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I'm creating a campaign world which uses mythic rules for character creation, think Exalted but for Pathfinder. I'm reading the Mythic Adventures book to get a better understanding of the rules, however, I also want to hear from the community too. Is anyone running a campaign, or have run a campaign in the past, have any insight as to what I should expect? I've been in the gaming hobby since '86 and have a pretty decent grasp of the Pathfinder rules.
Thanks!
If you want to allow for the feel of playing a Solar Exalt with top of the tree charms, consider allowing a few feats from this book at higher tiers. Despite the name, there are some feats in it that feel appropriate for what a high tier mythic character ought to be able to do.
Edit: Particularly the skill use feats.
I'm running a mythic campaign, but the players did not start with mythic powers. Generally, there is a moment of ascension in an early adventure where they gain their new abilities.
What kind of advice are you looking for?
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Our group has only dabbled in mythic rules and what we have found so far is:
* Martial characters become more interesting and the gap in power with full casters narrows slightly.
* Mythic monsters make much better boss monsters for both mythic and non mythic parties due to improved action economy and better resilience (depending on the monster of course).
* At low tiers (1-2) the PCs can still be challenged by the usual situations. I don't know about 3+ tiers yet but I suspect that the game would change dramatically around tier 4.
* It is much easier to find overpowered combinations and you have to be careful how you interpret some things like mythic vital strike for example. It is even more important than normal with mythic rules that you have mature players who don't try to break the game.
* Old classic monsters that had grown a little stale over time (like trolls) have become interesting again.
Generally our experience has been positive, but we have not rushed into anything.
I've been in one Mythic Campaign where incorporating it individually was balance-destroying and I've subsequently run Wrath of the Righteous to see what it would be like in even progression and both were fun, but played out very differently from each other.
I would regard Mythic as hidden CR with their boosts and enhancements like filling the holes in Action Economy for some builds.
The big thing is, the prevalence of Mythic threats for the party to face. I assume they have already Ascended as part of their character creation, and if you guys are seeding from 1 to represent some Divine/Foretold Destiny, or they were at the right place at the right time during their previous career.
Mythic is a wonderful game-changer, and a terrifying one for the adversaries. Imagine players being able to Nova as much as they have MPs to spend. Consequently, should the enemies have Mythics themselves, the 1-3 turn encounter becomes the standard as both adversaries have been ramped up so offensively that a lot of defense just gets overwhelmed, and as quick as a BBEG can go down, so can a Mythic Lieutenant off a PC just as easily.
The rate of Mythic progression greatly favors the PCs. You need 5 Mythic Encounters plus your Ascension (in which case, 6) to reach Tier 5 Mythic, and let's be honest, some of the best Path Abilities you have access to from Tier 1-5. Hell, it only takes 2-3 to get Tier 3 and access to one/two Tier 3 Path Abilities (IMHO where the best ones reside). The rest of the time, your Mythic PCs are steamrolling their Mundane opponents in encounters that will need to be scaled up to give your PCs a more challenging experience or an adventure befitting Mythic characters.
I.E. you go from being that anonymous soldier fighting through the Trojan war to basically being Achilles or Hector -apt considering that I agree that this brings the Martials closer to Arcane/Divine. A more relevant example would be that player who scores the Hero power-up in Star Wars: Battlefront. The Millennium Falcon/Slave-1 showing up in an Alphabet-Wing versus TIE dogfight is a gamechanger.
From 1st Level through 20th the power difference done right is very tangible. It enables so many options that its the PCs burden to develop poorly.
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If you're running Mythic games as a GM, I strongly encourage picking up the Mythic Mania trilogy:
-The Hero's Handbook offers feats, class abilities, and fixes for problems that appeared in the original book. Your mythic games will be unquestionably better if you use it.
-The Spell Compendium is JUST a collection of mythic spells. These enhanced powers offer new ways for existing villains to challenge mythic heroes, and your players probably won't expect most of it. It's also good for players who want to do mythic spellcasting and aren't sticking solely to, like, CRB spells. XD
-The Monster Manual is a bestiary with mythic versions of many existing monsters. Also good for challenging mythic heroes.Aside from these important supplements, be sure to talk to your players and encourage NOT trying to break the system by stacking absurd numbers. If the players go more for thematic abilities than higher numbers, I think it'll go better for all of you.
(Also, try to set up situations where they can't retreat and be fully healed anytime they want. This helps with players going 'nova' and stomping all over every challenge.)
I've picked up the Mythic Trilogy by Legendary Games. The books are great and offer a lot of useful advice. The next step is to figure out how and when I want to add in the mythic tiers during play.
Make sure your players understand their mythic abilities. Most people on the forums are the type that really get into building characters and usually don’t have a problem. There are a lot of people who game that are a lot more casual and don’t spend time studying the game. If they don’t understand their new abilities they will not use them.
The mythic rules add a certain amount of complexity to the game. Many of the mythic abilities require spending mythic points. If some of your players don’t understand this they will be significantly less effective than the rest of the group. Nothing is more frustrating than listening to a player complain the foe is too tough when the right use of a mythic point would have made it a lot easier.