Maybe I missed, but is there somewhere that the iconic characters are statted out at each level so as to make a nice rogues' gallery of pregenerated characters?
ASEO out
The one thing that I've always assumed about the iconics that that their stats are not static. That they could change based on the needs of whatever product they're currently attached to.
What I mean to say is that if there is write up of Valeros or Seoni at 12th level in one location (ex. RotRL), the next time those same iconics are used at 12 level (say in a pathfinder module), they may or may not have the same stats. The stats would be dependant on the writers needs at any given time. The new stats would not in any way shape or form invalidate the prior incarnation, merely be presented as a different version.
I guess, the iconics should be plot devices just as much as anything ense is a plot device.
I dunno . . . I could be off base.
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Sadly that hasn't been the case. They're designed to be the average adventurers as opposed to the optimal adventurer for the kind of adventure being run.
The only time the stats have really changed between the products (I think) was because of some forum hating on Seoni having a less optimal feat for Concentration... I think it was. :)
In any case, this design approach is really good because if new players are playing certain pregens, they get to see why X-skill is important in some cases but not necessary in every adventure.
Creative Director
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Actually... the MAIN reason we decided to put in stats, names, and backstories for the iconics is that we had an OVERWHELMING number of requests to do the same for our Dungeon Iconic characters back in the day.
Also, keep in mind that not only can we not pay for all 12 iconics at once, Wayne can't PAINT all 12 at once. For the first 12 volumes of Pathifnder, we'll be getting in one more iconic, but at the same time, we're still going ahead with the modules and the adventure paths themselves. When we started this whole thing, we had 2 iconics (we had Wayne design Seoni early), but since then we've been getting in new ones at about one per month. And since our modules and adventures are shipped to print earlier than that, even... it artificially forced us to use certain combinations of classes in the first year of products.
As for their stats... yes. They'll be changing now and then, slightly, as we realize errors we made, or because the baseline assumption of an adventure path is different than the modules. For Seoni, for example, we gave her the Varisian Tattoo feat as a bonus feat, which in turn demanded that she also take Spell Focus as the prerequisite for that feat, which meant changing one of her feats from the early module version of her stats.
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James, Mike, correct me if I'm remembering things wrong, but...
At one point, there wasn't an intention to have a, well, canonic build for the characters.
If a module was designed for 8th-level characters, and barbarian / ranger / monk / bard was a reasonable party for the adventure, then they'd provide those iconics --Amiri, Harsk, Sajan, and Lem-- statted up to 8th Level, but that those particular stats and lists of possessions would be specific to that module.
If, months later, there'd be a Pathfinder product with stats for "9th-Level Amiri", that version of the character wouldn't necessarily follow from the same development track.
Honestly, the reason to have the iconics in every bloodly adventure is to provide a good set of pre-generated characters for that adventure. I would rather have a character who's a good fit for the module, rather than a character whose feats, skills, and equipment are better suited for a set of encounters I'm not running.
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Creative Director
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James, Mike, correct me if I'm remembering things wrong, but...
At one point, there wasn't an intention to have a, well, canonic build for the characters.
If a module was designed for 8th-level characters, and barbarian / ranger / monk / bard was a reasonable party for the adventure, then they'd provide those iconics --Amiri, Harsk, Sajan, and Lem-- statted up to 8th Level, but that those particular stats and lists of possessions would be specific to that module.
If, months later, there'd be a Pathfinder product with stats for "9th-Level Amiri", that version of the character wouldn't necessarily follow from the same development track.
Honestly, the reason to have the iconics in every bloodly adventure is to provide a good set of pre-generated characters for that adventure. I would rather have a character who's a good fit for the module, rather than a character whose feats, skills, and equipment are better suited for a set of encounters I'm not running.
Yes... the goal was (and still is) to have canonical builds for the iconics. But we're not COMPLETELY there yet. Once we've got all 12, we'll very likely be picking the 4 that best fit the module. That's a tougher trick with the Adventure Paths, since an AP has good stuff for ALL the classes.