Defensive casting for Kineticist?

[Briggs]

So, I was noticing that my Kineticist was provoking a lot of AoO. I was like "why is this happening?". I understand that as spell-like abilities, they provoke AoO, but I would expect Defensive Casting to take care of at least some of that. However checking the combat logs, there are zero defensive casting checks happening.

What's up with that? That doesn't seem right.

[Jaggid Edje]

Ranged attacks used when an opponent is in melee range prove attacks of opportunity. The same thing would happen if you tried using a bow, for example.

Edit to add: There's a feat to prevent it; point blank master.

[Briggs]

Originally posted by Jaggid Edje:

Ranged attacks used when an opponent is in melee range prove attacks of opportunity. The same thing would happen if you tried using a bow, for example.

I know how AoO works, but isn't this casting? They're spell like abilities (they even require SR), so why would they be treated as ranged attacks?

edit: More importantly, Point Blank Master doesn't work for the Kineticist's abilities.

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by Briggs:

I know how AoO works, but isn't this casting? They're spell like abilities (they even require SR), so why would they be treated as ranged attacks?

Because they are ranged attacks....unless you are using Kinetic blade. Kineticist blasts are not considered "casting".

That said, even spells cast which are also ranged attacks (such as rays) actually provoke this type of attack of opportunity as well, so a real spell caster in that scenario would be provoking an AoO twice, once for the spell cast and then for the ranged attack.

[Briggs]

Originally posted by Jaggid Edje:

Originally posted by Briggs:

I know how AoO works, but isn't this casting? They're spell like abilities (they even require SR), so why would they be treated as ranged attacks?

Because they are ranged attacks....unless you are using Kinetic blade. Kineticist blasts are not considered "casting".

That said, even spells cast which are also ranged attacks (such as rays) actually provoke this type of attack of opportunity as well, so a real spell caster in that scenario would be provoking an AoO twice, once for the spell cast and then for the ranged attack.

Okay, that's weird, but if that's how the game works, that's how it works.

It doesn't change that Point Blank Master doesn't have an option for Kinetic Blast (like Weapon Focus does) and PBM (Ray) doesn't work on it.

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by Briggs:

Okay, that's weird, but if that's how the game works, that's how it works.

It doesn't change that Point Blank Master doesn't have an option for Kinetic Blast (like Weapon Focus does) and PBM (Ray) doesn't work on it.

Is ranged touch an option for the feat? Kinetic blasts which do energy damage are ranged touch attacks. (I'm pretty sure that the ones that do physical damage aren't though)

[Briggs]

Originally posted by Jaggid Edje:

Originally posted by Briggs:

Okay, that's weird, but if that's how the game works, that's how it works.

It doesn't change that Point Blank Master doesn't have an option for Kinetic Blast (like Weapon Focus does) and PBM (Ray) doesn't work on it.

Is ranged touch an option for the feat? Kinetic blasts which do energy damage are ranged touch attacks. (I'm pretty sure that the ones that do physical damage aren't though)

Yes and no. It's not on the list when taking the feat normally, but internally PBM (Ray) is refered to as "ranged touch".

edit: https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2un1i?Point-Blank-Master

So, for starters, I'm right that this should allow for defensive casting (not that that was being debated), and should also allow for PBM. For some reason, either are the case in Kingmaker.