The Power of the Archmage

Following my guide to universal abilities available to mythic characters, I now extend it to the first (and my favorite) path in the book, the Archmage.  The main problem with any guide to the paths is that they cover multiple classes and builds, so many of the abilities are circumstantial, still some basic guidance is worthwhile.

Will be using this color code once again, special thanks to Treatmonk for the inspiration for it.

Red: Warning.  This is a poor option and should be avoided

Orange: This is an OK option.  I'm not recommending it, but it's not bad

Green: I recommend this option.  It is a strong choice

Blue: A must have.  Your best possible option

So, you want to be an archmage?  Be someone that Nethys himself would be proud to claim as one of his own?  Well, first off, you best be a Sorcerer, a Witch or a Wizard, other arcane casters may want to pick up dual path to grab an ability or two from this path, but they should not focus on it.. and even the magus should likely split his focus into a second path.. the general assumption with this guide is that you will be one of the three main arcane casters, though some of it’s advice will pertain to, or be useful to other arcane classes

Feats: Ok, again, my concentration is not on feats, but several feats should rank high on your consideration list

Ascendent Spell - This is a straight metamagic feat, but it lets you cast mythic spells, and doesn’t have any prerequisites, it raises a spell by 5 levels, so it’s no good until you can cast 6th level spells, but even 1st level spell like Mage Armor or Protection from Evil gain enough benefits to be worthy of consideration

Mythic Lore, Extra Path Ability - I covered both of these in my universal guide, refer there, but both are quite useful to the Archmage

Dual Path: This is a call out to such prestige classes as Eldritch Knight, or some of the other arcane classes such as  Alchemists, Bards, Magus and Summoner, all of whom are likely going to want to concentrate on other paths, but some of the capabilities of the archmage are good enough to be worth consideration for them.

Accursed Hex (Witch only)- Witches should really consider the mythic version of this feat to make their hexes even more powerful.

Fabulous Figments: Illusion focused casters should consider this one, making your illusion spells hard to impossible to disbelieve is very nice.

General Recommendation

Before you start down the path of the archmage, give the path abilities a look over and decide where you want to be, there are a enough really good ones that that you can’t take all of the ones you want, so be prepared to be stingy.  The book contains several Archmage builds, look them over, but consider them guidelines, not exact paths you must take, and some of their suggestions are suboptimal in my opinion.  Make sure you also look at the universal path abilities, as they are also available to you and give you some nice things.

Now.. onto the Archmage abilities

Archmage Arcana-

Automatically gained by the Archmage, You have three options here, but only one is really worth considering for the main caster, the other two should be for dual path only.  Each these gives you an ability that costs you a use of mythic power

Arcane Surge (Su): This one makes your spells stronger, especially with regards to non mythic creatures, but you're limited to spells you know or have memorized today, you can’t add metamagic feats to it, and so it’s completely outclassed by wild arcana, which is so much better it outclasses this one by an order of magnitude

Mage Strike (Su):  Are you intending to enter melee combat? If you said no, that was the right answer for almost all focused casters.  This is not the ability for you, straight casters should consider this one red, though it has some interesting possibilities for a melee caster like Dragon Disciple, Eldritch Knight and Magus, those classes can make this one worthy of consideration, those classes can consider this option orange, but generally this one is bad for the dedicated spellcaster.  NOTE: The Magus should take this one and only this one, his arcana gives him the equivalent of the other two, he should only be taking this ability if he dual path’s from Champion, at least in my opinion.. a Magus should consider this ability blue, and the other two red.

Wild Arcana(Su): Ouch, this ability is so awesome it’s uber-blue, in fact it is so good that it pretty much downgrades the other two options by one color level.  With this, you can now cast any spell on the your list even if you don’t know it, or haven't prepared it, and you can add any metamagic you know, and it still costs only 1 mythic power regardless of what level you cast.  Furthermore, spells cast this way are considered 2 levels higher for any level dependent traits that spell possesses.  Congratulations, your mythic power just became omnispell, or if you prefer, anyspell, your wizard (or witch) can now cast like a sorcerer, and your sorcerer can now cast as though he was a wizard.  The only limit is that the level of the spell you cast must be one that you can actually cast.  Every Sorcerer, Witch and Wizard should consider this their first, last and only pick.

True Archmage - This ability is automatic once you gain tier 10, which not every mythic game will reach, but it gives you spell resistance to arcane magic only and a way to recover mythic power quickly, much better than a certain 6th tier ability below.. ugg.

Now, Onward

First we shall focus on specific class related abilities before shifting to the general stuff available to all Archmages

Tier 1

First Tier has a lot of good abilities, in fact you're going to find yourself returning to this tier for picks even after you’ve gained access to the higher tier because of some of the good stuff on this tier.

Sorcerer Only

Bloodline Intensity: Ouch, the awesome burns, get an extra bloodline feat and the ability to cast each spell on your bonus spell list once per day without expending any of your spells per day.  Sorcerers should consider this a must have.

Mythic Bloodline: Decent, a strong choice, your bloodline powers are considered 4 levels higher where it matters, and multiple use abilities are increased by ½ your tier.  It’s not the best, but every sorcerer should consider it.   I’m not entirely sure if characters with Eldritch Bloodline qualify here, but if they do it’s worthy of consideration for them also.

Bloodline Immunity (Tier 3): I put this one here despite it belonging to a higher tier because it’s the third and last sorcerer only ability on the list, it gives you immunity to dangerous spells on your list of bonus spells and the ability to reflect such spells back on the caster if you chose, and you still benefit from beneficial spells on your list, and the immunity isn’t even level dependent.

Witch Only

Mythic Hexes: Makes your hexes stronger, combined with the Accursed Hex feat and it’s mythic equivalent, you can have some really nasty hexes, you have to take this twice for it to apply to your major hexes, but generally it’s worth it.

Wizard Only

Flexible School: Awesome, add another school to your list of speciality schools, access to the powers of the school are based on your tier rather than your level, but it’s still fairly good.  You can’t pick opposition schools, and you can take this up to three times (meaning you can become a specialist wizard in 4 schools).

Harmonious Mage: You no longer have opposition schools.  I rate this one orange because of other ways you have of overcoming opposition schools, such as discoveries and using 2 slots for a spell.

Mythic School: Just like mythic bloodline, only tailored to the wizard.

General Path Abilities

Abundant Casting: Increase the number of targets you can target with a spell, it’s a good ability, not the best one out there, but very nice for certain spells, blue for some builds, but at least green for everyone

Arcane Endurance: Do you use a lot of duration related spells?  Then this is the ability for you, it raises your level with consideration for how long your spells last

Competent Caster: This one isn’t bad, it’s just there are so many other options I want to take first, and it doesn’t apply to your highest level spells, the defensively focused caster may consider this one, everyone else, look elsewhere.  It does do good things for a Magus and other casters who may get entangled in melee, in which case it should be considered green.

Coupled Arcana: A decent choice of abilities, and really good with regards to taking multiple actions within a single action.  It’s also useful for other classes besides the main three arcane casters.

Crafting Mastery: This one is conditional blue if you want to be a crafter, green to orange for everyone else.. it is in essence, all item creation feats in one, which makes it equivalent to about 12 feats, and it works better for those who actually have the crafting feats.  If part of your character concept includes crafting, consider taking the mythic crafter feat with this one, for creation of mythic items.

Deep Understanding: Not bad, instant recognition of other spells, although if I have a high enough spellcrafting skill I’m going to consider this one orange.

Eldritch Breach: Extra Chances to deal with resistance to your magic are always nice.

Elemental Bond: Free elemental magic resistance and stronger spells of that element, too bad it can only be taken once.

Enduring Armor: Constant Magical Armor, really great defensive choice, it’s only weakness is that it can be dispelled, but sense you can reactivate it with a swift action, it’s not a big one, good for the defensively focused archmage.. I shift between considering this one green or blue.

Energy Conversion:  Ok, this is one of the best ones on the list.. if your sorcerer or witch was envious of the Evocation Admixture subschool’s ability to change a spell to a different element, no longer, it’s now yours for the asking.  This is a must have for blasters, except for the evocation admixture wizard already, in which case, it’s still good enough to be a solid option, consider it green then, you still may want it, but it’s not an absolute must have, in fact wizards should consider adding that subschool with flexible school before this one, if they can.

Enhance Magic Items: Your magic items are stronger and you can use mythic power instead of charges to power items with charges, fairly nice.

Flash of Omniscience: This is a good option, especially for a diviner, you get some bonuses to knowledge checks and the ability use divination as a free action with mythic power, and it’s specifically described as never cryptic.  Much better than the universal commune with power ability.

Flexible Counterspell: Not a bad ability, but not the best one out there, still its a solid choice for an abjuration focused caster, but it can really eat though your mythic power, consider waiting until you can get spell sieve and mix that one with this, in fact, mixing this with spell sieve is fairly cool… it actually falls sort between orange and green in my book. depending on your build.

Greater Familiar Link: For any class with a familiar, this one is awesome, it in essence merges your hit points with your familiars, great for keeping your familiar alive.. or in emergencies, keeping you alive

Perfect Preparation: Worried about losing your source of spells, Wizards, Witches, and Magus?  Worry no longer, your brain just became your spellbook/familiar, you just picked up spell mastery feat.. for every spell you know, which is a lot of spell mastery feats.  Your spellbook/familiar just became optional.  This one is blue to green, there are cases where I might want to take something else, if you don’t take it, as a wizard, consider the sanctum path ability when it becomes available.

Rapid Preparation: You can prepare a spell into any empty slot within a minute, or instantly with use of mythic power, this ability is very good, and a reason to keep an empty slot or two to remain prepared for any eventuality, allows wizards and witches to operate a bit more like sorcerers…

Resilient Arcana: Making your own magic harder to stop is always worthwhile, but generally so many other good options exist I’m going to look at this one later down the road rather than early.

Sensory Link: Another good familiar based ability, putting them together I’d call it making the most out of your familiar.

Shifting Mastery: Great for the polymorph focused archmage, but that’s not going to be every archmages focus, if you love polymorph effects and shapechanging, but didn’t go druid, this is the ability for you.. everyone else, you should be looking elsewhere.

Speedy Summons: Ok, now we have the ability for the conjuration focused character, and finally an ability this is really good for the summoner (both should consider this one blue rather than green), weirdly it’s under 1st tier abilities but indicated as 3rd tier required, I’m not sure if it was meant to be 3rd tier or not, apparently someone summoned this one early.

Spellbane Counterstrike: I rate this one as orange because it’s a melee focused ability, what keeps it from falling to red is some eldritch knight and dragon disciple builds, as well as the Magus, who makes the most of it, IMO, but if you’re like most casters and prefer to keep out of melee, this is red.

Telekinetic Master: Free spell use is nice, but these were already 0 level spells, it does make some spells stronger, which keeps it from falling to red, but really, I’d look at other abilities, this one isn’t all that great in comparison to other archmage abilities

Throw Spell: Decent, your touch spells gain some range, and it’s based on touch so it’s a good option, but the range is limited to 10 feet per tier, I prefer to rely on spells that already have range.

Mythic Origins - Tier One

Remixer - This is completely awesome, for a single use of mythic power, any potion or extract you have can become any other potion of the same level, though Alchemists will get the most out of this, any character will find this an ability useful.. there are some extra requirements if the extract/potion being changed into requires some special costs or ingredients, but even so it’s a great ability

Shapeshifting Mastery: I’m not all all that impressed with this one, but if your making a lot of use of polymorph and shapechanging magics, it can be good, consider this one situational, some class combinations will find it useful, especially if you like shapechanging spells, it also applies to extracts, so it’s more useful to alchemists

Transformative Familiar: Ok, a serious upgrade to your familiar, it can now become the other side of arcane bond, an item.. and an intelligent one at that, you can add not just the powers of the item, but any intelligent item abilities as well, even for items that normally one can’t add intelligent item effects too.. and this synergizes really well with the Legendary Item universal path ability.. If you have a familiar, this ability is blue..

3rd-Tier

The third tier is a lot more focused than the first tier, fewer abilities, some of them considerably more powerful and awesome and some of them completely outclassed but some first tier abilities.

Arcane Metamastery: Any character focused on metamagic, or wanting to get the most out of their metamagic should consider taking this ability at least once.  Being able to freely apply a metamagic feat for free without increasing casting time or taking a higher level slot is awesome..  to make this ability even more awesome, you can apply it to scrolls, wands and staffs.  It costs mythic power, lasts 10 rounds, and only applies to the metamagic feat you chose, but it’s really good, a solid choice

Arcane Potency: Ok, adding 4 spells to the number you can cast is nice, but it starts at level one, and can’t be added up to your highest level spells, furthermore every time you take this one, your losing out on taking other options, I suppose, early in the career of the caster it might look good, but I’d rather be increasing my caster stat, or adding the universal ability Divine Source (which is now possible at 3rd tier) or going back and grabbing some more abilities from the first tier before I think about this one.

Component Freedom: I’m not that impressed with this ability, but it’s not completely useless, you do get silent spell or still spell or eschew materials for free, but you do get to chose at the moment you activate this, and it doesn’t cost any higher level spell slots, it just is there.  But, it’s only one of them at a time, you have to take this 3 times to get the most out of it… I might take it once, but likely not more than that, and not until late in my growth as an archmage.

Eldritch Flight: If you took my advice and picked up wild arcana, this ability is a waste of your time, it lets you spend a point of mythic power to fly as though you used the fly spell… something you can already do with wild arcana.  If you chose one of the other two abilities, I suppose this one is orange for you, and the ability does redeem itself at the 6th tier, upgrading it slightly as it gives you permanent flight as a supernatural ability, don’t take it before that point.. in fact, if you are a witch with the flight hex, or a sorcerer with access to flight/wings, this one stays red.

Many Forms: Eh, not impressed, I can do this better as a witch or a druid, but it is nice to be able to shapechange so freely, and at will use of Alter self is nice, gets better at the 6th tier again, but even then this isn’t the best ability out there.. good for transmutation focus, trickery and disguise, but outside of that, not that great.

Mirror Dodge: Ok, now we’re back to pure awesome again, instant use of mythic power to teleport 30 feet and take no damage from an melee or ranged attack?  This one is a great defensive ability.

Mythic Spellpower: Mythic spells normally require mythic power, this one gives you a reserve of mythic power just for casting mythic spells.  Why have I graded this one so low?  Because you can take Mythic Power at tier 1 and it straight up applies to all mythic uses, not just mythic spells, and you can take Mythic Power 3 times.  Sure you can take this ability more times, up to 4 times, but I can’t picture taking mythic power 3 times and mythic spellpower 4 times when there are so many other and better options out there for your path ability choices.. to make it worth your time it would need to be at least twice as effective or more (GM’s you may consider house ruling to that effect).. avoid this one, it’s a trap.

Reverse Scrying: I’m not impressed with this one, it’s too dependent on certain situations, better abilities out there, but a diviner or illusionist might want this one… and it can be good if you're dealing with a magical spy.

Spell Sieve: And now we’re into that pure archmage awesome again, successfully counter a spell and you get to cast it next round as a spell-like ability, pure awesome here, and you don’t even have to spend any of your mythic power for it, just successfully counter the spell.. This one makes  your spellcasting enemies cry

Tangible Illusion: Another awesome, you can touch an illusionary object and make it real for a while, this can be really useful for the creative illusionist, but it’s fairly situational and requires some inventiveness to make the most of, but it’s really good for what it does.

Mythic Origins - Tier Three

Infectious Spell: Another awesome new ability, works really well with extended spells, cast a nasty effect on your target creature(s) and watch it affect everyone else who comes into contact with it.. and you can make it even better with extend spell metamagic

Teleportation Master: Not bad, ability to see where you're going and shift arrival location, although it’s somewhat situational, as much as I like teleport spells, I generally don’t think that I’m going to be using this enough to be worth it.

Eldritch Insight (Su): Based on concept of a godling of Nethys, this third tier ability is really good for any spellcaster who makes a lot of use of metamagic.

6th-Tier

You only have 4 abilities on the 6th tier, but they range from awesome to horrible, and here they are.

Channel Power: Ok, now we just upgraded to super-awesome, like you’d expect of higher tier abilities, using your mythic power to increase damage, duration, penalty to resist and ignore spell resistance? All at the same time?  And all of this before adding any metamagic to it? This ability should be on every archmages first 6th tier pick, it’s just that good, and it’s the most impressive of the 6th tier archmage’s abilities.

Divine Knowledge: Alright, adding cleric or druid spells to my wizard list is nice, but it’s only level 1 (though you can take it twice more to gain access to level 2 and 3 spells), and it’s only three spells. Still, having access to spells like faerie fire or shield of faith keeps this from being entirely worthless. Generally though, I’d prefer to take Divine Power if I’m thinking about this one, as I will get access to a lot more cleric spells that way, even if they are only 1/day.  It’s also only Wizard, Witch or Magus, all other classes can ignore this one.

Eldritch Reciprocation: Ugg, yuck, regain mythic power in exchange for taking maximized damage from spells, and you have to take at least 25 damage for it to work?  Ok, forget this one folks, it’s not worth it, generally I’d rather avoid damage then take damage even for extra mythic power.

Sanctum: At first, I was only going to make this one green, but there is a lot of awesome in this one, having your own extradimensional sanctum is fairly nice, though you can make your own once you get the ability to create a demiplane, that requires some other spells to fully access, and permanency to make constant. This you can enter and leave as you like, conjuring the door any time you wish to, only taking a minute to do so, and it’s permanent and persistent without requiring lots of funds.  It’s like carrying your house with you on adventures, and there’s plenty of room (6 x 20 feet cubed) you can store all kinds of things here.  Furthermore, others can enter with you if you permit it, but the door is invisible and impermeable to anyone who you don’t  want to enter, so you can retreat from battle if you need too, and your familiar can enter without using the door (and I can picture all kinds of uses for that, like hiding inside and sending my familiar out to scout).. and you also get free invisible servants too.. And if for some reason you didn’t take perfect preparation (focusing on other cool stuff), you can keep your spellbooks here too, safe from the dangers of adventuring.

Mythic Origins - Tier Six

Dominion over Outsiders: Another path ability that deals with summoning, but I’m not grading it very high due to it’s situational use, it’s entirely about bargaining with outsiders, makes it easier to get them to agree to your terms, but it doesn’t actually upgrade your summoning spells.  It’s good for what it does, but generally not worth it except for a very specific sort of character.

Starwalker: This ability is more useful than it first appears, though unless a game involves traveling the void of space for other planets and star systems, you're not going to get full use out of it.  What makes it really nice is the ability to bring up to 11 other creatures with you, meaning you can get some serious uses out of it even in a single world game, and the flight ability is very fast.. but other then that, it’s somewhat situational