Nerd Pride Radio

Finally starting a new Pathfinder game with my kids. They are obsessed with making this Blackscale Generations. The Blackscale Guild was the name of their old team, and they were legendary troublemakers/heroes. The three of them (especially Eli and Noah) are very into the idea of this new game being a continuation of the old one, with their characters having connections to some of the notable NPCs of old... even going so far as wanting to grow up in the town that the Blackscale Guild "accidentally" burned to the ground years ago.

I've been a little directionless in setting this up. I love their characters and their enthusiasm, but I just haven't known what to do with it all. No inspiration. And then, for some reason, I thought of the Mythic rules. Now, I've always thought the Mythic rules were stupid and superfluous. That is, I thought that until I had an actual campaign in mind and actually read the rules. Now I'm super-excited on this.

For those who aren't familiar with Mythic Pathfinder, the , but essentially, the characters are the equivalent of demigods... or the chosen one... or some other powers-beyond-those-of-mere-mortals archetype. (Huh... maybe it's all that Percy Jackson on the brain that got me motivated here.) So you still have your class levels as usual and progress through them with XP as normal, but on top of that, you add on Mythic "Tiers". Each tier adds almost a level of power to your character, but you progress through tiers by completing a certain number of "trials" on your path to fulfilling your destiny or whatever.

Nifty. The simplest version of this would be characters simply discovering they are demigods and advancing Hercules style until they figure out their destiny and save the world.

For my guys, I'm thinking they'll run into the original black dragon that the Blackscale Guild got its name from. The dragon will be old and sick and dying. It will die in their presence and they will all be imbued with mythic power that sends them on their quest to... to something. This is where my ideas have run out. Maybe it's not the dragon, but some other importance NPC (like Kyle the dragonrider) or maybe one of their original characters. But even then, I have no idea what sort of world saving quest they'll ultimately be heading towards.

But I like the Mythic thing, because it allows them cool new powers, more rapid advancement, plus it helps fill in gaps in their three-person team. They are a Bard with an archer specialty, a Hunter riding a giant hog, and a Magus. All three of them are 3/4 caster, 3/4 warrior. With Mythic rules, they can choose Mythic paths that sort of buff up their weak spots.

Anyone played a Mythic game yet? I think Jeff has. Any thoughts or advice?

Love this, especially the dragon's essence imparted to them. It gives you some decent choices for strengths while establishing an appropriately limiting physics model.

Was there some chain of events the blackscales unintentionally set in motion that turned into serious bad consequences, or might, without the intervention of this group? Someone they killed, someone they let go, some freakish destiny they interrupted or initiated....lots of potential.

Jeff was running a mythic campaign that I played in, and I believe he's running another one currently. He's delved way more into than I did. It is definitely intriguing in that you can be mythic and low-level, so things aren't super broken.

Going to swing back around on this one. Don't have the time for a full review and such now. There's a whole novel of what I've learned just on my initial forays into Mythic.

Good thoughts, Jeff. I'm incorporating most of this already. Thank you.

I'm sure I'll have questions soon.

Suggestions for the characters

Hunter
1. Guardian is the immediately obvious Mythic Path to choose, as it lends well to animal companions. If they are really going hardcore into using their companion (which certainly benefits Hunter well), I'd highly recommend Dual Path for their first mythic feat. That'll let them either take a double dip into Marshal or Hierophant (both of which can have some nice companion mythic path abilities). If they go Guardian, I am really hard pressed not to recommend Mythic Companion as their first path ability.

2. If they go for Dual Path, the Faith's Reach path ability (under Hierophant), is a really nice addition for the spells that will see the most use with Hunters (cure spells and buff spells). If they plan on riding a lot in combat, maybe Dual Path to Marshal, as Mounted Marshal can a huge boost early on.

3. The value of giving up one of the companion's feat slots to take Mythic Companion cannot be overstated.

Magus
1. Path choice is entirely dependent on their style here. Archmage is an easy choice, but it may not be the most effective. That one needs more details to try and decide.

2. If they are using spell combat a great deal and are not using their main weapon to attack (as in, main weapon is attacking and you're doing Shocking Grasp in the other hand), then the Mythic Two-Weapon fighting is a quality choice to go with.

3. Mythic spellcasting is pretty terrifying, and there are a solid number of spells from the magus list with mythic versions.

Bard

1. I can't oversell Trickster enough here. And that's likely obvious, but Path Dabbling will end up leading the bard to look through all the other paths as well. That is one path ability that will give the bard some of the greatest flexibility to play with.

2. You mentioned the bard is going for an archery focus. This is awesome, as mythic feats turn archery into an utter nightmare of ranged DPS. Mythic Point Blank Shot and Rapid Shot will bring the damage to scary levels very quickly. Not to be underestimated is Deadly Aim's mythic version. Tossing in a Mythic Arcane Strike or Weapon Focus will take you even further.

You're awesome Jeff.

Details...

The Hunter has a medium sized hog that will grow to large over time and serve as a mount. It is the center of his character concept. Everything revolves around the hog and teamwork feats.

The Magus is most excited about weapon enhancement and using his blade to deliver spells.

The bard is going hardcore archer-bard. But I think he'll be flexible and enjoy the whole bard experience.

There is also a fancy Ring that allows a person to transfer a teamwork ability to another person who wears the ring. So if you know a particular teamwork feat, I gather you can imbue it in the ring and then share it with whomever you wish to by passing along the ring, and that way the other person doesn't have to take the feat.

Thank you, Jeff.

I'm definitely pushing for Guardian for the Hunter, and then I think Champion for the Magus, and Trickster for the bard. But we'll see. They've got a voice in this, but I think those are the ones that would serve them the best.

I'll take anything you have. This is awesome.

The Magus wants to be a badass swordsman... With magic. I think Champion gets him there.

The bard could go either way, but this is my youngest... so becoming a clown/trickster is more up his alley. If it were MY bard... I'd go Marshall for sure. For him, I don't think he'd enjoy that.