Pathfinder 1E Mythic Adventures. Huh?

[MerricB]

Could a few Pathfinder players and DMs please share their thoughts on Mythic Adventures?

Is it a good thing? A bad thing?

Does Paizo publishing Mythic Adventure Paths lessen their usefulness to you if you're not using the Mythic rules system?

Cheers!

 

[Mad Hamish]

I've had a bit of a look at it and I'm reasonably impressed although I haven't seen it in play.
I think there might be some issues with balance (e.g. some paths mean you can cast a whole heap of extra spells in a day, I'm not sure that anything anybody else gets makes up for, say, another 3 - at the first mythic tier, to 23 at 10th mythic tier per day)
but there's a lot of interesting stuff for all paths.
It's a matter of how much Mythic and non-Mythic support they do.
The reason they've developed Mythic now is because they needed the increased power level to deal with what's needed for Wrath of the Righteous.
If they do a lot of Mythic Adventure paths they're not going to be usable for non-mythic, non-mythic adventure paths won't be overly usable for mythic characters.
Its possible that you could have upgrade notes for the adventures but it'd be tough.

 

[delericho]

Could a few Pathfinder players and DMs please share their thoughts on Mythic Adventures?

Is it a good thing? A bad thing?

I haven't seen the "Mythic Adventures" rules yet. My gut feeling is that running Mythic advancement in parallel with the normal level range is probably a better solution than 3e's Epic levels. But I'm also pretty sure that it's not for me.

Does Paizo publishing Mythic Adventure Paths lessen their usefulness to you if you're not using the Mythic rules system?

Almost certainly, yes. What I've seen of the "Wrath of the Righteous" path gives me the distinct impression that I can use the Mythic rules (either from the book or the SRD), or I can forget about running the path - the adaptation would just be too much work.

As it happened, I was probably never going to run WotR anyway (I haven't run any path so far), but still - there's a difference between choosing not to run a path, and feeling that I'm unable to run a path.

At the moment, I'm in a "wait and see" mode. If the Mythic rules become a fixture of paths going forward, I'll almost certainly cancel my subscription this time next year. If this is a one-off, or they're used sparingly, then I'll stay on board.

(Of course, it also doesn't help that I was really underwhelmed by the previous path. I liked the concept, and especially liked that they were willing to take risks with "Rasputin Must Die!", but when it came down to it all six adventures in the path were just "find the McGuffin" railroads, which was disappointing. WotR, thus far, seems much more open, and that's a good thing... it's just a shame I can't use it!)

 

[Crothian]

I like the idea but I don't like the execution. It just becomes another source of little bonuses with some new powers thrown in here and there.

 

[DaveMage]

As a Pathfinder GM, we will only be using Mythic Rules if we run an AP written by Paizo that requires Mythic Rules.

Otherwise, I will not be using them.

 

[Morrus]

I don't have the book, but I'm curious. Could someone explain how it works? So it's not epic level rules, it's something else? Do you go from 1-20 as normal, but as a more powerful hero type?

 

[Ahnehnois]

I like the idea but I don't like the execution.

I concur. The buildup sounded all well and good, but it's a lot of immunities you don't need and minor stuff that only works a few times a day for some reason.

Could someone explain how it works?

It is pfdsrd-ed.

In short, there are ten levels (tiers) of "mythic". You can gain a mythic level instead of a regular class level, generally for accomplishing some quest rather than through XP. It's sort of like multiclassing. Instead of twenty class levels, you can now gain twenty class levels plus ten mythic tiers.

You gain various benefits that make you harder to kill without changing your "spine" numbers much (attacks, saves, etc.) and give you weird special powers you wouldn't get otherwise. Some of these benefits are specific to a generic mythic "class" you have to pick, many of them are available to anyone. Most of the active use abilities are fueled by one central resource that replenishes on a daily basis.

And there are a bunch of mythic monsters, spells, and feats to support all this.

 

[Wicht]

You can gain a mythic level instead of a regular class level, generally for accomplishing some quest rather than through XP.

That is worded badly. You can gain a mythic level on top of your regular class level. The levels advance simultaneously, using different advancement mechanisms. The original requires you to gain xp as normal. The mythic levels require you to complete mythic challenges. But mythic challenges earn you xp as normal.

The mythic level increases your hit-points, adds feats as you level up and layers on mythic powers which let you push your normal class powers even further. You get mythic points, as Ahnehnois says, which you can burn to fuel some of your powers and which you can use to accomplish other "mythic" actions. At mythic level 9 you become immortal.

The system has the elegance of allowing gonzo abilities while utilizing the basic structure already in place. Its a shadow-system you can layer on top of the other system. I would not want to use it for every campaign, but do think, once I finish the Shattered Star path, I'm going to give the Wrath of the Righteous path a try, and for those campaigns that are going to be over the top, story wise, its going to be a good fit, I think. That is, its a poor fit for telling the classic farm-boy turns good type tale, but it would make the labours of Hercules much easier to mimic.

 

[Lwaxy]

I'm at a point where I begin to think that PF really does not need any more stuff like this. It's not too bad as such, it is even interesting, yet there are too many rules and add ons already to confuse new and old players. I wish they'd stop just churning out add ons for a while.

 

[Ahnehnois]

That is worded badly.

Fair enough. I never use XP anyway so the subtleties of the advancement rules elude me. The point is that a mythic tier is not a level of an existing class (unlike with epic, where it is another level of an existing class) and the mythic ones are tracked separately.