Hello! I've watched a few things and read a few things, but other than that i'm brand spankin new to 2e. I want to make a kineticist tank of probably the wood/earth/water variety. My brain is hard wired to 1e so im sure I'm not fully understanding my options/realities.
What sorts of things could accomplish this by level 6?
Earth armor or wood armor with shield?
calcifying sand or deflecting wave?
Timber Sentinel seems amazing, but is it worth the action if I'm up in melee?
I would love to take Awakened Animal as my heritage. I hear size large is great for reach/battlefield coverage/making the fun slow auras bigger, but im afraid of playing something that cant fit through common doors. Are there ways to make being large more forgiving?
I like all three elements and they all have cool tanking stuff, but i cant decide which I need earlier rather than later.
Thanks!
I use the following on my level 5 earth/water human kineticist:
Weapon Infusion (Via Natural Ambition), makes me a swiss army knife.
Armor in Earth, low-effort high armor with synergy with Assume Earth's mantle later, a power that makes you Large
Deflecting Wave, super handy tank reaction that can make some fights hilarious
Ocean's Balm, good in-combat healing option, also good for soothing burns
Safe Elements, kind of a feat tax for...
Winter Sleet, basically a Grease aura
Expand the Portal: Earth Junction, enemies moving away suffer difficult terrain, making me a tar pit.
I also focus heavily on grab and trip (Titan Wrestler, etc.), using nets and bolas to extend my range. Toughness to make my HP just silly.
I will probably get that enlarging armor eventually until I can grow large at will without the penalties and with proper reach.
It is generally accepted that anything that I get adjacent to is pretty much doomed because it's not going to get to move away and it's going to take forever to drop me. When I can't get adjacent I always have the best possible ranged weapon handy, and it's pretty common for me to be the only one in the party equipped to take out flying enemies.
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It might help if you clarify the type of tank you mean, as the term means different things to different people.
Are you simply looking to be tough and hard to hit/hurt? Or do you wish to be more proactive, drawing agro from enemies and protecting your allies?
It might help if you clarify the type of tank you mean, as the term means different things to different people.
Are you simply looking to be tough and hard to hit/hurt? Or do you wish to be more proactive, drawing agro from enemies and protecting your allies?
battlefield control, slows, grabs, be a wall of reach that is hard to get around, that sort of thing :) I definitely want to be able to take some hits, but i'm mostly interested in freeing up my allies so they can do things.
Just wanted to note that being large doesn't automatically give you ten foot reach, I'm pretty sure. So if that's the main reason you wanted to be an awakened animal you might want something else.
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The most hilarious method of battlefield control to lock down enemies is a water/earth kineticist with the earth aura junction (difficult terrain if they try to move away from you), Winter Sleet stance (save or fall prone if they move in your aura without stepping [which they can't do away from you, difficult terrain], plus Slow effect on critical hits from your blast or crit fails against your impulses), and Roiling Mudslide composite to do some minor damage and pushing while also applying a second dose of move and save or fall. Endless pratfalls on melee opponents who need to move to close with you or allies who are kiting.
You can also add the water impulse junction on top of Roiling Mudslide to get an extra 5' move applied to one enemy who fails their initial save (and was already pushed 5'), even if they make the subsequent saves against the clinging mud.
With a Buckler and longsword/battleaxe, you can blast and strike, giving you two MAP-less melee attacks of 1d8+3 at L1, and you can block.
you can blast and melee attack without multi attack penalty? i guess i need to better understand what gets around MAP hehe. Could I bite and blast without a penalty?
Just wanted to note that being large doesn't automatically give you ten foot reach, I'm pretty sure. So if that's the main reason you wanted to be an awakened animal you might want something else.
I've always wanted to play an awakened creature in 1e, so being large honestly wasn't even in my equation for it. I was going to play small or medium, but having the extra size from being large on kineticist aura sounds really dastardly.
With a Buckler and longsword/battleaxe, you can blast and strike, giving you two MAP-less melee attacks of 1d8+3 at L1, and you can block.you can blast and melee attack without multi attack penalty? i guess i need to better understand what gets around MAP hehe. Could I bite and blast without a penalty?
The Elemental Blast ability has the Attack trait, so does use and add to MAP. I do not know what the poster was referencing to get two MAP-less melee attacks. There are other ways to blast vs. a save which don't change MAP. Being able to do do that in one round is a strength of Kineticist, if you have the actions for it.
ok, so im building this out now. I'm looking into special rules for being large...does large change the damage of the awakened animals natural weapons? is there any versitile heritage worth taking? i dont think i have room in the build for any archetypes, im booked on stuff I want all the way to 12 as it is.
free primal cantrip heritage feat, or senses (lowlight vision i guess)?
climbing animal gets a decent grab heritage feat, but moving at 15 would kill me, so im likely going running animal.
going earth/water at start, expanding for the earth aura junction, then finally picking up wood after that. for stance, is the ice one better than ravel of thorns? i mostly just need wood at this point for the junction/temp hit points for the second half of the adventure.
Being large through ancestry is more likely to be a hindrance than a help. You don't gain reach or damage from it, and you don't have an opportunity attack unless you get a multiclass or archetype. Your impulse is already able to be used as a ranged attack.
It does make your aura bigger without a Clumsy 1 penalty, but by the time you have any aura abilities of note you could probably get a Wand of Enlarge or a Size-Changing armor rune and then you could use it when it would actually help plus you'd get the reach and melee buffs.
Overall, the main reason to be Large would be because it would be fun; mechanically it's a wash even if you build your whole character around abusing it.
I think i got the hang of this, but one thing came up as I was building it. earth armor gives slashing resistance, does that work in conjunction with deflecting waves slashing resistance?
I think i got the hang of this, but one thing came up as I was building it. earth armor gives slashing resistance, does that work in conjunction with deflecting waves slashing resistance?
They don't stack, but the permanent resist comes in handy when the second attack that round hits.
ok we finally started the game. i ended up going with human/undine water/wood. going to combo winters cluch with ravel and the wood temp hitpoints gate bonus at level five (trying to "finish" one stage of the character at 5 and 11 with the last half of the campaign as a victory lap). it fit the character so much better as a fisherman/shipwright to have wood and water powers so that inevitably made my choice for me. my impulses were winters clutch, guardian tree, and weapon infusion with natural ambition.
so now i have some time to choose between the scrolls/staff useage impulse or getting another of the many good wood/water impulses at level 2. i feel like playing in melee might limit my scrolls and staffs, but the idea of it sounds really usefull. this is a kingmaker campaign so there is lots of out of combat time.
ok we finally started the game. i ended up going with human/undine water/wood. going to combo winters cluch with ravel and the wood temp hitpoints gate bonus at level five (trying to "finish" one stage of the character at 5 and 11 with the last half of the campaign as a victory lap).
You cannot "combo" winter's clutch and ravel of thorns, because they're both stances. You can only have one up at a time.
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so now i have some time to choose between the scrolls/staff useage impulse or getting another of the many good wood/water impulses at level 2. i feel like playing in melee might limit my scrolls and staffs, but the idea of it sounds really usefull. this is a kingmaker campaign so there is lots of out of combat time.
I do not recommend Kinetic Activation. Just use Trick Magic Item, since fumbling with scrolls isn't the best use of your actions as a kineticist.
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ok we finally started the game. i ended up going with human/undine water/wood. going to combo winters cluch with ravel and the wood temp hitpoints gate bonus at level five (trying to "finish" one stage of the character at 5 and 11 with the last half of the campaign as a victory lap).You cannot "combo" winter's clutch and ravel of thorns, because they're both stances. You can only have one up at a time.
your thinking of winter sleet, winters clutch make difficult terrain:
"Gleaming flakes of chilling snow fall in a 10-foot burst within 60 feet. Each creature in the area takes 2d4 cold damage with a basic Reflex save against your class DC. The ground in the area is covered in a snow drift, which is difficult terrain. Each square of the drift lasts until it melts, either naturally or until fire damage is dealt in that square.Level (+2) The damage increases by 1d4."
basically the combo is just to make the areas around me difficult terrain and move the aura into it so that its difficult and hazardous to try and persuade them into just attacking me instead of trying to get past me.
The Ravel of Thorns + Winter's Clutch combo is legit; an added benefit is that the snow created by Winter's Clutch doubles Ravel of Thorns's hazardous terrain damage, so you can make yourself very difficult to ignore indeed. Combined with Hardwood Armor and the wood impulse junction, you can make yourself really durable, and the water impulse junction lets you control enemies even more as well.