Kineticist Elemental Blast Concentration

[Kazehito]

For the Kineticist Elemental Blast feature it has the keyword Impulse. For Impulse it states: "The primary magical actions kineticists use are called impulses. You can use an impulse only if your kinetic aura is active and channeling that element, and only if you have a hand free to shape the elemental flow. The impulse trait means the action has the concentrate trait unless another ability changes this. If an impulse allows you to choose an element, you can choose any element you're channeling, and the impulse gains that element's trait. " It seems weird that this basic attack breaks your own concentration for a one and done attack. Does anyone happen to know of an ability that changes this as stated in its text?

[Finoan]

I suspect that you are getting terms confused between different game systems.

'break your own concentration' sounds like something from Pathfinder 1st edition or perhaps D&D 5e (I don't know 5e very well at all). In PF1 you could only have one active spell with a duration of 'concentration'.

Pathfinder 2e instead has the Sustain a Spell action (generalized recently to just Sustain to include sustaining things other than just spells) to handle the concept of keeping a spell going for as long as you can afford to pay attention to it.

Notably, you can keep multiple spells with a duration of 'Sustained' going. Witch characters do that quite regularly and even have the Cackle hex and Effortless Concentration feats to make that easier.

An action with the Concentrate trait doesn't interrupt anything else that you are doing. It just means that other things may interact with it - most notably, Reactive Strike (or Attack of Opportunity if using the slightly older term for it).

[HammerJack]

Reactive Strike doesn't interact with Concentrate, unless you're talking about someone with the Disrupting Stance feat. There are other reactions that are triggered by Concentrate actions, though.

[Finoan]

Ah, that's right. It is Manipulate that Reactive Strike triggers on. In addition to movement.

[Kazehito]

Finoan wrote:

I suspect that you are getting terms confused between different game systems.

'break your own concentration' sounds like something from Pathfinder 1st edition or perhaps D&D 5e (I don't know 5e very well at all). In PF1 you could only have one active spell with a duration of 'concentration'.

Pathfinder 2e instead has the Sustain a Spell action (generalized recently to just Sustain to include sustaining things other than just spells) to handle the concept of keeping a spell going for as long as you can afford to pay attention to it.

Notably, you can keep multiple spells with a duration of 'Sustained' going. Witch characters do that quite regularly and even have the Cackle hex and Effortless Concentration feats to make that easier.

An action with the Concentrate trait doesn't interrupt anything else that you are doing. It just means that other things may interact with it - most notably, Reactive Strike (or Attack of Opportunity if using the slightly older term for it).

You are right. I'm coming from PF1E and D&D 5E, both of which used the fact that you can only have one spell/etc up with concentration at a time. I completely overlooked the difference here. Thank you for the help.