Looking through the new Mythic rules from War of the Immortals, I've come across a bit of a conundrum regarding how Mythic Resistance works. For those of you who don't know, monsters in a Mythic campaign can be upgraded to special Mythic Monsters using the rules on page 168+ and depending on the monster's level, they will choose from a list of options that that accumulate as the level increase.
At level 1, creating a Mythic Monster has you choose between either Mythic Resiliance (upgrade the degree of success on a specific save, always starting with their highest) or Mythic Resistance. Mythic Resistance reads:
"The creature gains resistance to all Strikes made by non-mythic creatures equal to half its level. If it gains mythic resistance a second time, increase the resistance to its full level. Mythic weapons bypass this resistance even if the creature wielding them is not mythic."
When precisely does Mythic Resistance come into effect? This hinges on what a 'non-mythic creature' is, specifically whether the PCs in a Mythic campaign count as mythic creatures.
- If the PCs with a Mythic Calling *always* count as Mythic creatures, then their strikes always bypass Mythic Resistance. It begs the question - why would a GM ever put this on a creature if it does nothing? More importantly, why is the game specifically making a *choice* between Mythic Resistance and Mythic Resiliance, because Mythic resistance certainly has a big effect on the creature's defenses. This wouldn't make much sense if Mythic Resistance is always bypassed. There is also a feat called Mythic Strike (lvl 10) that lets you Strike at Mythic prof and it "counts as a mythic weapon for the purposes of overcoming mythic resistance or mythic immunity." This is a feat that only Mythic PCs can take - why would it specifically call out bypassing the resistance if PCs were supposed to automatically bypass it anyways?
- If the PCs in a Mythic Campaign do not always bypass the resistance, when is it actually supposed to apply? We know that Mythic weapons always bypass the resistance, but the only examples for Mythic weapons in the book are all level 20 (plus one Ogre Hook, but that belongs to an enemy monster so I doubt it is core progression). We also know that Mythic Strike (lvl 10) allows you to bypass the resistance. But do all strikes at Mythic prof bypass the resistance? Do all abilities with the Mythic trait have their subordinate strikes bypass the resistance?
There's also a possible incongruity on the "Immortal Tricker" statblock - it says the trickster gets Mythic Resistance, but the creature's version says "Mythic Resistance The Immortal Trickster has resistance 11 to all damage from attacks and spells from non-mythic creatures." The previous version of Mythic Resistance only called out strikes, not spells, so is this a special ability of the Trickster or a misprint? Later in the same section, the "Weaver of Webs" statblock grants it Mythic Resistance to 'attacks' rather than just strikes - again, is this a special feature for that specific creature or a misprint?
Then we come to Mythic Immunity, which says: "The creature is immune to either harmful spells cast by non-mythic creatures, or Strikes made with non-mythic weapons and unarmed Strikes from non-mythic characters. Only the most powerful creatures (typically level 25) should be immune to both." This text
What does this feature actually do? If the PCs are not mythic creatures, then it suggests that no spell can ever damage them, but strikes can for some reason. If the PCs are always mythic creatures, then it loops back around to the problems I described when talking about Mythic Resistance.
When does the immunity apply, and how are spell casters in particular meant to interact with it?
Side Note: There's a bizarre rules interaction where theoretically you can summon a creature with a weapon to strike the Mythic Immune foe and do no damage (because the summon's weapon isn't mythic) but if you order your summon to drop their weapon and simply punch the guy, suddenly it bypasses the immunity entirely because they aren't a "character"?
If anyone has come across any official clarification on these feature's I'd love to hear it! I want to add Mythic to one of my games but I'm really stuck as to how it works - I am personally leaning towards the 'PCs aren't always Mythic Creatures' interpretation but I just don't know now.
Thanks!