*Bounce*
I posted in the "old" thread. I hope that is okay since I found that one first ^^
I can import everything over if you want : )
The world is filled with great wonders some good and some evil, among these wonders is a group of people who have honed their skills to the point of being capable of great feats. These are the people that save the world from the mighty demon hordes or rescue the princesses from the tyrant seeking to overthrow the king. These are also the people who choose a city or region to call home and guide and protect from those who wish to harm them. There a few in this group that use their new skills to try and bend the world to their will.
I have been gaming, as a player abd and a gm for about 22 years. D&D (all editions including pathfinder and excluding 4th) and palladium systems are amoung my favorites. My longest tapletop game went on for about 3 years for each timeframe so in total about 12 years. my longest pbp has been about 8 months and still going, I haven't done many pbp games.
There once was an elf that came to our village, he had hair the color of gold and eyes the color of the sea. He was a graceful warrior with the power of the gods. He and his friends saved our village from a horde of undead. He wielded a longsword in one hand as he fired spells from the other. He was a fair and kind elf when he dealt with us, he showed us how to fight and defend our homes. I will always be thankful for the elf, his name was Dallion Elvenmere and he saved my family and friends.
Sometimes the biggest challenge is adapting your character and play style to the events that have happened of the course of the levels. At fifth level you have a plan in place for your character then as time goes on things happen in game that lead to that plan needing to be changed, and some players have a hard time adapting to this they don't want to roll with punches.
Hello!
I must say, I was a minute away from just dotting for interest there : )
A 15th level character in Golarion?:
These are the men and women whom have fought, slain and survived almost every conceivable foe or situation. They would have heard and seen everything Golarion has to offer, because these people would be limited to one area. They would be the seafarer whom sailed across the ocean and back, the traveller whom trekked across Irrisen to the top of the world. The ones whom visited Heaven and Hell and came back.
They would not be unknown or anonymous.
Lords, Queens and Kings would come to air their concern, not to speak of the common man - wherever the concern is a dragon terrorizing the land or a mere ogre. Because hey - you know that guy/gal fought a deamon and tricked a sphinx, so he/she should be able to fix this - right?
This means a character of this power has three basic options:
1) Comply - This is the true altruistic hero, the one whom spends his life using his power to help whenever he can. The classic superhero if you will. He receives every request with compassion and tries his best to do all in his power to help. Most likely, he has a quite public place of residence and mostly does the main share of his work in the local geographical area - as most people would choose to 'pilgrimage' to their closes hero.
This hero will be/are a national treasure, and his/her name will be cemented in the books of history forever in his home. Sadly, this hero spends the largest part of his life helping others - and as such have precious few moments of peace. These heroes help protect civilization and maintain status quo between different countries. Every major invasion would be a cause for this hero to mobilize - something above the paygrade of most goblin hordes or army grunts.
2) Hide - This hero just wants to be left alone for a while, tired of all the people whom wants a piece of him. He fought and bled and ... Now he just wants to rest, to have a family - to do the things he *really* wanted before fate decided to push him down a different path. He changes his name and, perhaps with some help, his appearance. The hardened fighter might settle down on the frontier and build a farmstead, worrying only about if the boy two towns over is really the right one for his daughter - or the wizard in his tower in some remote land wanting to simply catch up on his research and that backlog of 200 books he have.
This hero will fade into obscurity relatively fast. Some might see them as traitors - they could have done more but instead the chose a selfish path. But most realize that they did their part and queue up outside 1) mansion instead. These heroes, with their mere existence, provides some measure of safeguard for the wilder frontiers. Every troll knows the tale of that uncle whom tried to eat that strange hermit only to end up scattered across atleast five acres and this gives them some pause in their pillaging.
3) Rise - These are the heroes whom holds ambition close to their heart. They use their standing and power to secure land, followers and more power. They establish guilds, schools, temples, companies, fortresses and even new cities/countries. They might take requests but usually only trough intermediates and from those they wish to ally. Instead they focus, on their own initiative, to further the goals of whatever drives them.
These heroes are the other sort of public character. When the peasant speak in awe of the leader of the mage's guild - they refer to this hero. They are not as folkly as 1). The hero whom resides in a temple Oracle of Deli style and only rarely responds with anything but cryptic prophecies is another example.
The above might be a bit more general then you wished for - and it certainly does not include every single case. But it should hopefully provide some insight in how I think about the issue : )
My first RPG experience came from the old Baldur's Gate series of computer games. The atmosphere and sense of wonder caught me in an instant and I played the heck out of both games (dam BG2 disc2 always get scratchy!) - even though when I started, my English was so bad I only understood half of it. From that moment D&D and Forgotten Realms especially, was something I was itching to play 'for real'. But it would take some years until that would come to pass.
In the meanwhile, I played various other RPGs with my figure wargamming group (Warhammer at first, then Warmachine with various excursions into other systems). We ran many different systems - Call of Chutulu, Mutant, EON, ect ect. Most campaigns where quite short lived - but when Dark Heresy (warhammer 40k roleplaying game) first came out, our most consistent GM gave it a shot. With just the right combination of stupidity, kludgeness and quirky characters the adventures of our team of acolytes must be my favourite all time campaign. We investigated cults, possessed ships and zombie uprisings all while trying our hardest to not piss off everything and everyone within the sector. This was the longest table top campaign which were run at a ~bi-monthly basis for around 2 years.
Around this time we also noticed the new shiny Pathfinder RPG and someone decided to give it a shot. It took a while to get everything together and the first campaign hilariously crashed and burned after only a few sessions. Turns out starting at around level 10 with a first-time gm wasn't our best plan! Another campaign started at a lower level, but time had come for me to move to another town and start at a university.
It turns out, there was a club for RPGs there too - but a hectic first year and constantly varying schedule made it a very unsatisfying experience. Instead, I turned to the wonder that is PBP here at these forums. I lurked around for a while before gathering the courage to try it out. And I liked it! One can craft posts at ones own leisure and one gets the chance to really express oneself without having to worry about time.
*Note: chronological order may wary +/- a few years
The longest PBP (still running) I've been in will turn one year old in 6 days (well, the recruitment thread :) ). My awkward tiefling magus has mostly overcome her aversion to crowds, fear of people and general skittishness. Instead she gained friend & comrades, confidence and soon the first large arc will come to an end. Fire still bothers her (since everything and everyone seems to be on fire. Why is that?!). This is probably my favourite pbp - but I'm not sure! It might be that we are closing the end of our really long chase.
Other pbps that are currently running is a mysterious E6 planehopping campaign - where we just now have started to scatch the surface of Tar'Baphons mysterious trap. And there is one Kingmaker game which I joined a bit late that has run for a decent amount of time - sadly we have had some GM troubles now for a while, but we shall endure and overcome : )
Those are the longest - but I was in another short but sweet space-faring campaign that sadly died. I really like my character from that game, Leila Redtistle, so feel free to check that one out too!
Sadly - time is running short today and I'll have to return with the description from the POV of the townsfolk a bit later. I hope this is okay.
In the meanwhile, could I ask if one can check out the previous games to get a feel for how they are running/where ran?
//Lessah
I believe the low-level alias you are speaking of is simply from a slightly slow-paced pbp : )
The E6 campaign hasn't really reached 6 yet actually : )
As a player - the largest challenge, as a player, when playing a 15th level character as opposed to a 5th level one of power, numbers and choices. If I say skimp a bit on my will save when playing my fifth level character, I'm say 3-5 points behind the one with the best save - at worst. If I do that as a 15th level character, I might be 10 points behind. Not fun :P On the flip-side of the coin, one can overtune ones character much more at 15th level which isn't good either.
In short, I'd say that the biggest challenge, as a player, when making high-level characters is to end up at a decent, useful, but not overwhelming level of effectiveness.
That, and logistics : )
A fifth-level character is alot more forgiving on that end but they too offer challenges. These are usually more along the lines of trying to survive and overcome monsters, encounters and achieve goals with limited means - while a 15th level character can easily retreat and regroup and search for allies and macguffins all over the world should a threat seem too hard for the moment.
From a player & RP perspective, I've found that it is much easier to grow links to places and NPCs at a lower level then a high one. Low level characters still have a lot in common with ordinary people and have plenty of reasons to hang out with them, using the same facilities and roads. Archus the Archmage seldom goes for a month-long boat trip or visit small-town taverns: he got teleport! So perhaps a bit of loneliness on the top to overcome too.
I am willing to put the effort into the character. I imagine my character spent a good chunk of time around the worldwound.
I did actually sneak a look at the current characters and players, as well as your google docs ^^
And I have to say - most impressive work all in all!
But I did not come here expecting to conjure up a high-level character in a heartbeat, so yes, I was/am prepared to spend a (probably large) amount of hours creating, calculating and polishing a character (sheet). Note - for simplicities sake, I might use a calc-doc to keep track of skills.
However, I currently have some exams on the horizon - they will be done by the 29th October - but I doubt that I could find a long enough coherent block of time before that. I hope that isn't a problem : )
Now - character ideas! I have nothing concrete yet, not locked in anywhere. But I have a few sketches in varying degree of silliness, power and feasibility.
One idea I had at the sillier end of the spectrum. It is to use the Noble Scion prestige class to create not just a character, but a unit of characters. The thought being that the character somewhere found the means to copy himself, to clone himself (via the cohort at your own level feature of the class). Then the character could easily send out a handful "me" to aid in the quest.
All the "me"s would use teamwork with themselves quite heavily, both teamwork feats and buffs, to make up for the fact that they all would have 10 levels in an non-combat class. The best part would be able to pull off the introduction at the end of this clip .)
For this character to work, it would either need to be a wizard/full caster - or have access to some pretty cool stuff. Therefore I was thinking Numeria and Androids (which could be the clones, they won't need to be flesh n blood).
Pros - Creepy speaking in chorus conversations. Versatility (not all clones would need to be the same class, only that they have the 10th level prestige class) thus it would be able to fill any obvious gaps.
Cons - With the current 17th level cap on cohorts, they wouldn't be that spectacular. Also, one would have to limit the nr of clones to somewhere between 2-5 as to not clog up the "table"-space.
Comments - Now the idea to use this class to create a long chain of copies/clones isn't mine from the start, I saw it somewhere on the forums under the fitting name Legion. I just liked it and thought it would be neat. Obviously, it would require some work and a large amount of talk-trough to work :)
Another idea I had would be to take the chance to play some crusader or ascended angel - which most likely would entail a backstory in/around the Worldwound (like previously mentioned) or perhaps Geb, seeing as they too are in the need of a good smiting : )
I get what you mean, Lessah. In trying to get a character that's effective, it could be easy to go overboard in some aspects. To be fair, I feel like I may have done that with my character. But I think it's pretty fun to have so much control over how a build goes.
Though as for roleplay, it all depends on how you want that character to end up. Maybe Archus uses teleport wherever he goes, or maybe he meanders about town with an entourage for company's sake. That much depends upon personality and how such personalities react to vast amounts of power. Things can be played up differently even within the same mechanical build. Putting a spin on concepts allows plenty of fun.
I get what you mean, Lessah. In trying to get a character that's effective, it could be easy to go overboard in some aspects. To be fair, I feel like I may have done that with my character. But I think it's pretty fun to have so much control over how a build goes.
Though as for roleplay, it all depends on how you want that character to end up. Maybe Archus uses teleport wherever he goes, or maybe he meanders about town with an entourage for company's sake. That much depends upon personality and how such personalities react to vast amounts of power. Things can be played up differently even within the same mechanical build. Putting a spin on concepts allows plenty of fun.
Yeah, the thrill of actually being able to pick up all those cool and shiny things are totally worth it ^^
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Indeed. There are of course high-level characters that hang out with the "commoners" too. But not out of necessity really, but because they want to.
So they kinda have to work for it a bit more : )
Shiny, powerful things are nice, aren't they?
As for the Legion concept, it seems interesting but I'm not sure how it would work mechanically with so many clones running about. From what I remember, the Clone spell doesn't give a mind or soul to clones when the original person is still alive. Simulacra could work better, but limits what I feel like you're going for, what with the 1/3 HD and abilities. I do suppose one of the new items in the Technology Guide functions like Clone, but I believe that if you're still alive, any clone gets a -4 or something to all ability scores. Unfortunately, the best way I could think to put it in concept was a 3.5e (I think) class called Thrallherd that used psionics. Currently, the group is operating on only Paizo written material.
However, if you're thinking of the second idea, I would think my character and yours could get along just great. Wayland thinks himself a crusader, despite his class not lining up with that so well.
Indeed ^^
Crunch wise, it checks out. The prestige class I linked, Noble Scion, has a capstone that lets them recruit a cohort of their own level. Now, that cohort will have the same prestige class and another cohort with the same prestige class with another ... ect : )
But it won't interact nicely with the 17th level cap on cohorts. And the sheer number of characters might get messy :P
I haven't really settled for anything yet - which is why I pitched both (the first one was a bit more developed thou :P). I'll probably pitch one or two more ideas if I can find them, just to see how people feel!
I'd probably have the Angel/Crusader be more to the clerical side (perhaps oracle even - a true divine conduit!), because I don't think I saw any divine casters when I looked around ?
And it is good to know that you character would like that sort of type. Now that you mentioned it, I don't think I spotted your guy/gal at my first comb trough.
*hmm*
*wanders off to sneak a look at diamondAce character*
Oh yeah, here's Wayland. Like I said, I did build him pretty combat heavy, but he believes himself to be a knight devoted to the Empyreal Lord Ragathiel. Only makes sense, I'd think.
I forgot about stacking Leadership, that could work for a multi-character. As for the crusader, one of the players with us was thinking a Lunar Oracle, but hasn't yet settled on a concept or build as far as I've seen.
Nice :)
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Okay. If I go down the divine route then I shall make sure to have a different focus.
Hmm. On the topic of characters - could one have a run-down of whom that already exists : )?
I've found the following:
A doppelganger Wizard - Seems to belong to Fnord. Will this wizard be travelling with us - or simply your old character from the last incarnation of the game?
A dragon - A good mix of everything kindof it looks like. Some clerical spells, some arcane spells. And a big freakin dragon :)
A monk/druid - Nature magic and what looks like a good amount of "shapeshift and tear faces off".
A lunar Oracle - Just a rumour/plan : )
A "Knight" - diamondAce bloodrager: More hp then you can shake a stick at, and some swordwork to boot : )
Have I missed anyone/anything ?
The monk/druid was made by the player who's thinking of making the oracle. That character won't be a PC in the continuation of the game.
Ah : )
My main concept is very similar, I am leaning towards playing a paladian/ranger specializing in hunting evil outsiders, evil dragons and undead. I am leaning towards the race being a typical evil race who is out to save the world.
One of my oldest and favorite concepts was a minotaur knight raised by a dwarf who wanders the worl helping those in need.
Perhaps I should lean towards an arcane caster instead - since both smashing foes and divine magic looks decently covered. And I might get to include a lite variant of either two earlier concepts as a cohort ... : )
No worries on the classes, we're a relaxed group.
I like the concept. I don't have any issues with the scion class itself.
I do have a concern about the cohort.
Generally cohorts are two levels lower than the PC. However, the leadership table puts a very specific cap on the highest level of a cohort, and this cap is reached before the end of the table (one line before).
I'd accept that under the RAI of scion that a cohort of 19th or 20th level would be acceptable. 25th level may be a bit of a push, as this may have a vast change in power balance.
If you were going for "clones" I would expect that they all had the exact same build. This would provide some limits to where the power balances would fall, but could still have issues depending on how you plan to play the character. (A bunch of cloned rogues flanking with each other comes to mind, along with your own coven of witches).
I believe it is a standard that cohorts can't take leadership themselves, as the infinite cohort/noble scion angle would be too much. Without noble scion the cohort with leadership angle still results in an army. Unfortunately it's a lot of effort that one high level caster will lay waste to with a couple of spells.
Only one of the clones would benefit from any mythic abilities.
While posting this, and researching on paizo, I would tentatively give an okay to a build like this.
If each 'clone' (and you still need to figure out how to do that), had the exact same build, while they would make great 'face' characters, their combat abilities would be limited to effectively 15 levels in combat oriented classes.
If my fellow players are inclined to allow the cohort with leadership aspect, we'd have to put a hard limit on the number of iterations allowed to keep it from getting out of control.
Keep in mind that even if they had the same build, this would be a multiplier in your game posting to handle variations of character among the clones.
I have to agree that 100% mundane characters have it a bit hard, and kindof lose out of some of the flavour of epicness.
(And yeah, noticed the good part !)
Hmm - So playing something/someone already immortal might not be the best course of action then.
So he'll be more of a plot-device then - until any potential rotation of GM duties. Gotcha :)
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As for the 'clone' concept - I'm thinking of working some ties to Numeria in and have them be Androids. Then they could be machines built to emulate the master himself, instead of true flesh and blood clones.
If this concept comes to pass, different aliases are a must. And to spice things up a little, they might also evolve into slightly divergent personalities.
However - I'm not sure I'll try and run with this, there is a ton of extra fiddly bits and balance issues that need to be fine-tuned.
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On the topic of concepts - I might try my hands at an more standard arcanist instead (that new class is kindof cool). With one, and potentially another, character tied to the Worldwound that might be a good tie-in. However, it would be no fun without a twist - would there ^^?
I am thinking of the Hellknight Signifer class. Despite the name, they are a Lawful, not Evil, organization. They oppose the rough beast and his servants whenever they can - for in truth, Chaos is the greatest enemy.
The Order of the Godclaw specifically worships, among others, Good gods. The Order of the Gate protect and research portals to other worlds, which feels like an useful occupation for the 'original' task.
However, if Immortality and not mending the fabric of the multiverse is the main focus - this might not be the most adequate tie-in.
Edit: I'd like to continue to bounce around concepts and ideas for a while, if that is okay . )
A quest for immortality is a good idea, there are several plot hooks and twists that could happen with that. I could see several good aligned people having issues with anyone becoming immortal.
I am very excited by what I have seen so far. I am always in favour of doing a good aligned parties. My two character concepts are lawful good.
Well, the way I've seen it so far is that the group's active goal is immortality, much in the vein that good aligned archliches in 4e are supposed to do (from what I hear). Basically, the group is the best defense from unfathomable evil, so it only makes sense to stick around to continue serving as said defense.
Both those orders do look cool, though. Personally, I'd go with the Order of the Gate, but it's a tough call. And take your time, we're probably not starting in a short timeframe.
I understand why good aligned characters would want to stick around forever. I think both my concepts would work but I defiantly am thinking the demon slayer would be best.
Hmm. One of the three ideas I had was a celestial, an outsider, whom would already be an immortal. Is that a strike against that idea ?=)
I'd think it circumvents the group's goal, yeah. Though an Aasimar or some such may work.
How flexible on races and classes are we bring
We are allowing monsters for equivalent HD for levels. As for starting races, I guess it'd have to be a case by case basis. Drow nobles and centaurs are probably OP, but uncommon races should be fine.
I thought I'd just list my options : )
Concept 1 - Me, myself & I
A master "copy" and then android clones. Master would probably either be a wizard or - for maximum Mr Smith - a monk.
Pros: While the master has made himself immortal by proxy - he is still oh so mortal himself. Immortality would be a goal.
Cons: Complicated, both to run and balance.
Concept 2 - Celestial Champion
An angel sent to help in the struggle. I was thinking of picking one of them with clerical casting and simply adding more levels of cleric.
Pros: It is cool, it is iconic. Gets to fly around on white wings waving a sword while condemning fiends. Fun times.
Cons: Already immortal. Not "human"
Concept 3 - Signifier
I'm thinking Arcanist 15/Signifier 10. Perhaps only Arcanist 14 and one level of something with armour proficiency for the PrC. Havn't come as far as race yet.
Pros: Watches over the sanctity of the Prime Material Plane. Good motivation there.
Cons: Dies the easiest.
I must say, I'm leaning towards the last one at the moment. But I still havn't really worked nr 2 trought my mind yet, which is why I wanted to bring up how you feel about monster PC, immortal outsiders to be specific.
Then again, they aren't really immortal ... just ageless!
Classes are going to be demonslayer ranger and oathbound paladin oaths against fiends and wyrms.
Hmm Cleric 1/Arcanist 14/Signifier 10. (Cleric is nice because it both gives me the proficiencies I need and lets me pick up domains and Channel Energy)
I could pick up an angel as a cohort instead... It could make sense that the good Hellknight accepts the servitude of such a creature, just so that the powers above can keep an eye on him and his order. And such a caster dealing with portals and such could certainly use a meat shield : )
Some tie-in to the Worldwound will give some previous bands with some members of the party - but there certainly needs to be more exploits in the Signifiers life.
Edit: I think I'll archive the clone thing for now. I kindof envisioned the master laughing ominously back at his castle/demiplane while watching his copies carry out his work. Not really 100% good guy material : )
Armor proficiencies are also feats, Lessah. The Signifier could just take the feats instead of the level dip if you would want.
Indeed. But with a cleric dip, I could advance the Domains with the Signifier levels too. That would come in handy some way I am sure, and a caster-level is a small price to pay for such versatility when one have 24 more ^^
I'm not sure how many players you're looking for but this sounds very interesting... Unfortunately I don't have time for the full initial post you requested but please take a look at my posting history. I've been playing and GM for about 23 years now- every d&d edition up to later 3.x, several palladium games, some wildly different GURPS games, gamma world, villains/heroes unlimited, a couple story teller games, Star Wars (the old d6 version and the OGL one), some stuff I don't even remember the names of... Ive been playing pathfinder since it was in beta. I don't have a ton of PbP experience but I'm a pretty good writer and enjoy the RP aspect of games. I've also played one and GMed one epic game. One of my all time favorite characters was the guy I played in the epic campaign, he would have fit perfectly in this game (LG cleric, basically transformed into an angel, becoming divine so he could protect his world from terrible evil); I'll try to find time for a post about him from a commoners POV later tonight.
If there's any interest in having me as a player I'd probably build an arcane swordsman... most likely some combo of magus, EK, and/or a melee type full-caster
although... I'm also really intrigued by the idea of being the one guy who made it to that level with no magic...
edit: You'll see that I'm in several active PbPs already... if this one had a high post rate I probably wouldn't apply (because I certainly don't want to shortchange those groups), but I love world building and a campaign where the PCs are powerful enough to shape their world seems pretty awesome, and it seems like your post rate should be manageable without taking away from my other games.
@Hellknight Order:
A 25th level member of an organization led by a level 12 +/- 2 character feels slightly odd. Both from a personal power perspective, and political reasons. Therefore, it would feel more appropriate for my character to first have belonged to some order (like the one of The Gate or The Godclaw) and then splintered off as he/she takes his/her work up a notch so to speak.
Would you guys mind if I had my own splinter order with a citadel and such (built using the downtime rules) that focuses extensively on maintaining the sanctity of Golarion's reality. Or, for most of the (low level) members of that order, keeping an eye out for both signs of disruption and lore regarding such phenomenon.
The only Order-specific class features of an Signifier is the favoured weapon and I could pick something simple like a quarterstaff. Or retain it from the previous order! : )
Lessah, I'm not sure if you want the mechanics for this, but your concept reminded me of this prestige class. Seems like Riftwarden would be perfect for someone trying to protect the Material plane from Outsiders.
I wish pathfinder had a version of the knight of the chalice. My concept has spent his entire life hunting evil outsiders.
Indeed. There are actually a few Hellknight orders with Good people at their head already so the precedent exists : ) Would probable be one or two evil types in the order anyhow (hard to prevent) but an order with mostly altruistic purpose would probably mostly attract nice people!
I'm going to read up a bit more on Golarion's geography and pick a remote corner of the world to place the citadel. Like a remote library stronghold, a seat of knowledge stowed away from the petty concerns of mortals and their politics.
I'll think about the weapon then!
I looked at the PrC. I want to like it, but it feels awfully specific in its abilities. Very nice flavour though. Thanks :)
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I'm thinking of playing one of the longer lived-races since such impressive advancement as a 25th level character is easier to spread out over decades, if not centuries, of adventure. But that might complicate things with any Worldwound tie-ins, since I noticed that Wayland is only 36 : )
Ok this might be a little overdown but here's what my concept is so far. Malachi is a LG Noble Drow 10 levels Demonslayer ranger 15 levels paladian oaths vs fiends snd wyrms.
I think drow noble has a level adjustment...
Sorry I haven't had time for more of what you requested for an initial post, it's been a busy week. I have been thinking about a potential guy though... I'm thinking maybe an elf who was raised on legends of the age before humanity when elf blood ran pure and they lived for tens of thousands of years... He would strive to embody all the elfiest of elven characteristics and believe that the world was a better, safer place when elves lived long enough to defend it. He would see mastery of sword and spell as the original elven way of battle and would be pursuing immortality as a means of both restoring the world to a better, safer state, and of returning some of the original glory to the elven race
They do in a way. I will just drop the Palladian levels to 14
I know this might be wildly premature, but out of curiosity:
- would levels in bladebound magus and blade adept arcanist stack for determining the abilities of your blade or would you end up with 2 blades of different power levels?
- would a prestige class like Loremaster that increases spells/day by "+1 level of existing class" allow you to keep advancing your casting as a Mystic Theurge if you were already a MT before you entered it? (and would it make any difference one way or the other if you maxed out MT first?)
- for epic levels, can you advance a base class past 20 or do you need to multiclass? if the prior, can prestige classes likewise be leveled past 10?
I'm not sure what Fnord would say, but here's my ideas on your questions.
- Blade Adept's Sentient Sword ability says that it uses the levels in the archetype 'in place of' magus class levels. If it instead said "uses blade adept class levels as magus class levels", I could see an argument about how they should stack. However, as written, they do not stack.
- As far as Mystic Theurge multi-PrC-ing goes, I'd say that RAW would let you advance through Mystic Theurge. However, I'd think that RAI wouldn't allow you to do that, so it's really a DM call over anything.
- Advancing past 20 in a base class is totally cool under the guidelines presented near the bottom of the page here. In the previous incarnation of this game we tried to get off the ground, I pushed all 25 levels I had onto a sorcerer for crazy amounts of spells known.