Playing as a Blaster-Caster in Pathfinder 2e - the Kineticist and Psychic Classes

[@tbgold07]

Building a kenetist is hard, but playing one is very straight forward. I built one for my son and he is playing it fine at 6yrs old.

[@DGenHero]

That's so cute!

[@LontEnCaras]

In my experience, the psychic does a lot more damage, but the kineticist is more durable, more flexible and doesn't have limited spellslots. Intelligence Psychics have more skills and Charisma Psychics can do charisma things better. Kineticists with con as their key ability aren't exceptionally good at any skill, but can be decent at any.

[@RebelThenKing]

Yeah, being CON based is a bit odd when it comes to skills an exploration.

[@gabrielrockman]

The Air Kineticist in my group probably does about as much damage as my Silent Whisper Psychic, although that might change when I get Shatter Mind at level 6 (we're at level 3 right now, almost at level 4). I'm the best in the party at dealing killing blows though, thanks to Forbidden Thought (works very well on minions who don't do much other than move and attack and have low will saves) and Daze. Daze being non-lethal damage with a 120ft range has come in very handy, as our party loves to question enemies after defeating them in combat. My main attack cantrip is actually Slashing Gust, which I got from my Witch Free Archetype. Having all the knowledge skills has come in very handy in our campaign, so I definitely feel useful out of combat. It helps a lot in combat, too, since our party uses Recall Knowledge pretty effectively. One of the main differences between the Psychic and the Kineticist is that our spell slots are few, but can give some very powerful battle changing options. I haven't used Fear yet because I usually stay more than 30ft away from the most dangerous enemies, and I just use Forbidden Thought when minions get within 30ft of me. But I'm sure it'll come in handy sometime. Although it's competing with the Stupefy spell option as well now. If I can luck into an enemy caster failing its will save against Stupefy, that makes the fight so much easier. I have used Soothe to bring up a downed ally in combat, and I used Blood Vendetta recently to deal a big chunk of bleed damage and give a nice debuff that increased damage for both the Kineticist and me (for our slashing damage). Being able to further customize my Psychic by choosing a thematic occult spell at each level is fun. I think for that reason, I prefer Psychic to Kineticist. Choosing any thematic spell from the Occult spell list (and getting 1 automatically at every odd level, including some really awesome ones like Stupefy, Heroism, and Synaptic Pulse) I think is more fun than customizing my Kineticist just through my feat choices.

[@blaydsong]

I currently have a Grasping Hand Psychic and an Aerokineticist for Pathfinder Society play. Both have very different flavors, but are incredibly fun to play.

[@RebelThenKing]

I think The Distant Grasp is my favorite psychic subclass. Glad to hear you're enjoying it!

[@toodleselnoodos6738]

Wood Kineticist: Wood you move’em closer? Water Kineticist: Water you talking about?!? Air Kineticist: He doesn’t see the air of his ways. Metal Kineticist: I regret the moment I metal of you.

[@superboyok_]

You're on fire! (Wait I don't see fire on here)

[@toodleselnoodos6738]

@@superboyok_ Unearthed puns taken for granite.

[@wiggledixbubsy98]

Down-to-earth ​@@toodleselnoodos6738

[@cinderheart2720]

You're almost at 1k! Get hype!!! Been here since (almost) the beginning.

[@wiggledixbubsy98]

Same!

[@philopharynx7910]

It would be great to play in a party of kineticists. The way each element has specific advantages makes it one of the most versatile classes. So far I've played storm (air/water), and wood. Their everyday damage is closer to a martial, but having at-will areas is amazing. I did play a rogue with psychic and magus archetypes and that ended up fun, but probably unbalanced. Each turn I had one alpha spellstrike where I would get my weapon dice, plus my rune dice, plus sneak attack, plus an amped psi cantrip. Often I'd be able to true strike this. This was usually triple-digit damage. Crits were pretty excessive.

[@MMKTTBOMB]

I'm playing a kineticist in the Extinction Curse AP and its really fun. I had only ever played thaumaturge up until this point and decided we needed more support since our champion was struggling keeping 3 squishies alive. My character concept is just a simple human/dwarf himbo farmer xD I'm specializing in earth, water, and wood and am maxing out con and strength. I took my free archetypes in bastion and wrestler so I am extremely annoying to take out and get away from. My turns at level 7 right now involve starting off combat with Jagged Berms when I can to make it hard for enemies to get good positions on us. Next round I'll set up timber sentinel (40 hp protector tree currently) around the squishes, and then do my best to keep up my stance Winter's Sleet, which gives everyone in my aura the off-guard condition (-2 ac) (taking safe elements is almost mandatory with this class if you want to avoid hurting your allies). Round 3 I'll refresh my tree friend if it's gone, or use Tremor for a juicy 4d10 10ft burst aoe followed up by rechanneling my elements for a free stance activation or elemental blast. Even though I'm doing less damage than my thaumaturge, it's almost comical how we haven't been threatened by even what would technically be a difficult encounter. It's very satisfying having this much control over the battlefield and I'm always excited for the next level. Not to mention the absurd amount of flavor you can spin on any of your abilities, it's a big cherry on top. A+ design!

[@RebelThenKing]

This sounds like my dream. I think Jagged Berms is my favorite thing in the entire Kineticist class and I really love protection style gameplay. Well done!

[@sethb3090]

I'm playing a kineticist and not doing much damage at all. The support and tank abilities are real.

[@toodleselnoodos6738]

Which one are you? My understanding is Fire and Metal are the best at damage early on. Water is the best damage later.

[@sethb3090]

@@toodleselnoodos6738 water/metal but full tank and cc build

[@RebelThenKing]

I do like that support is so good with this class. Sure, you can do damage if you want, but you can also lean way into support.

[@sethb3090]

@@toodleselnoodos6738 playing water/metal. Started Ocean's Balm, Shard Strike, Metal Carapace, then I get difficult terrain options, the nice level 6 wall, more healing etc. AoE defenses at 12 with options to reflow those for CC with Glacial Prison and such. Meanwhile picking up junctions for attack debuffs, resistances etc

[@gabrielrockman]

The Air Kineticist in my group does a pretty good amount of damage just between his Aerial Boomerang and his Elemental Blast. He's been able to hit multiple enemies with the boomerang quite reliably. Our DM hasn't done a good job of making sure that the enemies scatter to avoid being damaged by the recalled boomerang on the following turn, but his rationale is that most of the enemies that we fight aren't smart enough or familiar enough with the Kineticist's boomerang to know about his 1 action recall boomerang ability.

[@gamervox1707]

Fun fact Their was a multi class archetype that combine them both.

[@LontEnCaras]

in pf1 aether was an element for the kineticist which made them a Telekineticist. Doesn't work as well in pf2 though. I have a Kineticist with the psychic dedication, and it's more of a footnote, than the "I can lift tons of stuff with my mind!" that the 1e telekineticist was.

[@gamervox1707]

@@LontEnCaras yes that make sense. They get their power outside of home plane. That is still cool.

[@jonathanbennison9220]

Hello. Thank you. So. I'm watching a bunch of your videos with our game group. Here's my question, posted here on your newest video. Could you make a video, about Shields... Remaster. At our table... The strapped Unstrapped, empty hand, held, Release, interact.... Disarm, unconscious, Its a mess no?

[@justicar5]

Kineticists aren't casters. Well unless you clas Xianxia/Xianhua cultivation as spell casting