Sample Builds
To the Kineticist's credit, there are a great number of character concepts that can be made within the class. Below are a few sample classes that I've whipped up in order to take a crack at the class' wide-ranging versatility.
For the most part, pretty much all Kineticists have the same wants and needs in terms of feats. There are precious few Kineticist-specific feats, and even fewer of those are actually any good. Unless a feat is vital to the progression of a specific build, feats are generally left to your own discretion. Feats that are good on any character (Improved Initiative, Leadership, etc) are good on the Kineticist as well.
Snow Queen: I’ve done a lot of complaining about the Kineticist’s shortcomings in this guide, I really should just let it go. Although I use my favored energy type of Cold for this build, you can tweak it to use any energy-centric Kineticist.
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1st) Element: Water (Cold). Infusion: Extended Range.
2nd) Utility Talent: Slick
3rd) Infusion: Draining Infusion
4th) Utility Talent: Icewalker
5th) Infusion: Entangling Infusion
6th) Utility Talent: Veil of Mists
7th) Expanded Element: Air. Feat: Extra Wild Talent (Air Cushion)
8th) Utility Talent: Elemental Grip
9th) Infusion: Torrent
10th) Utility Talent: Wings of Air
11th) Infusion: Staggering Infusion
12th) Utility Talent: Celerity
13th) Infusion: Wall
14th) Utility Talent: Suffocate
15th) Expanded Element: Water. Bonus Talent: Shimmering Mirage
16th) Utility Talent: Reverse Shift
17th) Infusion: Impale
18th) Utility Talent: Tidal Wave
19th) Infusion: Flurry of Blasts
20th) Utility Talent: Wind Manipulator
The Mountain: The Mountain is the physical equivalent to the Snow Queen, focusing on dealing damage with physical blasts. While I use earth as the example here, it can be roughly replaced with any other physical element (easier, too, in the long run, since almost every single composite blast is physical.) This particular build shows to stretch how far a Kineticist can go when confined to a single element.
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1st) Element: Earth. Infusion: Extended Range
2nd) Utility: Kinetic Cover
3rd) Infusion: Kinetic Blade
4th) Utility: Earth Climb
5th) Infusion: Entangling Infusion
6th) Utility: Tremorsense
7th) Expanded Element: Earth. Bonus Talent: Rare-Earth Infusion
8th) Utility: Shift Earth
9th) Infusion: Impale
10th) Utility: Earth Glide
11th) Infusion: Kinetic Whip
12th) Utility: Stone Sculpt
13th) Infusion: Deadly Earth
14th) Utility: Shift Earth (Greater)
15th) Expanded Element: Bonus Talent: Earth Walk
16th) Utility: Reverse Shift
17th) Infusion: Wall
18th) Utility: Seismic Master
19th) Infusion: Whatever*
20th) Utility: Whatever*
At this point, you already have the best toys from your element, so feel free to pick up anything that looks interesting in your final two slots. Besides, Omnikinesis makes these choices pretty irrelevant in the long run.
El Fuego Fuerte: Like I said, I really want to find a way to make this build work. El Fuego Fuerte uses his mighty muscles and literally burning passion to hold his enemies to the ground as they burn to cinders in El Fuego’s crushing grip. I never said this build would be good, but it will be interesting. At the very least, it's something that no enemy will see coming.
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1st) Element: Fire. Infusion: Kinetic Fist. Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved Grapple
2nd) Utility Talent: Ask you GM if Fire’s Fury can apply to Searing Flesh. If not, just pick up Fire Sculptor.
3rd) Infusion: Burning Infusion. Feat: Snapping Turtle Style.
4th) Utility Talent: Cold Adaptation
5th) Infusion: Searing Flame. Feat: Snapping Turtle Clutch. Equipment: Gauntlets of the Skilled Maneuver.
6th) Utility Talent: Flame Jet
7th) Expanded Element: Air. Feat: Extra Wild Talent (Air Cushion)
8th) Utility Talent: Smoke Storm. Equipment: Shirt of Immolation
9th) Infusion: Eruption. Feat: Greater Grapple. Equipment: Champion’s Wrestling Mask*
10th) Utility Talent: Wings of Air.
11th) Infusion: Unraveling Infusion
12th) Utility Talent: Kinetic Form
13th) Infusion: Explosion
14th) Utility Talent: Celerity
15th) Expanded Element: Telekinesis.
16th) Utility Talent: Flame Shield
17th) Infusion: Force Hook
18th) Utility Talent: From the Ashes
19th) Infusion: Disintegrating Infusion
20th) Utility Talent: Reverse Shift
*Champion’s Wrestling Mast: This magic item doesn’t actually exist; it’s an extrapolation on the custom magic item creation rules. The Mask is basically just a head slot magic item of continuous use lockjaw spell, which grants the beneficiary the grab ability on one natural attack of the caster’s choice, along with the +4 untyped grapple bonus that the grab ability provides. While it’s certainly within the rules, be sure to work with your DM regarding this item’s availability. If your DM doesn’t allow it, look into the Anaconda Coils Belt and the Final Embrace feat to create a similar effect.
The Dresden: This build focuses around using a Conductive Firearm to add some punch (and accuracy) to your Kinetic Blasts. In this case, we’ll be using a Half-Elf as an example, taking his human mother’s Alkenstar-born know-how with guns and mixing it with his Elven father’s proficiency with magic to bring the Arcane Archer concept into the next century. Since I nicknamed this build “The Dresden,” we’ll be sticking to Fire and Air as primary elements. You can swap out any other type of energy, so long as you stick to energy attacks (since you need the touch attack element once you’ve got your weapon). Be warned, this build takes a few levels to come online. If you’re in a hurry, you can dip a level of Gunslinger to gain access to the blunderbuss early.
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Race: Half-Elf. Racial Trait: Ancestral Weapon (Blunderbuss).
1st) Element: Fire. Infusion: Burning Infusion. Feat: Rapid Reload
2nd) Utility: Fire Sculptor
3rd) Infusion: Extended Range. Feat: Gunsmithing
4th) Utility: Heat Adaptation
5th) Infusion: Searing Flame. Feat: Craft Magic Arms and Armor
6th) Utility: Flame Jet
7th) Expanded Element: Fire. Bonus Talent: Smoke Storm
8th) Utility: Fire Sight
9th) Infusion: Torrent
10th) Utility: Flame Jet (Greater)
11th) Infusion: Unraveling Infusion
12th) Utility: Trail of Flames
13th) Infusion: Wall
14th) Utility: Flame Shield
15th) Expanded Element: Air
16th) Utility: Celerity
17th) Infusion: Explosion
18th) Utility: From the Ashes
19th) Infusion: Chain
20th) Utility: Wind Manipulator
The Jedi: This build is mostly for fun, and because I want to move the class as a whole away from the constant “It’s the class for Element Benders!” appearance. This build uses Kinetic Blasts as more of a flourish on top of your normal melee attacks. Don’t forget to enchant your sword with Brilliant Energy! (Or get a Sun Blade or a Null Blade.) For bonus fun, you could switch out Ancestral Weapon (Bastard Sword) for Ancestral Weapon (Two-Bladed Sword) if you want a more “Darth Maul” style fighter. (The Author of this guide takes no responsibility for such a character being as bad, if not worse, than the Star Wars prequels.)
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Race: Half-Elf. Racial Trait: Ancestral Weapon (Bastard Sword)
1st) Element: Telekinesis. Infusion: Pushing Infusion. Feat: Weapon Focus (Bastard Sword)
2nd) Utility: Telekinetic Finesse
3rd) Infusion: Kinetic Blade
4th) Utility: Telekinetic Haul
5th) Infusion: Extended Range
6th) Utility: Self Telekinesis/ Touchsight
7th) Expanded Element: Air (Electricity) Feat: Extra Talent: Air’s Leap
8th) Utility: Telekinetic Maneuvers
9th) Infusion: Foe Throw
10th) Utility: Touchsight (Greater)*
11th) Infusion: Wall. Feat (Extra Talent: Self Telekinesis (Greater)/Wings of Air*)
12th) Utility: Suffocate
13th) Infusion: Chain
14th) Utility: Celerity
15th) Expanded Element: Aether. Bonus Talent: Force Barrier
16th) Utility: Telekinetic Deflection
17th) Infusion: Manythrow
18th) Utility: Reverse Shift
19th) Infusion: Disintegrating Infusion
20th) Utility: Spell Deflection
*With this particular combination of elements, 10th level offers a huge supply of choices, considering that almost every single Blue-rated power from both Aether and Air come online at the same time here. You can mess around with the order as much as you want, as there is some overlap here, and you will have plenty of time to play around, considering that the last few levels for both Telekineticists and Aerokineticists are rather barren.