Kineticist?

[Lolzords]

In the expanded psionics book (I think) theres a class called Kineticist. Is that anything like I think it is; a Gambit-esque character charging small objects and flinging them at the enemy?

[Faleldir]

No, it's an energy damage specialist. It's very effective for blasters; taking it all the way gives you a 10d6 hadoken at will, but you need power points to make full use of other class features. You'll probably want to choose a different energy type (XPH web enhancement) because most high-level monsters are immune to fire.

EDIT: Yes, I know he said "kineticist", not "pyrokineticist". In earlier editions, Kineticist was a separate class. Look here (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040625e) for what I thought he wanted.

[Lolzords]

No, it's an energy damage specialist. It's very effective for blasters; taking it all the way gives you a 10d6 hadoken at will, but you need power points to make full use of other class features. You'll probably want to choose a different energy type (XPH web enhancement) because most high-level monsters are immune to fire.

Ah, fair enough then. I was playing through my old x-men games and was playing as Gambit when I wondered what it would be like to play as someone who charges a deck of cards and lobs them in dnd. Thanks for your help.

[kamikasei]

Not exactly.

There's no "kineticist" class. "Kineticist" is a name for one of the disciplines (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicPowersOverview.htm#disciplineSubdiscipline) of psion. Or more precisely, one of psionics' six disciplines is "psychokinesis", and psions are required to specialize (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/classes/psion.htm#discipline) in one discipline, so psions who specialize in psychokinesis are "kineticists" in the way that wizards specializing in evocation are "evokers" (though the names of the disciplines and of their followers are less obviously matched for others - e.g. those who practice "psychoportation" are "nomads", those who practice "clairsentience" are "seers").

Then there's the pyrokineticist class, which is basically about manipulating fire.

Kineticists, or "psion (kineticist)" as they're sometimes called, have a variety of exclusive powers (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powerList.htm#kineticistPsychokinesisDisciplinePow ers) focusing around movement and energy. They do, in fact, have telekinetic abilities as well as powers that animate objects and strong energy-based attacks.

However, you can play a psion with telekinetic attacks without being a kineticist, and they're more often played as flexible blasters than as controllers of movement.

For something Gambit-like, I'd probably refluff crystal shard (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/crystalShard.htm) for the cards and use a variety of powers and feats to infuse weapon attacks with extra damage.

[Lycanthromancer]

Faleldir was thinking of the pyrokineticist; it's all about fire, fire, fire.

Kamikasei's explanation of the kineticist psion was spot-on.

Also, along with crystal shard, you might want to try a few other crystal-based powers, such as hail of crystals (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/hailofCrystals.htm) and swarm of crystals, (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/swarmofCrystals.htm) both of which can easily be reflavored to charging an object with energy and having it explode in certain ways.

If you want to specialize in crystals (and metacreativity powers in general), check out the shaper psion, (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/classes/psion.htm) and his power list (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powerList.htm#shaperMetacreativityDisciplinePowers ).

They make surprisingly good theify-types, if you do things right (though you'll want an astral construct (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/astralConstruct.htm) to find/disable traps...

[Human Paragon 3]

I'm not sure crystal shard is the best bet on this one, since it is piercing damage and Gambit's cards explode. The regular energy blast powers reflavored to throwing exploding stuff would be better IMO.

Alternately, and I know I'm going to set of a firestorm by saying so, soul knife gives you infinite thrown "energy blasts" which you can fluff into anything you like, and even make them explode through various enhancements (like flaming burst). Being a Kalashtar, taking Hidden Talent instead of Wild Talent, multiclassing (with other psionic classes), and going into Soul Bow (Complete Psionic) significantly mitigates the suck factor of soul knife.