kineticist any good?

[Snow]

I want to start a new game and wonder if that new kineticist class is any good, namely the knight subclass.

[Iry]

Kineticist is extremely good.
Kinetic Knight is pretty decent.

If you go Knight, start planning your career as a Trip or Push spammer early.

[brainscience]

when does kineticist get good? so far pretty lackluster to me maybe i built it wrong but I just put all my points in con and dex

[Iry]

Originally posted by brainscience:

when does kineticist get good? so far pretty lackluster to me maybe i built it wrong but I just put all my points in con and dex

Depends on your build. Water gets Slick spamming pretty early, which is like infinite grease spells. You can spend burn on Slick against bosses and they stack.

You get composite at 7, which turns you into slow artillery capable of one shooting almost any non-boss before the fight has even started. Physical is much more damage than energy.

Level 9 is when things start getting delicious, with Spray, Eruptions, Detonations, etc.

After that are Walls, Clouds, Devouring Earth.

Hardest part is getting through those early levels. But Slick really is that powerful.

[Autocthon]

Originally posted by brainscience:

when does kineticist get good? so far pretty lackluster to me maybe i built it wrong but I just put all my points in con and dex

As a damage dealer? Won't be as good as others. As a utility caster with lots of things in their toolbox basically the first few levels.

Once you get elemental walls you basicaly get to throw down AoE sneak attacks every round for free. Prior to that you get one sneak attack a round against touch AC, so an Arcane Trickster will feel better.

It also depends on what you built which I can't tell :P

[Snow]

Thanks for the replies. Does KK ever get a ranged attack? What's a good element choice? Normally would go with water as that usually means a freeze or slow effect but as there seems to be no such thing here went with fire, for the damage shield. And can you see the actual damage the blade does somewhere? Stubbornly shows 0-0 for damage, even in combat with the flaming blade in hand...

[Autocthon]

Knights are forever melee. Fire doesn't prevent you from taking damage it just deals damage to enemies that hit you in melee. Fire is all about the damage.

Water has great AC, and gets access to entangle infusion (among others) which is a kind of slowing effect.

Honestly the best wayto figure out what you might like is if you look through the options by hitting the show unavailable button when leveling up. Generally speaking if your goal was ot be hard to kill Water/Earth if it was to deal damages Fire/Air, but that's not exhaustive.

If you want to know what damage your blade deals look at your character screen. Kinetic Blast. Your damage is the number on the corner of that skill x1d6

[prototype00]

Earth gets to knock things prone with every attack, if you have a decent melee line, every one of your buddies then gets to make an attack of opportunity (Nok Nok or Amiri just rip stuff up when this happens).

With the Earth Bonus Feats (Trip and Greater Trip) and Fury's Fall (add dex to con to determine modifier) you are quite tanky and your trip modifier is really solid.

[Autocthon]

Originally posted by prototype00:

Earth gets to knock things prone with every attack, if you have a decent melee line, every one of your buddies then gets to make an attack of opportunity (Nok Nok or Amiri just rip stuff up when this happens).

With the Earth Bonus Feats (Trip and Greater Trip) and Fury's Fall (add dex to con to determine modifier) you are quite tanky and your trip modifier is really solid.

Yeah that;s an option. Though I think Bowling Infusiuon isn't technically limited to just earth, I was just saying that water gets mobility limiting options.

[Gravedancer]

Originally posted by brainscience:

when does kineticist get good? so far pretty lackluster to me maybe i built it wrong but I just put all my points in con and dex

Those are the right stats (though you dont need a ton of dex if you build the thing right, as you will primarily hit touch AC). The biggest thing with kineticists is how their abilities synergize with each other though.

For example, you have to balance burn. You want a certain amount of burn, as it will increase your damage, but you dont want too much, so you have room to add on more for big abilties in crunch time. If done properly, its a great caster for adventuring, as you can spam your kinetic blast all day long (whereas a traditional caster will eventually run out of spells). Throw a level or 2 of rogue in and they get even better (adding sneak attack damage to every blast within 30 feet, which is normal range for a blast without talents).

[Autocthon]

Originally posted by Gravedancer:

Originally posted by brainscience:

when does kineticist get good? so far pretty lackluster to me maybe i built it wrong but I just put all my points in con and dex

Those are the right stats (though you dont need a ton of dex if you build the thing right, as you will primarily hit touch AC). The biggest thing with kineticists is how their abilities synergize with each other though.

For example, you have to balance burn. You want a certain amount of burn, as it will increase your damage, but you dont want too much, so you have room to add on more for big abilties in crunch time. If done properly, its a great caster for adventuring, as you can spam your kinetic blast all day long (whereas a traditional caster will eventually run out of spells). Throw a level or 2 of rogue in and they get even better (adding sneak attack damage to every blast within 30 feet, which is normal range for a blast without talents).

You gain essentially nothing out of 1 or 2 levels of rogue. Your blast deals 1d6 damager per 2 levels. Sneak attack adds 1d6 per 2 levels. Your best case scenario is adding +1d6. You will end up losing ~1 BAB for it, you already have good skills per level and a good skill list, you don't need finesse.

I mean.... you could do it to add the accomplished sneak attacker feat I guess. But you don't gain that much out of even that.