Mythic dual path 1st tier only?

[willuwontu]

From the RAW

Dual Path (Mythic)
You follow two mythic paths.
"
Prerequisite(s): 1st mythic tier.

Benefit: Select a mythic path other than the path you selected at your moment of ascension. You gain that path's 1st-tier ability (either archmage arcana, champion's strike, divine surge, guardian's call, marshal's order, or trickster attack). Each time you gain a path ability, you can select that path ability from either path's list or the list of universal path abilities.
"
According to what I understand you can take it at any tier, according to my friend though, you can only take it at 1st tier.

[Melkiador]

This FAQ comes to mind.

Though I find this bit of text a little more telling, "other than the path you selected at your moment of ascension." If you were only intended to take this feat as part of ascending to mythic, then that text is horribly worded.

[Rub-Eta]

You can take this feat as long as you're at least 1st tier mythic.

[willuwontu]

I pointed that out to him and then he points out that in ctp's guide he says you can only take it at tier 1 http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?316045-PF-CTP-s-Guide-to-Myth ic-Adventures

[Melkiador]

CTP is far from an official source. Even if he was, the linked FAQ is a newer source and would take precedence.

[Rub-Eta]

Yeah. Guides are far from an official source. There's plenty of them out there that are outdated, full of corner case assumptions and not peer-reviewed at all (it may as well be just one writer's thoughts, not a general consensus).
That's not to say that there aren't any reliable guides, far from it. But one that contradicts an FAQ isn't.

It's important to remember that you still need to fulfill the prerequisit of anything that you possess at all times (not 100% true, though). This means that if Mythic Tiers didn't function like Skill Ranks, BAB and Ability Scores (as suggested by the FAQ), it would mean that any mythic feat with a tier prerequisit would become invalidated as soon as you go up a tier (which doesn't make sense).

[Melkiador]

And note that you can be mythic without having a tier, by having a mythic rank instead.

[Vatras]

@Melkiador
I don't see anything about mythic paths in the link.

@OP
You can pick the dual-path at any tier you like. If a feat has to be taken at level 1 (or tier 1 in this case) it is written in it's description. The info, how often a feat can be taken, or what happens if you do, is also provided in the feat description (as for Spell Focus for example). But be careful...that is often not as useful as you may think, when you read the fine print on many abilities.
I was thinking of picking up archmage abilities for my oracle, but as those are worded, I can only use a few, since I lack arcane spells. It is usually better to build upon the abilities of one path, which is fully compatible with itself. Might be different for martials, though.

Anyway, no matter how often you pick that feat, you have only one pool of MP and therefore the same number of uses as everyone else. Everything besides that doesn't matter much.

[Chemlak]

Hmm.

I can see lots of possibilities.

Firstly, there's the point that to select a mythic feat at all you must be a mythic creature, and have either a mythic rank or mythic tier, so it's (very) possible that the dual path feat is saying that it's only available to creatures with a mythic tier, not a mythic rank. This is the generally accepted result, as far as I can tell.

The other side is that since feats are generally written for characters (so they'd all have mythic tier), explicitly calling out 1st tier as a prerequisite is almost a "why write this since all mythic feats require the character to have at least 1st mythic tier?", which leads to the belief that it's a restriction.

I think that since dual path cannot be available to creatures with mythic rank (since they don't have a first path, so can't pick a second), the prerequisite is stating that it's only available to creatures with a mythic path (and thus mythic tiers). Note that it is highly unlikely that a single prerequisite is acting as both a restriction on tier and having a mythic path, though that's certainly possible, but see the Extra Path Ability feat for a format example that makes me think it can't be.

[Buri Reborn]

There are abilities that are level locked to like first level only. Hermean Blood is one.

Quote:

Prerequisites: You may only gain this feat at 1st level.

Dual Path doesn't have such a restriction. So, no.