神话冒险(Mythic Adventures)
What is mythic?
The
mythic rules offer a new way to play Pathfinder. It uses all the rules that you
are familiar with, but it adds a new layer to the game. Mythic adventurers are
elevated above their non-mythic counterparts, gaining powers and abilities
beyond their reach that allow them to take on tougher foes and more daunting
challenges. A mythic character takes on the agents of deities, rushes headlong
into the abyss, and strives to build a legend, all while facing off against a
wide variety of foes, from common monsters to other mythic characters. If Elric,
Fafhrd, Gray Mouser, Hercules, or King Arthur were created in Pathfinder, they
would be mythic characters.
Is mythic a replacement for epic
rules?
No.
"Epic" rules generally mean "rules for characters above level 20." Unlike epic
rules, you can use the mythic rules with 1st-level characters just as easily as
you can with 20th-level characters. You can even use the mythic rules to
continue to grow in power once your PCs reach 20th level, taking on some of the
toughest adversaries in the game, from ancient dragons to demon lords.
Meanwhile, a low-level mythic character might take on monsters that you are
already familiar with, at a level where non-mythic characters would face certain
doom.
How do the mythic rules
work?
Your
mythic character selects a mythic path, which grants a few general abilities.
For example, you gain the ability to draw on your mythic power a few times per
day, altering a d20 roll after you've rolled it. Mythic characters are also more
durable, gaining additional hit points.
You
begin as a 1st-tier mythic character. You don't gain mythic tiers by
accumulating experience points. Instead, you have to accomplish a
campaign-specific goals (as decided by the GM) to advance to the next tier.
Using this system, your mythic tier is not tied to your character level. You
still gain XP as normal, and still gain levels as normal, but occasionally you
might increase your mythic tier as well, adding a few new mythic abilities and
powers to your character.
There
are 10 mythic tiers. By the time you've reached the 10th tier, your character is
nearly unstoppable, almost the power of a demigod (in fact, one mythic ability
you can choose is the power to grant spells to your followers).
It
is important to note that while mythic rules add to the game, they do not
necessarily make the game more complex. A new mythic abilty might allow you to
automatically succeed a roll, or ignore an attack of opportunity, or bypass some
other rule that slows down gameplay. Mythic isn't about adding more math to your
character, it's about allowing your character to do amazing, heroic things that
aren't normally possible with the normal rules.
Are there mythic monsters?
Yes.
Mythic Adventures includes 40 familiar monsters (barghests, demons, dragons,
giants, owlbears, and so on) upgraded with mythic abilities so they can
challenge mythic PCs. The book also includes several new mythic templates for
quickly adding mythic abilities to a monster, rules for customizing new mythic
monster, and new universal monster rules for mythic creatures.
Bestiary
4 (available late 2013) includes additional mythic monsters.
DR/Epic: How do the new rules for overcoming DR/epic
(page 7) interact with weapon special abilities that have variable enhancement
bonuses, such as bane and furious?
Essentially,
there are now two ways to overcome DR/epic with magic weapons.
The
first way is presented in the Universal Monster Rules in the Bestiary: You can
use a weapon that has an actual enhancement bonus of +6 or higher. Currently the
Pathfinder RPG has no weapons with a permanent +6 or higher enhancement bonus
(though you can temporarily achieve a +6 or higher enhancement bonus with
certain magical or class abilities).
The
second way is presented in Mythic Adventures: You can use a weapon that has a
total "plus-equivalent" of +6 or higher. For example, a +1 vorpal longsword and
a +2 flaming frost shock keen longsword both are +6-equivalent magic
weapons.
A
weapon with a conditional or variable enhancement bonus, such as bane or
furious, gets the best of both options. As a baseline, it include the
plus-equivalences for its enhancement bonuses and special abilities; when the
conditional or variable enhancement bonuses activate, it adds those to its total
as well.
For
example, a +3 undead-bane longsword is a +4-equivalent weapon, which on its own
is not enough to overcome DR/epic. When used against an undead creature, its
enhancement bonus increases by an additional +2, making it effectively a
+6-equivalent weapon (+3 baseline enhancement bonus, +1-equivalent from bane, +2
conditional enhancement bonus against undead from bane) and therefore able to
overcome that undead creature's DR/epic. (Another way of looking at it is when
bane is active, you add its conditional +2 enhancement bonus to the weapon's
normal +4-equivalent bonus, temporarily giving you a +6-equivalent
weapon).
Mythic Form of the Dragon: Mythic form of the dragon
says that it increases my breath weapon damage to 10d6, but 10d6 isn't actually
an increase for form of the dragon II or III. Does that mean the mythic version
reduces my damage?
No,
instead mythic form of the dragon should increase your breath weapon damage by
2d8. This will be reflected in the next errata.
Mythic Vampire, Overcome Weakness: How is this ability
better than a standard vampire's weaknesses?
The
mythic vampire should only be sickened in direct sunlight, not nauseated.
Also,
unlike a standard vampire, a mythic vampire should not be utterly destroyed on
the second round of exposure to direct sunlight (it will take 10 points of
damage each round, lose its fast healing, and be sickened, but can otherwise
take actions and survive as long as it still has hit points).
This
will be corrected in the next printing of Mythic Adventures.
Why do the "inspired spell" and "wild arcana" path
abilities have slightly different rules text?
These
two abilities should function the same and (other than they affect divine or
arcane spells) have identical rules text. They also need some clarification
about what spells you can cast with either of these path abilities.
The
proposed text for these two abilities (pending an official errata of the Mythic
Adventures book) is:
Inspired
Spell (Su): As a standard action, you can expend one use of mythic power to cast
any one divine spell without expending a prepared spell or spell slot. The spell
must be on one of your divine class spell lists (or your domain or mystery spell
list), must be of a level that you can cast with that divine spellcasting class,
and must have a casting time of "1 standard action" (or less). You don't need to
have the spell prepared, nor does it need to be on your list of spells known.
When casting a spell in this way, you treat your caster level as 2 levels higher
for the purpose of any effect dependent on level. You can apply any metamagic
feats you know to this spell, but its total adjusted level can't be greater than
that of the highest-level divine spell you can cast from that spellcasting
class.
Wild
Arcana (Su): As a standard action, you can expend one use of mythic power to
cast any one arcane spell without expending a prepared spell or spell slot. The
spell must be on one of your arcane class spell lists, must be of a level that
you can cast with that arcane spellcasting class, and must have a casting time
of "1 standard action" (or less). You don't need to have the spell prepared, nor
does it need to be on your list of spells known. When casting a spell in this
way, you treat your caster level as 2 levels higher for the purpose of any
effect dependent on level. You can apply any metamagic feats you know to this
spell, but its total adjusted level can't be greater than that of the
highest-level arcane spell you can cast from that spellcasting class.