Why do Companions get Mythic levels?

[Atriace]

I finished the first chapter, and got my hidden power (hurray! I'm special). Except... so do all of my companions...

This feels wrong; it cheapens the benefit, and ignores the story-bound reasons for getting these powers in the first place. Did they also get visions, and absorb powers from mystical beings, and overcome hardships, making right choices to have earned the right for these mythic levels? No.

I'd say "ignore the levels on companions", but now I have a big fat M symbol floating over every companion's head.

(ㆆ _ ㆆ)

Can we turn this off, is there a mod, or should I file a bug report?

[Tao314zdin]

- You get more than your companions since you have a mystic path and they just get generic m-levels
- You can definitely change that with a mod, write yourself though, do not think anyone did exactly that
- But be ware that you will have unticlimatic dialog options with companions about the power they received from you if you simply disable their m-levels without changing the dialog pool as well.

[Gigabyte]

Your sharing your mythic powers with your companions, how does it cheapen the experience?

[darkholyPL]

You radiate an aura of awesomness, everyone around you is now awesome as well, including their dog! (no really, your animal companions can be mythic too).
Well it's gameplay vs reason on this one I guess. There is no logical reason why a merc, that you hired for money when you already had your powers and shared them, gets mythic too,
That said, I'm glad they do.

[Conquista]

just give them bad mythic feats that won't benefit their build in any way

[seeker1]

You gain actual mythic powers and spells. Like the patented Angel Orbital Space Ray of Butt Kicking for Goodness (TM), etc.

Your companions get mythic feats and abilities. (You do too, plus the powers). Not quite as good as you. Including mercs. Think of it as radiating off of you.

It's definitely not a bug.

[PuppYofDOOM]

Ur compainons get mythic companion abilities and are no where near ur scale.


U ooze powa.

Also monsters in this game are mythic also.

[Finrod]

Like Dark HolyPL says...
Imagine being a melee character MC. You'd need to have companions that are divine and arcane caster to have some CC, or even some damage, then imagine being level 10, facing enemies with Spell Resistance 35 (you need 1d20 + caster level+4 if you take the two feats, so even on a 20 you fail). You really need the bonus from the mythic feat.
If not mythic, your caster companions would be reduced to be buffers and use spells that do not allow spell resistance...
And for example, being level 10, you face enemies lvl 19, an old treant around level 27, and 4 different ghosts of a druid, level 17 druid/8 undead (on the same map)
In WotR, you face groups of enemies way above your challenge level rating they have high saves, high HP, High AC, high SR, and they hit hard.

If the companions could not gain some mythic abilties, like ignoring some immunities, higher spell resistance check, the entire game should be balanced around that, lowering the powers of the enemies. (another example, a kinetist merc would be useless without element ascension, to ignore elemental resistances/immunities)
And companions that hits AC, archers and melee companions, without mythics, will probably miss most of their shots, and not deal enough damage.

The Pathfinder adventure path, in tabletop, is made to be played by a party of four players blessed by Iomedae. So the enemies encounters, the bosses, were all made to face a group of 4 mythic characters.
In both pathfinder videogames, Owlcat chose to make the MC special maybe because it is a single player videogame. (Unlike in D:OS 2 from Larian, where every character is a godwoken)

The mythics on companions has another big advantage for me, when you like clerics or oracles. Even if you don't like the domain chosen for those companions, you can "repair" that by adding them the domain/secret you want, so no need to create a merc for it. (i.e, pick for sosiel Community domain)

Anyways, like another said, just give them useless mythic feats and abilities, like archmage armor / expanded arsenal to a melee character.
Maybe your difficulty level will not make this too difficult. (I think it could be doable on easy and story, maybe even on normal suffering a little, but not above).
And if it is too difficult for the level you want to play, you can ask Hilor for a respec (on normal difficulty and below)

[Nyx]

when you get your mythic rank, the game says "power flows through you into your companions." once you hit mythic rank 3 you get significantly more powers from your mythic path choice, while they only get mythic abilities and mythic feats.

[Atriace]

Thanks for the perspective. And yes, I can now see now that they did design around this shared mechanic (with dialogue mentioning the "sharing" of power).

@Seeker1: I am at least consoled by the fact that their Mythic levels ≠ yours.

@Finrod: coming from tabletop Pathfinder, I can see how it's a balancing issue to only have 1 Mythic. Though I genuinely did want that to be the case, and for the game to have been balanced around it. I can't imagine anyone complaining that their MC was more powerful than the rest of the party combined, but it could make for an unreconcilable DC encounter should he get knocked out.

[belangf]

Originally posted by Atriace:

I can't imagine anyone complaining that their MC was more powerful than the rest of the party combined, but it could make for an unreconcilable DC encounter should he get knocked out.

The mythic choices are very strong, like 4 extra spells slots for each spell level, or an ability that makes you unkillable for 2 rounds once per day when you are about to die. The MC gets those, plus even better superpowers that are very specific to your chosen mythic path.

If the companions had nothing, the enemies would be either too tough for the companions or too easy for the MC. So the positive is they give you even more power by also giving some to the companions.