Mythic Cohorts? (3.5 and Pathfinder, Mythic Adventure Gm's prefered)

[Longneil]

Hi all. We are still playing in our 3.5/pathfinder game and my DM and I have been having a discussion about his topic. I have a cleric cohort who has been with the party since level 6, and while we are all mythic she is not. Just recently we have been using the mythic 'Ascension' spell to make her and another cohort gain a temporary mythic tier, albeit only tier 1. The issue arrises in that we plan on play these characters into the 30's if time allows for it, and due to 3.5 rules, she will stop at level 17 until I gain the 'Epic leadership' feat from 3.5 at level 23. Another issue is that once we get into those up levels of epic play, she won't be mythic while the rest of us will be around tier 9 or 10. I've mentioned this to my DM that she will get murdered due to the power scale difference between her and the mythic opponents, and 1 mythic tier won't be enough to keep the entire party alive at epic level; where a single boss creature can do thousands of hit points worth of damage in a round.

The only resolution we can come to is that she can gain and keep mythic tiers, but he dislikes the idea of npc's rivaling the power of Pc's but is also aware that having the party healer being kept at a lower level of power can lead to a TPK quite easily and make many of the Epic level fights he plans impossible. So....my question is to any Gm's that play mythic games, do you have any rules for cohorts gaining mythic tiers? If so, are there any gameplay issues or things you have to nerf to ensure balance?

[CockroachTeaParty]

There's not much in RAW land that can help you here. It's ultimately up to the GM. The fact that you're going beyond level 20 means there's little I can do but play a guessing game.

There's the Mythic Companion feat which lets a non-mythic character or creature count as mythic when interacting with mythic things. That will save said cohort from instant death from an augmented mythic disintegrate, for instance. That way you won't have to keep casting mythic ascension on her.

As for the threats at higher level, the main defensive benefit the cohort will be missing out on is unstoppable at tier 8, which lets her shrug off nearly all negative statuses. She'll also be the only non-immortal character unless she can reach tier 9.

If all she is is a healer, she can maybe just focus on item creation, waiting at your home base to patch the party up. She can provide scrolls, wands, etc., to help with healing, and help guard your base / private demiplane / flying castle.

Considering my experience with high level mythic play, having a healer doesn't seem to make that much of a difference. The game devolves into rocket tag at that point; I'm not sure what anyone could do to help tank 1000's of damage, aside from going before the monster and putting it down before it can act. With mythic improved initiative, that shouldn't be too hard.

I would probably handle it by giving the cohort a moment of true mythic ascension, then allow her to face mythic trials like anybody else.

You could also just ditch Leadership and retrain the feat. You'll be powerful enough to just summon celestials with potent healing SLA's with summon monster IX, etc. They're nice and expendable.

[Calthropstu]

There's not much in RAW land that can help you here. It's ultimately up to the GM. The fact that you're going beyond level 20 means there's little I can do but play a guessing game.

There's the Mythic Companion feat which lets a non-mythic character or creature count as mythic when interacting with mythic things. That will save said cohort from instant death from an augmented mythic disintegrate, for instance. That way you won't have to keep casting mythic ascension on her.

As for the threats at higher level, the main defensive benefit the cohort will be missing out on is unstoppable at tier 8, which lets her shrug off nearly all negative statuses. She'll also be the only non-immortal character unless she can reach tier 9.

If all she is is a healer, she can maybe just focus on item creation, waiting at your home base to patch the party up. She can provide scrolls, wands, etc., to help with healing, and help guard your base / private demiplane / flying castle.

Considering my experience with high level mythic play, having a healer doesn't seem to make that much of a difference. The game devolves into rocket tag at that point; I'm not sure what anyone could do to help tank 1000's of damage, aside from going before the monster and putting it down before it can act. With mythic improved initiative, that shouldn't be too hard.

I would probably handle it by giving the cohort a moment of true mythic ascension, then allow her to face mythic trials like anybody else.

You could also just ditch Leadership and retrain the feat. You'll be powerful enough to just summon celestials with potent healing SLA's with summon monster IX, etc. They're nice and expendable.

Ask your GM if he will allow this third party feat.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/mythic/mythic-feats/mythic-leadership-mythic

[digiman619]

My 2 cents: Mythic cohorts shouldn't be a thing. The whole point of being a mythic character is that you reach a level of power and skill that legends circle around you. None of that equals "followers/retainers" to me. I mean, when's the last time you heard about the greatest caddies of all time? I'm not saying lesser heroes don't interact with greater ones, but not if they're following you. To put it another way: Comics that featured Richard Grayson (because the forums won't let me yous his regular name) weren't "his story" until he became Nightwing. He still interacted with Bruce/Batman, but until he became his own guy, he didn't have any "mythos" of his own, therefore not mythic.