I got a player who ever 10 minutes in universe reapplies their Kineticist Impulse armor. I have to ask myself as a DM and a player, why is this only 10 minutes? It has no cooldown and uses a single action, would it just be bad to assume he is always wearing the armor when traveling? It there ever a point to having him be "Attacked" when his armor needs to e reapplied or would that seem like I am only targetting the Kineticist?
Would it be unwise to just treat it as "Till next daily preparation?"
Well, to ativate it, the Kineticist has to activate the aura first, which can be VERY visible. So having the armor active all the time is hard to pull off while trying to sneak through a dungeon.
Beyond that, there's little to no reason to just assume the armor is active all the time.
What if they keep their gate just always on and always reapply the armor? Only time they close their gate is when they go into towns and other settlements, perhaps even diplomatic situations where they actively close it.
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I'd say don't attack him during the small interval between armors (unless an intelligent NPC who knows about his habits is at work!), but don't let it stay on while he's asleep. It's hard to renew something every 10 min in your dreams. Plus if he did keep it on while asleep he'd wake up fatigued, which is no good.
Otherwise, I might call "keep impulse armor refreshed" its own exploration activity. Might not limit your speed, but does conflict with other exploration activities.
If you don't want him doing this, rule that if he keeps it on for an hour (ignoring the short bits when it's off) he becomes fatigued. The Sustain a Spell activity does that after only 10 min, so this seems fair.
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Okay, so now we're just telling the player, your feat choice will occur penalties. Wouldn't this just mean he is more likely to move over to taking a 1 feat dip in Sentinel Dedication just to get Metal Carapace or Hardwood armor worth of AC via a Breastplate?
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No, 1 action every 10 minutes should not cost an entire exploration activity. Things cost an exploration activity if it is 1 action every 6 seconds.
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I'd let them have their 10 min+ duration impulses active at all times unless they find themselves in a situation in which having their weapon drawn out would be a problem, like most social encounters.
And yeah, all these abilities should just be an on/off toggle for Kineticist.
And yeah, all these abilities should just be an on/off toggle for Kineticist.
This is what I mean, I'd just let it be turn on and off at will. It is odd it is 10 minutes and not just On/Off. It's like wearing medium armor if not better. Full-plate is +6, Armor in Earth is +5.
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Having it be just on/off would allow things like having it on while sleeping or prevented from acting.
Having it be a 10 minute refresh effectively allows for a constant on, but only when you are able to spend a negligible amount of time and effort on maintaining its existence.
The difference is small, but it is there.
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Otherwise, I might call "keep impulse armor refreshed" its own exploration activity. Might not limit your speed, but does conflict with other exploration activities.If you don't want him doing this, rule that if he keeps it on for an hour (ignoring the short bits when it's off) he becomes fatigued. The Sustain a Spell activity does that after only 10 min, so this seems fair.
Using the same rules for one action every ten minutes as intended for one action every six seconds is most certainly not fair.
Actually, way harsher. Six actions versus 100.
10 minutes means it's easy to refresh, but you have to have your gate open and spend actions. So when actively adventuring it's active and when ambushed in town or at night it's not.
It's better than round to round (if it wasn't it would be useless when you can just use armor), but it's not completely constant, either. The equivalent of having weapons drawn, probably.
Okay, Finoan and Super Zero are right about exploration activities; I withdraw that suggestion.
Having it be just on/off would allow things like having it on while sleeping or prevented from acting.
Having it be a 10 minute refresh effectively allows for a constant on, but only when you are able to spend a negligible amount of time and effort on maintaining its existence.
The difference is small, but it is there.
You would still need a Sentinel feat to sleep in heavy armor, so I don't really see the issue.
As for others effects, it is not important, really. You want to be on fire with Furnace Form while sleeping? Go for it, buddy.