History TabletopGame / Pathfinder

''Pathfinder'' products are mostly set in what First Edition rulebooks refer to as "The Inner Sea," and more recent Second Edition books call "The Age of Lost Omens" [[note]]the only difference between the two is that "Age of Lost Omens" incorporates certain political changes that came about as parts of the storylines of Adventure Paths from First Edition, as well as a more concerted effort to make the southern parts of the map, particularly the Mwangi Expanse and Impossible Lands, a more integrated part of the setting[[/note]] which both ultimately deal with the same basic setting: the ConstructedWorld of Golarion.[[note]]Golarion is actually one of several populated planets in the setting's solar system, but the focus is almost exclusively to Golarion, the "Earth" of the setting. The other planets get far more discussion in Pathfinder's sci-fi counterpart, Starfinder, since it's far easier to get to the other planets in that game.[[/note]] The FantasyKitchenSink nature of the game's setting as a whole means that a large variety of {{fantasy}} genres are represented, along with certain {{horror}} and [[ScienceFiction sci-fi]] ones. This meant that you could run different themes of campaign merely by changing the locale on Golarion, rather than having to incorporate different settings, such as ''TabletopGame/{{Dragonlance}}'' vs. ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' vs. ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' vs. ''TabletopGame/DarkSun'' as in ''D&D''.

[[/index]]

* AlternateHistory: The ''[[DieselPunk Rasputin Must Die!]]'' module in the ''Reign of Winter'' is basically a take on what events during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI could have been like if magic and other supernatural elements were involved.

* AmbiguouslyEvil: Mengkare, a Gold Dragon who founded his own nation and tried to create a utopia...through eugenics and dictatorship. [[TheExtremistWasRight It even seems to be working.]] Paizo admits in ''Champions of Corruption'' that the reason they have never stated his CharacterAlignment [[invoked]] is that they themselves can't agree on what it is. Subverted in the first Adventure Path for Second Edition, ''Age of Ashes'', where it's revealed that he [[spoiler:gradually fell from LawfulGood to LawfulNeutral and eventually to LawfulEvil. His eugenics program was created so he could harvest pure souls to end an avatar of Dahak, the evil god of dragonkind. That said it IS possible to persuade him to do a HeelFaceTurn and atone for his actions if you play your cards right.]]

* AsianLionDogs:
** Foo creatures are spirits native to Nirvana that resemble regular animals with humanoid faces; every species of animal in existence has a foo counterpart, although dogs and lions are the most common. They can turn themselves into statues and back at will, and remain in a petrified state as long as they please.
** Guardian beasts, introduced in Second Edition, are a type of warden spirits bonded with a carved stone statue, which remains immobile during the day but animates after nightfall to patrol its assigned territory. Stone lions are by far the most common type of these beings, although the Tian-Min people create doglike statues instead and the holy sites of the vulpine goddess Daikitsu are protected by stone foxes. Regardless of type, these guardians are steadfastly honorable and dedicated to their wards, protecting them even if they become abandoned and ruined, and are known to give cryptic omens and warnings to those living in the buildings they protect.

%%* TheAtoner: [[http://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Seelah#History This is why Seelah is a paladin.]]

* BrainInAJar: The ''Carrion Crown'' adventure module ''Wake of the Watcher'' features a "brain archive" that contains several of these. As does ane adventure in ''Iron Gods'' called "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Valley of the Brain Collectors]]" that features a motley assortment of Mi-Go and [[EldritchAbomination agents of the Dark Tapestry]].

* CuttingOffTheBranches: With the update to 2nd Edition in 2019, several adventure paths got canonical endings in order to update the setting.
** ''Hell's Rebels'': [[spoiler:Ravounel became independent but is still very much under Cheliax's shadow, which regards it as a breakaway province (think mainland China and Taiwan).]]
** ''Hell's Vengeance'': [[spoiler:The Glorious Reclamation was defeated and its leaders executed, with Abrogail II able to stabilize Cheliax.]]
** ''Iron Gods'': [[spoiler:Kevoth-Kul the Black Sovereign was freed from his addictions and now opposes the Technic League.]]
** ''Ironfang Invasion'': [[spoiler:The [=PCs=] defeated General Azaersi, but then brokered peace between her new nation of Oprak and Nirmathas rather than destroying it.]]
** ''Reign of Winter'': [[spoiler:Baba Yaga was freed, Queen Elvanna was defeated, and [[UsefulNotes/AnastasiaNikolaevnaRomanova Anastasia Romanov]] was rescued from Earth and made the new Queen of Irrisen.]]
** ''Return of the Runelords'': [[spoiler:Working for Runelord Sorshen, the [=PCs=] defeated Runelord Alaznist and freed Belimarius and the city of Xin-Edasseril from stasis and restored them to Varisia as the nation of New Thassilon.]]
** ''Ruins of Azlant'': [[spoiler:Andoran's colony in shattered Azlant was saved.]]
** ''Serpent's Skull'': [[spoiler:Abrogail II failed to reconquer Vidrian.]]
** ''Skull & Shackles'': [[spoiler:The [=PCs=] declined the role of Hurricane Queen, giving it to Tessa Fairwind.]]
** ''Tyrant's Grasp'': [[spoiler:Tar-Baphon's march on Absalom was defeated, but the lich is very much stil around.]]
** ''War for the Crown'': [[spoiler:Eutropia becomes Grand Princess of Taldor, with her deceased brother Carrius resurrected and freed; he is now her heir.]]

** ''Wrath of the Righteous'': [[spoiler:The Worldwound was successfully closed, and Queen Galfrey ascended to become Iomedae's new Herald. Nocticula ascended to become a goddess of redemption, freedom, and the arts. Irabeth and Anevia Tirabade retired to Irabeth's family farm.]]

* {{Dhampyr}}: By name, balanced as a playable race by watering down the strengths and weaknesses full blooded vampires would have.
** Bonus points for including a racial archetype that lets you basically play as ''Film/{{Blade}}''.
** Dhampyrs return as a Versatile Heritage in ''Second Edition''.

%%* FrogMen: The swamp-dwelling boggards.

* {{Gashadokuro}}: Gashadokuros are powerful, dangerous undead created when multiple people die at once, their bodies eventually combining into an animated agglomeration of bones. At least one specimen is among the numerous undead that haunt the Border Wood between Taldor and Qadira as a legacy of the two countries' bitter fighting over the forest. The gashadokuro was formed when a company of soldiers remained trapped in a blocked-off ravine and collectively starved to death; luckily for everyone else, the gashadokuro itself is still stuck in the ravine.

** Queen Ileosa of Korvosa (the primary villain of ''Curse of the Crimson Throne'') is a tyrant who keeps an AmazonBrigade of spies and bodyguards called the Grey Maidens brainwashed to follow her without question. She's psychotically petty and vain, too: she specifically picks beautiful women and then has their faces scarred as part of their induction.

%%* MascotMook: Goblins.

** ''Rise of the Runelords'': Goblin attack on a small town -> [[spoiler:Plot to resurrect evil tyrant that has been dead for millenia.]]
** ''Legacy of Fire'': An astrologer dies to a mysterious fire -> [[spoiler:Mad genie and its minions try to steal an EldritchAbomination's power.]]
** ''Kingmaker'': Nation offers a group of adventurers a chance to forge their own kingdom -> [[spoiler:Mad faerie plans to steal a large chunk of Golarion to attract her former lover's attention.]]
** ''Carrion Crown'': Accidental death of a doctor -> [[spoiler:Attempt to bring back a powerful lich.]]
** ''Skulls & Shackles'': People get shangaied to work on a pirate ship -> [[spoiler:Cheliaxian plot to take over a pirate nation.]]
** ''Iron Gods'': Flame that fuels Torch's industry gets stolen -> [[spoiler:Mad AI tries to become a god.]]
** ''Wrath of the Righteous'': Attack on crusader city during a holy day -> [[spoiler:Plot to turn magical defenses against crusaders and enslave them]] -> [[spoiler:Attempt to cause the [[{{Hellgate}} Worldwound]] to increase in size, drawing much of Golarion within its influence.]]

* PerpetuallyProtean: Chaos Beasts have no set form except a single eye and a maw with MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily. They shapeshift every turn, and are actually immune to ForcedTransformation of any stripe, including ''Flesh to Stone'' and the like.

* PirateGirl: Besmara, the goddess of pirates, strife, and sea monsters.

** ''Inner Sea Gods'' compiles all articles written about the twenty core gods from ''Gods of Golarion'', ''Faiths of Purity'', ''Faiths of Balance'', ''Faiths of Corruption'', and various adventure path modules. But ''Inner Sea Gods'' also changes many details from these articles that the developers have backpedalled on; for instance, in Gorum's article in ''War of the River Kings'', there is mention of growing tensions between him and Pharasma, who is otherwise stated to be the one god that none of the other gods cross. In ''Inner Sea Gods'', this is changed to growing tensions between Gorum and Urgothoa.

** Finally, Golarion itself is home to two minor races of fiends: the rakshasas and the oni. Rakshasas are eternally reincarnating fiends with bestial aspects and bodies with one aspect reversed, which establish twisted caste systems. Oni are evil spirits whose burning hatred of humanoids causes them to incarnate as monstrously powerful examples of various races.

** ''Return of the Runelords'': [[spoiler:Working for Runelord Sorshen, the [=PCs=] freed Belimarius and the city of Xin-Edasseril from stasis and restored them to Varisia.]]

** ''Wrath of the Righteous'': [[spoiler:The Worldwound was successfully closed, and Queen Galfrey ascended to become Iomedae's new Herald. Irabeth and Anevia Tirabade retired to Irabeth's family farm.]]

** ''Serpent's Skull'': [[spoiler:Abrogail II fails to reconquer Vidrian.]]

* DeathBySex: Distressingly common:
** [[HarpingOnAboutHarpies Harpies]], being a OneGenderRace comprised solely of women, need to mate with humanoid males to propagate their race (as well as just for fun). However, they usually eat their lovers once they're done with them -- indeed, it's noted that it's actually considered bad luck in standard harpy culture to ''not'' eat the father of their daughter, unless he is powerful enough that it is worthwhile not to consume him once the harpy has been fertilized.
** Lamias (or at least the regular, matriarch and harridan versions) are much the same, except the way it's worded implies that partners dying from exhaustion, murderous flares of temper, drug overdose or sadism taken too far is actually more common than the lamia eating her lover.
** [[WickedWitch Hags]], again, need humanoid males to reproduce. They don't always kill their partner, though. It depends on how they feel. Especially if they think it'd be more "fun" to leave the resultant neonate hag-daughter in her daddy's care, they may well spare their unwitting mate.
** Jorogumos are [[SpiderPeople spider-women]] who, again, need humanoid mates to father their offspring. They then act like wasps, in that they implant the fertilized egg(s) into the father and paralyse him with their venom; when the egg hatches, the daughter fatally eats her father for nourishment.
** Thriae, again, are a CuteMonsterGirl race prone to eating their mates. But they're actually treated oddly sympathetically. First, only the Queens treat their consorts this way. The others form more emotional attachments. They also only do so when a lover has grown too old and feeble to reliably fertilize the Queen anymore, and they always use an anaesthetizing venom to render their former lover unconscious and devoid of pain before they begin. Finally, the consorts of Thriae queens are almost always volunteers.
** Ogres are a male example of this; it's been stated that they tend to rape humanoids (especially women) to death. Ogres, we'll remind you, are 10ft tall, 500 or so pound, horrifically strong, dim-witted sadists. You can put the pieces together as to what the general cause of death is.
** The players can actually cause this in a monster; a member of the [[OurSirensAreDifferent siren race]] is noted in the ''Bestiary 2'' for her tendency to commit suicide, or literally die of heartbreak, if a male she has her heart set on escapes from her whilst she's courting him.

* DeliberatelyNonLethalAttack: In ''1E'', all attacks made with weapons that aren't specifically labeled as non-lethal deal lethal damage by default, but by announcing a non-lethal attack before rolling to hit and taking a -4 penalty on said roll, a player can convert their weapon's regular damage into non-lethal one. If the cumulative amount of non-lethal damage exceeds the target's remaining HitPoints, they are rendered safely unconscious (whereas if they were just reduced to 0 HP, they'd be unconscious ''and'' risk bleeding to death without immediate first aid).

* DelicateAndSickly: In ''Seven Days To The Grave'' there is a girl named Brienna Soldado who is suffering from [[TheVirus Blood Veil]] and will die within a few days if not cured. The [[https://crimson-throne-2013.obsidianportal.com/characters/brienna picture alone]] is a TearJerker.

** [[TheGunslinger Gunslingers]] with the right ItemCrafting [[SkillScoresAndPerks feats]] can [[MarkedBullet inscribe a specific enemy's name]] on a bullet. It deals bonus damage against that enemy but is less accurate against anything else.
** The "Named Bullet" spell enchants a piece of ammunition to deal an ArmorPiercingAttack, an automatic CriticalHit, and extra damage against the named creature.

Thousands of years ago, the Human empire of Azlant thrived on the surface, while secretly ruled from the deep by the Aboleths, the aquatic monsters that lifted them to greatness. As humanity developed, they grew resentful and resisted against their aquatic masters. Fearing the growing power of the humans, the Aboleths sent a massive asteroid [[ColonyDrop crashing onto their homeland]]. Azlant was destroyed, and most of the surface civilizations on the nearby continents of Arcadia and Avistan were devastated [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard (but then, so too were the Aboleths.)]] Meanwhile, the Elves, who had foreseen the coming Earthfall, mostly fled to the sanctuary of Sovyrian on the planet Castrovel, while the underground-dwelling Dwarves took the impact as a sign from their gods to make their way to the surface, beginning the "Quest for Sky," driving their Orc rivals before them.

* TheAtoner: [[http://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Seelah#History This is why Seelah is a paladin.]]
* BadassAdorable: Abrogail Thrune II is a rare evil example. While she is usually depicted as pretty cute (and was originally meant to be a teenager), she is also the ruler of [[TheEmpire Cheliax]]

* {{Baku}}: Baku resemble floating, shaggy and tusked tapirs, and can when feeding choose to eat all of a person's dreams — causing them to wake up later exhausted and unrefreshed — or only their nightmares — which grants immunity to nightmare-inducing magic or dream haunting by malicious beings. They are mortal enemies of the dream-haunting night hags, and go to great lengths to hunt them down, fight them and prevent them from preying on sleeping minds.

* RageAgainstTheHeavens: Primary motive of the asuras, constantly reincarnating beings born from divine mistakes. They're actually quite AffablyEvil, [[StraightEdgeEvil possessing little in the way of greed]] and [[ProudScholarRaceGuy quite sagely about reality]]. Doesn't mean they don't fight dirty-these guys are next-door neighbors to devils.

Recently, however, the prophesied return of Aroden instead brought weeks of natural disasters, including a massive storm that continues to blow to this day. The priests of Aroden suddenly lost their powers, and by all accounts, including from Pharasma, the Lady of Graves, goddess of Death herself, Aroden somehow had died. Thus began the current period in Golarion's history: the Age of Lost Omens, as storms wracked the world and prophecy lost its power. Cheliax fell into decline and civil war, until the [[ReligionofEvil devil-worshipping "Thrice-Damned"]] [[TheEmpire House of Thrune]] seized power. With Cheliax's fortunes faltering and its ruling classes having given themselves to devil worship, its former colonies broke away in a series of rebellions and are now beginning marches towards prominence...

* HammerHilt: The First Edition feats Weapon Trick (polearms) and Spear Dancing Style both allow a character wielding a two-handed polearm to club opponents with the shaft of the weapon rather than striking with the head. In the former case, the "Haft Bash" trick removes the brace and reach qualities and treats the weapon as a club; in the latter, the spear is treated as a Double Weapon with the shaft functioning as a light mace.

''Pathfinder'' products are mostly set in what First Edition rulebooks refer to as "The Inner Sea," and more recent Second Edition books call "The Age of Lost Omens" [[note]]the only difference between the two is that "Age of Lost Omens" incorporates certain political changes that came about as parts of the storylines of Adventure Paths from First Edition, as well as a more concerted effort to make Garund and especially the Mwangi Expanse a more integrated part of the setting[[/note]] which both ultimately deal with the same basic setting: the ConstructedWorld of Golarion. [[note]]Golarion is actually one of several populated planets in the setting's solar system, but the focus is almost exclusively to Golarion, the "Earth" of the setting. The other planets get far more discussion in Pathfinder's sci-fi counterpart, Starfinder, since it's far easier to get to the other planets in that game.[[/note]] The FantasyKitchenSink nature of the game's setting as a whole means that a large variety of {{fantasy}} genres are represented, along with certain {{horror}} and [[ScienceFiction sci-fi]] ones. This meant that you could run different themes of campaign merely by changing the locale on Golarion, rather than having to incorporate different settings, such as ''TabletopGame/{{Dragonlance}}'' vs. ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' vs. ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' vs. ''TabletopGame/DarkSun'' as in ''D&D''.

Paizo's official online ruleskeeper, the Archives of Nethys, is available for [[http://www.aonprd.com 1st Edition]] and [[http://www.aonprd.com 2nd Edition]]. In addition, a ''massive'' online index of rule information for [=1st Edition=] -- almost everything Paizo published, plus some third-party materials, minus many setting-specific and thus copyrighted names -- can be found [[http://www.d20pfsrd.com/ here]].

A 2nd Edition campaign named ''WebVideo/PathfinderKnightsOfEverflame'' (inspired by an earlier module called Crypt of the Everflame) ran from June to August 2019. You can watch it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7s90t8wr8k here]].

* BloodBath: The Everdawn Pool, a powerful magical artifact found by the [[SorcerousOverlord Runelord]] Sorshen. The pool has many powers, but chief among them is the ability to transform the body of one who bathes in it after filling the pool with the blood of several thousand sacrificed sentient beings. The BigBad of ''Curse of the Crimson Throne'', [[spoiler: Queen Ileosa]], intends to become an immortal being this way, [[spoiler: slaughtering much of the population of Korvosa, including her own followers, in the process]].

Whether it gets better or worse in ''Jade Regent'' depends on your point of view. [[spoiler: Ameiko has the opportunity to become the Empress of Minkai--if she can make an exceedingly perilous journey there with the aid of the [=PC=]s and deal with the scheming powerful Oni who drove her noble family into exile and slaughtered her grandfather. Not to mention, her backstory is expanded upon, revealing that she quit her teenage adventuring career after seeing her lover get dragged to his death by cannibals.]]

** Zon-Kuthon's father was a boisterous, life-loving wolf spirit/god who was more than happy to see his errant son come home. [[spoiler: Now it is the Prince in Chains, a skinless, eternally tormented "hateful creature of broken flesh, pain and chains", and Zon-Kuthon's herald. Even its flesh isn't its own -- in his tortures, his son stripped it all away, using it to create his own monsters, and replaced it with chains, leather, and necrotic flesh from other victims. As a deity who holds torture to be the highest form of art, Zon-Kuthon is believed to consider the Prince-in-Chains his masterpiece]].

** As the book ''Monsters of Myth'' is dedicated to detailing monsters that are ShroudedInMyth and how they can be used in an adventure, this trope was bound to come up. Most of the monsters in the book are either truly supernatural, have a MultipleChoicePast, or both, but there is one exception. [[spoiler: The Melfesh Monster is actually a series of spawn of a subterranean fungal colony that exist to bring it food. There is nothing that is particularly maleficient about this colony—[[NonMaliciousMonster it just needs to eat]].]]

* KillThePoor: [[spoiler: Ileosa Arabasti]] in "Curse of the Crimson Throne" unleashes a plague with this goal in mind.

* LawyerFriendlyCameo: The adventure ''The Witchwar Legacy'' has a big one. [[spoiler: One of Baba Yaga's witch-queen daughters, Tashanna, was exiled to another reality both as punishment for staging a coup against her mother and as a means to encourage her to grow into a great witch and demon-binder in her own right. The infamous Greyhawk villain Iggwilv, who received a lot of attention in Paizo's Dragon and Dungeon runs, was a member of the Circle of Eight under the alias "Tasha".]]

* OurGnomesAreWeirder: Gnomes are fey creatures exiled from the First World in the wake of a disaster of uncertain nature; they can't quite adjust to Golarion, and spend a lot of time obsessing over minutiae and seeking out new experiences in order to avoid going mad(der) [[spoiler: or going through a usually-lethal process called Bleaching, a process of literally being ''bored to death'' which slowly reduces them to a pile of dust and bones]]. It's darkly hinted by the developers that the story of the disaster may be a fabrication, and gnomes are really humanoid interface devices through which [[EldritchAbomination vastly more powerful beings]] can study the material world.

* SuddenSequelHeelSyndrome: In the Second Edition Adventure Path "Age Of Ashes," [[spoiler: Mengkare]] has gone from LawfulNeutral to LawfulEvil, as he has started [[HumanSacrifice sacrificing his own subjects]] in order to stop [[BigBad Dahak.]] He's still a WellIntentionedExtremist, meaning the players can [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor possibly talk him down and redeem him.]]

''Pathfinder'' was created by Paizo Publishing, a group that was split off from Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast in 2002 to publish ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' and ''Magazine/{{Dungeon}}'' Magazines. When [=WotC=] announced the fourth edition of ''D&D'', they took back the publication rights to the magazines in order to create exclusively online versions. Paizo decided to publish a 3rd-edition-focused magazine of its own, ''Pathfinder'', keeping up the "Adventure Path" tradition they'd established in the last three years of ''Dungeon'' while establishing a new in-house campaign setting; this saw the publication of the "Rise of the Runelords", "Curse of the Crimson Throne", "Second Darkness" and "Legacy of Fire" Adventure Paths published for ''D&D'' 3.5. However, as they heard from more fans of 3rd Edition who were dissatisfied with the radical changes introduced in the 4th Edition of ''D&D'', Paizo saw an opportunity: they would [[StartMyOwn create their own ruleset]], using the foundation of [=3rd-ed=] ''D&D'' (the core rules of which were in perpetual open license under the Open Gaming License) to offer something new and fresh while allowing old players to build on what they already knew, created, and played. It also prided itself on being compatible with 3.5 (with a few rules alterations, of course, mostly in service of trying to patch what were then 3E's most obvious holes and broken parts).

** BodyBackupDrive[=/=]CloningGambit[=/=]ClonesArePeopleToo: A Clone-Risen Reflection is a Reflection created through a ''clone'' ritual or alchemy to serve as an vessel for another, one that [[GrewBeyondTheirProgramming somehow developed an independent will]]. They get a once per day ability called Empty Vessel, letting them temporarily suppress their sentience to resist a mental effect or mental damage. A later feat lets them transform their malleable body in a similar way to Illusory Disguise for an hour once per day.

** Oracles with the Blackened curse have shriveled and blackened forearms, as if they had plunged their arms into a bonfire. The curse inflicts a penalty on weapon attack rolls but adds several fire spells to the character's spell list.

* DeityOfHumanOrigin: Anyone who passes the Test of the Starstone becomes a god. Hundreds of hopefuls enter the Starstone Cathedral every year; in four thousand years, only four have succeeded. One of whom was drunk off his ass at the time.

* DisabilitySuperpower: The Oracle's Curse class feature.

** Second Edition introduces the Elixir of Sex Shift, which gives the drinker a one-time limited shapechanging effect to change their primary and secondary sexual characteristics in any way of their choice. Given its price of 60 gold pieces, it's somewhat out of reach for everyday commoners, but adventurers would be able to afford one pretty quickly.

* ExpertInUnderwaterBasketWeaving: Characters can invest in Craft and Profession skills, many of which are so specific and so orthogonal to the adventuring trade that they're only of use to [=NPCs=] or in particular acts of ItemCrafting. The ''Unchained'' expansion lets characters gain even ''more'' specialized expertise in those skills.

* GarrulousGrowth: The Alchemist Character Class has the optional ability to grow a tumor on its body, which functions as a {{Familiar}} and can be temporarily detached to act autonomously.

* GemTissue: [[PowerCrystal Ioun Stones]] usually [[AntiGravityClothing orbit their user's head]], but characters can permanently incorporate them into their bodies through a combination of psychic attunement and surgery. Afterwards, the stone counts as a part of the user and can't be targeted separately by attacks or effects.

* {{Mithril}}: A holdover from ''D&D'' (and to an extent ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''), mithril is still shiny, still light, and still expensive.

*** Pathfinder's shadows laugh at Fifth Edition's shadows, because they roll against touch AC to hit, deal 1-6 Strength damage, and come in a greater variety that can do 1-8 points of Strength damage (with the saving grace that zero Strength paralyses instead of killing). Given most Pathfinder games embraced point buy, dumping Strength was even more common.

* PowerCreepPowerSeep: Correcting the power creep of 3rd edition TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons was one of the game's founding goals. Inevitably, as it has aged, it has developed a few examples itself.

* SpellBook: Wizards and magi can't cast spells without them. Witches uses her familiar as this.

* StandardFantasyRaces: ''Pathfinder'' largely inherits the pattern developed in ''D&D'', with humans who rule most nations and civilizations, reclusive dwarves and elves who remain in scattered holdouts of their ancient, fallen empires, halflings and fey gnomes who live in other races' lands, and half-elves and half-orcs often left as outcasts. Monster races include the goblins, hobgoblins and orcs, whose long histories of war against the other races have left them distrusted and despised, but have begun to attempt to integrate better in global politics while forming closer ties with each other, as well as ancient and powerful dragons, reclusive treants and fey who distrust anyone intruding in their forests, and a variety of SnakePeople and LizardFolk whose empires were ancient before any warm-blooded nation arose.

* SuddenNameChange: In Second Edition, most monsters taken from ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' were either given completely new names (like phase spiders becoming ether spiders), are now being referred to by their common names instead of their proper names (sea devils instead of sahuagin, brain collectors instead of neh-thalggus), or vice versa (xulgaths instead of troglodytes). This was done to distance ''Pathfinder'' from ''D&D'' and facilitate building a multi-media franchise, as the OGL only covers TabletopRPG products, so any names invented by Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast cannot be legally used in anything that is not a RPG book.

* TooManyHalves: Mechanically possible via abuse of the various "half-x" templates. Using only first-party material, it is theoretically possible (though any sensible GM would veto it for a player character) to have a creature that is half-fiend (there are actually ten subvarieties), half-celestial, half-dragon, half-janni, and half-serpent, for a creature [[Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids two-and-a-half times as big as you'd expect]].

* UnequalRites: As with 3.5, ''Pathfinder'' has various ways in which this can manifest, and now has more feats that further differentiate between each type.

* UnholyNuke: The Talisman of Ultimate Evil. In the hands of an Evil HighPriest it could be used to open a flaming crack at the feet of a Good priest and send him or her to the center of the planet
* VancianMagic: How all magic is cast.

* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: Played straight. Spellcasting classes tend to dominate the late game after spending the early game nursing [[SquishyWizard single digit hit points]]. It should be noted that it's still significantly better about this than 3.5. Most significantly, fighters have been given unique feats that give them extremely powerful combat maneuvers and the duration of game-breaking battle spells is generally measured in rounds and had their numerical advantages severely decreased. Casters also have the option of taking the additional hit-points from their favored class.

** As part of the Bestiary-wide, sweeping attempt to eliminate OneGenderRace in 2E, they note that Changelings can be either male or female, males simply not being usually detected as such. However, they can still turn into hags, which ''are'' all female. This started out as FridgeLogic and then became explicit when the Lost Omens Ancestry Guide went into more depth on the subject.

* WizardingSchool: Many of these: the Arcanamirum in Absalom, the Acadamae in Varisia, the Ebon Mausoleum in Geb, and the various arcane colleges in the Magocracy of Nex. The oldest and arguably most prestigious is the Magaambya in the Mwangi Expanse, setting of the Strength of Thousands AP.

* WizardingSchool: Many of these: the Arcanamirum in Absalom, the Acadamae in Varisia, the Ebon Mausoleum in Geb, and the various arcane colleges in the Magocracy of Nex.

** Second Edition has been moving away from this trope as part of its efforts to be more socially conscious. Goblins became a core ancestry and are no longer this trope, but they're not the only example. On Golarion, the further away you are from Avistan and northern Garund, the more likely it is that seemingly monstrous humanoids are not evil. In the Mwangi Expanse there are non-evil gnolls and orcs, and orcs are also free of that baggage in Arcadia. Officially, only fiends and undead are ''inherently'' evil, and even then it's possible (albeit difficult and unlikely) for them to be good. If humanoids (and indeed, most other living creatures) are evil, it's for cultural reasons. In fact, as part of the metaplot, the territories of Belkzen (the heartland of orcs) and Oprak (a nation founded by a hobgoblin warlord as a haven for monsters) are becoming more peaceful. That said, they're still a long way from redemption.