Why does my kineticist miss so much?

[Phil85]

How can I get her to hit more often? Is it dex or cha scores?

[Aradon]

I've never built a kineticist, so I can't be sure that they don't have an ability to use Cha for attack, but generally ranged attacks are made with your dexterity score, even for casters. So you'll want a high dexterity to hit your opponents.

There is also a penalty for shooting a ranged attack into melee, to simulate the difficulty of not hitting your allies. You get a -4 to your attack roll unless you take Point-Blank Shot and then Precise Shot,

[Cyborg009]

source:Elemental Overflow[www.d20pfsrd.com]
At 3rd level, a kineticist’s body surges with energy from her chosen element whenever she accepts burn, causing her to glow with a nimbus of fire, weep water from her pores, or experience some other thematic effect. In addition, she receives a bonus on her attack rolls with kinetic blasts equal to the total number of points of burn she currently has, to a maximum bonus of +1 for every 3 kineticist levels she possesses.

[Raigavin]

The problem with kineticist is that you need to have stats/feats in other areas too, apart from buffing up constitution for burns.

What does the combat log say when you miss attacks? it can probably help you decide what you need to add to increase your hit rate.

[Irx]

Originally posted by Phil85:

How can I get her to hit more often? Is it dex or cha scores?

Depends on the blast type you use. There are 2 types: physical and energy.

Physical blasts are normal ranged attacks (same as bows, for example) and depend on dex.

Energy blasts are ranged touch attacks, they also depend on dex but are calculated against usually much lower touch AC instead of full AC, but unlike physical blasts they are effected by Spell Resistance (thus you need spell penetration).

There are also aoe forms which don't need attack rolls but may be affected by saves & SR.

Also a typical kineticist doesn't use CHA for anything (unless you're playing an overwhelming soul), but CON and DEX.

[Benedicter]

Dex to hit for energy blasts. At character creation set Dex to 19 and then every 4 levels pump it until you reach 24.
Also take Point-Blank Shot and Precise Shot asap. Later on Weapon Focus: Kinetic Blast as well.

[Phil85]

I'm level 6 and using earth element. I have the earth ranged shot and the long ranged ranged shot as my two options for ranged attack. I have point blank shot.

[Slavik]

If you don't have precise shot feat you suffer -4 penalty for range attacking into melee combat. Good news is that the only prerequisite for precise shot is point blank shot and you already have that one. So pick up precise shot at next feat selection option and your accuracy will improve a lot.

[Wendrig]

Originally posted by Benedicter:

Dex to hit for energy blasts.
Also take Point-Blank Shot and Precise Shot asap. Later on Weapon Focus: Kinetic Blast as well.

this.

[Sador]

Also, one of the 'problems' with Kineticist is that you're basically giving up multiple attacks (yes except for specific builds, I know) for one big attack. A character like Lann misses plenty of his shots over combat, but because he is basically a machine gun it doesn't end up mattering because you're chipping away at their health anyway. Meanwhile for Kineticist it's one big hit that destroys things if it connects but really ends up wiffing badly if you miss (similar to casters with save or suck spells, Ember's slumber hex, etc.)

[Phil85]

Originally posted by Lucky_Noob:

Originally posted by Benedicter:

Dex to hit for energy blasts.
Also take Point-Blank Shot and Precise Shot asap. Later on Weapon Focus: Kinetic Blast as well.

this.

Turns out, I have all those skills. I still seem to miss pretty often. And yes, it does hurt since you only get one shot per round.

[Sador]

Originally posted by Phil85:

Originally posted by Lucky_Noob:

this.

Turns out, I have all those skills. I still seem to miss pretty often. And yes, it does hurt since you only get one shot per round.

I found my Kineticist really suffers in areas where there is high AC (like Blackwater) because it's much higher to reliably hit ranged attacks. On the other hand, once you start getting access to AoE infusions it becomes an entirely different experience. Suddenly you go from a single shot to massive AoE damage every turn with possible bonus effects.

[SmallGespenst]

dex is the hit stuff at range stat. it's especially important for Kineticists 'cause they don't have weapon enhancement bonuses bumping up that attack bonus, but they still have to hit full AC, unless you're running energy blasts, where spell resistance is going to eat a decent chunk of your attacks