Mythos Homebrew Discussion III: Grievous Imbalance Is A Feature

[Imrix.]

My experience of 5e D&D is that we have to struggle to get casters into the group because everyone loves Battle Masters and Paladins. Out of a 20-person pool we use to form 5-men parties, people are fighting over our single underleveled wizard and our two clerics because this is Fifth Edition now, and Martials Are Cool.

This deserves emphasis, I'm afraid. Comments like "... a Fighter's greatest achievement of learning to hit a bugbear slightly harder." give me the impression Xefas is still working off of a distinctly 3.5 esque mindset where caster supremacy is undeniable and pure martial classes are both underpowered and dull as dishwater. But that's not the case in 5e. Martial classes are powerful and versatile now. They can Do Things. And a Swordbearer... kind of can't, sadly.

[Xefas]

Alright, so, Mechanix, I did read your whole post. I'm not going to respond to the whole thing, point by point, or anything, not because I don't want to, but just because I quite literally don't have the time to get everything done that I want to get done in the day. I feel bad about that, because you clearly put a lot of time into writing it. But I did read it.

I will say this, and hopefully it will suffice for now. Since finishing the Adversary, I've had a '2.0' revision of the 5e Mythos stuff in mind, and partially in writing, that I just haven't had time to get done. If it ever comes to fruition, I think it will address some of your concerns. Others, it may not, not because I think you're incorrect about anything, but because I think I have a different framing in mind for the kind of game I'd put these classes to use in.

Of additional note:

*I’m fully willing to test this out and see if I’m wrong, I love white room combat.

This may actually be helpful to me in the making of the next revision, if you'd like to do that.

edit:

And, like, one petty addition. "Myth" and "Mythos" I can get behind. But "Anthol"? I don't know where that's from. A friend dug around to find out and the only thing they found was an abreviation for "anthology," which comes from a French word for "collection of flowers." Where did you dig that up?

It's meant as an abbreviated form of Anthology, which is a collection of stories (or poems, songs, etc).

[Crumplepunch]

It's meant as an abbreviated form of Anthology, which is a collection of stories (or poems, songs, etc).

As the friend in question who did the looking up, I should clarify. I assumed you meant anthol as an abbreviation of anthology, I was just sharing the etymology of the Greek anthologia, meaning a flower collection, from anthos (flower) and legein (to gather). This was transmitted through medieval French and eventually made its way to its modern English definition after a transitional period of meaning a collection of flower pressings.

I know this is a popular long time homebrew and I don't want to suggest messing too heavily with a successful formula, but if you are by any chance in the market for a replacement word I suggest "agonist". The modern word refers to one who engages in a struggle, the Greek root refers more directly to an athlete or champion, and it is also the root word of many derived terms for characters who hold narrative focus (protagonist, deuteragonist, antagonist, etc).

[Mechanix]

Alright, so, Mechanix, I did read your whole post. I'm not going to respond to the whole thing, point by point, or anything, not because I don't want to, but just because I quite literally don't have the time to get everything done that I want to get done in the day. I feel bad about that, because you clearly put a lot of time into writing it. But I did read it.

I will say this, and hopefully it will suffice for now. Since finishing the Adversary, I've had a '2.0' revision of the 5e Mythos stuff in mind, and partially in writing, that I just haven't had time to get done. If it ever comes to fruition, I think it will address some of your concerns. Others, it may not, not because I think you're incorrect about anything, but because I think I have a different framing in mind for the kind of game I'd put these classes to use in.

Well, thanks for reading, anyway. Happy to hear about your 2.0 and I hope my comments can be at least a little bit helpful there.

Of additional note:



This may actually be helpful to me in the making of the next revision, if you'd like to do that.

Sure thing.

It's meant as an abbreviated form of Anthology, which is a collection of stories (or poems, songs, etc).

I'm aware, it's just a weird choice of term for a person, which doesn't really pan out etymologically.

[PeacefulOak]

I think part of what is being missed/lost here is one of the core concepts of the Mythos system and mythology. The Titans, from whom the mythos classes are derived, are narrative concepts. The Monster - a concept of pure violence. The Sun - a concept of conquest and pride. And so on and so forth. Mortals who access some part of a Titan's power, whether by practice (class) or by bloodline (race feats), become a part of that narrative, contributing to the nature and power of the Titan.

Personally, I feel that the term Anthol has a good relation to the overall concept of the Mythos setting.

[Inevitability]

Still considering making that mentor-like class (think Gandalf, Donnie Darko's Frank, or Merlin), but somewhat at a loss for what kind of features to give it.

Wisdom-based features are pretty obviously a must, maybe with some secondary intelligence and charisma, but I'm having trouble differentiating it from the various commander Mythos classes already out there. I want this class to guide, not lead, if that makes sense.

[Primal Fury]

Still considering making that mentor-like class (think Gandalf, Donnie Darko's Frank, or Merlin), but somewhat at a loss for what kind of features to give it.

Wisdom-based features are pretty obviously a must, maybe with some secondary intelligence and charisma, but I'm having trouble differentiating it from the various commander Mythos classes already out there. I want this class to guide, not lead, if that makes sense.

What system were you planning on using? I had some ideas concerning a Mythic Mentor a while ago, but that was for 3.t and Pathfinder.

[Inevitability]

What system were you planning on using? I had some ideas concerning a Mythic Mentor a while ago, but that was for 3.t and Pathfinder.

3.5, most likely. The 5e design is pretty neat, but I want it to work with the majority of the material that's already out here.

[Primal Fury]

Alright then, this might work. One of the core abilities was the use of Teamwork Feats. Usually, these types of feats require those who wish to use them to take them together; the Daskalos waived this requirement, allowing him/her to grant their allies the use of any teamwork feat they had without needing to have it themselves.

They also granted a scaling bonus to Aid Other actions. I think it was... Hey, I found it. Have a look.

Guiding Light: The Lodestar had no interest in achieving primacy over the other gods. His only concern was helping his brethren improve their mastery over their respective purviews; in truth, he was already far too old to be bothered with anything else. This propensity for assisting others manifests as a change in how your Aid Other actions work. Rather than simply adding +2 to an allies attack roll or skill check, you make the same roll using your own bonuses and/or penalties. If your roll would have succeeded, you add +1d4 bonus to all to your ally's attack or skill check for each tier of the Lodestar's Mythos that you have access to (+1d4 for Exceptional, +2d4 for Fantastic, etc); if your roll would have failed, then you simply add the normal +2. When improving an allies AC, add the normal +2, plus an additional +2 for each tier of the Lodestar's Mythos you have access to. Additionally, for every age category you are beyond your ally, you grant them an additional +1 bonus with Aid Other actions. It must be noted that this is consistent across all races. A young elf will benefit from an elderly human's wisdom; the real-world experience of the latter trumps the likely limited experience of the former, despite the fifty year difference between the two. This ability only uses age modifiers that would actually cause you to take penalties, such as those listed in the Player's Handbook, not other age modifiers entirely dependent upon the creature's race, such as draconic age categories.

Additionally, any Teamwork Feats you possess no longer require an ally to have them in order to reap their benefits. For example, if you possess the Back to Back feat, you and an adjacent ally benefit from the +2 bonus to AC against flanking opponents without your ally needing to possess the feat as well.

[Inevitability]

Ooooo, nice! You mind if I use these abilities, perhaps with some slight tweaking?

[Primal Fury]

It's all yours.

[Xefas]

I dunno how many of you guys live in Texas, but I'm going to be at GaMExpo in San Antonio during November 4th and 5th.

I don't know much about the convention itself, other than that (1) it's roleplaying and board game focused, (2) it's within reasonable driving distance, (3) I can get off work that weekend. But that's enough for me. I assume there's a chance it will totally blow, but I'm willing to take that chance.

[Gideon Falcon]

Wait a minute... Am I crazy, or did you change the style of the table in the Bellator post?

[Xefas]

Wait a minute... Am I crazy, or did you change the style of the table in the Bellator post?

Oh? Huh. You're right! I forgot about that.

I guess that was around the time of the table code changes on the forum. I started experimenting with class-customized table graphics ((1) (2) (3)) with a background picture of a "ninth" character inspiration, shopped with a class-related color scheme.

Unfortunately, they turned out to be quite a chore to read. I was messing around with doing more generic ones with maybe a flair here or there, and I suppose I left a generic one up after shelving the idea. I think if I had more experience with photoshop, I might be able to make the idea workable. But I've no real understanding of the program. I just got an old version for cheap back when I was in school.

[TraceChaos]

Hey, Xefas, any word on recovering stuff off your old harddrive? There are several classes I still hope to see you post or finish, since I'm a huge fan of your work.

[Xefas]

Hey, Xefas, any word on recovering stuff off your old harddrive? There are several classes I still hope to see you post or finish, since I'm a huge fan of your work.

Here's some Epistemian.

Exceptional

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Arbitrary Matter Reclamation
Prerequisite: -

Mortal creatures are simple combinations of matter and energy. Positive energy in the soul, elemental fire in its heat and blood, elemental air in its mind and lungs, and so on, woven together by the systems of the Great Wheel to create life. But these systems are themselves constructs of titanic narrative, arbitrary strands of story-stuff repurposed by ambitious gods and immortals, themselves only creatures born of chance from motes of chaos and order.

Complex on the surface, all physical things are just inanimate building blocks, clinging to each other by pure coincidence, fooling themselves into believing they are some greater, independent self. With a glance and an effort of focused will, you allow a creature or object within [(1/2 class level + intelligence modifier) x 10ft] to ignore the lies of its defined shape and realize its true oneness with the empty, aimless ebb and flow of the universe. It must make a Fortitude save. On a failed save, it takes (1d4 per class level) damage, as random chunks of its form are suddenly missing. (Creatures and objects usually die or cease being functional long before their entire form is disintegrated, though this ability may continue to be used on the resulting corpse or broken pieces in order to disintegrate it completely.)

Even though this assault has no obvious visual indicators originating from you, because your own raw will must touch them, creatures are aware of where the aggression came from, though they do not necessarily understand its nature.

(Note that this ability deals damage, so is reduced by Hardness, but is not a weapon or attack, so is not reduced by Damage Reduction.)

Arcanospectrum Optical Enhancement
Prerequisite: 1 rank in the Spot skill

All things of the Great Wheel were created from primal chaos and repurposed, mutilated titanic narrative, from stones and leaves to light and fire to magic and morality. Some things were made more subtle and esoteric than others, but all are, in the end, the same particles given different configurations. An eye that can see can see all. It is only a matter of reduced ignorance.

As a swift action, you can focus your eyes to a higher plane of sight, or unfocus them back to normal viewing.

While using this heightened vision, you see magical auras burning around functioning spell workings and magic items similar to the ones visualized by a fully focused Detect Magic spell, as well as the lingering auras of bygone spells and broken items. You need not spend time studying these auras or utilizing Spellcraft checks to determine their nature; they are as plain to you as any physical feature of the world. For example, while others may glance over a Broom of Flying in a casual search, seeing only a broom, the moment you lay eyes on such an item, the Moderate Aura of Transmutation that it carries is as obvious as the wood it's made of. To others, a powerful adventurer may simply appear to be a surly homeless person wandering down the street with an uncouth number of deadly weapons jammed into their backpack, but their ungodly horde of magic items crammed into a single person-sized space would shine like a brilliant wintermas tree to your eyes.

One notable caveat: while magical invisibility is rendered largely useless against you, as you are able to see the creature (or object) shaped aura of magical (usually Illusion) energy cloaking the hidden being (or thing), mundane forms of stealth can still be effective. A clever enough rogue could, potentially, keep their +1 Leather Armor's faint abjuration aura out of sight as they skulk around you. However, you gain a +5 circumstance bonus on Spot checks to notice things wreathed in a magical aura, or a +5 circumstance bonus on Search checks for a concerted effort to find something (like quickly digging through a clerk's desk for the one document with an Arcane Mark on it).

In addition to its magic-detecting properties, your heightened sight is also capable of seeing the lingering motes of moral and ethical energy that cling to beings touched by the Outer Planes. Unlike magic purpose-built to read a creature's ethos, you cannot see what alignment truly lurks in a creature's essence, only the taint of aligned energy on them. This functions similarly to a Detect Good/Evil/Law/Chaos spell, save that you need not concentrate for multiple rounds to visualize alignment auras, you cannot be stunned by particularly power auras, and you are only able to detect suitable Outsiders, alignment-skewed magic items, the auras of Clerics, and similar beings with powerful aligned auras (such as Incarnates). At your groups discretion, you might be able to detect an aligned planar aura on other creatures that heavily traffick their souls with Outer Planar entities, such as a Warlock that derives their power from a Demon Lord. In all cases, you are non-magically detecting planar energy, not the subject's true morality. So, for example, a Chaotic Good Warlock that has been saddled with the power of Orcus would detect as Chaotic Evil, because it is the taint of the Demon Lord that is being detected, not the Warlock's real character. A Warlock with a Fey patron likely wouldn't ping at all, as the Fey courts largely dwell on the Prime Material Plane.

On the upside, spells such as Undetectable Alignment do nothing to obscure the planar detritus you are detecting, and are thus largely inconsequential to you.

Future-Strand Decryption Sight
Prerequisite: -

When the brief flashes of insight and odd feelings of improbable success begin within an Epistemian, they often assume that they are simply very lucky individuals, benefactors of the random whims of forces or powers beyond their knowing. Or, some others believe that they have become oracles, able to see the paths of their own fate stretched out before them, manuevering themselves through the current of time.

In reality, they are seeing past the context of the physical world, very briefly, to the true underlying patterns of particles and energy and matter that underpin the universe that they see and experience. In truth, there are no unique actions. Everything that is happening has happened before and will happen again, and by using the knowledge of events that have come before, one may make predictions about that which will be.

In an instant, a prediction is made. A potentially perfect prediction, for this is but one dynamic moment pitted against a billion billion such moments and more. The only limiting factor is the imperfect brain that does the calculating.

You gain a pool of Prediction Points, with a maximum capacity equal to your Intelligence modifier. Resting for 8 hours refills the pool to its maximum. You may spend one Prediction Point to reroll any one of your Attack Rolls, Saving Throws, Skill Checks, or Ability Checks, or to force an Attack Roll aimed at you to be rerolled. The new result must be kept, even if it is worse. Only one Prediction Point may be spent per roll.

You must use a Prediction Point after the roll is made, but before you know the results of the roll.

Advanced
Brain-Strain Reduction: Your Prediction Pool's capacity increases by 1. At 4th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, and 19th level, it increases by 1 again.

Synaptic Clarity Increase: When you roll a new die with a Prediction Point, also roll 1d4 and add the result to the rerolled die. At 6th level, roll 2d4 instead. At 12th level, roll 3d4, and at 18th level, roll 4d4.

(name): You may use as many Prediction Points per roll as you wish, continuing to reroll undesirable results. In addition, when you reroll dice with Prediction Points, you are not forced to take the newest result; you may choose among the original result or any of the rerolled results, at your whim.

(name): Every hour, you regain one point of your Prediction Pool, up to its normal maximum.

Perfected Neo-Martial Combat Katas
Prerequisites: -

To memorize every possibility in a conflict scenario and insert a counter-stratagem for each one of them into one's muscle memory is possible, but strenuous for a limited mind, and ultimately unnecessary. First, two broad categories may be removed. To begin, one does not need to know how to defeat maneuvers or enemies so inherently ineffective as to not prove a credible threat in the first place. Secondly, one need not waste time and effort attempting to defeat an opposition so threatening that its ultimate defeat is beyond one's physical limitations.

In the middle, there is a zone of combat involving threats that can be defeated, and require defeating. If there is a solution, a sufficiently intelligent mind can discern it. And once the solution is known, it need only be recalled and implemented.

Through rigorous practice and repetition, you drill into your body a series of painstakingly designed martial forms and movements, associating each one with particular stimuli. At the end of your training, your body is nearly autonomous in combat, subconsciously responding to each state of the battlefield with the, ostensibly perfect, countermeasure.

Merely being in combat is no longer considered "being threatened or distracted" for you, for the purposes of whether or not you can Take 10 on a skill check, though other sources of stress may still apply.

You gain the Uncanny Dodge special quality.

When you make an attack roll with a simple weapon, you roll twice and take the best result.

Advanced
Baleful Crossbow Practice: You incorporate special extensions into your katas for use with crossbows. After making an attack with a crossbow, you may instantly reload it, provided you have the ammunition on your person or within your reach, without an action. You may do this even if you do not have a free hand. You may add your Dexterity modifier as a bonus on damage rolls with a crossbow.

Instantaneous Violence Methodology: You gain Quick Draw and Improved Initiative as bonus feats.

Athletic Kata Expansion: You gain Leap of the Heavens as a bonus feat (PHBII). You may add your Dexterity modifier in place of your Strength modifier for the purposes of your ability bonus on Climb, Jump, and Swim checks. In addition, when you Take 10 on a Balance, Climb, Jump, or Swim check, you may add your Intelligence modifier to the roll in addition to other bonuses.

Maximized Body Utilization: You gain Two-Weapong Fighting as a bonus feat. While you are wielding only simple weapons, ignore two points of the penalty imposed on attacks rolls by fighting with two weapons.

Personality Core Deactivation Mantra
Prerequisite: -

Just as all thoughts, emotions are merely inanimate particles built into waves of energy and chemical signals that mortals mistake for something grand and significant. Just as thoughts can be pushed from one's mind, and memories locked away, emotions are subject to an individual's discipline, and your discipline is greater than most.

As a full-round action, you recite a mantra in your mind, and form the words into a metaphorical prison that encases one of the six fundamental emotions that manipulate your brain. The effects for each imprisoned emotion are listed below. You may only have one emotion imprisoned at a time, but you may release an imprisoned emotion as a swift action, ending the effects of its imprisonment (though requiring a new full-round action to imprison a new emotion).

• Joy. While your Joy is imprisoned, the signals that tell your brain that life is worth living cease to function, and you find no happiness or enjoyment in anything whatsoever. You do not receive morale bonuses (though you may still take morale penalties), and you are immune to any effect that relies on pleasure or elation to function, such as a Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter spell. Prolonged imprisonment of this emotion tends to lead to a surplus of its opposing emotion, Sadness, causing severe depression.
  
• Trust. While your Trust is imprisoned, you lose the ability to have respect for others, or feel confident in their abilities. You cannot feel camaraderie, and no where feels wholly safe when other people are around. No one may be considered your 'Ally' (or 'friend' or similar verbage) for the purposes of effects you generate that effect allies. Effects that rely on your ability to accept someone as an ally or feel trust and friendship have no effect on you, such as a Charm Person spell. However, you never take a penalty on Sense Motive checks due to wanting to believe the creature bluffing you, or any pre-existing emotional connections that might lead your judgment astray. On top of that, you gain a +5 circumstance bonus on all Sense Motive checks, as your social acuity is no longer blinded by unnecessary instincts to form amiable or lasting relationships with others. Prolonged imprisonment of this emotion tends to lead to a surplus of its opposing emotion, Hate, causing you to become cynical and misanthropic.
  
• Fear. While your Fear is imprisoned, you lose much of your sense of self-preservation, and 'potential harm or death' ceases to be a meaningful reason for you to not do something. You are immune to all fear effects. However, you take a -10 circumstance penalty on rolls to resist being goaded or challenged into doing something violent or aggressive (such as by the Goad feat, or the Knight's Challenge class feature of the Knight). Prolonged imprisonment of this emotion leads to a surplus of Anger, in which arrogance, over-aggression, and constant thrill-seeking follow.
  
• Sadness. While your Sadness is imprisoned, there is nothing in your mind that enforces feelings such as grief over lost things, sorrow at misfortune and suffering, hopelessness for bleak circumstances, or the remorse and guilt one feels at their own wrongdoing. Effects that rely on such feelings, such as a Crushing Despair or Sanctify The Wicked spell, have no effect on you. You are also unaffected by all morale penalties (though you may still benefit from morale bonuses). Prolonged imprisonment of this emotion usually leads to excessive optimism, contentment, and a sincere appreciation of life, which will probably annoy the people around you.
  
• Hate. While your Hate is imprisoned, you are separated from the parts of your mind that take satisfaction in the suffering of others, as well as those that reflexively create the heuristics that allow you to broadly categorize and stereotype groups of people into uncomplicated parcels for easier judgment and reaction. You are immune to effects that rely on your hatred or bigotry to function, such as a Bottomless Hate spell. However, you take a -5 circumstance penalty on Initiative checks, as your involuntary instinct to do violence in order to protect yourself or further your goals is delayed by a split-second, unable to take the standard mental short-cuts towards devaluing the lives of others. Prolonged imprisonment of this emotion leads towards empathy and understanding for all living things, as well as constant consternation at the lack of enlightenment in others.
  
• Anger. Anger is an often misunderstood emotion, encompassing the destructive anger of Rage that leads to physical and emotional violence, as well as the constructive anger of Passion, which leads to creation and catharsis. Therefore, when you imprison your Anger, you lose both bloodlust and excitement. Effects that require these things to be within you to function, such as a Rage spell, have no effect. Further, in stressful situations, you find your mind strangely clear, devoid of the need to act with urgency, and you may Take 10 on skill checks, even while being distracted by things like the threat of imminent death. However, you take a -2 penalty on damage rolls, intimidate checks, and saving throws against fear effects, as well as a -4 penalty on long-term projects that require hours or days of commitment, such as most Craft or Profession checks, Perform checks that rely on prior rehearsal, or Heal checks to provide long-term care. Prolonged imprisonment of this emotion tends to allow Fear to rule you - fear of failure and fear of not living up to your own standards or the standards of others causes you to become apathetic to things you may have one enjoyed, while fear of physical or emotional harm leads to passivity and introversion.

Projected Thought-Energy Conversion Force
Prerequisite: -

The mind is already capable of producing and manipulating energy. Electrical charges and chemical reactions surge through the brain, interpreted as thought and feeling, each mental process a massive alteration of matter at the microscopic level. The mind is power, and to truly know this is to release it, allowing one's thoughts to extrude outward and become the world around them, shaping the particles of their own being as they always did, and thereby shaping the world.

You may project brief bursts of thought-force within [(1/2 class level + intelligence modifier) x 10]ft. Each burst exerts the same amount of force as two arms from a Medium creature with a Strength score equal to your Intelligence score. However, the burst cannot be sustained - only projected in short, momentarily jabs. This can allow you to push or throw objects, pull levers, open doors, attempt to instantly break objects like doors and chests using their Break DC, and so on.

When used offensively against a creature or attended objects, your thought-force can Aid Another, Bull Rush, Disarm, Sunder, and Trip, using its effective Strength score, at its standard range, without provoking an attack of opportunity (and not allowing an opponent to do things like counter-trip on a failed trip attempt, as that would be kind of silly). It may also be used as a ranged attack that deals (1d4 + your intelligence modifier) damage. (Note that, since the force can originate from anywhere within range, you can, for example, Bull Rush a creature in any direction you choose, including towards yourself.)

All uses of this ability require the same kind of action as it would take to perform that action physically. For example, if it would take a standard action for a creature to pull a particular lever, it takes a standard action for you to pull it with your mind. If you have two attacks per round due to a high base attack bonus, you could use your thought force to deliver a Bull Rush and then a Trip, since these require only an attack-equivalent action. In most cases, if manipulating something would require longer than a full-round action (like cranking a heavy wheel, for example), you probably can't do it with your thought-force (yet).

Proximate Thought-Energy Conversion Force
Prerequisite: -

The mind is already capable of producing and manipulating energy. Electrical charges and chemical reactions surge through the brain, interpreted as thought and feeling, each mental process a massive alteration of matter at the microscopic level. The mind is power, and to truly know this is to release it, allowing one's thoughts to extrude outward and become the world around them, shaping the particles of their own being as they always did, and thereby shaping the world.

You project a very short-range field of thought-force around yourself, which allows you to bend very close objects with your will. Most often, this is used defensively, thinking away projectiles and fields of energy as they attempt to collide with you. The armor class benefit of your Perceptive class feature ceases to be a Dodge bonus; rather, it becomes an untyped bonus, and therefore also applies to your flat-footed AC. Furthermore, when you make a Reflex saving throw, you may roll twice and take the better result; are your physical or mental reflexes more qualified to protect you?

You may also turn this power to offensive purposes, tearing apart things that you come into contact with. When used as such, your unarmed attacks deal Force damage, and deal damage as if they were one size category larger than they normally are.

Advanced
Atmosphere-Regulating Daydream: Your thought-force passively regulates the temperature around your body, allowing you to exist comfortably in temperatures from -50 to 140 degrees fahrenheit without any protection.

Manufactured Carapace Safeguards: Your thought-force extends over your equipment. Any inanimate object you hold, up to your own size category in size and up to a light load for you in weight, and any item in one of your equipment slots (head, shoulders, feet, etc) gains additional Hardness equal to your Intelligence modifier.

Fantastic

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Advanced Conflict-Equilibrium Matrices
Prerequisite: The 'Perfected Neo-Martial Combat Katas' Mythos

You further refine your combat katas, and work your body into a more perfect vessel for their execution. You gain the Improved Uncanny Dodge special quality. When rolling initiative, you roll twice and may take either result.

Some of the more advanced katas require a solid foundation with which to control the flow of energy between one's self, one's environment, and one's opponent. While you have a solid surface to stand upon or brace against, with an immediate area at least as large as the space you occupy (for example, 5ft for a Medium creature, 10ft for a Large creature, etc), at least as deep as you are tall, and weighing at least as much as you do, all attack rolls made against you must be made twice, utilizing the worse result, and all damage rolls you make with simple weapons are rolled twice, and you may take either result.

Advanced
Close-Quarters Crossbow Katas: You threaten the area around you with held crossbows as if they were melee weapons, and you may make attacks of opportunity with them, although the attacks of opportunity are ranged attacks made by firing the crossbow(s). Making ranged attacks with crossbows no longer provokes an attack of opportunity.

Optimized Reflexive Katas: You gain Combat Reflexes and Pursue (ECS) as bonus feats. However, you may forgo the action-point cost of Pursue by expending your one attack of opportunity for the turn. If you have multiple potential attacks of opportunity per turn (such as by the Combat Reflexes feat), you need only expend one of them to activate Pursue.

Negative-Space Bridging Katas: When taking a 5ft step as part of a full-attack, you may move up to 10ft. You gain Run as a bonus feat.

Fundamental Element Transmutation
Prerequisite: The 'Arbitrary Matter Reclamation' Mythos

You sharpen your skill at using your will to discorporate the physicality of others. Firstly, you may use your Arbitrary Matter Reclamation Mythos to impose a Fortitude save on, and potentially damage, two different targets within range using the same action. At 10th level, you may choose three targets. At 14th level, you may choose four targets. At 18th level, you may choose five targets.

Next, instead of merely disseminating something's elemental matter into the cosmic whole, you may transmute it into another element present within the target, with varying effects as noted below. Targets composed of only one of the following elements cannot be transmuted in this way. Creatures and objects native to the Far Realm are similarly immune.

Use the following elements, unless the target is an Outsider native to the Outer Planes, with at least one alignment subtype - in which case, use the second list.

• Earth. A target with a solid, physical form has some amount of elemental Earth that composes their being. Dealing damage with Arbitrary Matter Reclamation with the intention of transmuting the target into more elemental Earth causes the parts of them that would be wounded to instead change into inert stone.
  
  
• Fire. A target that produces heat from its natural life processes has some amount of elemental Fire that composes their being. Dealing damage with Arbitrary Matter Reclamation with the intention of transmuting the target into more elemental Fire causes the resulting wounds to spew a brief puff of flame and heat. Killing a creature or entirely destroying an object in this way causes them to dissolve into a rush of fire that can catch nearby flammable items on fire, and begin to spread and grow as normal fire would.
  
  
• Air. A target that breathes or is light enough to float in the air of the Prime has some amount of elemental Air that composes their being. Killing a creature or entirely destroying an object with Arbitrary Matter Reclamation with the intention of transmuting the target into more elemental Air causes a strong wind that can extinguish unprotected flames (such as candles) and rustle nearby light items, as well as producing a pocket of fresh, pure, breathable air the same size as the deceased or destroying target, which quickly disperses into the space around it.
  
  
• Water. A target whose body is naturally partially or wholly composed of liquid has some amount of elemental Water that composes their being. Dealing damage with Arbitrary Matter Reclamation with the intention of transmuting the target into more elemental Air causes the resulting wounds to release a trickle of pure, fresh water. Killing a creature or entirely destroying an object in this way causes them to dissolve into a mass of pure, fresh water the same volume as their previous form.
  
  
• Positive Energy. A living target has some amount of Positive Energy composing their being. Dealing damage with Arbitrary Matter Reclamation with the intention of transumuting the target into more Positive Energy causes the resulting wounds to shed beautiful, scintillating light momentarily. Killing a creature or destroying an object in this way causes them to explode in a mass of positive energy that fills the space the target occupied, and an additional 5ft in every direction. Those caught in the blast are healed for 1d4 hit points, or harmed for 1d4 hit points if they are normally harmed by positive energy.
  
  
• Negative Energy. An undead target, or a living target with a finite natural lifespan, has some amount of Negative Energy composing their being. Killing a creature or destroying an object with Arbitary Matter Reclamation with the intention of transmuting the target into more Negative Energy causes them to explode in a mass of negative energy that fills the space the target occupied, and an additional 5ft in every direction. Those caught in the blast are harmed for 1d4 hit points, or healed for 1d4 hit points if they are normally healed by negative energy.

For Outsiders with one or more alignment subtypes, that are native to the Outer Planes, transmuting them functions differently, because their physical form is made up of the ideological elements of the Outer Planes, rather than the physical elements of the Inner Planes.

• Outsiders with two or more alignment subtypes. When you deal damage with Arbitrary Matter Reclamation, choose one of the target's alignment subtypes. They gain a number of [Chosen Alignment] Conversion Points equal to the damage dealt (for example, if the Lawful subtype is chosen, they gain Lawful Conversion Points). If an Outsider is slain such that their soulstuff returns to, and merges with, their home plane to be reconstituted (as happens with most Outsiders when they are killed away from their home plane), while they have Conversion Points for a particular alignment equal to or greater than 1/2 their maximum hit points, the spirit-stuff that constitutes their being is transmuted into a different form. They lose all alignment subtypes other than the one corresponding to their Conversion Points, and their alignment changes to match. They become a native of a different Outer Plane; one that matches their new alignment, and their soul returns to and merges with that plane instead. When they are reconstituted, they become a new entity altogether, commensurate with their new home and ideology. (For example, a Bearded Devil that is transmuted towards Law would probably merge with Mechanus, and become a low-ranking Modron upon their reintroduction to the world. Whereas transmuting Mephistopheles, Archduke of the Eighth Hell towards Law would likely cause him to become something mechanical and modron-like, though ultimately as purely unique, potent, and worldshaping as he previously was.) If an Outsider dies with multiple types of Conversion Points on them, that each exceed 1/2 their maximum hit points, they have not been tipped enough towards one extreme to be fundamentally altered. An Outsider may remove all Conversion Points from themselves by resting for 8 hours.
  
  
• Outsiders with only one alignment subtype. This process functions identically to transmuting Outsiders with two or more alignment subtypes, with the following caveat. Instead of choosing an alignment subtype to determine what form of Conversion Points you infect them with, you may only give them Neutral Conversion Points. Under the previously noted circumstances, an Outsider with Neutral Conversion Points merges with the Outlands, the True Neutral Outer Plane, and will emerge as one of its natives (a Rilmani, or something more unique).

Improved Defensive Thought-Force Measures
Prerequisite: The 'Proximate Thought-Energy Conversion Force' Mythos

Use of your thought-force has become so ingrained in your mind that it has created subconscious subroutines to project autonomic energy-canceling fields around your body, deflecting harm without your conscious will or consent. Whenever you take hit point damage, which is not being paid as a cost by one of your other abilities, reduce that damage by 5. This does not stack with Damage Reduction or Energy Resistance, but is not either of those things, and functions even in situations where they would not apply.

Further, you can create weak, but sustained, telekinetic tethers within your own space, allowing you to "hold" up to (intelligence modifier) objects light enough for you to hold in one hand by levitating them up to a few feet away from your body. Placing an item that you're holding, or mentally picking up an unattended item already in your space, into a tether is a swift action, as is transferring an item from a tether into one of your empty hands. If you have the Quick Draw feat, once per round, you may reduce one such swift action to a free action. You may deactivate any or all tethers as a free action, dropping held items to the ground.

It is possible for another creature, or other environmental circumstances, to forcibly remove an item from one of your tethers. This is as difficult as it would be for an item to be forcibly removed from the grip of one of your hands, substituting your Intelligence score in place of your Strength score. Your tether is considered to be "gripping" an item in the same way you would usually hold it with your hands, unless you've otherwise specified. (For example, there's nothing stopping you from telekinetically holding a sword by the blade, but unless you specify that you're doing so, your mind subconsciously thinks of itself as "holding" the sword by its hilt.)

You gain Deflect Arrows and Snatch Arrows as bonus feats.

If you have an unfilled telekinetic tether from this Mythos, you may use it as an "empty hand" for the purposes of the Snatch Arrows feat, grabbing projectiles out of the air and holding them for you, thereby occupying that tether. Unless you have the 'Improved Offensive Thought-Force Measures' Mythos, you cannot use your mental tethers to reflexively return-throw projectiles caught by them using the Snatch Arrows feat.

Basic

Emotional Distance Literality: You may only learn this manifestation if you possess the "Personality Core Deactivation Mantra" Mythos. If you already know "Improved Defensive Thought-Force Measures" and only later gain "Personality Core Deactivation Mantra", you instantly receive this manifestation.

With an hour-long meditation-ritual, you may permanently externalize one of the six fundamental emotions featured in "Personality Core Deactivation Mantra". This creates a small bauble about the size of your fist which gently orbits your body, containing the essence of your forsaken emotion. Its exact appearance is determined by you, with the following requirements: it must be primarily one color; if you create multiple externalized personality cores, each must have a different primary color; somewhere on each bauble, the mantra you previously used to deactivate that emotion must be written; it can be written multiple in multiple languages, but it is always written at least once in the ancient script of the titans.

While your emotion is exiled to one of these external baubles, you are capable of perfectly rationally deciding when to, and when not to, act with the externalized emotion. You may consider the emotion imprisoned and not imprisoned at any moment, whichever you find most advantageous at the time. For example, if you have externalized your Sadness, you consciously choose when to feel sad. If you get hit with a Crushing Despair spell, you can simply choose not to be sad, rendering yourself immune as if your Sadness was imprisoned. However, if you don't feel like becoming a creepily utilitarian happiness machine, you can turn on your sadness from time to time to retain your humanity.

Your emotional baubles can be attacked individually as if they were your limbs; i.e. not usually. However, esoteric abilities like a Sword of Sharpness or a Teramach's Hero-Sundering Hands Mythos, which can sever limbs, can specifically target your baubles. In addition to whatever deleterious effects that these abilities might impose upon severing your emotional limb, the bauble shatters into powder and its particular emotion is considered to be irrevocably imprisoned by the 'Personality Core Deactivation Mantra' Mythos until you can spend another hour in meditation re-creating your sundered emotion. You never take ongoing damage from blood-loss from having a bauble destroyed by a limb-severing ability, because that would be weird.

This manifestation can be used as many times as desired, externalizing any or all of your emotions, though each emotion takes a separate meditative ritual.

Seeing Through The Facade
Prerequisite: The 'Arcanospectrum Optical Enhancement' Mythos

Personal Gravity Field
Prerequisite: The 'Proximate Thought-Energy Conversion Force' Mythos

Your thought-force gains enough finesse to bend the cosmic force of gravity around your physical form. You gain an (Intelligence modifier x 10)ft Fly speed with perfect maneuverability.

In addition, you are immune to gravity-based effects unless you consciously allow them to affect you. This includes the gravity traits of planes, and things like a Reverse Gravity spell.

Legendary

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Consolidated Timeline Actualization
Prerequisite: -

One of the fundamental goals of the Lawgivers in creating the Great Wheel was to provide free will to all the creatures that dwell upon it. In their minds, without complete and true freedom of will, any life they brought into being would be just as meaningless as they believed the story-constructs played with by the Titans had been. So, they formed their vast multiversal machine to that effect, facilitating and regulating reality but not, itself, defining its events.

They succeeded, but the grandest and most monumental construction that will ever exist could not be made without compromise. Free will exists, but the Great Wheel must read, interpret, and reconcile trillions of acts of free will with every moment, consolidating them, instant-by-instant, into the present yoctosecond of reality. A job so impossibly complex that it is, as far as any being knows, impossible. In a truth known only to the very creators of the Wheel, and to those with this Mythos, the multiverse has a tiny 'buffering zone', in which it compiles all of the multiverse's free will for the next upcoming second or two, and then plays them as reality while it compiles more free will and creates the next few seconds.

With this Mythos, your knowledge of yourself ceases to be compromised by time. You attain absolutely perfect eidetic memory, all the way back to the moment your brain became complex enough to store thoughts while you languished in the womb. You remember it all, from your perspective, down to the last detail, and may view each moment in your mind like a still photograph. In this way, you can retroactively 'take 20' on Spot checks to notice details that happened in your past. You could, for example, glimpse a crime-scene for a mere moment then, later, spend a few minutes 'taking 20' on a Spot check to examine the crime-scene through your picture-perfect memory.

The odd part is that you can also remember 'past' events that have occurred in the Great Wheel's buffering zone, but have not yet become reality, as they have already been solidified into a part of your timeline. This gives you a kind of self-centered foresight that prevents you from ever being Surprised or rendered Flat-Footed, and you may choose to gain a +2 circumstance bonus on any roll you ever make that represents an action taken by you with free will, such as most skill checks, attack rolls, reflex saves, and damage rolls (something like a fortitude save won't usually apply, as it represents your physical hardiness, not an action you take).

[Gideon Falcon]

Oh my gosh this is AWESOME. I'm guessing the Epistemian is the Mythic sage of some sort? I think it's safe to say either way that Neo or Morpheus is going to be in the banner.

[Xefas]

Oh my gosh this is AWESOME. I'm guessing the Epistemian is the Mythic sage of some sort? I think it's safe to say either way that Neo or Morpheus is going to be in the banner.

"Perfected Neo-Martial Combat Katas" is a reference to Neo, as well as the Gun Katas of the movie, Equilibrium. "Baleful Crossbow Practices" is a reference to Christian Bale, who plays the lead in Equilibrium. The expansion Mythos to that one, "Advanced Conflict-Equilibrium Matrices" references both Equilibrium and the Matrix.

The banner I made years ago is in the imgur album link, wherever that is. It would be different if I made it now, I think. For one, I wrote what's here long before Kill Six Billion Demons was a thing, and I feel like someone would need to make it in the banner, given that setting's similarly nihilistic 'grand illusion'. Maybe 1 Metatron. Or something.

[TraceChaos]

Epistemian! Sick. I'm likin' the mytyhos. Feels very 'Sidereal' in Exalted terms.

Also, 1 Metatron hasn't actually SEEN the grand illusion, or it hasn't been confirmed. There's the demiurge in the ice who has, and 6 Juggernaut Star has seen a ton, as well, but those two and Aesma are the only ones to have seen the universe for what it really is that we know.

Also ; Are there any mythos from the Mythic Dragon you're willing to share, or is that still too far off? Because I recall you saying somewhere that "At low levels, someone might wrongly assume you're some kind of half-dragon. At higher levels, people will rightly assume you're some kind of dragon." Which sounds great.

If note, that's fine.

Edit : Stuff, typo fixes.

[Xefas]

Also, 1 Metatron hasn't actually SEEN the grand illusion, or it hasn't been confirmed. There's the demiurge in the ice who has, and 6 Juggernaut Star has seen a ton, as well, but those two and Aesma are the only ones to have seen the universe for what it really is that we know.

An excellent point. Jadis, omniscient and mindbroken from glimpsing the true shape of the universe, makes for a pretty good candidate.

Also ; Are there any mythos from the Mythic Dragon you're willing to share, or is that still too far off? Because I recall you saying somewhere that "At low levels, someone might wrongly assume you're some kind of half-dragon. At higher levels, people will rightly assume you're some kind of dragon." Which sounds great.

If note, that's fine.

What I've currently got for the dragon is not, I think, the direction I would be going in anymore if I were to write it. The half-dragon -> dragon thing is still good. But I seem to have been writing some funky psionic theme as its secondary schtick.

As consolation, I do have this smattering of Mythos from a class called the "Atelis", pulled from my scrapped ideas folder. I found reading it interesting, because I actually don't remember writing any of it, though I do vaguely remember deciding to write it. My best guess is that I cranked this out over the course of a sleepless night, probably when I had the flu or something.

Fantastic (I'm putting these first because they're far more interesting than the Exceptional ones, which are largely bland.)

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Anatomical Frame Expansion
Prerequisite: -
Activation: X Biomass, where X is the difference between the amount of Biomass your current size category is worth, and the amount of Biomass the next largest category is worth. For example, if you are a Medium creature, the Activation requirement is 12 Biomass.

Your size category increases by 1 step. Your statistics change as normal for a creature that is advanced a size category. For example, a Medium creature that becomes Large gains +8 Strength, +4 Constitution, and +2 Natural Armor, but -2 to Dexterity.

Hollowed Symbiote Metamorphosis
Prerequisite: The 'Wool-Stealing Wolf Camouflage' and 'Vital Function Decentralization' Mythos

With your flesh-scultping acumen, combined with the real-estate freed up by the alteration of your vital organs, you are able to create a hollow space within yourself, lined with thousands of tiny connections to your nervous system.

As a full-round action, you may split yourself open and stuff a willing, helpless, or pinned creature with a size category equal to or smaller than your own, into your cavity, becoming a fleshy symbiotic suit over their body.

While functioning as a symbiotic suit;

• Use the higher of your Strength or your host's Strength.
• If your host is willing, you may use their Dexterity if it's higher.
• Use the higher of your movement speed or your host's movement speed. If they have a movement speed you do not possess (such as Fly or Burrow), you may use it.
• When you take a physical action, your host may resist, enforcing an opposed Strength check. If they are victorious, your action is wasted. You both must use your own Strength scores for this roll.
• Your host cannot be targeted separately from you, except by purely mental effects. You are always the target of attacks, always make the Fortitude and Reflex saves, and so on. However, when you take damage from a physical source, be it a stab wound, or a fireball, you may apply up to half of that damage to your host.
• At the end of your turn, you may choose to digest part of your host, dealing 1d6 acid damage to them. If you kill your host with this damage, or destroy their corpse with it, they are instantly dissolved and converted to Biomass.
• You may use any body parts possessed by your host that you do not. For example, if your host has four arms, and you normally have two, you may act as if you had four arms.
• Your size category cannot be reduced below that of your host's. Effects that would reduce your size category beyond this threshold are negated by the connection you have to your host's body.

While a host is wearing you;

• They use the higher of your Strength or theirs.
• If you're willing, they may use your Dexterity if its higher than their own.
• They use the higher of your movement speed or their movement speed. If you have a movement speed they do not possess (such as Fly or Burrow), they may use it.
• When they take a physical action, you may resist them, enforcing an opposed Strength check. If you are victorious, their action is wasted. You both must use your own Strength scores for this roll.
• They gain the benefits of all of your Ancillary Mutations, provided you are not currently hiding them with Wool-Stealing Wolf Camouflage. When you use Fluctuating Flesh Mass, they gain the benefits of whichever form you are in as well. If you are disguising your voice with Wool-Stealing Wolf Camouflage, your host's voice is altered as well.
• They act as if their size category was equal to your own.
• They use your senses, in place of their own. If they have Darkvision and you do not, then they do not have Darkvision. If you have Scent, and they do not, then they have Scent, and so on.
• As a standard action, they may attempt to tear their way out of you with an opposed Strength check. You both must use your own Strength score for this roll, but your host gains a +2 bonus on the roll if you are at half health or less, a +4 if you're at a quarter of your health or less, and a total +6 bonus if you are unconscious or in negative health. If your host is victorious, you are Staggered on your next turn, and they are spit out into an adjacent space.
• When your host makes a Spot, Listen, or Search check, or any check with a Strength or Dexterity based skill, they may use their own total skill modifier or yours, whichever is higher.

Whenever one of you moves, the other moves likewise - this does not require an action on their part. After you have been attached to the same host for 24 hours, they two of you may communicate telepathically to one another, even if you do not share a language, transmitting information directly from one brain to the other.

As a full-round action, you may peel yourself off of a host, moving into an adjacent space and becoming your own creature again.

Reach-Extending Extrusion
Prerequisite: -
Activation: 1 Biomass

The cells in your limbs store a little extra musculature in them, compacted and folded away until needed. Your Reach extends by 5ft, but this quality is not immediately apparent to onlookers. Instead, when you need the extra Reach, your limbs extend themselves, gaining length from seemingly nowhere, then retracting back into seemingly nowhere when finished. The first time you attack a creature with this extra Reach, if they have no reason to believe you can extend your limbs, they are flat-footed for the attack.

In addition, you may unleash a thin, ropy tentacle as a swift action. The tentacle can reach a maximum of (class level x 5)ft, plus 15ft if you're Small sized, 30ft if you're Medium, 60ft if you're Large, 120ft if you're Huge, 240ft if you're Gargantuan, and 480ft if you're Colossal.

If aimed at a creature, you must make a Ranged Touch Attack against them. If successful, your tentacle wraps around and holds them. While you have a creature snared in this way, you may make Bull Rush attempts against them, regardless of the distance separating you, but you do not provoke an attack of opportunity, they cannot attempt to counter-Bull-Rush you if you fail, and you may move your target up to 5ft per point you beat their check by, rather than per 5 points. You cannot Bull Rush a creature in such a way that they are moved further away from you; you must pull them towards you, or yank them to the side. If you yank a creature hard enough that they impact a solid barrier, they and the barrier both take 1d6 damage per 5ft of forced movement they were unable to move.

If aimed at an object, you must make a Ranged Touch Attack against it. If successful, your tentacle sticks to it. If the object is a Light Load for you or less, you may pull it towards you or yank it to one side as a standard action, moving it up to 50ft. If it weighs between a Light Load and Medium Load, you may only move it 25ft. If the object impacts another character, they make an opposed Strength check against you. If they succeed, the object stops moving, and they are unmoved. If they fail, they are dragged along with the object for as far as your action is forcing it to move.

If aimed at a solid structure, you may have the tentacle secure itself to the surface, and then use it like a grappling hook for climbing, or for swinging.

Your tentacle has an Armor Class of (5 + your Natural Armor Bonus), and a number of hit points equal to your Constitution modifier. It shares any Fast Healing you have from Mythos. If its hit points are reduced to 0, the tentacle is severed and you must wait one full round before redeploying it.

You may have a total of two of these tentacles deployed at once.

Thousand Eyes Idol
Prerequisite: -

Your body grows small, fleshy eyes in strategic places all over its body. You gain Quick Reconnoiter (CA) and Danger Sense (CA) as bonus feats, as well as the Uncanny Dodge class feature, which allows you to retain your Dexterity bonus to your AC even if you're caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker.

Finally, you gain the All-Around Vision special quality, which provides a +4 bonus on Spot and Search checks, and prevents you from being flanked.

All the benefits of this Mythos are an Ancillary Mutation.

Wool-Stealing Wolf Camouflage
Prerequisite: -

You may shape the exterior flesh of your body to change your appearance, as well as altering your voice, as a full-round action. This can make you as tall or as short, as thin or as fat, as you choose within the bounds of your size category. Your hair and skin color can be altered at your whim, and you may apply as many minor cosmetic features, such as scars, birthmarks, tattoos, and so on, as you wish. You can alter your sex to any possible for your race, growing fully functional reproductive organs in the process.

You may conceal the physical appearance of any Ancillary Mutations you have, but you lose their benefits in the process. You may choose to use a concealed Ancillary Mutation while disguising yourself, reinstating its benefits, but its physical appearance appears on your disguise until you use another action to re-disguise yourself.

You may also create the appearance of clothing or armor over your body, extruding a thick layer of flesh and then shaping its surface to mimic fabric, leather, metal, or what-have-you. You can mimic the sound of clinking armor or rustling cloth, and the tactile feeling of linen or steel, and so on, but they do not actually confer the benefits of clothing or armor, such as protection against heat or cold, or an Armor Class bonus. And, of course, you cannot take your flesh-wear off.

You may use this Mythos to mimic a specific person. However, this requires a Disguise check to determine the authenticity of the various details a character might notice to out you as an imposter. The benefits are that you do not require a disguise kit, being able to create whatever modifications you need from your flesh, and you take no penalty on the check for impersonating a different gender, race, or age category.

If you consume a piece of a person, equivalent to a lock of hair, a finger, or an eyeball, or larger, you gain a +10 bonus on Disguise checks to impersonate them with this Mythos. If you consume a person's entire body, from scalp to toes, bones and organs all, this bonus increases to +20.

Vital Function Decentralization
Prerequisite: -

Your vital organs are separated into smaller components, reinforced with a multitude of redundancies, and dispersed throughout your entire body, reducing the danger presented by catastrophic damage to any one location. You are immune to critical hits and precision damage (such as sneak attack and sudden strike), and decapitation no longer kills you. Effects targeted against individual organs (such as a Heartclutch spell) have no effect on you.

Furthermore, the destruction of one of your sensory organs does not actually inhibit its functionality. For example, you may still see if your eyes are cut out, although you may still be magically blinded, as some other part of your body will pick up the function of transmitting visual data to your dispersed brain-packets. Having your tongue cut out means nothing when you can use your entire body to taste with. And so on.

Every hour, you recover from one point of Ability Damage or Drain, in addition to any natural healing.

Exceptional

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Compounded Keratin Offense Mechanism
Prerequisite: -

Your body has judged the weapons of its birthright insufficient for its purposes. Your hands rebuild themselves, bones hardening, joints reinforced, the structures of your nails bracing themselves deeply, and sharpening at the ends, forming functional claws. Under close inspection, they look unsettling inhuman, but casual interaction merely leaves an impression that your hands are 'odd'.

You gain Superior Unarmed Strike (ToB) as a bonus feat, and you may deal slashing, piercing, or bludgeoning damage with your unarmed strikes. You also gain a Climb speed equal to one half of your Land speed while you have one hand free, or equal to your Land speed if you use both hands to climb.

Finally, your body passively improves the structure of its weaponry over time. At 5th level, you gain a +1 enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls with unarmed attacks, and your unarmed attacks bypass damage reduction as if they were magical. At 10th level, this enhancement bonus increases by 1, and your unarmed attacks bypass damage reduction that may be bypassed by a particular material (such as silver or cold iron). At 13th, 15th, and 17th level, this enhancement bonus increases by another 1.

All the benefits of this Mythos are an Ancillary Mutation.

Constant Combat Evolution
Prerequisite: -

In the stress of battle, your conscious mind is occupied with the stress of violence and impending death, levying all of its know-how towards survival and victory. However, the primitive minds awakened within your cells are doing their own part to defend you, subconsciously noting the movements of your predators and prey, and subconsciously adjusting your movements to take advantage of what they've gleaned.

Every time you are hit with an enemy's attack and take damage, you gain a +1 Insight bonus to your Armor Class, up to a maximum of your Constitution modifier.

Every time you fail a saving throw imposed by an enemy, you gain a +1 Insight bonus to saving throws of the same kind, up to a maximum of your Constitution modifier.

Every time you miss with an attack roll against an enemy, you gain a +1 Insight bonus on attack rolls against the same opponent, up to a maximum of your Constitution modifier.

All accumulated bonuses vanish 5 minutes after you can no longer perceive direct danger to yourself, as your cells relinquish their life-or-death stress, and go about their normal duties.

Fierce Jungle-Queen Fitness
Prerequisite: -

Your muscles and tendons rebuild themselves for optimum performance in a harsh and brutal world. You gain Brachiation (CA), Leap of the Heavens (PHBII), and Endurance as bonus feats.

You gain a +2 circumstance bonus on Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Jump, Swim, and Tumble checks. Furthermore, you may substitute your Constitution modifier in place of your Strength or Dexterity modifier for the purposes of your ability bonus on checks with those skills, relying on the competence of your body's self-modification, rather than your innate musculature or reflexes.

At 4th level, you ignore difficult terrain composed of non-magical, natural vegetation, such as thick undergrowth or brambles.

Flesh-Eating Cannibal Maw
Prerequisite: -

You gain Death Blow (CAd) as a bonus feat.

Your mouth rebuilds itself with sharpened, hardened teeth, a longer tongue, a reinforced, wider-opening jaw, and an esophagus more fit for swallowing larger, unchewed portions. A separate channel between your nose and lungs is incorporated, so you can still breathe with an obstructed throat.

You gain a natural Bite attack, which can be used as a primary or secondary natural weapon. Its base damage for a medium creature is 1d6. When you utilize your Death Blow feat to deliver a Coup De Grace with your natural Bite attack, you may specifically target a particular vital organ, such as the heart or brain, tearing it out and swallowing it whole on a successful kill.

After killing a creature in this way, you gain a surge of adrenaline, removing any ongoing Fear effects on you, and giving you a +2 morale bonus on attack and damage rolls for 5 minutes.

Creatures with this Mythos do not necessarily look abnormal while just going about their normal business. However, speaking reveals the freakishly sharp teeth, and utilizing one's Bite attack fully reveals the Atelis' terrifying, aberrant nature.

The Bite attack granted by this Mythos is an Ancillary Mutation, but the other benefits are not.

Fluctuating Flesh Mass
Prerequisite: -

Using similar methods to how your awakened cells can condense and store vast quantities of Biomass in your relatively limited frame, you gain a degree of control over your shape.

As a swift action, you may change between an Inflated Form, Deflated Form, or your normal shape.

While in your Inflated Form, you add muscle and mass to your body, gaining a +4 bonus to your Strength, and gaining the Powerful Build trait (Whenever you are subject to a size modifier for an opposed check, you are treated as one size larger if doing so is advantagous. You are also considered one size larger when determining whether a creature's special attacks based on size can affect you. You can use weapons designed for a creature one size larger than yourself without penalty.) and you are treated as being one size category larger than you are for the purposes of your unarmed attack damage (if you already houserule that Powerful Build increases unarmed attack damage, ignore this).

While in your Deflated Form, you contract your body as much as possible, gaining thin, wiry, muscles. You gain a +4 bonus to your Dexterity, and gain the Slight Build trait (Whenever you are subject to a size modifier for an opposed check, such as for the Hide skill, you are treated as one size smaller if doing so is advantageous. You are also considered one size smaller when 'squeezing' through a restrictive space. You may use weapons designed for a creature one size smaller without penalty.)

Deflating yourself is often enough to slip through ropes, manacles, and other bindings without a check, unless they're deliberately tied or constructed with failsafes in mind for such an ability. Even in such cases, if you are tied up (or grappled) while in your normal state or your Inflated Form, and you Deflate yourself, you add your Constitution modifier as a bonus on Escape Artist checks to escape the bindings (or grapple) until the end of your turn. You may Inflate and Deflate turn after turn to continue gaining this bonus on subsequent attempts, if necessary, stretching out ropes and confounding would-be grapplers.

Heightened Predator Senses
Prerequisite: -

Your sensory organs rebuild themselves for heightened sensitivity. You gain Track as a bonus feat, the Scent special quality, Low-Light Vision, and Darkvision out to 60ft.

You gain a +2 circumstance bonus on Spot, Listen, Hide, Move Silently, and Survival checks. Furthermore, you may substitute your Constitution modifier in place of your Wisdom or Dexterity modifier for the purposes of your ability bonus on checks with those skills, relying on the competence of your body's self-modification, rather than your brain's intuition.

Finally, when using your Track feat, you do not take the -5 penalty for moving at your normal speed while tracking.

Optimized Battle Appendage
Prerequisite: -
Activation: 2 Biomass

One of your arms transforms into a grotesque, but highly effective, organic instrument of death. It no longer serves the functions of a hand, but when used offensively, it works as an unarmed strike that deals damage two size categories larger than usual, and is considered a two-handed weapon for the purposes of your Strength modifier to damage and the Power Attack feat. Choose whether it is a bludgeoning, slashing, or piercing weapon.

At the end of your turn, you may choose one creature you successfully struck and dealt damage to with your Optimized Battle Appendage.
[list][*]If it was a Bludgeoning Appendage, usually a thick arm topped with a massive ball of gristle and bone, you make a free Bull Rush attempt against the target. Unlike a normal Bull Rush, you may send the target in any direction of your choosing. If you succeed with a wide enough margin to push the victim beyond 5 feet, you may do so without needing to follow them. Instead, you merely send them arcing through the air with a mighty blow. If this causes them to strike a solid barrier, they and the barrier both take 1d6 damage per 5 feet of forced movement that they were unable to take due to striking the barrier. On a failed Bull Rush attempt, your target cannot react to counter-Bull-Rush you.[*]If it was a Slashing Appendage, usually a long limb topped with an axe-head of bone, or with a long sharpened blade of bone protruding from one side of the limb like a cleaver's blade, your chosen target must make a Reflex save. On a failed save, their armor takes the same amount of damage you dealt to them with the attack that triggered this ability. If you destroy an opponent's armor in this way, you gain its gold piece value in Mythos Points.[*]If it was a Piercing Appendage, usually an oversized mass of bony spikes, or a spindly arm ending in a massive double-headed pick, your target must make a Fortitude save or begin to bleed for 1 hit point of damage at the beginning of each of their turns. This lasts for 1 minute, until the victim receives at least one point of magical healing, or receives a DC 10 Heal check as a standard action. A creature can suffer from multiple bleeding wounds of this kind at the same time.

This is a Prime Mutation. When you spend an action to swap your Prime Mutation, you may change which kind of appendage (Bludgeoning, Slashing, or Piercing) this Mythos grants you.


Pack Hunter Instincts
Prerequisite: -

Something has changed in your brain chemistry, giving you the killer instincts of a predatory beast.

You gain Combat Reflexes, Deft Opportunist (CAd), Clever Opportunist (DotU), and Expert Tactician (CAd) as bonus feats.

Photosynthetic Flora Hybridization
Prerequisite: -
Activation: 1 Biomass acquired through consuming photosynthetic vegetable matter, and at least 4 ranks in Knowledge (Nature).

Your body incorporates plant-like qualities into the cells of your skin and digestive system, as well as in a few other important places.

As long as you are exposed to 1 hour of natural sunlight a day, or 2 hours of any light, you do not require food to sustain yourself for the day, although you still require water as normal, and your natural healing rate is doubled. This alteration causes your skin to take on a slight greenish tone that, while not making you look immediately inhuman, is still noticeable enough to be noteworthy.

You are immune to poisons, and may speak with plant-life as if by a Speak With Plants spell, as an Extraordinary ability, your body releasing pheromones to communicate the intent of your words.

At 6th level, if you are properly watered, and have been exposed to light for the aforementioned length of time necessary to obviate traditional foods, you gain Fast Healing 1 for 24 hours. This Fast Healing increases by 1 per two levels above 6th (2 at 8th, 3 at 10th, etc).

All the benefits of this Mythos are an Ancillary Mutation.

And the class's "Biomass" feature.

Spoiler

Show

Biomass: Although an Atelis' body is eager to shape itself, perfection is not free. Many of their mythic abilities require raw materials to function, measured in Biomass. Biomass is stored within an Atelis body, to a maximum of (class level) points, plus an additional amount based on their size. This is +1 for Small, +2 for Medium, +4 for Large, +8 for Huge, +16 for Gargantuan, and +32 for Colossal. If an Atelis's size changes such that they can no longer contain all their Biomass, they disgorge a voluminous purple slurry containing the excess. This slurry can be reconsumed to regain the lost Biomass, by the original Atelis or another.

An Atelis acquires points of Biomass by consumption. To avoid lengthy debates at the table about weight and mass, here is a simplified guideline for how much Biomass something is worth: An amount of meat equivalent in size to a Small creature is worth 1 Biomass. A Medium creature equivalent is worth 4, a Large is worth 16, a Huge is worth 64, a Gargantuan is worth 256, and a feast equivalent to a Colossal creature is worth 1024. Vegetable matter is worth half as much for its size.

A single point of Biomass can be consumed in parts, such as eating a plate of steaks, rather than having to swallow an entire animal whole, but if an entire point of Biomass isn't conglomerated in the span of a few minutes, it's wasted. That is, you can't eat one trail ration every day for two months and create a point of Biomass - it has to be taken in one sitting.

Some notes on not being a cannibal: For the non-squeamish, buying a cow from an average settlement only costs 10 gold pieces, and is worth 4 Biomass once you kill it and gorge yourself on its raw, bloody flesh. To eat like a civilized person will usually cost you about 30gp per point of Biomass, assuming you can even find an inn or restaurant that will prepare such a large meal on short notice, and won't chase you out of town with pitchforks once they see you eat it all in one go.

Based on the above, I'm almost certain that Past Me was going to have the Legendary Mythos focused around spending Biomass to spawn NotZerg, based around a system of granting Primary and Ancillary Mutations. I assume the Shintai was going to be either becoming an immobile Overmind structure, or using the Symbiote Fantastic Mythos to permanently 'chrysalis' onto someone else and fuse with them. Or maybe one of each.

[ImperatorV]

...It's funny, I was just re-reading the Kreikiri, which is also a biology-themed mythos class. One that has a Shintai to turn into a immobile flesh-fortress spawning not-creep, at that. The Atelis seems very different in how it approaches the subject matter, though.

[Gideon Falcon]

Yeah, it seems like an even cross between the Epifovian and the Kreikiri- so it was probably made before either of them. How appropriate, that something so Lovecraftian was written unremembered in a tortured fever-dream...

Either way, those could easily be repurposed as new Mythos for said classes, if the Atelis doesn't have enough on its own. If it does, the main concern is finding a picture of the Thing that can be shown on the boards for the banner...

[Lanth Sor]

Zerg like all the Big ones. Initially i thought i was reading things for the becoming a dragon class.

[Quarian Rex]

"Atelis"

For the love of the babby jebus finish this. I'm a huge fan of body horror and this looks like it has a lot of potential. There can never be enough shapeshifting symbiont weirdness.

[Lanth Sor]

Thinking of hashing up the Syntrophos counter for armor so far i have, for my options.

Venom(Marvel)
BerskerkerArmor(Berserk)
Iron Man (SentientArmor) (Earth-616)
Senketsu(Kill LaKill)
Cyborsuit(Starkid)
Alphonse Elric (FullMetal Alchemist)

[Lanth Sor]

Quick update I made a Discord for Mythos class discussion.

Discord Channel

[TraceChaos]

Hollowed Symbiote Metamorphosis
Prerequisite: The 'Wool-Stealing Wolf Camouflage' and 'Vital Function Decentralization' Mythos

With your flesh-scultping acumen, combined with the real-estate freed up by the alteration of your vital organs, you are able to create a hollow space within yourself, lined with thousands of tiny connections to your nervous system.

As a full-round action, you may split yourself open and stuff a willing, helpless, or pinned creature with a size category equal to or smaller than your own, into your cavity, becoming a fleshy symbiotic suit over their body.

While functioning as a symbiotic suit;

• Use the higher of your Strength or your host's Strength.
• If your host is willing, you may use their Dexterity if it's higher.
• Use the higher of your movement speed or your host's movement speed. If they have a movement speed you do not possess (such as Fly or Burrow), you may use it.
• When you take a physical action, your host may resist, enforcing an opposed Strength check. If they are victorious, your action is wasted. You both must use your own Strength scores for this roll.
• Your host cannot be targeted separately from you, except by purely mental effects. You are always the target of attacks, always make the Fortitude and Reflex saves, and so on. However, when you take damage from a physical source, be it a stab wound, or a fireball, you may apply up to half of that damage to your host.
• At the end of your turn, you may choose to digest part of your host, dealing 1d6 acid damage to them. If you kill your host with this damage, or destroy their corpse with it, they are instantly dissolved and converted to Biomass.
• You may use any body parts possessed by your host that you do not. For example, if your host has four arms, and you normally have two, you may act as if you had four arms.
• Your size category cannot be reduced below that of your host's. Effects that would reduce your size category beyond this threshold are negated by the connection you have to your host's body.

While a host is wearing you;

• They use the higher of your Strength or theirs.
• If you're willing, they may use your Dexterity if its higher than their own.
• They use the higher of your movement speed or their movement speed. If you have a movement speed they do not possess (such as Fly or Burrow), they may use it.
• When they take a physical action, you may resist them, enforcing an opposed Strength check. If you are victorious, their action is wasted. You both must use your own Strength scores for this roll.
• They gain the benefits of all of your Ancillary Mutations, provided you are not currently hiding them with Wool-Stealing Wolf Camouflage. When you use Fluctuating Flesh Mass, they gain the benefits of whichever form you are in as well. If you are disguising your voice with Wool-Stealing Wolf Camouflage, your host's voice is altered as well.
• They act as if their size category was equal to your own.
• They use your senses, in place of their own. If they have Darkvision and you do not, then they do not have Darkvision. If you have Scent, and they do not, then they have Scent, and so on.
• As a standard action, they may attempt to tear their way out of you with an opposed Strength check. You both must use your own Strength score for this roll, but your host gains a +2 bonus on the roll if you are at half health or less, a +4 if you're at a quarter of your health or less, and a total +6 bonus if you are unconscious or in negative health. If your host is victorious, you are Staggered on your next turn, and they are spit out into an adjacent space.
• When your host makes a Spot, Listen, or Search check, or any check with a Strength or Dexterity based skill, they may use their own total skill modifier or yours, whichever is higher.

Whenever one of you moves, the other moves likewise - this does not require an action on their part. After you have been attached to the same host for 24 hours, they two of you may communicate telepathically to one another, even if you do not share a language, transmitting information directly from one brain to the other.

As a full-round action, you may peel yourself off of a host, moving into an adjacent space and becoming your own creature again.

This. THIS IS GREAT. I tried a while back to make a symbiote mythos, failed, and never tried to go back because I'm just not great at mythos creation. I really want the ability to use this some time, play a Spider-Man style symbiote and such.

Very cool times, either way. Shame it's a scrapped idea.

[Zale]

"Perfected Neo-Martial Combat Katas" is a reference to Neo, as well as the Gun Katas of the movie, Equilibrium. "Baleful Crossbow Practices" is a reference to Christian Bale, who plays the lead in Equilibrium. The expansion Mythos to that one, "Advanced Conflict-Equilibrium Matrices" references both Equilibrium and the Matrix.

The banner I made years ago is in the imgur album link, wherever that is. It would be different if I made it now, I think. For one, I wrote what's here long before Kill Six Billion Demons was a thing, and I feel like someone would need to make it in the banner, given that setting's similarly nihilistic 'grand illusion'. Maybe 1 Metatron. Or something.

Banner Link

Quote:

Epistemian
"See your world through my eyes - a universe so vast as to be immeasurable; incomprehensible, even to your greatest minds." ~Algalon the Observer, World of Warcraft

The nature of the titan, whose name was 'Union' to her brothers and sisters, was not one of power, presence, or strength, but of simple sight. The Epistemian has had the misfortune of stumbling into the same narrative, and with it, become able to see. See, truthfully. See the world as it truly is.

Theirs is a fate worse than death.

I thought they had a SWLIHN taste.

[Xefas]

Quick update I made a Discord for Mythos class discussion.

Discord Channel

I forgot to thank Lanth for making this Discord while I was on last night. So. Thank you!

I'll probably be back on at 10ish pm*.

^{*(That's 8.5 hours from this post.)}

[TraceChaos]

Graven Void Shintai
Prerequisites: The Undead type, at least One(1) Oblivion-descriptor Mythos.

Few Olethrofex have allowed Oblivion to seep into themselves in such a way as to fully change who and what they are. With this mythos, you will be one of them.
The effects of this Mythos are not gained immediately upon taking it. You must first find some place you consider safe to sit and meditate. This begins as a simple light trance, which gradually deepens. The meditation is on the Oblivion, the simple 'nothing' that you have let sink into your being with previous Mythos. As you meditate, your physical form distorts slightly, and seems to bleed a strange mist into the surrounding area that distorts everything within a ten foot radius, giving it 20% concealment.
After twelve hours, the trance is deep, and this is irreversible ; the meditation must be completed. You will continue to meditate until you come to terms with the inevitability of Oblivion, and how it has changed you and is changing you still. At the end of this meditation, you stand. You are no longer Undead, but rather a strange creature of 'living metal', though the metal that makes you up is not truly alive. You are a paradox - the stain of True Oblivion in immortal form upon the Wheel.

The player cannot willfully end their meditation before 48 hours have ended, after 12 hours have passed, but may choose to allow their character to meditate indefinitely if they so choose. Once a specific amount of time (A minimum of 48 hours, again) has been chosen, the character will meditate for that time, or until attacked.

If attacked in such a way as to allow them to notice it (By them taking damage or being changed in some way against their will) the character will surge with the essence of Oblivion, impossible as that is, and deal (2d6 times Class Level) damage to everything within ten feet in any direction except themselves and any worn equipment (dealing full damage to everything affected.) Anything reduced to or below 0 hit points in this way that does not also possess this Mythos is irrevocably lost - the matter is gone, souls and bodies erased as if they never were. Nothing, not even divine intervention, can restore things lost to this effect.

At the culmination of this Mythos (After having meditated either for twelve hours and having been attacked, or for 48 hours or more and the player having chosen to end the meditation) the character's type is changed to Construct. They gain a +6 bonus to Intelligence and Wisdom as their ability to understand what is and to perceive what is is made exceedingly clear after their deep meditation on what Is Not. Their charisma, however, is set to nothing. Not zero, but rather a value of "-", as their mind is changed irrevocably, their sense of self altered from knowing that they Are Not, yet paradoxically still exist. Diplomacy and Bluff are affected as a score of - would imply the same for constitution based effects. All other skills and abilities instead use either Wisdom or Intelligence, chosen at the activation of this mythos. Despite the lack of a Charisma score, the character is still sapient (that is, intelligent and capable of reacting) and usable as a Player Character.

All Negative Energy damage that you deal is tainted by your connection to Oblivion, and deals full damage to objects and creatures, regardless of Negative Energy Affinity, Immunity, or Resistance.

You gain Damage Reduction 15 / Adamantine, as your body is made of the strange metal it is. You also, thanks to the now-active role your Oblivion-scarred soul plays in your body, gain Regeneration 1 with no bypass, as your soul has literally nowhere to go on death, and nothing to do but ensure you last until the inevitable end of all. Your Regeneration functions despite your lack of a Constitution score, allowing you to take nonlethal damage and otherwise functioning as normal.

You are also effectively divorced from the Great Wheel in such a way as to prevent any afterlife from claiming you. You have no alignment, and any Spell, Ability, or Class Feature that targets alignment simply fails when used on you. Spells or effects that check for alignment do not simply fail, however, but return with an uncomfortable result of utter lack ; while normally a Detect Evil spell would simply return with a 'negative' or 'no result', when used on, say, a True Neutral creature it instead states your lack of any alignment to those who use it on you. All similar effects do the same.

As a final note, you gain the ability to channel Oblivion energy into any melee attack you make from this point on, allowing you to add (Intelligence or Wisdom modifier, whichever is higher) Negative Energy damage to unarmed strikes, natural weapons, melee manufactured weapon attacks or melee touch attacks. You may also deal the same damage as a Touch Attack, usable in place of any attack in part of a Full Attack.

Legendary Mythos. Based off of an old work of Xefas, designed for the Olethrofex.

Later edit : I remember I intended to also prevent you from procreating in any way, also including the raising of undead, except I intended to include a 'you don't get it automatically' manifestation type things where you can use the metal you're made of to raise the undead, and or one so that if you have the infection zombies mythos thing that you could raise them but they're "Oblivion tainted" and I'd make a template for undead like that and blah.