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Paizo isn't going to be publishing any new rulebooks for the current version of Pathfinder after the end of this year.
You may find that the higher levels of play are better balanced in the new version of Pathfinder. You may want to read through all the staff blog posts in the Playtest Forum to find out more
PF2 Playtest Forum
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I thought mythic was Pathfinder's version of epic?
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I've never really enjoyed running or playing in games past level 20. I don't get what the draw is. Levels 1 though 6 or so are often fun. Levels 7 through 11 are almost always great fun. From then on there is a fair amount of drop off- have most people played in level 20 games? Often? Not one shots. Like who has met and played weekly for months as level twenty characters? Almost nobody. The basic 3.x math Pathfinder is based on totally crumples at that point. Numbers all sort of become meaningless, and so does the challenge. Gods don't have stats, but anything else can be killed. Its hard to think of what you could kill at 30 that you couldn't at 20.
Less levels is honestly better with a d20 system. The less variable you can make the math, the more balanced you can make the options, the better it runs. Pathfinder already breaks at high level play, adding another ten levels while balancing those would be a task nobody in the industry has managed with a 3.x system in what, nearly 20 years? Let alone making 21-30 not break 1-20.
Anyway, that's my answer to why not make an EDH. The actual answer, per Paizo, is that the Planar Handbook is the last Pathfinder hardcover rulebook they will be producing. This means that if, say, the transition to PF2 is as messy as the transition between 3.0 and 4.0 D&D was, and if there is enough interest in PF1 for third parties to continue to support it full time and if it seems like a good idea, somebody like Dreamscarred Press could do an epic book.
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Mythic was Pathfinder's answer to epic. As I understand it, it didn't go over as well as hoped and as such as seen minimal support.
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Levels 1 though 6 or so are often fun.
I would've said "tedious, frustrating experiences focused on resource unavailability and inflexible PCs." But hey.
Levels 7 through 11 are almost always great fun.
I would've said "a tease at what a developed, able character feels like once they have more than a handful rounds of <ability> per day, and have managed to assemble one or more feat-chain that makes them unique." But hey.
From then on there is a fair amount of drop off- have most people played in level 20 games?
I would've said "fair amount of awesome, where characters have multiple options for dealing with different threats, and actually feel heroic." But hey.
Yes. Yes, we have, and do play high-level. Generally up to around 24th, potentially with a couple mythic tiers.
Often? Not one shots. Like who has met and played weekly for months as level twenty characters? Almost nobody.
Still yes. Regularly. Just because a character actually got its capstone written on its sheet doesn't mean it's time to retire the character so it can't use it. "Oh, hey, got 9th-level spells finally? Great. Campaign's over." That sucks.
The basic 3.x math Pathfinder is based on totally crumples at that point. Numbers all sort of become meaningless, and so does the challenge.
To a certain degree that's true. It's much harder to run a "unprepared" encounter against high-level characters. As a DM, yes, if you want to challenge the party you've got work to do. Monsters/NPCs need similar care put into them as the PCs themselves do. Carefully chosen feats, magic items, and other build options are very, very important. Because yes, if you just use the base saving throw progression (for instance), the weak saves will be so relatively imbalanced that the monster will be easily one-shotted. So... pick up feats and items that shore up those defenses. It's not difficult, but it is work.
Gods don't have stats, but anything else can be killed. Its hard to think of what you could kill at 30 that you couldn't at 20.
Sure, and I grant I've admitted we usually only play into the mid-20s.
Less levels is honestly better with a d20 system.
Kill me now. Know how many times I've played the "3rd-level wizard who has to spend 95% of his adventuring day using a crossbow, which he fundamentally sucks at using" experience? Stuff like that blows.
Totally done with mundane-mode RPGs.
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Ok, great response, I should clarify a bit here. I'm not trying to attack anybody's play type, and if you regularly play 20+ games you aren't somehow in the wrong compared to some other game type. I'm just trying to say how poorly anything on a 3rd edition skeleton handles the math getting pulled that far.
It totally also depends on your class. A Wizard is going to have a grand old time at level 20+, 30+, etc. a Fighter is going to be hard pressed to have something different to do at 30 vs. 20 vs. 10.
I do disagree about your estimation of levels, though. I mean, at 3rd level your pure casters are pretty crap, you either start a fight, surprise/win initiative and Color Spray/Grease or you lose initiative and something very nearly kills you in one attack.
By 8th Level said pure caster might have his 4th level spells, has multiples of 3rd, blasting Sorcerers have come online, plenty of good control spells, etc... but nothing changes. You either win initiative and contribute or you go late and the murder happens to you.
I have run something like 10 campaigns to level 15+ and three more to 20+, one of which was Wrath of the Righteous, with Mythic (which did not help anything at all whoo boy) and I have never really found anything great happens at higher levels (let's say 14+) the "rocket tag" analogy is extremely accurate, defenses can't keep up with offense in any meaningful way. Either your party uses stuff like scry and die, or it happens to them, or they roll over any sort of normal encounter that doesn't take into consideration Project Image, long range spells, or all the other stuff available at high level.
Like for once it would be nice if an adventure was like "this 20th level wizard badguy isn't screwing around. He'll use Wish to steal you party's spellbooks, take families and friends hostage, has Greater Planar Binding, Gate, and Leadership (with a Summoner ally) going, and you fight him in an airless, lightless void he has specifically prepared where he attacks at random from 1000+ feet away with the many, many magic items he has created for this purpose. If the party wins, his Clone activates, Contingency breaks a Staff of the Archmage at the party's location, and an underling receives a missive to head to a neutral deity's temple to pay for a True Resurrection for the Wizard when his Clone dies."
I guess my point is that if you want ridiculously high level adventures, there was a 0 Edition book that handled that, 2nd Edition D&D is fantastic for that (waves at Athas) and there are games like Exalted that exist to give that feel.
When people talk about 20+ Pathfinder, or 3.5, or anything on that chassis, I get this mental image of putting rocket fuel in a pickup truck.
well, a game that handled super high level characters rather well was AD&D 1st edition... Gygax had players up to lvl 30 or so, and the system handled it... of course, by the time you were lvl 12 or so you could handle balors and ancient dragons, so I'm not sure what he used for foes (cue, the old tale of the group that asked for a Deities & Demigods 2, having killed everything in the first volume)...clearly PF is based on the 20 lvl progression and has not readied anything for higher levels (I'm not sure if Mythic handles that or is a parallel system, I don't own the book and only once played a guy who had 2 mythic levels by the time he was lvl 7).
Epic level play was always pretty unbalanced, at least in my opinion. Then again, I prefer my games to end somewhere from levels 12 - 16.
In any event, there will never be Epic level rules for Pathfinder 1st Edition. Mythic is the "equivalent". But it's a very rough equivalent.
Yeah...I saw posts about how not particular optimized mythic characters could do in the 1000s of damage per round. And casters could throw out save or dies that nat 20s not to die. And could force rerolls with the right build, to negate a successful nat 20.
It sounded horribly not fun.
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It's a shame, really, because our GM has the STORY completely outlined, and we players were looking forward to all the wonder and peril before us.
One suggestion that MAY work.
Switch game systems totally. Keep the "essence" of the characters (whatever the players think that to be) but use a system that is DESIGNED for very high level play.
Mutants and Masterminds (A supers D20 game) would be my choice but there are lots of alternatives depending on your tastes.
I've had some success with doing this in the past.
Mythic, imo, is very rough around the edges but is a very good attempt at giving flashy abilities. I think abilities like jumping very high, carrying massively heavy objects, and smashing through dungeon walls isn't something that should be reserved for higher levels, so I like that you can get them very early on.
Things like Amazing Initiative and Mythic Vital Strike are abilities that really needed to die in a fire, though.
Mythic tiers, in general, are a better paradigm than epic levels (IMO). Mythic is much more flexible, both in when it can be introduced in the campaign (it's not gated by reaching 20th level) and by the mythic progression being limited by narrative events (the GM can allow characters to attain as few or as many mythic tiers as desired for a given campaign; and the even how quickly they progress between any given tier is something that can be decided for that campaign). That flexibility allowed a much richer palate for developing campaigns and settings.
There were definitely some balance issues, though. Higher mythic tiers on top of higher levels just made a lot of the normal issues with high-level play even worse. And some specific mythic feats and path abilities were substantially better than others.
Allowing only a few mythic tiers (1-4) over the course of an entire campaign keeps things mostly sane. Or potentially using mythic as a temporary boon for a specific adventure/story arc (as with the sample adventure in the Mythic Adventures book).
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I don't think we'll see an Epic book for PF1e since they've switched their focus over to the new edition. It's kinda sad. Mythic is fun, but it's just not the same as running around at 35th level.
Just to add to the voices of those who play high level a lot, in 3.5 I had two entire campaigns go to the mid 30s level. 3.0 ELH was rough around the edges but it was serviceable. In Pathfinder I've routinely finished APs at level 17, and had one homebrew campaign that went to 23.