Primordial Envy (Rusthenge) vs Kineticist (countering Impulses)

[Grant Strachan]

In Rusthenge the party has a kineticist and is about to meet the primordial envy for the first time. The ooze has 2 special abilities that I think should impact the kineticist:

Confiscate spell: Trigger A creature within 30 feet that the primordial envy can sense Casts a Spell
Effect: The primordial envy's surface shimmers with a kaleidoscope of color that shines out to illuminate the triggering creature. The primordial envy attempts to counter the spell, with a counteract modifier of +12. On a success, the spell is countered and the primordial envy gains 2d6 temporary Hit Points.

Could this be used against the Kineticists impulses with a DC of the Kineticist's class DC as they are a magical effect - my view is yes as its a magical effect and the creature is effectively absorbing magic to gain hitpoints.

The second ability is:
Spelldrain: The primordial envy attempts to drain magic from a spellcasting creature that it has Grabbed or Restrained. The spellcasting creature must attempt a DC 20 Will save.
Critical Success The creature is unaffected and is temporarily immune to Spell Drain for 24 hours.
Success The creature takes 1d6 mental damage.
Failure The creature takes 2d6 mental damage and becomes Stupefied 1 for 1 hour.
Critical Failure As failure, but one of the creature's uncast spells or unused spell slots is lost, as if they had cast it. The spell or slot lost is one of the highest-rank spells the creature can cast, determined randomly if multiple prepared spells are available. If a cantrip is drained, the spellcaster loses access to that cantrip for 10 minutes. The primordial envy becomes Quickened 1 for 1 round, and can use the extra action to Stride or Strike.

Again what are people's view on how this would affect the kineticist on a critical failure. - i.e. would it stop them using their impulses / Gate for 10 minutes?

Interested in people's views and any official ruling for this.

[The Raven Black]

I would say yes for the 1st.

For the second, since it happens only a crit fail, I would say the Kineticist loses access to one single Impulse they have. Not to all their abilities.

Note that I only base this on what sounds fun and balanced for everyone.

[SuperBidi]

The first ability clearly works on Impulses. But this is the easy one.

For the critical failure of the second ability, it's really up to you and to what sounds the more funny. I'd personally consider that the Kineticist loses access to their highest level Impulse for 10 minutes, it seems to be both interesting and not too punishing for the player.

[YuriP]

As GM you can make the creature abilities works as you like. So it's OK to all suggestions but...

RAW I would say no to 1st ability and but yes to critical failure of 2nd ability.

The reason is that Confiscate spell's trigger says the Casts a Spell activity by name and is a trigger and impulses do not use this activity and triggers doesn't qualify to the statement bellow:

Quote:

Impulses are magical, and though they aren't spells, some things that affect spells also affect impulses. Abilities that restrict you from casting spells (such as being polymorphed into a battle form) or protect against spells (such as a spell that protects against other spells or a creature's bonus to saves against spells) also apply to impulses.

The Confiscate spell isn't restricting nor protecting it's triggering when someone uses a Casts a Spell what isn't qualify it for impulses.

While the Spelldrain critical effect I belive that works like it works for cantrips because it restricts the target from casting spells including cantrips so I agree with SuperBidi to choose a random impulse and restrict from casting it for 10 minutes probably would be the most right thing to do here.

[Easl]

I'd probably run it "straight," meaning the crit on the second power causes slot loss...of which the kineticist has none, so they just take the damage and stupefy. Though if a kineticist takes a caster archetype, those archetype slots would be affected by the power.

However, fully agree with Bidi that it's really up to you.

Disagree with Yuri, I think? IMO Confiscate is a "protects against a spell" power, so I'd say it affects impulses. Trigger on use is simply how and when it protects, but what it does, is protect. However I haven't thought deeply about the matter, that's just my 5-minute superficial reading answer.