MAGGI PICAYUNE

My players over the years already know this about me, I’m not big on new classes in D&D because the majority don’t solve anything. Prestige Classes can since they’re more conceptual.

Now I’m fine with the four brought in by the two Ultimate books:

• Ninja and Samurai are Japanese variations of Rogue and Cavalier respectively.
• Magus synthesizes Fighter and Wizard to “save” levels.
• Gunslinger is allowed even though guns are a waste of money.

In the Advanced Player’s Guide, I already made it clear why four of those classes were pointless while allowing two.

• Cavalier is a good counter to the Barbarian, after I’ve made a couple adjustments to make it more like PHB 2‘s Knight.
• Witch is a better option for arcane users via hags and some humanoid races.

Advanced Class Guide treads the same path as Player’s. There are good ideas, there are impractical applications and some of it is just plain…stupid. The difference between the 10 classes presented here are their nature, they’re not Core but Hybrids; a synthesis of two Core classes to make a new one. For example, Slayer is the Ranger and Rogue combined. It receives the favored enemy element of the Ranger and sneak attack damage from the Rogue. In exchange, the special abilities are both scaled back yet a fifth-level Slayer is more effective at his job than someone making a multi-classed Ranger and Rogue that’s a fifth-level character.

I do want to point out the three classes I’m never going to allow because no one will really bother to play. Rarely have I met anyone wanting to multi class the Barbarian with anything, let alone Bard or Sorcerer which is what Skald and Bloodrager do respectively. The Investigator is contrary to Fantasy altogether. If someone wants to solve mysteries with Nero Wolfe or Scooby Doo, play Call of Cthulhu and don’t waste my time.

These will work for NPCs: Shaman, Warpriest and Hunter.

The Arcanist will be a favorite of power gamers who feel their Wizards aren’t powerful enough. Too much bookkeeping for it to be an NPC.

Swashbuckler and Brawler are intriguing yet they are also a pain in tracking how often they can utilize their “powers.” For example, the Brawler can use a Fighting Feat temporarily without having to have it permanently. All that trouble to have a Monk with a non Lawful alignment.

As usual, once the Hybrid classes are detailed, the book introduces a plethora of options via Archetypes, Spells, Feats and Gear. It concludes with guidelines on how to make more Hybrid classes.

Is this book worth having? I give it a grudging “yes.” The positive backing is more for DMs having options to give their NPCs/Monsters. It’s offered in the pocket edition too which is what I would endorse given Pathfinder now undergoing its playlets for Second Edition.

The emphasis on Paizo’s fourth monster book and it has numerous worthwhile creatures in here, most of them being evil. As always, a few are collected from their Adventure Path series, the Nosferatu vampires which live in Ustalav (Pathfinder‘s version of Ravenloft). The emphasis in this tome are Lovecraft’s creations (they are in the public domain) and monsters which come with mythic levels attached. These tend to be legendary types too, a giant with 100 eyes like Argus from Greek mythology, colossuses made of corpses or stone, and creatures bordering deity-like powers. They’re not much use without the Mythic Adventures rulebook to add their abilities. I’m more glad Paizo provided more examples.

Other categories they’ve boosted that I love, additional “races” of giants and two more types of hags. The latter are a key to the primary campaign I’m running.

Not in the mood to spend the $45 for the hardback book, it comes in softcover too.

Upon its introduction, I was skeptical and somewhat uninterested in Mythic since I really wanted Pathfinder’s equivalent to WOTC’s old Epic book; it covered characters at 21st and higher levels. Then the podcast my local comic/game store does got me to change my mind when they explained these rules. Mythic elements in Pathfinder aren’t a continuation after PCs/NPCs reach the maximum levels as per the Core Rules, they’re more like accessories to make everything in the game more unique and/or legendary. Mythic power is not gained by experience points neither, the PC (or NPC/Monster) must overcome a Trial. What’s a Trail then? It’s an event, encounter, battle, etc. that requires the heroes/villains to rise way above lesser heroes/villains’ deeds. They serve as the key points in building the legend about the person/creature. As expected, they’re at the GM’s discretion.

The first half is focused on characters/monsters on what Mythic elements do for them. Chapter One is about the Paths. These aren’t necessarily classes, they’re archetypes: archmage, champion, guardian…so they’re applicable to any of the Core‘s 11 classes along with the additional 20+ the Ultimate/Advanced books bring. There’s an option for Universal (or generic) if the player can’t make up their mind. The Paths provide the equivalent of Class abilities and obviously, they’re pretty powerful. A quick example, a Tier One Archmage (originally a Magus, Sorcerer, Witch or Wizard) can take Enduring Armor. With that, the PC automatically has something akin to the spell mage armor operating all the time and it adds three plus the PC’s tier(s) to their AC. The ability can be stopped (albeit briefly) through a dispel spell but the Archmage can re-activate it as a free action (there’s no such thing as swift in my game). Now throw it in with just the basic mythic abilities of hard to kill, surges and mythic powers, you can easily have a nightmare campaign if the GM isn’t careful.

The difference between regular Feats and mythic are their outcomes (Power Attack is +3 per four levels instead of +2); there are occasions when they allow the character to execute a skill as if they rolled a natural 20. The downside to the Feats? Many require the vanilla version as pre-requisites.

Spells follow similar logic as Feats. Mythic alters the results of the standard spell. I’ll pick a favorite, fireball. When the caster chooses the mythic version, they still expend the third-level slot the spell normally uses. The damage increases to d10 instead of the standard d6. Any creature who fails the Reflex saving throw is also on fire at 2d6 per round until it’s put out. I can see myself pursuing this with any arcane-utilizing PC should I ever get to play.

Chapter Four is the most critical, advice on how to run a mythic game. All these power boosts could easily make things boring after a while, right there with playing a video game with all the cheats activated. I appreciated the example Trials too. Designing encounters comes in handy on keeping things challenging.

Magic items in Chapter Five are really way-more expensive items which can do extra-special actions/damage in the hands of mythic wielders. I would also put legendary items we all know from fiction in here: Excalibur, Narsil, Stormbringer and the ring of power from LoTR.

Chapter Six contains common monsters modified with mythic levels and explanations on why or how they gained their mythic levels. Some are the progenitors of their race (the very earliest cyclopses, minotaurs), magic spells (skeletons), they devoured other mythical  beings (barghests) or they’re just more important than others (regular mummies guard a mythical mummy who was a king/queen). Again, I would put certain, famous enemies here: Acererak, von Straud/Dracula, Smaug and Eclavdra.

Mythic concludes with an example adventure and additional PC sheet to track mythic progression. The adventure is designed for a quartet of seventh-level PCs without mythic levels. I think they’re handed out at the start or maybe the PCs gain them as they progress. It isn’t very long yet it continues the book’s goal on how mythic is different from an ultra-high-level game.

I really recommend this book to keep in reserve for campaigns when the PCs hit double digits. It has been the inspiration for the primary game I run…when it can happen. I love the idea of a monster that’s more than additional hit points and has a few class levels.