To start off with, a brief on the Mythic Path ability in question:
Beyond Morality: You have no alignment. You can become a member of any class, even one with an alignment requirement, and can never lose your membership because of a change in alignment. If you violate the code of ethics of any of your classes, you might still lose access to certain features of such classes, subject to GM discretion. Attempts to detect your alignment don't return any results. If a class restricts you from casting spells with an alignment descriptor, you can cast such spells without restrictions or repercussions. If you're the target of a spell or effect that is based on alignment, you're treated as the most favorable alignment when determining the spell's effect on you. Any effects that alter alignment have no effect on you. If you lose this effect, you revert to your previous alignment.
I am currently playing as a character in a mythic game who, due to entwined events in her backstory, is soured rather badly on both sides of the good/evil axis; especially concerning abilities like the Detect spells which can instantly give one side of it justification to lay into the other without taking into regard how complex people and situations can be. Thus, this ability and all the ways she could use it to subvert the system itself put it near the top of her advancement list.
Which begs the question: If a character with the intention to squeeze every last drop out of making a mockery out of the alignment system picks this up, how much would he or she actually be able to get away with? For example, a selection of handpicked scenarios/occurrences:
- By default, the character automatically always registers as the "most beneficial" alignment for any spell which cares about that. Would the ability be smart enough into account the circumstances of this event, or at least would the player be able to 'Override' the default for a result they'd prefer? For example, the best result against a magic circle against [alignment] or similar effect would most assuredly be to not count as the alignment and completely bypass it. But if the character's entire party has been hit by said effect while on a plane they are not native to, being the only one immune to it could leave her alone and surrounded by enemies while all her support is banished back home. Would the ability be able to parse that and allow the character to be banished as well, or at least could a character who realized what could happen decide to be affected?
- Does this ability trump class abilities which mask/alter/enhance alignment "Pings"? For example, Paladins and Antipaladins have increased readings of good and evil respectively as they level up as a feature. This seems like it'd tie into the never registering feature of the ability, but since it's an enhancement being added from the outside so to speak it'd be safe just to make sure.
- Likewise, do effects which add an alignment aura onto a character without regard to the character's actual alignment get suppressed by Beyond Morality? In particular, my character went through a backstory-related event which injected nasty stuff into her soul so she has always registered as an overwhelming evil despite being neutral. This condition never forced her to be evil though, and it registers as an entity separate from her to a reader with a good "eye", so it's kind of a gray area.
- How does a character with this trait interact with morality-based classes not designed with her in mind?
For this, I'll put forward a class my character is eyeballing for future prospects: The Insinuator Antipaladin.
This particular flavor of Antipaladin is a special case, more of a cosmic freelancer sitting between the normal Pally/Antipally. His code isn't so much about spreading evil as never performing deeds without acting in self-interest; An easy feat for my character, as any act against the abyss is very much in her interest. The Insinuator also makes daily pacts with Outsiders instead of dedicating themselves to a single being, with their abilities shifting in accordance to their current patron. The daily bartering for powers is an automatic success if the Insinuator chooses one identical to their alignment, but needs to pass a check to woo any patron within a step of their alignment, and any difference past that is right out.
I think you can see where this is going.
The Insinuator class only refers to evil and neutral patrons, because all Insinuators are evil and thus should never be able to pull off courting good patrons, but one with Beyond Morality is under no such limitations. Sure, the Insinuator also must follow the guidelines of their daily patron, but if at the start of the day an Insinuator who's beyond morality rings up an angel and goes "I'm killing demons today, you in?" would it have good enough reasons to turn her down? Likewise, would this character also automatically succeed with every request for a patron, because they always count as the exact alignment as whoever they've called up?
Likewise, the Low Templar prestige class gains a planar cohort lined up with their alignment as an endcap. Does this give someone with Beyond Morality free reign to pick any aligned Outsider (within reason), or does it go by their pre-mythic alignment? Putting this all together, theoretically being Beyond Morality could lead to stuff like crusading against the abyss with your Protean blood brother while under the blessing of the Inevitables, which is something which would without a doubt be up my character's alley if possible.
