[PF] CTP's Guide to Mythic Adventures

[Khosan]

Ooooh. I missed that and it does seem pretty easy to miss anyway, considering that, at least in my browser, there's a fairly significant gap between where that information is displayed and where the rest of the information on that page stops. I have to scroll down past an ad to actually get to those lists.

Still feel silly though.

[krackenjack]

Thanks for making this guide! I've been excited about ways I can use this in a game I'm planning so it was good to get a comprehensive outside perspective!

I think your analysis is pretty spot-on from a mechanical perspective; I would like to offer a complementary but differing perspective.

1. First and foremost, the mythic rules are about flavor, the things that make a character legendary. That means it will be different for every character, distinctive, and personal (even if they're all drawing from a common list). So why would someone ever choose Deceitful instead of Display of Charisma? Because they're legendary for their ability to lie and deceive, not for their winning and powerful personality. As you pointed out, this is a layer on top of standard character building, so a well made character doesn't need to depend on mythic abilities to be powerful and can focus on flavor.

2. Mythic abilities can come and go. That means they can be given. That means a PC might not always get to choose which ones they get. Maybe they're just handed the standard "Herald of Odin" package, regardless of how it fits with their prior training. Or a relic might grant set abilities to anyone who bonds with it. So this becomes a tool kit more than a character optimization set.

3. I actually disagree about the power creep issue. Mythic tiers are optional and don't have to progress at a set rate, so players can't have any expectation they will get them. You could be level 3 and 10th tier (a young demigod?) or level 20 and only 1st tier. More than that, most of the power imbalance issues come from higher character levels. I think mythic rules actually mesh well with E6 because you can let characters grow in power and breadth without giving them game-breaking magic, 12+ attacks every round, etc.

4. Lastly, you downgrade a lot of abilities because they're only useful against non-mythic targets. Well, as you point out, more than 90% of a party's encounters will be with non-mythic targets. Literally. It only takes 29 trials to reach 10th tier, and, typically, 240-320 encounters to reach level 20! Granted, one trial may encompass multiple encounters, but still. Also, with the new-ish Ultimate Campaign rules, mythic heroes may be more involved in running a town/church/kingdom than dungeon crawling, so the ability to easily affect the "unwashed masses" quickly becomes very useful. If you're head of the City Guards, it may be more useful to be immune to non-mythic critical hits than to go toe-to-toe with another mythical character. Plus, that's so much of what makes legendary characters, well, legendary! Miamito Musashi fighting his way out of a bathhouse past 100 armed bandits...Loki (in the movies) bringing entire crowds to their knees with just a few words...Gandolf being immune to any conflict unless it involves 100:1 odds or a frickin' demon...

I think these rules will also make it easier to emulate certain literary characters without making them ridiculously high level. Drizzt, Captain America, Batman, Aragorn, etc. can all be made as character level 5-10 with mid- to high-ranked mythic tiers.

[Talya]

Augmented Mythic Fireball really needs a mention here.

Seriously, 20d10 Fire Damage that completely bypasses all fire resistance and immunity...almost makes blasting worthwhile. And the 2d6-per-round residual effect afterward didn't even register.

And D10s? Normally I prefer empowering over maximizing, but large die types change all that. Maximize that fracker. Now it's CL*10 damage + 12 per round afterward until they put out the fire.

Secondly:

Mythic Blessing of Fervor - one of the best group buffs in the game suddenly became twice as good.

[Anaerin]

My point with Mythic Vital Strike is that, due to poor wording, you multiply the damage due to Str by the number of weapon damage dice you roll. If you use a great sword with Greater Vital Strike, you multiply your Str damage by 8, not 4.

Don't I wish. But that's not accurate.

Vital Strike implicitly defines "weapon damage dice" as the die or dice that you roll for damage with a weapon. So for a greatsword, 2d6 is one (set of) "weapon damage dice".

So with Mythic Vital Strike, you get:

Whenever you use Vital Strike, Improved Vital Strike, or Greater Vital Strike, multiply the Strength bonus, magic bonus, and other bonuses that would normally be multiplied on a critical hit by the number of weapon damage dice you roll for that feat.

Thus, with Greater Vital Strike, you are rolling 4 sets of 2d6. If it was meant to be the physical number of dice you roll, the wording would be:

Whenever you use Vital Strike, Improved Vital Strike, or Greater Vital Strike, multiply the Strength bonus, magic bonus, and other bonuses that would normally be multiplied on a critical hit by the number of dice you roll for that feat.

Yes, the wording is shaky, but it's valid.

So a Mythic Greater Vital Strike with a Falchion (to borrow CockroachTeaParty's example) would be:

(2d4 + 25 (STR) +5 (enhancement) +4 (weapon training) +27 (Mythic Power Attack) +9 (Weapon Specialization, Greater Weapon Specialization, Mythic Weapon Specialization)) x4 (Mythic Vital Strike)

So that's 8d4 + 280

Of course, if your DM also allows "Mythic Improved Vital Strike" (From a non-Paizo source, but listed in the SRD), that's then 16d4 + 1120. 20d4+4480 on a crit.

[The Random NPC]

I'm not so sure about that, I believe the wording is to prevent multiplication of the damage by other dice such as from Sneak Attack. I will concede that, if asked, the Devs would rule your interpretation as correct... if they don't further confuse the issue first that is.

[Harmelyo]

Regarding your rating of Flexible School I would like to disagree a tiny bit about it. Situationally, it can be really good... If you are not a Diviner, you can use it to get the excellent ability to be forewarned and always act in the first round as well as score a +1 initiative. I do think that it is quite a powerful advantage.

[Triskavanski]

Hey CTP,


On Trickster - Improbable Prestidigitation

I've got one trick for you.. Get two Ring Gates - Put one in a safe location with a bag of holding. The other you take with you and hide in your hammer space. Then when you need to transfer things you slip the ring out of your dimensional space and go digging in your bag.

This might not seem like much.. Except of course when you're doing things where you don't want the ring gates to be open or on your person. Like if you're naked in prison. Or going for a pleasure cruise in eel infested waters.

[Endarire]

CTP, I like your guide. Thankee for making this! So... any plans on running a Mythic game any time soon? <wink>

[ShadeRaven]

I seem to remember there was a mythic ability that was giving you bonus to attack and damage while polymorphed, based on the CL of the polymorph effect, but apparently I am going blind since I can't find it. Can anyone lend me a hand here?

[CockroachTeaParty]

I seem to remember there was a mythic ability that was giving you bonus to attack and damage while polymorphed, based on the CL of the polymorph effect, but apparently I am going blind since I can't find it. Can anyone lend me a hand here?

I believe you're looking for the Archmage ability Shapeshifting Mastery. It might be from Mythic Origins, rather than the Mythic Adventures book itself. I should probably go back and update things with tags from sources other than Mythic Adventures.

I'm currently running a game of Wrath of the Righteous, and finally seeing some of the mythic rules in play. Based on my experiences, I'll see about adjusting my guide afterwards. I can say this much already: swift actions are precious indeed. The Mythic rules are loaded with swift and immediate action abilities, so managing your actions is a vital skill to learn.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

I was rereading some of the mythic rules to see how they could be modified for Path of War, and remembered that Coupled Arcana exists. I have a newfound respect for it, especially on a magus. It also makes the spell Borrowed Time much more appealing. Additionally, I feel a lot of the Marshall's abilities are not rated high enough when you consider that you count as your own ally in Pathfinder.

[Thealtruistorc]

I really like this guide, and it has proven to be quite handy in utilizing mythic stuff in my own games. Keep up the great work.

What I would like to know, however, is if you have plans to cover Mythic Psionics and the new path in that book. Most of the stuff seems pretty viable and interesting and I'm guessing many players are hoping to integrate it into their game.

[Crackker]

My DM likes the mythic rules because he’s a power gamer who loves power creep and uses any excuse to exploit the system. I read through the powers that you liked and disliked, and have found a lot of consistency with things that I tend to use in our overpowered wtf jfc campaigns I find myself in. Though there are some powers that I feel work better in these settings than you give them credit for.

Since we tend to go for overpowered, we use some optional rules found from different iterations of D&D on its journey up to Pathfinder. Rules like spellpoints. Or Gestalt characters. And this is where mythic powers get REALLY interesting. A Gestalt Warrior/Rogue or Monk/Rogue is pretty well locked into taking Dual Path, but oh what fun you can have as a Champion/Trickster. Impossible Speed coupled with Slayer’s Cyclone (and some Snake Style with Mythic Combat Reflexes), and you can just about solo small armies in under a minute. Add Critical Master and Precision Critical to maximize your crits as well as double (and maximize) your sneak Attack dice on a crit. Destroyer pretty much makes the world cardboard for you and is great fun (Bursting through a wall and yelling “Oh Yeah!” Never gets old).

Improbable Prestidigitation. Here’s where we ... bend the rules a little. The talent says you can stick something in the space of small size by making a dc 20. A one-handed weapon takes a 25. Following this logic a two handed (or large weapon or item) would be a 30. A huge item will be 35. At tier 10 you have a 10 cubic foot room, which is enough for a bed, armoir, and weapon rack, and you can pretty much use it as a small bedroom by slight of handing yourself in there on a 40. Or abducting people for 35 (after a successful grapple check, naturally!)

Playing overpowered campaigns can be liberating and a lot of fun. I’ve found we focus more on story and role playing when we’re not scraping the barrel trying to survive. It makes you look at the available powers in a different light, and helps illuminate what’s fun, what’s useful, and what’s absolute poop. :p Beware though... it’s also addicting... <_<;

[Whitsend]

From your explanation it should be blindly Blue if your reaching Higher tiers. Taking it 3 times and taking Mythic Wish will allow you to add +5 any stat for FREE!!!!! Hey why not buff your entire party, Familiar, Cohort, followers, etc etc..... sorry but that saves you 750,000 Gold on each character as well as allows you to cast ANY mythic spell you want. We all know Buffing your party only adds to your Kick ass abilities. Also you could abuse Limited wish as well earlier once you have access to 7th Lvl spells.

Hi Guys,
I'm missing something?
Quote:
Mythic Spellpower {Sp): You have a pool of magical power you can draw upon for casting mythic spells (see Chapter 3). Up to twice per day, you can use this power to cast a mythic spell without expending any uses of mythic power. You can s elect this ability up to three time s ; each
time you do, you gain two additional u s e s of this ability per day.

Where does it say it becomes a spell like ability that allows you to forgo needing material components?
My group has read this as a pool of points that are used just like MP's to be able to cast Mythic Spells.
Did mu group miss something?

Otherwise, as A GM i've found this an interesting read on how to set up Mythic encounters to be challenging.
As several have pointed out...a MYTHIC TRIAL is not necessarily a single mythic creature/character-----it can be a group!
Also, I put a smattering of Mythic Tier 1's into groups as the leaders....they don't count as a trial and really spice up the challenge without it being too much power gaming.

[Thealtruistorc]

Something that I think may be worth bringing up is Kegendary Games' Mythic Solutions, replicated here on the Spheres Wiki. I've found it very useful for making Mythic more viable in my campaigns.