Paizo Iconics - (Nakayama) Hayato

The last iconic for today is the Samurai, another of the "new" classes. He's the fourth such, and the third to feature a last name; although because he's "Japanese" his last name is actually his first name, as indicated in the post title. Of course, he has to have a tragic yet epic backstory too; why can't 1st level character just be fresh-faced youths? Described as both "late thirties" and "est. 49-51 years old" simultaneously, he's also one of the few older characters. Of course, he's a ronin. Because he was a great warrior before he was a 1st level character, even, he had to have this honorable duel with the murderer of his prior lord, but because Minkai is steeped in dumb traditions, that meant he had to become a ronin. Actually, he became a ronin because his lords' widow forbade him from committing seppuku, so he had no choice but to come to the Golarion version of "Europe" where he appeared in .... well, in relatively few product art, because a samurai doesn't actually make much sense in this setting, and trying to fit him in was always a case of special pleading. 

Like many of these Wayne Reynolds iconics portraits, he's way too busy-looking. He's like a Warhammer 40k model turned to an acrylic or watercolor painting.

Even the Pathfinder wiki points out that the samurai is like a culturally slightly different variant on the Cavalier, which is already like an alignment variation on the paladin. Samurai seems like a very oddly specific and superfluous class. I can't imagine ever being interested in playing one myself.

The next four, which will be my next update whenever I get around to doing this tag again, include four more of the Pathfinder unique classes: Lirianne the Gunslinger, Reiko the Ninja, Feiya the Witch, and Imrijka the Inquisitor. A nice batch of girlbosses to look forward to. Sigh. Anyway, several of the classes would be potentially be interesting to me, nonetheless.

The Pathfinder wiki divides the classes up into various different categories. Maybe I should have done that instead of just going through them chronologically. The first batch are the so-called "core" classes, which are basically the same as the original 3e D&D classes. The second batch are the so-called "base" classes, which are different 1-20 level classes, not unlike the classes that appeared in 3.5 books like, say, the Complete series. Then there are the "hybrid" classes that kind of combine the territory of two core or base classes and blend them in a way. Then there are the "occult" classes which were kind of the Pathfinder take on psionics, although they weren't done very much like the 3x psionics were, unfortunately. (For that, however, there's a third party book called Ultimate Psionics that is well-regarded.) And finally, there are "alternate" classes, which it is presumed you would only use on rare occasions because they're kind of weird. The samurai above is one of those. Anyway, just to add a bit more text to this post and to keep it handy for when I want to refer to it, let me list each class by which category it calls in.

Core

• Barbarian
• Bard
• Cleric
• Druid
• Fighter
• Monk
• Paladin
• Ranger
• Rogue
• Sorcerer
• Wizard

Base

• Alchemist
• Cavalier
• Gunslinger
• Inquisitor
• Magus
• Oracle
• Shifter
• Summoner
• Vigilante
• Witch

Hybrid

• Arcanist
• Bloodrager
• Brawler
• Hunter
• Investigator
• Shaman
• Skald
• Slayer
• Swashbuckler
• Warpriest

Occult

• Kineticist
• Medium
• Mesmerist
• Occultist
• Psychic
• Spiritualist

Alternate

• Antipaladin
• Ninja
• Samurai

Of course, there's also NPC classes, but they don't have iconics, and you're not meant to use them. And there's also mythic paths, which are kind of like the equivalent to the old Epic Level Handbook, but there's no iconics of them either.