So, I'm still relatively new to Mythic Adventures, but I'm playing a Mythic Monk/Guardian in a low-level game; and as I look at mythic guides, there seems to be a continuous stream of disappointment and recommendation to never play a Guardian that doesn't seem to have much explanation behind it.
With Retributive Reach, Cage Enemy, and Mythic Combat Reflexs, a Tier 3 guardian gets two free attacks at max BAB against anyone who tries to engage them in melee; with Enlarge Person and Lunge, this goes up to four free attacks at max BAB. With Dimensional Grappler and Inescapable Gloves, they can take out any spellcaster in a single round. And this is the low-level end of Mythic. Am I missing something that makes the other paths better at martial combat?
Does... that AC matter? I haven't played WotR, but by Monk 5/Guardian 2, it's become pretty clear that if someone actually gets a melee attack against me, I'm playing Guardian wrong.
I have a Mythic Guardian who wields a Flying Talon that is sized for a Large creature. He has Mythic Combat Reflexes, Retributive Reach and spends most of his time Large. His Reach is impressive.
He also has Mythic Grappler and Hamatula Strike.
So, whenever things provoke AoOs from him he spikes them with the Flying Talon, grapples them at Reach, which immediately yanks them adjacent to him if he succeeds (he rarely fails). Then he drops them for additional damage.
He is a Stalwart Defender with Halting Blow so when they hit the ground they don't get to go anywhere. They just lay in a pile getting more of their friends dumped on their heads.
He'll keep doing this as long as the enemies keep provoking. A few sessions ago he managed to pile up 8 enemies by yanking them into the air and then dropping them on top of each other at the feat of our party Champion, who has Mythic Power Attack, Great Cleave and Cleaving Finish. It got messy.
In our last session I managed to drop three demons into a Magic Circle that our cleric set off on her turn. Nothing like trapping three demons with the same spell.
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People generally VASTLY prefer offensive options to defensive ones, and the Guardian is chock full of the later.
When it's competing with Champion, most people are obviously going to choose Champion, because improved offense is pretty much THE THING to get in PF. That said, they're both really strong and you won't lose anything by going one over the other (though you can Dual Path and have both!).
The Champion is mobile. Between Fleet Charge, Impossible Speed, and Fleet Warrior, move 60', full attack, extra attack with bonuses, move 60' away is a pretty basic attack paradigm.
Huh... maybe that's just the general mythic martial paradigm? My strategy is charge with a reach weapon, lock them in place with Cage Enemy while the rest of my team wails on them with reach weapons and ranged ones, then take full attacks while 5' stepping back because 10 feet of distance for the Guardian makes a much bigger difference than 60 feet for the champion.
Guardian is the best path though. With Mythic, offense is easy to boost to levels well within one round killing of anything.
Defense is harder. Guardian makes it easy.
Adamantine Mind alone makes it worth at least Dual Path.
I'm playing a guardian/archmage blade-bound magus in a homebrew mythic campaign (we're L10, tier 3). Currently got absorb blow, ever-ready, retributive reach, and spell parry for path abilities, and mythic paragon (works very, very well with guardian abilities) and dual path (arcane surge, because wild arcana on a magus honestly isn't impressive, and hell yes to swift action spells) for feats.
My magus pretty much gets all the offense he needs from his class abilities, so I've been focusing on defensive/battlefield dickery abilities (retributive reach + enlarge person/monstrous physique II + long arm = whee!). It's been fun.
I can see champion being far more appealing if your goal is maximum rocket tag, though. Champion's like the APG Summoner - it's very, very easy to build a deadly character using it.
Much like in the regular game, there's a handful of things in Mythic that are too good (Fleet warrior, Mythic Vital Strike, etc.), and you'll need to adjust them if they come up in your game. I suspect that if you look at a guide, it's going to immediately direct you to the "too good" options, because of course the first thing you should do when playing in a campaign is to actively seek to break it. Sigh.
(In the mythic Reign of Winter game (now L20 & tier 7 - we're starting the After AP section now) I'm running, I nerfed the hell out of Fleet Warrior (stated simply, I made it initially only grants 2 attacks, improving to 3 at tier 6 and 4 at tier 9) because I didn't like that Fleet Warrior rendered fleet charge irrelevant.)
Good rule of thumb - if you look at a power/feat and you're not comfortable using it against your players (hello Mythic Vital Strike!), you probably want to warn your players away from it (i.e., "please refrain from trying to force an arms race with the GM").
I may have started rambling. Sorry.
I just want a mythic game that actually lasts. Nuts to what works best in everything is awesome land.
With Retributive Reach, Cage Enemy, and Mythic Combat Reflexs, a Tier 3 guardian gets two free attacks at max BAB against anyone who tries to engage them in melee; with Enlarge Person and Lunge, this goes up to four free attacks at max BAB.
How do you get your four attacks? Lunge only works to extend reach until the end of your turn, not for threatening between turns. Are you reading the Cage AoO for moving out of a threatened square as one on top of the normal AoO from movement from a threatened square? Even if it did, with cage enemy if your cage AoO hits and does damage they end their movement so can't provoke any more cage attacks.
Oh! I thought Lunge was "end of your next turn." Good to know. Mythic Combat Reflexes (at least how I read it) lets you make one attack per square of movement; Cage Enemy just takes 5' steps off the table.
Oh! I thought Lunge was "end of your next turn." Good to know. Mythic Combat Reflexes (at least how I read it) lets you make one attack per square of movement; Cage Enemy just takes 5' steps off the table.
Mythic combat reflexes does allow extra AoOs on movement provoking ones, but only with a swift action and spending a mythic power use. That will last until the start of your next turn.
Cage requires an immediate action, one mythic power use and lasts until the end of your next turn.
So you could do swift on your turn then immediate right after your turn (taking your swift from your next round) and have both going and cycle through with the power active for half the time.
So it can be done some of the time with a lot of mythic power and action expenditure.