Two things, firstly wowza she's genuinely terrifying, when James Jacobs said she had too little armor on I expected a giant blade weilding scantily clad bimbo. She's downright scary. And has believable armor for a barbarian. Love the big sword, it works with her I think, but I love all things wayne reynolds ((Except maybe the 4e DM's guide cover.))
Also, WHAT THE HELL is the GIANT WORMEY BEAST that Seelah is so bravely and foolishly defying on the cover??
Daaaaaaaaaaaaaamn!
(Note to self: Don't piss her off.)
Creative Director
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Also, WHAT THE HELL is the GIANT WORMEY BEAST that Seelah is so bravely and foolishly defying on the cover??
Who says Seelah's defying the giant worm? Maybe she's calling it to her...
It's certainly going to be one of the more memorable encounters in "A History of Ashes," that's for sure.
Ok I love her but hate the sword.
That it might sell Pathfinder to Mangaheads is fine with me though.
I suspect the story behind the sword may amuse you.
I'm sure I'll come to love it.
I suspect the story behind the sword may amuse you.
I don't suppose we could get a teaser on that story?
I suspect the story behind the sword may amuse you.
I would like to hear said story, but I'd just rule it's a greataxe with a funny shape (Seriously, look at that thing! It has to be an x3 crit weapon.)
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Yes, word has it that Doctor Jacobs has a story in mind for the big sword. Its stats (and perhaps the barbarian’s feat choices?) may even reflect its large size (or at least James hinted at such at this week’s chat).
If so, I think that is mighty cool. The manga fans get their oversized swords, and those who like a little more ‘realism’ in their fantasy get a story to support the artwork.
Ok I like it now.
When can I get a mini?
When she goes to a restaurant.
"Table for four. And can I get a chair for my sword please?"
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Creative Director
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I guess I can give out a quick preview...
She's from the Realm of the Mammoth Lords.
The sword itself is a Large bastard sword. She has Exotic Weapon Proficiency (bastard sword), allowing her to wield Medium bastard swords one-handed and Large bastard swords two-handed.
She got the sword from a dead frost giant. How she got the sword from said giant is part of her backstory that I'm not yet ready to reveal, and that doesn't play into how she wields the sword anyway.
Her using the sword is part pride, part showing off, part implication that she's bad-ass enough to have killed a giant and taken his stuff (when in fact her secret is that she took it from a dead guy she didn't necessarily kill...).
SO, she wields the Large bastard sword two handed, but since it's a size category too large for her, she takes a –2 penalty with attack rolls. The only way she can "wield it proper" is when she enters her rage and becomes SUPER STRONG... her bonus to Strength perfectly offsets the penalty for wielding the big sword, which is a pretty cool way of modeling a barbarian who can't properly use her weapon except when she's really angry.
And it's too big to sheath. She never sheaths it. It's always out, always ready to chop into stuff. Part of her motto: "If I put my weapon away, I am weak and can be caught off guard."
Her other weapons are probably eating utensils, btw... so it's okay to have them sheathed when she's not having dinner.
Anyway... more to come (along with her name!) in a few weeks once I get her written up nice and proper.
Cool... Thanks James!
I love swords that double as tables!
Ok I love her but hate the sword.
That it might sell Pathfinder to Mangaheads is fine with me though.
Looks to me like the artist has read Berserk (Which is a must read for anyone not afraid of ultra-mega-violence and big swords wielded by one of the biggest baddasses in comics history.)
Steve
Who says Seelah's defying the giant worm? Maybe she's calling it to her...More Dune in your Golarian?
"We Fremen have a saying. God created Arrakis to train the faithful. One cannot go against the word of God."
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Creative Director
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So does she carry a backup weapon for when she's not superstrong enough to beat heads in with her monster toy?
Well... she does seem to be carrying spears and a bow and a dagger and a hatchet and a spiked gauntlet or two...
But I suspect that she chops away at things with the big sword even when she's not angry. I would!
Also, WHAT THE HELL is the GIANT WORMEY BEAST that Seelah is so bravely and foolishly defying on the cover??
OM NOM NOM PALADIN NOM
Pathfinder #10: Cover
The Warforged Goblin aproves.
Bare midriffs are always a bit ehh and the sword seemed handy to cook full English breakfast over campfire...but as long as there is some explanation for carrying that sword, she seems credible...
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Blimey, I now find myself wanting to play a barbarian, she is looking very cool and the backstory teaser just makes me want to learn more!
..The wormy-beast is a little distracting though, isn't it? I'm having flashbacks to the Age of Worms campaign I DMed "It's a giant worm, it tries to eat you.. you should be used to this by now.."
Some say Giant Wormey Beast, I says Graboid!
Some say Giant Wormey Beast, I says Graboid!
As long as we don't have to deal with ass-blasters flying through Korvosa, I have no problem with this...
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Awesome character (and a really cool-looking cover, BTW).
Instead of a Large Bastard Sword I'd rule the weapon as a Broad-Bladed Greatsword, that with the appropriate Exotic Weapon Feat, can give a hefty bonus to AC when fighting defensively - this can also explain a bit the armor-less style.
The story of gaining the blade from a frost giant is very interesting, though...
To quote Jillian Zamussels: 'I never stabbed anything that didn't stop being an immediate problem.'
I congratulate Paizo on telling the D&D 3.5 FAQ, "You are wrong." FAQ claims that a bastard sword is really a 2-handed weapon and thus you can't wield a larger sized version of it without monkey grip (and then you can only wield it 2-handed). It is good to see Paizo is not accepting this flawed logic. That it is actually a 1-handed exotic and thus a larger version could be wielded 2-handed, as an exotic weapon.
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Creative Director
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I congratulate Paizo on telling the D&D 3.5 FAQ, "You are wrong." FAQ claims that a bastard sword is really a 2-handed weapon and thus you can't wield a larger sized version of it without monkey grip (and then you can only wield it 2-handed). It is good to see Paizo is not accepting this flawed logic. That it is actually a 1-handed exotic and thus a larger version could be wielded 2-handed, as an exotic weapon.
The 3.5 FAQ also, I believe, also recommends that if you change into another form from human into a non-human (say, because you're a wildshaping druid or because you cast polymorph), you immediately lose the bonus feat and bonus skill points while in your alternate form because you're not a human at that point. I know this was bumped around in Sage Advice at one point, at least... and I certainly HOPE it's not currently part of the 3.5 FAQ, because it's a pretty stupid ruling.
But anyway... I'm looking at the basic SRD. The table of weapons lists the bastard sword as a one-handed exotic weapon, and that seems pretty cut and dry to me.
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Creative Director
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Well... the game DOES support Medium characters who wish to use Large weapons. It's right there in the PHB, actually. So as far as I'm concerned, a sword like that's all legal by the rules and good to go. If you ask me... it's far LESS ridiculous than the 3rd edition obsession with double weapons. And as for the "scantily clad" bit, you've got me there. You've also got decades of tradition as well. The attractive female barbarian in the "chain mail bikini" is about as iconic as you can get. Is it practical? No. Does it fit in the world theme we're setting up; a world very heavily inspired by the old pulp fantasy stuff? Yes. As you mention, the pulpy Conan stuff doesn't appeal to you. It does to us at Paizo, though, and feedback from most of our customers indicates that this appeal is not unique to us. And when you get right down to it, it's authors like Robert Howard, H. P. Lovecraft, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, Clark Ashton Smith, C. L. Moore, and other pulp-era authors who have the most influence on Golarion's design. They are, after all, the favorite authors of the Publisher and the Editor-in-Chief of said product...
Anyway, sorry this one iconic doesn't do it for you. We're trying to cover a wide range of themes with these characters though, so it's actually not too much of a surprise if one or two of the 11 end up not appealing to everyone.
I'm not interested in convincing "mainstream academia" to take Pathfinder seriously. Neither am I trying to illustrate a history book on the evolution of armor and weaponry through the ages.
Thanks for the feedback though! And rest assured, we DO realize that scantily-clad big-sword wielding barbarian women aren't everyone's cup of tea. That's why we've also got iconics like Seelah and Merisiel and Kyra who are pretty well armored. As I've said above, we ARE trying to get a good spread of different types of characters on our covers.
no wonder it is so difficult for mainstream academia to take fantasy seriously.
Capitalization might also help.
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Creative Director
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oh well, this is fantasy. so many rules of common sense and physics are already violated simply to allow the game to function...
There's a lot more that science wouldn't let work if the game were real, of course. Dragons that can fly. Giant bugs. An underdark that's not boiling hot. Magic.
It never ceases to amaze me how something like a big sword throws the sense of disbelief right out the window, but people don't bat an eye at something like an elephant-sized spider or the concept of a monk being able to walk 3 times as fast as anyone else.
Personally, I love the look. If we want to get nitpicky, though, those spikes circling her right wrist would probably gouge her exposed hip if she weren't constantly careful about them.
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Personally, I love the look. If we want to get nitpicky, though, those spikes circling her right wrist would probably gouge her exposed hip if she weren't constantly careful about them.
Actually, whilst standing your wrist would more often than not be beside your thigh and her thighs are covered. Besides I doubt she'd care about a few scratches from her spikes - open wounds of any degree that you ignore just add to intimidation value ;)
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I think this Barbarian is freaking awesome!!! I don't think of her as "scantily clad" in D&D terms. The big sword is a wonderful piece of the character's story. I love the idea of a barbarian taking the sword off a giant she "killed" when in fact she came across a corpse and took the sword. That is too awesome. I bet once she gets her rage going and is ready to rock and roll that she does a hideous amount of damage with that bad boy. Barbarians are all about the crazy wild eyed fury that makes you shudder. How scary will this chick be when she gets angry and starts wielding a sword bigger than you are and charges you?
Consider me pumped. All the iconics for the pathfinder line have been awesome. This barbarian is in the top 3 for me in terms of concept and design. Well done!!!
... or the concept of a monk being able to walk 3 times as fast as anyone else.
This one gives me a laugh. Whenever a monk really starts cruising it reminds me of road runner.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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oh well, this is fantasy. so many rules of common sense and physics are already violated simply to allow the game to function...There's a lot more that science wouldn't let work if the game were real, of course. Dragons that can fly. Giant bugs. An underdark that's not boiling hot. Magic.
It never ceases to amaze me how something like a big sword throws the sense of disbelief right out the window, but people don't bat an eye at something like an elephant-sized spider or the concept of a monk being able to walk 3 times as fast as anyone else.
It's more of a "anime suxxors" thing, actually, boss. You saw that way early on with that thread about the art, remember?
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Actually, I'm looking at the sword more closely... and I think that it could work out. Mind you, I have no insight into the minds of WAR or the Paizo crew: this is merely all my b%**!!$!.
First off, it's not actually as big as I initially thought it was. Assuming that Barbarann (heehee... I suck) is taller than most women, the sword is about, say, five feet ten inches long, from tip to pommell. Now, I'm not in any way a scholar of weaponry, so my sources come from ze internet. So, using this site as my reference, the sword is a reasonable size for a large sized creature (the blade being nearly half larger than the human sized one on the website), though surprisingly wide (which is really just an artistic interpretation used to show that, yes, the sword is unusually large for it's wielder).
Plus, she's not going to be swinging it in perfect figure eights or whatever; she's going to be literally dragging the damned thing, and when she strikes, I imagine that she'll be half swinging, half hurling the blade, due to it's unusual size and weight. For an idea of what I'm talking about, look at how Nightmare and other heavy weapon users (Astaroth, Rock, etc) of Soul Caliber fights.
As for the armor, it's odd, but I think it works. First off, it conveys the fact that, yes, she's a barbarian, with all of the low metal/high leather/fur/wood content of the armor. Second, I think it fits the fighting style that I imagine her using; she wants to protect her extremities from attack, since she depends on being able to move and swing that monstrosity of a sword. Her core, she doesn't worry about so much because what she doesn't deflect by ducking behind that giant blade, she just sidesteps or dodges.
This is all my opinion, of course. Take it as you will.