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Mythic Adventures Potential Comprehensive Errata

Here are some thoughts I have on mythic adventures and how to better balance.

Note: effects that 1/2 tier are rounded up

Base Mythic Abilities
Mythic Power: characters get 3 + tier uses of mythic power per day
Amazing Initiative: only gain the initiative bonus (lose the ability to take an extra standard action)
Unstoppable (clarification): no limit to number of uses at start of turn

Path Abilities
General Fix: if the path ability provides a static bonus without need to expend mythic power, the bonus equals 1/2 your tier. If mythic powers needs to be spent to obtain the bonus, the bonus is equals your tier.

Abundant Casting: add “This ability does not work with spells that require a material or focus component worth 1,000 or more gp.”
Arcane Metamastery: instead of lasting 10 rounds, it lasts until the end of your next turn
Absorb Blow (clarification): the DR and resistances don’t stack with themselves. Apply the best benefits, and the duration is reset from the last time absorb blow was used
Cage Enemy (clarification): teleporting = leaving one’s square
Clarion Call: allies get 1/2 your bonuses for a number of rounds equal to half your tier
Dimensional Grappler: an immediate action is required to prevent the teleport, no action is required to accompany the teleporter
Divine Metamastery: change as per Arcane Metamastery
Flash of Rage: cannot use rage powers during this rage and cannot apply class, feat, or spell-based benefits to this rage
Flexible Counterspell: change to “you can instead spend a spell or spell slot of a level higher than the target spell.”
Inspired Defense: when spend a mythic power, add half your tier (not your whole tier) to the saving throw bonus (all saves) from inspire courage
Mythic Companion: the animal companion instead gains 1 use of mythic power per 2 mythic tiers you have
Mythic Hexes: change to “non mythic foes take a –4 on saves against your hexes. If choose a second time, this applies to your major hexes.”
Mythic Spellpower: clarification that you don’t need to pay mythic power to cast the augmented versions of mythic spells when using this ability. Each additional time this is taken, instead gain 1 more use per day (not 2).
Perfect Strike (clarification): -2 mythic power (instead of 1) when using any of the champion’s strike abilities = get both Champion’s Strike benefits and Perfect Strike benefits for that attack
Relentless Healing (clarification): both effects only work If the target died within 1 round
Shatter Spells (clarification): requires a standard action to use
Speedy Summons: put on 3rd tier list
[i]Titan’s Rage (clarification): the target is treated as flat footed, but it is not flat-footed against everything else

Feats
Arcane Armor Training (clarification): the benefits only apply to Arcane Armor Training (not AA Mastery)
Catch Off Guard: add 1/2 tier to damage and CMD
Deadly Stroke: DC is modified by 1/2 your tier (not your tier)
Dreadful Carnage: penalty on attacks, saves, etc. equals half your tier, not your tier
Eldritch Heritage: only gain the 1st and 3rd level abilities. If take the non-mythic Improved Eldritch Heritage Feat, also gain the 9th and 15th level abilities
Fleet: increase base speed by +5 ft per 3 tiers
Gnome Trickster (clarification): the mythic feat grants a pool of uses equal to 1/2 your tier that can be used to activate gnome spell-like abilities (1 use = 1 casting of Sp)
Mounted Combat: can negate an additional number of hits equal to 1/2 your tier
Power Attack: remove the sentence “in addition the bonus damage…weapon’s critical multiplier.”
Spell Mastery (clarification): full round action = prepare 1 spell from Spell Mastery list; -1 use of mythic power and a full round action to prepare all spells from Spell mastery as many times as desired
Spell Penetration: add only 1/2 your tier to caster level checks to penetrate SR, not the entire tier
Vital Strike: roll for 1 attack, but treat the damage as if it were two attacks (if you have non-mythic Vital Strike). Bonuses that would not be multiplied on a critical hit are only added once when making this attack.

Two new mythic feats:
Improved Mythic Vital Strike: as mythic Vital Strike but treat the damage as if it were three attacks. Must have non-mythic Improved Vital Strike before taking this feat.
Greater Mythic Vital Strike: as mythic Vital Strike but treat the damage as if it were four attacks. Must have non-mythic Improved Vital Strike before taking this feat.

Spells
Antimagic Field: change to “select up to” instead of “select a number of”
Arcane Cannon: you must spend a spell or spell slot of the same level in addition to the spell being conducted by the arcane cannon
Circle of Death: increase the hit dice limit by 1/2 your tier (not your tier)
Cloudkill: increase the hit dice limit by 1/2 your tier (not your tier)
Contagion: the highly contagious nature of the disease is not inherited when the disease is obtained by anyone other than the original target of the spell
Deep slumber (clarification, non-augmented): works as the non-augmented mythic sleep
Divine Pursuit (clarification): add tier to the skill bonus
Dominate Person: you and the caster add 1/2 tier to the roll and DC, respectively
Ear-Piercing Scream: dazed for 1 round per 3 tiers
Elemental Body (augmented): a number of times equal to 1/2 your tier, can add 1/2 your tier to the DC
Expeditious Retreat: add 1/2 your tier to AC
Finger of Death: the target is not staggered by this spell
Fire Snake: increase the damage to 1d8 per CL. When Augmented, increase the maximum damage to 20d8
Fireball (augmented): half of the fire damage is arcane power that bypasses resistance and immunity, the other half is regular fire damage
Flame Blade (augmented): half of the fire damage is arcane power that bypasses resistance and immunity, the other half is regular fire damage
Flames of the Faithful: fire damage increases to +1d10 and ignores fire resistance/immunity
Fly: add 1/2 tier to AC and Reflex saves
Force Punch (clarification): CMB = CL + tier
Form of the Dragon: reverting/returning to a form is a free action
Form of the Dragon (augmented): increase the non-mythic version’s breath weapon damage by a number of similar dice equal to 1/2 your tier (e.g. if 12d8 base damage, then add a d8 per 2 tiers)
Heal (clarification, augmented): there is no material cost for the restoration
Knock: add 1/2 your tier to the dispel magic check
Lightning Arc (augmented): half of the electricity damage is arcane power that bypasses resistance and immunity, the other half is regular electricity damage
Meteor Swarm (augmented): half of the fire damage is arcane power that bypasses resistance and immunity, the other half is regular fire damage
Mislead (augmented): gain mythic invisibility in addition to greater invisibility from non-mythic mislead
Scorching Ray: half of the fire damage is arcane power that bypasses resistance and immunity, the other half is regular fire damage
Wall of Force (clarification): mythic disintegrate works normally on mythic wall of force

I finished Wrath of the Righteous about a month ago and here are a few things I would recommend to make the experience more exciting:

*Demon lords: give them some of the benefits of 10 mythic ranks while in their domains (the +natural armor, +SR, +mythic versions of feats). Don't bother giving them mythic powers (as per the mythic rank) but give them a flat +2 on d20 based rolls (like the ability score increase of the advanced template, but not towards things like AC).

*PCs and path abilities: abilities that give a static benefit dependent on tier should be "+1/2 tier" instead of "+1 per tier), and abilities that give a benefit upon expenditure of mythic power should be "+1 per tier" or whatever they were before (whichever is lower).
This should also be applied to those trait things introduced in the first part of the AP.

Reasons for the changes (based on case studies):
-My party heavily abused AOs with the ever ready mythic ability such that they were effectively getting 4 AOs per round

-the wizard at CL 20 could bypass SR 50 with a 6 on a d20! (CL 20 + archmage trait + mythic spell penetration + greater/regular spell penetration feats = 20 + 10 vs. demons + 10 + 4 = +44 vs. SR). It is my opinion that things with SR with CR higher than the party should ignore 50% of the PCs spells via SR if the PC did everything they could to be an SR badass. I would have been happier if the wizard had +34 vs. SR instead (as per my path ability fixer upper).

-mythic spells that let you outright ignore energy resistance and immunity should be changed to "1/2 of the energy damage is arcane damage that is not susceptible to immunity/resistance". I find it ridiculous that the wizard could mythic empowered fireball and swift mythic empowered fireball (both augmented) for 60d6 fire damage (average 7*30 = 210 damage) without anyone else being damaged (cuz let's face it, everyone knows how to well place a fireball).

*Some of the abilities and feats and spells need revision to be more in line with them (not a lot of them). I will post some of my suggested revisions for anyone to try them in this post.

If you want to read about how my players fought against Hepzamirah or Deskari, click to go to the relevant post.

Since GMs are likely to read this, here is a link to some of my commentary on the adventure as a whole and how the boss fight with Deskari turned out.

Go to Boss Fight.

Boss Fight vs. Deskari: I won't bore people with a detailed playback, but here are some key features:

1. divided the party amongst six locations (some were in the enclosed building thing)
2. swarmed the field with balors (those there before and those summoned by Deskari)
3. encased people in mounds of earth via polymorph any object during Deskari's time stop
4. Brawler effectively 1 shotted the balors (as expected, she = CR 25 > advanced balor CR 21) with her fists (damage in the 400s I think)
5. Wizard kept focusing on Deskari with thanatopic mythic fingers of death (2x per turn via greater metamagic rod) for a net 600 damage per turn to the big bad boss. I applied some changes to Deskari (as outlined below) such that Deskari succeeded the Fort save (DC 43 or something due to Mythic Greater Spell Focus + Spell Perfection and Int of 53 or something) all but once and made him was immune to the Con drain/damage.
6. Lizardfolk fighter greater vital striked and, like the brawler, 1 shotted balors. Who needs full round actions anymore?
7. Druid took her time fighting a balor and apocalypse locus (she a new player but was having fun as a giant dragon via shapechange!). Eventually she went to Deskari and with cage enemy prevented him from teleporting away (rolled a nat 20 on to hit)
8. Deskari had mythic power attack and mythic combat expertise active during the fight, so brawler and druid could only hit on 18-20 and fighter (a sentinel of Iomedae) could hit on a 14-20. Party had to use lots of surges to hit Deskari.
9. Deskari killed the fighter and brawler once each (the wizard spent wishes to resurrect the two on the spot) (fighter had 550 hp, AC 40; and brawler ("steel breaker?" archetype) had 250 hp, but AC 60 only against Deskari)
10. PCs won after expending most of their resources and some dumb luck (as it should be). And I ran it such that Deskari's death was permanent (see AP p. 50 or something for details).

I finished Wrath of the Righteous about a month ago and here are a few things I would recommend to make the experience more exciting:

*Demon lords: give them some of the benefits of 10 mythic ranks while in their domains (the +natural armor, +SR, +mythic versions of feats). Don't bother giving them mythic powers (as per the mythic rank) but give them a flat +2 on d20 based rolls (like the ability score increase of the advanced template, but not towards things like AC).

*PCs and path abilities: abilities that give a static benefit dependent on tier should be "+1/2 tier" instead of "+1 per tier), and abilities that give a benefit upon expenditure of mythic power should be "+1 per tier" or whatever they were before (whichever is lower).
This should also be applied to those trait things introduced in the first part of the AP.

Reasons for the changes (based on case studies):
-My party heavily abused AOs with the ever ready mythic ability such that they were effectively getting 4 AOs per round

-the wizard at CL 20 could bypass SR 50 with a 6 on a d20! (CL 20 + archmage trait + mythic spell penetration + greater/regular spell penetration feats = 20 + 10 vs. demons + 10 + 4 = +44 vs. SR). It is my opinion that things with SR with CR higher than the party should ignore 50% of the PCs spells via SR if the PC did everything they could to be an SR badass. I would have been happier if the wizard had +34 vs. SR instead (as per my path ability fixer upper).

-mythic spells that let you outright ignore energy resistance and immunity should be changed to "1/2 of the energy damage is arcane damage that is not susceptible to immunity/resistance". I find it ridiculous that the wizard could mythic empowered fireball and swift mythic empowered fireball (both augmented) for 60d6 fire damage (average 7*30 = 210 damage) without anyone else being damaged (cuz let's face it, everyone knows how to well place a fireball).

*Some of the abilities and feats and spells need revision to be more in line with them (not a lot of them). I will post some of my suggested revisions for anyone to try them in this post.

I love the lore of the adventure paths and how it all ties together in the end.
Alex Smith 908 & Aldarion: I have to use the train idea for coolness

So far I'm going to give the demon lord +10 AC and SR within his own domain, though giving them 10 tiers of mythic might be an interesting idea.

@magnuskin and seannoss: yeah none of my players have foe bitter thankfully. As for Mythic Vital Strike only the lizardfolk has that and I think the druid might have it.

Just ran the fight with Hepzamirah (gave her the advanced and giant simple templates, but kept her size at Large. Also gave her max hit points and dual initiative). Also I noticed that Blancher's crit range should have been 19-20 due to Improved Critical. These changes brought her hp to 522 and AC to 40 (T 14, FF 38)

Note: Hepzamirah did not have any buff spells on her based on her character description saying that she was busy working on the Nahyndrian crystal and trusted her minions to deal with the PCs.

Who fought:
changeling druid 14/hierophant 6 with roc companion
lizardfolk bloodrager 4/fighter 1/sentinel of Iomedae 9/champion 6
half-orc brawler 14 (steelbreaker)/champion 6

Hepzamirah was placed in the room such that there was a wall right behind her. I assumed a 30 foot high ceiling.

(the lich was out blasting the lesser minions in the mines with maximized mythic augmented fireballs)

Hepzamirah went first (init 40 with -1 mythic power via mythic imp. initiative), casting freedom of movement and quickened shield of faith on herself. She took a moment to draw Blancher as well.

The druid (in Huge air elemental form) and her roc moved into D10, triggering the unhallow's dispel magic ability which was able to dispel the animal growth on the roc and death ward buff on the druid. Both characters set up flanking positions along the same wall as Hepzamirah. Neither were able to hit Hepzamirah.

The brawler flew into the room via a headband of aerial agility (from Ultimate Equipment) (the unhallow's dispel magic wasn't able to remove any buffs from her) to the square right above Hepzamirah (Hepzamirah did not take an AO) and attempted to sunder her armor. Out of 4 or 5 sunder attempts via Improved Sunder, only the brawler's natural 20 succeeded. The +3 full plate took 39 damage, dropping Hepzamirah's AC from 40 to 34.

The lizardfolk sentinel went next, moved up to Hepzamirah (Hepzamirah's AO hit the lizardfolk; a confirmed critical hit that did 142 damage, 12 bleed, and 3 charisma damage), and did Mythic Power Attack (-1 to ignore attack penalty) + Mythic Improved Vital Strike + Improved Devastating Strike (+12 more damage on Vital Strike, already included in 3d8+72, see below)) + swift action mythic Arcane Strike (added keen to +4 evil outsider bane furious planar phase locking longsword) for base damage of 3d8+72 + 36 power attack + 3 arcane strike. Also used amazing initiative to get another standard action and made another Vital Strike. Net damage: 112 and 104 via 2 Vital Strikes.

Hepzamirah took her immediate action to cast mythic blade barrier (with -1 mythic power for +4 spell DC) in a line that included her, the druid, roc, and brawler. The blade barrier did not pierce Hepzamirah's SR and all 3 PCs failed their Reflex saves (vs. DC 35) and took 57 damage.

Hepzamirah took her Init 20 turn. Cast mythic harm on the brawler (brawler made the Will save and took 82 damage). Attempted to hit the brawler with Blancher (missed again against AC 40) via amazing initiative.

Start of new round Hepzamirah casts mythic heal on self (+165 hp), then hits the lizardfolk with Blancher (for 47 damage).

The druid and roc again were unable to hit Hepzamirah in melee (owing to really bad attack rolls). They spend a 5 foot step to move out of the blade barrier.

The brawler full attacked Hepzamirah. Attack rolls were in the high 40s and I think 1 out of 4 or 5 missed. Total Damage: 218. Then spends a 5 foot step to move out of the blade barrier.

Two more Vital Strikes (with Mythic Power attack and Arcane Strike still in effect) and a swift action for an extra attack (via champion mythic whatnot) led to 3 hits with net damage 9d8+216+108+9, which was enough to kill Hepzamirah (she had 253 hp left).

And that's the fight. Without my changes to Hepzamirah, she would be dead at the end of the first round. Staying out of melee range against this party was next to impossible (the brawler can fly at 60 ft all the time with the headband, the air elemental and roc both have fly speeds in the 80+ ft range, and the lizardfolk 3/day can use boots of flying).

In future I may have to change the stat blocks of some villains, perhaps using the changes proposed earlier in this post.