Paizo Iconics - Jirelle

I think it's interesting that we're back to single-name characters. Last names came briefly, but then left, and these characters are now like Madonna or Cher again. 

Sad family story again, half-elven, but obviously not very white, and a raging grrlboss who acts nothing like a woman. Jirelle could be one of Green Ronin's favorite Freeport NPCs or iconics. Which I think would be interesting to talk about. Freeport doesn't have iconics in the traditional sense, i.e., I'm not aware of them being named or bios being released. But they do have about half a dozen characters that get illustrated a lot. The female swashbuckler (freebooter, in their case, since they're obviously showcasing their own class) is certainly one of them, and she looks like she could be the very similar half-sister of Jirelle. She's illustrated by Wayne Reynolds too, for whatever it's worth. And she almost looks Asian in the 2e edition, but James Jacobs being a visually low status weirdo from California's Lost Coast is certainly the kind of guy who's likely to have yellow fever, and he created her.

I like the Freeport Freebooter better than the Paizo Swashbuckler. I don't like classes with really fiddly mechanics, like having a pool of points to spend to do your stuff. The Freebooter is just mostly a fighter, but instead of all the boring bonus feats, he has a bevy of assassin, rogue and swasbuckler like a la carte abilities to choose from. It's more straightforward, easier and more fun to play, and does exactly what I expect a swashbuckler class to be without being a "game within a game" mechanically complex whatever.

Jirelle had a second image done for 2e for whatever reason, so here's both of them. She wasn't really changed, though, other than her pose. And she lost her little smirk or smile. Isn't that the bare minimum that a swashbuckler is supposed to do? Someone needs to watch some Errol Flynn stat. And knock it off with every backstory has to be tragic. 

Here's a couple of Wayne Reynolds Freeport grrlboss images for comparison. 

Just for the heckuvit, here's another grrlboss pirate swashbuckler from Razor Coast, a 3pp Pathfinder adventure. Low status men really do seem to love them their action grrl grrlbosses for some reason.