Mythic Minis 8: Trickster Path Abilities (PFRPG) PDF

This Mythic Mini clocks in at 3 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, 1 page content, so let's take a look, shall we?

All right, another path-ability installment, so let's take a look whether this one can finally convince me.

We kick off with 5 trickster abilities for 1st tier, with one, analytical eye, having already featured in teh Guardian Path abilities. I didn't consider it good design and too metagamey back then and that has not changed. Next.

The first new one would be backstabber, which is a passive benefit that increases to-hit and sneak attack damage output and allows you to spend mythic power to flank otherwise unflankable non-mythic opponents. Solid, nothing to complain about.

Caress of Steel hits a soft spot with me - it annuls the non-lethal damage penalty to atk with lethal weapons - and allows you to deal nonlethal sneak attack damage with lethal weapons. And yes, according to RAW, you can't do nonlethal sneak attack damage with lethal weapons, even when taking the custom -4 to atk. So essentially, this path ability eliminates a bad, gaping and annoying hole in the rules, which I applaud. The thing is, though - much like backstabber, this doesn't really feel that much like a path ability, more like a feat to me. (And a feat I think that should be non-mythic, but that's my obsession with "Good PCs don't kill intelligent humanoids unless absolutely necessary..:") So all in all: Makes sense, streamlines the basic rules, can't really complain.

False Allegiance on the other hand is essentially what I'd like to see as mythic abilities - you can bluff foes to believe they've positively influenced you with social skills or magic and then stab them in the back - yeah! One gripe, though - I *think* the ability needs a caveat that such a bluff also emulates the enchantment aura of the resisted spell/effect, otherwise tricksters are too easy to unearth in non-combat situations...

Out of the Way is also a strong, cool mythic ability, allowing you to not hinder allies by providing cover to foes and you even take no splash damage from allies (alchemist-double-team...yeah!) and can reroll fumbles against the saves of effects of allies.

We also get 5 3rd tier abilities, with one, "That Trick Doesn't Work on my anymore", still being solid (as a follow-up of "Analytical Eye") and still being none too impressive and too metagamey for me. So 4 new ones remain. Killing Joke is what I'd call worthy of mythic tricksters - use perform comedy to demoralize or make friendly and replace the resulting shaken condition with rendering the target flat-footed for one attack and then shaken. As big glitch in a cool ability here: As written, the target only loses the flat-footed condition if *YOU* attack it. RAW your allies can whittle away, though - a tighter wording is in order here, since I'm quite sure the ability is supposed to return from flat-footed to shaken after one attack, not just one attack by the trickster...

Masterful Skill Focus and Perfect Pickpocket are rather bland, offering passive bonuses (though the latter allows you to use the steal combat maneuver sans spoiling invisibility and thus makes some sense). Now Steal Spell on the other hand, has something going for it, allowing you to steal spells you interrupt and cast them via uses of 1/2 spell level mythic power.

We also get a new 6th tier mythic ability, the ability allows you to reverse social skills/enchantment effects etc. on your foes as an immediate action for 2 uses of mythic power. Okay improved version, but at 6th tier perhaps a bit high - this one's not *that* strong.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to Legendary Games 2-column full-color standard and the pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Author Jason Nelson delivers path abilities and this time, they feel a bit more compelling than the previous ones released in thy mythic mini-series. The solid, mostly passive benefits are per se okay, even if they lack the epic "I AM MYTHIC"-spark at times. The recycling of Analytical eye and its follow-up is not something I'd consider a good thing. Then again, Caress of Steel fixes an annoying hole in the rules, Out of the way is damn cool and Killing Joke's concept (if not its slightly flawed execution) is awesome. In the end, though, that's not enough to truly make this stand out and the glitch in Killing Joke is rather jarring. My final verdict will hence clock in at 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 for the purpose of this platform due to in dubio pro reo and a slight increase in awesomeness from previous path-centric mythic minis.

Endzeitgeist out.

The Trickster, IMO, is the poorest of the Mythic Paths, whose abilities pale in comparison to the other three Martial based paths. This review will look at the path abilities with regards to the Bard and Rogue.

Book: 3 pages, one of which is content. The watermarked cover image behind the text on page 2 reduces readability. Font size is smallish, but still very readable. Abilities fall into 5-1st, 5-3rd and 1-6th tier abilities.

1st Tier
None of these really are weak abilities, although a few are quite more thematically situational than the others. Backstabber will be a go to ability for a Rog, with the extra flank bonus and SA dice. Bards don't really have a keystone ability like the Rogue does in this group. False Allegiance and Analytical Eye probably won't get taken very often, but for those folks who have Blasters who love to drop fireballs on top of you, Out of the Way helps a ton.

3rd Tier
Bards get a bit more love here, with Killing Joke playing to Perform (Comedy), and Stealspell fitting with a Bard's role. Rogues get an ability that can give you up to 5 Skill Focus feats (if you select it at Tier 10). The Steal CM also gets a boost with the Perfect Pickpocket ability.

6th Tier
This pretty cool ability allows you to effectively Spell Turning a Dominate Person or an Intimidate effect for 2 MPs.

Final Thoughts: A pretty good collection of abilities, with a few gems sprinkled throughout. Well worth the purchase price.

4/5, with points off for readability