This book has been out for a year now, and while I was never a fan of 3.5's Epic Level Handbook, I absolutely love this book. I love it more for the flavor than anything, but I like the mechanics it brings to the game for doing post 20th level play. This is even better due to that you can use it at any level. That being said, I have 2 questions for the Pathfinder community.
1) What house rules have you applied to your games when using Mythic Adventures and why?
2) Has anybody created their own mythic options to be used in their games that they would be willing to share? I would be willing to compile a book which lists these options (crediting their creators) and give it to the Paizo community free of charge.
Thanks in advance.
Due to existing house-rules that already lowered the death threshold further into the negative, I modified Hard to Kill so that any time a PC received a Cure spell or effect they could expend one point of mythic power to cure an additional number of d8s equal to their tier. This way, if they do something stupid (or rather WHEN since their Wisdom scores are in the pits), they can blow some extra mythic power to heal up quickly afterwards. In theory, anyways.
Another option I give my players is what I call a Mythic Influence check. Essentially, where the Mythic Surge is their mythic nature modifying normal PC powers, this mechanic is about using your presence as a being of grand power to make mythic phenomenon bend to your will. To make a Mythic Influence check, you expend a point of mythic power as a swift action and roll a d20, then add the sum of your hit dice, tier, and either the better of your Int or Cha modifier. I flavor this as the proficiency you have with mythic matters (tier) plus the strength you can put behind it (HD) guided either by cunning and quick thinking (Int mod) or brute force of will and ego (Cha mod). If the check meets or exceeds the DC, you get to tell some part of a mythic threat to, "Do what I said 'cause I said it!" Primarily, my players are rolling these checks to identify and then either manipulate or shut-down creatures and threats who rip holes to the Inner Planes and co-opt the energy on the other side to nasty effect.
Once they hit tier 3, I'm giving my players a new toy to play with, too. One of the things I liked about 4E was the concept of action points and item uses being partially regenerated after a certain number of fights as part of a mechanic called Milestones. In my homebrew, the PCs will get one point of 'Planar Power' for every 1-3 mythic threats or obstacles they overcome, in a sense replacing the concept of 'mythic trials' from the book. They can only have a few points of Planar Power at a time, they deplete when resting for the day, and can only be used for Mythic Influence checks, Cure effect enhancement, or using their Mythic Surge ability. This way, they'll be able to adventure for longer and I won't have to worry quite as often about what happens if they fall back to use Recuperation.
Let's see, what else. Well, my mini-boss and actual boss templates are all based around being mythic bad-a$$es. Their Mythic Surge, for example, can be used as a free action, but only once per encounter if they're just a mini-boss. Also, their hit dice are maximized, they gain a bonus to all saves equal to half their rank/tier, and total mythic power is at least double their rank/tiers. The biggest thing I do with this, though, is have the (mini) bosses warp reality so that they can summon up stationary rifts where planar energy bleeds through, providing boons to the bad guys, serving as a battlefield hazard, directly harming the PCs, or all three. Here's a sample of what one such rift from the boss of book 1 could do:
- Blistering Flourish: the bosses successful melee and ranged attacks dazzle the target for 1 round. He can expend one mythic as a free action to instead inflict 20% miss change (DC 17 Will negates) on all targets within his attack of opportunity reach for 1d4 rounds.
- Hungering Wrath: the bosses attacks do bonus fire damage equal to his tier (stacks with main use) and he can expend one mythic power as a free action to have successful attacks this turn set the target on fire for 1 round (2d6 dmg, DC 17 Reflex negates).
I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple things, but this covers most of my homebrew mythic ideas so far.
Bumping for greater justice.
I added a metamagic rod for the Ascendant Spell feat.
55,000 gp for the minor, 106,000 for the normal, and 240,000 for the major.
I've never actually played mythic, but the limited number of Mythic Spells that you can access bothers me. Were I to work with hour rules I'd definitely start with ways to increase the number of Mythic Spells casters have access to.
I'm all about making characters flexible, so if more mythic spells worked out to be a problem I've start considering ways to make non-caster mythics more flexible.