Avatar: The Last Airbender has remained a very popular series since it first aired on Nickelodeon fifteen years ago. The animated series has spawned a sequel series, a Dark Horse comic book, novels, and video games. All have been fantastic except for the video games. As exciting of an ability that elemental bending is, the existing games just don't capture the versatility of bending. The best way to play as a bender is to put down the game controller and pick up some dice.
Pathfinder TTRPG's kineticist class is directly inspired by Avatar's benders. They are very different in terms of lore and setting but very similar in flavor and ability. Check out these ten things that can be done with the Pathfinder kineticist class. If done right, it can be impossible to tell the difference between a kineticist and bender.
10 Build A New Avatar
In Pathfinder, the only limitation is the player's imagination. Kineticists are parallels to benders. There is no rule that states a player has to work within the confines of the series. The class allows for gradual, stronger and more specialized use of a single element, or the player can choose to master all four elements over time. Try building an Avatar entirely unlike any of the Avatars ever featured in the series, comics, or novels. In Pathfinder, an evil Avatar like UnaVaatu is possible to explore.
9 Build Aang Without Multi-Classing
Maybe building a new Avatar is too much for a newcomer. Perhaps using a character from the show or comics as a template is a better start. This gets tricky when building a character like Aang who shares characteristics with another class: the monk.
The kineticist isn't great for multi-classing because it gains all its best abilities by staying on course. This is terrible for an Avatar build because new elements are gained at levels 7, 15, and 20. Fortunately, the Elemental Ascetic class archetype bakes the discipline of the monk right into the kineticist. No need to multi-class.
8 Metal Bending
Every Avatar fan that has never played Pathfinder asks the same question when told about the kineticist: "Is there metalbending?"
Yes. There absolutely is. At first level a player chooses one of the four elements. At levels 7 and 15 the player can choose another element or expand their original element. A player that chooses earth as their base element can be mastering metal like Toph Beifong by level 7. Unfortunately, an earthbender (geokineticist) can't learn lavabending as a direct extension of earthbending. It is possible but there will be more details on that later.
7 Blue Fire
Just like metalbending, the ability to wield blue fire like Princess Azula is definitely possible. Outside of some of the art that accompanies the class in the rule book, blue fire might be the most direct and obvious nod to Avatar. This ability comes at the cost of expanding the original element instead of choosing an additional element. This can be a hindrance in the Pathfinder setting since many creatures have immunity to certain elements. This can render a kineticist with a single focus occasionally useless as a combatant.
6 Master Special Abilities Seen In The Series
As the Avatar series has grown, fans have been able to see bending used in a myriad of interesting ways. Kineticists master these same abilities by selecting different types of "wild talents" while leveling up. If a pyrokineticist wants to rocket through the sky like Ozai, look no further than Greater Flame Jet. If the goal is using water to heal like Katara, check out the Kinetic Healer talent. Pick up Earth Walk to ignore the terrain of the land like Toph does in "The Guru".
5 Build Combustion Man And P'li
Combustion Man and P'li are two of the most mysterious benders to appear in the entire Avatar metaseries. They seem to have the ability to psychically bend without any somatic components. This makes them completely unpredictable during combat. It's impossible to tell where exactly they're going to strike.
The Overwhelming Soul archetype offers a kineticist that controls their element with their mind alone. The kineticist's body stays out of danger, they don't lose hit points exerting their power, and as they level they gain more precise blasts that do more damage.
4 Lava Bending
Earlier it was mentioned that lavabending like Bolin is definitely possible. Unfortunately, it will be tough building Bolin as he operates in the show because Pathfinder's mechanics consider lavabending a cross-form of two different elements. Earth and fire. This isn't that big a deal and it's kind of fun considering Bolin is the child of both an earthbender and a firebender. Lavabending is also immediately acquired as a "composite blast" as soon as the second element is obtained. The second element will prove useful when facing enemies with elemental immunity.
3 Blood Bending
Pathfinder's Blood Kineticist archetype is tailor made for the concept of bloodbending and yet another direct nod to the series. The revelation of bloodbending is the darkest moment in the Avatar series. Any time it's used it's never with good intent. Other than antagonists Amon, his family, and Hama, Katara is the only character powerful enough to use it.
Bloodbending requires bending water in the blood of another individual, taking their bodily autonomy and using them like a puppet. Katara vowed to never use bloodbending, but has succumbed to it twice. Once when fighting Hama and once when searching for her mother's killer.
2 Plasma Bending
Many fans have wondered if plasmabending is possible in the world of Avatar. If gifted firebenders can increase the heat and generate lightning, then it stands to reason plasmabending could be achieved. Pathfinder has gone beyond the scope of Avatar and incorporated plasmabending thanks to a change made for more balanced mechanics.
Since fire can already expand into blue fire, Pathfinder used lightning as an expansion of air instead. When air and fire are used in conjunction by a kineticist with more than one element, plasma can be produced.
1 Master Dual Bending
Choosing a second element instead of focusing on one doesn't necessarily restrict the player to using all four elements. In Pathfinder it's possible to master two elements by level 7, and choose to empower the original element at level 15. If a character chooses earth and fire at levels 1 and 7 respectively, that player can choose to expand earth at level 15 instead of choosing a third element. This results in a dual wielder that can bend earth, metal, fire, and lava. At level 20, all kineticists can tap into all elements at a higher cost to themselves. Since earth and fire will be so strong at this point, rely on those two and use blue fire occasionally for flavor.