Paizo is playtesting their new Mythic rules.

These are not the Epic rules from 3.x redone - the PCs are mythic characters even at level 1. Even when Heracles was but a pup he was beyond the norm. This is for heroes in the mythic sense.

The PCs are stronger, faster, more powerful... and so are the monsters.

Looks interesting, and not my normal style at all.

The playtest rules can be found .

The Auld Grump

Mythic rules are an interesting concept, and an interesting execution/implementaion of the concept rules-wise, at least from what I've seen in the playtest document. Great way to avoid the infinite progression to ludicrous levels of the old Epic manual.
Pretty sure that interesting concepts both for characters, monsters and adventures will spring forward.

However, given the power creep seen in PFRPG from its first days (needed to put the core classes on par with those seen in the WotC splatbooks of the latter 3.5 days), the PCs are already powerful enough to me. Even a bit too much.
So, thanks but no thanks.

One side effect of post ad hoc power creep has been that very few people in my game bother with PrCs.

Two folks do - and they go for bard, rogue, and ranger, for the most part. The skill monkeys - though the rogue is built around reaching Duelist. Her skills all reflect this. (Molly is our resident combat wombat - and proud of it. )

The Mythic rules are... not Gestalt, exactly.

More akin in some ways to 4e through a 3e lens - folks have powers as well as class abilities.

Unlike 4e you don't swap powers out - so there is a much more noticeable progression of power.

Classes are not nailed down like 4e - if anything they are more flexible than the already flexible Pathfinder characters. The powers are on top of the general rules, not in replacement of.

It actually reminds me of Iron Heroes more than anything else.

If I ever use them it will likely be in a bronze age setting - Celtic or Greek. Maybe Finnish if I were running an iron age Kalevala game.

In any event, a setting in which the gods walk the earth, and mess with people. There is a central theme of Apotheosis.

Though running a Baron Munchhausen setting might be fun too....

In a standard game they would be over powering - they need challenges above the norm. They may well face off against the Maiden of Pain in Pohajola, they are unlikely to face a dire rat in the alleys of Ankh Morpork.

One thing that seems lacking to me is the inherent tragedy of classic hero tales - the ones where the hero inevitably dies, be he Heracles, Cuchulain, Arthur, Roland, or even the likes of John Henry, Robin Hood or Don Quixote. They should be destined to die either gloriously or tragically.

Even Baron Munchhausen died. (He got better.)

But then I am a bit of a classicist.

The Auld Grump, hear me now,
Oh thou bleak and unbearable world,
thou art base and debauched as can be.
Now a knight with his banner so bravely unfurled
Hurls down his gauntlet to thee!
I am I, Don Quixote, the Lord of La Mancha!
My destiny calls and I go,
And the wild winds of fortune
Will carry me onward,
Oh whithersoever they blow.
Whithersoever they blow,
Onward to glory I go!

Looks interesting.

My 1st take on it's "feel", is almost that of the 1st/2nd Edition Runequest, where the gods still interacted with the mortals (look closely enough at the sun, and you can see Helm's Chariot being pulled by the fiery steeds).

As Grump says, kind of screams Hellenic Greece, Celtic Mabinogion style play.

I may wave it at whoever in our group runs Pathfinder next (I'll be doing Necessary Evil when the current game finishes).