Paizo Iconics - Balazar

Balazar. Gnome summoner. I've got to give it to Paizo that they actually really leaned into the gnome "story" that they're trying to tell. Balazar as a prankster who pranked his way through tragedy and danger, without ever taking anything seriously, etc. 

It's not really the best story, but y'know. Gnomes aren't really a very interesting race, so I've got to give them (and Keith Baker with Eberron) in trying to give them some kind of unique character that maybe isn't quite what you want it to be, but at least it's something. I think Paizo's take on gnomes works. I like Eberron's better, because Paizo feels a little too much like kender + fairies.

For whatever reason, Balazar didn't last. They did do a 2e summoner iconic, but now it's an ... African little girl. I wish I were kidding, but I'm not. 

Balazar's eidolon, or summoned spirit or whatever exactly it is looking like the chicken of doom is another joke, I presume. 

"The bird let out a slow chicken cackle. It sounded like a chicken, but in her heart she knew it wasn't. In that instant, she completely understood the concept of a chicken that was not a chicken. This looked like a chicken, like most of the Mud People's chickens. But this was no chicken.

This was evil manifest."

 - Part of Terry Goodkind's most infamous passage, mercilessly mocked in the early days of Usenet.