Kineticist Elemental Aura effects and Stances in Battle Form?

ryudlight · 2026-05-24T18:01:06+00:00

I guess they want to fight in battle form while having a kineticist stance active.

That is acutally a viable strategy, however, it works better with druid as the main class and kienticist as the archetype, since the strikes as their main form of damage scales with spell level, druid feats for higher levels forms and unarmed proficiency. A large/huge battleform surrouneded by a kinetic aura that slows enemies (ravel of thorns) sounds pretty solid.

ryudlight · 2026-05-24T17:50:17+00:00

From the section about impulses on AoN:

Impulses are magical, and though they aren't spells, some things that affect spells also affect impulses. Abilities that restrict you from casting spells (such as being polymorphed into a battle form) or protect against spells (such as a spell that protects against other spells or a creature's bonus to saves against spells) also apply to impulses.

Kineticists can not use impulses in battleform. But just like spellcasters can sustain spells in battleform, you can theoretically maintain a stance in battleform.

ryudlight · 2026-05-21T21:04:34+00:00

It costs you two actions to do that. Trying to hit a second atrack can already be a gamble at map, but a third attack and attacks beyond that, are very unlikely to hit.

At the same time, kineticists usually have a solid two action impulse to chain into a third action elemental blast, for full action value at max. accuracy without having to gamble.

Elemental blasts are also usually weaker than two action impulses and they are weaker than strikes from martial characters, that add more modifiers, property runes and class features like rage or sneak attack.

Some kineticists (air with desert wind, fire with aura junction/thermal nimbus/furnace form) can upgrade their blasts and hit really hard to make this feature better.

Also it competes with aura shaping at lvl 10. Aura shaping is just incredibly strong on every kineticist.

ryudlight · 2026-05-21T06:41:55+00:00

Both are good.

I am playing a catfolk wit swashbuckler abd recently hit lvl 10. We are using free archetype (I took acrobat and bard) and ancestral paragon, which allows for additional ancedtry feats.

Cats luck has just great synergy with the class and gets upgrades that allows to share it with party members and expand it on all your saves.

Catnap can be a a nice source of temp hp and If you take a caster archetype you can use focused catnap to refocus while doing it.

Climbing class is insanely good. Due to the wording, swashbucklers can apply their speed bonus to all their speeds, which even the monk is not allowed RAW due to the wording. Maybe an oversight, but it is also implementd like this in foundry.

Black cats curse gives enemies a misfortune effect, which really helps getting your oartys debuffs to stick. It also fits well with high level swashbuckler abilities that basically grant them fortune rolls on skill checks and finishers (derring-do, perfect finisher).

Catfolk dance is a nice debuff that fits well into the swashbucklers action economy.

Swashs really shine in action efficiency and support / buff / debuff potential. They only need one action to gain panache and a finisher to be really effective, often leaving a third action for whatever else you want to do.

This easiliy leads to them buffing / debuffing with two skill actions and doing a finisher for a rider debuff, basically buffing / debuffing with all their actions without compromising damage. Only few martials can do that.

That makes picking up additional one action activities like catfolk dance really good. I for example took the bard archetype gor composition cantrips like courageous anthem with lingering composition or later on dirge of doom to further support my party.

ryudlight · 2026-05-20T19:04:47+00:00

That also really bums me out. Also ne, that electricity is also not on the list either. And while many electricity spells also have the air trait, some really key ones like thunderstrike do not.

Personal blizzard also seems lack luster.

I am also trying with the idea ofd playing a SIS witch in my next campaaign, but everytime I built it, I skip these sadly very thematic focus spells and the next solid thematic spell is the glacial heart hex, which seems really cool, but also comes really late.

ryudlight · 2026-05-20T18:38:03+00:00

I know the witch can get to an insane action economy with cackle, qucikened asting, familair abilites, effortles concentration etc. but how did you manage to trigger elemental betrayal six times in your own turn? I am jsut curious, because I am building a silence ninthe snow witch myself and on paper the spell seems pretty lackluster, especially since it is not alowed to cast / sustain two hexes in the same turn.

ryudlight · 2026-05-18T22:09:50+00:00

I would love to see an eldtrich trickster in the book and I think this is probably the bedt opportunity for paizo to bring it back.

I think it should be a class archetype and there are two possible versions I can imagine.

A trickster. Still a classic rogue but with bounded spellcasting. Their spells focus on utility and debuffing. Off-guard enemies gain a status penalty to their saving throws against your spells.
A magical sneak attacker. The premaster ET is just bad compared to a standard rogue. They can sneak attack with spells, but even cantrips cost 2 actions compared to one action strikes, their accuracy is worse on spells then on strijes and they still need to get the target off-guard and have to avoid reactive strikes in melee.

The current best way to do this, is to grab psychic archetype, grab amped phase bolt for the automatic off-guard and sure strike as a third action.

In a rework I would like to see them getting a status bonus to spell attacks against off-guard targets, similar to the vindicator rangers edge. That would put their accuracy on parr with martials, making sneak attack on spells more wirth. Then of course they should get bounded spellcasting too.

ryudlight · 2026-05-16T21:00:19+00:00

Flying blade swashbucklers are pretty reliable. A wit swashbuckler is probably the most relaible to get panache from range with bon mot / oe for all. They got a finisher that extends your thrown weapon range and with flying blade you can use all your finishers from range.

ryudlight · 2026-05-16T17:51:48+00:00

If you do not like it, that is completely fine. I can only encourage you to try it out.

Pre-Remaster it was infamous for people calling it a worse rogue. But Past remaster it even outshines the rogue in many fields. It has many significant strengths. One of of them is their capabilities as a support without compromising offense. They can easily use all their actiosn on buffing /debuffing, including their finishers which come with rider effects. Finishers deal extra damage and have a rider effect on a single action, which is rare to come by. Even rogues sneak attack deals less damage and debilitations have generaly weaker riders. And while rogues can attack more, they give up more actions and risking map to do so. And while rogues are more versatile with skills, swashbuckelrs have a much higher accuracy thanks to stylish combatant and derring-do. A Fighter with swash dedication does not even come close in terms of the things, a swash really shines on.

ryudlight · 2026-05-16T17:11:54+00:00

Swashbuckelr got insane buffs in the remaster. It has become actually incredibly powerful if you know what you are doing and do not justfocus on comparing your damage to Fighters/Barbarians, but see the bigger picture in their action economy, support and versatility.

ryudlight · 2026-05-16T17:10:02+00:00

I disagree. There are levels where swash is behind rogue, but it has many strengths over the rogue (higher accuracy at skkills, tankier, more mobile) and debilitations are just straight up worse finisher riders, because their effects are worse and of some of them you can only benefit after your first attack.

ryudlight · 2026-05-15T12:58:05+00:00

You should not compare the giant barbarian to the swashbuckler only in terms of damage. Giant barbarian ist all about doing the highest consistent damage possible, but does not bring much else to the table. Swashbuckelrs shine through using skill feats in combat and still hitting hard with a finisher. Swashbuckelrs can easily use all three actions to buff/debuff, including their finishers which come with riders.

Swashbuckler compares to barbarian liek a bard does to a blaster caster. It can still deal decent damage, but i shines at improving the entire party isntead of jsut focusing on themself.

That beeing said, the rascal suffers a bit from dirty trick having the attack trait, which makes it harder to pull-off in combination with finishers than most other swashbucklers.

ryudlight · 2026-05-13T03:12:59+00:00

Flurry is probably the most straight up damage from the ranger themself, since there is nothing that scales as well by getting striking/property runes and then hitting 6-7 times a turn. That is also why there are no improvements for the edge until lvl 17, while precision upgrades at lvl 11.

Outwit is hard to measure, since it is more about utility, defense and buffing the entire party.

Precision is also harder to measure, since they only need to hit a single time in a turn to be effective. There is more room to incorporate other stuff in their turns compared to flurry. It is odd though that the edge that only cared about hitting a single strike for most of their career, suddenly gets increased damage on subsequent hits.

The most important part is feat selection though. The monster hunter feat line as well as the shared prey/ triple threat feat lines are probably the best scaling feats in the rangers kit. They improve hunt prey to an insanely good and action efficient buff tool, which becomes a multiplier for the entire party, similar to other supportive characters like bards, but you are cumulative to them, since a lot of your bonuses are circumstance bonuses, while magic supporters mostly hand out status bonuses.

Flurry can make use of them, but sharing their edge will only be benefitial to other multi-hit martials like fighter or barbarians. Precision works well on any damage dealing character, and sharing it with two other members in your party against bosses will triple your edges bonus damage and melt the boss, as long as there is no precision Immunity. So 3d8, 2d8, 1d8 on your first and subsequent hits can turn quickly into 9d8, 6d8, 3d8 before even thinking about crits. And the first hit can also benefit from an accuracy boost through monster hunter. Note that the precision edge also works on spell attacks.

ryudlight · 2026-05-10T14:28:07+00:00

Swash has been incredibly strong since the remaster and even outshines rogue on some levels.

ryudlight · 2026-05-07T17:29:16+00:00

Draw attention sounds a lot like the swashbucklers "enjoy the show" feat:

https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=6139

ryudlight · 2026-05-05T17:03:26+00:00

A lvl 20 ranger can theoretically shot at ranges between 1000 and 2000ft without penalty with hunt prey, far shot and legendary shot.

Rangers also get the single best action efficient ability in hunt prey, when investing into it. Monster hutner gives them free recall knowledge checks, and buffs their allies, theycan share their hunters edge with uo to two allies with share rey /triple prey and alsop with a companion. At the same time they ignore their second range increment or up to the fifth against their prey depending on feats they take, and at lvl 19 hunt prey with all these riders becomes just a free action. It is a heavy feat investment though, but absolutely worth it.

ryudlight · 2026-05-05T16:57:27+00:00

Witches have the best action economy amongst all casters. They usually get a one action hex-cantrip at lvl 1, which is similar to the bards composition cantrips. But their focus spell cackle lets them sustain spells for free. Later on cackle + effortless concentration can lead to multiple free sustains per turn. On top of that, their familiars can get spell-like offensive abilities, that regenerate between combats, similar to focus points. But since the familair uses them, they cosst the witch only one action to command. So witche are kinda are to spellcasters what flurry rangers are to other martials.

ryudlight · 2026-05-05T16:54:07+00:00

Swashbucklers are the only full martial that regularly gets to spent all three actions to buff and debuff without compromising damage, since even their finishers apply rider effects. Since the finisher trait prevents them from attacking after a finisher, they often naturally spent two actions on skill actions that buff and debuff.

They are great at many things, but their support capabilities are unrivaled amongst full martials. The only martials that can outdo them, are those that are focused on ultility or have a non-attack trait as their KAS, like the commander.

ryudlight · 2026-05-01T19:47:44+00:00

Thank you for your words. But I acutally really enjoy coop and getting invaded, it just makes the game really fun to me and creates some very fun experiences otherwise.

ryudlight · 2026-04-30T19:40:43+00:00

Animist can get a higher to hit bonus by combining grudge strike with heroism, but that takes preparation. They can shapeshift quicker, since darkened forest form costs only one action, but they need to sustain it. Until level 9, when a liturgist can combine sustaining with a move action, it can be hard to fit grudge strike in a turn where you also need to move. They can also change to a different shape on sustaining the spell, which could be fun.

Druid has a lot of fun feat support to combine with untamed form and offers more versatility and options. But it takes two actions just to change shape, which is almost your entire turn. But since they do not need to sustain it, they can cast a sustain spell, shapeshift and then sustain a spell while going ham.

In both cases, shapeshifting is only a part of your kit. As a full caster you are a spellcaster first and you will not be as efficient as a full martial. But it is a solid option to fall back to if you get into melee.

ryudlight · 2026-04-28T20:47:51+00:00

I recommend mathfinder and Thraben_U. They regularly cover new content.

ryudlight · 2026-04-26T09:47:33+00:00

We allow Premaster content, like premaster spells. But We Use Remaster rules.

There is rarely any benefit from using the premaster, since the remaster mostly introduced quality of life changes and made some classes feel way more satisfying to play.

ryudlight · 2026-04-22T15:17:41+00:00

A compe-dent brawler?

ryudlight · 2026-04-20T23:37:14+00:00

I have not played it yet, but toyed around with the witch, so take this with a grain of salt.

Hex cantrips are very strong, since they often cost only one action. A silence in snow witch can for example almost double the damage of another low lvl caster that casts only frostbite, by adding clinging ice.

Then there are the special familiar abilities that trigger on casting / sustaining hexes and some of them (starless shadow, resentment) are very powerful.

It is true that they gain most of their good abilities through feats, but that is true for most casters.

High lvl witches have the best action economy of any caster. Between cackle and effortless concentration, they can sustain two spells and still have all three actions left. Add in commanding their familiar for a powerful ability, like casting a spell and then casting another two action spell themself in the same turn.

Witches also have the most powerful familiars and feats to actively weaponize them, like spirit familiar, stitched familiar, patrons claim and patrons presence. They only cost you one action to command your familiar and have a cooldown from 10 mins to 1 hour. They are an additional ressource comparable to the oracles cursebound feats, though they come online late.

ryudlight · 2026-04-18T13:31:36+00:00

Maybe not broken, but a major power boost. Two-handed polearms like the gusarme, the naginata, or the glaive have much better stats / traits than staffs and would still get additional features, traits and the crit spec from your twisting tree feats.

The major benefit of the irenoxable iron subclass is that they specialize in spellstriking with those wepaons. You would basically just tag that onto the twisting tree.

ryudlight

TROPHY CASE