I must say that I agree with just about every post by Callen on this matter.
I love the fluff of Mythic Blood.
I don't like the crunch at all.
When I want the feeling of Mythic Blood ("you have a special ancestor"), I just take Magic Blood (which may include a free power), which feels a lot more coherent, and, if I want, assorted virtues.
To elaborate:
The focus is fine, save that there are issues, as mentioned above.
The power is mostly a small added bonus, save if you take it in an area in which you plan a deficiency, which, IMO, runs counter to the spirit of the virtue (Due to your ancestry, you should be good at x and y).
The fatigue... Well, IMO, there are, roughly, 3 kind of spells:
a) Those you want to be able to cast reliably, because they'll need to work now. So you ensure that you have the casting total for it
b) Those where you may afford to spend a little fatigue and rest.
Mythic focus doesn't help with the first type of spells, and is a minor boost on the second. Most notably, it is useless with spontaneous magic, which is the area in which you may have to cast a spell now and expand fatigue.
I've considered replacing that part with extra fatigue levels that you can only spend on spellcasting (which would be useful with all kind of magics), but could never test it.
Now that I think about it, focusing the virtue around the idea that "you have a wellspring of power inside", I'd probably go this way: give extrafatigue for spellcasting, and the ability to spend these as vis.
tl;dr: Underpowered virtue with great fluff that is better represented by a combination or other virtues.
Looking back over this, all the comments disagreeing with me on the point evaluation are roughly pointing to "no, this isn't worth a little under 2 points of the 3 invested, it's worth a full 2 points of the 3 invested."
Let's make the evaluation a little simpler. We know the Focus and the Flaw are worth 1 and -1. So let's only look at the rest. Are (no Fatigue on Formulaic spells that succeed) + (the 30-point power) + (the later added access to Heroic stuff) together worth 3 points?
Not sure about the extra, use-restricted fatigue and how to make that work well but replacing the fatigue bonus with something like Imbued with Spirit of [Form] (but without the onerous negative of pissing off creatures of your likely strongest Form because you didnât consume a spirit, you were born that way) is one method that could give the sense of a wellspring of power. Iâm sure there are other ways too, I really like the âwellspring of powerâ phrasing for what do we want the virtue to do. Like those with Mythic Blood should be the ânatural born magicians.â
Unlike Mercurian Magic, an included personality flaw doesn't bother me too much, because those tend to be mostly fun rather than an actual flaw. I think the ability to save on fatigue to be the great benefit of the virtue, although I haven't used it very much in play, there is benefit in my view to be able to focus on learning high level spells not requiring penetration and to know you can keep on going and casting without worrying about having to stop due to fatigue after a few spells. There are tons of effect where that is useful since you rarely build a magi with 15-20 in every arts. My main gripe with the virtue is the Innate Power which I struggle to find a use for whenever I consider the virtue. Still, there are some counterintuitive elements, for example, the fact the innate power doesn't draw on your spellcasting capacity, when the virtue requires you to be a hermetic magi in the first place. I would have prefered if it was a spell that used your actual spellcasting capacity and virtues, rather than an inborn, unevolving power.
Something like this: You gain an additional 30 spell levels during apprenticeship. Additionally, one of the formulaic spells you learn during apprenticeship may exceed the level limitations allowed by your starting arts and comes with 50 xp towards its spell mastery score. You may also dismiss this spell at will.
This lets you play on your strengths coming from the virtue - such as the magical focus and the ability to ignore fatigue levels from formulaic spell, and it keeps its value throughout the game as you develop your arts further. If you have virtues like Subtle and Quiet Magic, they factor in the power level, if you don't, you can buy those as spell mastery options if you want.
There's much less consensus here on whether, and how, this Virtue is underpowered than there was for the ones I have changed. More importantly, there is no easy, errata-level fix.
I don't think I'm going to do anything with this one. Thank you for all the input.
Yup. Withstand Casting is better. Lesser/Personal Power are slightly weaker in some ways (fast casting, 5 levels, Fatigue) while being slightly better in other ways (non-Hermetic allowed); overall slightly weaker. A noticeable gain in one v. a noticeable loss in the other. Saving your Major Hermetic Virtue about balances losing the Heroic opening, and you can adjust this for a Tremere or ex-Misc tradition. But now you actually get the value for taking your Minor Personality Flaw. Or you include that Flaw and bump up Personal/Lesser Power, making them better than this Virtue's power. I just find it sad that the advice for a nearly perfect fix is to probably never take this Virtue.
Of the three minor virtues you bring up, withstand casting seems to be the one which is most intrinsically tied to the bloodline. Thus Mythic Blood should probably be a minor virtue, equivalent (or similar) to Withstand Casting with added fluff.
The other to may be suggested or recommended to go with it, but at the end of it, each player may design their own blood line with a lot more flexibility.
(Or we could call it a fluff-only free virtue with no mechanical benefit whatsoever.)
I didn't think of withstand casting. Yeah, it does look like the main benefit of Mythic Blood has been diluted by further publications so that the virtue is no longer a virtue investment that makes sense.
The Withstand Casting virtue is nowhere near as good as what you get from Mythic Blood.
Withstand Casting reduces your fatigue loss by one level, but if you were going to lose fatigue you always lose at least one fatigue level anyway.
Mythic Blood on the other hand means that you will not lose any fatigue at all when you succesfully cast a Formulaic or Ritual spell. And it will reduce fatigue from failed rituals more than Withstand casting would.
You're right about the minimum loss, which really hinders Withstand Casting. That's why I'd originally compared it to Stalwart Casting. I'd forgotten about Withstand Casting's minimum.
Unless errata are being issued, Mythic Blood does not help at all for Fatigue loss for Ritual spells. So Withstand Casting is far superior here.
Was that in reference to my comment? If so, I don't get it. My comparison is this:
1 Virtue -> Quiet Casting, but also works with spontaneous magic
2 Virtues -> 2x Quiet Casting, but also works with spontaneous magic
1 Virtue -> Still Casting, but also works with spontaneous magic
1 Virtue -> Boosted Casting with Formulaic spells
1 Virtue -> Harnessed Casting, but also works with spontaneous magic and items
1 Virtue -> Tethered Casting for Formulaic and spontaneous magic
Mythic Blood's fatigue thing: Stalwart Casting, but it doesn't work on failures. It's a little different with Rituals now, but they're comparable.
Generally 1 Virtue point buys you something a bit more than the Mastery Option. In this case you get something a bit less than the Mastery Option.
Silly suggestion.
Since the special power can be dismissed at will, perhaps the Mythic Blood gives the mage more control over the spells they cast?
One suggestion:
Not quite the abity to dismiss an active spell at will, but say with effort, eg STM + Concentration of 12+? to end the duration of a single spell.
Something not quite enough to be a minor virtue on its own.
In an post elsewhere David had mentioned a desire to rarely link flaws with virtues.
Mythic Blood obviously gets a little stronger if instead of the minor personality flaw being linked, a comment such as "Many people with mythic blood take on personality aspects of the mythic ancestor to such a degree they take a personality flaw."