History Trivia / Pathfinder

* CreatorBacklash: Paizo of the [=2020s=] is on-record as saying that the way many races were portrayed in First Edition don't reflect their current values. Since early ''Pathfinder'' leaned heavily into [[DarkerAndEdgier having a darker tone]] than its [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons direct competitor]] had at the time, they embraced the AlwaysChaoticEvil trope ''hard'', UnfortunateImplications be damned, even when ''D&D'' itself was experimenting with leaning away from it. In an effort to be more socially conscious, Paizo has been walking back this decision for some time, with Second Edition having several lore tweaks and expansions to portray virtually all sapient ancestries more fairly; even the drow, who Paizo were previously adamant about being nigh-exclusively Chaotic Evil (likely as a bit of creator reaction to the pervasive popularity of [[Literature/TheLegendOfDrizzt a certain ranger]] back when working for the Wizardly Competition) can now decisively be non-evil as of the Abomination Vaults Adventure Path.

** The third volume of the ''Strange Aeons Adventure Path'' was originally going to feature a double-sized gazetteer of the Dreamlands written by James Jacobs. However, the plan fell through when he was assigned to work on the UpdatedRerelease of ''Curse of the Crimson Throne'' and decided that a hardcover and several adventures written for ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' were sufficient material.

** The First Edition supplement ''Sargava, The Lost Colony'' is especially notorious for having several outright {{game breaking bug}}s in its list of feats due to poor editing: [[https://www.aonprd.com/FeatDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Monkey%20Lunge "Monkey Lunge"]] in particular is completely impossible to use in the standard action economy because it requires a standard action to activate, for an effect that lasts 1 round and can only be applied to the user's attack roll (also a standard action, which you only get one of per turn).

** The third volume of the Strange Aeons Adventure Path was originally going to feature a double-sized gazetteer of the Dreamlands written by James Jacobs. However, the plan fell through when he was assigned to work on the UpdatedRerelease of Curse of the Crimson Throne and decided that a hardcover and several adventures written for ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' were sufficient material.

* CreatorBacklash: Paizo of the [=2020s=] is on-record as saying that the way many races were portrayed in First Edition don't reflect their current values. Since early ''Pathfinder'' leaned heavily into [[DarkerAndEdgier having a darker tone]] than its [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons direct competitor]] had at the time, they embraced the AlwaysChaoticEvil trope ''hard'', UnfortunateImplications be damned, even when ''D&D'' itself was experimenting with leaning away from it. In an effort to be more socially conscious, Paizo has been walking back this decision for some time, with Second Edition having several lore tweaks and expansions to portray virtually all sapient ancestries more fairly; even the Drow, who Paizo were previously adamant about being nigh-exclusively Chaotic Evil (likely as a bit of creator reaction to the pervasive popularity of [[Literature/TheLegendOfDrizzt a certain ranger]] back when working for the Wizardly Competition) can now decisively be non-evil as of the ''Abomination Vaults'' Adventure Path.

** [[http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5lgcn&page=4?Meet-the-Iconics-Shardra-Geltl#discuss According to Wes Schneider, Paizo's former editor-in-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 Frasier 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.

** The BigBad of the Mummy's Mask Adventure Path was originally intended to be the Incorruptible Pharaoh An-Hepsu XI. The PCs were going to get ahold of An-Hepsu's mummified hand, which he wanted back so he could rebuild his body and reclaim his kingdom. However, the developers had overlooked a note that mentions An-Hepsu XI's epithet (the Lich Pharaoh); since the BigBad of the AP had to be a mummy instead of a lich, he was replaced by Hakotep I, an otherwise unknown pharaoh whose only mention was as the namesake for the Slave Trenches of Hakotep.

* TheWikiRule: The [[https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Pathfinder_Wiki Pathfinder Wiki]] covers lore of the Golarion setting, [[https://www.aonprd.com/ Archives of Nethys]] is a wiki of all playable {{splat}}s with Paizo's permission, while [[https://www.d20pfsrd.com/ d20PFSRD]] is a broader game rules wiki that incorporates all Paizo and much third-party material with trademarkable Product Identity material changed to BlandNameProduct.

* TheWikiRule: [[https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Pathfinder_Wiki Right here]].

--->'''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.''"

* CreatorBacklash: Paizo of the [=2020s=] is on-record as saying that the way many races were portrayed in 1st Edition don't reflect their current values. Since early ''Pathfinder'' leaned heavily into [[DarkerAndEdgier having a darker tone]] than its [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons direct competitor]] had at the time, they embraced the AlwaysChaoticEvil trope ''hard'', UnfortunateImplications be damned, even when ''D&D'' itself was experimenting with leaning away from it. In an effort to be more socially conscious, Paizo has been walking back this decision for some time, with 2nd Edition having several lore tweaks and expansions to portray virtually all sapient ancestries more fairly; even the Drow, who Paizo were previously adamant about being nigh-exclusively Chaotic Evil (likely as a bit of creator reaction to the pervasive popularity of [[Literature/TheLegendOfDrizzt a certain ranger]] back when working for the Wizardly Competition) can now decisively be non-evil as of the ''Abomination Vaults'' Adventure Path.

* AscendedFanon: Depending on how you classify fanon and what counts as ascending it, but quite a few official First Edition adventure paths used monsters from ''Tome of Horrors Complete'', a third party product by Necromancer Games.

* AscendedFanon: Depending on how you classify fanon and what counts as ascending it, but quite a few official adventure paths use monsters from ''Tome of Horrors Complete'', a third party product by Necromancer Games.

* DuelingProducts: ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' and ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. ''Pathfinder'' effectively won against ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFourthEdition'', beating it in total sales in 2011-2014, but ''D&D'' [[http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?2385-ICv2-Fall-2014&s=467f6eea1df4004de0492f74832712ee#.VPYl_OE8qos took back the top spot in February of 2015]] courtesy of Fifth Edition, which then proceeded to completely dominate the rest of the decade. The duel went white-hot again in early 2023, though, when Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast's intended changes to the OGL license for ''One D&D'' led to a great many jumping ship to ''Pathfinder'', leading to such a sudden explosion in sales that Paizo.com became unstable for much of January 13th, and for eight months of intended book supply to sell out in a few ''weeks''.

* CreatorBacklash: Paizo of the [=2020s=] is on-record as saying that the way many races were portrayed in 1st Edition don't reflect their current values. Since early ''Pathfinder'' leaned heavily into [[DarkerAndEdgier having a darker tone]] than its [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons direct competitor]] had at the time, they embraced the AlwaysChaoticEvil trope ''hard'', UnfortunateImplications be damned, even when ''D&D'' itself was experimenting with leaning away from it. In an effort to be more socially conscious, Paizo has been walking back this decision for some time, with 2nd Edition having several lore tweaks and expansions to portray virtually all sapient ancestries more fairly; even the Drow, who Paizo were previous adamant about being nigh-exclusively Chaotic Evil (likely as a bit of creator reaction to the pervasive popularity of [[Literature/TheLegendOfDrizzt a certain ranger]] back when working for the Wizardly Competition) can now decisively be non-evil as of the ''Abomination Vaults'' Adventure Path.

* CreatorBacklash: Paizo is on-record that the way many races were portrayed in 1st Edition doesn't reflect their current values. Since early Pathfinder leaned heavily into [[DarkerAndEdgier having a darker tone]] than its [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons direct competitor]], they embraced the AlwaysChaoticEvil trope ''hard'', UnfortunateImplications be damned, even when D&D itself was experimenting with leaning away from it. In an effort to be more socially-conscious, Paizo has been walking back this decision for some time, with 2nd Edition having several lore tweaks and expansions to portray each sentient race (well, except [[ForTheEvulz the Drow]]) more-fairly.
* DuelingProducts: ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' and ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. ''Pathfinder'' appears to have won against ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFourthEdition'', beating it in total sales in 2011-2014, but ''D&D'' [[http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?2385-ICv2-Fall-2014&s=467f6eea1df4004de0492f74832712ee#.VPYl_OE8qos took back the top spot in February of 2015]]. This repeated in early 2023 when Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast's changes to the OGL license for ''One D&D'' led to numerous people jumping ship to Pathfinder, leading to such a sudden explosion in sales that Paizo.com became unstable for several hours on January 13.
* ManualMisprint: ''Pathfinder'' splatbooks have their own version of this problem, usually as a result of [[TooManyCooksSpoilTheSoup 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. [=2E=] books tend to be a lot better about this, but it still happens on occasion.

* 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 ''D&D'' [[http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?2385-ICv2-Fall-2014&s=467f6eea1df4004de0492f74832712ee#.VPYl_OE8qos took back the top spot in February of 2015]]. This became especially apparent in early 2023 where the draconian changes to the OGL license by Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast lead to numerous people jumping ship over the Pathfinder leading to sudden explosion in sales.

* 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 ''D&D'' [[http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?2385-ICv2-Fall-2014&s=467f6eea1df4004de0492f74832712ee#.VPYl_OE8qos took back the top spot in February of 2015]].

** 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." (''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsThirdEdition'' specified the tarrasque, rewritten as one of the Greater Spawn in ''Pathfinder'', could be permanently killed with a ''wish'' or ''miracle'' spell; the ''Pathfinder'' statblock omits this.)
* 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.''"

* ManualMisprint: ''Pathfinder'' splatbooks have their own version of this problem, usually as a result of [[TooManyCooksSpoilTheSoup 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.

** 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." (''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsThirdEdition'' specified it could be done with a ''wish'' or ''miracle'' spell; the ''Pathfinder'' statblock omits this.)

* 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.
** ''Pathfinder'' as a whole is usually summarized as "[[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons D&D]] 3.75 or 3.PF".

** Pathfinder as a whole is usually summarized as "[[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons D&D]] 3.75".

** 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." (''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsThirdEdition'' specified it could be done with a ''wish'' or ''miracle'' spell; the Pathfinder statblock omits this.)

* ShrugOfGod: Aroden's death is a mystery that will never get revealed in any official material. As his creator Erik Mona said:
-->'''Erik Mona''': Because I don't have a personal theory. I do not know how Aroden died, or why, or who did it, or in which room it happened. I don't find those things to be the interesting parts about him. In fact, it's kind of the one aspect of the character that I don't find particularly interesting. The interesting thing to me is more in the "what now" aspect of what happens to the campaign world when "God" dies. What happens to institutions, to culture, etc. Add to that the idea that this also casts prophecy in doubt, and you've got a bunch of inherent questions that are more interesting to me than "who did it." I never really considered "who did it" when I created Aroden. I left that to be determined later, to be woven into other stories by other authors, very likely stories that hadn't been considered yet, left for future development if we decided to develop it at all. The "working theory" is more something James and others have pieced together in the time since Aroden's creation, tying in the few clues that I left with other cool stuff that they're planning to have a "maybe this is how it went down," but as I mentioned earlier, even that's flexible until we actually decide to address the issue. If we do. I could outline an entire Aroden-focused Adventure Path with all kinds of insight into his life, his cult, and the ruins of his influence, but to be perfectly honest I'm not certain even that would answer the question of how he died. I like that the people of Golarion don't know. So long as there's no "official" answer, the answer is free to be whatever you want it to be.
** 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"

!!Tabletop Game

----
!!''VideoGame/PathfinderKingmaker''
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Originally, there was a monk companion named Sakken planned, but he ended up being cut early on in development. This actually leaves a fairly prominent hole in the non-mercenary companion lineup, since without Sakken, Valerie is the only companion set up from the outset to be a tank.
** A poll was held to see which new race would be added to the game. There were 3 contenders: the Aasimar, the Dhampir and the Elementals (which included the Sylphs, the Undines, the Ifrits and the Oreads). The Aasimar won by a very narrow margin and was added to the game. The Elementals came second while the Dhampir weren't even close to the top. Dhampir and Oreads would make it into ''[[VideoGame/PathfinderWrathOfTheRighteous Wrath of the Righteous]]'' instead (with Oreads being a met stretch goal and Owlcat invoking a bit of "[[AuthorAppeal creator's prerogative]]" in making Dhampirs part of the base package).
** Hellknight was a class considered to be added to the game, but budget constraint and time prevented its inclusion as a ''playable'' class. As many weary players will tell you, Hellknights are still...in the game, to be sure. Hellknights ''did'' make it in to the sequel, since they are in fact quite core to the narrative and concept.
----
!!2007 film
* FakeNationality:
** Moon Bloodgood as Starfire. While she is American, she Anglo-Korean, not native.
** American Creator/ClancyBrown and German Creator/RalfMoeller as Gunnar and Wulfar, who are not Icelandic.

** A poll was held to see which new race would be added to the game. There were 3 contenders: the Aasimar, the Dhampir and the Elementals (which included the Sylphs, the Undines, the Ifrits and the Oreads). The Aasimar won by a very narrow margin and was added to the game. The Elementals came second while the Dhampir weren't even close to the top. Dhampir and Oreads would make it into ''Wrath of the Righteous'' instead (with Oreads being a met stretch goal and Owlcat invoking a bit of "[[AuthorAppeal creator's prerogative]]" in making Dhampirs part of the base package).

** A poll was held to see which new race would be added to the game. There were 3 contenders: the Aasimar, the Dhampir and the Elementals (which included the Sylphs, the Undines, the Ifrits and the Oreads). The Aasimar won by a very narrow margin and was added to the game. The Elementals came second while the Dhampir weren't even close to the top. Dhampir and Oreads would make it into ''Wrath of the Righteous'', instead (with Oreads being a met stretch goal and Owlcat invoking a bit of "[[AuthorAppeal creator's prerogative]]" in making Dhampirs part of the base package).

!!''Pathfinder: Kingmaker''

!!Pathfinder: ''Kingmaker''

!!2007 Film

** American Creator/ClancyBrown and German Creator/RalfMoeller as Gunnar and Wulfar, who are not Icelandic.

** Hellknight was a class considered to be added to the game, but budget constraint and time prevented its inclusion as a ''playable'' class. As many weary players will tell you, Hellknights are still... in the game, to be sure.

* [[FakeNationality Fake Native American]]: Moon Bloodgood as Starfire. While she is amercan, she anglo-korean, not native. Also counting is Clancy Brown and Ralf Möller as Gunnar and Wulfar who are not Icelandic.