Erm... If your Swashbuckler is using offhand attacks then they're not getting precise strike damage at all. You might want to look over their character sheet and ensure they're understanding the rules properly.
That being said, this is really just a reality of Mythic and why the system doesn't really work. Mythic is a kill-in-one-round-or-be-killed-in-one-round world; hell, going back to your Nocticula example and she can cast a quickened mass suggestion and finger of death in a single round, targeting both of the Swashbuckler's bad saves.
Shave 20 points off each hit because he's only using a +1 weapon.
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Play a different campaign without Mythic or Gesalt rules.
Give them a 15-20 point buy, Automatic Bonus Progression rules, Ban Leadership always, Limit Crafting to 2 crafting feats a Character (as to not to abuse it but still allow it), and give them Full HP at level 1 and Half+1 every level after.
Play a Published AP and just follow the rules.
This should bring the game to a more manageable level and much less fixing will need to be done if any at all.
The APs I recommend:
Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition- One of the best written campaigns of all time and Super classic with a mix of everything. (Dragons, Dungeons, giants, Wizards of Old, alternate plane, and staving off world domination/destruction)
Skulls and Shackles- Being a Pirate is freaking awesome Mate.
King Maker- Build and Rule your own kingdom..Heavy Nature and Fey feeling
Carrion Crown- Undead and Horror Heavy
Way of the Wicked- Great Evil Campaign
Emerald Spire- Full on Dungeon Crawl
First off, at 20th level and Mythic 10 a CR 30 should be a fairly easy encounter to begin with. To challenge such a party you would be looking for CR 32 or 33 most likely. That is sort of beside the issue though.
Basically the problem with mythic is that it is a multiplier.
An fairly optimized party will generally make short work of most APL + 4 encounters, and anything less will usually be hardly worth pulling out the dice to deal with. A more less optimized party, made up with Piazo PreGens for example, or fairly new players or people who just choose for their own reasons to not be very highly optimized, might well all be killed by a APL +4 encounter.
Mythic multiplies this difference. Meaning that if a fairly non-opmtimized mythic party finds an encounter to be a challenge, than probably any single optimized character of the same level and tier would consider it a cake walk.
Generally speaking, you'll want to avoid Mythic Abilities that add to your damage output like the plague if you want to keep any semblance of balance. The occasional Fleet Charge or Sudden Attack increases your damage output considerably but is still fairly manageable. The issue with the Mythic rules is that you have to be very careful about what abilities you pick if you want to avoid breaking the game.
As a general rule, try to avoid abilities that increase your damage output and instead pick ones that give you alternative options in combat or passive bonuses that don't add to damage. Otherwise chances are, your players will end up pretty much disintegrating anything in Round 1.
The Swashbuckler's damage is coming from:
Mythic Power Attack, Mythic Weapon Specialization, Mythic Bleeding Critical, Elemental Fury, Mythic Two Weapon Rend, Mythic Improved Critical, Precision Critical.The Character was built with Two Weapon Fighting, Improved Two Weapon Fighting and Greater Two Weapon Fighting.
The damage noted is without the Swashbuckler's Precise Strike damage; though if it were to be included on only 7 primary attacks, the maximum damage is still ~3054.
But if I understand correctly, it seems it's pretty much a "whomsoever gets the initiative wins" situation with Mythic characters then. :(
It looks like precision critical is a 3rd party feat. I see 5 Mythic feats, plus Mythic bleeding critical has a prerequisite, so he'll have to trade a path power for it.
His mundane feat lineup has to include: power attack, weapon focus, weapon specialization, Critical focus, Bleeding critical, Two-weapon rend, Improved critical, TWF, ITWF, GTWF. That's ten of the fifteen feats he'll get as a swashbuckler.
Precision Critical is a Trickster Path Ability;
Precision Critical (Ex): Whenever you score a critical hit, double any extra precision damage dice, such as sneak attack damage. These dice are only doubled, not multiplied by the weapon's critical modifier.
Precision Critical is a Trickster Path Ability;
Precision Critical (Ex): Whenever you score a critical hit, double any extra precision damage dice, such as sneak attack damage. These dice are only doubled, not multiplied by the weapon's critical modifier.
I'm not seeing any precision damage from the build for this to increase.
If your GM is doing good now, he will probably figure out a way to have fun by the time you get to high levels. At that point, your group will have it's own way of doing things, and your GM will probably be altering the rules quite a bit. Go with what works for everyone at the table. If you discover a rule or build that seems broken, talk it over with everyone, and decide if it belongs in the game.
Well, there are some issues with the legality of that build, but those issues aside...
Mythic is a game of rocket tag. No getting around it.
I once saw a mythic gunslinger who could solo Cthulhu in one round. It was disgusting.
I'm not seeing any precision damage from the build for this to increase.Precision Critical is a Trickster Path Ability;
Precision Critical (Ex): Whenever you score a critical hit, double any extra precision damage dice, such as sneak attack damage. These dice are only doubled, not multiplied by the weapon's critical modifier.
Presumably the player didn't realize you couldn't use precise strike while Two Weapon Fighting. There could also be another Mythic Ability that deals precision damage but I don't know for sure.
Edit: It's likely the player was planning on using Bloody Streak.
Bloody Streak (Ex) Whenever you successfully deal sneak attack damage to a creature, you can expend one use of mythic power as a swift action to heighten your bloodshed. Thereafter, every consecutive round that you deal sneak attack damage, add a cumulative +1d6 bonus on your sneak attack damage roll. The targets of these sneak attacks don't need to be the same. You can gain a maximum number of bonus d6s on your sneak attack damage in this way equal to your tier. As soon as you fail to deal sneak attack damage to a creature in a round, this effect ends and you no longer gain the bonus on sneak attack damage until you use this ability again. For example, a 10th-level rogue, 6th-tier trickster uses this ability after dealing 5d6 points of sneak attack damage to a foe. On the next round, she deals 6d6 points of sneak attack damage to a foe (5d6 from her rogue levels + 1d6 from this ability). The round after that, she deals 7d6 points of sneak attack damage, but on the next round, she fails to deal any sneak attack damage, and so her sneak attack damage resets back to 5d6.
I'm not seeing any precision damage from the build for this to increase.Precision Critical is a Trickster Path Ability;
Precision Critical (Ex): Whenever you score a critical hit, double any extra precision damage dice, such as sneak attack damage. These dice are only doubled, not multiplied by the weapon's critical modifier.
Presumably the player didn't realize you couldn't use precise strike while Two Weapon Fighting. There could also be another Mythic Ability that deals precision damage but I don't know for sure.
Edit: It's likely the player was planning on using Bloody Streak.
Bloody Streak (Ex) Whenever you successfully deal sneak attack damage to a creature, you can expend one use of mythic power as a swift action to heighten your bloodshed. Thereafter, every consecutive round that you deal sneak attack damage, add a cumulative +1d6 bonus on your sneak attack damage roll. The targets of these sneak attacks don't need to be the same. You can gain a maximum number of bonus d6s on your sneak attack damage in this way equal to your tier. As soon as you fail to deal sneak attack damage to a creature in a round, this effect ends and you no longer gain the bonus on sneak attack damage until you use this ability again. For example, a 10th-level rogue, 6th-tier trickster uses this ability after dealing 5d6 points of sneak attack damage to a foe. On the next round, she deals 6d6 points of sneak attack damage to a foe (5d6 from her rogue levels + 1d6 from this ability). The round after that, she deals 7d6 points of sneak attack damage, but on the next round, she fails to deal any sneak attack damage, and so her sneak attack damage resets back to 5d6.
But he also has no source of sneak attack damage for that to boost either. It's probably thinking that he got precise strike on every hit. So that's 8*40 damage 320 that he's not getting.
When I ran Wrath of the Righteous to the end the only way to deal with the damage numbers the pc's produced was to give important npc's between 6 and 16 thousand hp that way they could last more than 1 round.
Mythic inflates damage numbers beyond anything the RAW can handle, and I had already nerfed many of the more powerful abilities.
If he takes Path Dabbling (or a Dual Path though I don't think he has it) he can pick up Deadly Guidance from the Marshal Path which gives both him and his allies a source of sneak attack.
Deadly Guidance (Ex): You are able to point out the weak points in an enemy's defenses, and your allies benefit from your tactical insight. As a swift action, you can expend one use of mythic power to designate a single opponent within 30 feet of you. All allies within 30 feet of that opponent gain the sneak attack ability when attacking it, and can thus deal +1d6 points of damage when flanking that opponent or when the opponent is otherwise denied its Dexterity bonus to AC. This sneak attack damage stacks with sneak attack damage from other sources. This ability lasts a number of rounds equal to half your tier (minimum 1). You can take this ability up to four times. Each time you take it, the sneak attack damage from this ability increases by 1d6.
It might very well be the case that it was a mistake with Precise Strike but at the very least it's not impossible that this ability (or some other ability I may have missed) is what is giving him some extra damage. To be honest, I'm not sure it matters either way since he already seems to be doing way more damage than he could possibly need to and I have seen a few cases where damage in a round has reached the thousands with mythic power.
A Mythic two handed Vital Strike fighter can do 2,500 and up without trying. Over 5,000 with foe-biting.
Math here.
Mythic gives >1,000 damage to any halfway competent damage dealer at its end. It is a very different game.
Without Mythic a player really has to try to break your game.
With Mythic a player really has to try NOT to break your game.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Mythic Rules!
As a GM I am having a similar problem in a NON_MYTHIC campaign. I have a human fighter who at 13th level typically deals over 300 points of damage per round. Even with moving the encounters up to CR 15+, the party can kill all the badguys in less than 2 rounds of combat.
Suggestions?
As a GM I am having a similar problem in a NON_MYTHIC campaign. I have a human fighter who at 13th level typically deals over 300 points of damage per round. Even with moving the encounters up to CR 15+, the party can kill all the badguys in less than 2 rounds of combat.
Suggestions?
Can you give us his attack routine? His bonuses to attacks and the damage, and how he's getting those. Have you been following WBL?
If you can tell us this then we can first make sure it's correct, and then suggest how to deal with it.My guess is a nice crit weapon and some nice buffs.
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Beyond a certain level, parties are no longer going to be challenged by combat. You just have to accept that. And that's okay! The players have put in the time to make their characters into action-hero-gods, and they should get to enjoy that. Let whup some monster butt on a regular basis.
However, as levels go up, the real challenges need to become more outre. Weird problems that can't be solved with basic mechanics. Foes who break or ignore the rules in fundamental ways. Adversaries who can't be fought on any level, but instead must be coped with somehow.
Conflicts can also become less about what the PCs CAN do, and more about what they WILL do - or won't, as the case may be. Moral dilemmas, temptations, the consequences of power, that sort of thing.
Finally: I would hope that by the time they get to a high level, the players will have developed the long-term goals and ambitions of their characters, and those goals and ambitions should be reaching fruition (or falling in ruins). Lots of drama to be mined from those consequences.
Mythic, as said already, is kind of nuts. It's...really NOT balanced, so if you're concerned about that, I'd avoid it in the future, as it turns damage output up to 11.
That being said, an easy fix if you're using published APs or modules is just to up the amount of hp the enemies have so that they last long enough to actually do something. Add as much as you think you need to make the encounter actually challenging for the party. (Though not every encounter needs to be an "oh god oh god we're all going to die" scenario.)
If you as the GM are making up the adventure, keep in mind that CR is calculated for the damage output of an average party. If the PCs are a well-oiled combat machine, account for that. I very rarely create encounters at APL for my groups; they're usually at least 1 above it, and typically 2-3 above APL for boss encounters. Improved initiative is also a good thing to give enemies in this instance. Or toss a powerful caster with lots of mental spell tricks at them. The party will appreciate that swashbuckler's massive damage a lot less when it's coming down on the wizard thanks to a confusion spell.
Wolfsnap's suggestions above are also good ones. Sure, the party CAN one-shot the aasimar cleric that's dominated by some evil creature...but would they?
As a GM I am having a similar problem in a NON_MYTHIC campaign. I have a human fighter who at 13th level typically deals over 300 points of damage per round. Even with moving the encounters up to CR 15+, the party can kill all the badguys in less than 2 rounds of combat.
Suggestions?
Can you give us his attack routine? His bonuses to attacks and the damage, and how he's getting those. Have you been following WBL?
If you can tell us this then we can first make sure it's correct, and then suggest how to deal with it.
My guess is a nice crit weapon and some nice buffs.
We don't play PFS, we use slightly higher point built and don't care about WBL,
but his weapon stats at 12 lvl are: +3 falchion +20/+15/10 2d4 +30 15-20/2
(he also has boots of speed)
Feats that are applicable:
Furious Focus
Greater Weapon Focus
Greater weapon spec
Improved crit
Power attack
weapon focus
weapon spec
His current strength with magic is 23
so at 4 attacks per round, just 1 crit and 2 hits puts him close to 150 damage, and he's been known to crit 3 times/round. which puts his damage over 200. So maybe not 300 like I said, but still more than a CR 12 monster can take.
str 23 = +6
12+6+3+1+1+2 = +25/+20/+15 to hit, +25/+16+11 if power attacking
damage is 9+3+2+2+2= 18, +20 if power attacking.
Yeah, it's a fighter that kills things well.
Step 1) Never ever ever use mythic unless you're are using a pre written adventure that requires it. Even then it will not be balanced. Without mythic tiers in a mythic adventure the players will die. With mythic tiers and moderate optimization your players will one shot everything before they get a chance to go, because if they don't they die.
It's severely broken and not fun to play (for a GM, and for me as a player)
Step 2) Explain to your player that the amount of damage would make it virtually impossible to play any meaningful combats. Ask him to rebuild his character to be less optimized for combat (including removing all the terrible mythic stuff from everyone's characters).
As a GM I am having a similar problem in a NON_MYTHIC campaign. I have a human fighter who at 13th level typically deals over 300 points of damage per round. Even with moving the encounters up to CR 15+, the party can kill all the badguys in less than 2 rounds of combat.
Suggestions?
Can you give us his attack routine? His bonuses to attacks and the damage, and how he's getting those. Have you been following WBL?
If you can tell us this then we can first make sure it's correct, and then suggest how to deal with it.
My guess is a nice crit weapon and some nice buffs.We don't play PFS, we use slightly higher point built and don't care about WBL,
but his weapon stats at 12 lvl are: +3 falchion +20/+15/10 2d4 +30 15-20/2
(he also has boots of speed)
Feats that are applicable:
Furious Focus
Greater Weapon Focus
Greater weapon spec
Improved crit
Power attack
weapon focus
weapon specHis current strength with magic is 23
so at 4 attacks per round, just 1 crit and 2 hits puts him close to 150 damage, and he's been known to crit 3 times/round. which puts his damage over 200. So maybe not 300 like I said, but still more than a CR 12 monster can take.
Okay, assuming that he is using his Boots of Speed to "End 'em rightly."
Highest Attack: 12 + 6 (Str) + 2 (WF) + 3 (Mgc) + 2 (WT) + 1 (Haste)= +26So his attack bonus runs +26/+22/+17/+12. Against appropriately normal encounters (say a purple worm, AC 26), he hits with the first blow and the second almost automatically, has a great chance with the third, but he'll probably miss with the fourth attack.
As for crits, his odds are (30%, slightly less than 30%, about 15%, about 5%).
This is the fighter at his optimum. Break his falchion, Give him an opponent that flies, is incorporeal, is immune to criticals, won't let him get within 5ft. in the first place, or anything else along those lines, and he's much more ineffective.
Case in point, same purple worm: +21 with two attacks with reach. More or less autmatically deals 6d8+40 damage (average 67 dmg./round) Now, the fighter can probably take this for a round, possibly (not likely) for two, but he's also poisoned (1d4 Str/round) and grappled. He can't likely kill the worm in one turn (200 hp), so he's all together still depending on his allies to help him win the day. What's more if the worm feels it's had enough, it can burrow away without to much trouble.
As a GM I am having a similar problem in a NON_MYTHIC campaign. I have a human fighter who at 13th level typically deals over 300 points of damage per round. Even with moving the encounters up to CR 15+, the party can kill all the badguys in less than 2 rounds of combat.
Suggestions?
Can you give us his attack routine? His bonuses to attacks and the damage, and how he's getting those. Have you been following WBL?
If you can tell us this then we can first make sure it's correct, and then suggest how to deal with it.
My guess is a nice crit weapon and some nice buffs.We don't play PFS, we use slightly higher point built and don't care about WBL,
but his weapon stats at 12 lvl are: +3 falchion +20/+15/10 2d4 +30 15-20/2
(he also has boots of speed)
Feats that are applicable:
Furious Focus
Greater Weapon Focus
Greater weapon spec
Improved crit
Power attack
weapon focus
weapon specHis current strength with magic is 23
so at 4 attacks per round, just 1 crit and 2 hits puts him close to 150 damage, and he's been known to crit 3 times/round. which puts his damage over 200. So maybe not 300 like I said, but still more than a CR 12 monster can take.
Okay, assuming that he is using his Boots of Speed to "End 'em rightly."
Highest Attack: 12 + 6 (Str) + 2 (WF) + 3 (Mgc) + 2 (WT) + 1 (Haste)= +26So his attack bonus runs +26/+22/+17/+12. Against appropriately normal encounters (say a purple worm, AC 26), he hits with the first blow and the second almost automatically, has a great chance with the third, but he'll probably miss with the fourth attack.
As for crits, his odds are (30%, slightly less than 30%, about 15%, about 5%).
This is the fighter at his optimum. Break his falchion, Give him an opponent that flies, is incorporeal, is immune to criticals, won't let him get within 5ft. in the first place, or anything else along those lines, and he's much more ineffective.
Case in point, same purple worm: +21 with two attacks with reach. More or less autmatically deals 6d8+40 damage (average 67 dmg./round) Now, the fighter can probably take this for a round, possibly (not likely) for two, but he's also poisoned (1d4 Str/round) and grappled. He can't likely kill the worm in one turn (200 hp), so he's alltogether still depending on his allies to help him win the day.
All of this is with a simple, no surprise round CR 12 monster. Put him in a CR 15 'boss battle' and things get even more troublesome for him.
str 23 = +6
12+6+3+1+1+2 = +25/+20/+15 to hit, +25/+16+11 if power attacking
damage is 9+3+2+2+2= 18, +20 if power attacking.Yeah, it's a fighter that kills things well.
Are you saying it's incorrect? we use HeroLab, so I would think what's on his sheet is correct.
Are you saying it's incorrect? we use HeroLab, so I would think what's on his sheet is correct.str 23 = +6
12+6+3+1+1+2 = +25/+20/+15 to hit, +25/+16+11 if power attacking
damage is 9+3+2+2+2= 18, +20 if power attacking.Yeah, it's a fighter that kills things well.
No, I was saying it all checked out and that he has nothing special. If you're not doing WBL then he could have had a +5 keen sword and the fighter gloves that give another +2 to hit and damage and a +6 belt etc... But what you have is a generic basic fighter, which is quite good at killing things it can full attack. But that's as it should be, that's the fighter's only job.
I have a similar fighter (Two-handed fighter specialist). Add the gloves of duelling and at 13th level I was at +30/+20/+15 power attacking, and with only two attacks hitting doing a minimum of ~80dmg. All three hit, floor of ~125 hp. With the falchion having crits wasn't unusual, so every 4-5 attacks I got a crit, so then I'd do almost 200hps in one round.
Then again, I have 29AC and 120 ish HP. I need a LOT of healing, and I need to be next to the enemy. Plus my saves are ok (+13 ish across the board) but not great, I've only survived this long due to Luck Feats with allow re-rolls, and two healers in my party keeping me alive (I go through Heals, Cure X's and Breath of Lifes like crazy).
So like your player, I kill things, when I can get to them. That's all I do. It's fun, and my team makes kid me about it (So how many thousands of DMG did you do this time?), but it's my 9-5 job, and I do it. I put a skill point in Profession (Soldier) because it seemed right.
My DM plays the enemy smart and the enemy uses his underlings to keep the Cuisinart away from him. So use tactics like that.
My DM plays the enemy smart and the enemy uses his underlings to keep the Cuisinart away from him. So use tactics like that.
Enemy minions are great for this. The DM playing the opponents smart can really minimize issues with the very powerful characters.
My DM plays the enemy smart and the enemy uses his underlings to keep the Cuisinart away from him. So use tactics like that.Enemy minions are great for this. The DM playing the opponents smart can really minimize issues with the very powerful characters.
Agreed. My fighter's real battle is getting TO the enemy, and surviving being there.
To the OP - wait until he gets hasted and gets an extra attack at highest BAB!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I once saw a mythic gunslinger who could solo Cthulhu in one round. It was disgusting.A non mythic wizard can do this, it isn't that special.
Mythic is super broken though, yeah.
Mythic time stop is just so dumb omg. What do you even do for 20 hours of time stop???
Maybe you have surprise guests and need to clean your tower and do laundry?
My campaign is nearing the end of book 4 in WotR. A few things to think about on you super powered swashbuckler.
1) That "max damage" is a myth. It doesn't exist. This assumes he will hit with all attacks and roll max damage and get max precision, and bleed and con damage etc. With an (unbuffed) AC in the 40s the player will not hit with the 3rd off-hand attack. He just won't. He will likely have to roll in the high teens to hit with anything other than the first one or two attacks. All this is before we take into account buffs, bonuses, defensive spells, positioning etc.
2) Trading full attacks is a bad idea for both PC and Baddy. You know that full attack above for 18 kadrillion damage. Well hope you kill him, because now the BBEG gets to take a full attack against you. Kostchtchie, a CR 27 demon lord, has a +30 on his 5th attack that round with PA, oh and 15ft reach, dealing an average of 51dmg per hit. That's probably going to hit on all 5. So, 250 damage a round, on average. You PC is at what, 400hp? And that is before all the bells and whistles go off. A crit maxes at 190 dmg, and you are staggered for a round if you make the DC 41 fort save.
Oh, and hope you have good luck on those fort saves, because 2 or 3 failures vs. Unholy Aura and your Dex build swashbuckler is at 0 Str and paralyzed.
3) He won't be fighting alone. The BBEG is immune to just about anything you throw at him except direct damage. Oh, and how is he bypassing the Epic DR or Regeneration? Also, the BBEG will have about a dozen or so CR 25 minions running around as well. This is after you just fought through 9 levels of the keep to get to him/her. So how many mythic points do you still have? 10? Sure your wizard still has all his spells per day? Even if you can kill the mooks (term used loosely here) in one full attack, one bad save or a good round of attacks and a CR25 WILL kill you. People aren't kidding when they call it rocket tag. At this level, even the mooks have spells that are no save and remove you from the board abilities. Have fun fighting without your cleric to keep you upright between rounds.
It's not as bad as the "math" implies. Also, since that's several levels/tiers down the road, you will have plenty of time to teach eachother what works and what doesn't.
Mythic time stop is just so dumb omg. What do you even do for 20 hours of time stop???
Spend an hour examining the PCs from top to bottom. Get detailed notes on all their exploits, current equipment and buff spells. Go home, gather all the scrolls and potions you need to counter everything. Summon friends. Craft an item. It's unclear if Dispel Magic works. Spend an hour placing all the Mythic Symbol spells your can. There is lots you can do in 20 hours.
Dealing with overpowered PCs is easier than you think. A few ways I deal with it include:
1) Reviewing the PCs' character sheets and building an encounter or two that exploit their weaknesses. Each class/player has a blind spot. Find it and stick it. Often times you can look at their saving throws for inspiration.
2) Remember the PCs are supposed to win. A few cake battles are okay, as long as you challenge them from time to time with an actual...challenge.
3) More enemies. Haunts. Swarms. Natural hazards. A dungeon cave in. A hurricane. An earthquake. Sometimes an usual additive makes all the difference. Consider the environment an enemy as well. Nature always wins.
4) Oozes. Acids. Anything that destroys gear (if you want to get nasty and risk upsetting folks).
5) Step into another plane, where the rules change and certain powers are nullified.
6) Audit the PCs and make sure you are following the PC wealth per level. If they are too rich, well, then they need to enjoy their current gear for a couple more levels.
7) Magic. Spell resistance. Immunities. But, vulnerabilities too.
I hope that helps a smidgen.
Rapier and short sword?
Goat Lord is right about the oozes. Lots of them with the split ability don't take damage from piercing weapons:
coven ooze
Greater verderous ooze
Orche Jelly
...and so on.
As someone who actually likes mythic --
1) Oh yeah, mythic PCs are crazy. They're demigods, after all. it's fine if they're crazy.
2) Sadly, CR 26+ monsters are really balanced for L20 non-mythic PCs, not mythic PCs. And so they require some serious adjustment. So:
(A) 4E/JRPG up those HP numbers - quadruple maximum HP is a good minimum for a unique CR 26+ creature.
(B) If they're intelligent, then give them equipment. The CR30 Nocticula is also a Nocticula with no more gear than her magic crossbow. When she's the ruler of an Abyssal realm the size of Japan that's also the economic center of the Abyss, and she's successfully killed and looted nearly two dozen other Abyssal lords and their holdings. Nocticula should basically have infinite money and the equipment and inherent bonuses reflecting that (including gear that breaks the rules a little, like + 8 heavy fortification bracelets of armor and so. But yeah, a Nocticula actually reflecting the resources she has access to would have closer to a ... 61 AC? Meaning your L20 tier 10 swashbuckler needs a natural 20 to even hit her if he isn't getting help? (And has to pass a DC 48 fort save to even approach without getting his brain cooked.) Hmmm, her profane bonus to AC really should scale with her Cha mod instead of being a flat number, I think...)
(C) Look at 4E, 5E, the Hero Point system, and other things that grant out-of-turn actions or additional actions per turn. For example, I routinely give demigod-bosses a free action at initiative-10 every round to cast any domain spell from any of their granted domains.
(D) Now, for more mundane foes... Build them mean (reach plus combat reflexes is your friend versus all those fleet charging PCs =P), but also expect the mundane foes to die, and die horribly. Which is completely fine.
Part of the point of mythic is the PCs being able to face and take out foes that would casually annihilate (or at least severely damage) lesser mortals.
3) The rules are a guideline, not a straitjacket. If the rules aren't working right for your group, change them.
Like all parts of the game, there are part of the mythic rules that are too good, and you'll want to tone them down. Just what qualifies as "too good" is going to change from group to group, though.