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Characters and monsters will be linked when available.
Notes from 11/17/12: At table playtest with 4 players & myself as GM. Basic setup was to see how combat encounters would run, as well as to familiarize ourselves with Mythic creation rules.
Characters: All Level 17 PCs, with Mythic Tier 8. All Paizo books were available for use. Character Generation rules: 2d6+6 stats, no traits, standard wealth by level (410,000gp). (all played by experienced Pathfinder players, all of whom also have GM experience. About 4/6 of my regular tabletop group.)
Marion: Human Ranger 17/Champion Tier 8.
Malik: Human Djinn Bloodline Sorcerer 17/Archmage Tier 8
Bruce: (link pending) Human Two-Handed Fighter 17 / Champion Tier 8
Jiffy: (link pending) Gnome Paladin (unknown archetypes/oaths) 17 / Guardian Tier 8
First Encounter:
Terrain: Open Desert, mid-day, no significant cover/terrain features. All characters "on foot" - no mounts/etc.
Creatures: 2 Great Wyrm Blue Dragons Each is CR 21, total CR for encounter = 23.
(NB: I goofed the first couple of rounds of encounters, forgetting that the 2nd dragon using his project image mirage ability was not really there. Fighter took some minor damage which I ret-conned shortly after.)
In the beginning, both dragons gain surprise rounds (since the party was travelling across the desert completely in the open with no regard for stealth/camouflage at all). Using their keen vision, invisibility spells, and project image occasionally, both dragons buff up with the following spells:
Greater Heroism, Stoneskin, Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace, False Life, Ant Haul, Mage Armor, Shield. Each casts quickened haste during their surprise round, then the Mirage Dragon (real dragon sitting comfortably far away on a convenient rock mound/dune) pops up and breaks his vanish by breathing on Bruce & Jiffy. Both fail their saves and take a bunch of electricity damage.
Jiffy & Malik buff a bit, sharing around protection from energy, heals, and try to dispel the image, but failing.
Real Dragon comes closer, using his storm-breath power to pull down a bolt on Bruce, who fails, again. This time, it hurts a lot less since he's protected.
This proceeds apace, with the image dragon using spells (finger of death especially) but failing to do very much, in between his breath weapon attacks (much more effective in the long run).
Healing and buffs get spread around, with some ineffective attacks used on the approaching Real Dragon while he's burrowing through the sand.
As he gets close enough, he throws up an acid fog and then quickened dimension door's behind it. It's time to get our teeth & claws dirty!
Bruce (now Large and with a couple other buffs on him), flies over to engage, getting bit for some minor damage. He whiffs on all but one attack (not expecting an AC of 61, I believe), still dealing some 173 damage (Two-Handed Fighter + Mythic Power Attack + Auto-Confirmed Crits = OUCH!).
The real dragon, realizing his danger, quickens a blink before trying to tear Bruce's face off. He whiffs on all but the Bite & 1 Wing (very high AC on our beat-stick, as well!). Meanwhile, Mirage Dragon continues to harass the others, calling down lightning, casting more finger of deaths and quickening some low-level spells.
Bruce is unable to do much with the blinking Real Dragon, whiffing for a full round (rolled like 3 crits, but each one was negated by the miss chance), until Malik managed to land a mythic dispel magic to strip the blink (as well as his shield spell) away.
After that, it was a fairly simple Tank & Spank on out. Bruce landed another single attack for some 177 damage, before Marion finally managed to land a few good blows (on the new, much easier to hit AC 57), driving off the Real Dragon (running away via quickened dimension door) once and for all.
The Mirage Dragon went away shortly thereafter to another mythic dispel.
All told, the fight took about 90 minutes, and about 7-8 rounds, total.
Impressions: A Mythic Dragon would probably have been a better encounter, since it could bypass the Guardian's DR, do MUCH more damage with his breath weapon (still did QUITE a lot on the poor-reflex Bruce), and have a few extra tricks up his sleeve. Great Wyrm Blue's are tricky enough, as is, though. .
Mythic Champions are QUITE the Beat-Stick. Move + Full Attack + Mythic Power Attack is extremely deadly, especially if the fighter has Reach from something. Two-Handed Fighter is still the king of melee damage, apparently.
Archmages & Hierophants who DON'T take "Endless Power" from Tier 6 on are really losing out. Turning 1st-3rd level spells into cantrips, effectively is extremely powerful (especially with things like resist energy, see invisibility, fly, and other relatively short-duration, awesome spells.
Paladins are still the kings of saves, and when you factor in Mythic Saves & Guardian defensive tricks, it becomes extremely hard to hurt them.
Almost no-one used their Amazing Initiative in this fight, surprisingly enough.
Conclusion: Each PC really did feel "Mythic" in their capabilities, much more so than a standard party of adventurers would have. They were capable of surviving a pair of CR 21's who really should have been capable of tearing at least one of them apart. No-one (other than Bruce the Fighter) really took SIGNIFICANT damage, and even then Bruce was able to be patched up by the healing Paladin fairly easily.
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Encounter #2:
Characters were as above: Malik, Bruce, Jiffy, and Marion.
Enemies: (from the NPC Guide: Arisen Sorcerer-The Necromancer Bandit Leader-(CR19), Earthfather (CR 19), Scarred Wanderer (CR 19), Infernal Champion (CR 19), with 8 Mighty Fire Giant Graveknights in tow.
In addition, the Earthfather has 3 Shambling Mound (via shambler spell precast) and 1 Elder Earth Elemental and 2 Huge Earth Elementals (via elemental swarm spell precast).
Terrain: Open Terrain leading up the the Bandit Fort (using the Flip-Map of the same name). Necromancer, Fighter, Barbarian, and Druid all start in the "throne room" area of the keep, with 4 of the Graveknights.
2 Graveknights are on the top of the walls, with the last 2 in the courtyard, along with the 3 Shambling Mounds.
The Elementals are all underground, hiding beneath the courtyard.
Opening Salvos: Jiffy glows with his daylight Paladin power, Bruce & he move to the fore. Graveknights toss some rocks, Marion obliterates one of them with a full-attak salvo (dealing some 298 damage over about 7-8 arrows). Gate portcullis is about 3/4 down, allowing for mediums to easily access the courtyard.
Druid & Fighter move up to the doorways, casting buffs (potion of fly for Fighter & Elemental Body for Druid). Elementals start moving towards Marion underground, Shambling mounds resemble vegetation.
Malik flies way ahead, unleasing a chain lightning on Fighter, Mounds, and Graveknights. Only the Fighter is affected, which saddens the Sorcerer.
Paladin, Fighter, and Ranger all chastise Malik's player for remaining out in the open, especially since he then takes 5-6 Graveknight rocks to the face. Sorcerer drops unconscious from Rock & Fire damage.
Necromancer & Barbarian move to watch the carnage and bodyguard, respectively.
Bruce begins dismantling the undead (AC 33 means he almost can't miss, and a pair of crits drops each Graveknight. God help them if he gets a full attack off). Marion proceeds to dust all three of the Mounds as they crawl over the wall (even the ones who got extra HP from Malik's lightning boost).
Jiffy starts using his Amazing Initiative points to heal and buff, getting Malik back on his feet in about 1 round.
Enemy fighter attacks Bruce, dealing minimal damage and missing a lot. Bruce returns the favor, landing 5 hits, 3 of which are crits, reducing the Infernal Champion to chunky salsa.
Malik, back on his feet, begins disintegrating and fireballing the place, dusting one of the Graveknights with a small-damage poke from Jiffy helping out.
Once it's down to the Elementals vs. Marion, and the Spellcasters & Barbarian vs. the other 3, it's pretty much game over.
Marion obliterates all 3 elementals in 2 rounds, since she can't possibly miss (able to ignore the Nat-1 miss chances) and they can't really hurt her. Malik nails the Earthfather with a maximized disintegrate, dusting him where he stands.
Bruce flies down and unloads on the Necromancer, dealing 529hp in a full-attack routine.
Jiffy walked up to the Barbarian and suggested that since his "friends" were all dust/salsa/re-dead/etc, it might be in his best interest to surrender. Adding +20 to his Diplomacy check via a Mythic Point, the Scarred Wanderer sees the reason behind his words, and relents.
Conclusion: Wow, can those Champions really unleash the damage.
Maximized Spells via the Archmage makes for a LOT less dice-rolling, which is super nice at this level.
Dealing with a large-encounter, high-CR threat, each PC felt very Mythic and powerful. The Ranger/Champion in particular felt super-awesome, since she could demolish the Low-CR critters pretty much at will.
A lot of fun!
Do you have links available for the remaining characters?
Cool, finally some AP report instead of just theorycrafting.
Those damage numbers are really scary.
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Not at all.
The dragon fight was tough because it was a dragon, and I changed the spell list to make it crazy badass, as well as giving it a +6 belt of Con & a +6 headband of Cha.
The multi-threat encounter really didn't prove much threat, except for the Sorcerer (who left himself wide open to half a dozen giants throwing rocks at the clothy).
They steamrolled the Level 20 NPC's though.
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Not at all.
The dragon fight was tough because it was a dragon, and I changed the spell list to make it crazy badass, as well as giving it a +6 belt of Con & a +6 headband of Cha.
The multi-threat encounter really didn't prove much threat, except for the Sorcerer (who left himself wide open to half a dozen giants throwing rocks at the clothy).
They steamrolled the Level 20 NPC's though.
Rock on.
I guess I'd just expect Level 20/MR 5 PCs to be steamrolling CR 23 encounters. The guidelines suggest CR 25 encounters as balanced. Even then, if they're doing one encounter a day, it should probably be even higher.
I don't mean to nitpick, just trying to see what your expectations were going in.
If you do get a chance to do a big setpiece CR 27 fight, though, I'd be really interested to see the results.
Cheers!
Landon
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Yeah, these were Level 17 / MR 8 characters.[/spoiler]Sorry about that, I misspoke. Should still be 25 total, which is what I was going for.
I was trying to gauge just what they could handle, mostly.
I have another High CR encounter planned, in case we get another chance with the same characters.
Very cool. Looking forward to the results if you're able to give it another try!
Cheers!
Landon
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I'm starting to agree with the Amazing Initiative issues, myself.
2 full turns is quite the powerful ability. In addition, tracking the players' turns becomes more difficult for both the GM & players.
Perhaps the Tier 2 power could be something like "Mythic Improved Initiative: Add your Mythic Tier to your Initiative Score" and then progress up the order of actions.
Improved Initiative could then get its own Mythic version of the feat:
Mythic Improved Initiative: Gain +4 to your initiative. This stacks with Improved Initiative. In addition, you can roll twice for Initiative, taking the best roll.
Just a thought.