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Mythic Rules

Source Mythic Adventures pg. 4
Legend speaks of the coming of great heroes. As the darkness gathers and the forces of the underworld rise to swallow the land of the living, a few brave souls will hear the call to greatness. Their deeds will become the stories of our time, and their victories will be celebrated for centuries to come. Even now, they walk among us— unaware of the destiny that awaits them. The moment is almost here. Their hour is at hand.

What is Mythic?

Source Mythic Adventures pg. 4
Everyone knows the story of the blacksmith’s son who, after taking up arms to defend his village, continues on to become a renowned adventurer. And of the young elf who spends years studying musty tomes and practicing simple spells before she heads out into the world to seek ancient lore. These are the stories of everyday adventurers, risen from the ranks of the common folk to make a name for themselves in places harsh and unforgiving.

But these are not the only stories of heroism. Some adventurers are beyond exemplary—their stories forge the greatest sagas of history, and their every deed births a legend. From the children of gods, blessed with the divine spark, to the lucky heroes born under auspicious stars, these characters are destined to greatness. They are mythic: possessed of unparalleled heroism and capable of astounding acts.

To be mythic means to draw upon a power that few even dare to understand, and even fewer hope to wield. An air of destiny surrounds mythic characters, and each choice they make shapes the world at large. Their story is intertwined with the great events of the day, and their actions are central to the outcomes. Mythic characters are more resilient and powerful than others, and as a result are awe-inspiring in ways their non-mythic counterparts could never match. Other adventurers might balk at taking on a dragon that plagues a village, but mythic heroes would not only take on the dragon, but also clear the entire region of threats.

Ultimately, the story of mythic heroes is defined by the challenges they face. The GM has a number of new and awe-inspiring tools with which to confront mythic player characters, ranging from immense and deadly mythic monsters to vile and cunning mythic villains. Mythic monsters are unique creatures or remnants of a bygone age when such terrifying beasts ruled over the land. They now dwell in the lost places of the world, waiting for their time to bring great terror. Mythic villains have many of the powers of mythic characters, but they use their abilities selfishly—to subjugate kingdoms, slaughter the innocent, and bring ruin to the world. Unless heroes rise to stop them, mythic villains can cause destruction and chaos on an unimaginable scale.

Even with such great power, mythic characters are not invulnerable, just more able to deal with the dangers of the world around them. If a mythic character dies, her loss is a great tragedy to the world, as the light of one of its true champions has been extinguished. This is what makes a mythic story exciting: these heroes might fall, just as non-mythic heroes might succumb to lesser threats. And when they do succeed, their victory often comes at a high cost, and usually leaves them scarred.

The rules in this book give players and GMs the tools they need to run mythic adventures. The mythic rules add to the base rules of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, either as part of an adventure in which the PCs attain mythic power for a limited time, or as the backbone of an entire campaign charting the legend of a group of mythic characters.

Mythic Heroes

Source Mythic Adventures pg. 10
Mythic heroes are set apart from their contemporaries, capable of amazing feats of courage in the face of overwhelming odds. In spite of this, they’re still similar in many ways to other adventurers. They have hit points, an Armor Class, and saving throws—in fact, most of their statistics are comparable to non-mythic characters of an equal level. Where mythic characters differ is in the special abilities they gain from mythic paths—collections of similar abilities that they can choose to represent their mythic power. These abilities enhance mythic characters both in and out of battle, allowing them to take part in extraordinary, larger-than-life adventures.

Mythic Feats

Source Mythic Adventures pg. 54
Mythic characters and monsters gain mythic feats as they gain tiers or ranks. These feats can be selected only as part of mythic advancement (see Table 1–1), not as part of a character’s normal advancement or in place of any other bonus feat.

Most mythic feats require a non-mythic feat as a prerequisite. These mythic feats enhance the benefits of their prerequisite feats, making them truly awe-inspiring. If a character doesn’t possess any of the necessary prerequisite feats when she gains a mythic feat, she can wait to select a mythic feat until the next time she gains a tier or level.

A value in a mythic feat based on a fraction of your tier (such as a +1 bonus for every 3 tiers you possess) always has a minimum of 1.

This chapter includes some non-mythic feats. These grant a character who hasn’t had a moment of ascension a measure of mythic might, and remain relevant if that character later becomes mythic.

Mythic Feats Only characters with mythic tiers or creatures with mythic ranks can take these feats. If a creature becomes non-mythic, it no longer gains the benefit of these feats, but it doesn’t lose them permanently. If the creature becomes mythic again, it regains the use of all the mythic feats it once had. Many mythic feats enhance non-mythic feats with the same name. When a creature has a mythic version of a feat, that feat is denoted with a superscript “M” in the feat line of its stat block.

See here for the list of mythic feats

Mythic Spells

Source Mythic Adventures pg. 78
Mythic spells draw upon the caster’s mythic power to create more powerful magical effects— mythic fireball sets affected creatures on fire, mythic mage armor can negate critical hits, and so on. These spells aren’t separate spells you gain as a spell known from your spellcasting class, but rather mythically charged versions of spells you already know.

Learning Mythic Spells: To learn a mythic spell, you must either select the mythic spellcasting universal path ability (see page 50) or the Mythic Spell Lore feat. In doing so, you unlock the secret of using your mythic power to amplify non-mythic spells you choose.

Casting Mythic Spells: If you know the mythic version of a spell, any time you cast the spell, you may expend one use of mythic power to convert the spell into its mythic version as you cast it. This doesn’t change the level of the spell slot you use to cast the spell.

If you’re a caster who prepares spells (such as a cleric or wizard), you never have to prepare the mythic version of a spell—if you prepare the non-mythic version, you may cast it as the mythic version by expending one use of mythic power. Unless otherwise specified, casting the mythic version of a spell doesn’t take any longer than casting the non-mythic version.

Effects of Mythic Spells: Unless otherwise specified, a mythic spell works just like the non-mythic version of the spell. For example, zombies created by both animate dead and mythic animate dead count toward the spell’s HD limit of how many undead you can control at one time, and a chaotic creature is immune to mythic chaos hammer in the same way it’s immune to chaos hammer.

Unless a mythic spell’s description says it improves, replaces, or upgrades an effect of the non-mythic spell, or says that it creates an effect instead of the non-mythic spell’s effect, it retains all the effects of the non-mythic spell in addition to the effects of the mythic version. For example, the mythic blasphemy spell has penalties for creatures that fail their saves; because the description doesn’t indicate that these penalties replace those of non-mythic blasphemy, the penalties are in addition to the non-mythic spell’s effects.

Augmented Mythic Spells: An augmented version of a mythic spell has the same effect as the mythic spell, plus additional benefits, options, or an increased effect. Some augmented effects require you to have a minimum tier in order to cast it as an augmented mythic spell. If so, the tier requirement for the augmented effects is listed in parentheses in the entry. For example, “Augmented (4th)” means you must have at least 4 mythic tiers to use this option. If you know a mythic spell, you automatically know how to cast the augmented version of that mythic spell upon reaching the required tier.

Casting the augmented version of a mythic spell requires you to expend more uses of mythic power when you cast it. The number of additional uses required for the augmented version is listed in the spell’s augmented entry and includes the one use of mythic power necessary to cast the mythic version of the spell. When you cast a spell, you must decide whether you want to cast the non-mythic version, the mythic version, or the augmented mythic version, and expend the appropriate number of uses of mythic power. You can’t cast the non-mythic version of the spell and later expend one use of mythic power to change it to the mythic version, nor can you cast the base mythic version of a spell and later in the duration expend the difference in mythic power to change it to the augmented version.

Example: You’re a 9th-level wizard/6th-tier archmage who knows mythic animate dead and has animate dead prepared. Casting animate dead works as normal and requires no uses of mythic power. Casting mythic animate dead requires you to expend one use of mythic power when you cast your prepared animate dead. Casting the augmented version of mythic animate dead requires you to expend two (not three) uses of mythic power when you cast your prepared animate dead spell.

Mythic Spells in Magic Items: Mythic spells can’t be crafted into magic items unless the item is an artifact (for example, you can’t brew a potion of mythic cure light wounds).

Mythic Spells in Stat Blocks: In a creature stat block, a superscript “M” indicates the creature knows the mythic version of the spell.

Potent: Any spell you cast as a mythic spell can also be cast in a potent form that is harder to resist. By expending one additional use of mythic power, you increase the spell’s save DC by 2 and gain a +2 bonus on your caster level check to overcome spell resistance.

Resilient: Any spell you cast as a mythic spell can also be cast in a resilient form that is harder to dispel or counterspell. Expend one additional use of mythic power; any check attempted in order to dispel the spell then takes a –4 penalty, and the spell can’t be countered unless the opposing caster also expends a use of mythic power to overcome your spell’s resilience (in which case the normal rules for counterspelling apply).

You may combine the potent and resilient forms of a spell; to do so, you must expend a total of two additional uses of mythic power. You can cast potent and resilient forms of augmented mythic spells in the same manner.

Tiers in Mythic Spell Descriptions: Unless otherwise stated, any reference to tier in a mythic spell description refers to the tier of the creature casting the spell. Whenever a mythic spell refers to half your tier, the minimum is 1 (meaning you still get a benefit at 1st tier).

Running a Mythic Game

Source Mythic Adventures pg. 118
Running a mythic game has many similarities to running other games. The PCs still go on adventures, fight monsters, discover treasure, and gain experience. The difference is that mythic games have an added level of drama, theater, and tension. Compared to non-mythic parties of the same character level, a mythic party’s adventures feature incredibly difficult foes and far greater challenges. Of course, there are also splendorous rewards for the bold mythic adventurer (see Mythic Magic Items).

This chapter gives guidelines for running a mythic campaign, including a discussion of what makes a game mythic, types of mythic games, rules for adjudicating the difficulty of encounters, and guidelines for advancing play and fulfilling trials.

Mythic Magic Items

Source Mythic Adventures pg. 140
Just as their non-mythic counterparts, mythic characters use magic to aid them in their daring quests, but they can utilize some magic items in more powerful ways. In addition, mythic characters encounter artifacts somewhat more often, as such legendary items are often intertwined in their sagas.

Mythic Monsters

Source Mythic Adventures pg. 174
Just as mythic heroes can call upon power beyond reckoning, mythic monsters are greater than others of their kind. Some are empowered by deities or great magic and sent into the world to sow ruin and reap destruction. Others are instead relics of a bygone age when the power of creation itself f lowed through the veins of every living being. Though not necessarily malevolent, these ancient creatures are a force to be respected and feared.

The rules in this book assume monsters that wield mythic power are rare in the world. Such creatures fall into one of two categories: powerful versions of existing monsters and entirely new breeds of monsters. You can easily create the first type of monster by using one of the mythic simple templates presented in this section. Creating the second type of monster is more complicated, and requires adding the mythic subtype and custom abilities appropriate to the creature, with more powerful monsters gaining more abilities than weaker monsters.

This chapter includes over 40 example creatures— mythic versions of cyclopes, demons, dragons, elementals, giants, medusas, and other creatures of legend—each of which represents an ancient predecessor or powerful evolution of the non-mythic version found in the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary. Following these example monsters, this chapter continues with information on the mythic simple templates and mythic subtype, advice on how to create and balance new mythic monsters, and several new universal monster rules used by the monsters in this chapter.

You can find all of the mythic monsters here.

Archives of Nethys

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