Looking to begin a new campaign and a player had a good question. Regarding the Kineticist's Elemental Blast - one of the elemental types is Vitality for Wood. Vitality descriptor says it can heal living creatures, and damage undead.
So with that being said, could my player use a Vitality elemental blast to heal an ally?
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Damage doesn't heal and healing doesn't damage.
A Wood Kineticist cannot use vitality damage to heal allies any more than a Spirit Instinct Barbarian can.
You need Vitality Healing effects to heal living creatures. Not Vitality Damage.
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No.
Damage is damage and healing is healing.
Vitality damage damages undead and does nothing to the living.
Vitality healing heals the living and does nothing to the undead.
Some things, like the Heal spell, call put being able to do both.
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Wood kineticist do get healing options, though.
Fresh Produce is of limited use in combat, but is better than focus spell healing between fights--once per 10 minutes per target and doesn't require refocusing.
(It's a little weird in that it's almost strictly worse than Ocean's Balm at 1st level, but scales better.)
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A shame. It'd be funny to see a Ki Strike monk use flurry of blows to punch a party member back to health using vitality damage strikes.
Flurry of blows won't Work either because the kinetic blast is Not a a unarmed Strike or Monk Action
Flurry of blows won't Work either because the kinetic blast is Not a a unarmed Strike or Monk Action
Kineticist not needed. Ki Strike will add 1d6 positive/vitality damage to the Monk's attacks.
It still won't heal anyone... But that wasn't the point.
Thread Necromancy, engage. Apologies if it's bad form.
The GM of my PFS group, as well as his mentor, is absolutely positively convinced that you can 'attack' someone with the Kineticist's Wood Elemental Blast and heal them with it. I know this doesn't work, if for no other reason that it's RIDICULOUSLY stupidly overpowered.
I understand 'healing doesn't damage and damage doesn't heal', but I am apparently incapable of explaining that to someone else. Could I pretty please get some specific rule quotes, or something from the devs, that *absolutely* dispels this misconception?
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Thread Necromancy, engage. Apologies if it's bad form.
The GM of my PFS group, as well as his mentor, is absolutely positively convinced that you can 'attack' someone with the Kineticist's Wood Elemental Blast and heal them with it. I know this doesn't work, if for no other reason that it's RIDICULOUSLY stupidly overpowered.
I understand 'healing doesn't damage and damage doesn't heal', but I am apparently incapable of explaining that to someone else. Could I pretty please get some specific rule quotes, or something from the devs, that *absolutely* dispels this misconception?
Why would wood kineticists have Fresh Produce (which is already very good out of combat healing) at all if elemental blast did its job so much better for free?
Can a Water Kineticist use Ocean’s Balm on themselves?
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Thread Necromancy, engage. Apologies if it's bad form.
We do have Organized Play forums for questions specifically about Organized Play, but it's fine to bring back a thread that's only a few months old if you want to continue the conversation.
The GM of my PFS group, as well as his mentor, is absolutely positively convinced that you can 'attack' someone with the Kineticist's Wood Elemental Blast and heal them with it. I know this doesn't work, if for no other reason that it's RIDICULOUSLY stupidly overpowered.
Is the "mentor" the Venture Agent of the lodge? It's not required to have an official volunteer to run PFS, but it's likely. Check with the local Venture Agent, and if they refuse to do anything (or are also making an incorrect ruling) go to their Venture Lieutenant. Table Variation exists, but that's for rules that aren't quite clear, not for things that are 100% incorrect per the rules.
I understand 'healing doesn't damage and damage doesn't heal', but I am apparently incapable of explaining that to someone else. Could I pretty please get some specific rule quotes, or something from the devs, that *absolutely* dispels this misconception?
The closest rule I can find is in the Hit Points rules.
When you take damage, you reduce your current Hit Points by a number equal to the damage dealt.
Some spells, items, and other effects, as well as simply resting, can heal creatures. When you're healed, you regain Hit Points equal to the amount healed, up to your maximum Hit Points.
The rule makes a clear delineation between taking damage and being healed, and spells like Heal and Harm make it clear that the spell does both damage and healing. If damage healed like it did in 1e, these spells would not have to be written in such a way.