Marshal

Some are destined not only to achieve personal greatness, but also to inspire armies, rally the fallen, and bring the most out of those who follow them. The marshal is such a leader, renowned for his vision, courage, and strategic acumen. Soldiers flock to a marshal’s banner for a chance to serve under such a commander, confident that his skill will see them through even the most difficult challenges.

**Classes**: Bards, cavaliers, clerics, inquisitors, and paladins will all find a host of useful abilities in the marshal path. In fact, almost any character who assists others, both during combat and afterward, will likewise find that the path of the marshal includes a number of valuable abilities that will help in her noble endeavors.

**Bonus Hit Points**: Whenever you gain a marshal tier, you gain 4 bonus hit points. These hit points stack with themselves, and don’t affect your overall Hit Dice or other statistics.

You learn an additional marshal's order ability. You can select this ability twice.

In times of need, you're virtually assured success when using skills. As a free action before you attempt a skill check, you can expend one use of mythic power to roll that skill check twice, take the higher result, and add your tier to the total.

You bestow your wrath on your allies. As a swift action, you can expend one use of mythic power to grant all allies within 30 feet the benefits of your active smite or challenge ability, directed at the same opponent you're targeting with that ability. Only the constant effects from the smite or challenge are conferred with this ability, not the ones you can use only once. This ability lasts a number of rounds equal to your tier or until either the combat ends or the subject of the smite or challenge is dead or unconscious.

When you first enter an area or make your presence known to a group of strangers, as a free action you can expend one use of mythic power and attempt a single Diplomacy or Intimidate check to modify the attitudes of everyone within 10 feet per tier, and an additional number of characters equal to your Charisma modifier who are outside that range but have line of sight to you. (For instance, you could affect everyone near the entrance of a throne room and key people on the dais at the far end.) Alternatively, when you reveal yourself during the first round of combat (not counting the surprise round), you can expend one use of mythic power as a free action to use Intimidate to demoralize your targets.

You are able to point out the weak points in an enemy's defenses, and your allies benefit from your tactical insight. As a swift action, you can expend one use of mythic power to designate a single opponent within 30 feet of you. All allies within 30 feet of that opponent gain the sneak attack ability when attacking it, and can thus deal +1d6 points of damage when flanking that opponent or when the opponent is otherwise denied its Dexterity bonus to AC. This sneak attack damage stacks with sneak attack damage from other sources. This ability lasts a number of rounds equal to half your tier (minimum 1). You can take this ability up to four times. Each time you take it, the sneak attack damage from this ability increases by 1d6.

By finding a gap in your enemy's defenses, you allow your allies to take advantage of your discovery. When you confirm a critical hit with a melee or ranged weapon against an opponent, allies within 30 feet of that opponent add your tier to their critical confirmation rolls against that opponent. This bonus lasts for a number of rounds equal to your tier. During this duration, you can expend one use of mythic power to convert an ally's successful attack into a critical threat. The ally must be within 30 feet, and can also gain the bonus to its confirmation roll. Only one opponent can be the focus of your directed assault at a time. If you confirm a critical hit against another creature, you may make it the new focus (immediately ending the previous focus) or maintain the current focus.

You make a barrage of attacks and quick feints that are so distracting your opponent loses focus against all other assailants. Whenever you successfully strike a foe with a melee weapon or natural attack, you can expend one use of mythic power as a swift action. For 1 round, that opponent loses its Dexterity bonus to AC on all attacks against it other than yours. While this ability is in effect, any allies who flank that foe gain a +4 bonus on attack rolls against it, instead of the normal +2. While the opponent is affected by this ability, each time you hit it, the duration increases by 1 round. This effect automatically ends if your turn ends and the target is not within your melee reach.

Your mighty and inspiring presence enhances the power of your companions' heroic surges. Whenever a mythic ally that is within 30 feet uses the surge ability, it rolls its bonus die twice and takes the higher result.

Your mythic grace means that you and your allies easily pass through undergrowth at full speed. Allies within 30 feet of you gain the benefits of woodland stride (as the ranger class feature), as long as they can see and hear you. As a swift action, you can expend one use of mythic power to allow allies within 30 feet to ignore naturally occurring difficult terrain in any of your favored terrains for 1 minute per tier. You must have the woodland stride and favored terrain class features to select this ability.

Your surge is more powerful than most. Treat your tier as if it were 3 higher for the purpose of determining your mythic surge die (maximum 10th tier). When you gain your 10th tier, your surge die becomes 2d8.

You are quick with stern yet helpful words of advice. Whenever an ally within line of sight fails a skill check with a skill you're trained in, you can expend one use of mythic power as an immediate action to allow that ally to reroll that skill check with a bonus equal to your tier. If the new roll is successful, your ally succeeds at that check instead of failing it. The ally who failed the skill check must be able to see and hear you to gain this reroll. You can use this ability with a skill you aren't trained in, but you must expend two uses of mythic power to do so, and the ally doesn't gain your tier as a bonus on the reroll.

With surprising speed, you can leap to an ally's defense. When a opponent makes a melee attack against one of your allies, you can expend one use of mythic power as an immediate action to move up to double your speed or take a 5-foot step. You must end this movement adjacent to the attacking opponent. When you end this movement, you can immediately use the aid another action to grant a bonus to your ally's AC (*Core Rulebook* 197). This bonus is applied before the opponent's triggering attack. These actions don't count against your actions this turn.

Whenever you use bardic performance to inspire courage, the competence bonus against charm and fear effects instead applies to all saving throws. If you expend one use of mythic power when you start a bardic performance to inspire courage, you add your tier to this bonus.

When you use a spell, a bardic performance, or another class feature to grant a morale or competence bonus, the bonus increases by 2 for creatures with at least 4 Hit Dice fewer than you. For example, if you're a 6th-level bard using inspire courage, creatures with 2 Hit Dice or fewer receive a +4 morale bonus on fear saves and a +4 competence bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls instead of +2.

Your surge inspires non-mythic allies to greater acts of martial daring. Each time you use your surge ability, each non-mythic ally within 30 feet gains a +1 bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls for the next weapon attack it makes before the start of your next turn. An ally must be able to see and hear you to gain the bonus. You can take this ability up to three times. When you take it the second time, the bonus on attack and damage rolls increases to a number equal to half your tier. When you take it a third time, the bonus on attack and damage rolls increases to a number equal to your tier instead of half your tier.

You are an invaluable asset to your comrades. As an immediate action, you can expend one use of mythic power or your confidence ability (see page 42) to grant the benefit of your surge ability to a mythic ally within 30 feet. The ally uses your surge die.

Your tongue is as quick as any blade. You can start a bardic performance as a swift action instead of a standard action. If you expend one use of mythic power, you can instead start a bardic performance as a free action.

You gain Leadership as a bonus feat. If you already have the Leadership feat (or if you take it at a later level), add your tier to your Leadership score. Whenever you use your marshal's order ability and your cohort is within 100 feet, you can include your cohort as an additional ally affected by your order.

Select one of the following abilities. Once chosen, it can’t be changed.

Something about you puts others on edge. You can attempt an Intimidate check to influence a creature's attitude as full-round action instead of it taking 1 minute. In combat, you can attempt an Intimidate check to demoralize an opponent as a move action. If you expend one use of mythic power, you can attempt to use Intimidate to demoralize all enemies within 30 feet as a standard action, or as a move action if using the Dazzling Display feat (*Core Rulebook* 120).

Whenever you're riding on a bonded mount or animal companion, you and your mount are each treated as flanking any opponent you both threaten. Whenever you use your surge ability while mounted, your mount heals a number of hit points equal to your surge result plus your tier. You can expend one use of mythic power while charging with your mount to deal double damage to the target of your charge (or triple damage if you're wielding a lance).

When you use the fascinate or suggestion bardic performance ability, non-mythic creatures take a penalty on their saving throws against it equal to half your tier. If you expend one use of mythic power when you activate the performance, the penalty also applies to mythic creatures.

Facing off against you is never a safe option when your allies stand beside you. When you are hit by an attack of opportunity, you can expend one use of mythic power as an immediate action to allow all of your allies to make an attack of opportunity against the creature that attacked you if it's within their melee reach.

At 1st tier and every tier thereafter, select one new path ability from the marshal path abilities lists or from the universal path abilities lists (see page 50). Once you select an ability, it can’t be changed. Unless otherwise noted, each ability can be selected only once. Some abilities have requirements, such as a class ability or minimum mythic tier, that you must meet before you select them.

Whenever you successfully use the aid another action, your ally also adds your tier to the aid another bonus. If you use your surge ability on the aid another roll, add the result of the surge die to this bonus as well.

Whenever you encounter a creature whose attitude is at least indifferent to you, treat its attitude as one step better. If the creature's starting attitude is helpful, you can make requests of the creature with a +5 bonus on your Diplomacy or Intimidate check.

You can expend one use of mythic power to create a song, oration, poem, or joke that contains information that you want to spread. This can include points of fact or simple instructions. You only need to perform the work once (which takes 1d4 hours to complete); thereafter it will spread through the community by itself. For 1 day per tier, all nonmythic beings that hear this message (whether from you or someone else) are compelled to spread it to others by slipping it naturally into conversation or otherwise bringing it up. Anyone who has heard this message takes a –4 penalty on opposed Diplomacy, Intimidate, or Sense Motive checks against you when you request that they to carry out duties related to this message. This is a language-dependent effect. At 6th tier or higher, you can expend one additional use of mythic power to make this work universally understandable, regardless of any language barriers.

When an ally seriously harms a foe, you seize the moment. When an ally within 30 feet confirms a critical hit against a creature you threaten, the target of the critical hit provokes an attack of opportunity from you. If you hit with your attack of opportunity, all of your allies gain a +2 bonus on attack rolls against that creature for 1 round.

Where you point, others feel overwhelmingly compelled to look. You can expend one use of mythic power to direct the attention of a number of creatures equal to your tier within line of sight toward a location or general direction you choose—and away from others; non-mythic creatures automatically turn toward the point you choose. Mythic targets receive a Will saving throw to resist this effect (DC = 10 + your tier + your Wisdom modifier). The effect persists for 1 round per tier, during which time affected targets receive a +5 bonus on Perception checks to notice anything unusual within a 60-footcone in the direction you indicate and a –15 penalty on Perception checks to notice anything elsewhere. This effect counts as a diversion to hide for creatures attempting to use Stealth in any area other than the location you directed attention toward.

Using the power of your mythic presence, you spur on allies even when all seems lost. Using this ability takes 10 uninterrupted minutes, during which time you give a stirring speech to all allies within 30 feet of you. If you expend one use of mythic power at the end of the speech, your allies gain a number of temporary hit points equal to your tier plus your Charisma modifier, and a bonus on saving throws against fear equal to half your tier (minimum 1). Any ally who currently has 1/4 of its full hit points or fewer gains twice as many temporary hit points from this ability. The temporary hit points and saving throw bonus last for 24 hours. Allies can benefit from this ability only once every 24 hours.

Your allies draw strength from your courage and leadership. As a standard action, you can expend one use of mythic power to grant all of your nonmythic allies within 30 feet one use of the surge ability, using your surge die. This surge must be used within a number of rounds equal to your tier. An ally can benefit from this ability only once every 24 hours.

You can channel holy energy into a righteous shout of defiance. As a standard action, you can expend one use of mythic power and one use of either channel energy or lay on hands to create a 100-foot spread of healing energy. All allies within this spread heal a number of hit points equal to 1d6 plus double your tier. If this brings an ally from negative hit points to 0 hit points or more, the ally can immediately stand up from prone without provoking an attack of opportunity.

Whenever you use your smite evil ability, you can expend one use of your mythic power to create a 20-foot-radius aura centered on you that lasts for a number of rounds equal to your tier. Any evil creature that starts its turn in or moves into this area takes a number of points of damage equal to your tier. This damage comes from holy power, and is not affected by damage reduction or energy resistance. You must have the smite evil class ability to select this ability.

When you complete a seance, you can choose a number of allies equal to half your mythic tier (minimum 1). The chosen allies also gain your spirit’s spirit bonus.

Before you attempt a saving throw against a spell or effect that also targets one or more allies within 30 feet, you can expend one use of mythic power as an immediate action to allow your allies to use your saving throw result or their own, whichever is higher.

You gain a bonus teamwork feat. You must meet all prerequisites for the feat. Any ally within 30 feet of you counts as having that teamwork feat for the purposes of you gaining bonuses from the feat (the ally doesn't gain the bonus unless it actually has the feat). At the start of each day, you can spend 10 minutes and expend one use of mythic power to replace this teamwork feat with any other teamwork feat you qualify for. You can select this ability up to three times. Each time, you gain an additional bonus teamwork feat. If you have selected this ability more than once, at the start of each day you can replace any number of teamwork feats this ability grants you, spending time and uses of mythic power for each feat you replace.

You can always take 10 or 20 on checks using class skills, even if threatened or in a hazardous situation. You can't use this ability with skill checks that don't normally allow you to take 10 or take 20.

At 10th tier, whenever you or an ally within 30 feet rolls an initiative check, roll twice and take either result. If the first round of combat is a surprise round, you and all allies within 30 feet at the start of the combat can take a full round’s worth of actions instead of just a move or standard action. Once per round, when you or an ally within 30 feet scores a critical hit against a mythic creature, you regain one use of mythic power.