Mythic Minis 41: Mythic Rods (PFRPG) PDF

All right, you know the deal - 4 pages - 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, 2 pages content, let's go!

So, this time around, we take a look at various rods intended for mythic games (though imho also suitable for non-mythic games as powerful items), so what do these rods do?

-Gnarltooth Rod: Can be wielded as magical, wounding morningstar, but only requires club-proficiency. The bleeding is hard to stem and also causes dex-damage; Beyond these, the rod can be used to cast nettle/plant-themed spells, upgradeable to their mythic versions by wielders expending mythic power. Really cool!

-Pyroclastic Rod: Can also be wielded as a weapon and may dispel cold effects, more than 1/day if powered by mythic power. Beyond these, the wielder may conjure forth ash/volcanic storms (upgradeable to mythic versions) and even see in the worst of fire-themed hazes, like e.g. a nightmare’s breath. As a true highlight, the rod allows you to 1/day modify fire effects to instead be derived from magma, adding clinging, continuous damage and even entangle-effects to the fray – really fun and imho the type of modification that metamagic ought to have been able to deliver as a subsystem. Kudos!

-Rod of Spell Focusing: These rods have a rune for each school and for each elemental energy – the wielder may cast a spell into the rod while expending mythic power, to attune the rod, thus granting either Spell or Elemental Focus for as long as the rod remains attuned to that rune. Mythic characters may upgrade to the mythic versions of the feats and detecting the chosen energy as well as attuned arcane sight complement an interesting rod.

-Rod of Defoliation: Wieldable as two types of anti-plant greatclubs, this one is not a friend of druids. Beyond SPs 1/day, the rod also extend the summoning list of mythic characters to include swarms that may affect plants with their poison – damn cool idea, even before the summoned-creature-carries-contagion-upgrade. Two thumbs up for this one!

-Rod of Peace: A must-have for diplomats, this one does hamper intimidate and can be used to calm emotions, while also facilitating non-lethal combat resolution and providing mark of justice, suggestion and lesser geas to help with the demanding task of a truly good (or just devious) character – I love items like this that help separate good adventurers and virtuous champions from murder hobos.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, I noticed no significant glitches. Layout adheres to Legendary Games' 2-column full color standard with a nice piece of artwork and the pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Jason Nelson’s mythic rods are inspired – their weapon-capacity is neat, their effects are unique and beyond spell/power in a can and beyond that, they actually offer some options that are UNIQUE – in an item-class where I did not expect to see the like! Add to that the thankfully present aura, construction, etc.-info and we have a pdf bereft of any valid points for me to nitpick. Thus, my final verdict will clock in at 5 stars + seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.