I'm trying to figure out how to calculate the "bane" effect of a Mythic Flame Strike. Does the bane ability get added to each die rolled, or once overall?
This came up in a game tonight when a newly ascended level 9 druid opted to flame strike four shambling mounds, and use the plant type bane. I had to make a ruling, and rather than let things get bogged down in analysis paralysis, I figured mythic spells are SUPPOSED to be hella awesome, and let her roll 9d8+18d6+18, for a total of 133 damage. That's just 1 less than DOUBLE their starting hit points. All of them failed their Reflex saves, but even if one had made it, it would still have been reduced from full to 1 hit point in a single hit.
As it was, all four were instantly vaporized, plus every tree, shrub, and bush in the area, leaving a smoking, ashy crater and a druid feeling stricken with guilt for roasting the inoffensive plants in the area.
I also told the player (solo campaign) that I would check in the rules forums, and if it isn't QUITE that awesome, we'll just say she a little extra juice left over from her initial ascension.
So, is the damage for a mythic flame strike with the bane option:
A) 1d8+2d6+2 per caster level,
Or, B) 1d8 per caster level plus 2d6+2?
The Bane property on a weapon adds an extra 2D6+2 Damage for each successful hit you make.
Since we are assuming the Spell has a Bane descriptor (which functions identically to the property), option B is the correct answer, as each creature is affected by the spell once. (A Bane Flaming Sphere would be insane, since then it would deal 3D6 + 2D6 + 2 each time a Baned creature fails its Reflex Save...)
Aside from that, if it takes a single Mythic Spell to trivialize a combat, your monsters aren't strong enough, or the spell is just too good. Considering that's a 9th level Character Class dealing that damage per monster, there's no way it's because your creatures are too weak...My suggestion is to throw in some Fiendish creatures (or something with some decent Fire Resists). The 9D8 may be nerfed some by the resistance, but the 2D6+2 can make up for it very easily, meaning the damage would remain about the same.
Anyway, if you still want the PC to feel very powerful, it wouldn't be broken to have the +2 Damage scale per caster level, so if you're still looking to add "the extra juice," that's a fair place to start.
Our druid cast a mythic flame strike in our last session, but nothing triggered any questions at our table.
But reading this made me reread the text.
I don't think it adds "bane" damage. The wording:
The damage dealt increases to 1d8 per caster level (maximum 15d8). The area increases to a 20-foot-radius, 40-foot-high cylinder. You may have the divine half of the damage affect only one specific creature type (as the bane weapon quality).
So, you can exclude other creatures from the divine damage by my interpretation. You might need to nuke your own party members, so you can cast it with "Oh, I'm going to make the divine damage affect only the aberration, but sorry Bob, hopefully the fire damage won't kill you."
Quote: You may have the divine half of the damage affect only one specific creature type (as the bane weapon quality). Yeah, it's really weird wording. I think the idea is to compare it to weapons where the bane damage doesn't help against the wrong type of creature. So you select a creature type that's valid for bane, and only that type takes the holy damage.
On reflection, if you put Bane on a weapon that has multiple base hit dice, the bane only happens once per hit. So a greatsword, for example, does 2d6 normally, and bane adds an additional 2d6+2 once. So B is clearly the correct reading.
That is, B is correct unless they just wanted to say you can target a single creature type for the divine half. Bobson is right -- weird wording.
I'm inclined to think that adding 2d6+2 to a specific creature type is well within the bounds of the general uber-awesomeness of mythic stuff, so I think we'll continue to do that.
It's not weird wording, at least not to me. It seems pretty clear:
The holy damage can be made to affect only one kind of creature, and you use the Bane weapon property to determine valid creature types.
If the sole purpose of the wording was to enumerate a list of valid creature types, referring to the Bane property is an unusual way of going about it.
Most such things refer to the Favored Enemies list from the Ranger class. For example, the feat Favored Judgment uses language like this:
Favored Judgment wrote: Benefit: Select a favored race from the ranger's favored enemies chart. Any sacred or profane bonus you gain from a judgment is 1 higher for attacks you make against or take from creatures that match the selected favored enemy. The two lists -- Favored Enemies and Bane -- are identical, except that the Ranger table takes the space to list the available subtypes of humanoid and outsider. Which is handy.
A clearer wording for Mythic Flame Strike might have been something like:
Quote: You may have the divine half of the damage affect only one specific creature type (selected from the table of Ranger favored enemies). The phrasing "as the bane weapon quality" is more ambiguous, because the word "as" can mean "just like" -- hence my initial reading that opting to select a creature type adds damage, just like the bane property.
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