Kineticist healing as primary HP renewal, is it viable?

[Elxir_Breauer]

As the title asks, I was wondering if the Kineticist (from the Occult Adventures Playtest) is viable as an HP battery, primarily out of combat. I'm going to be joining a 3rd level game being run in the World's Largest Dungeon (yes I know that's technically 3.0-ish, we're updating it as we go), and nobody else in the group likes to play the healer (and yes, we NEED one with our varying degrees of opti-fu and playstyle). Any thoughts on it as a character that should be able to keep going through pretty much any situation, barring full-scale AMFs and the like? The two choices of element would be either Hydrokineticist (Water) or Telekineticist (Aether), but their overall utility seem a bit weaker than a Warlock (3.5, Complete Arcane) at first glance.

[NightbringerGGZ]

Remember that the full class materials aren't out yet, we just have the beta version of the class.

Kinetic Healer isn't bad, it heals for your Blast damage and can be used at will. I think the rules are somewhat poorly written though, as they imply that somebody has to to take burn damage but don't state that the burn damage can't be reduced by the various means you have of reducing burn.

So right now, this is spamable touch range healing that matches your damage output. That's a pretty good ability in my mind. You're also free to expand into some of the more damage dealing abilities at level 7.

[meemaas]

Actually. The developers specified that you can't use the move action burn reduction on kinetic healer fairly early into the playtest.

[NightbringerGGZ]

Actually. The developers specified that you can't use the move action burn reduction on kinetic healer fairly early into the playtest.

Pretty sure that was their intent with the rule, but the RAW doesn't state that at all. If this ruling makes it to the print book then every time you heal somebody their effective health goes down. This makes the ability much less useful and the healing capabilities of the class quite poor.

[master4sword]

Pretty sure that was their intent with the rule, but the RAW doesn't state that at all. If this ruling makes it to the print book then every time you heal somebody their effective health goes down. This makes the ability much less useful and the healing capabilities of the class quite poor.

They didn't release a revised playtest document mid-playtest, but it was mentioned on the feedback forum very early in the playtest that a word got dropped by accident from the PDF, so if you're going to run the playtest version of the class you may as well use the errata they issued so that you can at least be used to how it's "supposed" to run and won't have to change how you do things when its released.

That said, at 3rd level, you're healing 2d6+2+Con mod HP and dealing 3 nonlethal. Even with 10 Con and minimum rolls, you're doing 3 nonlethal that won't heal until the next day to recover 4+ hp, averaging a net gain of 6+Con HP per use. Not unlimited, but not useless either.

[Elxir_Breauer]

Ah, I hadn't checked the feedback forum yet. That is disappointing, but still useful, I'd just have to make sure the Burn is on me for the first couple heals per day. Not being able to use the reduction for a move action on the heal really hurts in the long term, but iirc the Burn all heals when you rest for the night, so it's not like it'll be building and building as you go, day after day. If I read it correctly, and they didn't change it in the forum, I could accept the Burn, or ask them to do so, either way somebody's taking 3 Nonlethal that won't heal til after resting for the night. Knowing the rest of the group, I don't see having a few Nonlethal damage as being a major issue unless we burn through entirely too much HP in a given day. There is always the option of UMD for wands, scrolls and the like as well, with it being a Class Skill for me, so that's always useful.

[Elxir_Breauer]

In case anyone is wondering, this is the character i'd most likely be running:

Hobgoblin Hydrokineticist 3
Str: 10
Dex: 18
Con: 19
Int: 13
Wis: 12
Cha: 10

Traits: Pragmatic Activator (Magic, Use Int instead of Cha for UMD), Scholar of the Great Beyond (+1 Trait bonus to Knowledge (History) and Knowledge (Planes), pick one as a class skill [chose Planes])
Feats: Point Blank shot, Precise Shot (unknown at this time if Flaws will be allowed)

Skills (only the ones with at least a rank) : Heal +7, Knowledge (Nature) +5, Knowledge (Planes) +6, Perception +5, Stealth +12, Swim +4, UMD +7

My only two magic items right now are a Shield Cloak +1 and an Everburning Torch (which i can wrap something around to hide the light from if necessary)

My Wild Talents so far are: Kinetic Healing and Kinetic Cover (could swap Kinetic Cover for Slick if that seems better)

Any thoughts on this? Also relying on my Dex and the Armor version of my defense ability bringin my AC to 18 before activating my Shield Cloak (20 after).