Iconic
- See also: Meet the Iconics and Iconic Encounters
Iconics are characters developed by Paizo to personify classes in the Pathfinder campaign setting. Images and depictions of iconics appear on the covers of Pathfinder product lines, in adventure artwork as stand-ins for player characters, and sometimes in illustrations to demonstrate game mechanics. They also appear in fiction and licensed works set in Golarion.
History
Iconic characters were first described in blog posts titled "Meet the Iconics" in May 2007, based on Paizo's experience with iconic characters in Dungeon and Dragon magazines and beginning with Valeros:1
“One of the many lessons we've learned in our tour with Dragon and Dungeon is that people like iconic characters. A lot. It seems like every day a new thread pops up on our messageboards wanting to know more about the ill-fated Abelard the paladin, the tiefling fighter, or James Jacobs's notorious Tyralandi Scrimm. As such, when we sat down to develop the iconics for Pathfinder, we knew going into it that what we came up with needed to be more than just easy art reference. These iconics needed to live up their name and represent our world, our ethos, and our whole idea of what gaming is about. Fortunately, with Wayne Reynolds onboard to design the visual elements, we knew that what we received would blow our socks off—which it has.
Along with representing our game world, however, these iconics pull double-duty as pregenerated characters in Pathfinder and the GameMastery Modules. Each adventure will be accompanied by four of our iconics, statted up to the appropriate level and ready for you to sit down and start playing with a minimum of effort.
”
These posts soon developed into the Meet the Iconics short fiction series that provided backstories for each iconic character; while Valeros was the first announced character, the first to include a backstory was Seoni. Paizo writers published new Meet the Iconics stories to the Paizo Blog as classes were added to the system or revised over time, then developed them further in the recurring Iconic Encounters line of short stories that often feature multiple iconics together.
Depictions
Trailer of Pathfinder Legends 1.1: Burnt Offerings.
The first five iconics—Valeros the fighter, Seoni the sorcerer, Merisiel the rogue, Kyra the cleric, and Ezren the wizard—appeared on the covers of the first five issues of the first Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rise of the Runelords, and first appeared together on the cover of the fifth issue, Sins of the Saviors. Each subsequent Adventure Path, as well as many other Paizo adventure products such as Pathfinder Modules and Adventures, features a new combination of iconics who appear as player character stand-ins in that series' artwork.
These first iconics have been mechanically defined as pregenerated characters in early Adventure Path issues and GameMastery Modules, Pathfinder Society organized play, the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game and Pathfinder Adventures. The First Edition and Second Edition Beginner Box products provided Valeros, Kyra, Merisiel, and Ezren as pregenerated iconics. Other iconic characters have also been mechanically defined over time.
Valeros, Seoni, Merisiel, and Kyra appeared as stand-ins for the Sihedron Heroes—past player characters presumed to have completed the Rise of the Runelords and Shattered Star Adventure Paths—in the Return of the Runelords adventure Rise of New Thassilon.2
The iconic barbarian Amiri and paladin Seelah respectively also appeared as companion characters in the Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous computer roleplaying games. Linxia Benzekri also appeared in Kingmaker in a small role.3
Iconics have appeared in several Pathfinder Comics series, and the Pathfinder Legends line of audio dramas depicted them as experiencing the events of Adventure Paths. Pathfinder accessories also feature the iconics, such as the Iconic Heroes miniatures line and Iconic Equipment Item Cards series.
List of iconic characters
Iconics listed with red backgrounds were iconic villains introduced during the Hell's Vengeance Adventure Path, in which players portrayed evil characters.
References
- ↑ James Sutter. (May 7, 2007). Meet the Iconics: Valeros, Paizo Blog.
- ↑ . “Rise of New Thassilon” in Rise of New Thassilon, 4–7. Paizo Inc., 2019
- ↑ Linxia, Pathfinder: Kingmaker Wiki.
- ↑ Paizo referred to cambion planar scions as tieflings until the publication of Player Core. These cambions are unrelated to the type of demon with the same name.
- ↑ Seelah was originally the iconic paladin in the Pathfinder First Edition Core Rulebook. The paladin class was replaced by the champion class in Pathfinder Second Edition, and Seelah became the iconic champion.
- ↑ Seltyiel was originally a pregenerated iconic character in the Second Darkness Pathfinder Adventure Path. In Descent into Midnight pg. 91, he was a fighter 1 / evoker 5 / eldritch knight 8. He became the iconic magus in Ultimate Magic and continued in Secrets of Magic.
- ↑ Paizo referred to hryngars as duergar until the publication of Highhelm and the Sky King's Tomb Pathfinder Adventure Path.
- ↑ Paizo described Chelaxians as a separate human ethnicity until Pathfinder Second Edition, when they were retroactively redesignated as being of Taldan descent. See Meta:Chelaxian (human ethnicity).
- ↑ Despite being the first Pathfinder iconic character to be announced in 2007, Valeros's backstory was not posted until 2010.
- ↑ Yoon is the only iconic to be introduced twice, first as a child in 2015 alongside the publication of Occult Adventures and then again as an adult alongside Rage of Elements in 2023.