Quote Originally Posted by KillianHawkeye View Post
No 3rd party fixes, just base pyrokineticist from levels 1 to 6 or 7. Other party members were Rogue (might've multiclassed Ranger), fire Sorcerer, controller Wizard, Monk, Paladin. Also had a Barbarian for a little while, but the player could no longer make it.
Right. Well, there's three reasons why kinny performs so poorly, and they tend not to apply at low level - at least no tyet.

The first is magic weapons. These are a large damage boost for martial characters, and don't really exist for the kinny. Of course, a low-level character won't have one yet; but around level 6 you'll probably start finding (or buying or crafting) things like a Keen or Flaming sword.

The second is party buffs. Things like bard song, Prayer, and Haste are massive damage boosts for martial characters, and basically don't do anything for kinny. Doesn't make such a big difference at low level, and some parties just don't buff much.

The third is resistance. At mid-level, a ton of monsters have elemental resistance or immunity (this is particularly common for fire). Kinny lacks a way to deal with that; whereas a sorc or wiz can easily pick up a non-blasting spell. This is campaign-dependent, of course.

(which means tip for the OP: throw in some custom magic items that boost kinny damage, and houserule that standard party buffs actually help them; e.g. giving them an extra attack with Haste shouldn't be a big deal)