We're now over a month into our Iconic Encounters web series, so it's only natural that we'd get to Lini, the iconic gnome druid, sooner rather than later. This week's piece of flash fiction from James L. Sutter finds the intrepid adventurer alone in the Darklands with only her faithful companion, Droogami, to aid her in battling a sinister, fleshwarped foe.

We’re at the halfway through our Iconic Evolutions series, so it’s fitting that we’re looking at one of the half-sized iconics this week. In this weekly video series, artist Wayne Reynolds takes Paizo's publisher and chief creative officer, Erik Mona, through his creative process in updating Pathfinder’s iconic characters for the game’s Second Edition, coming out this August. Check out this short video of their conversation for a glimpse into the mind of Pathfinder's most iconic visual artist and the first official look at the new version of Lini, the iconic gnome druid!

Druids are practitioners of primal magic, which blends vital essence (the essence of life, instinct, and faith) with material essence (the essence of matter and the natural world). Thus, primal traditions are rooted in an instinctual connection with and faith in the surrounding world: the cycle of day and night, the turning of the seasons, and the natural selection of predator and prey. Druids are the iconic primal spellcasters; they call upon the power of nature for magic through their deep faith, as opposed to primal sorcerers, who harness the power of fey or other natural creatures that flows through their blood to access the same sorts of primal energies.

I have stared into the Abyss, and found it blinking back at me (it was a qlippoth). It is time to share the results of our design challenge contest, in which I tasked you, our fans, to take our iconics to the darker side of the alignment chart!

I’ve stood by as my fellow designers on the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game have spoken their pieces on which character they believe to be the best ever and I’ve held my tongue. Why? Because, though I’ve known all along why they were wrong, I needed to bide my time. I needed to wait until all the pieces were in place, all the correct products produced and available to the fans... all the evidence available, so I could show definitively and without fear of serious rebuttal that the best character ever is Lini.

Monday, February 14, 2011