the idea of a living forge creating weapons as needed. He is human. Probably should have made him a dwarf, would have fit better.
Well I did want to make use of the planar migrant background at least once so I drafted a metal/fire kineticist from the plane of metal of (for now) ambiguous race (probably gonna be human because i know myself) who is absolutely traumatised by all things rust related due to his home being overrun by it and being forced to flee, and that is now determined to cleanse it by fire everywhere he goes.
So essentially a walking talking "ancient rusted sword restoration" video on two legs.
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I made a fire and metal Kineticist around the idea of a living forge creating weapons as needed. He is human. Probably should have made him a dwarf, would have fit better.
Yeah, I was debating making my perennial Age of Ashes concept something similar, throwing in Earth and Wood in homage to Yuelral, his primary deity, as herbalism and crystals/natural gemstones are important parts of her divine portfolio. Only thing that makes me hesitant is that the REST of Yuelral's commandments are to serve as a teacher of arcane and divine magic, which a Kineticist really can't do because each Kineticist is unique and the way the class' lore is written gives of (at least from my interpretation) a very "I'm figuring this stuff out as I go" self-taught kind of vibe.
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Only thing that makes me hesitant is that the REST of Yuelral's commandments are to serve as a teacher of arcane and divine magic, which a Kineticist really can't do because each Kineticist is unique and the way the class' lore is written gives of (at least from my interpretation) a very "I'm figuring this stuff out as I go" self-taught kind of vibe.
What? I don't recall seeing anything about that.
In any case, all you need is Proficiency in Arcana and Religion and you will be able to understand and teach on the traditions of arcane and divine magic.
Just because you understand rocket science doesn't necessarily mean you're a rocket scientist.
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Only thing that makes me hesitant is that the REST of Yuelral's commandments are to serve as a teacher of arcane and divine magic, which a Kineticist really can't do because each Kineticist is unique and the way the class' lore is written gives of (at least from my interpretation) a very "I'm figuring this stuff out as I go" self-taught kind of vibe.What? I don't recall seeing anything about that.
In any case, all you need is Proficiency in Arcana and Religion and you will be able to understand and teach on the traditions of arcane and divine magic.
Just because you understand rocket science doesn't necessarily mean you're a rocket scientist.
It says in Yuelral's article on PathfinderWiki that "She is a patron of both divine and arcane magic, but prefers magic that deals with the natural world rather than magic that deals with metal and other artificial things" which, when coupled with her edict of "encourage and teach magicians and jewelers" suggests what magic her faithful prefer to teach.
Your point remains valid, but I feel like speaking on magic you can't actually cast would be...I dunno, rude? My understanding is the most obnoxious kinds of teachers are the ones whose knowledge of a subject is solely in the abstract and has no practical experience of their own, kind of like a privileged dude (and it is usually dudes) refusing to listen to a marginalized person's lived experience and talking over them as a result of that arrogance.
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Anyway, "encourage and teach magicians and jewelers" is way more broad than you're making it out to be.
- It doesn't require that you have anything to do with magic. You can fulfill that edict entirely with jewelers, if you want.
- It doesn't require that you do any teaching at all. You can fulfill that edict entirely with encouragement, if you want.
- Even if you are teaching magicians, it doesn't require that you teach the magicians magic. A professor at a magic college who's teaching nothing but distribution requirements would qualify just fine.
So yeah... if you're sharing natural beauty jewelry techniques? that works just fine.
The following would be fine examples of followers of Yuelral
- A Wood kineticist who helped teach jewelers how to shape wooden settings around their natural crystals so they need not use metal at all. Being able to rapidly, trivially, and repeatedly provide shaped wood to work with would be a real boon for those first stumbling steps of figuring out the technique.
- A (very) wealthy elven matron who loved jewelry, wore it in large quantities, bought it in large quantities, invariably said very complimentary things about it while she was buying it and then went home and gushed to her (very) wealthy elven matron friends about this darling little boutique that she'd just found over behind the rare tomes store and wasn't this bracelet just absolutely fabulous?
- A Wood/Water kineticist who works at the local arcane university, serving as a professor of nature lore and wilderness survival. He leads expeditions out into the wilderness, teaches the young wizards about various animals and plants and how to find food and whatnot, and has the right set of impulses to make sure that even if the students fail utterly on finding water and food, they'll be provided for. They'll fail, and have to retake the class, but they'll be provided for.
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Your point remains valid, but I feel like speaking on magic you can't actually cast would be...I dunno, rude? My understanding is the most obnoxious kinds of teachers are the ones whose knowledge of a subject is solely in the abstract and has no practical experience of their own, kind of like a privileged dude (and it is usually dudes) refusing to listen to a marginalized person's lived experience and talking over them as a result of that arrogance.
I'm not familiar with any historians that have practical experience living within extinct cultures.
sarcasm aside, in my experience the most obnoxious kinds of teachers are the ones that discount differing opinions without validating the information provided, but maybe that's just my experience in academia in general.
Anyway, "encourage and teach magicians and jewelers" is way more broad than you're making it out to be.
A valid reading is that you're encouraged to teach magicians and jewelers literally anything at all, even things entirely unrelated to magic and jewelry- like you could teach jewelers about mine safety or how to bake.
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Anyway, "encourage and teach magicians and jewelers" is way more broad than you're making it out to be.A valid reading is that you're encouraged to teach magicians and jewelers literally anything at all, even things entirely unrelated to magic and jewelry- like you could teach jewelers about mine safety or how to bake.
Given that just encouraging them is also legit? Yes. By educating them you improve their position in the world and thus aid them in their calling (however indirectly).
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Some very different ideas crossed my mind, but I'll probably go with the current one, nothing very different, Magneto from X-Men.
I'm still thinking of a kineticist gambler with connections to earth, metal, and wood, so they can always randomly pick rock, paper, or scissors when engaging with an encounter.
I hear "kineticist gambler", and I immediately think "Wind/Wood/Metal/Stone so that they can hide their elemental aura and then fudge the dice on anything other than bone/ivory"
Like, start with Wind and whichever the most common local dice was, and work up from there.
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And then you run into a place that uses bones.
...and turn around and run back out again. Yes.
That might actually be an explanation for why people keep using bone dice, amusingly enough.