The GM’s Guide to the Kineticist

(or Help! I Don’t Understand This Kineticist Statblock!)

Jen McTeague


Introduction

As material comes out for Pathfinder, Paizo has always been looking for ways to incorporate that material in the enemies as well as the PCs. After the APG was released, the GenCon PFS releases included a cavalier, oracle, summoner, and a witch, immediately bringing these classes to the forefront. While everyone needed a little time to wrap their heads around these mechanics, GMs as a whole picked up the classes fairly quickly. As Pathfinder gains more and more classes, they’ve slowed down the rate at which they are introducing them into adventures, and while some GMs ran into trouble, the GMing community as a whole seemed to be keeping up.

Enter the kineticist. This class seems to have broken the pattern. The first time this class was introduced as part of a PFS scenario, there were tons of people who were complaining that they didn’t really understand how to run the enemy and that they couldn’t make heads or tails of the class. When you talk with a bunch of GMs who have this problem, a couple of different themes rear their head.

It’s so different from everything else. This is very true. Most new classes aren’t entirely new mechanics. The mesmerist has stare and mesmerist tricks, but it also has spontaneous casting like a bard. The psychic is a 9 level spontaneous caster, and the psychic disciplines are similar to bloodlines, so if you know how to play a sorcerer, you’re good to go. Kineticists have no mechanics that any other class gets, so it’s hard to get a hold of.

It’s not written well. Because the class introduces this whole different subsystem that isn’t anywhere else, it spends a lot of time clarifying things and trying to close loopholes, but it doesn’t do a great job of explaining the class to someone who’s never seen it before.

It’s super complex. Actually, it’s not that complex. It’s certainly less complex than a full caster, especially at higher levels. It just looks really complex, partly because of the reasons listed above, but also because some common abilities have a different name because you get them in a different way. You might see “Flesh of Stone”, but that’s just giving DR/adamantine. “Fan of Flames” sounds weird, but it’s giving a 15ft. cone of fire, much like burning hands. All it takes is a little bit of time looking stuff up, and you can translate most of the kineticist’s abilities into terms you already know.

This document is designed to help you get around these three problems. It explains each of the class features in simpler terms in order to get at the core of what they do. It organizes the abilities differently to help explain how everything fits together. It provides a step-by-step guide for how to prep and how to look up materials in order to get a better sense of what a particular kineticist can do. Hopefully, with this guide, you can quickly become an expert in running a kineticist from behind the GM’s screen.


Kineticist NPCs

The Bare-Bones Basics

In order to be able to effectively run a kineticist, you need to understand four abilities: burn, defense wild talents, elemental overflow, and kinetic blast. Below is a quick explanation of each one.

Burn

Burn is the kineticist’s resource, much like arcanists have arcane pool points and monks have ki points. They have a limit to the amount of burn that they can accept each day, which is listed in the burn entry under SQ. Each point of burn that they accept deals nonlethal damage to them equal to their total HD. (If a creature has racial HD or classes other than kineticist, these still count for the purpose of calculating burn damage.) This doesn’t change the kineticist’s maximum hit points, which makes it much more likely that they will be knocked unconscious rather than killed.

Defense Wild Talents (Level 2)

When a kineticist hits level 2, they gain a defensive wild talent. Each one of them provide a scaling benefit, with an additional benefit if the kineticist spends some burn. There is a list for the main five elements on the PRD, so you can go look up the one that applies to your kineticist and make some quick notes. These talents are always on unless you want them not to be.

Elemental Overflow (Level 3)

When a kineticist hits level 3, they gain a benefit for having burn. They get +1 to hit and +2 to damage for every point of burn that they have, up to a maximum of +1/+2 per three levels. In addition, at 6th level as long as they have three points of burn, they gain +2 size bonus to two physical stats and fortification of 5% per point of burn. (There are advancements for higher levels, but if the NPC is greater than 10th level, you probably should look at more than this page.)

Kinetic Blast

This is the bread and butter of the kineticist. Each kineticist has a basic blast, and it can be found under the Kineticist Wild Talents Known section of the stat block. This blast is a SLA that can be used at will as a standard action. The blast is considered to be a spell level equal to half the kineticist’s level, and the concentration check is based off of Constitution. The blast is a ranged attack with a range of 30 ft. There are two kinds of kinetic blasts: physical and energy.

Physical Blasts (air, earth, telekinetic, water) - These blasts attack normal AC and are affected by DR, but not by energy resistance and SR. They deal 1d6+1 damage for every odd level, plus the kineticist’s full Constitution modifier.

Energy Blasts (cold, electric, fire) - These blasts attack touch AC and are affected by energy resistance and SR but not DR. They deal 1d6 damage for every odd level, plus half of the kineticist’s Constitution modifier.

For more details on these blasts, check out the kinetic blast section of the PRD.

Putting It All Together

Combining these four pieces of information together, here’s a gameplan for how to run a bare-bones kineticist.

  • Spend enough burn on the defense talent in order to max out a kineticist’s elemental overflow bonus.
  • Make sure that the kinetic blast’s attack and damage are calculated correctly.
  • Attack with the kineticist’s kinetic blast as a short-range ranged character.

That will be good enough for you to get the feel of the kineticist while doing a bare minimum of prep. The encounter won’t be as powerful as it normally is, and given that we’re ignoring a significant chunk of the kineticist’s class features, one would hope that it wouldn’t be as powerful. If you have some more time, and want to learn more about the kineticist, then read on.


Full Preparation

Given the class’ heavy focus on kinetic blasts, we’ll be dividing this section around the kinetic blast. Each of the individual class features is listed under its own heading, so you can navigate to individual class features if you know most of the class features but need guidance on one specific one.

One important detail to note about Burn that wasn’t addressed above - there is a maximum amount of burn per round that you are allowed to spend. This limit starts at 1 and goes up slowly as a character levels up. A kineticist’s current limit per round is listed next to burn in the SQ section of the stat block.

Things That Add to a Blast

Composite Blasts (Level 7)

At 7th level, a kineticist gains a composite blast when they gain expanded element. This blast works exactly like the normal kinetic blast, with two exceptions: they do more damage and they cost burn to use. You can see the full text of the particular composite blast on the PRD.

Infusions

These wild talents give the kineticist additional effects to their kinetic blast. Whenever a kineticist uses a blast, they can add the effects of one form infusion and one substance infusion that they have. Form infusions tend to change the shape or range of the blast, while substance infusions tend to add extra effects onto the blast. Each of them have a burn cost that gets added onto the burn cost of the kinetic blast. If the infusion requires a DC, it is 10 + ½ lvl + Con mod if it is a substance infusion, or 10 + ½ lvl + Dex mod if it is a form infusion.

If the kineticist is 7th level or higher, be careful! Not every infusion can go to every kinetic blast. Each infusion lists which blasts it can go with in its entry on the PRD.

Metakinesis (Level 5)

If the kineticist has the metakinesis ability, then they gain some options for adding metamagic to their kinetic blasts for the cost of some burn. At 5th level, they gain empower for 1 burn. At 9th level, they gain maximize for 2 burn. At 13th level, they gain quicken for 3 burn. At 17th level, they can get two blasts with one standard action for 4 burn. They can use as much as they want for each blast, but they are limited by their maximum burn per round.

Things That Reduce the Cost of a Blast

Gather Power

As a move action, the kineticist can reduce the cost of a blast wild talent this turn by 1. As a full round action, the kineticist can reduce the cost of a blast wild talent next turn by 2. These two effects can be combined. (In general, the full round action version is rarely used, but the move action is quite common.) This FAQ clarifies that it will also reduce the cost of infusions, metakinesis, and anything else added to a blast wild talent, but it won’t reduce the cost of utility wild talents.

Supercharge (Level 11)

This increases gather power’s move action reduction to -2, and the full round reduction to -3.

Infusion Specialization (Level 5)

This reduces the total cost spent on infusions for each blast by 1. This increases by 1 for every three levels above 5th.

Internal Buffer (Level 6)

This abilities stores burn for the kineticist to use later on wild talents. It holds 1 point at 6th level and 1 more for every 5 levels the kineticist has. Spending burn from the buffer doesn’t trigger effects that care about spending burn, but points from the buffer can be spent in excess of the maximum per round. Each wild talent can only get one point from the buffer. (It is usually safe to assume that the kineticist starts the day with the buffer full unless the adventure says otherwise.)

Composite Specialization (Level 16)

This reduces the burn cost of composite blasts by 1 point.

Metakinetic Master (Level 19)

This reduces the burn cost of one type of metakinesis by 1 point. (The ability should specify which one.)

Things That Do Not Affect a Blast

Utility Wild Talents (Level 2)

Utility wild talents encompass a wide variety of effects, from always-on benefits to activated abilities that allow the kineticist do spell-like effects thematic to their element. Some rare ones even do affect a kinetic blast. Unfortunately, there’s really no shortcut to these, you just need to spend a quick moment reading over them. There’s a description of all of them on the PRD.

Putting It All Together

Okay, so now we have a quick description of all the class features, what should your plan for prepping the NPC look like?

  • Make a note of the maximum burn the kineticist can accept as well as how many they can accept per round.
  • Look over the kineticist’s defense & utility wild talents. Make note of any effects that aren’t just increasing numbers.
  • Figure out how much burn the kineticist is spending precombat (if this isn’t already dictated to you). A good general rule is that the kineticist can spend two to three points precombat before they need to start worrying about having enough burn in combat and enough hit points remaining to not be a glass cannon during combat.
  • Double check to see if the blast’s attack and damage numbers include elemental overflow or not.
  • Make a note of which kinds of blasts the kineticist has available to them.
  • Make a note of each of the effects that the kineticist has that affects their blast and their burn cost/burn reduction. If you’re having trouble organizing yourself, feel free to download this cheat sheet to help! (docx, pdf)

There you go! You’ve prepped the kineticist! On the kineticist’s turn, pick the blast and infusions you want to use, make sure that it fits in the max burn per round, and fire away!

Example of Prep

For some people, that explanation was enough. But for others, an example is necessary. So let’s give one.

This example will use the statblock of Elsbeth Higgenstrom, linked so you can have two windows open.

Our first step for prepping is to find the max burn total and max burn she can accept per round. This is written at the bottom under SQ and we can fill out the top boxes on our cheat sheet. (8 max, 3 per round)

Next let’s look at the defense & utility talents:

  • Enveloping Winds gives a miss chance to ranged weapon attacks, and if she spends a burn it also applies to non-physical ranged attacks. Make a note next to the defenses section on the statblock or off to the side - wherever you would make a note if an NPC prebuffs with an entropic shield.
  • Aerial Evasion is evasion, but it does require that the kineticist accept a point of burn to benefit from it for the day. This will come up in the next step.
  • Air Cushion is a constant feather fall. You should have an idea of whether or not this is relevant to the encounter beforehand, although it may be relevant if anyone decides to pull out a spell from the create pit line.
  • Air Shroud is a constant air bubble. Either this is relevant to the encounter from the start or it isn’t. It certainly can explain why Elsbeth is underwater if the encounter is underwater.
  • Basic Aerokinesis is a bunch of cantrip-like effects. Cool, but about as relevant as cantrips usually are.
  • Greater Air Shroud is a constant life bubble. This is a bit more relevant. Despite the fact that it’s not in defensive abilities, this is worth a note on the stat block to make sure that you remember it.
  • Wings of Air is a constant fly spell. That seems to be accounted for in the fly speed that’s already there, so no need to do anything else.

Cool, so after a little bit of looking stuff up, it looks like Elsbeth has a couple constant spells up, and most of her utility wild talents are there for defensive buffs. Make some notes so that you remember them, and you should be good for these talents.

Next is to figure out how much burn the kineticist is accepting precombat. If the stat block has already done this, then it will be in the Before Combat line of the Tactics section, the same place where you would find precombat buffs. Elsbeth’s stat block does in fact include this already, so we can skip this step. (Most prewritten statblocks will already include this step, but this is there on the occasion that they didn’t decide to do include this information.)

Next up is to double check that the attack and damage numbers include elemental overflow. The Before Combat section of Elsbeth implies that it is included, and the Base Statistics section including attack and damage values of the blasts certainly imply that they are already calculated in, but it’s worth checking the math real fast. The easiest place to check is going to be the attack bonus because that is consistent between all the blasts.

Looking at Elsbeth’s stat block, we see that she has taken 3 points of burn, so her elemental overflow should be at +3/+6. Her attack bonus is +7 BAB, +4 Dex +3 elemental overflow for +14, which matches with the attack bonuses that we are given, so we are good here.

Next up is the kinetic blasts. Thanks to expanded element, it seems that Elsbeth has three different types of blasts - air is a basic physical blast, blizzard is a composite physical blast, and cold is a basic energy blast. Make a note of each of them on the cheat sheet at the top so they’re easy to find. Include the attack lines in the notes so that you only have to reference one sheet when blasting.

Now we just need to list all the items that can affect a kinetic blast. Fortunately we can use the headers of the previous sections as a checklist.

  • Infusions
  • Cyclone - This is a form infusion that changes the blast from a single target to an area of effect around Elsbeth. Do yourself a favor now and calculate the DC in the notes. (Form infusion, so 10 + ½ level + Dex mod) Also make a note of which blasts it does and doesn’t work with.
  • Extended Range - This is a form infusion that increases the range to 120 ft. This is a pretty common infusion since it makes the kineticist into a long range combatant. Make a note about it and move on.
  • Gusting Infusion - This allows her blast to act as a gust of wind. Not super relevant unless there’s fog clouds that start showing up. That’s cool, although the 1 round ability is most likely not going to come up. Make a note about it and move on.
  • Pushing Infusion - This allows her to bull rush the target if they were hit by the blast. Once again, do yourself the favor and calculate the math now. +7 BAB +5 Con + 3 Elemental Overflow = +15 CMB. Also make sure to note the restriction on distance and which blasts can use it.
  • Metakinesis
  • Empower - This is your major oomph damage ability.
  • Maximize - You can include it for completion, but maximize is still not that great of an ability. If you ever think about using it, just use empower instead.
  • Gather Power
  • Make a note of this ability, especially since this is the equivalent of a kineticist “full attacking.” No one will blame you if you leave off the full-round option.
  • Supercharge
  • Elsbeth isn’t 11th level, so she doesn’t have this ability.
  • Infusion Specialization
  • Elsbeth gets a -2 at 10th level, so write it down! (It’s pretty much the only reason you can use Cyclone.) Make sure to write that it only works for infusions. Sure, you’ll be the one reading this, but you have the room and it’ll help you remember in the heat of combat.
  • Internal Buffer
  • At 10th level, Elsbeth has one point of burn in her internal buffer. Make a note about it on the sheet.
  • Composite Specialization
  • Elsbeth isn’t 16th level, so she doesn’t have this ability.
  • Metakinetic Master
  • Elsbeth isn’t 19th level, so she doesn’t have this ability.

Once you have written all this down, you now have a complete cheat sheet for everything that can possibly affect a blast. Now in play, all you have to do is go down the sheet, pick the abilities you want to use, calculate the cost, and blast away!

A copy of Elsbeth’s filled out sheet is linked here for your convenience. (docx, pdf)


Backmatter

This guide was created by Jen McTeague. You can find her at her website or on Twitter as @mersiamnot.

If you wish to talk about this guide or leave feedback, you can visit its Paizo thread for discussion.

For additional reading or a more player-focused guide to the kineticist, check out N. Jolly's Guide to the Kineticist