Kineticists of Porphyra II

So when is the print version of the book coming out?

Hey all, designer here. Sharing some more thoughts about the design behind the material in this book. I'm one kineticist doc wiser and that helped a lot with all of this. But let's start at the beginning, the second best place to begin. As a note, all content in this book will be reviewed in "Mastering the Elements: N. Jolly's guide to the Pathfinder Kineticist"

Divine Conduit
Not my name, but a MUCH better name than what I called it, this came about because someone was talking about hybrid classes with the kineticist and I thought it would be fun to take a hand at it, which was part of why KOP 2 even exist in the first place.

I tried to avoid stepping on the kinetic chirugeon's feet too much, but I think that the feel of a 'holy' kineticist is there. It definitely has some abilities that'll make you feel like your respective deity has the wheel, but it's close enough to the original kineticist where it works. It's also great for elements with a poor elemental defense....See more />
Thankfully it's not just LG but any G and no code of conduct (I debated this, but decided against it because paladin code already causes enough problems), and amusingly this was going to be light only when it was first made, but I was advised against that because it was 'dumb.' Looking back, it was dumb.

Dragon Pact Kineticist
Flavorwise, I am literally in love with this archetype. Like no joke, it's probably my favorite archetype I've ever written (sorry, Kinetic Duelist), and it's just BEGGING for GM involvement to help keep things rolling. I think it's probably the most fun on either side of the table, and it'll probably be my next character.

The idea of making a pact with a dragon isn't exactly new, but the dragon's involvement can be so mutable that it really helps things along. The archetype itself has a lot of dynamics to help it out, and being able to get your own 'breath weapon' (which is NOT a breath weapon in game terms, Onyx) makes for a seriously hardcore kineticist.

Going physical is fun too, although I'm a 'respirokineticist' (yes, I do still use that phrase) fan myself, and neither side feels like it's missing anything. The choice of going core dragons only was difficult, but it made sense in the end, and the option to use other dragons is there (I might do a post on it later), making for quite the varied experience

Familiar Bound Kineticist
If the name changes, it's the archetype with a familiar. This probably ended up taking the space of like 3 other archetypes, and was originally void only until (see divine conduit), when it was changed to be universal. Universal is better though since it doesn't need to have strong dies, and void is half gravity anyways.

I almost feel like this one is a bit too overstuffed, but the familiar plus hexes are pretty balanced overall, and I think this is the first one where I started taking Mort's advice about 1 expanded element to balance things out. As an aside, I would literally add hexes to any class to make it better.

Fusion Kineticist
This is probably the most tame of the archetypes, something that feels like it could have been in KOP 1 as a 'grid filler' archetype. I don't even argue that, this is an archetype that is very basic in concept, but I think also fun as well. It's something people 'need' as a concept, and in that sense, I'm happy with how it turned out.

I'll admit this is probably going to be changed a bit to help make it a little more interesting, but as it is, it's still serviceable for people who are looking to start the game with 2 elements but also aren't looking to be an avatar.

Poison
This was the only original element slated for this book (the original scope of this book was half the size of KOP 1...HA!) Poison for me has always been close to being useful, but it's just not there yet. There's always problems with it such as straight up immunity, cost, and other things.

I wanted to make an element that got past all of that stuff, and I feel like I did it with poison. You've got utilities that help avoid the cost (burn's a nice mechanic to help 'pay' for them), infusions that'll negate immunity (which makes mid to late game poisoning actually viable), and a bunch of poison like abilities to help with the dispersal and application of poison.

I am slightly sad that poison didn't get more attention, but all of that was stolen by it's younger sibling. Still, there's enough infusions (poison is great for debuff, obv) that'll make it shine. It's funny, each of the KOP elements had their own thing (light=illusion, sound=team player, time=single target debuff), while poison is more of a multi target debuffer.

Viscera
Ah, the element that shouldn't be. There's a lot of things that I really like about this element, and it has a theme too. That theme, as stated by Mort (who helped immensely on this project) was "make kinetic fist useful." In less sarcastic terms, viscera is the natural attacking element. With a wild talent that'll let you grow natural weapons from 1st level, viscera is really intended to be a visceral element. (PUN!)

It seriously started taking up so much page count, it was like a living thing. I seriously just kept having ideas for it, but there was a few things I tried to avoid with viscera; nothing to do with blood (that's blood kineticist territory) and nothing to do with the dead (that's void territory), and even with those restrictions it overwhelmed me how much it could do. It's probably my favorite element or at least tied with light for it since there's just so much you can do.

I think even if you avoid the natural attack style, this is still a great element with a LOT of scare value to it. For a less than good character, it's perfect as there's plenty of body horror to it (it borrows from the Alchemist in that respect) and other very unsettling things you can do with it (some of the abilities are rather...graphic), as well as pairing well with the blood kineticist for a truly horrifying kineticist.

Magic items
I can't believe in KOP 1 I said to myself "Nah, no one wants magic items." I was at a loss then, but for this doc I really sat down and nailed some out, and I think the selection is actually pretty nice. There's a lot of 'general kineticist' stuff in here, but there's also quite a bit of things that are unique, like the focusing crown that'll be useful for anyone not using gather power. With how attractive Kinetic Blade/Fist are, it's hard not to want to try them. Also this was the book where I parsed out just about everything that made the kinetic duelist cool, enjoy.

Also for anyone looking to carry a light saber or who wanted to use kinetic blade as a primary attacking style without going kinetic duelist, you are going to LOVE the Kinetic Blademaster Glove (lingering).

Misc
This book contains a lot less 'general' infusions than the last, but it does have a few, as well as giving void an identity which I didn't really help with last time. Well, 'negative' void has an identity, not sure what gravity's doing. The rest of the book has a lot of fun stuff, the feats are still very focused, but I think they work well with everything else.

Also the multiclass feats are seriously going to help out anyone who wanted to dip. Really, I see people talking about wanting to splash kineticist into their builds, so this should really help a lot of folks out.

Conclusion
If you're looking for more kineticist goodness, this is the place to scope it out, as there's enough new content with this and the last book to probably last you until something official comes out. I doubt I'll be doing a third KOP (at least not for a while), as this was the last big batch of my idea sink. Hope you all like it, and catch you when next I get the chance to write something.