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I was just thinking about kineticists, and I thought of a kind of cool idea for a level 18/20 feat for them, and I thought I'd share... and since there was no thread to put it in, I thought I'd add one.
Composite Mastery (Kineticist lvl 18):
You are able to use all composite impulses of level 6 and below that you possess both elements for. If you are a single-element kineticist, you instead are able to use all composite impulses of level 6 and below that include your element. You may immediately retrain any feat that you previously had that gave you one of those impulses.
I don't think it would be overpowered. Not when it's competing with things like the level 18 capstone impulses, and Kinetic Pinnacle, and Omnikinesis. At the same time, there *are* people who want to be able to play the Avatar, and for *those* people, being able to just add 15 impulses to their list at one drop would be kind of awesome... even if some of those impulses are pretty janky. You can't retrain them, and you can't reflow them, and if anything it might be a bit understrength... but it would be cool, and I feel like ti would really help sell the fantasy of it.
Left at 18 rather than 20, because on the kineticist, level 18 feats are already competing for level 20 slots, and this would let them grab it immediately after taking their sixth element and actually play with it for a few levels... and because if they really want to do silly things with flexibility, this would allow someone to take both Composite Mastery and Omnikinesis on the same character. The way I see it, it's not overpowered, and people will want it anyway, and we should be supporting things like that.
Admittedly, I also think that a level 20 kineticist feat that allowed you to have two stances up at once would be cool... but that once feels a lot more likely to be OP.
(This would be distinct from the Monk's stance fusion because it would be kineticist stances only, you'd have to take the action to enter each stance separately, and you could mix and match a bit more if you happened to have 3 or more stances. Possibly a limitation where the two stances can't share elements or something. I consider this mostly a downgrade. I'm still not convinced that it would be balanced, even without the bit where it treads on the Monk's niche protection.)
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It's kind of strange that a single-element kineticist gets more out of the "become the Avatar" feat than the Avatar does, isn't it?
You have misunderstood.
The single-element kineticist gets five impulses out of this. A single-element fire kineticist would get all five of the composite impulses that contained fire.
The dual-element kineticist gets... every composite impulse that they have both of the elements for. In this case, that's one. It's not a good deal for them.
Three elements gets you three
Four elements gets you six
Five gets you ten
All six gets you all fifteen.
So there's some stuff in the middle there where it's obviously subpar, but anything from four elements on up is getting more than the single-element kineticist, and it just gets better from there.
In part, this is because by my read, two or three elements is pretty much ideal from an optimization standpoint. The rules try to hand a few bennies to single-element kineticists to make up for it that never quite make it all the way there, and Avatar builds are mostly there for people who want to be the Avatar because, dammit, they want to be the Avatar. So this is staying within that theme. Single element gets specific bennies (but probably still not enough to make it actually worth taking), two and three elements really don't need the help, and if you've taken it all the way to six elements, you get something that you can feel awesome with in that "I am the Avatar" way (but still probably being weaker overall than a more focused build would have been).
A high level feats I would love;
An impulse that lets a kineticist either plane shift to their elemental plane, or have a private demiplane made up of all the elements they can channel that they can travel to. I mean a kineticist is literally a portal to elemental planes, would make a ton of sense to be able to do some planar traveling.
That being said (and not to derail the thread) I would love more low level kineticist impulses a lot more than high level ones. Kineticist already has a lot (too many?) of amazing high level feats, while there are a lot of holes that elements need filled imo.
Earth - needs self defense (armor in earth and spike skin are the only two decent options for staying power, earth should be a lot hardier than that I feel), a low level non overflow damage impulse, and another decent damage lower level overflow damage impulse (tremor is pretty situational, weight of stone has cool utility but bad damage for three actions, and shattered mountain weeps is level 18).
Water - pretty balanced, but would love a cold damage overflow impulse (maybe targeting fortitude?), some trickery back (some kind of illusion or other will save), and maybe a self heal (only tidal balm can heal the caster on command)
Metal - strong late game but poor early game as well as a lot of situational abilities. An impulse to magnetize a foe would be awesome,
Fire - fire could do with some damage and utility versatility. An impulse that did bludgeoning damage would be great (just a forceful explosion?), maybe a faerie fire type impulse or some condition clearing (burn away afflictions, stopping persistent damage, stuff like that)?
Wood - damage wise (I know it's not the elements main focus) wood would benefit from tools to overcome resistance since it has little non physical damage and a chunk of its impulses come up against immunities a lot (bleed, target has to be living, sickened, etc). Some more healing abilities would be welcome, even if it's not HP healing, as would some buffs to self and allies.
Air - I've seen a lot of complaints about air not having enough lightning themed impulses; some electrical utility (some limited form of haste?) and maybe a non overflow damage impulse would help that. Air could use a good wind themed overflow as well (only have aerial boomerang for actual wind damage)
That being said (and not to derail the thread) I would love more low level kineticist impulses a lot more than high level ones. Kineticist already has a lot (too many?) of amazing high level feats, while there are a lot of holes that elements need filled imo.
Do you really think Kineticist needs the buff? I mean, I feel like the limited library of impulses is a significant part of the balance factor here. If we implemented your suggestions, the Kineticist overall woudl wind up a lot stronger, especially at the one-element and two-element levels.
I threw Composite Mastery out there in part because it would feel satisfyingly awesome but not particularly push up the power ceiling. Like, the person who's been pushing the Avatar build for the past 17 levels is going to find it pretty shiny, but in terms of raw power they're probably better off just grabbing Hell of 1,000,000 needles or something instead.
Some sort of Plane Shift or Create My Own Demiplane power would be cool, though, I admit.
That being said (and not to derail the thread) I would love more low level kineticist impulses a lot more than high level ones. Kineticist already has a lot (too many?) of amazing high level feats, while there are a lot of holes that elements need filled imo.Do you really think Kineticist needs the buff? I mean, I feel like the limited library of impulses is a significant part of the balance factor here. If we implemented your suggestions, the Kineticist overall woudl wind up a lot stronger, especially at the one-element and two-element levels
I mean I'm not going to deny that more options would be buffs, but it's not out of place with other classes. Martials get more items to play with, casters get spells, they both get feats or archetypes they work with on occasion. Kineticist getting more impulses is a buff but as long as it's within each elements design niche I think it fits the game.
As it is now, some elements are just lacking in some categories. To make a more complete character, to have the tools to perform well, combining elements feels necessary to me in a way I don't always like. Take earth for example; you have tremor until level 6, then weight of stone. Tremor (arguably) can only hit things on the ground. Weight of stone does pretty paltry damage for a three action overflow. Both of them are also overflow, so you'd have to refresh your aura every time they're used (something like assume Earth's mantle). Would it be a buff to have a low level reliable damage impulse? Sure, but I don't think it's asking all that much.