I have waited until Tier 3, the tier people have complained that the mythic system really jumps off the rails to report on our experience to date. We are only two sessions into book 3 and thus 2 sessions in to our experience with tier 3.
A little info about our group and characters.
We have a 5 man party that consists of
Aasamir Paladin
Aasamir Ranger
Aasamir Shaman
Dwarf Warpriest
Human Fighter
Before the game ever began, approximately a year ago now we spoke in depth about what we had read and our fears of the mythic rules. We made a gentleman's agreement to avoid feats and abilities that would ruin the game (mythic vital strike, etc.) Upon my first reading of the rules I immediately noticed how high the damage output could get. This is even true without mythic rules so I could tell that would just be exacerbated with these new abilities. My suggestion to everyone was avoid any ability of feat that directly affects damage. I feel like the mythic rules when focused more on the qualitative abilities over the quantitative ones take the game to a new level without breaking it.
I have asked all of our players and our DM to tell me what their abilities are and report their current feelings about how they are affecting the game and their experience. Some of them have done this and ill continue to bug the other guys in hopes to get a more complete review. Ill begin with my character as obviously I know it best.
Paladin 9/Tier 3 Guardian/Champion.
I took the Fleet Charge ability and so far it has been situationally useful. Most of the time the best effect from it is that you gain ground and get closer to your target, possibly full attacking the following round. That will probably become more powerful later on but I may have Fleet Warrior before then so it may be moot.
Absorb Blow has been a life saver. As a paladin and the main focus of many of the attacks including the BBEGs I take a ton of damage. Only in the last few sessions have I felt like my defense is leveling to a point that I can weather the storm. Some of that though is from our Warpriest who has made his character the "shield" of the party taking feats that give us all cover bonuses when adjacent to him and he goes total defense. Also, Mythic Paragon but I will cover that when I get to it.
Obviously my first mythic feat was Dual Path. I dont feel like there is a "power" to this feat but it is incredibly useful to allow your character to take on its own personality.
Then still at level 1 I took Extra Mythic Feat to gain Mythic Combat Expertise. Again I know this is not a power choice but an extra 2 AC and the ability to spend a point of mythic power to forgo my CE penalties for a minute is pretty huge. At this level my AC is 35 when using CE and 39 while smiting. Most things struggle to hit me unless they are the BBEG.
For tier two I chose Mythic Paragon. This ability has been the most powerful one I have taken so far I believe. My Absorb Blow now absorbs 25 damage and then I gain DR2 epic and Resist 10 to everything for one minute afterward. It truly makes you feel like your mythic power is more potent without letting you gain access to things that your other PC's cant yet. When I chose this feat I was hesitant but now I am very happy with the choice.
Lastly at tier 3 I chose Legendary Item and I used Extra Path Ability to take it a second time. I of course used this with Armor of the Pious. I wanted to select it twice here so the armor would be a lesser artifact and thus be difficult to destroy. It currently has 5 abilities (gaining two extra of course from Mythic Paragon) and as I have only had these abilities for two sessions I can't report all that much. The biggest bonus at this points are most likely Upgradeable which will help me greatly over the course of the campaign I believe. I have already added Restful to the armor and I am happy with that choice. Then the Legendary Fortification ability is going to be a god send when taking those huge hits from other mythic creatures and even non mythic as we use the crit/fumble decks. The other abilities it currently has are Powerful (4 legendary power a day), Rejuvenating (heal 50 HP as a standard action and a legendary power, or remove a condition for 2 power), and Eternal Bond largely fluff but I like the feel of this.
So that has been the mythic abilities that I have personally experienced thus far. Honestly the extra action economy is the real power from what I can tell. I am not even talking about the ability to take an extra standard. Yes we have used that a handful of times and it is strong but not game breaking... yet. From my experience playing Pathfinder for over 6 years now the action economy of a character the vast majority of the time is a move and a standard which is sometimes combined with a '5 step. With all of these new abilities most of our turns are a move, a standard, a '5 step, then also a swift or an immediate. That one extra action or two really ads up and exponentially increases the power of the PCs.
Next: Mythic Ranger 9/ Tier 3 Champion
This PC hasent told me all of his abilities yet so some of this will be from memory.
Champion Strike, Our ranger uses this ability very frequently to devastating effect.
Endless Hatred: What can I say about this one. As our main damage dealer this ability really goes above and beyond. Nearly every combat starts off with this and he is bypassing the DR of the majority of things we are facing. The added to hit and damage are just icing. Most things that are targeted by our ranger are dead in one turn. This I fear, is not an issue with Mythic but an issue with the extreme power of archers in Pathfinder.
Deadly Aim: I know I said no abilities that directly added to damage but that was my feelings and not a group decision. So far it hasn't broken the game but as his damage continues to climb I dont know what will happen.
I believe he chose ability boosts to Dex and possibly Limitless Range at tier 2 and 3. I will have to wait for him to get back to me on that. This character is a glass cannon for sure and absolutely blows up anything on the wrong end of his bow.
Next: Shaman 9/Tier 3 Trickster/Heirophant
Our Shaman took Fleet Charge here. I dont believe I have ever seen him actually use the ability. He is not a melee character at all, focusing on battlefield control and utility over all.
He also took Inspired Spell and this ability is bonkers. I knew it would be from the start. I honestly feel like there should have been a bit more of a charge for these spells but its not necessarily breaking the game.
His ability at tier 1 was Path Dabbling and he chose Crafting Mastery with that ability. I am not sure what all he has created with that ability but I get the impression it is quite a bit. Opening up all the crafting feats is pretty huge and actually having some downtime recently has open the door for a lot of items to be made. He is willing to make items for other PC's but at this point most of us haven't had the resources yet to do much of that.
At tier 2 he took Sustained by Faith. Far from a broken ability but incredibly useful. I think he is very happy with that choice and honestly it is one of my favorite mythic abilities over all.
Tier 3 was Mirror Dodge and well, wow. He is not usually the target of attacks or spells but last session he was and this ability just made the BBEG waste 3 or 4 turns. Incredibly powerful but also costs a mythic power so it seems in line with many of the other abilities. I wouldn't say it is over powered but it is strong and will probably save the character numerous times.
Lastly at tier 3 he took Subtle Magic. By the players own admission this ability is largely story driven for him. It is an interesting ability I agree but as for raw power it doesn't do much. Again, this is one of the mythic abilities I really like because it adds a lot to the character without breaking the game by adding tremendous numbers.
Next: War Priest 9/tier 3 Guardian
The guardian ability he took was Sudden Block. Since our War Priest has taken up the mantle of 'make all my friends harder to kill' this ability has definitely had it's moments. He has used it a handful of times and each time it has saved a crit or deadly hit. The return attack is a nice bonus.
Armored Might was his first tier ability I believe. Not much to say here, just giving him a nice little AC boost can never hurt.
He also took Mythic Shield Focus and it hasn't come into play much and honestly I think the player overlooked the bonus to touch AC one time when it would have been helpful.
Fast Healing (honestly I dont remember if thats actually what this ability is called or not, but the Guardian one that grants fast healing) I think this one has been useful a few times but not over much.
At tier 3 he gained Impervious Body and I think this is another great ability. I don't know how much longer it kept him standing but he said it saved him much pain.
The last ability was Mythic tower shield proficiency originally a 3pp feat but our DM modified it. I believe it reduces the armor check penalty of the tower shield by 1 per tier and negates the attack penalty. All in all very fitting for the character that gets into the thick of things and goes total defense to defend all his friends.
Lastly, our Fighter 9/tier 3 Champion.
Another Fleet Charge and another time i just dont think it is used all that much. He wields a great sword and gets into the thick of combat but this ability just hasen't played much.
Ive asked him to send me a text with all his abilities but he hasn't so ill go by memory. Flash of Rage is a fitting ability for this somber character. I only believe it has come into play a few times but its very interesting when it does. When this character connects he does some pretty awesome damage. This ability is mostly crunch but the limitations and fluff are awesome which makes it very balanced in my eyes.
Mythic endurance I am not positive but I think this was another one of his feats. He loves being able to sleep in his full plate armor so this ability really fit his character.
Then there is Mythic Iron Will. I was very happy to see him take this ability but of course the only time he has been able to use it since taking it he rolled awful on both dice. This player has spent at least 4 or 5 sessions sitting there with nothing to do because of a failed will save. He has taken precautions but the poor will save is really killing him. I honestly believe this ability will save him a lot of that in the future.
So, in conclusion and without a statement from our DM yet I am going to say that, at least at our table Mythic has been a success for our game. I still feel challenged and like our efforts are meaningful yet difficult. This is to say nothing of the campaign its self which is a story that I truly love. Playing a paladin in a setting where I get to combat an endless wave of demons is truly epic!
Please post any comments, questions or concerns. I would love to answer any and all questions I can and learn from other's experiences as well. Advice is always welcome as well. Thank you for taking the time to read through this far! I will do my best to update this each time we gain a tier and post with our reactions to each ability and feat.
Finally back at the table. Not much to add here but I wanted to mention what I noticed in our last game.
The true stand out abilities at this session were still Mirror Dodge, Endless Hatred, and Absorb Blow. Probably in that order as well.
You are still in the shallow end of the pool. I did not consider there to be a serious issue with mythic until late in book 4, start of book 5 and I was able to persevere until the end of book 5 before giving in on making things a challange and just aiming to wrap up the interesting plot and get onto something else.
I don't understand how fleet charge is being so weak. From Tier 1 it was the go to ability of melee combatants. They fleet charge and as a swift action close to melee range of an opponent, then they get their bonus attack , then they get their full attack.
My party almost always had haste in signifigant fights (not mythic haste as I banned that before they could take it) that meant at 9th level each mellee combatant for 4 attacks 3 of them at Full BAB in the opening round more than doubling their damage output.
Mirror dodge was very useful for the wizard in my party. Crafting mastery is great but I ended up removing it from the game not because it was too good but because the way I felt the story was structured the player would have had very little time to craft items and so I felt I was giving him false hope by letting him take it (he retrained it for free)
Thank you for taking the time to reply and I'm sorry it has taken me awhile to respond.
I am sure things will continue to ramp up but I expected that from the beginning. This isn't your basic adventure and things are supposed to get crazy.
As for Fleet Charge. It has been situationally a stand out. I think it's a well balanced ability as well. It hasn't been as useful for us though. If our melee combatants (mainly just me as our paladin and then our fighter) charge in before the rest of the group it would be highly likely we would just be watching the rest of the fight and hoping to avoid a coup de grace. Honestly it almost always gets saved for an emergency extra attack when we know we need to end a fight or someone is going to die.
Now, I plan to get fleet warrior soon and I feel that will be a true powerhouse ability.