History Trivia / Pathfinder

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* In a downplayed example the books say there may be a way to permanently kill a [[{{Kaiju}} Spawn Of Rovagug]] or [[EldritchAbomination Great Old One]], but if so, no one has ever discovered it. This is usually taken to be code for "Unless the DM makes up a way for you to permanently kill them it can't be done"

* ManualMisprint: ''Pathfinder'' splatbooks have their own version of this problem, usually as a result of [[TooManyCooks multiple design teams]] and [[PoorCommunicationKills lack of correspondence]]. It's not uncommon for an early chapter to mention a feat or spell that was later renamed or dropped entirely.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5lgcn&page=4?Meet-the-Iconics-Shardra-Geltl#discuss According to Wes Schneider, Paizo's Editor and Chief]], there was a "lengthy discussion" about retconning Damiel, the iconic alchemist, to be transgender. It was decided that due to Damiel's mental instability making him the first trans iconic would send the wrong message, and so they instead decided to come up with a whole new iconic to give more positive representation; hence Shardra. As Crystal Fraiser clarified, it was due to the possibility of some people misconstruing Damiel as "all female-to-male transgenders are psychopaths". And that's.... not something you want.
-->'''Crystal Frasier''': "''Wes and I had a very long discussion about which iconic to go with (and I really appreciate being a part of that discussion), and touched on Damiel for a while. It would have been nice to have a trans man character after the excellent representation trans women got with Annevia, but we were worried about Damiel's past making it look like we were painting all trans men as sociopaths. In the end, we settled on the shaman because of the religious role of gender-variant people in many different historical cultures.''"

* DuelingProducts: ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' and ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. ''Pathfinder'' appears to have won against ''D&D'' 4th Edition, beating it in total sales in 2011-2014, but [[http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?2385-ICv2-Fall-2014&s=467f6eea1df4004de0492f74832712ee#.VPYl_OE8qos D&D Finally took back the top spot in February of 2015]].
* FanNickname: Some players took to calling Numeria "TabletopGame/{{Numener|a}}ia", due to the similarities between Golarion's token barbarians-with-hypertech region and Monte Cook's MiddleAges-with-LostTechnology world.
** Alain, the Iconic Cavalier has gotten a ''lot'' of nicknames related to his {{jerkass}}ery. One of the better, and most directly to the point? Sir Douche of Jerkasston.
* ManualMisprint: Pathfinder splatbooks have their own version of this problem, usually as a result of [[TooManyCooks multiple design teams]] and [[PoorCommunicationKills lack of correspondence.]] It's not uncommon for an early chapter to mention a feat or spell that was later renamed or dropped entirely.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5lgcn&page=4?Meet-the-Iconics-Shardra-Geltl#discuss According to Wes Schneider, Paizo's Editor and Chief]], there was a "lengthy discussion" about retconning Damiel, the iconic alchemist, to be transgender. It was decided that due to Damiel's mental instability that making him the first trans iconic would send the wrong message, and so they instead decided to come up with a whole new iconic to give more positive representation; hence Shardra.
** When asked on it, Crystal Fraiser clarified and explained that while they decided against it, it was due to the possibility of some people misconstruing Damiel as "all female-to-male transgenders are psychopaths". And that's.... not something you want
--->'''Crystal Frasier''': "''Wes and I had a very long discussion about which iconic to go with (and I really appreciate being a part of that discussion), and touched on Damiel for a while. It would have been nice to have a trans man character after the excellent representation trans women got with Annevia, but we were worried about Damiel's past making it look like we were painting all trans men as sociopaths. In the end, we settled on the shaman because of the religious role of gender-variant people in many different historical cultures.''"

* WordOfGod: The "[[http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2l7ns?Ask-James-Jacobs-ALL-your-Questions-Here Ask James Jacobs ALL your Questions Here!]]" thread on Paizo's messageboard exists solely to ask creative designer James Jacobs his behind-the-scenes thoughts.

* DuelingProducts: ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' and ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. ''Pathfinder'' appears to have won against ''D&D'' 4th Edition, beating it in total sales in 2011-2013, but that may change with the release of 5th Edition in 2014.

* DuelingProducts: ''{{Pathfinder}}'' and ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. ''Pathfinder'' appears to have won against ''D&D'' 4th Edition, beating it in total sales in 2011-2013, but that may change with the release of 5th Edition in 2014.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5lgcn&page=4?Meet-the-Iconics-Shardra-Geltl#discuss According to Wes Schneider, Paizo's Editor and Chief]], there was a "lengthy discussion" about retconning Damiel, the iconic alchemist, to be a transexual. It was decided that due to Damiel's mental instability that making him the first trans iconic would send the wrong message, and so they instead decided to come up with a whole new iconic to give more positive representation; hence Shardra.

* DuelingProducts: ''{{Pathfinder}}'' and ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. ''Pathfinder'' appears to have won against ''D&D'' 4th Edition, beating it in total sales in 2011 and 2012, but that may change with the release of 5th Edition in 2013.

* ShoutOut: Lots.
** [[PennyArcade Deep crows]] dwell in the dark places within the earth.
** One adventure, ''[[Film/EscapeFromNewYork Escape from Old Korvosa]]'', has a crate used to ship a [[{{Braindead}} rat-monkey from S. Island.]]
** A.E. van Vogt's estate loaned Paizo limited use of the coeurl (AKA the "original tentacle kitty", which inspired ''D&D'''s displacer beast).
** ''Skeletons of Scarwall'''s introduction starts with [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest "What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse."]]
** ''Children of the Void'' introduces two types of alien monsters, the parasitic akatas and the plantlike moonflowers. The former are inspired by the Xenomorphs from the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' movies, while the moonflowers take their inspiration from ''Literature/TheDayOfTheTriffids'' and ''Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors''.
** The cover of Seeker of Secrets features an adventurer engaging in the industry-wide gag of pulling ruby eyes out of grinning idols as a tribute to one of the first DungeonsAndDragons covers.
** The campaign setting timeline mentions that a large forest was trampled by "[[Film/{{Ghostbusters}} the Slor]]".
** ''Classic Horrors Revisited'' tells us that gargoyles' appearance adapts to their environment over time. One particular tribe has been living in a graveyard so long that they look like angel statues, and they've picked up a curse that [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS3E10Blink causes them to freeze into immobility when anyone looks at them]]. Just don't bli—
** The monster designs in ''Bestiary II'' are loaded with shout-outs. Obvious examples are the Arbiter (a legless [[{{Planescape}} Modron]]), Cacodaemon (a miniature of the VideoGame/{{Doom}} version), and Soulbound Doll (the Zuni fetish from ''TrilogyOfTerror'' and the Maidens from ''RozenMaiden'').
** One of the monsters in the first book of the ''Carrion Crown'' Adventure Path is a disembodied floating head, the most powerful of which is [[VideoGame/{{Castlevania}} a flying medusa head, which can temporarily petrify those it bites]]. It even has Flyby Attack as a bonus feat.
*** To drive the point home, the beginning of the article features a picture of [[MagicKnight Seltyiel]] fighting a group of medusa heads...in a ClockTower.
** The basic alchemist class is inspired by ''Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde''. The vivisectionist archetype of the class is very clearly inspired by on ''Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau'', while the reanimator archetype is based on ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' and the story of the same name by Creator/HPLovecraft.
** Speaking of ol' [=HPL=], Paizo's gone beyond the subtlety of the ShoutOut and directly printed in ''several'' of their materials just how wicked sweet and totally awesome the CthulhuMythos is, and by the way you should check out Chaosium's ''Call of Cthulhu'' game. The most explicit examples include:
*** The adventures ''Carrion Hill'' and ''Wake of the Watcher'', inspired primarily by "The Dunwich Horror" and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" respectively.
*** ''Wake of the Watcher'' also features a full article on the Great Old Ones, including rules for worshiping them, and stats for the Color Out of Space, Elder Things, Mi-Go, and Spawn of Shub-Niggurath. As both a capstone reference and campaign-ending encounter, ''Wake of the Watcher'' includes stats for a Star-Spawn of Cthulhu.
*** The first ''Bestiary'' features the Denizens of Leng and Shoggoths, as well as Ghouls and Ghasts (which existed in ''D&D'' since the beginning but have been modeled after Lovecraft's versions for ''Pathfinder''). Likewise, the Skum is a preexisting ''D&D'' monster that's been retrofitted into a stand-in for Lovecraft's Deep Ones (as well as ''D&D'''s Kuo-Toa, which are not open source).
*** ''Bestiary 2'' features Gugs, the Spiders of Leng, the Hounds of Tindalos, Serpentfolk, and the Worm That Walks.
*** ''Bestiary 3'' features the Great Race of Yith, Vooniths, and Zoogs.
*** ''Faiths of Corruption'' includes cults of the Great Old Ones.
*** ''The Great Beyond'' includes blurbs on Lovecraft's Dreamlands (here called the Dimension of Dream) and Plateau of Leng as places dimension-traveling [=PCs=] can visit. The city of Unknown Kadath has been mentioned in Paizo products once or twice.
*** ''Into the Nightmare Rift'' includes a gazetteer of Leng and stats for some of Lovecraft's more fantasy-oriented creatures, such as the Nightgaunt.
** The sourcebook for Andoran mentions some of its smaller but notable communities, including the towns of [[GunslingerGirl Claes and Triela]].
** The Ultimate Combat sourcebook features a character archetype for Fighters: The Dragoon. [[FinalFantasy A spear specialist who eventually gets a leaping attack]].
** Two of the peaks in the Five Kings Mountains are named Mounts [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Langley and Soryu]].
** The sourcebook ''Princes of Darkness'', focusing on using devils in a campaign, features a magic item called a ''bilious talisman'', which strongly resembles the Behelit from ''{{Berserk}}''.
** One reference liable to go over the heads of modern gamers - the Holy Gun archetype in ''Ultimate Combat'' gains firearm-using feats from a class feature called [[HaveGunWillTravel Have Gun]]. If you couldn't guess, this is for a variant paladin.
** The Kellid and Shoanti human ethnicities are strongly inspired by the Cimmerians and Picts, respectively, from Creator/RobertEHoward's mythos. (The Shoanti have a little [[BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins Native American]] thrown in... but then, so did Howard's Picts.)
** There are several different kinds of gremlin in ''{{Pathfinder}}'', but one in particular, the jinkin, is based on the movie ''Film/{{Gremlins}}''.
** The underwater "gillmen" are a clear ShoutOut to the Atlanteans of [[MarvelComics Marvel]] and DCComics, like the {{Sub-Mariner}} (on whom their illustration is strongly based) and ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}.
** The [[MagicKnight Magus]] class has an alternate class feature called "Bladebound," in which the Magus wields a "black blade," an EmpathicWeapon that can [[LifeDrinker drain the life from others to heal the wielder]] and has a mind of its own that can [[ArtifactOfDoom try to take over the wielder's mind]]. [[TheElricSaga Elric of Melnibone]] can sympathize.
** TheRedPlanet of Akiton (initially mentioned in ''Children of the Void'' and further detailed in ''Distant Worlds''), with its giant four-armed warriors, is clearly an homage to Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs's JohnCarterOfMars novels.
*** On the other hand, the "Green Planet", Castrovel, is based on Venus as portrayed by another 1920s sci-fi writer, [[http://www.erbzine.com/mag15/1514.html Ralph Milne Farley]], in ''The Radio Man'' and its sequels. The Lashunta (psychic humanoids with antennae) are inspired by Farley's "Cupians", while the Formians (a race of giant ants) are lifted wholesale.[[hottip:*:The Formians already had a history in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' going back to ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'', but TSR/Wizards only borrowed the name and basic appearance of Farley's Formians, not the connection to Venus.]]
** [[http://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/File:Antipaladin.jpg The antipaladin]] appears to be wielding [[VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} Frostmourne]].
** The "thin man" from ''Inner Sea Bestiary''--a ghostly creature that always stays just beyond the reach of light--was inspired by [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos the Slender Man]]. The end result (a fanged monster) came out very different from Slendy, but it functions basically the same.
** Sorshen, the Runelord of Lust, was named after Sorsha from ''Film/{{Willow}}''.
** ''Bestiary 2'' has stats for the [[Literature/AliceInWonderland Jabberwock]], and ''Bestiary 3'' includes the Bandersnatch (which can be Frumious}) and Jubjub Bird.
** The Kytons, previously just a species of chain wrapped devil, have been expanded into a whole fiendish faction of [[{{Hellraiser}} Cenobites]].
** Lord Gyr of Gixx, the ruler of Absalom, the City at the Center of the World, was named after ''D&D'' creator GaryGygax.
** A spell in the ''Dungeoneer's Handbook'' lets you conjure a [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3 Thwomp]]
** The first part of the ''Serpent's Skull'' Adventure Path is prefaced with "[[Series/GilligansIsland A Tale of a Fateful Trip]]". Naturally, it begins with the PC's becoming castaways.

** ''Bestiary 2'' has stats for the [[Literature/AliceInWonderland Jabberwock]], and ''Bestiary 3'' includes the Bandersnatch and Jubjub Bird.

** ''Skeletons of Scarwall'''s introduction starts with [[VideoGame/{{Castlevania}} "What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse."]]

** ''Children of the Void'' introduces two types of alien monsters, the parasitic akatas and the plantlike moonflowers. The former are inspired by the Xenomorphs from the ''{{Alien}}'' movies, while the moonflowers take their inspiration from ''Literature/TheDayOfTheTriffids'' and ''Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors''.

** ''Children of the Void'' introduces two types of alien monsters, the parasitic akatas and the plantlike moonflowers. The former are inspired by the Xenomorphs from the ''{{Alien}}'' movies, while the moonflowers take their inspiration from ''TheDayOfTheTriffids'' and ''Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors''.

** One adventure, ''[[EscapeFromNewYork Escape from Old Korvosa]]'', has a crate used to ship a [[{{Braindead}} rat-monkey from S. Island.]]

** The basic alchemist class is inspired by ''Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde''. The vivisectionist archetype of the class is very clearly inspired by on ''TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau'', while the reanimator archetype is based on ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' and the story of the same name by Creator/HPLovecraft.