After giving the Mythic Adventures Playtest a good read-through, I cannot help but think that Mythic tiers may just be the thing for very small gaming groups (2-3 PC's) without having to resort to a host of allied NPC's, GM-PC's or gestalt characters.
In fact, it quite fits the idea of a mythic story, as most actual myths usually involve a single person's adventures.
Thoughts?
Agreed.
I agree. Even a single tier makes the party much harder to kill of, and from 2nd tier onwards a 3 man party will probably have as many actions in combat as a normal 4 man party.
At a lose end, and with only 2 people available to play...we figured give this a test. And it's so a great solution for small groups, and keeping the fun :). So far all good.
I love this idea...
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I also enjoy it for keeping the game under control as a GM. Our favorite levels of play are typically between 5-12, as the game starts to break down a bit past that point. The Mythic ruleset gives me some ability to advance the monsters the party is facing and give the party a strong feel of their character improving without introducing the high level spells and items that become much more difficult to balance out. It also balances our group a bit better since we don't always have a full party and the improved survival capabilities give a 3 man group a wider margin for error than you might otherwise see. It definitely brings that Beowulf/Hercules/Achilles type feel to each character.
Because of previous adventures, my group of three players started Runelords with 6th level characters. As a response, I'm having to bump up encounters to CR 5 and6 to keep it from being a complete blitz, and hopefully the adventure will catch up with the PC's levels by the Skinsaw Murders... but after that, I was planning on introducing Mythic levels to help with survivability, but it seems to be thematically appropriate to the Path.
What I was thinking of doing was granting 3 mythic tiers to Malfeshankor, and having the PC's absorb them, Highlander-style, but that they sort of remain dormant until they encounter something that "triggers" their ascension - read: when the as-written encounters surpass their APL...
Has anyone else tried this sort of thing yet, to "fill out" a small group, and do they have any feedback\advice on its use?
What I was thinking of doing was granting 3 mythic tiers to Malfeshankor, and having the PC's absorb them, Highlander-style, but that they sort of remain dormant until they encounter something that "triggers" their ascension - read: when the as-written encounters surpass their APL...
I have a 3 man group that started Rise of the Runelords, where I wanted to add mythis tiers. Now we switched to Reign of Winter, so I haven't thought the stuff all the way through, but here's what I had planned on doing:
Because some of my players are more rules-savvy than others, I'd introduce the moments of ascention individually through book 1 and 2. I'd keep the flaws-system and pick one related to the ascention-event, but not tell the players.
Some ideas formoments:
Dying. If a PC died, one could bring him back the old "this is not your time yet"-style. Maybe a short message from Desna or Shelyn - the gods I think know most of the runelord thread.
The flaw would be weakness to the type of weapon killing him.
Defeating Nualia or The Barghest I Can't Spell. The flaw should be related to the enemy's theme. Wrath for Nualia, for example.
Pucking up and wearing the Sihedron Medallion. This one already has a flaw: keep the medallion and all your cool, new powers, but let the runelord know your every move.
In Reign of Winter, I plan on giving then the ascention at the same time, since there's a built-in moment that would fit perfectly: