Mythic Guide to Universal Path abilities

This guide doesn’t cover anything but the universal path abilities, there are plenty of awesome options within paths, many of which are much better than most of these, but some of these are good enough to be truly awesome out there.. In this guide I will be using Treatmonk’s  Color Coding your various options to provide my opinion on each of these options.  

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

Note: This isn’t about mythic feats, it’s about path abilities, but there are 2 mythic feats I have to call out here, because they are completely awesome, and relate to path abilities, though one of them is circumstantial, I’ve marked it red/blue.

Mythic Lore:  This is in essence, Mythic Spellcasting, but available as a feat, so it doesn’t have to take up one of your mythic path abilities, a must have for major spellcasting classes, but a waste of a feat for any non-spellcasting class, and I if I wanted a low spellcasting class like a paladin or a ranger to pick up some mythic spells, I’d use this rather than a path ability.  NOTE: Ascendent spell is a metamagic feat that allows you make any spell mythic in power, but it adds 5 to the level of the spell, so it only applies to spells 4th level and lower, but it’s not a mythic feat, so you can take it as part of your regular feat progression

Extra Path Ability: Regardless of your Path, I can not emphasize this Mythic feat enough, path abilities are often awesome beyond any reach of any ordinary feat, this is such a good feat it’s almost better then any 3 mythic feats combined.. it is usually worth taking at least once, possibly more if allowed, but I’m not sure that it is, and some builds may want the feats more.

And Now, on to the Universal Path abilities

1st- Tier

Commune with Power(Su): This supernatural ability is a waste of your time.. really, a commune spell that takes an hour to cast?  Honestly, if you wanted this spell, why didn’t you just play a cleric.. admittedly it’s a 5th level spell, but even so, it’s only yes or no or short answers, and ‘unclear is a valid answer... maybe if there were not better options, it might be worth it.. but, really, no, no and no.. don’t waste your path abilities on this one, there are too many more useful path abilities out there.  About the only good use for it I see, is for a DM to give it one of his NPC’s, as a basis for their wisdom and knowledge.. for players, forget this option exists

Display of (Attribute)(Su):  This one is really 6 abilities, each one allowing you to add +20 to an attribute based skill check or attribute check.  Ok, this one isn’t as awesome as some of the other universal path abilities, but it’s not bad for skills, I won’t recommend it, but I can see places where it might be useful, depending on the attribute..  Some builds might want to consider this ability green rather than orange, especially skill focused characters, so I’ve marked possibly green for some builds..

Extra Mythic Feat(Ex):  Um... no, this one is pointless, your path abilities are generally worth more than any feat might be worth, if there is some mythic feat you must have, spend your mythic feats on it, generally it’s a bad idea to spend your feats on it.  However, the fighter and rogue have some really good feat options that might make it worth, it’s remains a bad idea for most spellcasters however.  

Extra Mythic Power(Su): Ok, I can see a point to this one, I don’t recommend it (after all, you get 3+(Tier)*2 mythic power per day, which really should be enough for you), but at the early tiers it might be worth it, especially if you find yourself using up your mythic power a lot.

Legendary Item(Ex): This is awesome.. ever wanted to transform your Holy Avenger into a legendary weapon of even more awe inspiring power?  Maybe you want to create the equivalent of the One Ring, or one of the Three Rings of the Elven Kings?  This is your path to doing so, and you can start with any magic item you possess, and over time (taking this 3 times, at 1st, 3rd and 6th tier) you can transform your item into a major artifact..  with all kinds of powers, including immortality, sentience and numerous other powers.

Longevity(Su): Immortality, in terms of aging, not too bad, if you ever wanted to play Polgara or Belgarath from David  Edding’s series, Macros the Black, Pug or Thomas of Midkemia,  this is your way to do so.. what makes this a green choice, however, is the ability to make a venerable character who has no attribute negatives, but all of the positives, and can still look as young as you like, adding 3 to all mental attributes.  What keeps it from being blue is not every DM will allow this sort of min-maxing, and some games your DM will want you to play a young or not too experienced character, at least to start.  Flavor wise, adding this to a godling and then adding divine source to become a demigod is actually fairly cool.

Mythic Craft(Ex): This is a fairly good option, if you plan to be a crafter, and if you have crafting mastery (Archmage Path Ability), this becomes even better, but it’s a really dependent path ability, crafting mythic items is what makes it worth it.  If you wanted to be the Dwarf who crafted Mjolnir, this the path ability for you.  I should mention, mythic crafting is also available as a mythic feat, which is part of the reason it’s orange, I’d personally spend your path abilities on something else, though you can take both to be really good at crafting..

Mythic Spellcasting(Ex): See Mythic Lore feat above, generally, what I said about Mythic Lore applies here, but it’s not quite blue because of that feat, generally you're better off to take the Mythic Lore feat if you want this and keep your path abilities for other things.. but Mythic Spells are good enough to be worth adding multiple mythic spells to your list, so this is still an ok option.

Mythic Sustenance(Su): I can’t recommend this one enough, immunity to inhaled poisons and any spell or effect that requires breathing, this is water breathing and zone of clean air combined.. adding in not needing to eat or drink only makes it better.. (However, the Hierophant ability, Sustained by Faith is generally better, so in that case, refer there).  This is a passive constant ability, which doesn’t require casting any spells or activating any abilities which is part of why I have rated it so high, but some builds may want to consider this only green.

Piercing the Darkness (Sp): Darkvision 60ft.. ok, maybe, though I have to ask myself if you wanted darkvision this bad, why didn’t you take a race with it, like say.. a dwarf, or 1/2 orc, or any other race with darkvision?  Or get a magic item that give you this?   No, no and no, too many better options out there for you, don’t waste your time here, this ability is a waste of your options.

3rd-Tier

Beyond Morality(Ex):  Ok, this one really depends, it can allow you some really unusual class combinations, like for example a Barbarian Monk, or a Neutral Paladin/Antipaladin (in theory, with this ability you could be both an Antipaladin and a Paladin, if your GM allowed it, maybe as a Champion of Balance?), also allows your Evil character to register otherwise with those who can detect alignment.. it’s a decent ability for certain concepts, eh, for others.

Divine Source(Su): Ouch.. this ability is pure awesome, if there was a higher color than blue, I’d use it,  the ability to become in essence a demigod, or a god-king.. to grant spell domains to your own followers, as their deity of sorts, and to cast the spells of each level, of those domains each 1/day as a spell-like ability (Example: Community has Bless at level 1 and Miracle at level 9.. you can cast both of these in the same day, once, if you tier is high enough. ).  You get 2 domains initially, the first time you take this and they must match alignment if you have a non-neutral alignment (A NG character must take good as one of her initial domains, but the other can be whatever they desire, a LG one must take both Law and Good, so neutral characters can make the most of it), you can take this twice more, at Tier 6 and Tier 9, adding 1 domain and 2 subdomains and ultimately end up with 4 domains and 4 subdomains.  

What makes this even more awesome, is that you can add this to any class.. such as adding the Luck or Darkness domain to your Rogue, or War to your Barbarian, or Healing to your Fighter... Meanwhile, Clerics can change your clerical domains as a cleric to these (I’m not sure if this is a one time thing or as desired.. text isn’t entirely clear, if it’s ability to shift to any of the domains you grant as desired, which I’m inclined to think it is, sense we’re talking cleric here, taking this multiple times becomes a must have for every Cleric.. or any Druid who has chosen access to domains, this is one way to get a druid with an unusual domain).

Enhanced Ability(Ex): Add +2 to one of your attributes, this isn’t bad, but I’m not too impressed with it, first you can only take it once for each attribute, and second, you get a +2 to the attribute of your choice every even tier anyway.. generally, other path options are better, but it’s not completely worthless

Fearless(Su): I’m not all that impressed with this one, or it’s various cousins, as seen below, and this one is the most useless of them, in my opinion, if you want this sort of thing, why not just be a paladin, or at least depend on your Paladin or a spell to protect you from it, in addition, at tier 9, you can spend a mythic point and throw off most of these effects anyway, including fear, there are better picks out there.

Pure Body(Su): Immunity to non-mythic diseases and poisons.  Paladins get total immunity to disease anyway and Monks eventually gets immunity to both disease and poison, and Druids get immunity to poison, so this ability is red for them...  generally though I’m more inclined to rely on cure disease and neutralize poison magic for any class, if you have both on your spell list, consider this red for that class too... least useful of the immunity abilities, but being immune to some of the basic magical diseases and poisons keeps this from falling to red for some classes.  However, if it’s really important to become immune to disease, there are magic items that can provide this, so generally don’t bother.

Pure Destiny(Su): Immunity to non-mythic curses and compulsions... this is one of the two best immunity abilities, sense it makes you immune to many enchantment compulsions effects along with curses, a solid choice.

Pure Senses(Su): Immunity to blindness and deafness from non-mythic sources, it’s not worthless, but not great either, don’t bother with it.

Sleepless(Su): Never need to sleep, never become exhausted or fatigued from lack of sleep, and immunity to sleep effects (Note: This one is red for Elves or Half-Elves, unless they traded away their immunity to sleep for other things), immunity to sleep effects makes it not completely useless (Further Note: The Hierophant Path ability, Sustained by faith blows this completely out of the water, it’s red in that case)

Ultimate Versatility (Ex): This is a really good ability, being able to go back and change some class features temporarily, it can’t change spells, but it can alter such things as such as rogue talents or wizard specialty school, or witch hexes really has some for some classes I consider this blue, for others at least green

Unchanging(Su): Immunity to non-mythic polymorph or petrification effects, if you're going to take the various immunity abilities, this is the one to take, it’s immunity to some of the really dangerous effects out there, but remember, it’s only non-mythic, the mythic gorgon is still dangerous too you, even if others are not.

6th-Tier

Farwalker(Sp): Not bad, circumstantial, orange to green for classes that don’t get the plane shift spell, red for those who do, I wouldn't take it more than once though, as much as using the spell 3 times per day is nice, if you're going to be plane hopping that much, you might want to look into other ways, but still it’s not bad even then.

Mythic Presence(Su): Great Ability, if you ever wanted a dragon to fear you, here’s the path to do so, this solid choice for any mythic character, but really good for heavy charisma based characters, sense the strength of this ability is somewhat based on your charisma modifier, so sorcerers and oracles, should consider this one blue, it’s just that good.

Mythic Sight(Sp): Blindsense isn’t bad, but it’s taking the ability twice that makes it really good, having a constant true seeing effect is very nice, so I don’t grade this as useless, but having to take it twice to get the most out of it, I don’t recommend it, but it’s not completely worthless.. don’t rely on it too much though, a mythic version of illusion can still deceive you.  

Tongues(Sp): By the time this ability becomes available (at Tier 6), you should have other options to you, especially if you're a spellcaster, in which case you should be able to cast tongues.. don’t bother with this one.