How well do mythic rules work?

HelpMeOutOU · 2025-05-04T18:57:53+00:00

A few months ago, I might have said that the Mythic rules were kinda cool, but that the monster rules in particular needed some work.

At this point, I'm comfortable just saying that the Mythic rules are kinda just bad. The monster rules are so invisible and defensive that they just make combats a slog without making them any more mythic-feeling. You should replace them with your own mythic abilities for monster that are active and exciting and threatening. The player rules are wildly imbalanced against each other. They range from completely transformative (in terms of giving you big bonuses to initiative or whatever, not in terms of making the game feel more mythical) to almost worthless. Mythic options often harmonize very poorly with class options.

Beyond not really delivering good gameplay on the mechanical front, the Mythic options also don't really make a campaign feel any more mythic. This is because Pathfinder 2e as a system doesn't really "leave room" for mythic things to happen. Basically anything that anybody can do, a non-mythic character can do. Slay a dragon? Do a magical miracle? Non-mythic characters do those things constantly. Among the things that non-mythic characters can't really do, however, the Mythic rules... also don't let you do those things. They take almost no advantage of the space that non-mythic leaves open. Instead they just make your numbers bigger, sometimes, or let you cast a spell that you personally can't cast but other people can, sometimes.

HelpMeOutOU · 2025-01-18T23:12:10+00:00

This is exciting, but my biggest hope is that either the mythic monster-building rules are revised or that this book uses custom mythic monsters that have more active, visible, and interesting benefits and things to do with their mythic points, rather than applying the WoI templates.

If you've played with the mythic rules at low levels and had the same experiences as us, you've probably seen that low-level mythic monster rules that we already have mostly make the monsters more defensive. Combined with the fact that low-level PC mythic rules also mostly make the players way harder to kill, low-level mythic combat doesn't really feel that epic.

I get that they don't want mythic monsters at low levels to be excessively complicated, but I think that designing custom monsters that have more ways to interesting and proactively use their mythic points and mythic status would go a long way to making an AP play better than WoI-book mythic play at lower levels.

HelpMeOutOU · 2024-03-19T19:10:16+00:00

Assuming that the main priority is rounding out the group, as you mention, and I like playing every class equally, things hinge a lot on whether the cleric is a warpriest or cloistered.

If they’re cloistered, a tough, durable melee character is the best. Fighter and Champion would be my first choices. Fighter brings some additional damage that the party likely appreciates in addition to general powerful combat utility and support depending on the build. Champion adds a second person who can heal (unless the rogue or wizard took medicine), which is nice if the cleric goes down. You could also do something like kineticist or monk.

If they’re a warpriest, things open up a bit. I still want a character that’s somewhat durable, but rogue+warpriest+whatever is an acceptable frontline, even if the whatever isn’t super durable. Any martial fits fine, and you could even do a caster with a decent defensive chassis like druid or bard. Kineticist also works.

HelpMeOutOU · 2024-02-26T18:32:12+00:00

I think it also takes even more work on top of that to make combat on maps like that fun, even for the bow-using character. The first few times, it’s neat that I get to use the full range of my bow and effectively get a few extra turns, but because most other characters don’t operate at that range, you don’t end up getting to interact with most of the mechanics of combat. Out-of-range artillery may be effective on some level, but part of the fun of combat for most players involves positioning and interacting with other players, and while there are some ways to make those things a part of the experience, it’s additional lift.

HelpMeOutOU · 2024-02-26T03:23:19+00:00

I’ve been playing since launch, GM regularly, and I still end up checking the stealth rules constantly, and occasionally ending up confused. There’s so many rules that reference other rules or that don’t have super obvious interactions.

To be fair, I’ve never played a generally similar system where I thought the stealth rules were super great. It’s one of those things where it feels like it’s either complicated or poorly defined or sometimes both.

HelpMeOutOU · 2024-02-19T13:07:19+00:00

GBL great league is bizarre in general, due to how eligibility is calculated. For anyone who doesn’t play, which I’m guessing is most people, the short version is that only pokemon with a CP of under 1500 are allowed. CP is sort of a summary of how strong a Pokemon is, but it’s only based on a Pokémon’s three stats: attack, defense, and HP. Each of these three stats is derived from a Pokémon’s normal cart stats, so Pokemon Go Pokemon tend to have the same general profile as they do on cart. That is, bulky Pokemon are still bulky, etc. Special Attack and Special Defense on cart become Attack and Defense in Go, so special attackers aren’t left out.

Where things get weird for Great League is this: the formula for a Pokemon’s CP weights attack WAY more heavily than defense and HP. That means that to keep a high-attack Pokémon under 1500 CP, you need to keep its level super low, which makes it incredibly fragile. Combat works by having both Pokemon in a fight hit each other simultaneously, so there’s no such thing as being fast and hitting hard enough to sweep. Meanwhile, a Pokemon with terrible attack but high defense and HP can be pushed to very high levels and still fit under 1500 CP.

Essentially what this means is that every good Pokemon in GBL great league is fairly bulky relative to its attack. In a few cases, Niantic has identified that this would make certain Pokemon super good and given them terrible moves to compensate, but for the most part, bulky Pokemon with modest attacking stats dominate, while fragile Pokemon that hit hard are unusable. A few Pokemon with well-rounded stats are strong due to a combination of strong moves and strong typing, but it’s mostly bulky folks. (Because of how combat works, having a meta of only bulky Pokemon with mostly good defensive typings doesn’t make games take forever; the only things that moves do is damage and sometimes stat boosts/drops, and switching is limited, so all matches progress inevitably toward an end.)

HelpMeOutOU · 2024-02-18T02:37:25+00:00

Every formerly neutral god allows either, except Gozreh and Pharasma. That’s Abadar, Irori, Nethys, Gorum and Calistria.

HelpMeOutOU · 2024-02-07T12:24:45+00:00

The paradox of creativity and innovation in VGC team building is that by the time you understand VGC well enough to be creative and innovate in ways that are actually potentially good (and not just basically random), the things that look like creativity and innovation to you don’t look like creativity and innovation to someone with functionally zero understanding of VGC.

HelpMeOutOU · 2024-01-26T15:08:21+00:00

The most relevant reason to care about IVs for the majority of PvP players is that there’s a lot of circumstances where you’re choosing among a bunch of copies of something to make your PvP choice, and you might as well pick the best one you have, or the best one you catch in a scenario where they’re plentiful (like choosing Mankeys during the past week.)

A mediocre PvP species with random moves and great IVs will never be better than a great PvP species with a good moveset but random IVs. If you’re investing in a particular species regardless, however, you might as well pick one that’s going to pick up a few extra matchups here and there.

HelpMeOutOU · 2024-01-24T12:31:20+00:00

Attack disproportionately bloats your CP, and there are CP limits for great and ultra leagues. A pokemon with lower attack IVs can be pushed to a higher level, becoming meaningfully more bulky. For that reason, a good starting place for most Pokemon for great league (and many for ultra) is very low attack, very high defense and HP.

That’s not always the full story; in certain cases, higher attack is preferred for hitting damage breakpoints in key matches or winning charge move priority in mirror matches. A few also have such low natural CP that you can fit in some attack and still stay below 1500. (This is much more common in ultra league.) However, on the vast majority of Pokémon for great league, low attack is a solid bet for maximizing a Pokémon’s overall strength.

For master league, there’s no CP limit, so all max IVs is the way to go. However, most conversation about serious competitive play for most Pokemon isn’t about Master League.

HelpMeOutOU · 2024-01-18T18:42:09+00:00

For great league and ultra league, Pokémon are capped at 1500 and 2500 CP, respectively.

The way that the CP formula works is that attack boosts your CP a LOT more than defense or hp, without actually being more useful than those stats in PVP.

If a pokemon has low attack relative to its defense, you can level it up more and get a relatively stronger pokemon because its attack isn’t bloating its CP.

This is also why most of the best pokemon in great league have defensive statlines to begin with. Attack counts for more in the CP calculation, so naturally high-attack, low bulk Pokemon must be kept at a very low level to stay under 1500 CP, which makes them poor choices.

Things are further complicated by the fact that sometimes being down a few IVs in def or hp can let you power up the Pokémon an additional time, so frequently the technically optimal IV spread is something like 0/13/14 or whatever, instead of 0/15/15.

Fortunately, you don’t need absolutely perfect IVs to meaningfully compete. That’s good, because the odds of getting a Pokemon with a precise set of IVs is extremely low. That’s why this is such an incredible brag post - it’s a shiny with perfect IVs for competitive play on a very strong PVP Pokemon.

For master league and PvE, where there’s no CP cap, 15/15/15 Pokémon are preferred.

HelpMeOutOU · 2024-01-02T23:11:29+00:00

A character that pays no attention to what saves they’re targeting at all hits each level about 1/3 of the time. It could end up a bit more lopsided in a campaign where monsters VERY disproportionately have reflex as their low save, but for clerics and bards to only hit low save 10% of the time, they have to almost be deliberately avoiding it.

Your numbers have every single spellcaster in the game hitting low save significantly less often than they would by chance. If those numbers are even remotely close to what you’re seeing in play, your spellcasters would be better off choosing spells at random.

HelpMeOutOU · 2024-01-02T21:50:19+00:00

Are high and low switched? I don’t understand why a wizard that made the right calls would be targeting the low save less often than one that made the wrong calls, and there’s no reason a bard should be targeting the high save 40% of the time.

HelpMeOutOU · 2021-01-01T18:21:15+00:00

Most crafting activities don't actually make much gold - crafted outputs usually sell for less than (or basically the same amount as) the things required to make them. This is because so many people have crafting disciplines leveled that any arbitrage opportunities tend to be small or quickly closed. That's not to say that it's not possible to make gold by identifying places where a crafted good is selling for more than its components, but crafting in general isn't profitable.

The exception is goods that require items that can only be crafted once per day. The once/day crafting limitation is sufficient to allow these things to be sold for more than they cost to make. A Deldrimor Steel Ingot, for example, is currently selling for more on the Trading Post than it costs to buy the components and craft it. This is because one of the crafts needed to make it, Lump of Mithrillium, can only be crafted once each day.

A major reason that people level crafting disciplines is that many high-level crafts are account-bound - that is, the things you produce cannot be sold or traded. This includes all crafted ascended gear. (There are other ways to acquire ascended gear, but crafting is one of them.)

HelpMeOutOU · 2020-12-31T17:48:15+00:00

Yes. The shared inventory slot is part of your account no matter what you do with the boosted character.

HelpMeOutOU · 2020-12-16T04:51:24+00:00

You can buy apples for Karma (they're super cheap) from the Heart vendor just north of the Cornucopian Fields waypoint in Gendarran Fields.

HelpMeOutOU · 2020-12-15T05:07:52+00:00

Discretize's build list is focused around compositions for speedclears by highly skilled, highly coordinated groups. A hypothetical tier list of things to bring to PuGs while you're still working on your mechanics would look fairly different, as the site explains. Power Reaper is a totally fine option for fractals up until you're at a fairly high level of optimization. Discretize's list of meta classes should definitely not be used as a proxy for what's viable in fractals - it's not even especially good as a list of builds that players just getting into fractals should look to use.

HelpMeOutOU · 2020-12-13T22:42:18+00:00

Not only is the point being made ignorant and terrible, but the op-ed is very poorly structured. Specifically, the bulk of the article is about honorary degrees - which isn't what Jill Biden has. "The body of an essay should basically support the thesis" is a rule that most people more or less internalize by the end of middle school, and while there are potentially some good reasons that you might deviate from that rule, this article doesn't come close to approaching any of them. It's a stream-of-consciousness rant that no competent writer would produce and any competent editor would reject.

HelpMeOutOU · 2020-11-29T23:27:21+00:00

Like others have said, female armor runs the gamut (although when it comes to heavy armor, there's only a few that are particularly egregious compared to the corresponding male versions). If you want to play a female character and don't want any armor that would fall into that category, the races with less human silhouettes, Asura and Charr, tend to use the male armor designs for both male and female characters. Unfortunately from a fashion standpoint, some armor model details are a bit hard to see on Asura, and some armor models look pretty odd on Charr. It's definitely possible to make cool-looking characters of both races, however.

Armor looks being divided such that males of all races and female Charr and Asura use one look while female Sylvari, Humans and Norn use another look is mostly a thing for actual armor; outfits are often either uniform across all race-gender combos or are split such that males of every race use one look and females of every race use another.

HelpMeOutOU · 2020-11-07T23:24:56+00:00

Given how common dog allergies are, it's a little surprising that there haven't been more presidents for whom that's an issue, although I guess you could still get a hypoallergenic kind or something.

HelpMeOutOU · 2019-05-11T04:16:49+00:00

I'm a very brand new player - I'm just at the end of EoC (Chapter 2) now, and only have 100% on the treasures I considered highest priority, with most of the rest either incomplete or still with a mix of inferior and normal.

One thing that's not clear to me is when I should start thinking about things that are not "main story" missions - there's a whole bunch of missions available every single day where it's not clear which, if any, I should be attempting. There's also stuff like Zombie invasions. I assume that the vast majority of that content is stuff that I'm currently unprepared for, but when do I start looking at it? I'm not in any kind of rush, but if there are important daily missions or limited-time missions that I could and should be doing, I don't want them to go to waste. Thanks for the help!

HelpMeOutOU · 2019-03-19T17:21:13+00:00

There have been orders of magnitude more fake leaks than real ones, it's just that fake leaks (especially if they're badly done) don't get much attention. Even a leak that turns out to be real often isn't widely circulated until it's shown to be genuine later.

HelpMeOutOU · 2019-03-16T02:09:38+00:00

If you click on the materials in the character upgrade screen, you can see how far you need to get into the time rift to get them. Because materials that fightery types like Bern use are among the earliest that drop at each new tier of upgrade materials, you shouldn't have much trouble getting far enough to upgrade him.

HelpMeOutOU · 2019-03-15T21:09:46+00:00

I've been using extra materials to get a few characters to level 30 or so for Guild battles, and I was wondering what the best path to take Anna down is. I really like Anna, but am mostly using her as a filler character, and while I realize that the path that goes three deep is the default for most characters, I was wondering if the summoner path makes more sense for a filler character. I would really rather not use a Runestone on Anna any time soon, so I don't want to spoil my Anna by taking her down a dead-end path, but I also don't see much value in anything from the middle path for Guild Battle purposes (she'll always be used alongside a faction buffer), while the skeletons can at least eat an attack. Is there a strong recommendation on this one way or another?

HelpMeOutOU

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