My group and I have just reached our Mythic ascension in a Wrath of the Righteous Campaign. While I am playing a Cleric and getting Mythic spells is basically an auto-choice, my party member, a Hunter, is debating if it is worth it.
Hunters draw their spells 1-6 from both the Druid and Ranger Lists.
What are the best Mythic Spells from either of those?
I don’t think I’d put it high on the list of priorities, but what is their current play-style? Is this a melee or ranged hunter? Which mythic path are they considering?
Mythic greater magic fang can be a decent replacement for an amulet of mighty fists.
Unfortunately, mythic isn’t a great fit for pet focused builds, but I wouldn’t want to discourage your friend. They should probably focus on themselves more than their companion though.
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Remember that a hunter is a spontaneous caster, so they can only take the mythic version of a spell they already know, which will greatly limit the initial options: Your friend should review the mythic options for their current spells and see if they actually sound good or not. Mythic Spellcasting might be an option that will just work better if they delay taking it until a later tier when their spells known list is more appropriate.
The other thing to keep in mind is these spells will cost MP to use, so play style / party role will be important here: Every MP you spend on a mythic spell is one you can't spend on feats or other abilities, which might be rough for a hybrid class.
Potential options can be reviewed at https://www.aonprd.com/SpellsCustom.aspx:
Select 'Hunter' for Class
Set the 'Level (Max)' to 2 (which is the most power spell this hunter probably has).
Check the 'Includes Mythic Version' box
One final thing to keep in mind is that Mythic Play is basically rocket tag, so any option that takes more than a round to fully come into play (like Heat Metal or Flame Blade) or requires you to act before the rest of the party (like a short duration buff) will often be wasted...
Most spontaneous casters in a mythic campaign can actually cast any spell on their spell list by spending a mythic point. In Theory they could take a mythic spell that they cannot cast. Doing so would require spending a lot of mythic points so is probably not a good idea.
For a Hunter I would hold off on mythic spells for a while because there are a lot better options. Hunters always have summon natures ally spells on their list of spells known. There are a mythic power that make that a lot more useful. If he is going the Hierophant path he should look at Mighty Summons before getting mythic spells. Mythic Augment Summoning makes the summoned creatures DR becomes epic. Taking both of those would mean the summons are always mythic creatures and you can either get more creatures or a single much tougher creature.
In general, monster summoning is only good if you specialize in it. There are niche cases where it can be handy for modifying the battlefield, but those uses don’t require investment. And with the slower spell acquisition, I can’t see summoning ever being a good build focus for a hunter.
But like pets, summoning doesn’t hold up very well in a mythic campaign. The small buffs you can add to your summons doesn’t keep pace with the individual power granted by mythic
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My immediate thoughts on low level mythic hunter spells
Level 1 Mythic Hunter Spell Options:
Anticipate Peril: Mythic characters generally don't need more bonuses to Initiative
Call Animal: Not certain how this spell (mythic or normal) is particularly useful...
Cure Light Wounds: More healing is never bad, but still doesn't seem particularly good.
Endure Elements: Changing this spell to 'caster level targets' and adding Fire Resist 5 and Cold Resist 5 is actually kinda nice with its 24 hour duration.
Entangle: Could be nice, but might harm your party mates if you don't coordinate well.
Faerie Fire: Dazzled isn't very good for a MP expenditure. Blinded is better with the augmented version, but even more costly to cast.
Goodberry: Kinda weak for the MP cost, and the augmented version is somewhat hampered by your limited number of spell slots.
Hydraulic Push: Fire/Cold damage tends to be underwhelming in a campaign full of evil outsiders.
Know the Enemy: Could be pretty useful with its long duration.
Magic Fang: Could be a nice buff for your companion (if it has multiple natural attacks).
Mighty Fist of the Earth [Oread]: Normal or mythic, this is pretty weak without some sort of boost to your unarmed damage.
Obscuring Mist: Size and range boosts generally aren't that useful.
Resist Energy: The base resistance scales up so well that the saving throw bonus probably isn't that useful. Granting resistance to an adjacent ally might be nice.
Sun Metal: Fire damage is generally pretty weak against evil outsiders.
Level 2 Mythic Hunter Spell Options:
Animal Aspect: Not a particularly great base spell, but adding a +2 size bonus to a stat makes it better
Barkskin: Nice DR
Burning Gaze: Fire damage is fairly weak.
Chill Metal: Cold damage and 'damage over time' are both weak.
Feast of Ashes: Too slow for 'rocket-tag' fights.
Flame Blade: Again, fire damage is weak.
Fog Cloud: Typically, size really doesn't matter here.
Gust of Wind: Kind of a specialized spell to start with...
Heat Metal: Fire damage and 'Damage over Time' are both weak.
Pernicious Poison: Too many 'immune to poison' foes
Pox Pustules: Adding weak damage to a weak debuff spell is still weak.
Ricochet Shot: Duration in rounds makes the base spell really weak in rocket-tag fights.
Spider Climb: Nice in theory, but probably weak in actual use.
Summon Swarm: One Round casting time is a major drawback here.
Unshakable Chill: Cold damage is often weak against outsiders.
The spells that look good to me are probably Endure Elements and Barkskin, though I don't recall how well DR/magic will hold up for Barkskin...
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Battle Trance [Half-Orc]: Nice if you are melee-focused
Burrow: The Augmented version leaving a tunnel for the rest of the party is nice, but kinda specialized...
Call Lightning: Lightning damage is generally really weak, and the one round casting time is too slow...
Companion Mind Link: Sounds nice, but only if you want your companion something your GM doesn't feel is normal...
Contagion: It's evil (literally)
Cup of Dust: More of a 'long term debuff' than a good rocket-tag spell.
Cure Moderate Wounds: Kinda weak for a 3rd level spell option.
Daylight: Nice long-term buff, but not particularly powerful.
Hydraulic Torrent: Fire/Cold damage tends to be underwhelming.
Magic Fang, Greater: Sounds nice, but Demonic DR typically needs Cold Iron (or a 'real' +3 enhancement bonus) and/or Holy to pierce, neither of which this spell can grant.
Named Bullet: The regular version is a great 'rocket-tag nuke' option if you pre-cast a handful of these for a strong archer. The baseline mythic version increases the crit multiplier by one, which is only good if the archer hasn't already buffed it.
Stone Shape: Kinda a niche spell option.
Vermin Shape I: If you are built for fighting while polymorphed, this seems decent.
Waters of Lamashtu [M]: Kinda inappropriate for the campaign.
Named Bullet strikes me as the best option here, though only if your archer doesn't already have a x4 crit multiplier...
Arboreal Hammer: Kinda dependent on being near a tree...
Cape of Wasps: Greatly limited by poison-immune foes, and the enlarged size might impact the rest of your party. Too short of a duration for rocket-tag.
Cure Serious Wounds: Getting this kinda late for it to be really useful.
Dispel Magic: Probably best left to full casters.
Flame Strike: Still weakened by Fire Resistance, but better than any other fire/cold damage spell we've seen so far. Probably only worthwhile with a full caster build.
Giant Vermin: I doubt the DR granted will be particularly helpful by the time you get this spell, though the templates might be nice.
Ice Storm: Cold damage tends to be weak against outsiders, and all the terrain debuffs will likely hurt your party more than your foes...
Shield of the Dawnflower [Sarenrae]: Fire damage tends to be weak against outsiders, and the short duration means you'll need to cast it each fight, which is typically a waste of a round...
Spike Stones: Kinda weak damage for how late you get this spell, even with the mythic boost.
True Form: Very niche...
Vermin Shape II: Nice if you are built for this.
Not seeing any really strong options here...
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Baleful Polymorph: Strong option, but probably better for a full caster.
Cure Critical Wounds: Again, you are getting this option really late.
Fire Snake: Weakened by Fire Resistance, but 1d10 per CL might be enough to be effective. Still would probably work best on a caster-focused build to get the Save DC reasonably high.
Geniekind: The duration in rounds is a real detriment here
Stoneskin [Material]: Saving throw bonuses and Fortification(Moderate) effects seem nice.
Wall of Fire: By the time you get this, it's unlikely to actually damage anything, even with the mythic boost.
Wall of Thorns: Probably not great for rocket-tag. Unlikely to do much damage, but the grapple effect might work well.
Fire Seeds: It's fire: Enough said.
Move Earth: Seems situational.
Repel Wood: Extremely situational, and such situations are unlikely to involve your Demonic foes...
Wall of Stone: If you already like to throw normal walls of stone around, the mythic version is probably nice.
Baleful Polymorph, Fire Snake and Stoneskin seem like the strongest options here.
Mythic Spellcasting actually seems fairly weak for Hunters: The have a handful of nice options, but nothing really awesome. To be fair, though, fighting evil outsiders really isn't their strong point to start with...
What path does the Hunter plan on taking, and how focused is he on spell casting? To get access to mythic spells you need to use either a mythic feat or a path ability. Unless the character is focusing on spell casting mythic spells may not be the best choice for him. If the DC of his spells are not high enough the mythic spells may not matter.
I could see an archery focused hunter taking the champion path. If that is the case, he has much better abilities than mythic spells. Sniper’s Riposte means he does not take AoO when using the bow, Limitless Range allows him to multiple his range increments by 5, Armor Master allows him to ignore max DEX bonus of armor and ACP. Precision means he will hit more often with his secondary attacks.
As to the summoning Hunters get all summon natures ally spells without having to choose them. It really does not take a lot of normal feats to boost those. About all they really need is two feats. Augmented Summoning (and spell focus conjuration). Being able to add a mythic template to an animal will improve its combat ability. Both these templates allow the creature an additional full attack. Agile gives Dual Initiative which gives it two turns each round, Savage gives it Feral Savagery which means it gets two full attacks. A savage Dire Lion with augmented summoning will be something that is not tough to ignore.
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As to the summoning Hunters get all summon natures ally spells without having to choose them. It really does not take a lot of normal feats to boost those. About all they really need is two feats. Augmented Summoning (and spell focus conjuration). Being able to add a mythic template to an animal will improve its combat ability. Both these templates allow the creature an additional full attack. Agile gives Dual Initiative which gives it two turns each round, Savage gives it Feral Savagery which means it gets two full attacks. A savage Dire Lion with augmented summoning will be something that is not tough to ignore.
With a one round cast time, if anything is still alive for a summoned creature to actually attack, it's either a fight where no one else felt like spending MPs, or your party has done something really wrong*
Also, remember your summons will still have to deal with demonic DR, which will be extremely common. This DR is a bit of a joke for martial characters since they just need to gear up with cold iron holy weapons (which are plentiful), but your under-level (due to your reduced spell progression) summons will likely have a hard time.
A base CR5 Dire Lion isn't available to a Hunter until 13th level (using a 5th level spell slot) with base attack bonuses of +12/+13 and 1d8+7/1d6+7 damage, which is upgraded to +14/+15 attack and 1d8+9/1d6+9 damage with the Augmented Summons feat bonus. The mythic templates add some defense and extra attacks, but don't seem to actually improve attack or actual damage per attack (beyond the minor bleed damage from Savage).
A mundane CR14 Nalfeshnee is AC 29, 203hp, and DR 10/Good, which means your Lion will arrive late, miss with 70%/65% of attacks, and only do 0-7/0-5 hp of damage.
If that doesn't scream "IGNORE ME" to a level appropriate demon, I don't know what would...
Honestly, the summon being ignored isn’t the worst, if you are helping set up flanks. But also, is it worth a 5th level spell to give someone a flanking buddy?
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Honestly, the summon being ignored isn’t the worst, if you are helping set up flanks. But also, is it worth a 5th level spell to give someone a flanking buddy?
If flanking is your goal, a much lower level summon can almost certainly get the job done without spending a MP on the templates.
Alternately, you can send your companion in to flank.
If you really need a tough flanker, a Spiritual Ally from the party Cleric is significantly faster to cast, uses a much less valuable spell slot, and basically can't be killed (except by SR, which might be an issue)...