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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

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War of Immortals

Mythic Rules

Source War of Immortals pg. 76
This section presents the rules for creating mythic characters to play in mythic campaigns.

Mythic Characters

Source War of Immortals pg. 76
Mythic characters can gain their mythic power through a variety of means: it can be granted by a deity, gained by slaying a mythic monster or completing a mythic deed, acquired through exposure to a powerful artifact, obtained during an event when mythic power is unleashed over a large area (like the Godsrain), or via other means as determined by the GM and the story being told. Every character gains a mythic Calling when they first gain mythic power, which influences some of the fundamental nature of their power. They also gain mythic feats and, ultimately, a mythic destiny. For more information on mythic Callings and progressing as a mythic character, see Mythic Progression

. The following sections explain how becoming mythic affects a PC.

Mythic Proficiency

Source War of Immortals pg. 76
Mythic characters have access to abilities that allow them to roll various checks using mythic proficiency instead of their normal proficiency. These abilities typically involve drawing on your reserves of mythic power to perform superhuman exploits that would be beyond normal mortal capabilities. Your proficiency bonus when using mythic proficiency is 10 plus your level. Mythic proficiency is the step above legendary proficiency, so a character attempting a check at mythic proficiency can complete any task that normally requires a specific proficiency, even if they wouldn't normally meet that requirement (such as disabling a hazard that normally requires expert or greater proficiency.)

Unlike trained, expert, master, and legendary proficiency, you use mythic proficiency only when an ability tells you to, and these abilities typically require you to expend a Mythic Point to gain their benefits.

Mythic Points

Source War of Immortals pg. 76
The mythic power instilled in you gives you a pool of Mythic Points. Unlike most aspects of your character, which persist over the long term, Mythic Points last for only a single session.

Mythic Points are required to cast mythic spells, use some mythic feats, activate mythic items, and can be required to attempt some mythic deeds. Each mythic character starts the session with 3 Mythic Points and can have a maximum of 3 Mythic Points at any time. If you have Mythic Points, you do not gain Hero Points

Mythic Deeds

Source War of Immortals pg. 77
A mythic deed is a task, often in the form of a hazard or noncombat challenge, that restores an adventuring party's Mythic Points once successfully navigated. It's even possible that a party might uncover their Callings after completing their first mythic deed as non-mythic characters. A mythic deed should generally be at least a moderate challenge for a party of the characters' level or involve a combination of hard and very hard skill checks for the PCs' level if the deed is easily accomplished without using mythic resources, it isn't a mythic deed. Many mythic monsters have mythic deeds associated with them. These can serve as examples for creating your own mythic deeds as a GM and are often intended to allow players to interact with the monster at a level where fighting the creature would be unwise or unrewarding.

A mythic deed tied to a monster doesn't necessarily need to be presented at a different level than the monster it's associated with. For mythic monsters whose presence in a campaign is only intended to last a single session, it's likely that any associated mythic deeds will be no more than 2 levels higher than the monster and no more than 2 levels lower.

Recovering Mythic Points

Source War of Immortals pg. 77
Mythic power is a rare and precious resource. While it accrues and recovers naturally within mythic characters over time, it can be difficult to accrue during the heat of combat. The following are ways a character might regain Mythic Points during a session.

  • Slaying a mythic opponent in combat restores 2 Mythic Points to the character whose attack, spell, or effect defeated the opponent, and 1 Mythic Point to all other mythic characters in the party.
  • Completing a mythic deed restores 3 Mythic Points to each mythic character in the party.
  • Following their Calling by taking actions particularly in line with the edicts (as determined by the GM) restores 1 Mythic Point to that character’s mythic pool.
  • A legendary accomplishment or epic sacrifice can restore 1 or more Mythic Points for a character, even if it’s not one of the more defined ways to recover Mythic Points. The GM gauges when this should occur. Mythic characters have more power over their own story than most and should be rewarded when the story is particularly compelling!

Death and Dying as a Mythic Character

Source War of Immortals pg. 77
Mythic characters are much harder to kill than normal heroes. When a mythic character’s dying value would reach an amount sufficient to kill them (usually 4), they instead increase their doomed value by 1 and stabilize at 0 Hit Points. A mythic character doesn’t permanently die until their doomed value reaches 4. As normal, a mythic character’s doomed value decreases by 1 each time they get a full night’s rest.

Mythic Progression

Source War of Immortals pg. 77
At 1st level, or whenever they receive their mythic power, a mythic character gains a mythic Calling and the Rewrite Fate ability. This Calling gives them a way to spend and regain Mythic Points and presents them with a set of edicts and anathema related to the purpose of this power, whether that purpose is determined by the character’s own nature or the original source from which they gained the power.

Once they’ve received their Calling, the mythic character receives an extra mythic feat at 2nd level and every even level thereafter, which they can use only for mythic feats. At 12th level, they must use their extra feat to take the 12th-level destiny feat for a mythic destiny, and from 14th level on, they can take feats from that mythic destiny or take lower-level mythic feats hey haven’t already taken. Characters can have only one mythic destiny. If a character receives their Calling at a level after 1st, they typically gain all the mythic feats for lower levels, though they might gain them at a slower pace rather than all at once if that will work better in the game’s story.

Depending on the needs of the group and the theme of the game, you might restrict which mythic destinies are available to the players, require each player to choose a different mythic destiny, or require all players to choose the same mythic destiny. For example, in a campaign where the players are destined to overthrow the Apocalypse Riders and become the new embodiments of War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death, you might require all the players to choose the apocalypse rider mythic destiny. In a campaign where the heroes are fighting a powerful threat from beyond the mortal plane, it will likely make more sense for each player to have a different mythic destiny that speaks to a possible role they’ll play in that final battle or the events leading up to it.

As the GM of a mythic campaign, you should talk to your players about what mythic Callings and mythic destinies are appropriate for the story you intend to tell with them.

Rewrite Fate [free-action]

Uncommon Fortune Mythic 
Source War of Immortals pg. 78
Trigger You roll a skill check or saving throw and don’t like the result.
Destiny, fate, or some other force bends around you as your mythic power swells, manifesting in a flash of light or visible surge of energy emanating from your body as you cast aside the chains of fate. You expend a Mythic Point and reroll the check or save with mythic proficiency, taking the new result.

Retraining Callings

In the right circumstances, you can retrain your Calling to a different one. Retraining a Calling should be coordinated with your GM; typically, a change in a character’s Calling results from a major pivotal event, such as completing the objective of their first Calling or undergoing an immense challenge that fundamentally changes their outlook on life. For example, a character might start with the Hunter’s Calling when their village is ravaged by a mythic monster, and then defeat that monster around the time they reach 10th level. After this pivotal event, the GM might allow them to change their Calling to the Guardian’s Calling, as the new purpose of their mythic power is to protect other villages from the kind of disaster that originally befell their home. A character should have the opportunity to retrain their Calling following such an event without significant time having passed in the world of the game.

Mythic Callings

Source War of Immortals pg. 78
Mythic power rarely takes root in a being without being accompanied by a specific purpose. This purpose may be bestowed by a god or goddess, as it was when the goddess Iomedae charged a group of heroes with closing the Worldwound, or it may be derived from some other internal or external impetus determined via the method by which you gained mythic power, such as when Nahoa experienced his Calling immediately after the Godsrain.

You work with your GM to determine which Calling matches your character based on the circumstances by which you attained it, your character’s nature, and the destiny they’re meant for. You can have only one mythic Calling. Just because a group of characters all received their Calling from the same source, doesn’t mean that they’ll all have the same Calling. The heroes chosen to close the Worldwound likely all had the same ultimate goal,but they would’ve found that it manifested in particular ways: a cleric Called to help seal the Worldwound might have felt the caretaker’s Calling, a drive to heal injuries so powerful that their ultimate destiny was to heal Golarion itself. A noble paladin crusader, however, might have answered the guardian’s Calling, protecting his allies as they fought their way into the heart of the Outer Rifts and ultimately becoming one of the Universe’s greatest protectors.

Edicts and Anathema

Source War of Immortals pg. 79
Mythic Callings each include edicts and anathema. Taking actions particularly in line with your edicts, as determined by your GM, restores a Mythic Point to your mythic pool. Violating your anathema causes you to immediately lose all the Mythic Points you currently have, though this loss isn’t permanent—it’s a setback within your story. Some edicts and anathema might encourage characters to do things that could create problems for them, either now or in the future. This is to be expected. Just like the heroes of the stories mythic rules help emulate, mythic characters might be flawed or find that the purpose of their mythic power is amoral, forcing them to choose between the temporary rewards of power and the long-term good of themselves or their world.

Designing Mythic Encounters

Source War of Immortals pg. 84
A character’s level indicates their general power in relation to all other beings and challenges present in the game. A level 20 monster is so much more powerful than a group of level 16 characters that they’ll need extreme luck and excellent tactics to have any hope of defeating it, and lower-level characters stand no practical chance of facing such a threat.

Mythic power doesn’t change a creature or character’s effective level, but it does make them more powerful than a creature of the same level. A mythic monster can generally be expected to defeat a non-mythic monster of the same level in an otherwise fair fight, and a mythic character will be able to overcome difficult challenges more reliably than a non-mythic character who’s otherwise similar in level and capabilities.

Unlocking New Paths Forward

Mythic powers, especially at low levels, can be thought of as skeleton keys that mythic PCs can use to access parts of the world that might normally be inaccessible to them. If the PCs are adventuring in a dungeon, this could be reflected through locked doors, hazards, and other obstacles that normally require a minimum proficiency level of expert or higher to bypass; since mythic proficiency is the highest proficiency level available, mythic characters with the correct Callings or feats can attempt these checks regardless of their level and normal proficiency by spending a Mythic Point.

When adventuring in the wilds, these same principles apply, but the obstacles might be mighty rivers, sheer and otherwise unscalable cliffs, or other types of natural boundaries that divide the world and prevent lesser mortals from proceeding.

As the GM of a mythic campaign, it's important for you to know what Callings and feats your characters have available and that you're prepared when the players use these resources to take the story in a different direction.

The essence of mythic adventure is that the players are able to interact with the story and influence the narrative beyond what a normal character can do, and it's important that they be presented opportunities to do so!

1st-5th Level

Source War of Immortals pg. 85
The abilities mythic characters gain at early levels let them apply mythic proficiency only to skill and Perception checks. Though some of these abilities have combat purposes (such as the guardian's Calling's ability to attempt Disarm, Reposition, and Shove checks at mythic proficiency), the characters' mythic abilities generally won't be adding significant amounts of extra damage to the PCs' attacks. The major ways that mythic play differs from standard play at this level are in the PCs' general survivability and their ability to excel at certain types of tasks during exploration and downtime mode.

As a GM running a mythic game, you might present your party with more hard or very hard skill checks during exploration mode, especially when those checks directly relate to a party member's Calling. Encounters: You should build and run combat encounters normally, as described in GM Core. If the players are finding combat to be too easy and nonthreatening, stop using trivial-threat encounters, and use fewer low-threat encounters; however, avoid using extreme-threat encounters or more than one severe encounter per day in game since these encounters are still weighted against the party, and the PCs have minimal resources to increase their advantage against such powerful and overwhelming threats.

As normal for this level range, remember that severe- threat encounters are better deployed as a boss enemy whose level is no more than the PCs' level plus 2, with supporting lower-level monsters. If the story of the encounter strongly indicates that the boss should be a solo threat, don't increase its level, but replace the lower-level monsters with similarly leveled complex hazards or a larger number of simple hazards. These hazards can help make the fight interesting and unique without making the game too lethal to be enjoyable.

6th-10th Level

Source War of Immortals pg. 85
At 6th level, mythic PCs begin to gain access to mythic feats that can allow them to make attacks at mythic proficiency. Such feats are still fairly situational and typically require specific circumstances before they can be used, but this represents a significant spike in the PCs' combat capabilities.

Encounters: At this level, avoid trivial-threat encounters entirely, and use low-threat encounters only in situations where you want the PCs to experience an easy triumph. You should still avoid running multiple severe-threat encounters without giving the PCs an opportunity to rest first, and severe-threat encounters against mythic opponents should be preceded by mythic deeds or a moderate combat encounter against multiple lower-level mythic opponents to allow the PCs the opportunity to recharge their Mythic Points.

12th-20th Level

Source War of Immortals pg. 85
Once a group of mythic characters have received the 12th-level feat for their mythic destiny, they'll have a significant amount of power both to defeat opponents in combat and to directly impact the narrative of the game world in ways big and small.

Encounters: You should avoid low- and trivial-threat encounters entirely. If the PCs would come into contact with adversaries who represent such an encounter, it's better to handle the situation via roleplay rather than playing through a fight with a predictable conclusion. For a significant boss fight that serves as the culmination of an ongoing plotline, it can be appropriate in this level range to present the PCs with back-to-back severe-threat encounters, such as against a powerful lieutenant backed by a larger number of weaker monsters and then the “final boss” with a pair of more powerful bodyguards. Only at the highest level of play—when the players are fully experienced with their characters, and the party is rested, fully charged with Mythic Points, and wielding mythic weapons—should you consider pitting them against a single apponent that constitutes a severe- or extreme-threat encounter alone

Mythic Runes

Source War of Immortals pg. 148
The most powerful of armor and weapons are graven with mythic runes. Mythic runes can only be crafted, etched, or transferred by deities and mythic characters. While mythic runes list a price for Crafting purposes, the base materials should typically be obtained for free as part of a mythic deed or the slaying of a mythic monster whose level is equal to or higher than the rune’s level. Mythic runes can never be simply purchased from shopkeepers, though a mythic smith or a deity might grant one and etch it onto armor or a weapon as a reward for completing a difficult quest.

Mythic Monster Templates

Source War of Immortals pg. 168
Mythic power is seeded across the entirety of Golarion, waiting to be claimed by monsters big and small, powerful and weak. In this section you’ll find the rules to transform any monster into a mythic threat!

Basic Mythic Abilities

Source War of Immortals pg. 168
These abilities appear across all kinds of mythic monsters, at the levels indicated on the table.

Mythic Resilience (1st): The creature treats its saving throws with the associated save as one degree of success better than it rolled. This is not cumulative with other effects that change their degree of success, like the incapacitation trait (except for rolling a natural 1 or 20). Each time the monster gains mythic resilience, choose one save. The ability should apply to the creature's highest saves first.

Mythic Resistance (1st): The creature gains resistance to all Strikes made by non-mythic creatures equal to half its level. If it gains mythic resistance a second time, increase the resistance to its full level. Mythic weapons bypass this resistance even if the creature wielding them is not mythic.

Mythic Power (4th): The creature has a pool of 3 Mythic Points, and can spend those Mythic Points for any of the following actions it has.
  • Mythic Skill [free-action] Cost 1 Mythic Point; Effect The creature attempts its next skill check with a +4 bonus and is considered to have mythic proficiency for that check. This applies to one skill when this ability is gained and a second skill if the creature is 12th level or higher.
  • Recharge [one-action] (concentrate) Cost 1 Mythic Point; Effect The creature gains one additional use of a spell or ability that is normally only available a limited number of times. For example, a spellcaster can regain an expended slot or use an ability with a frequency of once per day again.
  • Remove a Condition [one-action] (concentrate) Cost 1 Mythic Point; Effect The creature ends one condition affecting it.
  • Reroll [free-action] (fortune) Cost 1 Mythic Point; Trigger The creature fails a check; Effect The creature rerolls the check.
  • Undying Myth [free-action] Cost all the creature's Mythic Points;Trigger The creature would die and has at least 1 Mythic Point; Effect The creature remains standing and conscious, and recovers 50% of its maximum Hit Points.


Mythic Defenses (20th): Whenever an attacker rolls a critical hit against a creature with mythic defenses, the attacker must reroll the attack roll and take the new result.Mythic Immunity (23rd): The creature is immune to either harmful spells cast by non-mythic creatures, or Strikes made with non-mythic weapons and unarmed Strikes from non-mythic characters. Only the most powerful creatures (typically level 25) should be immune to both.

Mythic Monster Abilities

LevelMythic Abilities
1Mythic resilience (one save) or mythic resistance
2
3
4Mythic power (Mythic Skill or Remove a Condition)
5
6
7Mythic resilience (one save) or mythic resistance
8
9
10Mythic power (Recharge)
11
12
13Mythic resilience (one save) or mythic resistance
14
15
16
17Mythic power (Undying Myth)
18
19
20Mythic power (Reroll) or mythic defenses
21
22
23+Mythic immunity (Strikes or spells)

Related Rules

Mythic Variant Rules (Source War of Immortals Alternate Mythic Rules pg. 2)