[3.5] Kineticist

[goken04]

Anyone have any tips for optimizing a kineticist? I can't seem to find any handbooks that are too helpful.

[Flickerdart]

Optimizing to do what? Blast? Make coffee? Basketweaving?

[AstralFire]

Optimizing to do what? Blast? Make coffee? Basketweaving?

Kineticists... do things... besides blasting?

[lsfreak]

Kineticists... do things... besides blasting?

Celebratory fireworks?

[AstralFire]

Celebratory fireworks?

In the opponent's face.

Shoving them dozens of feet away.

mmmm.

Kineticists.

[Admiral Squish]

Honestly, just take everything in the energy line and mind thrust, then get talented, overchannel, psicrystal containment, empower/maximise/enlarge power... Human or whatever other int-boosting race you can get. Human helps get all the feats, but is not neccessary.

[alisbin]

i'm gonna assume you want super blast?
uh, energy missile is awesome? unlike all (i think, maybe i missed one) other energy powers it gains both DC and damage dice on a 1 for 1 power points spent basis, so a 20th level psion can do a 20d6 energy missile with a DC of 30+ int bonus AND you can use cold if your fighting someone with improved evasion to negate it. plus it can hit up to 5 people in a 15' area.
get energy ray for super save creatures.
get the feat that lets you regain psionic focus as a move action and pick a metapsionic feat or 2 to abuse (i like chain, maximize, empower and quicken). if you have access to Hyperconscious get narrow mind and permanent focus for quicken power and one other to taste.
heck if your going pure psion you might have enough feats available at 20 to have 3 or 4 metapsionic powers available without expending your psionic focus.

[Starbuck_II]

For items:
Torc of power Preservation (4K version in MIC)
Surge Crystal (18K ,MIC) unless you overchannel alot.

[AstralFire]

Ectoplasmic Cocoon, Crystal Shard, and Tornado Blast are decent SR: No blaster choices as well. And Astral Construct never hurt anyone.

[alisbin]

actually, i'm fairly sure astral constructs OFTEN hurt people :)

[NEO|Phyte]

Hardly optimal, but I'm fond of taking Improved Psicrystal for all my feats until my psicrystal gets Channel Power. Nothing like blasting from a mile away.

[goken04]

Any good PrCs to consider? I'm starting at level one. Is psicrystal affinity a waste of a feat?

[Dusk Eclipse]

Any good PrCs to consider? I'm starting at level one. Is psicrystal affinity a waste of a feat?

Prestige Class: hmm Anarchic Initiate (CPsi) may be a good option

and I believe the general consensus in the board is that psycrystal affinity IS worthwile

[Pluto]

uh, energy missile is awesome? unlike all (i think, maybe i missed one) other energy powers it gains both DC and damage dice on a 1 for 1 power points spent basis

Energy Stun!

...Unless you use the Complete Psionic Errata. In which case Energy Missile gets nerfed too, iirc.

^Psicrystal Affinity is awesome. Especially with Psicrystal Containment. (Metapsionics are a blaster's best friends)
Kineticists can do especially neat things with Crystal-Channeled Control Body.

And if you're looking for a guide, carnivore's doesn't go into especially great depth on kineticists, but it isn't bad.

[Optimystik]

If all you're going to do is blast, I'd go with Wilder over Kineticist. Erudites also make very skilled blasters, and have the feats to grab Overchannel and Talented at first level without even being human.

[Draz74]

Actually, IMHO the #1 tip for optimizing a Kineticist is: remember that it can do powerful things besides blasting! You don't need every Energy ___ blasting power, but you probably should take every non-blasting power on the Kineticist list.

and I believe the general consensus in the board is that psycrystal affinity IS very, very worthwile

Fixed that for you.

For just one (Kineticist-appropriate) example of the Psicrystal's awesome power, consider sharing Energy Conversion with it, letting it "take" lots of energy damage (perhaps by including it in your blasting powers), and suddenly you're two blasters instead of one.

EDIT: Heh, yeah, I forgot the Psicrystal Containment/Control Body combo.

[AstralFire]

And if you go Wilder, go Elan, so you can get the feat that lets you resist a Psychic Enervation stun with a will save.

There's also my Wilder fix as an ACF with Spellfire fluff.

[Draz74]

And if you go Wilder, go Elan, so you can get the feat that lets you resist a Psychic Enervation stun with a will save.

I'm not familiar with that one. But it better be awesome if it's going to make up for the Elan's sad, sad Charisma penalty.

[AstralFire]

I'm not familiar with that one. But it better be awesome if it's going to make up for the Elan's sad, sad Charisma penalty.

Urgh. I forgot about the Elan's Cha penalty, I usually houserule it away.

I want to say the feat's in the book about aberrations, lets you make a Will Save to resist any stun, you can make it reliably at high levels.

[Pluto]

I want to say the feat's in the book about aberrations, lets you make a Will Save to resist any stun, you can make it reliably at high levels.

The good news is that Quick Recovery doesn't have any prerequisites - racial or otherwise.

[AstralFire]

The good news is that Quick Recovery doesn't have any prerequisites - racial or otherwise.

Are you sure? I thought it required Aberrations. (Can you tell it has been 3 years since I played 3.5?)

[deuxhero]

Get the abilityt hat let's you burn things to death. The instant death is usable on anything, unlike your normal abilities.

[Lycanthromancer]

Get a psicrystal. Psicrystals are awesome in a can.

Then get lots of metapsionic feats (you can use the spell-like ability feats in the Monster Manual on psionic powers, RAW, and they don't require the expenditure of focus OR augmentation to work!), give your psicrystal lots of psionic feats, and make sure to take either EK: psionic minor creation, EK: metamorphosis or EK: astral construct for utility and damage (hp- or ability-) when you need to conserve your power points.

Take pretty much every non-blasty power the kineticist has to offer.

Then get energy missile (if it hasn't been nerfed; if it has, it may or may not be worth taking), one blasty large-AoE save-or-damage power, a few save-or-suck (or touch attack and suck) powers (energy stun, ectoplasmic cocoon, entangling ectoplasm, psionic grease), a couple of blasty duration powers (energy conversion and energy current are perennial favorites), co-opt concentration or solicit psicrystal for messing with enemy casters and using on your own powers, some battlefield control (psionic grease, control air, astral construct, wall of ectoplasm, energy wall, and such), and finally, see if you can squeeze fate link in there, to double up on your damage. Round the rest out with defensive powers (vigor, inertial armor, and share pain) and anything else you feel like tossing on.

Kineticists are pretty sweet, but don't take EVERY energy power you can get your hands on. Covering touch AC, AoE saves, save-or-sucks, and duration powers should more than cover it, really.

Get the abilityt hat let's you burn things to death. The instant death is usable on anything, unlike your normal abilities.

I think you mean pyrokineticist. That's a PrC, and not a very good one.

It's certainly not good for kineticists, given it doesn't advance manifester level. At all.

[Optimystik]

Are you sure? I thought it required Aberrations. (Can you tell it has been 3 years since I played 3.5?)

Even if it did, the obvious choice there would be Synad, as they have no Cha penalty.

But Quick Recovery does not prevent a daze/stun - the new save occurs when you begin your next turn, so the PP loss to Enervation would still apply and you would still lose the rest of your turn after enervating. A nice trick is to go Sanctified Mind - Partition Mind lets you take a standard even while stunned, so you only have the PP loss to worry about, and a feat cuts that in half.

I think you mean pyrokineticist. That's a PrC, and not a very good one.

It's certainly not good for kineticists, given it doesn't advance manifester level. At all.

While it is indeed no good for Kineticists, it's awesome for non-manifesting melee classes. All you really need to get in is a PP reserve (read: psionic race), and Heat Death is an awesome ability. A spammable save-or-die? Yes please

[Draz74]

(you can use the spell-like ability feats in the Monster Manual on psionic powers, RAW, and they don't require the expenditure of focus OR augmentation to work!),

Wuh? This is a new piece of rules-lawyering trickery to me. How does it work?

[tyckspoon]

Wuh? This is a new piece of rules-lawyering trickery to me. How does it work?

I too would like to know, seeing as how psionic powers are.. you know, not in any way spell-like abilities, with the exception of situations where you aren't actually *using* psionics, when they replace psionic powers/psi-like abilities with similar spell-likes.

[Lycanthromancer]

Wuh? This is a new piece of rules-lawyering trickery to me. How does it work?

First, this quote (from here):

Psi-Like Abilities (Ps)
The manifestation of powers by a psionic character is considered a psi-like ability, as is the manifestation of powers by creatures without a psionic class (creatures with the psionic subtype, also simply called psionic creatures). Usually, a psionic creature’s psi-like ability works just like the power of that name. A few psi-like abilities are unique; these are explained in the text where they are described.

Add to that this:

Psi-Like Abilities And Feats
Creatures with access to psi-like abilities can use the feats Empower Spell-Like Ability and Quicken Spell-Like Ability.

These feats can be used only on psi-like abilities that do not have increased effects due to augmentation. Furthermore, the creature can empower only a psi-like ability with a level less than or equal to half its manifester level (round down) minus 2, and can quicken only a psi-like ability with a level less than or equal to half its manifester level (round down) minus 4.

It's a bit restrictive, but doable. So either Empower a non-augmented power, or Quicken a non-augmented power. Note that due to the wording, the power CAN be augmentable, but it's fine so long as it's not actually augmented.

[AstralFire]

Lycanthromancer, you scare me.

I'm not entirely sure if this is in a good way or not.

[Lycanthromancer]

Lycanthromancer, you scare me.

I'm not entirely sure if this is in a good way or not.

Fear or respect, whatever works.

[tyckspoon]

Note that due to the wording, the power CAN be augmentable, but it's fine so long as it's not actually augmented.

So between the Power Level restriction and the augmentation restriction.. how many powers are left that are worth using that on?

Incidentally, if you're going to claim that powers are psi-like abilities, it would seem to follow that everything you do is freely augmented to the max all the time. Which completely explodes the whole idea of the psionics system... and can you choose not to actually augment a power, even if power points are 'spent' on it as they are in the free augmenting of a psi-like ability? Just burn (manifester level) power points to no actual end?