Welcome to Guidance, Private Sanctuary’s source for tips and techniques for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, written by Everyman Gamer Alexander Augunas. Today, we’re going to be talking about the telekinetic kids from the movie Chronicle.

Welcome back to Occult October on the Know Direction Network! As you probably could have guessed, I’m going to follow up a long discussion of the kineticist elements with a kineticist build! Today, we’re going to be trying to emulate the three high school boys from the hit movie, Chronicle.

Let’s get started!

Build Concept

So, here are the pieces that we’re going to work with:

• Human: All of the boys in Chronicle are humans.
• Kineticist: All of the boys in Chronicle display identical powers that are best captured by the kineticist occult class. Because course they are; would I bother with them during Occult October otherwise? (Nope.)
• Aether: All of the boys have telekinetic powers, including flight, lifting and holding stuff with their minds, and hurling objects with telekinetic force.

Without further delay, let’s get started!

Early Levels (1–7)

• Classes: kineticist 7
• Feats: Point-Blank Shot (Bonus), Precise Shot (1st), Toughness (3rd), Weapon Finesse (5th), Kinetic Leap (7th)
• Abilities: burn, elemental defense, elemental focus (aether), elemental overflow +2, expanded element (aether), infusion specialization 1, infusions, internal buffer 1, kinetic blast, metakinesis (empower), utility wild talents
• Blast Wild Talents: force blast, telekinetic blast
• Infusions: pushing infusion (1st), extended range (3rd), kinetic blade (5th), foe throw (7th)
• Defense Wild Talents: force ward.
• Utility Wild Talents: basis telekinesis (1st), telekinetic finesse (2nd), telekinetic haul (4th), self telekinesis (6th)

At low-levels, the biggest challenge for a telekineticist is that this element doesn’t have an energy blast until high levels, which means its attacking versus standard AC. This means that abilities that boost the kineticist’s attack rolls are extremely important. Before we go into feats, however, let’s talk talents. When picking talents, a kineticist can’t pick a 2nd-level or higher talent unless her kineticist level is equal to or greater than twice the talent’s spell level, so initially we have a small range to choose from. I like kinetic blade for those moments where you’re stuck in melee (it ALWAYS happens) because kinetic blade doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity when used as a melee attack. As a result, I timed kinetic blade at 3rd level, when I can also spend a feat on Weapon Finesse. This combo means that I don’t need to worry about my Strength score as a kineticist, which is helpful. I also like foe throw (who doesn’t?) and extended range. Pushing infusion is sort of an unfortunate must-have; the problem is that the kineticist doesn’t have a full BAB, so pushing infusion (and bowling infusion, for that matter) aren’t likely to ever actually affect their target. (Writer’s Note: I’m not 100% sure if elemental overflow can apply to combat maneuver checks. I’ve had people tell me yes and others tell me no, so for the time being I’m going to assume that it does not. If it does, then elemental overflow would eventually boost the kineticist’s CMB to be similar to that of a fighter’s, although she would likely lack the proper CMB feats. Still, being able to boost your CMB to that of a full BAB character by spending a point of burn into force ward would be nice.)

Speaking of force ward, let’s talk about aether’s elemental defense. Force ward gives you a number of temporary hit points that break some of the traditional rules surrounding temporary hit points. They regenerate slowly, a point a minute, and if an attack fails to knock out all of these temporary hit points, it is treated as a miss. Situational, but nice. The nicer abilities kicks in when you start feeding burn into force ward. For every point of burn you spend on the defense, you increase the number of temporary hit points that your force ward possesses by 1 per level; basically, you take nonlethal damage and gain a number of self-replenishing temporary hit points instead. Additionally, the more burn you plug into the talent, the faster the temporary hit points replenish. This isn’t a bad defensive ability, but honestly it isn’t a great one either. You’re not really gaining anything you didn’t have by fueling the force ward, and at high levels most attacks are going to easily pierce the “bubble,” so to speak. In short, the shield does not regenerate quick enough nor does it block enough for it to be relevant, so just stick to the base number of temporary hit points that it gives you for free and carry on.

Aether’s utility talents aren’t super-powerful, but they are wicked fun! They have a very roguish bent to them, and there are a bunch of really good talents available that we simply aren’t going to take because they don’t fit the characters of Chronicle. At any rate, we are taking telekinetic finesse (do more with mage hand), telekinetic haul (lift all the things except yourself), and self-telekinesis (lift yourself). Self telekinesis is weird (in the sense that it and its greater variant aren’t well balanced against wings of air), but it is certainly a stable for the build. Ultimately, we’re lefting with three characters who can push stuff away, levitate themselves with a lot of effort, and perform cool stunts with mage hand. Works for me! Let’s move on and see what happens.

Mid Levels (8 –14)

• Classes: kineticist 14
• Feats: Point-Blank Shot (Bonus), Precise Shot (1st), Toughness (3rd), Weapon Finesse (5th), Kinetic Leap (7th), Combat Casting (9th), Extra Wild Talent: kinetic whip (11th), Spell Penetration (13th)
• Abilities: burn, elemental defense, elemental focus (aether), elemental overflow +4, expanded element (aether), infusion specialization 4, infusions, internal buffer 2, kinetic blast, metakinesis (empower, maximize, quicken), supercharge, utility wild talents
• Blast Wild Talents: force blast, telekinetic blast
• Infusions: pushing infusion (1st), extended range (3rd), kinetic blade (5th), foe throw (7th), mobile blast (9th), kinetic whip (Bonus), wall (11th), grappling (13th)
• Defense Wild Talents: force ward.
• Utility Wild Talents: basis telekinesis (1st), telekinetic finesse (2nd), telekinetic haul (4th), self telekinesis (6th), telekinetic maneuvers (8th), greater self telekinesis (10th), suffocate (12th), force barrier (14th)

Mid-levels are where aether gets good. In addition to all of the cool kineticist goodies like metakinesis, infusion specialization, and internal buffer, we have an AWESOME crop of utility talents and infusions. Wall and grappling are two of my favorite infusions, but more importantly we FINALLY get telekinetic maneuvers! FINALLY! Suffocate at will is also a game-changer for any kineticist that takes the talent; you can very easily snuff out wizards and rogues practically at will. Feat-wise, Combat Casting is a very safe bet for the kineticist and Spell Penetration helps aether’s lone energy blast, force blast. We also grab greater self telekinesis, which is basically move action flight. Fun times.

Let’s move on to the end game and see what’s left!

Endgame (15+)

• Classes: kineticist 14
• Feats: Point-Blank Shot (Bonus), Precise Shot (1st), Toughness (3rd), Weapon Finesse (5th), Kinetic Leap (7th), Combat Casting (9th), Extra Wild Talent: kinetic whip (11th), Spell Penetration (13th), Greater Spell Penetration (15th), FREEBIE (17th), FREEBIE (19th)
• Abilities: burn, composite specialization, elemental defense, elemental focus (aether), elemental overflow +6, expanded element (aether, aether), infusion specialization 6, infusions, internal buffer 3, kinetic blast, metakinesis (empower, maximize, quicken, twice), metakinesis master, omnikinesis, supercharge, utility wild talents
• Blast Wild Talents: force blast, telekinetic blast
• Infusions: pushing infusion (1st), extended range (3rd), kinetic blade (5th), foe throw (7th; expanded), mobile blast (9th), kinetic whip (Bonus), wall (11th), grappling (13th), snake (15th; expanded); many throw (17th), flurry of blasts (19th)
• Defense Wild Talents: force ward.
• Utility Wild Talents: basis telekinesis (1st), telekinetic finesse (2nd), telekinetic haul (4th), self telekinesis (6th), telekinetic maneuvers (8th), greater self telekinesis (10th), suffocate (12th), force barrier (14th), telekinetic globe (16th), suffocate (18th), telekinetic deflection (20th)

Sadly, end game is somewhat dissatisfying for the Chronicle kids. After picking up many throw at 17th level, aether simply doesn’t have a crop of wild talents that are all that fun or exciting. Flurry of blasts is rather risky for what it does, especially for an element that relies completely on physical blasts, which is why it isn’t added to the fray until 19th level. Telekinetic globe and telekinetic deflection are both situational talents and lack the magnitude of the high-level talents of other elements. The fact that aether has no 9th-level options only compounds this.

The kineticist’s lack of available feats is also felt in the end game. After pickling Greater Spell Penetration, I honestly didn’t know WHAT to pick. There’s nothing to build for, nothing to really benefit the build. My best guess would be to pick from Weapon Focus, Bullseye Shot, and Improved Precise Shot. Weapon Focus is an always-available +1 bonus to hit with kinetic blast, Bullseye Shot allows you to spend a move action to get a +4 bonus on your next ranged attack roll (which kinetic blast certainly counts), and Improved Precise Shot, which allows you to utterly ignore anything less than full cover. If you’re having trouble deciding, drop Greater Spell Penetration and replace it with one of those feats; aether only needs GSP for force blast, and if you have to not use force blast against things with spell resistance, well then that hardly seems like much of a downside.

And there you have it; a telekinetic build for the telekinetic kids of the Chronicle movie! What do you think of the build? Leave your questions and comments below, and I’ll be back with another all-new occult build next week as Occult October continues! Take care.

Alexander “Alex” Augunas has been playing roleplaying games since 2007, which isn’t nearly as long as 90% of his colleagues. Alexander is an active freelancer for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and is best known as the author of the Pact Magic Unbound series by Radiance House. Alex is the owner of Everyman Gaming, LLC and is often stylized as the Everyman Gamer in honor of Guidance’s original home. Alex also cohosts the Private Sanctuary Podcast, along with fellow blogger Anthony Li, and you can follow their exploits on Facebook in the 3.5 Private Sanctuary Group, or on Alex’s Twitter, @AlJAug.