Kineticists are kinda breaking the game.

[Solar Sailer]

Hi guys and gals. Please don't call me a noob right away (i know i am) and hear me out.

I'm about 2/3 into my first playthrough and Im playing on Daring difficulty. The game was going great for me as far as challenge goes. Not too hard for the first time, not too easy. Of course I had to reload a few times before I could beat some of the harder enemies like Playful Darkness, but that's expected.


Then, in the middle of act 4, i thought that since most of the major enemies are so high up on AC and Saves, having a kineticist in the party with high energy & area skills kinda makes sense. So I've hired a new companion (pretty expensive too) and made him one.

And it kinda ruined the game for me. Basically kineticist is so powerfull that ALL of the fights became absolutely trivial and boring and are solved by that one character with some buffs from mage&cleric.

(as a side note, it's a Blue Flame + Deadly Earth kineticist + SP & Greater SP & Mythic SP)

And they don't even need a lot of equipment or rest.
Plus the fact that game AI can't properly react to area infusions doesn't help my enemies.

Before you say: "So just switch to Hard\Unfair" - it's not about that. This game has a few dozen classes and it's just weird that one of them is so above the rest.

So, do I just suck at properly building other classes or this evens out in the late game or kineticists really should be nerfed a bit ?


Thank you for all your replies !

[SmallGespenst]

I think it's less "Kineticists are incredibly busted" and more "deadly earth is incredibly busted"

[Conquista]

nah kineticist are just really strong in the pathfinder crpgs

i don't think they nerf any class, its more or less based on the pnp origin and beside its a singleplayer offline game

just don't use them if you don't want to is the easiest way

[kiloromeo]

Broken Class I would not want to see at table in real life gaming.

Along with Gunslinger. (Not implemented here yet)

[Solar Sailer]

Originally posted by Conquista:

nah kineticist are just really strong in the pathfinder crpgs

i don't think they nerf any class, its more or less based on the pnp origin and beside its a singleplayer offline game

just don't use them if you don't want to is the easiest way

Thats what I've ended up doing (not using them), but that's not how it should be.
Somewhat breaks the suspension of disbelief if you have to add your own rules to someone elses game\world.

[Quacksalber]

I've never used Kineticists (even in Kingmaker) as I find them impossible to understand.

[RandomDude2018]

When i started to play Kingmaker i read that the Kineticist's Deadly Earth combo is broken (neoseeker). I've never touched the class after that. In fact i've never ever played one either.

[Conquista]

Originally posted by Solar Sailer:

Somewhat breaks the suspension of disbelief if you have to add your own rules to someone elses game\world.

ya, i get what you are saying
i don't like using monk dips because makes no sense for me that armored tanks get outclassed by naked tanks, but its a flaw of the pathfinder system
limiting myself with the choices that the game gives, leaves me still with enough choices to enjoy the game, but thats definily different from person to person

[zrbialk]

I found that spell resistance and reflex saves limited the influence of kineticist. I have mostly completed chapter 4 with a kineticist/lich and slayer/azata. My impression has been that the azata slayer has had better dps than the kineticist. That could change next chapter. In my lich playthrough, it sure looks like Wendaug as an executioner is less deadly than my azata deliverer from an earlier playthrough. I

[Herr Glaube]

Originally posted by zrbialk:

I found that spell resistance and reflex saves limited the influence of kineticist. I have mostly completed chapter 4 with a kineticist/lich and slayer/azata. My impression has been that the azata slayer has had better dps than the kineticist. That could change next chapter. In my lich playthrough, it sure looks like Wendaug as an executioner is less deadly than my azata deliverer from an earlier playthrough. I

Spell resistance really shouldn't be that much of an issue. Just take the Spell Penetration feats.

The real problem here is that the game incorrectly tags those as bad choices for Kineticists when they're actually necessary if you're using Energy bursts.

[Mindeveler]

Originally posted by Conquista:

just don't use them if you don't want to is the easiest way

This.
The guy plays on daring, had to reload "a few times" and calls himself a noob.
Man, just don't use kineticists and leave them to us, real noobs, as the last resort.

[Leyline]

haha.
Yes because totally bonkers min max shizo multiclasses are any less disruptive....

now to your point:

Yes, the kin is incredibly powerful.
So is any well build char.

So there. a nothing burger of an issue.


dont like it, dont use it.

[B Unit]

Why does everyone talk about Deadly Earth but never Cloud? Its basically the same thing right?

[Sador]

Kineticists also suffer from a pretty rough early game (either having to target SR or single attacks against relatively high AC) and minimal burn allowance. Yeah, by the time you start unlocking AoEs (and especially deadly earth) it becomes significantly easier but by that point it's competing against other high level classes which can be really strong. They also suffer from a certain lack of flexibility as they're great blasters but don't offer the utility a spellcaster does for example.

[Sotanaht]

Originally posted by Solar Sailer:

(as a side note, it's a Blue Flame + Deadly Earth kineticist + SP & Greater SP & Mythic SP)

Should be Fire/Earth/Water so you can stack both Deadly Earth and Cloud. As long as the infusions have a physical component (using Magma and Steam composites both use Fire+Bludgeoning) the entire infusion is not affected by Spell Resistance. I still get the SP feats for when I want to use single target fire blasts.

[Mindeveler]

Originally posted by sweetchilliheat:

Why does everyone talk about Deadly Earth but never Cloud? Its basically the same thing right?

Deadly Earth can knock down with the right feats. In Kingmaker it was the death sentence for enemies. They fall on the floor, they're trying to get up, they fall again, they try to leave the zone, but the zone is difficult terrain, so they're slow and all this time they receive huge damage.
Cloud is not that good, though the combination of them both is just instant wipe for an enemy party.