History TabletopGame / Pathfinder

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* AbilityDepletionPenalty: The [[BareFistedMonk Monk]] and {{Ninja}} classes have a daily pool of ''{{ki|Manipulation}}'' [[KiManipulation points]] to enhance their powers. Some of their passive {{Magic Enhancement}}s don't cost ''ki'' points but don't work when their ''ki'' pool is empty, such as the Monk's [[ArmorPiercingAttack Damage Reduction-piercing blows]]. The later Gunslinger, Swashbuckler, Magus, and Arcanist classes have similar mechanics: for example, a Gunslinger is unable to use the "Quick Clear" deed unless they have at least one grit point remaining in their grit pool.
* AbsurdlySharpBlade: Vorpal Swords, elaborated on in ''Classic Treasures Revisited''.
* AbusivePrecursors: The Valashamains, who lived in the Valashmai Jungle in Tian Xia. They were apparently not native to Golarion and came from another plane or planet (the details are vague), resembled giant [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent lizard people]], and had thousands of slave races. They ruled an empire in the Valashmai Jungle until the [[ColonyDrop Earthfall]], at which point they [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere left for somewhere else]] and have never been seen since.
* AcademyOfAdventure: Many magical schools exist throughout Golarion, but especially the Magaambya, highlighted in the adventure Path ''Strength of Thousands''. Players spend the first two books as students, being pulled into teacher-led adventures of magic and intrigue. They spend the last four books as teachers, [[BadassTeacher leading their students on adventures of magic and intrigue.]]
* AchievementsInIgnorance: Cayden Cailean (in)famously ascended to godhood by taking the Test of the Starstone while completely blackout drunk: even ''he'' has no idea how he pulled it off.
* AcidTripDimension:
** The Maelstrom is a chaotic and ever-shifting realm of constant inconstancy manifesting as a dimension-sized vortex of constantly forming, eroding and mutating debris and chunks of landscape.
** The First World, the home of [[TheFairFolk the Fey]], is a collection of the many original blueprints for the material plane, whose laws of physics, such as they are, were haphazardly stitched together out of every possibility the gods considered and discarded while making the world.
* ActionGirl: While always an option in any role-playing game, it's notable that the "iconic" characters featured in ''Pathfinder''[='=]s artwork have either been an even balance of the sexes or slightly favoring women (as opposed to many games in which the fluff is male-dominant while the rules don't discriminate). This extends to teams of pre-generated characters for adventures, frequently featuring three women with a lone man or the full four-woman party of the ''Carrion Crown'' campaign. (This may be a MythologyGag since ''Carrion Crown'' was an adventure series devoted to horror tropes.
* ActuallyADoombot: The 2E Pathfinder Society scenario #1-24 "Lightning Strikes, Stars Fall" has an example of this involving a literal robot and not a Simulacrum spell. [[spoiler: At one point, the party appears to fight the gnome alchemist Khismar Crookchar. Khismar Crookchar is TheMole for Kevoth-Kul, both of whom are big enough characters in 2E's metaplot to warrant their own section in the book detailing major characters in the Lost Omens setting. As a consequence, while this scenario serves to ''introduce'' Khismar Crookchar, the writers had no plans to kill him off, and so the one the players fight is revealed to be a robot when reduced below a certain HP threshold.]]
* AdorableEvilMinions: Quasits, goblins, cacodaemons, kobolds, a lot of such critters live on Golarion.
* AfterlifeOfService: Wealthy people who are worried about their fate in the afterlife sometimes create Shabti, {{Golem}}-like simulacra with [[GhostMemory copies of their memories]], [[AlternatePersonalityPunishment to suffer divine judgement in their place.]] {{Psychopomp}}s try to get Shabti RescuedFromTheUnderworld so they're not [[KarmicMisfire punished for their creators' misdeeds]] and can live out their own lives.
* TheAgeless: Leshies' magical plant-based bodies do not age, and while they can still die due to violence or mishap, they are functionally immortal otherwise. However, since they're mercurial nature spirits, leshies typically [[WhoWantsToLiveForever don't actually WANT to live forever]], and most voluntarily give up their mortal form after a few centuries at most.
* AgeOfReptiles: In its ancient days, before its modern warm-blooded races arose, Golarion was ruled chiefly by reptilian beings. The most prominent of these were the serpentfolk, who ruled a vast empire in the upper Darklands and in Garund and whose legacy led this period to being named the Age of Serpents. Besides them, this era also saw the golden age of lizardfolk culture and expansion, while the snakelike nagas ruled an empire in ancient Vudra and the reptilian troglodytes built their own in the deepest parts of the Darklands. Dragons also came to Golarion during this period, often allying with the world's reptilian civilizations and establishing their own direct rule over ancient Tian Xia. Over time, however, mammalian species such as humans and elves established themselves and either outbred their competitors or actively displaced them, as when Azlant destroyed the serpentfolk empire, leading to the modern age of warm-blooded rule.
* AlchemyIsMagic: The alchemist is a base class introduced in the ''Advanced Player's Guide''. It focuses on infusing chemical reagents with magical energy, creating potions, poisons, mutagens, and incendiaries. Its ultimate (20th-level) ability is the "grand discovery", which can take numerous forms, including immortality or the creation of a philosopher's stone. The ''Ultimate Magic'' splatbook adds more Discoveries, many with a BodyHorror and MadScientist vibe. Also lots of [[Film/ReAnimator Herbert West]] shout-outs. Mostly averted (mechanically, at least) by ''Second Edition'', where alchemy uses a completely different system from magic.
* AllAccessibleMagic: Most magic can only be accessed through being a magical CharacterClass or using an enchanted item. Rare "Occult Rituals" can be learned by anyone but take hours to perform, require multiple difficult skill checks to succeed, have nasty side effects from a MagicMisfire, and often exact a heavy cost on the ritualist.
* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: Much of the Golarion setting is clearly heavily influenced by ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'', with several major deities being modified versions of FR gods (e.g. Torm -> Iomedae, Sune -> Shelyn) and the general layout of the world being virtually identical (Faerun -> Avistan, Maztica -> Arcadia, Al-Qadim -> Casmaron, Kara-tur -> Tian Xia), though the latter is not too surprising given the continent layout was a modified version of Earth to begin with.
* AlternateHistory: The ''[[DieselPunk Rasputin Must Die!]]'' module in the Reign of Winter Adventure Path is basically a take on what events during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI could have been like if magic and other supernatural elements were involved.
* AlternatePersonalityPunishment: Wealthy people who are worried about their fate in the afterlife sometimes create Shabti, {{Golem}}-like simulacra with [[GhostMemory copies of their memories]], to suffer divine judgement in their place. {{Psychopomp}}s try to get Shabti RescuedFromTheUnderworld so they're not punished for their creators' misdeeds and can have lives of their own.
* AlternativeCalendar: The Absalom Reckoning calendar is exactly like our RealLife calendar but with the names of the months and days of the week changed (the months are named after twelve of the major gods of the pantheon). The Age of Lost Omens began in 4606 AR; the current "present day" in any given book is 4700 + the last two digits of the book's publication year (e.g. Rise of the Runelords volume 1 came out in 2007, therefore the InUniverse year is 4707 AR).
* AlwaysChaoticEvil:
** While there are always exceptions at the [=GM's=] discretion, First Edition supplementary materials would kindly remind you that aside from those singular individuals, the savage humanoids of Golarion are ''gleefully'' evil, if not [[AxCrazy insanely so]].
** Part of the motivation behind the "Second Darkness" adventure path was to rewind back to the days when [[OurElvesAreDifferent the Drow]] were unrepentantly, unforgivably evil, before the creation of [[Literature/TheLegendOfDrizzt a certain heroic dark elf ranger]].
** Justified with hags -- their immature form, changelings, never "mature" into hags if they aren't Evil since only the power-hungry and misanthropic ones can stomach the ritual to unlock their full hag powers. They aren't evil because they're hags, they're hags because they're evil (and the ritual cements that). Hence why hags generally leave changelings in communities with AllOfTheOtherReindeer and BullyingADragon as a general policy.
** One exception to the above is the gnolls (later renamed to kholo), who seem to be becoming gradually less generally evil each time they're mentioned. At first the only ones you'd ever encounter were slaver parties, and although they certainly still are, eventually they become less "attack on sight"; one adventure path even includes civilized (though evil) gnolls as non-hostile questgivers you should play along with. Finally, the 2E bestiary notes that while ''some'' tribes are evil marauders, many others are more militantly isolationist.
** Second Edition has been moving away from this trope as part of its efforts to be more socially conscious. Goblins became a core ancestry and are no longer this trope, but they're not the only example. On Golarion, the further away you are from Avistan and northern Garund, the more likely it is that seemingly monstrous humanoids are not evil. In the Mwangi Expanse there are non-evil gnolls and orcs, and orcs are also free of that baggage in Arcadia. Officially, only fiends and undead are ''inherently'' evil, and even then it's possible (albeit difficult and unlikely) for them to be good. If humanoids (and indeed, most other living creatures) are evil, it's for cultural reasons. In fact, as part of the metaplot, the territories of Belkzen (the heartland of orcs) and Oprak (a nation founded by a hobgoblin warlord as a haven for monsters) are becoming more peaceful, although they're still a long way from redemption.
* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: Gnomes come in a wide variety of colors. Some fall within the normal range of human skin color, while others are green, blue, or orange.
* AmbiguouslyEvil: Mengkare, a Gold Dragon who founded his own nation and tried to create a utopia...through eugenics and dictatorship. [[TheExtremistWasRight It even seems to be working.]] Paizo admits in ''Champions of Corruption'' that the reason they have never stated his CharacterAlignment [[invoked]] is that they themselves can't agree on what it is. Subverted in the first Adventure Path for Second Edition, Age of Ashes, where it's revealed that he [[spoiler:gradually fell from LawfulGood to LawfulNeutral and eventually to LawfulEvil. His eugenics program was created so he could harvest pure souls to end an avatar of Dahak, the evil god of dragonkind. That said it IS possible to persuade him to do a HeelFaceTurn and atone for his actions if you play your cards right.]]
* AncestorVeneration: Taiga giants revere their ancestors, whom they seek to honor in their daily lives and can mystically commune with. Living taiga giants can even call upon their forebears' spirit for aid in battle, and few things can spur a taiga giant clan to war quite as easily as insulting their ancestors.
* AndIMustScream:
** The drow love doing this to their captives via [[BodyHorror fleshwarping magic]], turning them into tortured, barely sentient abominations for their amusement. Captured elves have it particularly bad -- their fleshwarped forms, the irnakurses, are tortured, horrific tree-like masses of twisted flesh and broken bones, wracked with pain and barely able to move. Drow usually stick them in jars of nutrient fluids and put them around their palaces as permanent decorations.
** The fate of demon lords who are KilledOffForReal is to be permanently stuck in the walls of the Rifts of Repose, fossilized but still conscious and unable to do anything. Unless [[SuccubiAndIncubi Nocticula]] killed them; then they instead become an island in her domain.
* AnimalsHateHim: The goblins, as a race, particularly by dogs and horses. The feeling is mutual.
* AnomalousArt:
** ''Trompe L'oeil'' paintings are magically-enhanced copies of an original creature that can step off the canvas, assume solid three-dimensional forms, and even inhabit other paintings. These entities can only be permanently killed by destroying the painting that generates them.
** {{Invoked|Trope}} with the ''Seeded Doom'' [[RitualMagic Occult Ritual]], which corrupts a [[DeadlyBook book]], artwork, or piece of music. Anyone exposed to the work or one of its copies is [[BrownNote infected with madness]] or a {{Curse}} chosen by the ritualists.
* AnswerToPrayers: In addition to clerics and other divine casters needing to pray to refresh their spell list for the day, the First Edition feats Deific, Fiendish, and Monitor Obedience grant specific divine boons to a faithful follower of a given deity by performing a specific daily ritual, ranging from planting acorns in a specific pattern for a follower of the FertilityGod Erastil, to having sex with someone while calling out to the LoveGoddess Calistria and encouraging one's partner to join in.
* AnthropomorphicFood:
** Ghorans are humanoid PlantPeople descended from magically engineered food crops. They even have a racial disadvantage called ''delicious''!
** Also the Vegepygmies, engineered by the Drow so that even their ''vegetables'' could suffer. They're humanoids who were killed, infested, and turned into {{Mushroom M|an}}en by a virulent fungus, and the infection is contagious.
* AnthropomorphicTransformation: The "Anthropomorphic Animal" spell temporarily or permanently transforms an animal into a humanoid version of itself, complete with prehensile limbs, the intelligence of a (very dim) human, and the power of speech.
* AntiMagic: The spell ''anti-magic field'' creates a small area where no magic of any kind can function.
* ArmorAndMagicDontMix:
** As in 3.X, wizards and sorcerers have no armor proficiency and incur spell failure chance if they buy it with a feat or by multiclassing. Bards and magi are less restricted, with bards being able to wear light armor without penalty and magi earning the ability to wear heavier armor as they level up (but they have reduced spellcasting ability), and the Hellknight Signifier PrestigeClass reduces spell failure chances to the point where a wizard can cast without penalty in a suit of mithral full plate (the spell failure reductions stack).
** Clerics' armor proficiency is reduced to medium from heavy in 3.X, though there's no penalty for buying heavy armor proficiency with a feat or by multiclassing. Some archetypes alter this further: the Crusader gives up one of their two domains and a spell slot per level in exchange for heavy armor proficiency and bonus combat feats, whereas the Ecclesitheurge has ramped-up spellcasting in exchange for losing the ability to cast spells entirely if they even equip armor or a shield.
** And a thing of the past in second edition. The only classes that have issues are monks and animal-instinct barbarians, and only with some of their special abilities. It is entirely possible through feat selections, especially multiclass ones, to have a wizard wearing full plate armour proficiently.
* ArmorPiercingAttack: As in 3.X, touch attacks bypass AC from armor and natural armor, specified spells bypass spell resistance, and specified attack types bypass damage resistance. Some standout examples:
** The 3rd level spell ''iron stake'' (''Ultimate Wilderness'') generates a spike of cold iron that you throw at your enemy as a ranged touch attack. It bypasses spell resistance, and sickens creatures that are vulnerable to cold iron and forces them to roll an extra concentration check every time they try to cast a spell or spell-like ability.
** ''Ultimate Combat'' contains rules for breaking FantasyGunControl in various ways. Firearms are treated as ranged touch attacks when fired within their first range increment (fortunately, early firearms' range increments are quite short compared to bows and crossbows). This quickly runs into FirearmsAreRevolutionary with regards to game balance: firearms are normally considered exotic weapons (requiring basically anybody who isn't a gunslinger or gun-specialized archetype to take a feat to use them), but if you increase the TechnologyLevels of your world according to the included variant rules, guns can become martial or even simple weapons. This forces melee combatants to invest heavily in dodge AC to keep up.
* ArtifactOfDeath: Several {{Cursed Item}}s try to kill their owners. The ''necklace of strangulation'' [[SupernaturalSuffocation constricts around their neck]], the ''periapt of foul rotting'' inflicts a MysticalPlague, and the ever-popular ''scarab of death'' tries to ''eat their heart''.
* ArtificialInsolence: Mediums gain PowersViaPossession by spirits. Some actions give their channeled spirit additional influence over them; if they reach 5 influence points, the spirit takes over their body for the rest of the day.
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: In addition to inheriting D&D's "studded leather" error, the game's concept of "weapon groups", which ties into mainly Fighter and Cavalier class features, has separate groups for "spears" (stabbing weapons on sticks, chiefly spears, lances, and tridents) and "polearms" (other staff weapons such as halberds and pole-hammers). This is a historically nonexistent distinction: spears are properly a ''subset'' of polearms, as nearly all medieval and post-medieval [[OddlyShapedSword oddly-shaped spear variants]] from the halberd to the glaive could still be used to stab an enemy held at haft's length, and conversely the heads on fighting spears were often edged and could cut in addition to piercing.
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: As to be expected for a fantasy setting, and suitably [[HandWave handwaved]] because AWizardDidIt, but now and again there are still things that are... odd.
* AscendedDemon: Nocticula was the [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils demon lord of succubi and assassination]], but she grew tired of this existence, and ascended to godhood at the end of 1st edition. [[ChoosingNeutrality She's Chaotic Neutral rather than Good]], being the goddess of outcasts and artists, but still rejects worship from evil creatures.
* AscendedExtra: While Paizo has created creatures and races of their own, and have used plenty of favorites from Wotc's library, much of their world is rounded out with more obscure ''D&D'' races. Most notably, Aboleths largely take the place of Illithids.
* {{Asmodeus}}: Asmodeus is the ruler of the Nine Hells, and the only devil to be a true deity. Instead of being associated with {{lust}}, he is associated with LawfulEvil, slavery, tyranny, and contracts.
* AssholeVictim:
** [[spoiler:Hunclay]] from ''The Dragon's Demand''. An EvilSorcerer who wanted to destroy the so called "Witch Tower" nearby because it blocked his view of the stars, he worked with the titular dragon and his band of kobolds to this end. Unfortunately for him, the dragon [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness double crossed him]] and [[KarmicDeath collapsed the tower on top of him]], which the players are sent to investigate. Later in the module, they have to explore his mansion and find some disturbing experiments he did on extraplanar creatures, as well as a [[TheWoobie terrified servant]] who has locked himself in a closet and wont come out until he's sure his master is really dead.
** [[spoiler:Alaznist]] is probably supposed to be this in the ''Rise of the Runelords'' campaign, and in all fairness, she has done some very horrible things over the years. ([[spoiler:Creating the Sinspawn]], for one.) Of course, when one really looks at her backstory, it's not like she was given the option of being good...
* {{Atlantis}}: Azlant, complete with Sub-Mariner-looking "gillmen". Was [[TheManBehindTheMan propped to power]], and [[ColonyDrop disposed of]] after becoming a bit too big for their britches, by the [[EldritchAbomination aboleths]].
* AttackFailureChance:
** Attacks are represented by rolling a twenty-sided dice and adding the character's attack bonus to the result, hitting if the total exceeds the target's Armor Class. However, if the dice lands on "1" before attack bonus is added the attack is a CriticalFailure, conversely a "natural 20" is an automatic hit and a CriticalHit if it would have hit anyways in some editions.
** 1st edition arcane spellcasters who [[ArmorAndMagicDontMix wear armor]] and attempt to cast spells requiring gestures to cast have a percentage chance of failing, represented by rolling a hundred-sided dice or two [=d10s=]. In ''D&D'' 3.5 and ''Pathfinder'' bards could ignore the spell failure chance for light armor and the rule was dropped entirely in later editions of both games.
* AxisMundi: Pharasma's Spire is an impossible tall stone tower in the Outer Planes, at whose peak sits the Boneyard when Pharasma holds her court and judges the souls of the dead. It plays an integral part in the settings cosmology -- all mortal souls pass through it on their way to the other Outer Planes and, as they do so, the spire grows infinitesimally taller each day. One day, unguessable far in the future, some prophecies say that it will grow tall enough to reach the far side of the hollow sphere that makes up the outer layer of the cosmos and pierce it, causing the universe to collapse like a bubble pierced by a needle.
* BadassAdorable: Abrogail Thrune II is a rare evil example. While she is usually depicted as pretty cute (and was originally meant to be a teenager), she is also the ruler of [[TheEmpire Cheliax]].
* BadassNormal:
** Before he rose to godhood, this was Cayden Cailean in a nutshell. Extremely powerful, wandering, womanizing mercenary. Oh, and usually drunk. Became a god on a ''dare''. [[WhatDidIDoLastNight While blackout drunk.]] Even as a god he doesn't remember how he managed to reach the Starstone, or what exactly was going on at the time. He basically woke up the next day with a terrifying hangover and godhood. Well, he still can't remember because he became the god of, among other things, alcohol. By definition, he still hasn't sobered up.
** Of course, any non-magic-user character that survives long enough can be considered this.
* BagOfHolding: A staple magic Item and elaborated on in ''Classic Treasures Revisited''.
* BakenekoAndNekomata: Nekomatas are malevolent, panther-sized two-tailed cats with magical powers: chiefly, they can flawlessly mimic the appearance of a human they successfully damage with their bite attack and can animate and control undead creatures.
* {{Baku}}: Baku resemble floating, shaggy and tusked tapirs, and can when feeding choose to eat all of a person's dreams (causing them to wake up later exhausted and unrefreshed) or only their nightmares (which grants immunity to nightmare-inducing magic or dream haunting by malicious beings). They are mortal enemies of the dream-haunting night hags, and go to great lengths to hunt them down, fight them and prevent them from preying on sleeping minds.
* BalkanizeMe:
** Many a VestigialEmpire had this happen to it as it fell apart (Ancient Osirion, Taldor, Cheliax...), but Imperial Lung Wa is the most striking example in the setting's recent history; unlike the others mentioned, which still exist in a diminished form, Lung Wa's breakup was so complete that none of its dozen successor states even claim its name, and unlike the last two times that happened to the imperial state of the Tian-Shu people there's no re-unification in sight despite more than a century passing since Lung Wa collapsed.
** Taldor, which serves a similar backstory role to the Roman Empire (to the point where the Taldan language is the CommonTongue of Avistan and northern Garund), had its entire western half declare independence during a war with Qadira to the south and become Cheliax. Cheliax in turn fragmented as a result of the death of Aroden: having dismantled its entire government in preparation for Aroden's prophesied return as GodEmperor, it fell into dynastic CivilWar, which the House of Thrune eventually won with the backing of the Church of Asmodeus. The civil war and subsequent internal power struggles allowed Isger, Molthune, Galt, Andoran, and Nirmathas to attain independence (with very mixed results). After Ravounel breaks off as a result of the ''Hell's Rebels'' AP, ''Hell's Vengeance'' deals with an Evil party helping Queen Abrogail II stave off complete collapse.
* BanOnMagic: Within the borders of Rahadoum, anyone caught casting divine magic faces immediate exile due to the nation's [[NayTheist strict laws against worshipping gods.]] While it's technically possible for divine magic to have a nondivine source (as with Alhazra, First Edition's Iconic Oracle), good luck convincing the authorities that distinction is worth taking into consideration. A lesser ban is in effect in the [[TheNecrocracy necrocracy of Geb]], which bans spells that channel vitality since ReviveKillsZombie.
* BecomeYourWeapon: A high-level summoner has the ability to merge forms with their eidolon, combining their stats and effectively acting and fighting as one being. The Synthesist archetype allows them to do it from level 1, at the cost of not being able to summon the eidolon as a separate being. Heavily nerfed in Second Edition, however.
* {{Beelzebub}}: Baalzebul, the [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils Lord of the Seventh]] layer of Hell, is a FallenAngel who joined [[GodOfEvil Asmodeus]] in his rebellion against Heaven. When he demanded extra power, Asmodeus transformed him into a {{Hive Mind}}ed [[TheSwarm swarm of flies]]. He continues to serve Hell's interests, manifesting as a huge angelic figure of flies, a [[BigCreepyCrawlies gigantic fly]], or a single small fly that [[TheCorrupter whispers corruption]] to mortals.
* BeneathTheEarth: The world beneath is known as the Darklands and draws inspiration from pulp fiction of the early 1900s, such as Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs's ''Literature/{{Pellucidar}}''. It's divided into three "layers"--the uppermost is home to fairly normal humanoids like [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent goblins]] and [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame dwarves]], the middle layer is home to more reclusive races like the [[SnakePeople serpentfolk]], and the deepest pits are artificial Vaults, vast terrariums which may be {{Lost World}}s or the homes of [[EldritchAbomination unspeakable horrors]].
* BenevolentConspiracy: The Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye is equal parts SecretCircleOfSecrets and MysteryCult, hoarding occult lore and keeping their operations hidden behind several layers of ritual and initiation. They also oppose both the [[TheNecrocracy Whispering Way]] and the [[LesCollaborateurs Night Heralds]], and succeeded in saving Golarion from being consumed by [[PlanetEater Aucturn]] in 4718 AR.
* BerserkButton: If you meet a jyoti, do NOT talk about the [[FantasticRacism sceaduinar]].
* BigDamnHeroes: How the iconic summoner's eidolon came into being. See the [[Awesome/{{Pathfinder}} Awesome Moments page.]]
* BlackBlood: Some people and creatures can possess black blood, which possess necromantic powers and resistance to cold. Oracles and Bloodragers for having archetypes based around this ability.
* BladeEnthusiast: "Never the sharpest knife in the drawer, as the saying goes, Merisiel [the iconic rogue] has learned to make up for this by carrying at least a dozen of them on her person."
* BlandNameProduct: Strangely, the Ultimate Equipment book has "Wismuth Salix", a chalky pink liquid medicine. "Wismuth" is a play on bismuth, and "salix" can be translated from Latin as "peppy" -- it's fantasy Pepto-Bismol.
* BlessedWithSuck:
** All of the oracles must take a curse in exchange for their powers. These can vary from merely annoying to outright horrifying.
** The [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Taninivers]], having all those disease and necromancy based powers probably isn't worth being sick and in agony all the time..
* BlindSeer: The Oracle character class can select this as their Curse, severely limiting their normal eyesight but gaining the Darkvision special ability to compensate.
* BlobMonster: Of course, since "ooze" is kept as a creature type.
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: [[TheThreeFacesOfEve Magdh]], an Eldest of the [[TheFairFolk fae]], is [[MultipleHeadCase all three]].
* BloodBath: The Everdawn Pool, a powerful magical artifact found by the [[SorcerousOverlord Runelord]] Sorshen. The pool has many powers, but chief among them is the ability to transform the body of one who bathes in it after filling the pool with the blood of several thousand sacrificed sentient beings. The BigBad of ''Curse of the Crimson Throne'', [[spoiler:Queen Ileosa]], intends to become an immortal being this way, [[spoiler:slaughtering much of the population of Korvosa, including her own followers, in the process]].
* BloodKnight: Golarion orc society tends to emphasize fighting, pain, and glory. How this is received by others varies highly on context and politics -- the orcs of Belkzen are generally seen as barbarous for their standoffish nature and border raids, but the Matanji orcs are considered heroic by their neighbors due to them focusing their aggression on fighting demons and teaching others how to do the same.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Many neutral outsiders, particularly the Aeons (enigmatic TrueNeutral entities that are guardians of various aspects of reality), as well as beings from the First World such as many [[TheFairFolk Fey]] ([[OurGnomesAreWeirder gnomes]], being refugees from the place, have shades of this as well). Special mention to Lawful/Chaotic Neutral, outsiders who basically tend to have Blue and Orange ''Morality'', but Black and White ''Ethics''. For instance, a LN outsider would punish slavers in areas where slavery is illegal, but in places where it is legal their targets become escaped slaves.
* BodyHorror: Some of the Alchemist's Discoveries are pure self-inflicted body horror, ranging from standard ''Literature/DrJekyllAndMrHyde''-style transformations to carrying a helpless conjoined twin (allowing for extra limbs) or a ''sentient tumor'' in your body. There's plenty to be found elsewhere, and most of it isn't voluntary.
** A fair amount of this turns up in ''Wake of the Watcher'', part four of the ''Carrion Crown'' Adventure Path. It's also the one with the most Lovecraftian influence and the BodyHorror is not limited just to the descriptions -- at least two pieces of artwork showed it quite clearly.
** And then there are the tortures the Drow indulge in whenever one of their surface cousins falls in their clutches.
** Fleshwarping does this (very painfully) to anyone unfortunate enough to be the result of such an experiment. The aftermath is generally a horrific creature that barely resembles its original form.
** [[WretchedHive The city of Kaer Maga]] has two further voluntary [[DarkIsNotEvil yet not necessarily villainous]] examples: the surprisingly civilized [[AllTrollsAreDifferent troll Augurs]], who for a nominal fee will divine the future... by reading their own entrails, and the largest known concentration of bloatmages, who take the "blood" aspect of magic power to its logical conclusion (i.e. the more blood in your body, the more power you have) and become [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin bloated, blood and lymph-filled caricatures]] who have to follow a strict regimen of body control exercises and leech-assisted draining of excess fluids lest they suffer a SuperpowerMeltdown.
* BodyOfBodies: This game features an undead creature called the Charnel Colossus, which is basically a huge undead monstrosity that was meant to be used as an unliving library, and is composed of an entire graveyard worth of "like-minded individuals."
* BoisterousBruiser: Cayden Cailean, god of freedom, bravery, and alcoholic beverages, is what happens when a Boisterous Bruiser achieves godhood... ''[[WhatDidIDoLastNight by accident]]''.
** Also, Valeros, the iconic fighter. No points for guessing which god he follows.
** The Firebrands are a whole faction of these at first glance. Really, they're a group of [[LaResistance revolutionaries fighting against tyranny]], but the general public's first impression of them was a group of [[TheFightingNarcissist badass daredevil showmen.]] They decided to [[SureLetsGoWithThat shrug their shoulders and play along with this,]] since it gave their agents a surprising amount of plausible deniability.
* BondageIsBad: Zon-Kuthon, who is basically a [[Franchise/{{Hellraiser}} Cenobite]] homage as an evil god. Also the Velstracs (formerly Kytons), expanded from a single type of evil outsider into a full-fledged ''Franchise/{{Hellraiser}}''-themed [[TheLegionsOfHell infernal]] [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils hierarchy]].
** Partially averted by the goddess Calistria, the goddess of lust and "The Savored Sting," who isn't particularly good or evil.
* BotanicalAbomination: Cyth-V'sug, the {{demon lord|sAndArchDevils}} of fungus, parasites and disease, takes the physical form of a house-sized, animated mass of fungi, vines, tubers and rot. Depictions of him vary between showing him as a hulking, beast-like quadruped composed of rotting vegetable matter or as a flying mass of wooden claws, fangs and horns dotted with bulbous fungal "eyes" and gnarled branches, but always shrouded in miasma and swarming vermin. He used to be a qlippoth, an ancient race of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s that ruled the Abyss before demons arose, before he became a demon, and thus lacks any resemblance to mortal forms or sanity in his appearance. His realm, Jeharlu, is a planet-sized mass of living fungus that feeds parasitically on any world or plane it is able to contact, corrupting them and absorbing them into itself.
* BrainInAJar: ''Wake of the Watcher'', fourth volume of the Carrion Crown Adventure Path, features a "brain archive" that contains several of these. ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Valley of the Brain Collectors]]'', fourth volume of the Iron Gods Adventure Path, features a motley assortment of Mi-Go and [[EldritchAbomination agents of the Dark Tapestry]].
* BrainTheft: The neh-thalggus, or brain collectors as most others know them, are one of the numerous races of monstrous aliens that make up the star-faring empire knows as the Dominion of the Black. Their name comes from their ability to remove brains from living humanoids and store them in special blisters on their bodies, which they wire into their own nervous systems in order to increase their intellect and brainpower. [[AndIMustScream The captured brains are still alive and aware through this process]]; the neh-thalggus don't care. Old and powerful neh-thalggus can absorb their stored brains to transform into larger, stronger yah-thelgaads; these can only store six brains at a time, but can collect the brains of non-humanoid organisms as well.
* BreakTheCutie:
** Ameiko Kaijitsu's story arc in ''Pathfinder #1: Burnt Offerings'' has shades of this trope. [[spoiler:Her beloved but estranged younger half-brother, Tsuto, comes back to her hometown after a five-year absence, intending to burn it to the ground and kill everyone in it. When she refuses to join him in this endeavor, he has his goblin minions beat her within an inch of her life (literally, she has a negative hit point total if the [=PC=]s manage to rescue her), and leaves her tied up, gagged, and blindfolded on a cold stone floor for a few hours. He also murders her father, and puts his body on display in the workshop of the family's glass-making business, covering it in sheets of cooled molten glass. And then there's the possible revelation, depending on how things play out, that her father murdered her mother five years earlier, as a long-delayed revenge for the adultery that produced Tsuto. Also, if the [=PC=]s don't rescue her very quickly after her capture, she'll end up being burned to death by Tsuto's psychotic girlfriend as a sacrifice to the demon goddess Lamashtu.]]\\
\\
Whether it gets better or worse in ''Jade Regent'' depends on your point of view. [[spoiler:Ameiko has the opportunity to become the Empress of Minkai--if she can make an exceedingly perilous journey there with the aid of the [=PC=]s and deal with the scheming powerful Oni who drove her noble family into exile and slaughtered her grandfather. Not to mention, her backstory is expanded upon, revealing that she quit her teenage adventuring career after seeing her lover get dragged to his death by cannibals.]]
** Zon-Kuthon was a god of love and beauty like his sister Shelyn before going on a journey outside reality, meeting ''[[CosmicHorror something]]'', and coming back [[GoMadFromTheRevelation as the broken and twisted god of pain, darkness, and loss]].
** Zon-Kuthon's father was a boisterous, life-loving wolf spirit/god who was more than happy to see his errant son come home. [[spoiler:Now it is the Prince in Chains, a skinless, eternally tormented "hateful creature of broken flesh, pain and chains", and Zon-Kuthon's herald. Even its flesh isn't its own -- in his tortures, his son stripped it all away, using it to create his own monsters, and replaced it with chains, leather, and necrotic flesh from other victims. As a deity who holds torture to be the highest form of art, Zon-Kuthon is believed to consider the Prince-in-Chains his masterpiece]].
** To a greater or lesser extent, every single one of the Iconics.
*** Seytiel, the iconic Magus, is a bastard child who was repeatedly beaten by his "father" and who when he finally met his real father, a bandit leader, was left to die after he was captured in the hopes that he would be mistaken for said father.
*** Lini, the iconic Druid, was left to die by the friends she had repeatedly protected from wild animals when a snow leopard jumped on her.
*** Amiri, the iconic Barbarian was a typical tomboy, before her people, embarrassed by her skills at killing things [[StayInTheKitchen despite being a woman]], tried to get her killed. She murdered the group sent to cause her death in a blood rage and now she's forever exiled from her homeland.
*** Sajan, the iconic Monk, was separated from his beloved twin sister by politics and in searching for her has basically banished himself from his country and all his friends.
*** Lem, the iconic Bard, was a slave who overheard his masters planning to sacrifice the other slaves of the house to devils, so he arranged for the slaves to all be away while he burned down the house full of his masters. The Slaves all rushed into the fire to save them and died.
*** Seelah, the iconic Paladin, stole a paladin's helm, which led to the paladin's death when a killing blow was struck upon her unarmored head. Seelah didn't take that well, planning to burn herself to death on the paladin's own funeral pyre to atone.
*** Harsk, the iconic Ranger, lost his brother to giants and vowed to kill them all.
*** Merisiel, the iconic Rogue, grew up as an orphan among humans, losing at least three generations of peers to aging and disease along the way.
*** Ezren, the iconic Wizard, spent decades of his life trying to clear his father of false charges of heresy against the church of Abadar, only to find irrefutable proof his father's guilt.
*** Kyra, the iconic Cleric, lost her beloved peasant village when it was burned around her.
*** Alahazra, the 1e iconic Oracle, was thrown out of her house into the desert to die of starvation and exposure by her own father because she could cast divine magic.
*** Feiya, the iconic Witch, was raised by Hags. Wolves would have been kinder.
* BurnScarsBurningPowers:
** 1e Oracles with the Blackened curse have shriveled and blackened forearms, as if they had plunged their arms into a bonfire. The curse inflicts a penalty on weapon attack rolls but adds several fire spells to the character's spell list.
** Emberkin aasimars, descended from fire-connected outsiders called peri, can take the "Burnished Skin" race trait during character creation, which states they were severely scarred in a fire and grants a bonus on saves against illusions.
* CallingYourAttacks: Items cursed to be "raucous" make this mandatory for the user, thus ruining stealth.
* CaptainErsatz: The boggards, a race of frog-people, are really just ''D&D'''s bullywugs renamed due to copyright issues.
** The [[SnakePeople serpentfolk]] are similar to ''D&D'''s yuan-ti in function (ancient evil snake folk living in ruins) but different in appearance, powers, and culture. In a way, they're more of a return to form--yuan-ti were ersatzes of Creator/RobertEHoward's serpentfolk. ''Pathfinder''[='=]s serpentfolk are for all practical purposes identical to the archenemies of King Literature/{{Kull}}.
** Intellect devourers, though a preexisting ''D&D'' monster, have become the default stand-in for mind flayers in the "psionic brain-themed underground aberration" department. Another preexisting monster tied to mind flayers, neothelids, also picked up a part of their role, in this case the "[[CosmicHorror immensely powerful psionic horrors worshipping worse beings and plotting to destroy/enslave everything else]]" part.
** Rovagug, the god of destruction, is the replacement for Obox-ob, the [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils demon lord]] who was the BigBad of lead designer James Jacobs's campaign which eventually became Golarion. Jacobs "sold" Obox-ob to Wizards of the Coast when he included the demon in their ''Fiendish Codex'' book (fair enough as he took the name from the 1E ''Monster Manual II'').[[note]]Rovagug did exist in Jacobs's original campaign but was a more generic god of the underworld.[[/note]]
** A weird case: In ''D&D'' 3E, there were two "underground fish-people" races: kuo-toa (the more popular and better-known) and skum. The skum were open-source under the Open Gaming License; the kuo-toa were not. So Paizo took the skum and made them thematically more like the kuo-toa (and Creator/HPLovecraft's Deep Ones). They have forgotten their heritage as part of an ancient Aboleth empire, and everyone (including themselves) calls them Skum, but the actual name for their race is Ulat-Kini.
** The graveknight is inspired by ''D&D'''s death knight, with some subtle differences--the death knight's soul inhabits its dead body like most undead, while the graveknight's soul possesses its armor, much like a lich's phylactery.
** Likewise, the ravener is strongly based on ''D&D'''s dracolich.
** The urdefhans are meant to evoke the image of ''D&D'''s githyanki -- evil, otherworldly humanoids with a skeletal appearance who wield distinctive swords -- but have a completely different campaign role.
** ''Bestiary 4'' has Kaiju as a monster type. Of the Kaiju, Agyra is basically a combination of Rodan and Mothra. Bezravnis is a fiery underground Ebirah, and Mogaru is Godzilla without the radioactive aspects. ''Bestiary 6'' introduces King Varklops, who is King Ghidorah as a snake rather than a dragon.
* CastFullOfGay: ''Lost Omens: Grand Bazaar'' describes various shops in Absalom's main marketplace, and each shopkeeper is given a two-page writeup about their history and how they run their shop. Of the shopkeepers described, just a little over half of them are LGBT in some capacity. Considering that ''Grand Bazaar'' had many contributing writers and Paizo has a well-known LGBTFanbase, this is likely an amusing coincidence rather than anything intentional.
* ChainPain: The spiked chain is a weapon option.
** Also, the Prince in Chains, herald of the god of pain. And velstracs (previously called ''chain'' devils), whose skins are essentially living spiked chains.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Tying into the EarlyInstallmentWeirdness nature of the setting, many of [=''Pathfinder''=]'s more recurring characters, especially the gods, have gone through this over the years. For example: Erastil and Asmodeus used to have sexist aspects to their characterizations, but overtime this was removed (Asmodeus) or changed (Erastil) to reflect Paizo's move away from their original ideas for the setting. Even gods without controversial and outdated views had elements changed to make them more less rigid; Pharasma going from universally hating undead, to more so being against the act of creating them as an example.
* CharacterAlignment: [[invoked]] Through 2023, both editions used the "good-neutral-evil" and "law-neutral-chaos" system, much like its [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons predecessor]]. The "Champions of..." Player Companion line gave have a bit of a more "in-depth" look at the typical alignments.
** [[invoked]] In ''Champions of Purity'', the typical LawfulGood roles are governmental Builders, evil hunting [[ThePaladin Crusaders]], and Guardians. The typical NeutralGood roles are Healers, Mediators, and Redeemers. The typical ChaoticGood roles are Activists, [[LaResistance Freedom Fighters]], and [[VigilanteMan Vigilantes]].
** [[invoked]] In ''Champions of Balance'', the typical LawfulNeutral roles are Executors, Judges, and Mechanists. The typical TrueNeutral roles are Agents of Balance, [[TheAntiNihilist Fatalists]], and Naturalists. The typical ChaoticNeutral roles are [[HotBlooded Impulsives]], [[RebelliousSpirit Rebels]], and Saboteurs.
** [[invoked]] In ''Champions of Corruption'', the typical LawfulEvil roles are manipulative Despots, evil-serving [[{{Mooks}} Minions]], and Swindlers. The typical NeutralEvil roles are [[StrawNihilist Annihilists]], egotistical {{Narcissist}}s, and [[ItAmusedMe Psychopaths]]. The typical ChaoticEvil roles are Devotees, Furies, and [[TheHedonist Hedonists]].
** In 2023, as part of the migration of Second Edition off of the Open Game License onto the new Open RPG Creative License (sparked by an abortive attempt by Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast to end use of the original OGL), Paizo announced that the traditional alignment system would no longer be in use going forward, in favor of expanded use of [[ObstructiveCodeOfConduct edicts and anathema]] with divine effects labeled "holy" and "unholy".
* CharmPerson: A basic (1st Level) spell, with more powerful variants such as ''charm monster''.
* ChaseSceneObstacleCourse: The ''Pathfinder Gamemastery Guide'' has mechanics for impromptu chase scenes: The GM lays down a row of cards representing obstacles (each obstacle has a choice of skill checks to overcome them) and controls a fleeing NPC. The {{Player Character}}s and NPC then attempt skill checks to progress through the obstacle course until the pursuers catch up, or the pursued reaches a point that marks a safe escape.
* TheChewToy: The first issues of no fewer than five Adventure Paths have featured members of the Vancaskerkin family as supporting characters -- first [[MinionWithAnFInEvil Orik]], then his brother [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Verik]], their father [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse Saul]], their half-sister [[ClassyCatBurglar Natalya]], and their cousin Lullaby. There is ''one'' of them that can catch a break in canon, but the fans love 'em for [[TheDeterminator keeping on]].
* ChildByRape: ''Pathfinder'', being DarkerAndEdgier than ''Dungeons & Dragons'' played up this aspect of Half-Orcs, something that the game's designers have defended as emphasizing both the darker nature of their setting and the innate heroism of half-orc player characters. That said, there are at least two named half-orc [=NPCs=] in two separate adventure paths who were born of [[InterspeciesRomance consensual encounters]]; a male half-orc pirate in ''Skull & Shackles'' who was born to a human man and the female orc he befriended and helped escape, and Irabeth Tirablade, a female half-orc paladin born to a male orc that [[DefectorFromDecadence abandoned his people's evil ways]] [[LoveRedeems to marry a human woman]].
** Ironically, as of right now, not a single Half-Orc iconic/major NPC in Pathfinder has this origin. Oloch? Consensual, but his father stole him away and raised him as a slave. Imrijka is a DoorstopBaby, so how she came about is unknown.
** The Player's Guide to the ''Carrion Crown'' adventure path doesn't ''quite'' spell it out, but mentions that "the residual bloodlines caused by generations of orc attacks on human settlements still pop up in even the most prestigious of families." Since those attacks happened a thousand years ago, one can imagine the scale required for them to still have a genetic impact now...
** [[OurOgresAreHungrier Ogrekin]] are also assumed to be universally born from this, as ''Pathfinder'' ogres are monstrously sadistic 10-foot-tall+ inbred hillbillies who no sane human-sized person would ever want to mate with.
* CityOfTheDamned: Dis, the Infernal City, is the second layer of Hell. It's a metropolis of staggering size, filled with towers of iron, brass and obsidian and monolithic buildings the size of entire mortal settlements, and home to a teeming population of devils, other lawful fiends such as velstracs and asuras, and hordes of damned souls, all under the watchful eye of Dispater, the archedevil of cities, prisons and rulership. It even has twinned canal systems for ease of transportation, although one runs with liquid fire and the other with the memory-draining waters of the River Styx. It's given a detailed look in ''Distant Realms'', a sourcebook dedicated to extraplanar metropolises, which describes it as one of the greatest trade hubs in the universe.
* ClingyMacGuffin: Most "cursed" magic items have this property. They can only be gotten rid of through a ''remove curse'' spell.
* ClueOfFewWords: The spell "Contact Other Plane" petitions gods or other eldritch forces for information. However, they only give one-word answers like "Yes", "Maybe", or "Irrelevant", or at most a short phrase.
* CollectorOfForms: {{Downplayed|Trope}} with the spell [[{{Animorphism}} Beast Shape]], which requires a piece of the creature whose form is being assumed as a [[EyeOfNewt material component]]. In practice, a spellcaster's component pouch is usually {{Hand Wave}}d to have all the non-costly material components they need, barring unusual circumstances.
* ColonyDrop: Caused ten thousand years ago by the [[EldritchAbomination aboleths]] to punish their [[{{Atlantis}} uppity human pawns]]. Resulted in [[TheNightThatNeverEnds a thousand years of darkness]] and [[ApocalypseHow a Class Two dieback of surface civilization]].
** The Starstone also turned out to be '''very''' powerful (whether in its own right or through the sacrifice of two gods who tried to stop its fall), including the ability to elevate mortals to GODHOOD, four times actually. Though the Aboleth were not aware of its real nature, so this was not intentional...at least from the point of view of the Deep Masters.
* CombatByChampion: [[http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/ship-combat/advanced-naval-combat Combat on a boarded ship]] is [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality for practical reasons]] resolved as a one-to-one fight between the captains.
* ComboPlatterPowers: [[Literature/{{Jabberwocky}} The Tane]] all fall into this. The Jabberwock's abilities are the same as what's hinted at in the poem (eyes of flame, burbling, and whiffling), and the other two were created to mimic the Jabberwock. It's a major contributor to how [[OurMonstersAreWeird odd]] they are.
* CommonTongue: In the Inner Sea region "Common" is a nickname for Taldane, the official language of the Taldor Empire which acts as a trade language outside their [[VestigialEmpire current]] borders. Other regions of Golarion have their own language that fulfill the same purpose, such as Tien in Tian Xia.
* CompilationRerelease: Due to the good performance of the original softcover release, the Abomination Vaults and Fists of the Ruby Phoenix Adventure Paths were later re-released in hardcover form. Each hardcover compiles the contents of all three softcover volumes (both adventures and supporting articles) and contains some new art but otherwise keeps most of the content the same.
* CompositeCharacter:
** The herald of Cayden Cailean is named Thais. She is named after two different [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thais_(saint) real]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thais life]] and seems to be a combination of the two (being a freedom loving angel like creature)
** The Tatterman from ''Strange Aeons'' is like a combination of Slenderman and Freddy Kreuger.
* CoolButStupid: Solid gold weapons! They cost 10 times as much as normal, weigh half again as much, take a penalty on damage rolls, ''fall apart'' [[CriticalFailure on an attack roll of 1]]... but hey, they sure do look pretty! They have NO real bonuses to counteract these penalties. Except a ''possible'' circumstance bonus to Diplomacy. The flavor text says that they are only used as ceremonial weapons.
** Well, no use until some clever wizard or rogue works out that the weight of the gold in a solid gold weapon sometimes comes out to 20 times the cost or more, and whips out the linguistics(forgery) skill or the fabricate spell...
* CompleteImmortality: After the release of ''Mythic Adventures'', Tier 10 mythic characters can gain something very close to this. Take the Mythic Longevity path ability that renders them immune to aging, and their natural mythic ability ''Immortal'' means that unless they receive a Coup-de-Grace or critical hit with an artifact that kills them, they will immediately "respawn" 24 hours later.
** Some CR 26-30 creatures also have this. The statted versions of the [[EldritchAbomination Great Old Ones]] are immortal and can only be delayed, not killed. Bokrug is reduced to dormancy if "killed" and returns to the Dimension of Dreams to slumber for hundreds of years, Cthulhu must be "killed" twice and returns to R'lyeh until awakened again once this is done, and Hastur is returned to life if somebody dons his robes after "killing" him while otherwise he simply can't manifest a physical body again until the conditions are right.
** Literature/BabaYaga possesses complete immortality. With the base mythic ability, she then removed her Death from herself. She returns after 24 hours no matter what kills her unless her Death is released back into her body first. She keeps her Death in a hidden demiplane within her Dancing Hut. A demiplane that can normally only be accessed from within the Hut and with her permission.
** A simpler example is that wizards (including [=PCs=]) can research a "discovery" every five levels, and a 20th-level example is immortality. Notably, Razmir, a despotic ruler who ''claims'' to be an immortal god, is a level ''19th'' wizard.
* ControlFreak: Barzillai Thrune. His EvilPlan, itself centered around taking control of Cheliax, relies on him being the mayor of Kintargo for a long time, but his greatest enemy in this endeavour is his own ego. He is so obsessed with getting Kintargo to submit to his rule on ''his'' terms that he frequently overlooks things that make him legitimately popular and well-liked, culminating in him turning an event that would have made him the toast of Kintargo into a violent revolution against Cheliax because he had to do it ''his'' way.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Pretty much the entire leadership of [[EvilInc the Lumber Consortum]]
* CrapsackWorld: Welcome to Golarion, where you're most likely screwed, doing the screwing, or both!
** For starters, [[OmnicidalManiac Rovagug]] is only barely held in place by the joint efforts of [[SatanicArchetype Asmodeus]] and [[MessianicArchetype Sarenrae]]. Asmodeus, the LawfulEvil would-be omniversal tyrant, also gets to hold the threat of universal destruction over everyone else's shoulders, because he's the only one with the key to Rovagug's prison.
*** Rovagug's "children" include Tarrasque, the infamous and nigh-indestructible creature that likes to end civilizations when it awakens. But even ''that'' pales in comparison to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Rovagug himself...]]
** It's implied that there might be certain creatures that came before even the gods. [[Literature/CthulhuMythos Guess what they are.]]
*** There are also beings like Baba Yaga, who have all the powers of Gods but none of the drawbacks because they [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly do not need prayer badly]], but have other power sources instead. You can guess how good news a being that can go toe-to-toe with a god and is beholden to no-one is.
** Demon Lords like Asmodeus and Nocticula are openly worshipped. As in, they have huge temples built to them, and their priests proselytize openly in the streets. The Church of Asmodeus is even the state religion of not-insignificant parts of the world.
** Even among the "good" gods, there is plenty to criticize. Iomedae can be quite the ManipulativeBitch when she deems it necessary. Sarenrae isn't above a little PayEvilUntoEvil. Cayden Cailean is a drunkard who can't keep it in his pants who lucked into godhood while drunk, and has not been sober since. Shelyn forbids her paladins from killing even the most heinous of evil-doers because they might create something beautiful at some point in the future. Calistria has a so severe case of ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Asmodeus leaves the room when she arrives. Erastil is a reactionary who has raised StayInTheKitchen to an art form.
** One of the more powerful nations in the setting, Cheliax, are diabolistic [[ANaziByAnyOtherName human supremacists that intend to subjugate the world]] [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans in the name of Asmodeus.]] The queen has a pit fiend as her chief advisor; not to corrupt her, mind, just to ensure she doesn't slip into StupidEvil.
** Numeria is ruled by a cabal of {{Mad Scientist}}s who are strip-mining a crashed spaceship.
** Queen Ileosa of Korvosa is a full-fledged monster running a eugenics program that makes the Nazi T4-program look like flourinating drinking water, and intends to rise to godhood on the back of a high six-digit number of human sacrifices.
** Galt had a revolution half a century ago, but never really understood that at some point you have to stop purging dissidents and start building a society. The nation has been stuck in a cycle of revolution and counter-revolution ever since.
** [[TheNecrocracy The kingdom of Geb]] is a kingdom ruled by undead. Best to stay clear of this place or you'll end up as a slave or food, if not both.
** Central Avistan is home to the Worldwound, the site of a gigantic portal to the Abyss which swallowed and destroyed the nation of Sarkoris, and where [[TheLegionsOfHell hundreds of demonic creatures]] pour into Golarion '''every day''', and has been the site of near-constant warfare for the better part of a century.
** On the more mundane end, slavery and human sacrifice are also perfectly legal in large swathes of the world.
** On top of this, you have all the usual things expected of an AdventureFriendlyWorld; rampaging monsters, magical plagues, roaming undead, wizards doing dodgy stuff, weird cults... the list goes on.
* CreationMyth: The earliest days of Golarion are shrouded in mystery, as archeological and historical records pre-[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Earthfall]] are understandably scarce. Even directly asking the gods, many of whom were probably directly involved with the universe's creation, only produces vague, often-contradictory answers about it. Thus, many cultures and ancestries attempt to fill in this gap at the beginning of history with their own mythologies, most of which place said cultures in a suspiciously-central part of the narrative.
* CreativeSterility: The titans were jealous of gods' ability to create mortals, so they tried to create a race of their own to worship them. What they got were the demodands, a race of twisted, fiendish mockeries.
* CriticalFailure:
** Firearms misfire on a low attack roll. A misfire results in the weapon gaining the broken condition, which means that the weapon will more easily misfire again, and the weapon will explode on a second misfire.
** Fragile weapons also become broken on a natural 1 and are destroyed on a second natural 1.
** Any attack roll resulting in a natural 1 near a temerdaemon will hit the attacker or an ally of the attacker if a second attack roll succeeds.
* CultureChopSuey: Less prevalent than you might think, and seems to be more based on RuleOfCool than ignorance. For example, county Sinaria in Ustalav is essentially a gothic horror Louisiana with [[Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera Opera Populaire]] thrown in, as a border province in {{Uberwald}}.
* CursedWithAwesome:
** The sorcerer class has Bloodlines which can stem from anything from dragons to demons to undead to Lovecraftian horrors lurking between the stars. They all give the Sorcerer awesome powers, new spells, and access to more feats. In a more literal sense, the ''1e'' Oracle base class is given something called an "Oracle's Curse".
*** Oh no! You are babbling in a demonic tongue while in battle! But when you reach level 15, you can understand and speak any language!
*** Oh no! You can't see beyond 30 feet in front of you, but you can see in the infrared spectrum and at level 15 who cares about having difficulty seeing, you can see in a fashion that's better than regular sight.
*** Oh no! I'm a bit lame, but at level 15 I literally cannot get tired.
*** Oh no! I'm haunted, objects that I drop or attempt to retrieve are suddenly not there or several feet away, but as I level [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers I gain the ability to tell gravity to GTFO.]]
*** Oh no! I'm a bit ugly and unpleasant, but I'm completely immune to disease and nausea.
** A more generalized type would be magical items that are cursed or have drawbacks. Sure, some of them enforce some variety of change or behavior on the user, but if the user has no problem with it, the "curse" is a boon. One example are magical items that change the wearer's sex -- a UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} character may choose to seek one out for the "drawback" effect moreso than the main effect.
** Oracle returns for ''Second Edition'' with the same core concept of "divinely cursed with awesome", though the effect progression explicitly forces you to amplify your curse to get the full benefits of it--the curse your Mystery bears normally only has a benefit and small, passive flavor downside, but each time you use a Revelation focus spell, your curse progresses until the end of combat. Each downside and benefit is cumulative.
*** The minor effects give you a small, flavorful downside you have to play around, without any real upside. Once you cast your Revelation, you're stuck with the minor effects until you rest and make daily preparations again. These include things like lower initiative from being unable to process the torrent of knowledge your curse provides, losing 2 AC unless you've made a Strike since the start of your turn, or halving the non-magical healing you receive.
*** The moderate effects give you a bigger downside, but also give you a small benefit. Refocusing at moderate or higher reduces your curse's effects to their minor form. These include things like being enfeebled 2 and much more vulnerable to getting pushed around but also being able to leap around more easily and resisting tripping, being cloaked in swirling ash that dazzles you, but also conceals you and creatures within 10 feet, or being unable to magically heal (but improving your ability to magically heal your allies).
*** Major effects are only accessible at Level 11, often having a serious downside but also a moderate benefit. These include things like being constantly surrounded by flames unless you spend an action to suppress them, being surrounded by an incredibly powerful rainstorm that causes difficult terrain while making you vulnerable to lightning, and being able to understand all languages but incapable of communicating by any means.
*** The extreme stage, only accessible at Level 17 (and requiring multiple encounters to reach under most circumstances), is identical for all Mysteries. You're constantly Doomed 2 (meaning that if you go down, you're much more likely to die), but you can reroll any attack roll, skill or Perception check, or saving throw you fail once every 10 minutes.
* CustomBuiltHost: The [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils archdevil]] Mammon lost his original body and now haunts all the treasure in the vaults of {{Hell}}. For special occasions or to fight, he possesses the Argent Prince, a unique, custom-designed statue of his ideal form.
* CuteCrittersActChildlike: Goblins are an evil version: pyromaniac big-heads who behave like [[PsychopathicManchild psychopathic little kids]]. It's part of what makes them so amusing.
* CuteMonsterGirl:
** Female [[RubberForeheadAliens Lashunta]]. While all Lashunta are reasonably human-looking apart from the antennae, the men tend to be short, hairy, and unprepossessing, while the women are beautiful {{Green Skinned Space Babe}}s.
** Female driders have the torsos of beautiful drow women, and their arachnid lower halves have a certain black widowish sleekness and grace. Male driders have obvious spider mandibles and less streamlined lower bodies.
** [[http://alzrius.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/changeling_girl.jpg Changelings]], the immature daughters of hags. Hags are monstrous old crones; changelings are pretty girls with mismatched eyes and, sometimes, unusual hair colours.
** Many of the fiendish races (with the prominent exception of the [[StarfishAliens utterly]] [[EldritchAbomination inhuman]] qlippoths) have a "pretty humanoid" variant: Erinyes for the devils, [[SuccubiAndIncubi Succubi]] for demons, Erodaemons for daemons, and Pairakas for divs. Ostiarus kytons are Cute Monster Boys.
** Harpies seesaw on this trope; on the one hand, they are physically attractive, but on the other hand, they're [[ThePigPen very unhygienic]] and so tend to be filthy, foul-smelling, and with crooked teeth.
** Lamias look like either tauric SnakePeople or [[OurCentaursAreDifferent cat-taurs]], but the female half is always quite beautiful.
** Sirens (who look like giant birds with the heads of very attractive human women) are a bit on the monstrous side, but count. They're one of the few species that require humanoid men to breed who treat them decently -- their entry in the ''Bestiary 2'' actually mentions sirens dying of heartbreak, or committing suicide, if they are spurned by men they wish to mate with.
** Thriae are a race of bee-girls who follow this trope quite well.
** Let's save time and state that many "nymph" type fey (rusalkas, nereids, dryads, nymphs) fit this archetype.
* CuttingOffTheBranches: With the update to 2nd Edition in 2019, all adventure paths (except Kingmaker) got canonical endings in order to update the setting.
** Serpent's Skull: [[spoiler:The serpentfolk's plot to return their god Ydersius to full power was thwarted.]]
** Skull & Shackles: [[spoiler:The [=PCs=] declined the role of Hurricane Queen, giving it to Tessa Fairwind.]]
** Reign of Winter: [[spoiler:Baba Yaga was freed, Queen Elvanna was defeated, and [[UsefulNotes/AnastasiaNikolaevnaRomanova Anastasia Romanova]] was resurrected and made the new Queen of Irrisen.]]
** Wrath of the Righteous: [[spoiler:The Worldwound was successfully closed, and Queen Galfrey ascended to become Iomedae's new Herald. Nocticula ascended to become a goddess of redemption, freedom, and the arts. Irabeth and Anevia Tirabade retired to Irabeth's family farm.]]
** Iron Gods: [[spoiler:The Technic League was defeated, Casandalee became a new divine being, Kevoth-Kul the Black Sovereign was freed from his addictions.]]
** Mummy's Mask: [[spoiler:Pharaoh Hakotep I was defeated quickly after his return, causing the current Pharaoh Khemet III to close Osirion's ancient tombs to foreign explorers.]]
** Hell's Rebels: [[spoiler:Ravounel became independent but is still very much under Cheliax's shadow, which regards it as a breakaway province.]]
** Hell's Vengeance: [[spoiler:The Glorious Reclamation was defeated and its leaders executed, with Abrogail II able to stabilize Cheliax, though Rahadoum seized the opportunity to annex Khari.]]
** Ironfang Invasion: [[spoiler:The [=PCs=] defeated General Azaersi, but then brokered peace between her new nation of Oprak and Nirmathas rather than destroying it.]]
** Ruins of Azlant: [[spoiler:Andoran's colony in shattered Azlant was saved.]]
** War for the Crown: [[spoiler:Eutropia becomes Grand Princess of Taldor, with her deceased brother Carrius resurrected and freed; he is now her heir.]]
** Return of the Runelords: [[spoiler:Working for Runelord Sorshen, the [=PCs=] defeated Runelord Alaznist and freed Belimarius and the city of Xin-Edasseril from stasis and restored them to Varisia as the nation of New Thassilon.]]
** Tyrant's Grasp: [[spoiler:Tar-Baphon was freed from imprisonment, but his assault on Absalom failed.]]
** ''We Be Goblins!'': [[spoiler:The goblin [=PCs=] all survived and wound up on the Astral Plane.]]
* CuttingTheKnot: Part five of ''War for the Crown'' requires the [=PCs=] to win a local election on the plane of Axis. You can go through the motions by using the campaign's Persona system to cajole the electorate into voting for you... or you can just persuade your opponent to drop out (or, you know, kill her), in which case your candidate will be running unopposed.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:D-F]]
* DangerouslyGarishEnvironment: The First World, a plane of existence that serves as Golarion's version of the LandOfFaerie, is said to have been the gods' "first draft" at creating the world. It is a garishly and wildly colorful world that is as unpredictable as it is beautiful, and it is easy for mortals who enter it to become lost forever even if they don't fall victim to ill-advised pranks by the native fey.
* DarkIsEvil: Present everywhere, but nowhere is it more prominent than with the Nightshades. The most powerful race of undead, nightshades are never smaller than Huge size, and their most powerful member (the nightwave) is a [[{{Kaiju}} Colossal]] [[ThreateningShark shadow shark.]] [[FlyingSeafoodSpecial That can FLY.]]
** DarkIsNotEvil: On the other hand, the plane right next door to the nightshades, the Plane of Shadow, is home to beings like the fetchlings and wayangs, that mostly want to be left to themselves. The Movanic Deva angel is VERY evil-looking. Svirfneblin, at first glance, seem to be gnome versions of duergar or drow, but they're usually neutral. Pseudodragons are tiny dragons that look somewhat freaky, but are NeutralGood and have catlike personalities. And, obviously, we have tieflings, the mortal descendants of fiends that can choose to embrace their heritage or completely denounce it.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Sometimes just in the sense of having a more "mature" feel, sometimes considerably less subtle (one module has hillbilly rapist ogres). Said module is the ''censored'' version. The original will likely never be published. ''2e'' tends to avert the worst cases of this, though.
** The "Carnival of Tears" module gives the heroes an early opportunity to stop a violent rape, and that's before any evil fey get involved. From there it becomes a parade of gore, misery, and horror that puts the ''{{Franchise/Saw}}'' movies to shame. If the adventure ends with a body count of less than ''one hundred villagers'', it's considered a smashing success for the heroes.
** HotterAndSexier, as well. Note the female iconics. And [[MrFanservice some of the males]]...
* DarkWorld: The Plane of Shadow, just like in 3.5, is still ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
* DeadlyGas: The Cloud Kill and Acid Fog spells
** The module ''Rasputin Must Die!'' has mustard gas and a monster that's a sentient cloud of it. That got that way by [[YourSoulIsMine absorbing the souls of the people it killed]]. [[EverythingsDeaderWithZombies It makes zombies.]]
* DealWithTheDevil: Lots of devils in PF make deals, but [[Myth/{{Faust}} Mephistopheles]], of course, is the best at it.
* DeathWorld: Of all the places with sentient life, perhaps the most dangerous to human life would be Golarion's ''sun''.
* DecompositeCharacter: The Warlock class from ''D&D'' is notably absent in both editions. Instead, we have the Witch, who has inherited the Warlock's general aesthetic of dark magic and pacts, but uses VancianMagic for its mechanics, and the Kineticist, who has inherited the "blast shape with a handful of support abilities" style of play, but is themed around ElementalPowers rather than TheDarkArts in terms of fluff.
* DeityOfHumanOrigin: Anyone who passes the Test of the Starstone becomes a god. Hundreds of hopefuls enter the Starstone Cathedral every year; in four thousand years, only four have succeeded--one of whom was drunk off his ass at the time.
** At least two or three other deities were purportedly humans whose ascensions predate the Starstone being usable for it, but as they did it so long ago it's more a matter of myth, conjecture and religious dogma as to how they did it.
* DeliberatelyNonLethalAttack:
** In 1E, all attacks made with weapons that aren't specifically labeled as non-lethal deal lethal damage by default, but by announcing a non-lethal attack before rolling to hit and taking a -4 penalty on said roll, a player can convert their weapon's regular damage into non-lethal one. If the cumulative amount of non-lethal damage exceeds the target's remaining HitPoints, they are rendered safely unconscious (whereas if they were just reduced to 0 HP, they'd be unconscious ''and'' risk bleeding to death without immediate first aid).
** In 2E, all attacks made with weapons that lack the nonlethal trait deal lethal damage by default, but can take a -2 circumstance penalty to deal nonlethal damage instead. Weapons with the nonlethal trait invert the trope, needing a -2 circumstance penalty to deal lethal damage instead.
* DeliberatelyPainfulClothing: The worshipers of Zon-Kuthon, god of pain, often wear extreme versions of this kind of clothing, which is sometimes embedded in their flesh so extensively that it can't be removed without killing them. Giving and receiving pain are both considered religious experiences among them.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Andoran's democratic government and opposition to slavery were seen as naive and absurd even by other good factions. Opposition to slavery has rapidly become more popular over the last 10-15 years, however, to the point that even the tyrannical nation of ''Cheliax'' de jure abolished slavery in 4722 AR--even if it's questionable whether they truly abolished it or merely switched to debt slavery.
* DelicateAndSickly: In ''Seven Days To The Grave'' there is a girl named Brienna Soldado who is suffering from [[TheVirus Blood Veil]] and will die within a few days if not cured.
* DemocracyIsFlawed: {{Downplayed}}. Andoran, Golarion's first and so far only large representative democracy, is officially aligned NeutralGood[[invoked]]; however, much of the adventure material around it deal with concerted efforts to corrupt its government, either by [[AristocratsAreEvil former nobility who want their old power back]], or by [[GoodCapitalismEvilCapitalism groups such as the Lumber Consortium who are trying to distort its friendliness to trade in order to enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else]], or both.
* DemonLordsAndArchdevils: Most "races" of fiends have a class of powerful rulers, who are classified as demigods and capable of channeling spells to cultists.
** Most of the standard 1st-through-3rd edition archdevils made the transfer to Golarion, albeit altered. The ones who came along in ''D&D'' 2E or 3E (Bel, Fierna, Levistus, Malagard, and Glasya) were dropped in favor of their 1E [[PublicDomainCharacter public domain]] predecessors (Geryon and Moloch), with a new one, Barbatos, rounding out the line-up. Asmodeus is still their ruler, but he is now a full deity.
** However, most of the demon lords had to be left behind and replaced by a new batch due to copyright reasons. On the other hand, most of the really important ones were {{Public Domain Character}}s (Orcus, Demogorgon[[note]]though his depiction as a two-headed monkey/serpent remains copyrighted by Wizards, so he receives only off-hand mentions[[/note]], Pazuzu, Dagon, Kostchtchie, Baphomet...). The biggest losses lore-wise were Graz'zt, Fraz-Urb'luu[[note]]who ''is'' open source thanks to creeping into the 3.5 3rd-party ''Tome of Horrors'', but Paizo deliberately doesn't use him because he's so closely tied to ''TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}}''[[/note]], Pale Night, Yeenoghu, Obox-Ob and Zuggtmoy. Many replacements will be familiar to those with knowledge of real-world demonology.
*** As of ''2e Remastered'', Orcus and Demogorgon have also been axed due to their connections to the [=OGL=].
** The daemons (who have reclaimed their proper name after being known as yugoloths for two and a half editions) now have the [[HorsemenOfTheApocalypse Four Horsemen]] leading them instead of the solitary Oinodaemon (whom they ganged up on and imprisoned).
** The asuras (original to ''Pathfinder'' and based on Indian myth) have a caste of godlike "ranas".
** The qlippoth[[note]]{{Expy}}s of ''D&D''[='=]s Obyriths[[/note]] are the original inhabitants of the Abyss, and were driven to the lower depths when the demons appeared. They have [[EldritchAbomination horrific, primeval shapes]] in contrast to the humanoid structure of demons, and wish to destroy the demons by destroying all mortal life (from which demons are formed). They have lords of their own, but most of them are unknown to mortals.
** The velstracs (originally a single subtype of devil in ''D&D'', now a whole distinct race of fiends) are ruled by the demagogues, who, like Zon-Kuthon, are basically [[Franchise/{{Hellraiser}} Cenobites]].
** The oni and rakshasas (evil spirits incarnate in mortal bodies) are ruled by demigods called daimyo and immortals respectively with the greatest of the Rakshasa immortals being [[Literature/TheRamayana Ravana]].
** The divs (corrupted genies from Persian myth) have one demigod ruler, Ahriman.
** The only race of fiends without godlike rulers are the demodands, who are instead ruled over by the [[RageAgainstTheHeavens thanatotic]] [[OurTitansAreDifferent titans]]... who are nearly a race of demigods unto themselves.
* DependingOnTheArtist: Catfolk have three primary sources for their visual representation and none of them look remotely similar. When they first showed up in one of the Bestiaries, there was only a picture of a female catfolk who looked like a CatGirl. Then came the Advanced Race Guide, which had images of both a male and female catfolk that were very similar to [[Franchise/TheElderScrolls khajiit]]. And finally, one adventure path showed catfolk that looked like something out of ''WesternAnimation/{{ThunderCats|1985}}''.
* DePowerZone: With the spell "Create Greater Demiplane", a spellcaster can modify a PocketDimension to block all magic and supernatural powers within. However, it needs to be cast from inside the demiplane, so if there isn't already an exit portal, [[TooDumbToLive they're in trouble]].
* DesignatedBullet:
** [[TheGunslinger Gunslingers]] with the right ItemCrafting feats can [[MarkedBullet inscribe a specific enemy's name]] on a bullet. It deals bonus damage against that enemy but is less accurate against anything else.
** The spell "Named Bullet" enchants a piece of ammunition to deal an ArmorPiercingAttack, an automatic CriticalHit, and extra damage against the named creature.
* DestroyableItems:
** Some items are "fragile" and will break when either critically hit (in the case of armor) or when you critically fail an attack (in the case of weapons). Some spells like ''shatter'' allow items to give applicable saving throws to avoid being destroyed. And of course, if you want to take a smack at someone's sword, shield, or armour, you can.
** As of "Ultimate Combat" Items can now be made out of fragile materials like Bone which can break on a critical failure. Even before these rules Goblin-Made weapons like dogslicers were liable to break on their first critical failure.
* DevilButNoGod: [[SatanicArchetype Asmodeus]] had a brother and opposite number, Ihys, once. [[spoiler:He killed him]]. Of course, there are plenty of good-aligned deities, but none specifically modeled on the Abrahamic God.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: As of ''Bestiary 4'', you can! And Hastur and Bokrug, too! True, they're just knocked unconscious and sent back into their [[SealedEvilInACan cans]], and Hastur and Cthulhu have nasty tricks that allow them to revive instantly if you're not cautious (the former tries to trick you into putting on his robes so he can [[DemonicPossession use you as a last-minute gateway back]], and the latter reforms, though badly dazed and you can only prevent him from coming at you again if you get him again while he's dazed), but "knocking out" when you don't actually [[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu lose anything to them]] inherently is definitely this trope.
* DieselPunk: ''Rasputin Must Die!'', which drops the players off in [[GrimUpNorth Siberia]] during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI to fight {{cyborg}} [[TankGoodness tanks]], [[TheFairFolk evil fey]], zombies, daemons, and swarms of Russian soldiers armed with machine guns, experimental MagiTek weaponry, and mustard gas.
* DigitalTabletopGameAdaptation: The series is a ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' spin-off that adapts its rules, with ''VideoGame/PathfinderKingmaker'' and ''VideoGame/PathfinderWrathOfTheRighteous'' adapting and expanding existing print adventure paths for the game's 1st edition.
* DisabilitySuperpower: The Oracle's Curse class feature in ''First Edition''. ''Second Edition'' downplays this for its version of the Oracle--none of the Mysteries' flavor effects imply that you have a disability when your curse is in its dormant state, but several Mysteries weaken your senses or physical capabilities in some way as drawbacks of progressing your curse.
* DisciplinesOfMagic:
** There are eight schools of magic: abjuration, conjuration, divination, enchantment, evocation, illusion, necromancy, and transmutation. Every spell falls under one of these schools, but it usually only matters to Wizards, who need to specialize in one school.
** There are also four primary magical "traditions" and a number of minor traditions that relate to the source of the magic. Some spells are found in multiple traditions, for instance "Heal" can be divine or primal. Additionally, in 2nd edition traditions act as spell lists shared by multiple classes, instead of each class having a unique spell list that has to be updated with each new supplement.
*** Arcane magic is the type used by wizards and maguses, and is typically derived from the use of material components or written incantations. It tends to focus on powerful rearrangements of physical nature, such as explosions, transmutations and the animation of non-living matter.
*** Divine magic is the kind used by oracles and clerics. Its power is granted by the divine entity its user worships, whether this is a deity, nature or a more abstract force. It tends to be less dramatic than arcane magic, and often focuses on healing and protection.
*** Primal magic is the type utilized by druids and rangers, as well as by elementals and the fey. It is particularly linked with instinct and the elements of nature.
*** In 1st edition Psychic magic is derived purely from one's own mental or spiritual faculties and could be used without physical foci, components and gestures. 2nd edition instead has the Occult tradition, based around attempts to understand the unexplainable and categorize the bizarre, and makes bards the most prominent practitioners, though psychics also use Occult magic. In either case the spells focus around PsychicPowers and communing with the dead.
** However, it's implied that the distinction between the four great magic traditions may be less fundamental than it appears, and that it may be more an artifact of how Golarion's people practice and study magic than anything else. High-end mythic spellcasters can learn to effectively ignore their divisions, and the legendary wizard Old-Mage Jatembe is known to have been of the opinion that the four schools were not strictly divided in nature; many of his writings focus on the similarities between arcane and divine magic, and the WizardingSchool he founded still teaches arcane, divine and primal spells side-by-side to this day.
* DoingInTheWizard: An odd thing to do for a Fantasy world, but the various "Dire" animals are now their prehistoric megafauna ancestors, at least nominally (many of them still have the armoured skin of their more fanciful ''D&D'' counterparts).
** As the book ''Monsters of Myth'' is dedicated to detailing monsters that are ShroudedInMyth and how they can be used in an adventure, this trope was bound to come up. Most of the monsters in the book are either truly supernatural, have a MultipleChoicePast, or both, but there is one exception. [[spoiler:The Melfesh Monster is actually a series of spawn of a subterranean fungal colony that exist to bring it food. There is nothing that is particularly maleficient about this colony--[[NonMaliciousMonster it just needs to eat]].]]
* {{Doppelganger}}: In ''Second Edition'', the Reflection Versatile Heritage from ''Dark Archive'' can be used to show a character is this. Reflections can Impersonate their progenitor without Deception checks (unless they do something out of character or interact with someone who knows them personally), while their ancestry feats all play with doppelganger and shapeshifting tropes in different ways--such as leveraging their uncertain distinction from their progenitor to deceive foes or even letting the Reflection make a temporary copy of an enemy.
** MirrorSelf[=/=]MirrorMonster: A Mirror-Risen Reflection is a Reflection who originated from [[MagicMirror magic involving mirrors]]. Notably, while Mirror-Risen created by a Darkside Mirror trap are always evil, others often have either the exact same or opposite alignment as their creators. They get a once per day ability called Mirror's Trickery, letting them tap into their residual connection to mirror magic and create a short-lived illusory duplicate to potentially avoid or mitigate a hit. Later feats let them can [[BagOfHolding hide objects in a hand mirror]] or [[PocketDimension temporarily hide themselves in a mirror.]]
** BodyBackupDrive[=/=]CustomBuiltHost: A Clone-Risen Reflection is a Reflection created through a ''clone'' ritual or alchemy to serve as an vessel for another, one that [[GrewBeyondTheirProgramming somehow developed an independent will]]. They get a once per day ability called Empty Vessel, letting them temporarily [[SoullessShell suppress their sentience]] to resist a mental effect or mental damage. A later feat lets them transform their malleable body in a similar way to Illusory Disguise for an hour once per day.
** ShapeshifterModeLock: A Morph-Risen Reflection didn't start that way (usually)--instead, they were a shapeshifter or polymorphing mage who got "stuck" as a copy of another being. They passively resist transmutation magic, and get a critical success on saves against morph and polymorph effects they'd otherwise only succeed normally at. A later feat lets them temporarily [[CloneByConversion warp the form of people they hit up close into something like their own]].
* DoubleEdgedBuff: A core feature of the ''1E'' {{Alchem|yIsMagic}}ist class is a mutagen that temporarily boosts and penalizes one of their physical and mental [[TheSixStats attributes]], respectively. They can learn stronger versions (with even more penalties) and cognatogens, which hone their mind and harm their body.
* {{Dracolich}}: A particularly nasty variant called a Ravener. To become one, a dragon must be at least an ancient, and upon becoming one gets a slew of terrifying new abilities and attributes. Since their existence is sustained by a field of energy that also powers their abilities, they must regularly replenish it. What does a ravener use to replenish its power? ''{{Soul|Eating}}s''. This forces raveners to go on rampages much more frequently than dracoliches in other settings.
* DragonRider: The Dragon Legion of the planet Triaxus, which consists primarily of natives who form bonds with the (relatively) small, weapon-using Dragonkin.
* DreamLand: The Ethereal Plane, a vast sea of swirling mist that extends over the inner planes, is very reactive to psychic and emotional forces. When mortals dream, their minds go out into the Ethereal, shaping its mists into dreamscapes that degreade back into nothingess when they wake. Figures spawned in dreams sometimes survive this to escape into the Ethereal as free-roaming animate dreams, which must then share their home with a variety of psychic predators such as nightmare dragons and night hags. Dreamscapes cluster together in the plane's depths, and surround the Dimension of Dreams, also known as the Dreamlands, a permanent dimension formed from countless accreted dreamscapes, the dreams of powerful beings, and subconscious desires and archetypes resonating into the Ethereal Plane. It is home to entire nations and species of bizarre creatures, which sometimes pass physically into the material world. Further still beyond the Dreamlands is the Plateau of Leng, a dimension of living nightmares shaped by the dreams of ancient and alien gods.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: Frequently as much averted as played straight, but there are some [[ExaggeratedTrope fairly notable]] times where you might be wondering what the devs were thinking. Such as being able to build up an entire nation in the Kingmaker Adventure Path and still having random [=NPCs=] give you, their liege, ''fetch quests.''
* DungeonPunk: Though not a major theme as in some settings, Golarion does have a some of the Magitek-powered devices one might find in such a setting, befitting its "little bit of everything" approach.
* DumbMuscle: A few [=NPC=]s fit this mold. Auchs from ''Kingmaker'' is a villainous PsychopathicManchild, while Owlbear Hartshorn in ''Skull and Shackles'' is a potential ally and a bit of a {{Woobie}}. The player can also be one of these.
* DyingToWakeUp: Harmless [[MentalWorld astral mindscapes]] can't affect the outside world, so anyone who dies in one wakes up in their body, no worse for wear. However, there are also ''[[YourMindMakesItReal harmful]]'' mindscapes that can be indistinguishable from the harmless kind to anyone other than their creator, so it's a much riskier option than looking for the DreamEmergencyExit.
* {{Eagleland}}: Andoran is a mixed-flavor example, and is seen as such in-universe.
** Slightly slanted towards type one though, given that the national alignment is NeutralGood.
** Also played with, in that its primary focus at present is based on a conflict that is frequently forgotten, even by Americans: they attempt to disrupt the piracy and slave trade of North Garund (IE, North Africa) in a counterpart to the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Wars Barbary Wars]].
** There's also quite a bit of "as it should have been" involved, like ending slavery and instituting universal suffrage right at the birth of the nation.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first few adventure paths have a DarkerAndEdgier tone to them that borders on mean-spirited at times (like the hillbilly rapist ogres in ''Rise of the Runelords''), a relic from an attempt to establish Golarian as a more "adult" setting than most ''D&D''. In addition, a lot of early mechanics seemed to try and support the darker tone, with some gameplay features like traits and archetypes explicitly including drugs, violence, and sex into using them. Later entries went for more of a "mature and nuanced" tone that tries to deal with weightier matters but not in a gratuitous shock-value way, and many of the stranger or edgy elements were removed to make the setting less grim.
* EasingIntoTheAdventure: While many Adventure Paths start with a flashy setpiece to get players engaged right away, Strength of Thousands take this approach. [=PCs=] take the role of students of [[WizardingSchool the Magaambya]], and the first chapter is focused on settling them into the dorms, meeting their classmates, and performing helpful deeds for the townsfolk around them without any major combat.
* EatTheSummoner: Daemons stand out among Evil-aligned Outsiders as {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s that will immediately try to devour their summoners, body and {{soul|Eating}}, and usually continue to try even if they get roped into a MagicallyBindingContract. While Devils will try to ruin their summoners with [[DealWithTheDevil bargains]] and Demons encourage ForTheEvulz-style debasement, Daemons just want all life to end.
* {{Ectoplasm}}: Ectoplasm is a slimy pseudo-matter associated with the Ethereal Plane where ghosts dwell, allowing it to [[TouchTheIntangible interact with incorporeal creatures]] as if they were physical. Some spells create, manipulate, or even weaponize it, and one sorcerer bloodline develops innate powers like ectoplasmic CombatTentacles and VoluntaryShapeshifting into a cloud of the stuff.
* EldritchAbomination: Lots and lots, given [[AuthorAppeal the devs' obvious infatuation]] with the Franchise/CthulhuMythos and other CosmicHorrorStory background elements. Two of the setting's main gods have this vibe (Rovagug is basically a SealedEvilInACan Great Old One, and Zon-Kuthon is a transparent ''Franchise/{{Hellraiser}}'' ShoutOut), and there's a lot more running around, from straight Creator/HPLovecraft transplants and old ''D&D'' standbys (except for mind flayers and beholders, as they're not OGL material) to new, setting-specific creations.
* ElixirOfLife: The sun orchid elixir will restore its drinker's physical age to that of its species' young adults, allowing potentially unending life if drunk once every few decades. Because of this, and because the secret of its making is a closely kept secret and sun orchids are ''vanishingly'' rare, it's far and away the most expensive and desired product in Golarion.
* ElvesVsDwarves: Consciously averted. Elves actually are really good neighbors with Dwarfs in this setting due to both being fairly isolationist. According to one sourcebook this is because "good fences make good neighbors". Lead designer James Jacobs explained that it's because ElvesVsDwarves is a prominent trope in ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'', and Paizo wanted to avoid comparisons between the two settings. Apparently played straight as of the ''Advanced Race Guide'', which includes character options for both elves and dwarves which divide up their favored enemy bonuses between the standard orcs... and each other, thanks to the usual ancient grudge.
* TheEmpire: Cheliax, in all its dark devil-worshipping glory. Fortunately still recovering from its stint as a VestigialEmpire, though.
* EmptyLevels:
** ''Pathfinder'' has taken steps to avert this trope with a vengeance. Unlike 3.5, where most of the martial classes would end up having most their levels granting nothing but an attack bonus, practically every non-spellcaster class gets a class feature every level--something the official guide for converting {{splat}}s from 3.5 specifically points out. Spellcasters, of course, get spells instead. This has the side effect of {{nerf}}ing {{Prestige Class}}es by comparison: you miss out on a lot more features of the base class than before.
** Even spellcasters get their own unique stuff. Clerics' domains give increasing bonuses and abilities as levels go up (as opposed to ''D&D'', where, aside from spells, the domains gave their full payout at level 1), sorcerers have their Bloodlines that keep getting better, wizards get either increasing bonuses from being specialists, or from being a balanced generalist, and Summoners gain "Evolution Points" that they can use to tweak their {{Bond Creature|s}}.
** An additional counter to the empty level issue: every level in a favored class grants one extra skill point, one extra health point, or one incremental bonus dependent on race and class (including, in some cases, extra spells or bonuses to combat maneuvers).
** ''Second Edition'' also averts the trope, with even levels giving skill feats and class feats and odd levels giving general or ancestry feats and skill increases.
* EndlessWinter:
** Irrisen ([[FantasyCounterpartCulture Fantasy Counterpart Culture]] of [[Myth/RussianMythologyAndTales fairy-tale Russia]]) has had this problem since Baba Yaga took over. The ''Reign of Winter'' Adventure Path involves the threat of this happening over the entire planet.
** The planet Triaxus goes through just about a hundred years of winter at a time, alternating with an equally long summer.
* EntropyAndChaosMagic: Primal Magic. This exists in areas where The First World invades upon the material plane or in places like the mana wastes between the war-torn arcane countries of Geb and Nex.
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** Demons and devils regularly team up with each other and angels against the suicidally nihilistic daemons. Though some of this is attributable to PragmaticVillainy: it's hard to get mortals to agree to a DealWithTheDevil if there aren't any mortals ''left''.
** Asmodeus aided the good and neutral gods against [[OmnicidalManiac Rova]][[EldritchAbomination gug]], even providing the lock to [[SealedEvilInACan seal him away]].
** [[OurOgresAreHungrier Ogres]] are DarkerAndEdgier than ever before, being basically [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalistic]] [[InbredAndEvil inbred]] [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rapist]] [[CannibalClan hillbillies]] with no morality whatsoever. And yet they tend to have very close-knit families because EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas. Possibly a bit too much.
** Cheliax's Hellknights are firmly evil, but they are Lawful Evil for a reason. If they feel the law is being violated or abused, some orders are willing to take action even if it means going against high ranking figures in society.
* EvenTheLovingHeroHasHatedOnes:
** Followers of Sarenrae, the NeutralGood goddess of [[LightIsGood the sun, healing, and redemption]], are expected to forgive villains and criminals willing to atone, but some villains are viewed as too far gone and are to be struck down without mercy. In particular, Sarenrae's contribution to the imprisonment of Rovagug, the ChaoticEvil god of destruction, was to [[BewareTheNiceOnes install a piece of the Sun in his prison to burn him for all eternity]].
** Also included is "anyone the Kelesh Empire doesn't like", such as the benevolent followers of [[Myth/EgyptianMythology Osirian gods]] -- they are never called out on this.
* EvilIsDeathlyCold: The kingdom of Irrisen was conquered by the immortal WickedWitch Literature/BabaYaga, who placed it under a spell of eternal winter. The "Reign of Winter" Adventure Path involves her daughter trying to spread it over the whole planet.
* EvilIsPetty: The gremlins personify this trope. They are all small and not very powerful but like to put curses on people and destroy property just to be assholes.
* EvilLivingFlames: Mythic fire elementals are described as living fragments of the first flames of the [[ElementalPlane Elemental Plane of Fire]], and greatly enjoy scattering flammable mortal foes to set them alight one by one.
* EvilVersusEvil: Asuras are about the only kind of evil outsider who is willing to cooperate with daemons; their [[OmnicidalManiac omnicidal mania]] makes it hard for them to get along with any of the others, with even demons having an investment in the continued existence of reality as a whole (because without people to hurt they wouldn't be able to have any more fun). Qlippoth and demons loathe each other. This also happens occasionally in some Adventure Paths; for example, "Valley of the Brain Collectors" has malevolent pseudo-Lovecraftian aliens, neh-thalggu, battling against malevolent ''actually'' Lovecraftian aliens, mi-go. Bonus points for ''both'' of them having humanoid brain-collecting as an MO.
* EvilVersusOblivion:
** [[SatanicArchetype Asmodeus]] was more than willing to pull an EnemyMine with Sarenrae and other nonevil gods to ensure [[OmnicidalManiac Rovagug]]'s imprisonment.
** Hellknights are an evil organization that take inspiration from devils in creating an orderly society, but they are against beings like demons for this reason. They want to bring order, not chaos or destruction.
* TheEvilsOfFreeWill: [[SatanicArchetype Asmodeus's]] motivation for trying to grind all creation under his LawfulEvil heel.
* ExpertInUnderwaterBasketWeaving: Characters in First Edition can invest in Craft and Profession skills, many of which are so specific and so orthogonal to the adventuring trade that they're only of use to [=NPCs=] or in particular acts of ItemCrafting. The ''Unchained'' expansion lets characters gain even ''more'' specialized expertise in those skills. Second Edition downplays this--some skill feats can have oddball, very specialized effects, but almost all skills as a whole have a defined niche. Played straight by Lore skills, however, which function as "very specialized knowledge" skills.
* {{Expy}}: Zon-Kuthon and the velstracs are expies of the [[Franchise/{{Hellraiser}} Cenobites.]]
** King Mogaru, a kaiju detailed in ''Bestiary 4'', is Franchise/{{Godzilla}}.
** The Blind Angels of Oppara, a wing of gargoyles with angelic appearances that cannot move while being watched, are [[Series/DoctorWho the Weeping Angels]]
** The nation of Brevoy is basically a high-fantasy version of [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire Westeros]].
** Grandmother Spider is a DistaffCounterpart of Anansi.
* ExtradimensionalEmergencyExit: The spell "Ether Step" can be cast outside the spellcaster's turn in combat to dodge an incoming attack by jumping into the Ethereal Plane for a few seconds.
* ExtremophileLifeforms: Targothas are fishlike alien organisms that evolved on a planet largely covered by hydrocarbon seas. A small population was carried to Golarion by a crashed starship, and despite the overall hostility of Golarion's dry, water-rich alien climate managed to settle a large system tar pits.
* EyeOfNewt: ''Ultimate Wilderness'' devotes a section to describing how monster body parts can be used to replace spell and crafting components -- a devil's tongue, for instance, contains the essence of law and can be used to replace any lawful spells when creating magic items; a demon's heart can similarly be used to stand in for evil spells; matter harvested from elementals can used to craft items pertaining to elemental powers or energy damage; troll livers, still holding their owners' HealingFactor, can be used to craft healing items; the organs that produce a dragon's BreathWeapon can be used to infuse items with the breath weapon's energy type.
* {{Familiar}}:
** Wizards, witches, and default sorcerers have the automatic option of gaining one of these. Wizards can choose to establish an "arcane bond" with either a living familiar or an inanimate object, such as a magic amulet, weapon, or wand. Only one type of sorcerer gets this bonding ability. Witches, however, MUST have a familiar, which acts as a link to the mysterious patrons that grant witches their magical power. Several other spellcasting classes has familiars (only familiars, those with something like the item bonding tend to do it for specific, restricted types of item) as a possible class feature, and a feat chain can allow anyone with strong enough will to get a familiar.
** ''Second Edition'' also allows bonding with a living familiar as a first-level feat for Magi, Sorcerers, Thaumaturges, and Wizards. Druids of the Leaf Order can bond with a [[{{Planimal}} leshy]] familiar, while Alchemists in general can create an alchemical familiar. Witches once again have a mandatory familiar, and use their familiar to prepare spells. There's also a Familiar Master archetype that lets you get a familiar (or enhance your existing familiar), then improve it in various ways.
* TheFairFolk: The Fey with their home being the [[LandOfFaerie First World]] a sort of draft of the Material Plane.
* FanService: Paizo puts a lot of effort into artwork. And makes a point of featuring a lot of female [=NPC=]s and characters. The fanservice isn't just of the sexual variety. A foreword to one of the Jade Regent adventures notes several great things about a story that combines ninjas with vikings, such as having a good excuse to paint a cover featuring ninjas fighting on a burning longboat.
* FanDisservice: [[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/pathfinder/images/7/7d/Urgathoa.jpg Urgathoa]], Goddess of [[VillainousGlutton Gluttony]], [[TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed Disease]], and [[TheUndead Undeath]].
* FantasticDrug: Pesh, which has effects similar to PCP (hallucinations, euphoria, and aggression) and is made from a cactus native to Katapesh. A feat in the supplement ''Black Markets'' allows a spellcaster to consume it to add certain spells to their spell list.
* FantasticFallout:
** The Mana Wastes are a narrow strip of barren land between the two sorcerer kingdoms Nex and Geb that resulted from a devastating war between the two. Apart from it being turned into a desert, it is also impossible to reliably cast any kind of magic there: in some places, it simply doesn't work, in others, it automatically becomes WildMagic. The city of Alkenstar was erected in the middle of the Wastes by those who chose to eschew magic completely.
** The area around the Worldwound, a giant planar breach to the Abyss that opened in the year of Aroden's death, is a cold, blasted desert that sickens all living things that enter it unless protected by a powerful consecrate effect.
* FantasticFragility: Artifacts can be destroyed only in very specific ways -- for example, the Axe of Dwarvish Lords can only be destroyed if a goblin uses it to behead a dwarven king. The more powerful and legendary the artifact, the more complex, difficult and contrived the one specific method needed to destroy it becomes.
* FantasticRaceWeaponAffinity:
** Non-human races get free proficiencies with weapons associated with their race, such as elves automatically knowing how to use longbows and long swords (technically martial weapons that need specialized warrior training). Additionally, there are exotic weapons with racial monikers in their names, such as the "elven curved blade" or the "orc double axe": specified races are automatically proficient with them if their class gives martial weapon proficiency, while all others have to take Exotic Weapon Proficiency feats to learn how to use them.
** In a close variant, clerics and inquisitors receive free proficiency with their patron deity's preferred weapons -- often a significantly better choice than they would normally get from their class.
* FantasyAliens: Golarion is for the most part a HighFantasy setting with pulp influences, but also features cosmic and extraterrestrial elements fairly often as a result of GenreBlending. These are usually inspired by either PlanetaryRomance stories such as Literature/JohnCarterOfMars or by CosmicHorror, but also feature such things as a hyper-advanced starship that crashed into one of the world's countries, populating it with robots and aliens who escaped from its shattered hulk. Of particular note is that the entire elf species originated on a different planet in Golarion's solar system, which they temporarily fled back to in advance of Earthfall.
* FantasyCounterpartCulture:
** Of the states:
*** Absalom is Jerusalem mixed with Rhodes/Cyprus.
*** Almhult is Iceland.
*** Amanandar is Hong Kong writ large by way of the Eastern Roman Empire[[note]]It was established by Taldor when Lung Wa collapsed[[/note]].
*** Andoran is [[{{Eagleland}} the early United States]] with some cues from the French Second and Third Republics.
*** The Arcadians are Native Americans, and so are the Shoanti[[note]]though the Shoanti are also influenced by Creator/RobertEHoward's Picts[[/note]].
*** Bachuan is, of all places in a fantasy setting, a fusion of communist China and UsefulNotes/NorthKorea.
*** Brevoy is the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
*** Cheliax can be seen as some weird form of Satan-worshipping UsefulNotes/NaziGermany[=/=]UsefulNotes/FascistItaly hybrid if you look at it the right (wrong) way.
*** Druma is Switzerland.
*** Dtang Ma is Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia.
*** The Erutaki are Inuit.
*** The Forest of Spirits is ancient Japan, by way of ''Anime/PrincessMononoke''.
*** Galt is revolutionary France.
*** Goka is Macau fused with Singapore.
*** Hongal and Shaguang are Mongolia.
*** Hwanggot is Korea.
*** Iblydos is ancient Greece.
*** Iobaria and Irrisen are Russia, with Iobaria being 'proper' Russia and Irrisen being [[Myth/RussianMythologyAndTales the fairy tale version]] (complete with Literature/BabaYaga!) [[note]]Although this is more direct port than just counterpart considering that Earth exists in ''Pathfinder and'' Baba Yaga really came from Russia before invading Irrisen[[/note]].
*** Jalmeray is a fantastic Indian version of Socotra island.
*** Jistka was a less successful Rome mixed with Carthage.
*** Kaladay is the medieval European conception of China.
*** Katapesh is Arabia.
*** Kelesh is Persia.
*** The Lands of the Linnorm Kings are [[HornyVikings Scandinavia]].
*** Lung Wa and its many Successor States are China.
*** Minata is Indonesia and the Philippines.
*** Minkai is Japan and so is Shokuro, with the difference being that Minkai is a bit more fantastic and Shokuro a bit more feudal.
*** Molthune is Prussia.
*** The Mwangi Expanse is DarkestAfrica -- in 1st edition. 2nd edition makes a deliberate effort to humanize the setting and present it from an insider's perspective rather than that of colonialists and looters. A 400-page book about the setting was released in 2021.
*** Ninshabur was Babylon/Assyria.
*** Nirmathas is part medieval Switzerland, part rural United States.
*** Osirion is Egypt.
*** Qadira is also Arabia (with some Persian influences).
*** Sarusan is [[LandDownUnder Australia]].
*** The Shackles are the Caribbean.
*** Taldor is the Later/Eastern Roman Empire. Historically it was the direct equivalent to Rome until Cheliax yoinked the entire western half.
*** Ustalav is [[{{Uberwald}} fantasy Transylvania]].
*** Valenhall is Vinland.
*** The Varisians are the UsefulNotes/{{Romani}} (Gypsies).
*** The Varki are Sámi (Lapland natives).
*** Vudra is India.
*** The Wall of Heaven is Nepal.
*** Xa Hoi is Vietnam.
*** Zi Ha is Tibet.
** It even extends to the solar system:
*** Aballon the Horse is Mercury.
*** Castrovel the Green is Venus.
*** Akiton the Red is Mars.
*** The Diaspora is the Asteroid Belt.
*** Liavara is Jupiter and Saturn.
*** Bretheda is Uranus and Neptune.
*** Aucturn is Pluto (and by Pluto we mean [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Yuggoth]]).
* FantasyCounterpartReligion:
** The faith of Iomedae comes closest to Christianity.
** Asmodeus is a [[SatanicArchetype take on Satan]] as depicted in Literature/ParadiseLost and Literature/TheDivineComedy[[note]]note that Asmodeus is a real-world devil, but very different from the ''Pathfinder'' version[[/note]].
** Sarenrae's faith has Islamic and Zoroastrian influences.
** Shizuru and Susumu are [[Myth/JapaneseMythology Amaterasu and Susanoo]], and Daikitsu is [[AsianFoxSpirit Inari]].
** Sangpotshi is Buddhism.
** The Vudran faith is Hinduism.
** Namzaruum is strongly Islam-inspired.
** The Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye is several late 19th and early 20th century occultist belief systems blended together, with Aldus Canter being a clear analogue to [[Creator/AleisterCrowley Aleister Crowley]].
* FantasyConflictCounterpart:
** The Taldan war with Qadira and the Chelaxian independence revolt mirrors the breakup of the Roman Empire and the expansion of Islam into Europe, albeit with the order of events reversed (the Taldan-Qadiran war provided Cheliax the opportunity to break off and take half of Taldor with it).
** The entire nation of Galt is copied directly from the Reign of Terror period during the UsefulNotes/FrenchRevolution: demagoguery turned the Red Revolution on itself after the noble class was bloodily overthrown, and Galt has become a failed state, with the only consistent power center being the Grey Gardeners, the secretive order of executioners that mans the magical guillotines.
** Andoran's independence war, on the other hand, mashes up the [[UsefulNotes/RevolutionsOf1848 French 1848 revolution]] with the American Revolution: having learned the lessons of Galt, the Andoren revolutionaries overthrew their noble class with the minimum possible bloodshed and then wore out the willingness of Cheliax to hold onto its eastern province, thus successfully establishing the first large representative democracy in the Inner Sea region.
** The Mendevian Crusades are, well, meant to be analogues to the Crusades, with the difference being that they're against demons boiling out of an interplanar breach called the Worldwound. The First Crusade was a notable success story, but the three subsequent Crusades were at best barely able to hold onto its gains due to infighting. The Wrath of the Righteous adventure path (and [[VideoGame/PathfinderWrathOfTheRighteous its CRPG adaptation]]) deals with the Fifth Crusade.
* FantasyGunControl:
** Averted in Alkenstar, a city-state located in a region where magic doesn't function, which has encouraged the inhabitants to develop non-magical weapons and technology, including firearms. Averted harder in Numeria, where a crashed spaceship can provide access to laser guns, rocket launchers, and even more esoteric weapons, provided you can get them past the Technic League which guards their tech with murderous jealousy. Played straight most everywhere else, [[JustifiedTrope as most people don't see the use]] for loud, unreliable and hard to maintain weapons when magic can do the job.
** As of the ''Ultimate Combat'' supplement, there is a Gunslinger base class that specializes in them. There are also paladin, cavalier (musketeer), inquisitor, and wizard variants that use guns, as well as pair of rogue talents that lets you nab the ability to use one.
** ''Rasputin Must Die'', the fifth part of the Reign of Winter adventure path, adds stats for real UsefulNotes/WorldWarI Russian guns, even mustard gas. It also includes the Trench Fighter archetype for the Fighter class.
* FantasyKitchenSink: Even moreso than might be expected from a ''D&D''-type setting, Golarion was built to encompass all sorts of campaigns. As well as everything ''D&D'' had already (or at least reasonable facsimiles), there are the ''Literature/CthulhuMythos'', Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs-style PlanetaryRomance and BeneathTheEarth locales, [[Creator/LewisCarroll things like the Jabberwock and Bandersnatch and Jubjub birds]], monsters based on old ''Sinbad'' movies, extra-terrestrials including the classic [[TheGreys Greys]], and even modern folkloric monsters like mothmen and chupacabras.
* FastKillingRadiation: [[ZigzaggedTrope Zig-zagged]]. Radiation causes an instantaneous [[NonHealthDamage Constitution drain]] and MaximumHPReduction, which can be a OneHitKill from a strong enough exposure. Afterwards, it only deals damage per day, much more slowly than conventional poisons.
* FatalFireworks: The spell Snapdragon Fireworks, most likely inspired by the Lord of the Rings example, allows you to shoot off a tiny dragon-shaped firework each round that damages and dazzles opponents.
* FateWorseThanDeath:
** Do NOT get captured alive by drow in this setting.
** If, on the other hand, Zon-Kuthon worshippers kindly invite you to a party in your honor, [[SchmuckBait you should probably politely decline even though there is certainly going to be really good food and drink.]]
* FertilityGod:
** Erastil is the patron god of rural communities, family, agriculture, and hunting. He is also husband to Jaidi, an ancient Azlanti agriculture goddess; together they are parents to Halcamora, a demigoddess who specializes in parks, gardening, and wineries.
** [[EvilCounterpart On a darker note]], Lamashtu is revered in some cults as the "Mother of Monsters": an EvilutionaryBiologist who likes nothing better than to bring new and vile monsters into existence to set them loose on Golarion. She's seen as a patron goddess by many goblinoids.
* FiendishFish:
** Numerous giant versions of mundane fishes exist, including giant gars and amphibious swamp barracudas capable of pursuing their prey on land.
** Warm, shallow seas are home to armored dunkleostei, which can rapidly open their mouths to suck prey into their shearing jaws.
** Tizheruks are long-bodied freshwater fish up to fifteen feet long. Their flesh is almost entirely transparent, making them excellent ambush predators -- odds are you won't see one until its jaws are already closing on you.
* FirearmsAreRevolutionary: A mechanical example. [[https://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment/weapons/firearms The optional rules for firearms]] introduced in ''Ultimate Combat'' have dramatic effects on game balance. Guns roll against the target's touch AC rather than their normal AC when fired within their first range increment, making them quite deadly given their above-average damage dice and critical multipliers. This can get really crazy if the setting's tech level is advanced up to "Commonplace Guns" or higher, which reclassifies firearms as martial or even simple weapons instead of exotic weapons, making many classes proficient with them without needing to spend a feat.
* FlamingSword: A common Enchantment. The paladin and magus have the ability to give their weapons this ability as well. A Religious Trait, "Flame of the Dawn", grants this on a critical hit with scimitars.
** In ''Second Edition'', you can apply the Flaming or Greater Flaming runes to replicate the effect. The magus can still do this with the Runic Impression feat by temporarily giving their weapon one of those runes, depending on their level.
* FoxFolk: The race called kitsune, although despite the name they lack relation to traditional kitsune in Japanese mythology. (They can, however, be found in the more Japanese FantasyCounterpartCulture parts of Tian Xia.) In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons 3.0'', the ''Oriental Adventures'' sourcebook had a hengeyokai race with the Shapechanger type, who could switch between humanoid, animal and [[PartialTransformation hybrid]] forms; 3.5 removed the Shapechanger type, so the official update made them Humanoids (resulting in some GameplayAndStorySegregation, as they were still described like Magical Beasts). ''Pathfinder'' kitsune were based on the 3.5 version of fox hengeyokai, but {{Nerf}}ed by removing the animal form (which instead became a "disguise" that higher-level kitsune could learn by spending a feat) and making the hybrid form their true form.
* FungiArePlants:
** In 1st edition, all fungus-based creatures -- such as vegepigmies, moldwretches, violet fungi and the like -- are considered part of the Plant creature type. This is averted in 2nd Edition, which introduces a distinct Fungus type into which these creatures are reclassified.
** Leshies are a type small {{plant pe|rson}}ople created from spirits inhabiting bodies grown from special plants. Most are based on species of true plants such as broad-leaved trees, Venus flytraps, pumpkins, lotuses, cacti and so on. The exceptions are fungus and lichen leshies, which are grown from fungal bases.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Sometimes the Adventure Path manuals have illustrations that can piece together a story. For instance, in ''Iron Gods'', the battle against Meyanda features Lirianne wresting her Inferno Pistol from her, which she then uses [[GunsAkimbo together with her old pistol]] in subsequent illustrations. Meanwhile, in the second module's cover Amiri is shown losing her signature bastard sword to a rust monster. In the next module, she's depicted wielding Kulgara's [[ChainsawGood magical chainsaw]].
* FunWithAcronyms: The license used by remastered version of 2nd Edition, which replaces the older OGL, is called Open RPG Creative License (ORC for short).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:G-L]]
* GalacticConquerer: The Dominion of the Black, a mysterious alliance of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s and the alien races that conspire with them. Their core motive is [[HiddenAgendaVillain unknown and potentially unknowable]], but given how they are known for using slaves as [[HumanResources raw materials]] for their [[LivingShip ships]], it's probably safe to say it's pretty nasty for all life not interested in being the villains in a CosmicHorrorStory.
* GameBreakingBug: The book ''Sargava, The Lost Colony'' for First Edition is notorious for several badly written character options. Chief among them is the feat [[https://www.aonprd.com/FeatDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Monkey%20Lunge "Monkey Lunge"]], which is literally impossible to use as written in the normal action economy: it requires a standard action to prepare, and only lasts one round. The attack roll you would use to execute it is also a standard action. '''You can only make one standard action per turn.'''
* GameplayAndStorySegregation:
** In-story, goblins have been built up as [[TooDumbToLive braindead idiots with no survival instinct]]. Rules-wise, however, they have the same Intelligence and Wisdom as the average human.
** Likewise, half-orcs are more often than not described as dim and brutish, with those who aren't being exceptions to the rule. By the rules, a half-orc takes no negatives to stats and takes a +2 bonus to any stat of the player's choosing. So it's entirely possible to have a half-orc with 20 intelligence or charisma right off the bat.
** Zigzagged by the firearms rules. In real life, gunners displaced archers because firearms were equally lethal with a much smaller learning curve, making conscripts effective fighters in a fraction of the time. ''Pathfinder'' embraces the simplicity and classifies them as simple weapons (meaning almost every character is proficient with them by default) but then gives them damage appropriate for simple weapons in the name of balance. This results in some strange stat lines, such a weapon called a, "HandCannon" that deals 1d6 damage (the second-smallest damage die type and equivalent of a light crossbow).
** In ''Blood of the Night'', the vetala-born dhamphir, or ajibachana, is described as yearning for knowledge and often engaging in scholarly pursuits. They are the only dhamphir heritage that takes a penalty to their intelligence.
** ''Blood of the Moon'' continues the tradition with the wereshark-kin, or "seascarred" skinwalker breed, who are said to gravitate to the magus class[[note]]which favors strength and intelligence[[/note]]. They take a penalty to their intelligence and receive bonuses to their wisdom and constitution, neither of which are particularly useful for a magus. They do, however, get a few unique magus arcana.
** A rather odd example is the Termagant Kyton, whose horrifically pregnant-looking appearance and description as a "coddling, cooing mother of nails and aberrant life", which "seeks to make all living creatures adopted members of her malformed brood" implies a role as some kind of MookMaker and/or MonsterLord. Instead, her abilities and attacks focus on poisoning victims, being a poisonous ActionBomb, and having victims of her poison be poisonous {{Action Bomb}}s in turn.
** Pretty much anything involving the Iconics. Stats are available to play them in level 1 games, despite many of them having backstories that should have leveled them up considerably. Furthermore, both the audio dramas and the comics portray them fighting through the first volume of ''Rise of the Runelords'' as established, if not yet famous, warriors.
* GarrulousGrowth: The Alchemist Character Class in ''First Edition'' has the optional ability to grow a tumor on its body, which functions as a {{Familiar}} and can be temporarily detached to act autonomously.
* GemTissue: [[PowerCrystal Aeon stones]] usually [[AntiGravityClothing orbit their user's head]], but characters can permanently incorporate them into their bodies through a combination of psychic attunement and surgery. Afterwards, the stone counts as a part of the user and can't be targeted separately by attacks or effects.
* GenderBender:
** One of the potential drawbacks on a magical item is that the user's gender changes while the item remains in their possession (or possibly, just while it's in use). The item in question is usually labeled cursed for a reason, as the effect is forced onto the player character, though the item itself still works inspite of it.
** Anevia Tirablade, the wife of half-orc paladin Irabeth Tirablade, was born male, [[UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} but felt more comfortable as a woman]]. A magic elixir fixed that for her.
** The Serum of Sex Shift, which does ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, was introduced in 2E. Besides the above in-universe use, it's probably intended as a way for players to explain a sudden sex shift for their characters without breaking immersion. As for why they made sure to explicitly note that it can produce ''any'' combination of sexual characteristics, as many times as you want, well, draw your own conclusions there.
** As part of the Bestiary-wide, sweeping attempt to eliminate OneGenderRace in 2E, they note that Changelings can be either male or female, males simply not being usually detected as such. However, they can still turn into hags, which ''are'' all female. This became explicit when the ''Lost Omens Ancestry Guide'' went into more depth on the subject.
* GenieInABottle: Represented by the magical items ''efreeti bottle'' and the ''ring of djinn summoning''.
* GeniusBruiser: Despite being more [[{{Gonk}} brutish-looking]] than their [[CuteMonsterGirl female]] [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe counterparts]], male Lashunta are notably the first canon race that has a bonus to both Strength and Intelligence. The other are the "scaleheart", or werecrocodile-kin skinwalker breed, which are noted for their violent tendencies.
* GeniusLoci: The Kami, introduced in ''Bestiary 3'', are native outsiders that are literally the spirits of specific locations, like mountains and islands.
* GenreShift: Most APs tend to shift in tone or genre as the books go on. This can be due to the events of the story, or because of the location the heroes venture to. Book two of the Kingmaker Adventure Path for instance goes from a typical adventure to becoming the rulers of a new kingdom. Adventuring still takes up most of the gameplay, but you will spend a lot of time running your kingdom.
* GeometricMagic:
** The various ''symbol'' spells invoke this trope.
** The ''Sacred Geometry feat'', on the other hand, doesn't -- it improves your spellcasting if you can solve a number puzzle.
* GiantAnimalWorship: {{Kraken|AndLeviathan}}s are sometimes worshiped by coastal communities, either as avatars of nature or as divine figures themselves. In a variant, krakens are highly intelligent and malevolent and tend to think that HumansAreInsects, so they might accept the reverence -- or demand it.
* GiantsKnifeHumansGreatsword: One of Galt's infamous [[YourSoulIsMine soul-trapping]] guillotines was captured by a frost giant, who attached its blade to a haft and wielded it as a greataxe. Somehow, the crude jury-rigging made the blade's magic even stronger.
* GladYouThoughtOfIt: The special action "Plant Notion", introduced in ''Giant Hunter's Handbook'', combines a Diplomacy check (to convince the target of a course of action) and a hard Bluff check (to make them believe it was their idea all along). In addition to the misdirection, it bypasses the usual penalty for attempting Diplomacy on an unfriendly character.
* GlassCannon: The Monk class in ''1e'' fits this in comparison to Fighters. Monks get the fast movement ability, which increases their speed, and can deliver a Flurry of Blows, which allows them to make several additional attacks whenever they make a full attack action. However, as a cost, they are forbidden from wearing any armor or using shields, making it more difficult for them to raise their armor class. With fewer {{Dump Stat}}s, they'll typically have lower physical attributes than straight fighters. Further, they get a smaller hit die than fighters, so they have fewer hit points.
* GlassShatteringSound: The ''shatter'' spell.
* GloomyGray: [[OurGnomesAreWeirder Gnomes]] who don't get enough excitement and novelty in their lives suffer "the Bleaching", which [[DiseaseBleach turns their skin, hair, and eyes grey]] and ultimately causes DeathByDespair.
* GoBackToTheSource: On a meta level: Pathfinder #1 (Burnt Offerings) was set in the town of Sandpoint. Pathfinder #200 will be ''Seven Dooms for Sandpoint'', set in Sandpoint and based on the original Pathfinder office campaign.
* GodCouple:
** Most famously, the goddesses Shelyn (love and beauty), Sarenrae (the sun and healing), and Desna (travel and freedom) are canonically a [[{{Polyamory}} thruple]]. Second Edition has a cult called the Prismatic Ray that worships them as a trinity.
** Pharasma, goddess of birth and death, is in a relationship with the minor deity Mrtyu, the psychopomp usher responsible for fallen soldiers and victims of murder and suicide. Mrtyu is said to have been [[DeityOfHumanOrigin the first mortal ever to die with love on his lips]], which intrigued Pharasma enough to try wooing his soul when it reached the Boneyard; their relationship has helped her to understand the emotions of mortals better.
** Erastil, the god of hunting, agriculture, and community, is ''very'' family-oriented and is HappilyMarried to the minor agriculture goddess Jaidi, with whom he has two children. He frequently tries to set other Good-aligned deities up with partners, and considers LoveGoddess Shelyn a friend for her support for marriage and family.
** The Tien deities Shizuru, goddess of the sun, and Tsukiyo, god of the moon, are StarCrossedLovers who are only able to be together during a solar eclipse after he was [[CainAndAbel murdered by his brother Fumeiyoshi]] and then brought back to life.
* GodhoodSeeker:
** In general, the ''Starstone'' -- a magical meteorite held within the city of Absalom -- has the power to allow mortals to ascend to godhood, if they can pass the traps and tests surrounding it. Absalom is thus home to a constantly-replenishing series of hopefuls seeking to take the Test of the Starstone and become divinities, although the vast majority fail and perish -- only three people successfully passed the Test in the five millennia or so it's been around.
** Tar-Baphon, the Whispering Tyrant, is a lich obsessed with both power and personal survival. He views his current status as an ageless undead and the most powerful necromancer to ever live as a stopgap measure mean to give himself time to work towards his real goal -- conquering Absalom, draining every drop of divine power from the ''Starstone'' and becoming a god. The finale of "Tyrant's Grasp" is specifically focused around stopping him from doing so.
** Erum-Hel, the Lord of Mohrgs, is an undead servant of Tar-Baphon's who has spent the last several centuries obsessing over his defeat by the crusader hero Iomedae. As Iomedae eventually became a goddess, she is now far beyond any retribution, and Erum-Hel has thus been forced to strike at her church in her stead. He still obsesses over the taste of blood he had during their clash, though, and desperately hungers for more. He has thus been giving serious thought to taking the Test of the Starstone himself, becoming a god and confronting his old enemy on an even field once more.
** Nocticula, while already a demon lord and thus a lesser divinity herself, has long been rumored to be seeking to become the second demon lord to ascend to full godhood -- something that makes the first such demon god, Lamashtu, more than a bit wary, as Nocticula's rise to her already considerable power has been paved with the a number of slain rivals impressive even among demons. At the end of first edition Nocticula indeed ascends to godhood, although to considerable InUniverse surprise she does so as a ChaoticNeutral, rather than ChaoticEvil, deity -- her desire for godhood was in large part driven by a desire to grow past the bonds of demonhood and the limited nature of most outsiders' wills.
* GodOfDarkness:
** Black Butterfly is an [[CelestialParagonsAndArchangels Empyreal Lord]] associated with darkness, distance, and space. She appears as a dark humanoid silhouette [[CelestialBody gleaming with images of stars and nebulae]], and her personal realm is a quiet void whose physical surfaces are pockets of solid shadows.
** [[ChaoticGood Desna]] is a goddess associated with stars and the night sky, making her a cross between this and a variation of GodOfLight.
** The land of [[{{Wutai}} Tian Xia]] has the god [[LawfulGood Tsukiyo]], the most prominent Good deity to provide the Darkness domain to his clerics.
** Zon-Kuthon is the god of darkness and de facto ruler of the Shadow Plane. He's also an [[DarkIsEvil evil]] deity whose faith is centered around ColdBloodedTorture.
** After her HeelFaceTurn, Nocticula became the goddess of artists, exiles, and midnight. Her followers are forbidden from completing works of art during daylight hours.
* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen:
** Queen Ileosa of Korvosa (the primary villain of Curse of the Crimson Throne) is a tyrant who keeps an AmazonBrigade of spies and bodyguards called the Grey Maidens brainwashed to follow her without question. She's psychotically petty and vain, too: she specifically picks beautiful women and then has their faces scarred as part of their induction.
** The current queen of Cheliax, Abrogail II Thrune, is a ruthless tyrant ([[{{Retcon}} formerly described as a teenage]] RoyalBrat) whose advisers include a pit fiend devil. You do the math. The worst part? He's there to ''rein in'' her darker impulses.
* GoodWeaponEvilWeapon:
** Weapons can be magically given an alignment towards good or evil (as well as law or chaos) for the purposes of defeating an opponent's damage resistance.
** Every god (whether good, neutral or evil) has a favored weapon, no matter how disposed to violence said god might be. Whether a specific character wields a particular kind of weapon can be a clue as to the god they worship (although nothing stops a non-believer from using that weapon) and thus what the alignment of that character is likely to be.
* GorgeousGarmentGeneration: The ''rod of splendor'' garbs its wielder in magical noble's clothing -- the finest fabrics, plus adornments of furs and jewels, worth 7,000-10,000 gold pieces. This particular item is a holdover from 3.5.
* GrammarNazi: A 2E bestiary justifies dropping the term "lycanthrope" in favor of just "werecreature" with a rather snarky note about how the root "lykos" only applies to wolves and that if you call another type of transforming creature that they'll get offended and attack you. Apparently they didn't notice that "were-" only applies to human males, certainly not the only ones who can change, though.
* GreenEyedMonster: The archdevil Baalzebul believes himself the only deserving son of Asmodeus and loathes the other archdevils for, in his mind, usurping his proper place in Hell.
* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: Lashunta women. The Lashunta are a species of psychic humanoids from a neighboring planet in Golarion's solar system, and female Lashunta resemble tall, beautiful human or elven women with antennae.
* TheGreys:
** The derro fulfill this role on Golarion, abducting people, performing terrible experiments on them, and later returning them without any memory of their experiences beyond some vague nightmares.
** ''Bestiary 5'' provides stats for actual greys. They are telepathic, evil, and like to paralyze and mind-probe people.
* GripingAboutGremlins: An entire subset of tiny, malicious fey.
* GruesomeGoat:
** Goats are sacred to several evil deities, including Asmodeus, the archdevil Belial, the infernal duke Zepar, the daemonic harbinger Slandrais and the demon lord Orcus. Of these, Orcus also has the head and legs of a monstrous goat.
** A number of demons, including schirs (demons born from the souls of mortals who engaged in violent, spiteful crimes) and brimoraks (born from mortals who engaged in violent arson), have the heads and hooves of goats. This is subverted through the ez-azaels, celestial beings created when a schir is used a very literal scapegoat to atone a mortal population's sins; the schir usually dies, but sometimes is itself cleansed of its demonic nature and changed into a creature of good.
** The illustration of ''the Shepherd'' (the page image for the trope), a throne of bones that turns any animal seated on it into an evil, intelligent servant of the archdevil Barbatos, shows a four-horned goat reclining on it, with a flame burning between its horns and AGlassOfChianti in its hoof.
* GrumpyOldMan: Erastil, God of Farming, Hunting, Trade and Family: [[GoodIsNotNice cranky]], [[DeliberateValuesDissonance conservative and reactionary]]... and LawfulGood.
* GunsFiringUnderwater: Firearms can't be used underwater unless protected with specific magic, and even then, shooting through water imposes a stiff penalty on the weapon's accuracy. Early ammunition is ruined outright by exposure to water.
* TheGunslinger: Available by name in ''First Edition'' as a new class in ''Ultimate Combat'' which allows you to be a Wild West hero with GunFu. They use "grit" points to fuel their ImprobableAimingSkills, and regain grit by being ''cool''. The class returned for ''Second Edition'' in ''Guns and Gears''.
* HammerHilt: The First Edition feats Weapon Trick (polearms) and Spear Dancing Style both allow a character wielding a two-handed polearm to club opponents with the shaft of the weapon rather than striking with the head. In the former case, the "Haft Bash" trick removes the brace and reach qualities and treats the weapon as a club; in the latter, the spear is treated as a DoubleWeapon, with the shaft functioning as a light mace.
* HangingUpOnTheGrimReaper: Both TheGrimReaper and [[HorsemenOfTheApocalypse the Horseman of Death]] are fully statted out, making it possible for players to fight or [[LordBritishPostulate even defeat them]]. However, they are both still [[PhysicalGod personifications of death itself]], so such a fight is basically hopeless for all but the strongest adventurers.
%%* HatOfPower: Many examples.
* HatesReading: Alongside their many StupidEvil tendencies, [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent Goblins]] have a superstitious terror of the written word, believing that it can steal the thoughts out of their heads. This might [[LegendFadesToMyth be inspired by]] their ancient MagicallyBindingContract with [[GodOfEvil Asmodeus]]. ''2e'' even has a goblin spellbook...that's a magical pop-up book with no words in it.
* HealItWithBlood: The "Infernal Healing" spells grant the target a limited, short-lived HealingFactor and require a [[EyeOfNewt material component]] of devil blood or [[HolyWater unholy water]]. Unlike normal HealingHands, the spells are explicitly Evil.
* {{Heaven}}: Good-aligned souls are usually sent to one of the three Upper Planes based on where they fall on the Law-Chaos spectrum:
** Heaven is a realm of perfect goodness and exquisite order, and its residents see the two as inextricably linked--righteousness requires structure, but structure is pointless without a just and noble goal.
** Nirvana is a realm of pure good--an idyllic wilderness of enlightenment and redemption that promises sanctuary to the weary and enlightenment and transcendence to those who seek it out.
** Elysium is a place of bold deeds and fiery passions, where heroes clash and revel, and freedom is prized above all. Its inhabitants represent a wide variety of freely given benevolence, often willing to directly aid visitors but more often serving as inspirations and muses to foster positive change.
* {{Hell}}: The tree Lower Planes are designated for evil mortal souls depending on their alignment:
** Hell is the multiversal seat of tyranny and malignant law, where the souls of evil mortals and victims of the devils' machinations endure unending torments. Here every act is authorised, calculated, recorded and set like perfectly ordered clockwork within a vast machine driven on methodical suffering and greased with pain and purification.
** Abaddon embodies the concept of oblivion of the mortal soul, where the Four Horsemen rule over a population of daemons epitomizing every iteration of mortal death.
** The Abyss is a place of horror and destruction fed by mortal sin. Each of its innumerable realms is a unique iteration of chaos and evil, each with its own terrible and twisted environment, with one driving maxim: the strong survive, while the weak suffer and are destroyed.
* {{Hellfire}}: Made by devils, its damage is half fire and half (unholy) divine energy, meaning that being fireproof is not protection enough.
* HellSeeker: There are a lot. Pretty much anyone who makes a DealWithTheDevil for instance. Oddly enough subverted to a degree with the country of [[EvilEmpire Cheliax]], who see Hell's Infernal Hierarchy more as a model for government than as a place they want to be.
* HeelFaceTurn:
** ''Champions of Purity'' has a short chapter and rules for redeeming evil people and creatures. To drive the point home, the page displays the Tiefling shown fighting Seelah on the cover of ''Blood of Fiends'' now proudly wearing a symbol of Iomedae.
** A half-orc paladin subset, "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Redeemer]]", focuses on doing this with monstrous creatures through various tweaks to regular Paladin abilities[[note]] They can even FORCE a (temporary) Face-turn through "Pact of Peace", a level 8 Ability that acts as a lesser geas[[/note]] -- except for [[AlwaysChaoticEvil TheUndead and evil-aligned dragons and outsiders]].
*** Second edition allows any race this option with the Neutral-Good Champion class.
** ''Wrath of the Righteous'' has this as something of a running theme, ranging from allowing you to talk a turncoat back from the side of the demons to aiding a major succubus character in leaving evil and the Abyss behind and talking a Runelord into giving morality a try in exchange for breaking him out of Baphomet's personal prison.
* HeroicSacrifice: What caused the aboleths' plans to use the Starstone as a ColonyDrop to backfire spectacularly -- two, in fact. Acavna, Azlanti goddess of the moon and war, saw the incoming Starstone and attempted to stop it, [[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu dying in the process]]... and then her lover Amaznen, god of magic, decided he would be TogetherInDeath and used his life force to empower a spell that broke the aboleth control over the Starstone, making it much less lethal and inclined to fall where they wanted.
* HillbillyHorrors:
** ''The Hook Mountain Massacre'', with the bonus that some of the inbred rapist homicidal degenerates are ten feet tall. Ogres and ogrekin in general borrow a lot from this trope.
** Marsh giants as well, with added elements of Lovecraftian cults, courtesy to their worship of Dagon.
** The bloody jake archetype for the slayer class. One of their abilities is even called [[Film/TheHillsHaveEyes "The Woods Have Eyes"]].
* HillbillyIncest: Ogres are based on a particularly monstrous and savage take on the theme of depraved {{cannibal|Clan}} hillbillies, complete with crude slang from the US South and a taste for banjos. They are also infamous for their incestuous practices, which often result in ogre clans being riddled with deformities, birth defects, and congenital disabilities.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: ''Reign of Winter'' includes UsefulNotes/RasputinTheMadMonk and [[DidAnastasiaSurvive Anastasia]] [[spoiler:(Rasputin is the son of Literature/BabaYaga, Anastasia ''was'' killed with the other Romanovs, but Rasputin resurrected her using a lock of her hair)]].
** For some reason [[UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat Thais]] is Cayden Cailean's herald
* HolyWater: Holy water is defined as water blessed by a cleric or oracle sworn to a Good-aligned deity; besides burning fiends and the undead like acid, it's also used to consecrate areas against evil magic and in liturgical ceremonies. The worshippers of Cayden Cailean, the god of adventurers and alcohol, are known to also bless alcoholic beverages in this manner.
* HorsemenOfTheApocalypse: The Four Horsemen are the near-godlike rulers of the NeutralEvil fiends known as the daemons (aka yugoloths in ''D&D'').
* HotGod: Shelyn, the goddess of beauty, romantic love, and the fine arts, is the main standout, typically depicted as a slim brunette dressed in revealing silks. Predictably, EvenTheGirlsWantHer: she's canonically in an on-again-off-again relationship with Desna, goddess of freedom, and Sarenrae, goddess of the sun.
* HotSkittyOnWailordAction:
** Several species in ''Pathfinder'' are quite capable of breeding with just about anything. Aside from the typical half-orcs, half-elves, aasimar and tieflings, there's also the matter of sorcerers whose bloodlines can include devils, dragons, angels, undead, plants, and shadows.
** Of course this is often a case of LamarckWasRight, with the example for the undead bloodline suggesting that your ancestor became a lich or the infernal bloodline suggesting that the power is actually a lingering effect of an ancestor's DealWithTheDevil,
** Indeed, their entries in the Bestiaries mention that creatures such as half dragons and half fiends are mostly the result of magical rituals, and only very rarely the result of actual sexual relations between different species.
* HumanSacrifice: A tradition among the evil religions, though the particulars can vary. The Demonic Obedience for Lamashtu for instance involves sacrificing a life that is younger than 4 weeks old.
* HumansAreSpecial: Subverted. The rise to power of the first human civilization, [[{{Atlantis}} Azlant]], was covertly backed by [[EldritchAbomination aboleths]], and one can argue that humanity wouldn't have the status it now does without that start and its consequences.
* HumongousHeadedHammer: The art in the Core Rulebook for First Edition depicts the warhammer as a big, blocky thing with a head almost as wide as its haft is long, that is nevertheless supposed to be a one-handed weapon. ''Ultimate Equipment'' adds the "earth breaker", a two-handed hammer with an even bigger head.
* HuntingAccident: Attempted in ''War for the Crown Part 2: Songbird, Scion, Saboteur''. After clashing with the [=PCs=], [[spoiler:Lord Titus Lotheed-Casava]] rigs the draw of hunting grounds for a [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame "peasant hunt"]] so that the [=PCs=] are assigned to hunt in lands where [[spoiler:he knows a powerful manticore has taken up residence, hoping it will kill them]].
* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame: Taldor has a tradition called a "peasant hunt" where a convict is released into a hunting preserve dressed in an animal costume for partying aristocrats to pursue. If the peasant stays uncaptured for a full day, they get a pardon. Less malevolent than most examples because, at least in theory, the hunters are only allowed to use nonlethal means to bring down their quarry. The [=PCs=] have an opportunity to take part in one in part 2 of the War for the Crown campaign, [[spoiler:but one of their rivals rigs the draw of hunting grounds to assign them to a territory he knows is inhabited by a powerful manticore, [[HuntingAccident hoping it will kill them]]]].
* AnIcePerson: Several monsters are associated with ice or use ice-based weapons, including white dragons, frost giants, and some fey. For {{Player Character}}s, there are several spells that conjure ice or deal cold damage, and the ice powers are the main focus of the Winter Witch and Boreal/Rime-Blooded sorcerer bloodlines.
* ImplacableMan: Pretty much the point of a high level samurai. They gain the ability LastStand, which makes them basically unkillable to anyone but their [[ThrowingDownTheGauntlet mark]]. They take minimum damage from outside sources (except magic and [[CriticalHit Critical Hits]]), don't enter the dying state when they're below 0 health, and take no damage from outside physical attacks once they hit 0 health. These benefits remain until they either attack someone else, kill their foe, or die.
* ImportedAlienPhlebotinum: Findable in Numeria, in the wreckage of a spaceship that crashed millennia ago. This is the focus of the ''Iron Gods'' campaign path.
* ImpossiblyCoolClothes: How do some of those outfits even stay in place at all without double-sided tape, much less stand up to the strain of adventuring? And then there's Laori's skintight chainmail. Admittedly, she's a [[TooKinkyToTorture sadomasochist]], so comfort isn't an issue, but ''still''...
* InASingleBound: When Rushing, the Tarrasque's jump is practically NotQuiteFlight.
* InterdimensionalTravelDevice: Many, many examples, including the ''amulet of the planes'', the ''well of many worlds'', and the ''cubic gate''.
* InterspeciesRomance: With all the HalfHumanHybrids and other crossbreeds running around and considering the HotSkittyOnWailordAction above, this happens pretty often. Though not as often as in ''D&D''. It even shows up specifically in certain adventure paths, where the players can run into either characters currently in a relationship, or can become one if they wish. For specifics:
** In ''Legacy of Fire'', a harpy named Undrella unabashedly hits on the male player character with the highest Charisma score, and though it's hidden behind euphemisms, it's quite clear that reciprocating could be very helpful to helping her make a HeelFaceTurn, especially when she shows back up in the final adventure of the path.
** In ''Skull & Shackles'', an important non-player character in the last adventure is the half-orc son of a human sailor who befriended the female orc slave-to-be being transported on the ship he had been pressganged to serving on, helped her escape, and eventually fell in love with her and settled down happily.
** The half-orc paladin Irabeth Tirablade, of ''Wrath of the Righteous'', has a similar backstory, having been born to a male orc who genuinely fell in love with a human woman and abandoned his brutal culture to be with her. Besides which she's in one herself, since her wife is a pure-blooded human.
** ''Wrath of the Righteous'' also has the AscendedDemon Arueshalae, who can potentially (and is encouraged) to form a romantic bond with one of the heroes. As she is a succubus seeking to redeem herself, she'll be this trope for any [=PC=] regardless of their ancestry.
** In the second adventure for ''Reign of Winter'', a potential non-player character ally is Greta, who is a female winter wolf [[note]]a race of intelligent, evil, talking white-furred wolves with frost-breath attacks and cold immunity[[/note]] currently transformed into a human form by the magic of her city of residence. Unlike Undrella, it's quite explicit that she's looking for romance, but a player character could eventually use this to [[LoveRedeems help her]] to make a HeelFaceTurn. It's easier to get her interested if the [=PC=] is using a certain magic item that makes her assume they're also a transformed winter wolf, but it's possible to do so without it, and even if she is misled in the first place, she [[IfItsYouItsOkay doesn't care when she finds out that her lover isn't a winter wolf]]. That said, it does make her especially interested in finding some way of maintaining a human form if she leaves the city, something the AP accounts for in the end if the players chose to do so.
* IntroducedSpeciesCalamity: Pest drakes are dragonets about the size of a pigeon that became major fad pets a few centuries in the setting's past. Many were released into the wild when they grew too big to care for, and more were freed when the fad passed, and they ended up becoming extremely common and destructive urban pests.
** Spellsong Lyrebirds, from the upcoming ''Howl of the Wild'', are the result of wizards attempting to create familiars that could cast spells. They escaped, and now they are birds that can cast fireball.
* InTheBlood: Sorcerer bloodlines are defined by this. Sorcerers gain magic from some kind of change to their bloodline at some point, causing magic to manifest based on the source. Usually the explanation is that someone in your family was affected, and that meeting had a ripple effect down the line.
* ISeeDeadPeople:
** The ''speak with dead'' spell partially resurrects corpses for conversation.
** The Ancestor Mystery Oracle can converse with and summon the ghosts of their ancestors.
* IrrationalHatred: Yamabushi Tengu really, really hate ducks for some reason.
* JackassGenie:
** Efreet are as bad at this here as they were in ''D&D'', but the Efreeti prince Jhavhul takes the cake. Not only will he usually fulfill wishes in a maliciously twisted way, he'll force you to use two out of three wishes to help him resurrect Xotani the Firebleeder, a terribly destructive [[{{Kaiju}} Spawn of Rovagug]], for... very twisted reasons.
** Glabrezu demons delight in fulfilling mortal wishes in ways designed to maximize pain and grief. Wish for a loved one to come back to life, for instance, and they'll resurrect them as a vampire or some other horrific undead; if a blacksmith wishes for patronage, they'll get it in the form a tyrant who'll use their works to spread war and misery.
* JekyllAndHyde:
** [[http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/tags/meetTheIconics/v5748dyo5lbad# Damiel Morgethai]] under the influence of the chemical mutagen he is addicted to.
** The Master Chymist prestige class is ten levels' worth of this trope.
* JerkAss: Alain, [[http://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Alain_Germande the iconic Cavalier]] who appears in the ''Advanced Player's Guide'' is the kind of guy everyone can't help but hate.
* TheJourneyThroughDeath: The River of Souls carries the the newly dead across the [[VoidBetweenTheWorlds Astral Plane]] and into the domain of Pharasma, Goddess of Death, where they're {{judge|mentOfTheDead}}d and sent to their final fate. Some [[OurDemonsAreDifferent fiends]] try to [[ReroutedFromHeaven poach souls]] from the River, so it's heavily guarded by celestials, devils, and demons alike.
* {{Kaiju}}:
** Achaekek the Mantis God (one of the few gods with stats) qualifies, as do the Spawn of Rovagug -- unique gigantic monstrosities that are [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the spawn of the Rough Beast Rovagug]], god of destroying the world. The Tarrasque is just the most famous of the Spawn. Rovagug himself is typically depicted as a monstrous beast as well, rather than anything remotely humanoid.
** Other gigantic, high-power monsters can be considered this, like [[FungusHumongous Mu spores]], behemoths, [[KrakenAndLeviathan krakens]]...
** A kaiju template, inspired by high-powered Japanese movie monsters like Godzilla and Gamera, was scheduled for appearance in ''Bestiary 3'', but it was cut because it would have been ''eight pages long''. Paizo held off on releasing it until they got mythic rules (ie, rules for playing near-demigods) ironed out, so it didn't appear until ''Bestiary 4''. However, they made a change. Rather than a template, it was ''Actual Kaiju''. First, there's Agyra the Forever Storm, a massive two-headed pterodactyl that can [[ShockAndAwe spit lightning bolts]] from each head, [[BlowYouAway create a hurricane]], and produces sonic booms when she flies and top speed. Bezravnis, known as the Inferno Below, resembles a monstrous, distorted three-tailed scorpion whose powers include throwing webbing that constricts on its prey until it's crushed to death and firing heat rays from each stinger. Finally, Mogaru the Final King is a twin-tailed, energy-absorbing, BreathWeapon-wielding saurian creature.
** In ''Second Edition'', ''Secrets of Magic'' adds the 10th-level primal spell ''Summon Kaiju'', which briefly summons one from a list of specific kaiju. It arrives the turn it's summoned, then departs the next--with each part having calamitous effects. The 10th-level primal spell ''Nature Incarnate'' allows you to turn into a kaiju for one minute.
* {{Kamaitachi}}: Kamaitachi are malicious fey creatures resembling flying weasels with curved blades instead of legs, who delight in causing pain and suffering. They have the ability to delay the actual damage caused by their slashing claws -- effectively, someone they cut won't actually start bleeding and hurting until the kamaitachi decides they should -- and use this to force people to shame and demean themselves in exchange for their lives.
* KatanasAreJustBetter: Ultimate Combat introduces the katana and wakizashi. They're mostly identical to longswords (bastard swords before errata) and shortswords respectively, but with a very minor additional cost [[note]]35 gold more when a 2nd level PlayerCharacter is expected to have 2000[[/note]], a greater critical threat range, and an additional special property "deadly" that makes them better at executing helpless foes, and wakizashi can deal piercing or slashing damage while shortswords are only effective at piercing. Note that this is more about PowerCreep than katana fanboyism, since they're also exotic weapons which require special and specific training to use properly -- western exotic weapons have a similar level of power.
* KickingAssInAllHerFinery: Falayna, an [[CelestialParagonsAndArchangels Empyreal Lord]], is practically the patron saint of kicking ass and looking good doing it. She herself is described as a beautiful woman who wears gleaming silver armor, silk robes, and an incredible number of colorful jeweled rings on her fingers. Her followers are likewise encouraged to embrace feminine beauty and train for battle at the same time.
* KillItWithFire:
** Sarenrae, the NeutralGood Goddess of Healing and the Sun, reserves this for those who have no interest in redemption.
** Generally, the easier option for dealing with trolls. Unless you're a wizard or alchemist (or just CrazyPrepared) you probably won't have acid lying around.
** On the other hand, while it isn't as bad as in 3e, fire is the most common immunity.
** Oracles with the Blackened curse gain access to an assortment of fire spells in exchange for burn-scarred arms that cost them on weapon attack rolls.
* KillThePoor: [[spoiler:Ileosa Arabasti]] in "Curse of the Crimson Throne" unleashes a plague with this goal in mind.
* KnightTemplar: The Hellknight orders of Cheliax, which can be effectively summarized as ComicBook/JudgeDredd in fullplate.
* KubrickStare: [[http://www.pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/File:King_of_Roses.jpeg The King of Roses]] from the adventure ''The Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale''.
* LadyOfWar:
** The goddess Iomedae is, well, the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin goddess]] of this.
** Also, Seelah, the iconic paladin.
** While not her main aspect, the goddess Sarenrae fits the bill when she needs to, as seen [[http://pathfinderwiki.com/mediawiki/images/d/d6/Gods_%26_Magic_cover_clean.jpg here]].
* LandOfFaerie: The First World.
* LawyerFriendlyCameo: The adventure ''The Witchwar Legacy'' has a big one. [[spoiler:One of Baba Yaga's witch-queen daughters, Tashanna, was exiled to another reality both as punishment for staging a coup against her mother and as a means to encourage her to grow into a great witch and demon-binder in her own right. The infamous Greyhawk villain Iggwilv, who received a lot of attention in Paizo's Dragon and Dungeon runs, was a member of the Circle of Eight under the alias "Tasha".]]
** "The Dead Eyes worship a one-eyed [[TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}} orc]] [[TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms deity]] whose [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruumsh name]] is long since forgotten[...]"
* LeftJustifiedFantasyMap: Partially averted, the areas that have been detailed so far are Avistan -- a rough Europe analogue, Garund -- an equally wild and varied Africa analogue, and the western region of Casmaron -- roughly equivalent to the Middle East and Central Asia. More Recently, Tian Xia, an analogue of eastern Asia, has been detailed as well. Arcadia (an American analogue) has been mentioned, but not detailed yet. Ditto for Vudra, the southeastern part of Casmaron, which is basically the Indian subcontinent.
* LevelDrain: Downplayed. Undead can still inflict negative levels, but you no longer have to earn those levels back the hard way. Averted in ''2e'', where the negative levels mechanic is removed entirely.
* TheLightfooted: The Ninja's "Light Steps" ability lets them walk across any surface without difficulty or disturbance: rough terrain, ice, the thinnest tree branches, BoobyTrap triggers, {{Caltrops}}, [[WalkOnWater water]], [[ConvectionSchmonvection lava]]...
** The '2e'' Rogue's Cloud Step feat lets them Stride over water, air, and solid surfaces that can't otherwise hold their weight. Downplayed in that they still have to end their turn on solid ground.
* LightIsNotGood:
** Shining Children (creepy borderline-EldritchAbomination evil outsiders with light and fire themed powers) and Lurkers in Light (creepy extraplanar [[TheFairFolk evil fey]] with abilities that make them most dangerous in well-illuminated areas) from the second ''Bestiary''. There is also the demon lord Nurgal, representing the merciless, destructive power of the sun, and has a portfolio of [[SillyReasonForWar pointless conflict]].
** The positive energy plane is home to a race of creatures called the jyoti, highly xenophobic guardians of the sources of life and other positive energy aspects. While those who know of their existence frequently assume them to be good, they are jealous and violent defenders of their home plane, frequently coming to blows with adventurers with the slightest provocation.
* LightningLash: A kineticist who specializes in the air element can charge a whip (or any other weapon) with electricity, or manifest a whip made of pure electricity, with the right talent selection.
* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: Played straight by 1e, mostly or completely averted by 2e.
** In 1e, Spellcasting classes tend to dominate the late game after spending the early game nursing [[SquishyWizard single digit hit points]]. It should be noted that it's still significantly better about this than 3.5. Most significantly, fighters have been given unique feats that give them extremely powerful combat maneuvers and the duration of game-breaking battle spells is generally measured in rounds and had their numerical advantages severely decreased. Casters also have the option of taking the additional hit-points from their favored class.
** In 2e, much more care was taken to keeping martial and caster classes balanced relative to each other, both in and out of combat, at all levels. Martials are overall better at single-target damage and defense, casters are still overall better at utility and area damage, but it’s a common culture shock for players from other systems used to playing very powerful casters to feel “nerfed” by the system.
* LivingDinosaurs: Dinosaurs exist as powerful apex predators in the primeval Realm of the Mammoth Lords and the trackless Mwangi Expanse. They serve as the most powerful animals to exist without magical backing.
* LivingDrawing: ''Trompe L'oeil'' paintings are magically-enhanced copies of an original creature that can step off the canvas, assume solid three-dimensional forms, and even inhabit other paintings. These entities can only be permanently killed by destroying the painting that generates them.
* LivingShadow: The spell ''shadow projection'' allows you to make your own shadow into this.
** The sceaduinar, the native inhabitants of the plane of negative energy, which lies at the core of the Plane of Shadow, are a variation of this, being crystallized manifestations of the destroying energies of the plane. They are quite hostile to all living, and unliving, creatures.
* LlamaLoogie: Llamas can spit as a special ranged attack that [[StatusInflictionAttack does no damage but sickens the target]].
* LoadBearingBoss:
** Once during ''Council of Thieves'', where [[spoiler:the chain reaction that leads to the destruction of the mayor's villa and the release of the pit fiend starts with one single, murdered Kyton (although sad Kyton is killed by an NPC before the heroes arrive)]].
** In the retired Pathfinder Society scenario ''Skeleton Moon'', the final boss is a huge assassin vine that's been infused with a soul by accident. It tears away from the tower it's attached to leading to mere rounds before the whole thing comes crumbling down on the [=PCs=].
* LoonyLaws: Mayor Barzillai Thrune's decrees at the start of ''Hell's Rebels'' include edicts to control rats and stray dogs, mandatory display of the queen's portrait, restrictions on the wear of embroidered clothing, a ban on drinking tea after sunset, and a ban on mint.
* LordOfTheOcean: There are two main sea gods, both known for their tempestuous and fickle natures:
** Gozreh takes this role in his female incarnation as the goddes of the sea (as opposed to her male incarnation as the god of the sky); as the ruler of the seas, she's depicted as a woman with sea-green hair whose lower body is a pillar of roiling water. Being the god of the seas in one incarnation and of winds and storms in the other, Gozreh is worshipped by most people who make their living in or on the water, especially fishermen, merchants and sailors, and favors the trident as a weapon.
** While the cult of Gozreh is well-established and predominant in the continents of Avistan and Casmaron, the people of Tian Xia worship Hei Feng, the god of sea and storms.
* LostWorld: The Vaults of Orv in the lowest levels of the Darklands are these.
* LoveDodecahedron: The villains of ''Burnt Offerings'', the first ''Rise of the Runelords'' adventure. It's a {{squick}}y dodecahedron at that. [[spoiler:Orik the sellsword likes Lyrie the wizard, who's too hung up over Tsuto the monk/rogue to care. Tsuto loves Nualia the evil cleric, who is having sex with Tsuto, but doesn't actually love him because she's still vengeful about her former lover Delek. The goblin chief is also infatuated with Nualia (though the text claims it's more of an intellectual curiousity, from a goblin, no less) and is neglecting his wives, so they're all sleeping with Bruthazmus the bugbear (who's probably the only one happy with the arrangement).]]
* LovecraftCountry: The description of the Lost Coast from Burnt Offerings, the first chapter of ''Rise of the Runelords'' (the first published adventure path), reads like a description of the Dunwich area.
** A much more explicit version of the trope is the County of Versex in Ustalav (which is otherwise the setting's main {{Uberwald}}), with all notable settlements being almost direct expies of their New England equivalents. Carrion Hill and Hyannis are Dunwich, Illmarsh is Innsmouth, Rozenport is Arkham, and Thrushmoor is Kingsport.
* LovecraftLite: Turns up everywhere, when you scratch under the surface. Nasty elder gods, ancient non-humanoid civilizations, weird and inimical aliens, and direct references to [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos the Mythos]]--notably, the [[https://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6sgzu?The-Windsong-Testaments-The-Three-Fears-of most definitive take on Golarion's creation]] [[UnreliableNarrator we have]] suggests that Yog-Sothoth is one of two pillars needed to keep the cycle of reality functioning. The guys at Paizo love Creator/HPLovecraft. The game as a whole also does not actually care about these except as thematic elements or when they are direct antagonists, and most Mythos creatures are [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu just more monsters]], no SanityMeter to speak of.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:M-O]]
* MadDoctor: Many of the alchemist archetypes from ''Ultimate Magic'' are based around knowledge of anatomy (and how to severely damage it).
* MadeOfIndestructium: Major artifacts need to be destroyed by fantastic means. A different, and always difficult, method is needed for each one. No conventional attempts can harm them. ''Pathfinder'' owes this trope to [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings one of its inspirations]] through a long line of descent.
* MadScientist: The alchemist class is based on a fantasy application of mad chemistry, with [[MadBomber incendiary bombs]], {{Psycho Serum}}s, and spells in potion form. The ''Ultimate Magic'' sourcebook adds various alternate alchemist archetypes like the vivisectionist, reanimator, and clone master that allow for a wider range of MadScientist types.
* MagicalCounterfeiting: The bottom-[[SpellLevels level]] illusion spell "Fool's Gold" disguises copper or silver as gold for a few hours, increasing its perceived value up to a hundredfold. Careful appraisal can expose the fraud early.
* MagicalGirl: The magical child archetype in ''Ultimate Intrigue'' is a spellcasting version of the dual-identity vigilante class. Signature abilities include an magical animal companion and a TransformationSequence called by that name. The transformation allows the magical child to switch identities rapidly but with less subtlety:
--> "The transformation is quite a spectacle, involving loud sounds or music, brilliant colorful energies, and swift motions."
* MagicalStarSymbols: A major symbol in TheMagocracy of [[AdvancedAncientHumans ancient Thassilon]] is the Sihedron Rune, a seven-pointed star representing the power of magic, the seven disciplines of Thassilonian magic, and their associated [[TheArchmage Runelords]]. The original Sihedron is also a powerful DismantledMacGuffin.
* MagicFromTechnology / {{Magitek}}: The planet Verces is the most technologically advanced in Golarion's solar system, using equal parts ''Franchise/StarTrek'' level technology and arcane magic to keep their spacefaring society running. Neither is seen as conflicting with the other.
* MagicKnight: The magus base class blends arcane magic and swordplay from level 1, channeling spells through weapon attacks, and gaining the formidable ability to cast a spell and make a full attack routine in the same round. The class has -- largely -- replaced the Eldritch Knight, a decent prestige class that unfortunately required struggling with a somewhat weak character before it could be achieved.
** ''Second Edition'' also has the Magus, with the ability to channel a 1-action or 2-action spell that requires an attack roll into a Spellstrike that combines it with a melee Strike, applying the effects of both on a hit.
%%* MagicMusic: The Bard character class is built upon this.
* MagicOrPsychic: In First Edition, "psychic magic" is an entirely separate category of magic, contrasting with arcane and divine. Six classes introduced in ''Occult Adventures'' tap into this type of magic, and the spells they can use have little overlap with what other classes can cast. In Second Edition, only Psychics have access to psychic magic, and it's more to do with the exact methods of how they cast spells, as they share a spell list with bards and other casters with access to the occult tradition.
* MagicPotion: Potions work as essentially bottled spells, remaining dormant until used. Most potions are drunk, but some are made as oils to be applied to the skin. In terms of effect, they range from simple healing and stat-boosting things to drinks that cause you to sprout eyes all over your body or that turn you into a hive-minded swarm of wasps. Potions are often the province of alchemists, but are also made by arcane spellcasters such as wizards and witches. The making of potions is a very complex processes of selecting ingredients and distilling, brewing and proofing mixtures, and professional potion-makers are often very protective of their trade secrets. Potion variants include ones with delayed effects, ones that heal you in addition to their other effects, and ones deployed as gaseous clouds instead of being drunk.
* TheMagocracy: The two most prominent examples are the nations of Nex and Geb. The former nation focuses on standard magic (like evocation and transmutation), while the latter is a [[TheNecrocracy necrocracy]] focusing almost exclusively on necromantic magic.
* MassiveRaceSelection: While the Corebook has only seven race options, there are more than 50[[note]]As of this posting there are 56[[/note]] distinct playable races if one considers all the books (many of which have variants and sub-races). These have been detailed in such books as ''Advanced Race Guide'' and each of the various ''Bestiaries'', as well as a few of the ''Adventure Path'' modules and the "Blood of" and "People of" ''Player Companion'' books.
* MassResurrection: One monk variant has the ability to do this for all of their fallen allies [[HeroicSacrifice in exchange]] for completely wiping themselves out of existence (subverting DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist), making them not just DeaderThanDead, but an UnPerson to the point where even their name disappears from where it was written down.
* MasterPoisoner: A number of classes such as rogues, assassins and ninjas are proficient poisoners, but it's the [[TheRedMage Alchemist]] who can really exploit poison. Alchemists who specialize enjoy complete immunity, reduced creation time and costs, and design poisons that contaminate the weapon longer and are more difficult to resist.
* MayflyDecemberFriendship: Elves who grow up among shorter-lived races rather than their own kind are called Forlorn. Since elves are considered adult at 110, each one of them has by this time buried roughly two generations of "childhood friends" who grew up, lived their lives and died of old age. Many more companions will die in the course of the rest of their lifespan (naturally somewhere between 350 and 750 years), resulting in many Forlorn becoming cynical, bitter and insular.
* MedicinalCuisine: A [[OurWitchesAreDifferent Witch]] can learn to cook magical meals that can cure poisons or disease, grant [[PowerUpFood power-ups]], or suspend the effects of old age. The catch is that they need to be made from [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies intelligent humanoids]].
* MedievalEuropeanFantasy: Played straight with the continent of Avistan, but averted overall: Garund is a stand-in for Africa, Casmaron is Central Asia, Tian Xia is East Asia, and Arcadia is the pre-Columbian Americas (upgraded to a similar tech level to Avistan and Garund). ''Pathfinder'' draws heavily from many pulp sources, so while Avistan has a lot of medieval Europe in it, other continents and time periods are equally well represented.
* MessianicArchetype: Ihys, brother of Asmodeus and the first god along with him. Besides his name being apparently taken from the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christogram#IHS Christogram]], he actually combines Jesus and [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Prometheus]] into one savior archetype. He created mortals and then granted them free will out of sympathy, before being murdered for it by Asmodeus with a spear that remains a holy relic (i.e., the [[PublicDomainArtifact Spear of Destiny]]).
* {{Metaplot}}: The game's default setting, Golarion, advances in real-time, with Adventure Paths typically taking place roughly concurrently with their real-life release dates. Thankfully, it manages to avoid most of the pitfalls that metaplots can lead to. While it's generally assumed that Adventure Paths "go well", writers rarely explicitly reference them or their outcomes in non-AP material (barring the CuttingOffTheBranches in the transition to 2nd Edition), so players don't need to buy decades worth of books just to catch up.
* MindRape: The supplement Ultimate Magic introduces a whole raft of spells that can inflict this upon others. They range from ''murderous command'' (you order someone to kill the person closest to them) to ''malicious spite'' (make someone hate another person for days and work to harm them constantly) to the granddaddy of them all, ''prediction of failure'' (force someone to experience the pain and grief of every single failure and mistake they will ever make in their life, all at once, FOREVER).
* TheMinionMaster: The Thrallherd prestige class from 3.5 returns in ''Psionics Unleashed''.
* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: Every Adventure Path turns out to be this, in some way.
** Rise of the Runelords: Goblin attack on a small town -> [[spoiler:Plot to resurrect evil tyrant that has been dead for millenia.]]
** Legacy of Fire: An astrologer dies to a mysterious fire -> [[spoiler:Mad genie and its minions try to steal an EldritchAbomination's power.]]
** Kingmaker: Nation offers a group of adventurers a chance to forge their own kingdom -> [[spoiler:Mad faerie plans to steal a large chunk of Golarion to attract her former lover's attention.]]
** Carrion Crown: Accidental death of a doctor -> [[spoiler:Attempt to bring back a powerful lich.]]
** Skulls & Shackles: People get shangaied to work on a pirate ship -> [[spoiler:Cheliaxian plot to take over a pirate nation.]]
** Iron Gods: Flame that fuels Torch's industry gets stolen -> [[spoiler:Mad AI tries to become a god.]]
** Wrath of the Righteous: Attack on crusader city during a holy day -> [[spoiler:Plot to turn magical defenses against crusaders and enslave them]] -> [[spoiler:Attempt to cause the [[{{Hellgate}} Worldwound]] to increase in size, drawing much of Golarion within its influence.]]
* MirroringFactions: The Pathfinder Society and the Aspis Consortium are engaged in pretty much the same thing-- [[DungeonCrawling looting artifacts from ancient dungeons]]--but the PFS likes to get on a high horse and to claim recovery and preservation of knowledge as its objective, whereas Aspis are much more ready to admit that it's just business for them. Over time the former organization has undergone a lot of reforms, but since the Pathfinder Society needs all the manpower it can get it still has a not undeserved reputation for this.
* MisterSeahorse: The ''Mythic Realms'' sourcebook mentions the Crater of Carnal Joining in the Pit of Gormuz, where a priest of Rovagug named Multh gathered 1111 virgins of both sexes and all races to try and entice Rovagug to "bless" the world with another of its spawn. What arose from the pit was instead one of Rovagug's servitors; Galulab'daa, a mountainous gibbering mouther. Though most of the offerings died, four lived and were left pregnant with Rovagug's grandchildren; of these four "Woeful Mothers", one was a human man, and the other was a male [[LizardFolk troglodyte]].
* {{Mithril}}: A holdover from ''D&D'' (and to an extent ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''), mithril is still shiny, still light, and still expensive. Humorously, it is also nonstick, making it a surprisingly good material for making cookware such as [[https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=1403 waffle irons]].
* MixedAncestryIsAttractive: The ''Blood of Angels'' book for 1st Edition states that aasimars, humanoids with [[UnevenHybrid partial descent]] from a [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Good-aligned outsider]], generally appear to be particularly physically attractive versions of the base creature thanks to inheriting some of [[AngelicBeauty the beauty of their celestial ancestor]]. The same is not generally true of tieflings, who tend to look stereotypically demonic and are widely feared due to their [[OurDemonsAreDifferent fiendish ancestry]].
* AMoltenDateWithDeath:
** Xin-Grafar, the lost City of Golden Death, has canals of molten gold that flood the streets at regular intervals as a defense mechanism. The mechanism's RagnarokProofing didn't save the control system, so it can no longer be turned off; player characters need to time their visits ''very'' carefully.
** The top-[[SpellLevels level]] ''Wall of Lava'' spell creates exactly that: the wall deals fire damage to everyone nearby; causes far more damage, plus DamageOverTime, to anyone who touches it; and can be directed to erupt every turn.
* MoneyMauling: The "Coin Shot" spell enchants three coins so that they can be thrown with all the force of a bullet. The more valuable the coin, the more damage it does.
* {{Mon}}: Summoners bond with eidolons, planar creatures that they can call on to fight on their behalf. There are also familiars, which are weaker but can augment a caster's power, and the animal companions of druids, rangers and hunters.
* MoralGuardians: In a rare ''actually good'' example of this, the exscinder archons have the ability to magically censor any text. Given that in the ''Pathfinder'' universe reading the wrong thing [[WordsCanBreakMyBones literally kill you]], and that things like the ''Necronomicon'' and sapient, evil grimoires of fiendish origins do very much exist, [[ProperlyParanoid such measures are not at all unreasonable]].
* {{Mordor}}: Virlych, an area near Ustalav, has been corrupted with intense negative energy due to [[EvilSorcerer The Whispering Tyrant]] ruling for centuries. Even after he was eventually imprisoned in his own lair of Gallowspire, the land is still filled with undead and other horrors, as well as being [[EvilIsNotWellLit permanently dark and cloudy.]]
* MortalityGreyArea: There are a few races that, for a variety of reasons, are functionally very close to the undead (typically, they're animated by negative energy and hurt by positive energy, whereas all living creatures by definition work the other way around) but are still flesh-and-blood beings with active metabolisms and the needs of living creatures. {{Dhampyr}}s, the children of vampires and living humanoids, are once such race. Similarly, there are mortics, former mortals who were exposed to immense amounts of negative energy and survived... technically.
* MoveInTheFrozenTime: The 3rd-party supplement ''Path of War'' (a Spiritual Successor to ''D&D'' 3.5's ''Tome of Battle'') has "God of the Hourglass", the ultimate stance of the Riven Hourglass discipline. Among its effects, it allows the user to retain their awareness inside a time stop effect and unfreeze themselves long enough to take a single action.
* MrFanservice: Seltyiel, Sajan, and Valeros come to mind.
** All three of these guys crank the fanservice up a bit more in their ''Mythic Adventures'' redesigns -- Sajan and Seltyiel have both done away with every stitch of clothing on their upper bodies while Valeros has ditched his armour for a gladiator-esque shoulder-guard, leaving his scarred, muscled chest visible to all. Apparently becoming a Mythic Hero does away with the need for conventional armour.
* MugglesDoItBetter: Or at least just as well. In the main setting, the warriors with swords or the odd experimental firearm can at least have a chance when confronting spellcasters of equal level. And they're much more common. Late in ''Reign of Winter'' the [=PCs=] confront a group of soldiers with modern weapons. They are backed up by vampires and some odds and ends, but it's the soldiers who have the potential to cause some of the biggest problems. And then ''Iron Gods'' establishes that, given enough time, technology that equals or surpasses some of the greatest feats of magic can be developed while being accessible to everyone.
* MundaneUtility: Particularly in adventure paths, several items and materials that are usually focused on for high-end adventurers are shown to have uses above and beyond adventuring careers. One example is {{Mithril}} -- one adventure path has a character who has a mithril frying pan. Not only is it a masterwork item (thus giving a cook a +2 to their check when they cook with it), but it's naturally non-stick.
** Exaggerated in ''2e'' by the High-Grade Mithral Waffle Iron, which uses extremely high-quality mithral to make waffles that are slightly better than waffles from regular Mithral Waffle Irons.
* MurderIntoMalevolence: Zig-zagged. Most forms of TheUndead force a CharacterAlignment [[invoked]] change to evil, but ghosts might retain their original personality and alignment in death; the rules only note that a death traumatic enough to cause someone to linger as a ghost might also drive the victim to evil.
* MysticalJade: The munavris, a species of pale humans who live in the deepest reaches of [[BeneathTheEarth the Darklands]], live on a scattered archipelago of jade islands floating on the waters of the Sightless Sea. The origin of these islands isn't known -- the munavris simply found them when looking for somewhere to live -- and they seem to possess magical powers. The aboleths, fishlike monsters and some of the munavris' most bitter enemies, are unwilling or unable to come close to them, and it's believed that the islands' influence played a part in the development of the munavris' PsychicPowers. The jade is tough enough for the munavris to make armor out of it, and each island is made up of a unique color of jade, which their inhabitants use as badge of their island of origin.
* MysticalPlague: The spell ''cursed earth'' can infect a one mile radius area with any disease of the caster's choice.
* MythologyGag: The book, ''Bastards of Golarion'', features a section talking about a particular kind of half-breed they refer to as the Celebrity; someone whose inter-species heritage makes them popular, even beloved. The accompanying artwork is a young, white-haired woman in peasant clothing with a pendant of Desna around her neck and looking rather depressed. [[spoiler:The picture is, of course, of Nualia, the big-bad of ''Burnt Offerings'' but of her before her descent into insanity and worship of Lamashtu.]]
* NaginatasAreFeminine: A close variant: the western cousin to this weapon, the glaive, is the sacred weapon of Shelyn, Goddess of Love and Beauty, who is worshipped both in the western continents of Avistan and Garund and in the eastern continent of Tian Xia. Strangely the actual naginata is favored by a male deity, Fumeiyoshi, the Tien god of undeath and dishonor.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Like all fantasy settings Golarion has its fair share of these, but the names of the [[EldritchAbomination Spawn of Rovagug]] REALLY take the cake with names like "Festering Ulunat, the Unholy First", "Great Doom Chemnosit, the Monarch Worm", "The Tarrasque, Armageddon Engine", "Unyielding Kothogaz, the Dance of Disharmony", "Wrath-Blazing Xoanti, the Firebleeder", and "Volnagur the End-Singer".
** Also related to Rovagug, there's the name of Golarion itself [[PlanetaryRomance to the wider universe]]. The other planets get poetic names like The Green or The Cradle or The Dreamer. But Golarion is [[SealedEvilInACan The Cage]].
* NameThatUnfoldsLikeLotusBlossom: Leshies tend towards names like this, as the immortal nature spirits give themselves several descriptive names throughout their lives. Sample names from the ''Player Core'' include Verdant Taleweaver, Masterful Sun Drinker, and Snowy Pine Branch.
* NationalWeapon: Many races, such as Elves and Gnomes and Dwarves have Weapon Proficiency or Familiarity with a small group of weapons. Also, each god has their own favored weapon like Sarenrae's love of scimitars.
* NayTheist: A whole nation of them; after a devastating religious CivilWar, the people of Rahadoum decided to outlaw religion, destroy the temples and throw out the priests as being more trouble than they're worth. The overall stance seems to be rather balanced, as while they have to deal with many hardships that could be handled more easily with divine aid and/or magic on their side, a lot of the problems in other lands actually are caused by gods and religions.
* TheNecrocracy: The nation of Geb is run by intelligent undead. Interestingly, it actually manages to have fairly good relations with its neighbors, as it's non-expansionist and uses its fertile land to grow abundant crops, which it sells for cheap. Sure, mortals ''living'' in Geb have it pretty rough, but mortals ''outside'' of Geb are generally willing to put up with it for those prices.
* {{Nerf}}: And buffs too. A nearly-comprehensive list of each can be found on [[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick GiantITP]], or you can ask around Brilliant Gameologists. Just be prepared for some backlash.
** Druids and clerics were the only base classes to actually be ''weakened'' by the conversion from 3.5, to partially address the [=CoDzilla=][[note]]"Cleric or Druid + Franchise/{{Godzilla}}", i.e. the classes being {{Game Breaker}}s as implemented[[/note]] issue: both classes were capped at 4 base spell slots per level per day at max level (down from 5 for 1st through 5th level spells, bringing them into line with the other full casting classes), clerics lost access to heavy armor (but gained access to their patron deity's favored weapon, previously reserved for the War Domain), and [[VoluntaryShapeshifting Wild Shape]] was changed to use the rules for the wizard spell ''beast shape''.
** Prestige classes, which 3.5 had seen go from 'rare alternate class options' to 'virtually mandatory powerhouse classes', were generally reduced in power across the board. Further, some of them were later almost entirely superseded by new Paizo base classes (such as magus and ninja) which fit those niches from Level 1.
** Dragons generally saw a reduction in Challenge Rating. Not counting undead or templates, the strongest dragons in the ''Pathfinder'' bestiaries are the ancient gold dragons, with a CR of 20, compared to ''D&D'' 3.5 ''Monster Manual'', in which an ancient gold dragon clocked in at CR 24, and still had two age categories to go above that, maxing out at CR 27 as a great wyrm[[note]] A CR 26 red dragon and a CR 27 gold dragon were added with the ''Dragons Revisited'' supplement, however.[[/note]]. On the other hand, the Tarrasque receives a significant buff, going from CR 20 in the ''Monster Manual'' to CR 25 in the ''Bestiary'', the highest CR of any monster until ''Bestiary 4'' started statting H. P. Lovecraft's [[EldritchAbomination Great Old Ones.]] The Challenge Rating of just about everything was reduced compared to 3.5, principally because ''Pathfinder'' [=PC=]s got more feats and class abilities to work with.
** Second Edition, being an entirely new system that deliberately distances Pathfinder from its 3.5e roots while trying to fix issues like LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards, does plenty of both nerfs and buffs compared to its predecessor. Spellcaster player characters in particular lost a significant number of their "I win the encounter" buttons and generally had the power level of their spells massively reduced, while martials got a net power increase by comparison. Several especially useful spells are now rituals that any party can theoretically access.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The rivals of a famous athlete named Kurgess set a trap to kill him in the arena. It worked, but his death protecting the other competitors was so awesome it ultimately resulted in him ''ascending to godhood.''
* NighInvulnerable: Subverted. In this game system, everything is vulnerable to getting hurt. Creatures from TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons 3rd edition often had their Damage Reduction completely removed or at best heavily limited (no more [=DR=]50 enemies). Even being incorporeal only grants full immunity to almost all non-magical attacks -- it's possible to punch a ghost to "death" with bare hands, if the hands are enchanted.
** Played straight by the gods, who do not get stat blocks (unlike material published for D&D [=3.5e=]).
* {{Ninja}}: Introduced in ''Ultimate Combat'' as an alternative version of the rogue class (which had the potential to be pretty ninjariffic already). The "proper" ninja is focused more on stealth and less on general trickery, and uses ''{{ki|Manipulation}}'' energy to fuel supernatural powers.
* NobleTongue: The aristocracy of Cheliax commonly speak Infernal (the language of LawfulEvil outsiders, particularly devils) due to the tight alliance between the ruling House of Thrune and the Church of Asmodeus. Operas (Cheliax's most favored art form) for the aristocracy are performed exclusively in Infernal. Chelish commoners still mainly speak Taldan (the CommonTongue of the continents of Avistan and Garund).
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed:
** The philosopher Pao-Lung is a stand-in for Confucius.
** While it's not canon [[https://hellsvengeance-oadnd.obsidianportal.com/characters/abogail-thrune-ii this fan picture]] of Abrogail Thrune II bears a strong resemblance to Creator/LindsayLohan.
* NobleSavage: The Kellid and Shoanti human ethnic groups. The Shoanti are more noble, the Kellids more savage.
* NonDamagingStatusInflictionAttack:
** Trips, disarms, dirty tricks, feints, grapples etc. are placed under an umbrella called the "combat maneuver" and given a unified pair of statistics to work from, Combat Maneuver Bonus and Combat Maneuver Defense, which work much like Armor Class and Spell Resistance in that a character rolls a d20 plus their CMB to overcome the target's CMD. As in 3E, combat maneuvers provoke attacks of opportunity when used unless the user spends a feat on the "Improved" version (except feints: they don't provoke A of O and "Improved Feint" instead downgrades them to a move action from a standard action). The game also inherits 3E's slate of non-damaging "save-or-suck" spells and adds several of its own.
** The Witch class specializes in save-or-suck spells, getting few that inflict direct HP damage but many designed for inflicting status effects or ability damage. They also have the "hex" as a core feature, which can be used on an unlimited number of creatures once per day per creature. The Slumber hex, available at 1st level, is a single-target ForcedSleep effect that is considered almost mandatory for Witch [=PCs=].
** ''2e'' maintains large numbers of status-inflicting skill actions and spells meant to inflict status effects only. They no longer use a separate Combat Maneuver bonus/defense, though.
* NonHealthDamage:
** First edition had more monsters capable of doing this than you could shake a stick at, and the players were capable of doing this as well. Spells such as Ray of Enfeeblement, Calcific Touch, and Touch of Idiocy could drain out the big six stats; if Constitution went to zero, you were dead. If any of the rest went to zero, you were helpless. Plenty of poisons and drugs also did ability score damage.
*** Pathfinder 1e's shadows laugh at D&D Fifth Edition's shadows, because they roll against touch AC to hit, deal 1-6 Strength damage, and come in a greater variety that can do 1-8 points of Strength damage (with the saving grace that zero Strength paralyses instead of killing). Given most Pathfinder games embraced point buy, dumping Strength was even more common.
*** The ''Feeblemind'' spell, inherited from D&D, reduced the character's Intelligence and Charisma to 1. Most spellcasting classes lost all spells at that point. Wisdom-based casters were made too stupid to speak, so they likely also were not going to be doing anything important either.
** Second Edition has all kinds of ways to inflict this and makes it part of the meta. To wit, in Second Edition you get three actions per round and with every attack, you face an increasing penalty to hit. Thus, against all but the weakest enemies, taking three attacks is heavily discouraged. So what should a PC do? Use skills to Intimidate to inflict Frightened, damaging the enemy's ability to do anything, or Deception to Feint and reduce their AC, Bon Mot to fluster them and reduce their Will, and so on. Unlike most editions, these are pretty much resolved just like attacks.
* NoodleIncident: How Aroden died is deliberately kept really vague, though people in-universe have a lot of theories about it.
** How exactly Dou-Bral turned evil and became Zon-Kuthon is also rather vague. According to the books he was exploring the Dark Tapestry (outer space) and ran into... something (Implied to be some kind of EldritchAbomination, though nothing else is known about this being) that turned him insane and evil.
*** It has since been hinted that Dou-Bral was exploring past reality itself, somehow stumbling onto a hibernating counterpart of himself from a previous cycle of reality that hijacked him.
** An in-universe example, in ''Return Of The Runelords'' the characters meet an NPC with an exact copy of himself, who he lives with. While the book explains why this is the case (a freak portal accident basically split him into two people) if the [=PCs=] ask why there are two of him, he just tells them it's none of their business.
* NonHumanHead: Rakshasas, as per D&D, have animal heads, and sometimes fur and tails, but with a greater diversity in which species they appear than just tigers. For instance, [[spoiler:Vimanda Arkona]] has that of a fox. With the Rakshasa bloodline, a player sorcerer can become one, too, though you don't have to be as evil as they are.
%%* {{Notzilla}}: King Mogaru.
* ObviousRulePatch:
** Energy Drain is now no longer permanent (generally). Thus, energy draining undead are no longer massively broken relative to their challenge rating. While the drowning rules lost their infamous ability to heal subjects at negative HP, there are still no rules to stop drowning.
** The Quick Draw feat allows you to draw any item from your pack as a free action... except flasks of [[GreekFire alchemist's fire]] or [[HollywoodAcid acid]]. You also cannot [[BackStab sneak attack]] with such items, unlike all other weapons. These changes were put in place due to volleys of flasks being popular among 3.5e rogues as a means to fight enemies resistant to physical damage or vulnerable to fire, as well as being a potential unblockable multi-kill to enemies with the magical equivalent of a Molotov cocktail.
** The original 3.X rules for non-lethal damage resulted in jokes about how you can punch people all day without killing them. The rule was changed so that after a character has accumulated enough non-lethal damage to equal their maximum HP, any further damage is automatically lethal.
** It was ruled that, if an attack would do zero damage, instead of always doing one point of ScratchDamage, it does one point of nonlethal damage. Most creatures that were affected by this rule were creatures like house cats or rats, which were fairly notorious in 3.x for their ability to injure or defeat 1st-level humans (scratch damage is a big deal when you have four hit points) -- [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0780.html humorously demonstrated here.]]
** One of the gunslinger class's starting rules lets him or her start the game with a gun, but a low-quality one that [[OnlyICanMakeItGo only he or she can use]] and [[WhatAPieceOfJunk can thus only be sold for scrap.]] This closes two loopholes in one go, because otherwise firearms are generally more expensive than an entire party's worth of gold can afford at first level. It ensures that the player can start the game with their class's weapons, but can't hock it for a big payday at 1st level.
** The Magus has the option to get a Swashbuckler deed and use their arcane pool points as panache points to use the ability. However, they count as a 0th-level Swashbuckler for the purposes of the ability. This is a highly unusual way to implement it (many abilities copied from another class would do nothing at all at 0th level), and had to be confirmed via errata -- which added that although they can spend their arcane points as panache points, they don't ''have'' panache points for these abilities, not even if they get actual panache points by another source. The goal appears to be to stop the Magus from gaining Precise Strike or Evasive, respectively powerful offensive and defensive boosts that care about whether you have at least one panache point and your Swashbuckler level, that were considered acceptable on a non-caster melee class but too powerful on the Magus. This has the side effect of making the ''majority'' of Swashbuckler deeds, even quite innocuous ones, partially or entirely nonfunctional if taken by the Magus.
** A popular defensive measure for Alchemists was to get a Tumor Familiar with the Protector archetype. This allows the Alchemist to shunt half the damage they take to a familiar which regains 5 HP each turn. Ultimate Wilderness created an obvious patch on this by preventing Tumor Familiars from taking the Protector Archetype, because, apparently, they are unable to be so loyal as to give their lives for their master. The fact that they literally have a feat called ''Die For Your Master'' is surely irrelevant.
** The Summoner class includes a note that the player's [[NonPlayerCompanion eidolon]] cannot wear armor because it "interferes with the Summoner's link to it". This is just a patch to prevent all Summoners from making their eidolons humanoid-shaped so they can put them in armor and double their armor class.
* OfferingAnotherInYourStead: Shabti are artificial copies of a living person created to take the person's place in the afterlife, almost always so the original can [[AlternatePersonalityPunishment escape damnation at the shabti's expense]]. {{Psychopomp}}s work to correct the KarmicMisfire and have shabti RescuedFromTheUnderworld.
* OfficialGameVariant:
** ''Ultimate Combat'', which introduces firearms to First Edition, lists off five possible different campaign-wide TechnologyLevels for guns, [[FantasyGunControl modifying which types of firearms and gunslinging classes are available]]. These range from "No Guns", to the midlevel "Emerging Guns" (the Gunslinger class introduced in the book is intended for this tech level), up to "Guns Everywhere" (guns are reclassified as simple weapons and cost 10% of their listed value).
** The ''Pathfinder Unchained'' family of supplements for First Edition includes a number of variant rules, ranging from {{Obvious Rule Patch}}es to several classes (notably Rogue and Summoner), to Revised Action Economy, which essentially back-ports the action economy of Second Edition into First Edition.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: By necessity, any canon ending to the events of the adventure paths is this, but the writers seem to have chosen the coolest possible outcomes. For instance, judging by the wording, the adventurers in ''Reign of Winter'' seem to have accomplished the near-impossible task of defeating [[spoiler:Elvanna]] non-lethally.
* TheOldGods: The Ancient Osirion pantheon was worshipped there long before it was ever a unified kingdom. Once the worship of other gods of the Inner Sea Region became the norm there, however, they decided to withdraw and focus more on a [[AncientEgypt quite-similar culture on a distant planet]]. They still receive some amount of worship from their ancient priesthood and mystery cults, granting spells to clerics even in the modern era, but they no longer play an active role in Osirion or Golarion as a whole.
* OminousFloatingCastle: In the ''Giantslayer'' adventure path, the villain is a tyrannical storm giant who has taken over the flying castle of a clan of cloud giants by slaughtering its old rulers with the aid of a few traitors, and afterwards filled it with his minions and servants and converted it into a flying base of operations for his plans to conquer as much of the world as he is able.
* OmnicidalManiac:
** [[GodOfEvil Rovagug]], who wants the end of the entire universe. Then there's the daemons who certainly look this way to anyone on the outside.
** The fire giants: any action they take, constructive or destructive, according to their religion, brings the day closer when their God uses the Sword of Twilight to smash reality, causing the world to never have existed.
* OnesieArmor: In first edition, which is basically a modified 3.5 ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', armor mostly follows the same rules. There ''is'' a set of optional rules for "piecemeal armor", and it's just as complicated as you would think, particularly if you are wearing different kinds of armor (which is the main point of such rules.)
* OneWordTitle: Also a {{Portmantitle}}.
* OnlyKillableAtHome: {{inverted|trope}} for the fey, who will die permanently if slain anywhere ''except'' their plane of origin, the First World. The First World, as a prototype of creation that was abandoned by the gods, exists outside of the normal cycles of existence, including those of life and death. While in the First World, fey -- and non-native beings who become acclimated to it -- will gradually reform if killed, although not without some loss of power. This is one of the primary reasons behind the fey's bizarre behavior -- they genuinely aren't used to thinking of death, whether their own or others', as anything more than a temporary inconvenience, and its permanency in other worlds tends to catch them somewhat flat-footed.
* OrwellianRetcon: The January 2023 controversy over Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast's attempts to change the [[MediaNotes/D20System Open Game License]] prompted Creator/{{Paizo}} to begin divesting Second Edition of remaining references to classic D&D lore. So far for "2.5e", drow have been deleted from the setting in favor of expanding the role of the serpentfolk, in effect rendering the Second Darkness AP CanonDiscontinuity.
* OtherworldlyTechnicolourHair: Gnomes are originally from the [[LandOfFaerie First World]] (''Pathfinder''[='=]s version of the Feywild), and can have unusual hair colours (bright green being a common one). They can also suffer from an inversion; gnomes who don't have enough whimsy and excitement in their life suffer from a [[FictionalDisability terminal condition]] called The Bleaching, where they lose all their colour.
* OurAlebrijesAreDifferent: Alebrijes are magical beasts created when a particularly vivid dream inspired by a real or imagined living creature generates a new being within the Dimension of Dreams, or more rarely when a preexisting animal becomes altered by the Ethereal Plane's influences. They resemble multicolored animals, usually patterned with complex stripes, spots or spirals and sometimes with additional traits -- wings of some sort are fairly common. They can move between the Material Plane, the Ethereal Plane and individual mind-scapes at will, and may form strong bonds with individual mortals, especially if they were created from a dream of an animal with whom the mortal had a close link. In these cases, the alebrije may seek out the mortal after death to protect their soul and escort it to the afterlife.
* OurAngelsAreDifferent: They're the only kind of outsider that spans multiple alignments. Besides them, there are the [[LawfulGood archons]], [[NeutralGood agathions]], and [[ChaoticGood azatas]] [[invoked]] that dwell in Heaven, Nirvana and Elysium respectively.
* OurCryptidsAreMoreMysterious: Cryptids, including more modern ones (20th century and later) not often found in other fantasy tabletop [=RPG=]s, are featured quite prominently. They even got their own book! Though, its primarily the famous ones like sea serpents, [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti sasquatches and yetis]], [[StockNessMonster water orms]], mothmen, chupacabras, and the [[TheJerseyDevil "Sandpoint Devil"]]. They've also got the Australian bunyips and the purported living dinosaur mokele-mbembe.
* OurDemonsAreDifferent: Evil spirit creatures, collectively called fiends, are grouped into several different categories depending on [[CharacterAlignment alignment]] and/or plane of origin. Each aligned plane has a race of "true" fiends as well as at least one secondary race of lesser fiends.
** [[invoked]] Hell, the LawfulEvil plane, is ruled by the devils. It is also inhabited by the asuras. A third LawfulEvil race of fiends, the velstrac (called kytons in 1E), lives on the Plane of Shadow but has embassies in Hell. Devils are formed from the souls of evildoers, who are slowly and carefully tortured over eons until nothing remains except pain, obedience, and hate, at which point they become of the least of devils. Asuras are the twisted result of gods making mistakes, [[RageAgainstTheHeavens and very angry about it]]. Velstracs are mad, twisted beings obsessed with pain, who create more of themselves by torturing people until [[Franchise/{{Hellraiser}} they can't tell the difference between pain and pleasure]].
** [[invoked]] Abaddon, the NeutralEvil plane, is ruled by the daemons. It is also the home of the divs (corrupted genies). Daemons want to kill everything, everywhere -- they came into existence from different types of deaths mortals can experience, and want to destroy every soul in existence. Divs ALSO want to destroy everyone -- but more, they want to destroy everything, returning everything to oblivion in service of their lord Ahriman.
** [[invoked]] The Abyss, the ChaoticEvil plane, is ruled by the demons. The qlippoth and demodands also dwell there. Demons are born from the sins of evil souls -- and a single soul can spawn hundreds or thousands of them. [[EldritchAbomination Qlippoth existed before everything, were evil before evil existed]], and have a loathing hatred for the souls of mortals, which created the demons that now outnumber them. Demodands are the flawed creations of the thanatotic titans, who were sealed in the Abyss after a failed attempt to defeat the gods; the titans tried to create their own life to surpass the gods, but only wound up with misshapen, but powerful, monsters.
** Finally, Golarion itself is home to two minor races of fiends: the rakshasas and the oni. Rakshasas are eternally reincarnating fiends with bestial aspects and bodies with one aspect reversed, which establish twisted caste systems. Oni are evil spirits whose burning hatred of humanoids causes them to incarnate as monstrously powerful examples of various races. There's also sakhils, which are corrupted {{psychopomp}}s that rebelled against Pharasma and [[ScrewDestiny the inevitability of the end of the universe]].
* OurDragonsAreDifferent: In addition to the classic ''D&D'' evil chromatics and good metallics, there are the elemental primordial dragons, the savage linnorms, the twisted azi, rideable Dragonkin, and a whole bunch of draconic critters. There are also the Imperial Dragons, based on Asian mythology. Now there are also Outer Dragons, who are rather alien and shimmery looking. There are also the much weaker, lesser drakes, which can largely be summed up as want-to-be-dragons.
* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: They originated underground, tunneled their way to the surface during the Age of Darkness, and pulled humanity out of the dark ages. Otherwise pretty standard.
* OurElvesAreDifferent: They have MonochromaticEyes, and their primary goddess is one of lust, trickery, and revenge. Otherwise also pretty standard. They bailed on the planet during the Age of Darkness, only returning en masse within the past few millennia when a demon took over part of their ancestral homeland. Their "ruling class" apparently lives off-world through special [[PortalNetwork "Elfgates"]] of which few truly still function, and the species as a whole originates from this otherworldly homeland. Also, they're Aliens, hailing from an isolated continent on the lush jungle covered planet of Castrovel.
** Those elves who are raised outside "proper" elven society are called Forlorn, "maladjusted" souls who live their lives as hard as humans and tend to be more somber than most of their kin on account of always outliving their friends.
** Elves who fall too far into wickedness [[spoiler:become drow]].
* OurGargoylesRock: They barely need to eat or sleep, and honestly only kill things (slowly and tortuously) because it's fun. They're also almost literally made out of rock, will last as long as a statue will (although they usually end up killing one another before that), and occasionally come in gemstones. [[Series/DoctorWho Oh, and some of them are Weeping Angels]].
* OurGhoulsAreCreepier: If they can curb their appetite they look like chalk-white, hairless, red-eyed elves, perfectly "fresh" and even beautiful at times. But if they indulge their hunger for flesh, [[BodyHorror they putrefy and start rotting away as new meat replaces the old...]]
* OurGnomesAreWeirder: Gnomes are fey creatures exiled from the First World in the wake of a disaster of uncertain nature; they can't quite adjust to Golarion, and spend a lot of time obsessing over minutiae and seeking out new experiences in order to avoid going mad(der) [[spoiler:or going through a usually-lethal process called Bleaching, a process of literally being ''bored to death'' which slowly reduces them to a pile of dust and bones]]. It's darkly hinted by the developers that the story of the disaster may be a fabrication, and gnomes are really humanoid interface devices through which [[EldritchAbomination vastly more powerful beings]] can study the material world.
* OurGoblinsAreDifferent: The goblins of Golarion are dangerously stupid pyromaniacs who loathe dogs and horses ([[AnimalsHateHim the feeling is mutual]]), are terrified of writing (it can steal the words out of your head!), and sing horrible merry songs about [[EatsBabies eating babies]]. Hobgoblins are as militaristic as the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' norm but are so universally ambitious that they can't hold an army together for long, being an entire race of [[TheStarscream Starscreams]]. Bugbears are psychopathic serial killers who live for the smell of fear and are unnervingly good at hiding in places nothing that huge should be able to fit -- like behind your door, or under your bed.
** Monkey Goblins are an offshoot of regular goblins evolved for life in the jungle; they're mostly the same, but have prehensile tails.
** The ''Jade Regent'' adventure path introduces the Tian-regional variant known as the kijimunas, who are much more human-looking, red-headed, and much nicer than goblins. They basically live only to play pranks and to fish, and are very generous with sharing their catches, being well-known for spontaneously donating huge loads of fish to coastal villages suffering from famines. Also, they absolutely hate octopi, murdering them with the same zeal as regular goblins murder dogs and horses.
** The grindylows are aquatic goblins who are half-octopus from the waist down. They love octopi, but hate squids.
** It's worth noting that goblins (the baseline "comically evil" pyromaniac version) actually are statted to have the same range of intellect and skill as humans and are templated for use with player classes. So not only is it possible for them to be just as powerful as the [=PC=]s, mechanically they're set up to be a race where powerful, competent members would have no problem using other goblins suicidally (say, as flanking minions or to grapple [=PC=]s and hold them still for a fireball)... and the goblins being used wouldn't have a problem with it either even if you explained it. So they're not quite as harmless as the blurb implies, they're actually some of the more dangerous encounters around if a DM is inclined toward tactical play.
* OurGodsAreDifferent: Unlike some other ''D&D'' settings, [[LordBritishPostulate most gods of Golarion have no stat blocks]] and are explicitly immune to mortal adventurers. To drive the point home, there have been a few examples in the fiction where a mortal being has ''defeated'' a god or god-like being, but was unable to truly end them, just remove them as a threat for the present. Ydersius, the god of the Serpent Folk literally had his head cut off and thrown in lava, and it didn't actually ''kill'' him, instead rendering his body mindless and wandering the Darklands and leaving his head....well, entombed in a pit of lava.
* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: In addition to the standard variety, there are ''ningyo'' -- nasty little mer-monkey creatures which, if killed, automatically rise as undead that are active only at night and indistinguishable from corpses during the day -- and the ''selkies'' -- shape-shifting seal-people who like to lure people close by acting friendly, then eat them.
* OurMonstersAreDifferent: The classic "savage humanoid" races are all revisited, keeping fairly close to their original ''D&D'' themes while making it clear that they are all ''monsters'', who do ''not'' work and play well with other races.
* OurMonstersAreWeird: Many of the classic weird [=D&D=] monsters reappear. Notably, the flavor text often comes up with fairly sensible explanations for them. For instance, the infamous flumph is a Lawful Good aberration acting as a defense against more evil aligned ones, the carbuncle's signature attack of dying for no reason other than depriving players of loot became a deceptive teleportation effect that leaves behind a fake corpse, and the wolf-in-sheep's-clothing, who provides the page quote, had its lure changed from a part of its body to a puppeteered cadaver.
* OurOrcsAreDifferent: They're [[AxCrazy insane nihilists who laugh in the face of death]]. They also originated underground, and got pushed up ahead by the Dwarves as they made their way to the surface.
* OurOgresAreHungrier: They're sickeningly horrifying embodiments of brain-damaged inbred hillbillies. Distantly related are the [[MoleMen bugganes]], a race of 9-foot tall molerat people who share their ogre-cousin's brutality, but combine it with a frightful capacity for stealth and persistent hunting.
* OurSoulsAreDifferent: The planes are constantly being worn away by the Maelstrom, and so need a constant supply of divine energy from the Positive Energy Plane to maintain themselves and grow. The gods couldn't trust each other to divide this divine energy fairly, so they divided it into discrete packets, gave those packets free will, and allowed them to choose -- via dedication to a deity or CharacterAlignment -- which plane would be their ultimate home. Those packets of free-willed divine energy are souls.
* OurTitansAreDifferent: The Titans tried to wage war upon the gods. Some, the ChaoticGood Elysian Titans, turned upon their kin and assisted in their defeat. The ChaoticEvil Thanatotic Titans were imprisoned in the deep layers of the Abyss, where they created the flawed demodands as servants. Both are hideously powerful, and described as very near divine. Then there are the [[MultipleHeadCase Hekaton]][[MultiArmedAndDangerous kheires]], who were the first to take up arms against the gods, and rather than be banished to the Abyss with the Thanatotic Titans, they were cast out of reality because they were ''too powerful for the Abyss to contain'', and their lesser descendants are more powerful than regular titans of the other varieties. ''Bestiary 4'' then introduced the Formorian titans. Rather than the malformed giants of ''Dungeons & Dragons'', they're titans so powerful they had to imprisoned within their own armour!
* AllTrollsAreDifferent: The savage aspect of the common ''D&D'' troll is played up; they're feral wilderness creatures who see everything as food, have no fear of death, and have odd intergender relations, though they do treat their young with care and some are capable of civilized conversation. The trope name also holds true within the setting, as art depicting trolls can be wildly inconsistent without even taking into account troll subraces (ice trolls, water trolls, etc.). The Jotund Trolls are notable for being strange even by troll standards, having nine arguing heads.
* OurVampiresAreDifferent: [[VampireVarietyPack There are several vampire offshoots]]. Each, notably, has a unique way of resisting {{Permadeath}}.
** The ancient, sterile Nosferatu.
** The bestial, plague-bearing Vrykolakas.
** The memory-eating Vetala.
** And the hopping, Life Energy-drinking Jiang-Shi.
* OurWerebeastsAreDifferent: Along with the usual werewolves, wererats, wereboars, weretigers, and werebears of [=D&D=], there's also werecrocodiles, werebats, and weresharks. Skinwalkers, natural born lycanthropes, have a [[BeastMan Beastial form]].
* OurWitchesAreDifferent: The witch is an arcane spellcasting class that gains their powers by communing with a "patron". They have a spell list focused on [[SupportPartyMember party support and debuffs]], and a class feature called "hexes" that grants various supernatural powers--everything from cursing a target to fall asleep to being able to turn their hair into an offensive weapon.
* OutWithABang: Distressingly common:
** [[HarpingOnAboutHarpies Harpies]], being a OneGenderRace comprised solely of women, need to mate with humanoid males to propagate their race (as well as just for fun). However, they usually eat their lovers once they're done with them -- indeed, it's noted that it's actually considered bad luck in standard harpy culture to ''not'' eat the father of their daughter, unless he is powerful enough that it is worthwhile not to consume him once the harpy has been fertilized.
** Lamias (or at least the regular, matriarch and harridan versions) are much the same, except the way it's worded implies that partners dying from exhaustion, murderous flares of temper, drug overdose or sadism taken too far is actually more common than the lamia eating her lover.
** [[WickedWitch Hags]], again, need humanoid males to reproduce. They don't always kill their partner, though. It depends on how they feel. Especially if they think it'd be more "fun" to leave the resultant neonate hag-daughter in her daddy's care, they may well spare their unwitting mate.
** Jorogumos are [[SpiderPeople spider-women]] who, again, need humanoid mates to father their offspring. They then act like wasps, in that they implant the fertilized egg(s) into the father and paralyse him with their venom; when the egg hatches, the daughter fatally eats her father for nourishment.
** Thriae, again, are a CuteMonsterGirl race prone to eating their mates. But they're actually treated oddly sympathetically. First, only the Queens treat their consorts this way. The others form more emotional attachments. They also only do so when a lover has grown too old and feeble to reliably fertilize the Queen anymore, and they always use an anaesthetizing venom to render their former lover unconscious and devoid of pain before they begin. Finally, the consorts of Thriae queens are almost always volunteers.
** Ogres are a male example of this; it's been stated that they tend to rape humanoids (especially women) to death. Ogres, we'll remind you, are 10ft tall, 500 or so pound, horrifically strong, dim-witted sadists. You can put the pieces together as to what the general cause of death is.
** The players can actually cause this in a monster; a member of the [[OurSirensAreDifferent siren race]] is noted in the ''Bestiary 2'' for her tendency to commit suicide, or literally die of heartbreak, if a male she has her heart set on escapes from her whilst she's courting him.
* OxymoronicBeing: As funny as it may seem, one of the best build for an oracle of [[AnIcePerson Winter]] is to be a lizardfolk with the Cold-Blooded curse -- as in, '''extra weak''' to the cold. This is because oracles have a spell to throw the effects of their curse at an opponent, and giving a foe -4 to saving throws against your primary spells as well as a chance to stagger them is nothing to scoff at. Not to mention that several of your revelations have effects that can help counteract the curse.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:P-R]]
* ParanormalGamblingAdvantage: Nudge the Odds is a spell that enhances the user's skill at gambling. The catch is that it turns a physical feature of the user like their iris or a lock of their hair gold, which [[GlamourFailure can't be concealed using magic]]. As every village on Golarion will have at least one professional magic user on average, [[AwesomeButImpractical don't bother]]. Magic is common enough that the odds that you'll be caught are [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin quite high]], and it's only a minor boost.
* ParasitesAreEvil:
** Ghlaunder, the Gossamer King, is a ChaoticEvil god of parasitism and disease strongly associated with biting insects -- he himself takes the form of a hideous, mosquito-like monster. Thematically, his cult and mythos emphasize motifs of feeding off of others while spreading weakness and disease to one's victims.
** First edition's second Bestiary specifically notes that parasitic animals, such as lampreys or ticks, do not have counterparts among agathions, Neutral Good outsiders who resemble humanoid animals of various sorts. While the text notes that parasites are not intrinsically evil, it also states that their habits and natures are too far from the noble goals of the upper planes for blessed souls to wish to model themselves off of them.
* PerkyGoth: Laori, an NPC in ''Curse of the Crimson Throne,'' who is really quite incongruously cheerful for a cleric of the god of darkness and suffering.
* PerpetualMotionMonster: Undead, constructs, and most outsiders don't need food or sustenance of any kind. Even ghouls, though [[HorrorHunger inflicted by a ravenous hunger]], don't actually need to eat, and develop into a more powerful form if starved long enough. Clockwork constructs are an exception, but they can still wind themselves up if they have their own WindUpKey.
* PerpetualStorm: The Eye of Abendego in the default setting of Golarion is a colossal hurricane that has picked up in the southern seas shortly after the death of one of the setting's main gods, Aroden, and stayed in place for over a century since.
* PhantomZonePicture: The ''mirror of life trapping'', which can imprison multiple victims who look into it.
* PhysicalGod: Walkena, the leader of Mzali, was born a mortal, but ascended to godhood after his mummification in order to repel a colonizing army. Gods having a physical presence is extremely rare on Golarion, but the nature of his ascendency has somehow allowed him to remain. Unfortunately for the people of Mzali, [[PsychopathicManchild Walkena rules it with an iron fist like a petty, childish tyrant]]. Fortunately for everyone else, [[OrcusOnHisThrone his xenophobic nature means he only cares about the Mwangi Expanse]], and tends to focus far more on Mzali than anywhere else.
* PikePeril: Giant pike are described as aggressive predators that will attack any living thing they encounter. Like those from [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons its parent game]], they vary between nine and twenty feet in length.
* PimpedOutCape: The ''cape of the mountebank'', among others.
* {{Pirate}}: There's a whole nation of pirates, and supplemental rules for ship-to-ship combat, plunder and all the other qualities of the 'romantic' pirate.
* PlagueDoctor: A module features the "Queen's Physicians", who dress like this.
* PlanetaryRomance: The other worlds in Golarion's star system are designed to facilitate this.
* PlotHole: A particularly noteworthy one exists in the Carrion Crown adventure path. The villain's plans rely on retrieving a few specific items and one book is dedicated to the party getting one of these items before them. Despite the item being described as essential to their plans several times, the party getting it first has no impact on those plans. There's no explanation for why the plan still works and the item's surprise lack of importance means the whole book revolving around it can be [[{{Filler}} skipped without affecting the plot at all]].
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain:
** [[SatanicArchetype Asmodeus]], among other things, is noted several times to be a [[HeManWomanHater rampant misogynist]]. Makes sense, given that he represents the bad things that can come from order (tyranny, imperialistic militarism, ruthless enforcement of class divisions, institutionalised use of torture, etc.).
** Even worse is the demon lord Kostchtchie. Asmodeus only really cares about gender as it applies to other divine beings, not sparing the gender of his mortal worshipers a thought, and even then he never lets this prejudice get in the way of his plans. Kostchtchie, on the other hand, hates all female creatures with a passion; among his three commandments is that his faithful should never submit to a woman, that women exist only to pleasure men and produce warriors, and that a weak and feeble man is worth more than a strong and capable woman.
* {{Portmantitle}}: Also a OneWordTitle.
* PostScriptSeason: 2nd Edition moves the timeline forward 10 years, and explicitly has all First Edition Adventure Paths concluding satisfactorily. Of course, that just means the time has come for new threats to crop up!
* PowerCreepPowerSeep: Correcting the power creep of 3rd edition TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons was one of the game's founding goals. Inevitably, as it has aged, it has developed a few examples itself...which Second Edition was in part intended to correct.
* PowerGlows:
** Paladins in ''Pathfinder'' can imbue their weapon with a divine spirit, granting it magical properties depending on level and causing it to light up like a torch.
** Also, many spells are highly visible when cast; even when cast silently and without gesture, a dazzling display of arcane energy still betrays a caster's presence.
* PrehensileHair: One of the Witch's possible starting powers. [[DevelopersForesight Bald women with this power animate their eyebrows]]. Men with this power use either their beard or ''[[MundaneMadeAwesome their mustache]].''
* PrecisionGuidedBoomerang: Specifically, Weapons with the returning properties (mundane boomerangs do not return). Even Melee weapons (if they also have the throwing property).
* PrestigeClass: 1st Edition does offer a wide selection. Unlike the game from which it sprang, however, there are also generous rewards for players who abstain from a PrestigeClass and set out to attain high levels in a base class, and the archetype class modifications make it easier to specialize without having to take a prestige class. In fact it's arguable that the efforts by Paizo to address EmptyLevels and increase the flexibility of base classes through the archetype system actually makes taking a prestige class counterproductive if the level 20 cap is kept. Second Edition offers some mid- to high-level archetypes that might functionally act as these, although you take them in place of your class's feats instead of taking separate levels of them.
* ProactiveBoss: In the ''Rasputin Must Die'' adventure, the titular mad monk uses Astral Projection magic to harass the heroes as they attempt to gain access to his extraplanar sanctum.
* PrimalPolymorphs: The Primal spell list (mostly used by Druids, but also by some Sorcerers and Witches) has more polymorph spells than the other lists, including [[{{Animorphism}} Animal Form]], Dinosaur Form, and [[ScaledUp Dragon Form]]. Druids of the Wild Order also get the Wild Shape focus spell, which doesn't use spell slots.
* PsychopathicManChild: Goblins and some ogrekin. Goblins' childish traits are usually depicted humorously, whereas ''everything'' about ogrekin is played for horror or {{Squick}}.
* PublicDomainCanonWelding: This game incorporates features of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos into its game line, including game stats for various Mythos entities and an adventure path where the world of Golarion is infiltrated by the Mythos realm of Carcosa.
* PublicDomainCharacter: A number of monsters pulled from Victorian and pulp literature are featured in the setting.
** Several gods are taken from real-world mythology, including Asmodeus, Lamashtu, [[Literature/JourneyToTheWest Sun Wukong]], [[Myth/AztecMythology Camazotz]], Ahriman, Apsu, and Dahak.
** Numerous creatures and gods from Creator/HPLovecraft's ''Literature/CthulhuMythos'', including Great Cthulhu himself.
** TheLegionsOfHell include [[Literature/TheDivineComedy the Malebranche]] [[ShownTheirWork and just about the]] ''[[ShownTheirWork entire]]'' {{Literature/Ars Goetia}}!
* PuppeteerParasite: Intellect devourers fulfill this role in Golarion, among others. Included are psionic beings literally called puppeteers (actually minions of [[EldritchAbomination Phrenic Scourges]]) and ammonites that animate corpses as vehicles to conquer the land. There is also a third party race of Snail People called the Zif, whose actual intelligence is a permanently bonded parasite.
* QuietingTheUnquietDead: Ghosts will rejuvenate if destroyed normally, even if by the most powerful spells. To permanently get rid of them, it's needed to find the reason it's persisting and to fix what was made wrong.
* RageAgainstTheHeavens: Primary motive of the asuras, constantly reincarnating beings born from divine mistakes. They're actually quite AffablyEvil, [[StraightEdgeEvil possessing little in the way of greed]] and [[ProudScholarRace quite sagely about reality]]. Doesn't mean they don't fight dirty-these guys are next-door neighbors to devils.
* {{Raiju}}: Raijus are creatures native to lightning-wracked regions of the [[ElementalPlane Plane of Air]], but are often flung to the material world by the elemental fury of the storms they live in. They naturally resemble small, foxlike creatures crackling with electricity, but are actually born as spheres of living electricity and, when in the material plane, they usually take the forms of small, common mammals from their new home area so as not to stand out. They return to their true forms during the fits of furious activity that lightning storms engender in them, and are constantly seeking to return to their home plane. There are also kaenjus, rarer relatives of raijus that come from the Plane of Fire instead.
* RasputinianDeath: In the ''Reign of Winter'' Adventure Path, you have to fight [[UsefulNotes/RasputinTheMadMonk the man himself.]] And kill him ''three times'' before he finally kicks off.
* {{Reconstruction}}: In 2nd Edition, firearms no longer pierce armor. Long story short, the justification as to why is that if armor can be made to protect against a dragon's horn, it can protect against a bullet.
* ReadTheFinePrint: Under pressure due to numerous slave rebellions in other nations, Cheliax abruptly freed all of its slaves in 4722 AR. House Thrune then offered the newly-freed slaves a contract allowing them to receive a stipend, supposedly to help get them on their feet. [[DealWithTheDevil This is House Thrune]] [[ObviouslyEvil we're talking about]]. In reality, the contract has [[ComicallyWordyContract an absurd amount of deliberately hard-to-understand fine print]] with clauses that demand payments back on the stipend with high amounts of interest, essentially turning signatories into [[IndenturedServitude indentured servants for life]], who can be drafted into military service at any time, for any reason.
* RedRightHand: Rakshasas in human form always have one feature that faces the wrong way, traditionally their hands.
* ReimaginingTheArtifact: The whole idea behind some of the Bestiaries; in particular, "Misfit Monsters Redeemed" reimagines [[OurMonstersAreWeird some of the most bizarre creatures]] of the Gygax-era bestiaries.
* ReligionOfEvil: The Church of Asmodeus, the Church of Zon-Kuthon, cultists of Ghlaunder, Lamashtu, Norgorber, Rovagug, Urgathoa, various demon lords, archdevils, and the Four Horsemen. As well as the Whispering Way, which preaches that all life should be extinguished to be replaced by eternal undeath, and theOld Cults, who worship the [[EldritchAbomination Great Old Ones]].
* TheRepublic: Andoran, bastion of enlightenment, democracy, and liberty.
* LaResistance: The sub-theme of the ''Council of Thieves'' Adventure Path. In a Venice-analogue, no less.
* ResistantToMagic: Characters and monsters with Spell Resistance (SR) have a chance of {{No Sell}}ing any spell (except for a select few) cast against them. Specifically, the caster needs to make a 1d20 + spellcaster level check against the target's SR value, otherwise the spell just bounces off -- and even if it doesn't, the target is still entitled to any regular saving throws the spell allows afterwards. Enemy SR can completely shut down low-level casters, because it usually starts in the high teens and there are very few ways to improve your rolls to overcome SR beyond simply leveling up, forcing casters to focus on indirect damage, like manipulating the environment or buffing their non-magical party members.
* ResourcefulRodent: The Ratfolk are humanoid rats with a particular knack for tinkering, which grants them bonuses related to alchemy and operating magical devices. In Starfinder, they instead have a racial bonus to the Engineering and Survival skills.
* RetCanon: The PlayerParty in the 2018 ''VideoGame/PathfinderKingmaker'' video game, adapted from the tabletop Kingmaker Adventure Path by Creator/OwlcatGames, included two characters from the tabletop game ([[Characters/PathfinderIconics Amiri]] and [[Characters/PathfinderAdventurePathKingmaker Jubilost Narthropple]]) and eleven original characters. In 2022, Paizo released an add-on for the Second Edition remake of the Kingmaker Adventure Path, the ''Kingmaker Companion Guide'', which adapted Owlcat's implementation of all thirteen characters back into tabletop format, along with personal sidequests for seven of them. The contemporary ''Kingmaker Bestiary'' re-stats Amiri, Ekundayo and his dog, Jubilost, Linzi, Nok-Nok, Tristian, Valerie, and many [=NPCs=] for use in First Edition runs.
* {{Retcon}}:
** Seltyiel was originally a fighter/wizard/[[MagicKnight eldritch]] [[PrestigeClass knight]]. As of the release of ''Ultimate Magic'', he's now a (presumably single-class) [[MagicKnight magus]].
** The ''Second Darkness'' Adventure Path stated(and ''showed'') that an Elf that descended too far into Evil could spontaneously transform into a Drow. They have since backed away from that concept.
** In the first edition of the campaign setting guidebook, the world map showed Golarion's polar ice cap bordering the entire northern expanse. Later on, the dev team realized that unless Golarion was in an ice age, the ice cap was way too far south, and changed it so that the only large bit of ice on Avistan's northern border was a single large glacier.
** Likewise, the Five Kings Mountains (the dwarven homeland) were originally listed as belonging to the human nation of Druma until the third edition of the campaign setting book gave it a separate entry as a sovereign land.
** [[UnwittingPawn Paladins of Asmodeus]] ''do not happen''. Forget you ever read that. ''Anti''paladins of Asmodeus however, are allowed with the [[http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/alternate-classes/antipaladin/archetypes/paizo---antipaladin-archetypes/insinuator-antipaladin-archetype Insinuator]] and [[http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/alternate-classes/antipaladin/archetypes/paizo---antipaladin-archetypes/tyrant-antipaladin-archetype Tyrant]] archetypes (the latter even ''requires'' you being LawfulEvil).
** ''Inner Sea Gods'' compiles all articles written about the twenty core gods from ''Gods & Magic'', ''Faiths of Purity'', ''Faiths of Balance'', ''Faiths of Corruption'', and various adventure path modules. But ''Inner Sea Gods'' also changes many details from these articles that the developers have backpedalled on; for instance, in Gorum's article in ''War of the River Kings'', there is mention of growing tensions between him and Pharasma, who is otherwise stated to be the one god that none of the other gods cross. In ''Inner Sea Gods'', this is changed to growing tensions between Gorum and Urgothoa.
** There was a period during which only nobles being allowed beards and Sarenrae being banned in Taldor was outright retconned out by WordOfGod, although between ''Inner Sea Races'' and ''Taldor, the First Empire'' they were brought back as things that ''had'' been the case once, but have not been true for some time (and Taldor have a habit of 'forgetting' embarrassing things like that in its histories).
** There is no evil counterpart to the Pathfinder Society in Cheliax called the Darklight Sisterhood.
** Queen Abrogail being a RoyalBrat has been quietly retconned, since it was decided that it didn't fit with the developers' vision of Cheliax.
** Beastiary 1 said that Satyrs were also called Fauns. Beastiary 3 established Fauns as a separate but related creature, and furthermore stated that both Satyrs and Fauns were annoyed by the confusion.
** Second Edition's bestiary mentions that Ratfolk's own ethnonym is "Ysoki". The previous edition and ''TabletopGame/{{Starfinder}}'' repeatedly state that's (at the time of ''Pathfinder'') only the name of the Ratfolk on Akiton, who may not even be directly related to the ones on Golarion.
* RetGone: InUniverse, the result of using the capstone ability of a Monk of the Healing Hand -- the target is restored to life, but the monk themselves is so removed from existence that even the most powerful magics in the game (''wish'', ''miracle'', and outright divine intervention) cannot bring the monk back, and said monk's name is completely removed from any record in existence -- it cannot be spoken by anyone, and it's erased from any written record.
* {{Reincarnation}}: Inherited random reincarnation spells from [=D&D=] 3.5. In 2nd Edition Reincarnate is a {{ritual|magic}} that brings one back as a common ancestry for the region where the ritual is performed on a d20 roll of 1-14, but an uncommon or [[ReincarnatedAsANonHumanoid rare ancestry]] on 15-20, which can include living dolls, shapeshifting spiders, or fragments of cosmic energy that have accumulated shells of mineral or plant matter.
* RevengeIsNotJustice: While Shelyn, goddess of beauty and romantic love, and Sarenrae, goddess of healing and the sun, are on cordial terms with Calistria, goddess of lust, one source of disagreement between them is that Calistria is also the Goddess of revenge. Shelyn and Sarenrae, in contrast, command their followers to spare the lives of enemies who are willing to repent. The [[CharacterAlignment alignment system]][[invoked]] seems to side with Shelyn and Sarenrae: Calistria is ChaoticNeutral (meaning she can sponsor ChaoticEvil divine spellcasters), while Shelyn and Sarenrae are both NeutralGood.
* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: Galt has been stuck in the "Reign of Terror" phase of its revolution for about half a century now, with no end in sight. Lynch mobs surrounding the mysterious, and politically powerful, Grey Gardeners crop up monthly to make a bloody example of whomever has fallen out of the crowd's favor. To add insult to injury, [[YourSoulIsMine the souls of those executed remain imprisoned in their guillotine blades.]]
* TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified:
** Unlike Galt's Red Revolution, Andoran's People's Revolt went through with the minimum possible amount of bloodshed: it was influenced by the same ideals but its founders didn't want a repeat of Galt's failed state status. The result was the first large representative democracy in the Inner Sea Region, and one that has become quite prosperous and which abolished slavery at its inception.
** The ''Hell's Rebels'' AP has the players leading an uprising against the Thrice-Damned House of Thrune after it starts a crackdown on the northwestern Archduchy of Ravounel, previously known as an oasis for free-thinkers in Infernal Cheliax. A core part of the AP is managing the uprising and giving freedom to those oppressed by House Thrune in Kintargo.
* RiddleForTheAges: How did Aroden die? Per the developers, that question will never receive an official answer.
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: The spell ''pup form'' from ''Ultimate Combat'' invokes this trope, by turning an animal into a small, adorable version that prevents others from attacking it out of guilt. The spell leaves an exception: evil creatures are not affected and [[KickTheDog "in fact, some particularly heinous creatures might go out their way to do the target harm."]] Naturally, the accompanying artwork shows the spell in effect on Lini's snow leopard partner. The druid just looks confused as little Droogami chases a butterfly.
* RingOfPower: Any magic ring, and there are many.
* UsefulNotes/{{Romani}}: Varisians are the FantasyCounterpartCulture version. They've been luckier than their RealLife counterparts, though, as they tend to be fairly easily accepted (usually), and there are quite a few settled lands where they're an important minority or even the majority human group.
* RoguishRomani: The Varisians, the FantasyCounterpartCulture of the Romani, are often unfairly stereotyped in-universe as thieving vagabonds -- however, there is a very good reason for this: a decentralized [[TheSyndicate international network]] of ethnic Varisian smuggler and thief gangs collectively known as the "Sczarni". So while not all Varisians are rogues, the vast majority of Sczarni rogues are Varisian.
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething:
** The kingdom campaign rules in the ''Ultimate Campaign'' book allow player characters to rule territory. The timescale of "kingdom turns" runs to a month, but a character's attention is only required for seven days, allowing regular adventuring between the action of government; the book suggests that such adventures could concern directly confronting threats to the characters' lands.
** The ''Kingmaker'' adventure path was this trope for five books, and could be seen as the beta version of the Ultimate Campaign kingdom ruleset.
** ''Curse of the Crimson Throne'' could be subtitled [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen God Save Us from Queen Ileosa]] of Varisia.
** Queen Galfrey of Mendev is ThePaladin and a LadyOfWar who has a large role to play in ''Wrath of the Righteous''. Additionally, in ''Wrath of the Righteous'', the players will meet the non-human rulers of whole other dimensions, with active encounters with the Demon Lords Nocticula, Baphomet, and Deskari.
** In ''War for the Crown'', Princess Eutropia Stavian of Taldor is a PoliticallyActivePrincess who is trying to become an InternalReformist monarch.
** ''Hell's Vengeance'' writes Queen Abrogail II of Cheliax as a villainous example of this who has finally managed to drag her country out of its complacency towards the fact that [[BalkanizeMe its provinces keep declaring independence]].
* TheRuleOfFirstAdopters: The same creative team that made ''The Book of Erotic Fantasy'' for 3.5E made a version for Pathfinder 1E called ''The Book of Passion''.
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[[folder:S-Z]]
* SacrificialRevivalSpell: There is a monk archetype that focuses on using one's own ki energy to fuel healing magics, harming oneself in the process. At 20th level, said monk can sacrifice his own life to revive all his allies as per the True Resurrection spell. And no, it is not a [[DeathIsCheap resurrectable death]]: the monk is so DeaderThanDead even his ''name'' is obliterated.
* {{Samurai}}: Introduced in ''Ultimate Combat'', the samurai is a cavalier sub-class. Rather than forcing the player to play a DualWielding ScreamingWarrior like the 3.5 samurai, the ''Pathfinder'' samurai can choose its focus (mounted combat, archery, or, yes, katana).
* SatanicArchetype: Asmodeus, Lord of Hell, differs from previous ''D&D'' interpretations in that he is not a fallen angel, but has always been a god in his own right, having a distinctly CainAndAbel-style relationship with his now-murdered brother, Ihys.
* SaintlyChurch: Most of the churches of good-aligned deities qualify, but Sarenrae and Iomedae really stand out as examples.
* ScaledUp: The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Form of the Dragon]] spell lets it's users take the form of a dragon. It's only available to high level wizards and sorcerers, making it the kind of thing that might be given to a main antagonist. But there's nothing actually stopping the [=PCs=] from doing this as well, especially draconic bloodline sorcerers who get the spell for free, making it ideal for a climax.
* ScalingTheSummit: The ''Organized Play'' scenario #0-16 "To Scale the Dragon" sees the party scale the highest mountain in the region (nicknamed "The Dragon") to retrieve an ancient artifact hidden on its peak... then haul ass pronto, as they are chased by literally every yeti living in those mountains.
* ScarabPower: The Scarab Sages are an AncientTradition of Egyptian-inspired priests and wizards who seek the ancient secrets to create a better future. They picked the scarab as their symbol to invoke wisdom and ancient power.
* ScienceFantasy: Strongly on the fantasy end of things, but some species of aberration are creatures from outer space.
** The illustrations, by-and-large, have a more Renaissance feel to them than Medieval, and some look outright like early {{Steampunk}}. For obvious reasons, [[RuleOfCool no one has complained about this]].
** The economy of Numeria (featured in the "Iron Gods" adventure path) revolves entirely around plunder extracted from mountain-sized chunks of a crashed starship, with robots, cybernetic implants, powered armor, pharmaceuticals, and laser guns all found there. The reason this technology hasn't spread is due to the surrounding inhabitants -- the justifiably superstitious Kellid barbarians, who consider the alien ruins taboo after suffering some spectacular disasters among them, and the power-hungry Technic League, who jealously hoard all the scientific secrets they can find. The ''Technology Guide'', which features many of these gadgets, also includes feats and rules that allow characters to tinker with alien tech like they would with magic items, even converting magical energy for technological use and vice versa.
** One issue of the ''Pathfinder'' Adventure Paths gives brief descriptions of the other planets in Golarion's solar system. Out of the three most heavily-populated worlds, Castrovel is pure fantasy-themed (but with PsychicPowers instead of magic), Akiton has a "science fantasy" PlanetaryRomance theme, and Verces is futuristic sci-fi (though presumably still aware of magic).
** The Alkenstar/Mana Wastes region, due to its inherent magic-screwing properties, meanwhile, has developed the first firearms to compensate. They're mostly seen as noisy, impractical and onerous curios elsewhere.
** "Reign of Winter" actually has the [=PC=]s travel to two alien planets. [[spoiler:One of them being ''Earth'']]
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: The Final Blades of Galt were intended as a way to [[DefiedTrope defy the trope]]. They are guillotines designed to trap the souls of people beheaded on them to prevent the rich and powerful from escaping their fate by arranging to be resurrected.
* SeadogPegLeg: "Peg Leg" is a selectable character [[SkillScoresAndPerks Trait]] in the pirate-themed Skulls & Shackles Adventure Path. A PC who takes it has had his leg chewed off by a shark as a child, but they suffer no normal penalties for using a prosthetic and instead gain a bonus on damage rolls against sharks and other aquatic predators.
* SealedEvilInACan: All over the place. The biggest evil, in the biggest can, is the apocalypse god [[EldritchAbomination Rovagug the Rough Beast]], sealed into the molten core of Golarion by all the gods who survived his initial rampage. His release would spell the potential end of the world.
* SealTheBreach: Golarion suffers from the Worldwound, a nation-spanning {{Hellgate}} and [[TheLegionsOfHell demon-infested]] RealityBleed. Five crusades are mobilized to fight back its advance, and in the climax of the Wrath of the Righteous adventure path, the PlayerParty can [[spoiler:kill the {{Demon Lord|sAndArchdevils}} responsible and [[SupernaturalSealing ritually seal]] the Worldwound forever, which is what canonically happens.]]
* SecretArt: The Uncommon, Rare, and Unique rarity traits from Second Edition denote increasing levels of obscurity--something with the Uncommon trait requires special training or comes from a particular part of the world, something with the Rare trait is very difficult to find (and is only included through either in-game discovery or allowed to by taken through GM fiat), and something with the Unique trait is one of a kind. Notably, Recall Knowledge checks become increasingly difficult the more "secret" the thing you're recalling is.
** In Pathfinder Society games, the ''PFS Limited'' tag functions similarly to Rare, requiring a boon to gain access.
* SemiDivine: Aasimar are the descendants of mortal humanoids (normally [[HumansAreSpecial humans]]) and good-aligned Outsiders, and they've got the unearthly beauty, [[LongLived longevity]], and [[LightIsGood light- and good-]] powers to go along with it. Celestial bloodline sorcerers can be any race, and either have a good-aligned Outsider ancestor, or were blessed by a god at their birth. They get HolyHandGrenade powers and flight with [[GoodWingsEvilWings angelic, feathery wings]], among other things.
* SenseImpairedMonster:
** Creatures with the "blindsight" special ability use non-visual senses such as smell or hearing to compensate for loss of vision to perceive their surroundings within the specified range. This negates penalties for being blind, as well as other creatures' invisibility or concealment (including miss chance from spells like ''displacement'' or ''blur''); however, a creature with blindsight can't make out visual or color contrast, meaning for example that they can't read. The "blindsense" ability is a weaker form of blindsight with more penalties.
** Creatures with the "tremorsense" special ability are able to detect other creatures out to a specified range by the vibrations they give off when they move, including such things as the [[MagicalGesture somatic components of spells]]. Normally this functions through transmission of the vibrations through the ground; however, aquatic creatures with tremorsense are able to detect vibrations through the surrounding water.
* SettingUpdate: With the change from 1st Edition to 2nd Edition in 2019, the Golarion setting was updated, moving the calendar for the setting forward a few years and [[CuttingOffTheBranches declaring canonical endings for several of its adventure paths]], with those endings influencing the new setting.
* SevenDeadlySins: Originated as the seven ''virtues'' (rewards) of rulership, formulated by an ancient emperor. His [[DeceptiveDisciple seven subordinates]] promptly twisted them into the more familiar sins.
** Some (but not all) of the sins are represented in the archdevils. Mammon embodies greed; Belial is extremely lustful; Moloch is a being of seething wrath; Baalzebul represents envy; Mephistopheles is famous for his great pride.
** Furthermore, there is a corresponding species of demon for each of the seven deadly sins: Dretches (sloth), shadow demons (envy), succubi (lust), nabasus as well as vrolikai (gluttony), vrocks (wrath), nalfeshnees (greed), and mariliths (pride).
* ShamSupernatural: Razmir, the GodEmperor of Razmiran, is an ordinary, though very powerful wizard who uses a GodGuise to run a ScamReligion. Razmiran "priests" therefore have no actual divinely granted powers nor levels in the cleric class: the game implements them as a sorcerer archetype and a PrestigeClass that use various ritualistic tricks to imitate the class features of a cleric. His classification as a deity is almost entirely flavor.
* ShoutOut: [[ShoutOut/{{Pathfinder}} Has its own page]].
* SilverHasMysticPowers: Silver weapons bypass the DamageReduction of werewolves and some extraplanar creatures, including devils and Agathions.
* SinisterDeerSkull: Siabrae are a sort of druidic counterpart to liches, the result of {{Druid}}s and other primal spellcasters taking TheCorruption of the land into themselves in order to fight it off. Sometimes, this works, and so the ritual is still used, but more often instead of purifying the land they become preservers of their own twisted counterpart to nature. They don't have deer skulls ''per se'', but they have antlers made of stone, which is clearly meant to reflect their identity as corrupted protectors of the natural world.
* SnakePeople: The serpent folk are one part an expy of Faerun's Yuan-ti and one part a ShoutOut to the serpentfolk of ''Literature/ConanTheBarbarian'' and ''Literature/{{Kull}}''.
* SpecificallyNumberedGroup: TheMagocracy of ancient Thassilon was founded on principles of RunicMagic and philosophy, including a leadership of seven Runelords, one for each of the [[SevenHeavenlyVirtues Seven Virtues of Rule]]. As Thassilon [[AndManGrewProud fell into decadence]], the Runelords came to represent the SevenDeadlySins instead.
* SpellBlade:
** Magi, as well as paladins who took the divine weapon bond feature instead of a mount, are able to imbue their weapons with additional magical properties a few times per day.
*** ''Second Edition'' magi can use both their Arcane Cascade stance and Spellstrikes--the former uses lingering energy from a spellcast to charge all their melee Strikes, while the latter imbues a spell that requires an attack roll into a melee Strike, applying its effects to the target on a hit.
** The ''spell-storing'' property allows a magic weapon or armor to store a spell with touch range, which can then be cast as an immediate action when the weapon hits the enemy or the armor is hit by an attack.
* SpellBook: Wizards and magi can't cast spells without them. Witches use their familiars as this.
* SpaceWhale: Oma are about as spacey and whaley as they come without getting too literal on the latter half.
* StandardFantasyRaces: ''Pathfinder'' largely inherits the pattern developed in ''D&D'', with humans who rule most nations and civilizations, reclusive dwarves and elves who remain in scattered holdouts of their ancient, fallen empires, halflings and fey gnomes who live in other races' lands, and half-elves and half-orcs often left as outcasts. Monster races include the goblins, hobgoblins and orcs, whose long histories of war against the other races have left them distrusted and despised, but have begun to attempt to integrate better in global politics while forming closer ties with each other, as well as ancient and powerful dragons, reclusive treants and fey who distrust anyone intruding in their forests, and a variety of SnakePeople and LizardFolk whose empires were ancient before any warm-blooded nation arose. That being said, there are also a number of setting-specific peoples that avert the trope.
* StandardFantasySetting: For the most part, Golarion is a pseudo-medieval world inhabited by the StandardFantasyRaces, menaced by the traditional lineup of necromancers, barbarian hordes and demon lords, populated by the usual {{Fantasy Counterpart Culture}}s and flavored with a few pseudo-Asian, -African and -American areas. The setting diverges in some areas, which include elements drawn from pulp and horror fiction instead.
* StartMyOwn: ''Pathfinder'' got started when a group of big-name ''D&D 3.5'' fans and writers, unhappy with the drastic changes made to ''D&D'' in 4th Edition and the more restrictive licensing policy that came with it, got together and decided to keep the old game going under a new name.
* StayInTheKitchen:
** {{Downplayed}} with Erastil, the LawfulGood god of hunting, agriculture, family, and rural communities. One of the most ancient deities of the pantheon, he actually has no problem with strong women or even female warriors, he just thinks they should at some point get married to equally strong partners and start families with them. He's mildly baffled by fellow LawfulGood goddess Iomedae's[[note]]goddess of justice, valor, and duty, essentially the PatronGod of {{paladin}}hood[[/note]] disinterest in marriage, but at the same time has an OddFriendship with NeutralGood LoveGoddess Shelyn, due to her own support for marriage and families (Shelyn herself is part of a [[{{Polyamory}} thruple]] with Desna and Sarenrae). Many of his older views on family dynamics were gradually toned down.
** Taldor, the local FantasyCounterpartCulture for the Roman Empire, enforced strictly patriarchal gender roles. These have softened over time, especially after the loss of their foreign territories, but are still somewhat present: one of the sticking points in the ''War for the Crown'' Adventure Path is the proposal to handle the looming SuccessionCrisis in Taldor by [[HeirClubForMen allowing women, specifically Princess Eutropia, to inherit titles]].
* {{Steampunk}}: [[http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5lazu Details for steampunk elements]] are included in the ''Gamemastery Guide'' along with a lot of other, more unusual aspects for [=DMs=] to use in their campaigns at their own discretion.
* StellarStation: A few magically shielded outposts float within Golarion's sun, such as the metropolis of the Burning Archipelago and the [[MageTower tower]] of a reclusive [[TheArchmage archmage]] who ''really'' doesn't want visitors.
* StickySituation: Aside from the webs of giant spiders, the Adherants are covered in extremely sticky fibers that can potentially trap any melee weapon used on it, and any barehanded attack risks leaving the attacker stuck to the monster. The Flail Snail can also leave a trail of glue-like mucus behind it.
* StoryBreakerPower: All of the same things that apply in D&D do here as well, but Second Edition has been praised for making high-level gameplay work by toning down many spells that had been this trope and making it explicit that others can only be used with GM discretion. For example, scrying and teleport are both uncommon spells, which means that players cannot cast them without finding some sort of teaching aid first. The image you receive through scrying alone is not distinct enough for you to teleport there, and even if you can through other means precise long-distance teleportation to a specific location is now nearly impossible. Other spells with a large scope have become rituals, which are almost always uncommon and require that several characters make checks of above average difficulty for the ritual's level, with the consequences for failure ranging from significant to catastrophic. It's still possible to possible to break the story using magic, but it's much more preventable.
* {{Stripperiffic}}: [[https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/pathfinder/images/2/2a/Seoni.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20080602020008 Seoni]] the sorceress (in her [[NavelDeepNeckline slinky]] [[LadyInRed red dress]]), [[http://paizo.com/image/content/PathfinderRPG/PZO1115-Alahazra.jpg Alahazra]] the oracle (who appears to be wearing an open kaftan and a low-slung sarong over a bikini), and [[http://pathfinderwiki.com/mediawiki/images/8/8a/Feiya.png Feiya]] the witch (who's [[ZettaiRyouiki mostly bare-legged]] and about to fall out of her bodice) stand out in particular.
* StuckItems: Cursed magical items in general are examples of these, as they will return to you and in some cases, like the Rod of Arson, will force you to use them even if they have been physically destroyed. It takes specific spells or combinations of spells to get rid of them.
* StuffBlowingUp:
** The Goblin Fire Bomber archetype for alchemists specializes in unleashing the wrath of Creator/MichaelBay on the battlefields of Golarion.
** Alchemists in general tend to blow things up as a primary form of offense/defense when they're not [[HulkOut Hulking Out]].
* SuccubusInLove:
** Nocticula, a {{Demon Lord|sAndArchdevils}} and the [[MonsterProgenitor first succubus]], became lovers and [[TheMasochismTango rivals]] with the succubus Shamira after Shamira infiltrated her bedchamber. Their relationship was extraordinarily unusual for ChaoticEvil demons, all the more so when Nocticula became a ChaoticNeutral goddess yet remained AmicableExes with Shamira.
** In "Wrath of the Righteous", the player characters meet the currently working on being redeemed succubus Arushulae, who the AP sets up as a love interest if the players are interested.
* SuddenNameChange: In Second Edition, most monsters taken from ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' were either given completely new names (like phase spiders becoming ether spiders), are now being referred to by their common names instead of their proper names (sea devils instead of sahuagin, brain collectors instead of neh-thalggus), or vice versa (xulgaths instead of troglodytes). This was done to distance ''Pathfinder'' from ''D&D'' and facilitate building a multi-media franchise, as the OGL 1.0a only covers TabletopRPG products, so any names invented by Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast cannot be legally used in anything that is not a RPG book.
* SuddenSequelHeelSyndrome: In the Second Edition Adventure Path "Age Of Ashes," [[spoiler:Mengkare]] has gone from LawfulNeutral to LawfulEvil, as he has started [[HumanSacrifice sacrificing his own subjects]] in order to stop [[BigBad Dahak.]] He's still a WellIntentionedExtremist, meaning the players can [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor possibly talk him down and redeem him.]]
* SufferTheSlings: The bizarrely weak slings from 3rd edition ''D&D'' are carried over. The range and damage are so low that it's usually better to just throw the rock.
* SummonBinding:
** First Edition: The spell ''magic circle against alignment'' can be used in combination with the ''planar binding'' and ''dimensional anchor'' spells to imprison a summoned extraplanar being ("Outsider") of the specified alignment within the location for as long as the circle of powdered silver making up the magic circle remains unbroken (though the spells have to be renewed periodically).
** Second Edition's version of ''planar binding'' is a ritual that incorporates the magic circle as an optional step that requires a crafting skill check rather than a separate spell. If the summoners neglect to include it, or fail the skill check, the called creature can attack the summoners or leave without making a bargain.
* SummonMagic: Conjurers are a school of Wizards who specialize in conjuration, magic that creates matter from nothing or summons creatures. The Summoner is a base class that forgoes all magic ''but'' conjuration. Summoners also summon "Eidolons" from the realms beyond the material plane in arcane rituals lasting a minute or so, a la Franchise/FinalFantasy.
* SummoningRitual: Represented by the Planar Binding spells. Summoners must usually give the summoned creature rare or valuable offerings in order to gain its services.
* SuperGullible: Characters with low Wisdom and Sense Motive/Insight modifiers tend to have trouble discerning truth from lies, and therefore often fall under this trope.
* SupernaturallyValidatedTransPerson: Shardra Geltl, the iconic Shaman, came out as a trans woman after she developed her spiritual powers (which only manifest in dwarven women).
* SuperWheelchair: In addition to regular wheelchairs, Grand Bazaar and Guns & Gears include stats for chairs for adventurers that fit this trope. The basic example is a {{Downplayed|Trope}} version, as it provides the ability to traverse stairs and adventuring environments without difficulty but lacks any magical effects. Higher level versions like the Minotaur Chair will make those with able legs a bit jealous.
* TalkingInYourDreams: The spell ''dream'' enables a wizard or sorcerer to do this, although the communication is only one-way from the caster to the recipient.
* TakeThat: The 2E bestiary notes that the fact that Cave Bears live in caves should be [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin obvious from the name]], doubtless a shot at the infamous "[[Memes/DungeonsAndDragons Bear lore]]".=
* TallIsIntimidating: you gain a +4 bonus on your Intimidate check for every size category that you are larger than your target.
* TeleportersVisualizationClause:
** 1st Edition copies the mechanics from D&D 3E verbatim. The ''teleport'' spell has a percentage chance of failing--meaning anything from landing off-target to suffering a TeleporterAccident, also decided by percentile dice--that increases the less familiar the caster is with their target location. ''Greater teleport'' removes the chance of damage but still requires at least a good description of the destination: if the description you have isn't good enough, you simply reappear back where you started.
** 2nd Edition combines ''teleport'' and ''greater teleport'' into a single ''teleport'' spell that requires the caster to know both the appearance and position of their target relative to them.
* TerminalTransformation:
** The spell "[[ForcedTransformation baleful polymorph]]" can be used to transform the target into an animal that can't survive its current environment, such as a fish on land, but the target gains a bonus on the saving throw to resist it.
** The spell "stone to flesh" restores a [[TakenForGranite petrified]] creature to normal, but has a chance to kill them from the shock of the transformation.
** Devils are [[DemonOfHumanOrigin formed from the souls of the damned]]. What many {{Hell Seeker}}s don't know is that the process first inflicts DeathOfPersonality through torture, destroying any hint of memory or individuality, and then reshapes what's left into a mindless lemure.
* ThreadsOfFate:
** The Norns from Myth/NorseMythology are envisioned as potent fey with abilities related to prophecy, fortune, and curses. They can [[TouchTheIntangible manifest]] the golden thread of a nearby creature's life, rendering the target DeaderThanDead if they successfully sever it with their [[ShearMenace magical shears]].
** Grandmother Spider's job was to weave the web of fate, but she rebelled against this role and became a TricksterGod. She still has the Fate domain.
* ThunderHammer: The minor artifact ''Hammer of Thunderbolts'' is essentially a lesser version of Mjölnir (and is also featured in ''TableTopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''). It requires other magic items (based on Thor's belt and gloves) to be worn to be used at full power.
* ThreadOfProphecySevered: Aroden, the patron god of humanity, was prophesied to descend from the heavens to rule mankind as a GodEmperor in a new golden age in 4606 AR. On the prophesied date, worldwide natural disasters wracked Golarion: Aroden had instead died of unknown causes. In the century-plus since, no prophecy has come to pass anywhere, which has caused problems for Pharasma's priesthood since she's the goddess of prophecy in addition to life and death. Ironically, Pharasma supposedly knows why, or at least knew in advanced, Aroden would die.
* TimeyWimeyBall: The ''Return Of The Runelords'' Adventure Paths involves extensive time travel, especially in the latter half. The rules are never really made clear, but, in addition to historical events changing, there's also things like a library frozen in time (which the [=PCs=] can unfreeze) and an entire city state caught in a GroundhogDayLoop (which the players can also fix). Preventing the BigBad from using time travel to win is a big part of the later stages.
* TooManyHalves: Mechanically possible via abuse of the various "half-x" templates. Using only first-party material, it is theoretically possible (though any sensible GM would veto it for a player character) to have a creature that is half-fiend (there are actually ten subvarieties), half-celestial, half-dragon, half-janni, and half-serpent, for a creature [[Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids two-and-a-half times as big as you'd expect]]. Averted in Second Edition, where you can only have one Versatile Heritage.
* TortureCellar: Black dragons are such hateful creatures that they consider ''torture victims'' to be their most prized "treasure", and hoard tormented captives in their lairs. Dripping acidic spittle on chained-up prisoners -- beautiful ones especially -- is a black dragon's idea of great entertainment.
* TorturedMonster: Fleshwarps, Broken Souls, Taninivers, Yao-guai, most undead. etc.
* TotalEclipseOfThePlot: In Tian Xia, solar eclipses are considered a sacred time of celebration in the cults of the gods Shizuru and Tsukiyo. According to mythology, the two, respectively the goddess of the sun and the god of the moon, are StarCrossedLovers who can only be together during an eclipse.
* TouchTheIntangible:
** Magical attacks inherently interact with normally-intangible targets, but only deal 50% damage.
** Umbral dragons have the ability to interact with spectral undead as if they were corporeal creatures -- a useful trait for them, as ghosts, specters, shadows and the like are [[FoodChainOfEvil their favorite source of food]].
** All {{Psychopomp}}s' attacks naturally affect incorporeal beings, as do those of crypt dragons, helping them with their tasks of corralling restless spirits and watching over the souls of the dead.
** Unicorn horns innately function as ''ghost touch'' weapons in this manner, allowing them to directly interact with spiritual entities.
** The Amulet of Grasping Souls from ''Tears at Bitter Manor'' [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zags the trope]]. A corporeal wearer can physically interact with incorporeal creatures like ghosts; an incorporeal wearer can interact with their surroundings as if they were corporeal.
* {{Transplant}}: Literature/BabaYaga and the [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Great Old Ones]] are imported straight from their original settings. Even Cthulhu himself is mentioned as "slumbering on a distant planet".
* TransplantedAliens: The land of Numeria is home to numerous aliens, alien animals, and rogue robots as a result of a spaceship crashing there a millennia ago.
* TreetopTown: Selona, a city in the First World, is built entirely in the canopy of Usu, a single tree of immense size. Its university district is built within a massive hollow-out bole, while a formerly posh district was turned to ruins when a lightning strike set a part of the tree aflame.
* TrickBomb: One of the Alchemist's trademark abilities. Alchemist discoveries allow them to switch the standard explosive bomb (which does fire damage, to which many outsiders are resistant or immune) with bombs that do everything from cover an area in sticky substances to doing holy damage.
* TurnUndead: By default, Pathfinder replaces the 3E class feature with one called Channel Energy, which can be used to heal living allies or damage undead (unless the PC gets Channel Negative Energy due to CharacterAlignment[[invoked]] restrictions, in which case it harms living and heals undead). TurnUndead is instead available as a feat, reduced to a simple Will save to not flee from the overly complicated math that 3E used.
* {{Uberwald}}: The Immortal Principalities of Ustalav, officially described as a "fog-shrouded land of GothicHorror". Culturally based on Eastern Europe, primarily Romania, it's regularly menaced by hordes of undead and even when it's not there's a DecadentCourt feuding with each other. The sole exception is Versex, which, as mentioned above, is LovecraftCountry instead.
* TheUndead: There's even a Sorcerer Lineage, Undead Sorcerer, who had a Lich or Vampire ancestor, or was a stillbirth who spontaneously resurrected.
* UndeadChild: Attic whispers (which are formed from the spirits of children who died of neglect) and drekavacs (formed from children who died of disease).
* TheUnderworld:
** The Boneyard is a sprawling graveyard where all mortal souls, no matter who or what they were in life, come to stand before Pharasma, be judged and determine their place within the Great Beyond. Most of those who are judged fit to remain within the Boneyard are those who are unclaimed by any gods and unaligned with any particular ethos in life, making them free game for those seeking souls or power.
** Axis is a realm of pure, absolute law, unhindered by the moral concerns of good or evil.
** The Maelstrom is a realm of boundless chaos, a churning void of everything that can or could exist between land and sea.
* UnequalRites: As with 3.5, ''Pathfinder'' 1st Edition has various ways in which this can manifest, and now has more feats that further differentiate between each type.
* UnholyMatrimony:
** The NeutralEvil[[invoked]] church of Urgathoa also encourages this, to a point: [[BlueAndOrangeMorality divorce is forbidden, but killing your spouse and raising them as undead is fair game]].
** In the ''Giantslayer'' adventure path, the villain of the first part has a lover that will attempt to get vengeance on the party in the second part if said villain is killed (which is quite likely as written).
* UnholyNuke: The Talisman of Ultimate Evil. In the hands of an Evil HighPriest, it could be used to open a flaming crack at the feet of a Good priest and send them to the center of the planet.
* UpdatedRerelease: The Rise of the Runelords, Curse of the Crimson Throne and Kingmaker Adventure Paths were remastered a few years after the original release. All three rereleased versions compiled each AP's six softcover adventures into one hardcover and converted the adventures from their original edition to the then-current edition (from ''D&D'' 3.5E to [=PF1=] for the former two, and from First Edition to Second Edition for Kingmaker). The Kingmaker hardcover also added three whole new chapters (two adapted from the ''VideoGame/PathfinderKingmaker'' video game, one brand new), incorporated the video game's companions as [=NPCs=] with their own quests, and rule conversions for those that play ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 5th Edition or have sticked with 1st Edition. The ''Crown of the Kobold King'' hardcover, which was released for 2nd Edition, provided the same treatment to three classic 3.5 Edition adventures ''Crown of the Kobold King'', ''Hollow's Last Hope'' and ''Hungry Are the Dead''.
* VancianMagic: How all magic is cast. Some classes in both editions play with the trope, though, such as having different restrictions than normal on how they use their spell slots, and cantrips in Second Edition (which can be cast at will and automatically scale with your level) avert the trope much in the same way they do in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition.
* VestigialEmpire:
** Taldor once controlled the entire northern coast of the Inner Sea, but following the civil war that broke off Cheliax, centuries of declining fortunes, war with Kelesh, and an increasingly decadent culture, it is now a shadow of its former glory. Unsurprisingly, it was inspired by the real-world Eastern Roman Empire.
** Cheliax itself has fallen on hard times. After Aroden's death, the empire was taken over by devil-worshippers, prompting massive revolts that led several nations to split off from it: Korvosa, Isger, Molthune, Nirmathas, Andoran, and Galt are all former Chelish imperial provinces. The Hell's Rebels Adventure Path revolves around another such revolution in the northwestern province of Ravounel, while Hell's Vengeance deals with Queen Abrogail II finally realizing that if this keeps up she's not going to have a country left, especially after paladins of Iomedae declared a crusade.
** The dwarven Five Kings Mountains have been in a state of slow but steady decay for centuries, splintering into several city-states.
** Osirion has recently managed to start turning its fortunes around, but it's still a very long way from its heyday millenia ago, due in large part to having been occupied by Kelesh for a while.
* VikingsInAmerica: Ulfen explorers from the Land of the Linnorm Kings are believed to have been the first explorers from Avistan -- the setting's equivalent of medieval Europe -- to have reached Arcadia -- the equivalent of pre-Columbian America -- and maintain the hardscrabble settlement of Port Valen on its shores.
* VillainProtagonist:
** The main selling point of the Hell's Vengeance AP is that you're playing as villains instead of heroes. At the start it does note most groups will have a [[TokenGoodTeammate Token non-evil teammate]], as most gods (including Asmodeus) allow neutral clerics in 1st Edition.
** In the ''We Be Goblins!'' modules, the players play as goblins invading a human town to steal fireworks. Considering how pathetic goblins are, they are more likely to be viewed as {{Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain}}s than anything else. (At one point, they have to fight an ordinary ''horse'' which can easily kill them in one hit if it gets a critical.)
** The Blood Lords AP is made for non-good [=PCs=], as you start out as troubleshooters for [[TheNecrocracy Geb]] and later become part of its aristocracy. The book notes that Geb is a LawfulEvil land InUniverse and the further away you are from that alignment the more difficult of a time you'll have fitting in. As a consequence, if you aren't evil, you have to be willing work with those who are.
* VowOfCelibacy: In First Edition:
** Paladins can take an Oath of Chastity, which works like an archetype (i.e. subclass): the paladin adds a ban on engaging in romantic activities or sexual acts to their [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility code of conduct]], and gains resistance to charm effects and critical hits, and additional spells.
** Monks can take a Vow of Celibacy, which gives an increased ki pool in exchange for [[ExaggeratedTrope not being able to touch another person ever except to attack them]].
* WasOnceAMan: Several examples, including the unfortunate victims of drow [[BodyHorror fleshwarping]], as well as a number of demon lords.
* WeaponsGradeVocabulary: The ''blistering invective'' spell can give your rants the ability to actually ''set people on fire!''
* WeaponizedStench: The ''stinking cloud'' spell conjures a horrible-smelling fog that nauseates anybody who fails the save.
* WeAreAsMayflies:
** Goblins, between a short natural lifespan and a reckless disregard for tactics and fire safety, tend to clock out of life around twenty years in.
** Compared to the elves, dragons (and possibly gnomes depending on how entertained they are), almost everyone else is this.
* {{Wendigo}}: Very powerful evil spirits in the setting, straight from the most terrifying native myths.
* WhatDidIDoLastNight: Cayden Cailean, an adventurer who woke up after a drunken binge in Absalom to discover that ''he had taken the Test of the Starstone and BECOME A GOD''.
* WhatIsEvil: [[http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/kyton/kyton-ostiarius Ostiarius kytons]] will tell those who who ask that condemning the kytons' sadomasochism as evil is simplistic.
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: While not actually immortal (only very long-lived), the Forlorn elves have this problem. They grow up amongst humans and reach adulthood at age 110 (equivalent to a 15-year-old human), meaning a usual elven young adult has seen roughly two to three generations of "childhood friends" become adults, marry, have children of their own, grow infirm and finally die of old age. When they themselves die between the age of 350 and 750, many more shorter-lived companions will have come and gone. It is perhaps not entirely surprising that many of these elves are rather cynical and insular.
* WickedWitch: The Witch character class doesn't ''have'' to be one of these, but if they want to, they have access to all the tools needed, including a wide range of curses, an annoying cackling laugh, the ability to [[EatsBabies smell small children]], and being able to [[ImAHumanitarian cook people in a cauldron to make magical foods]]. Of course, Literature/BabaYaga and her daughters play it completely straight.
* WindUpKey: Clockwork constructs are introduced in Bestiary 3, and last a number of days per winding. Also of note is that some of these constructs can be given a copy of their own key, [[PerpetualMotionMonster so that they can wind themselves up]].
* WizardingSchool: Many of these: the Arcanamirum in Absalom, the Acadamae in Varisia, the Ebon Mausoleum in Geb, and the various arcane colleges in the Magocracy of Nex. The oldest and arguably most prestigious is the Magaambya in the Mwangi Expanse, the setting of ''Strength of Thousands''.
* WizardsWar: The nations of Geb and Nex suffered a brutal ForeverWar under their namesake [[TheArchmage Archmages]], including multiple {{Fantastic Nuke}}s, huge [[NightOfTheLivingMooks waves of undead]], and armies of mechanical and biological constructs. 4000 years later, [[TheNecrocracy most of Geb is undead]], much of Nex is [[SaltTheEarth desolate]], and the no man's land between them is a magically depleted wasteland. Neither nation is at war technically in the present, but only because Geb (the man) became inactive for a time, and Nex (the man) has not been seen in a long time, who some of the more influential people of both nations hope don't become active or return to avoid war.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds:
** Bodaks (also featured in ''[=D&D=]''), zombie-like, smoke-weeping undead created from people who witnessed [[GoMadFromTheRevelation such horrifying scenes of evil]] that it permanently wounded their souls. They are [[MisanthropeSupreme misanthropic]] husks driven by anger and sorrow to release their pain they only way they know how-by making people [[HypnoticEyes look into their eyes]], forcing them to witness what happened to them-which quite possibly [[TheVirus creates another bodak]]. The fluff outright states that survivors often have nightmares for years simply from the fragments of the bodak's memory.
** Attic whisperers are the ghosts of little children animating a body formed from the detritus found in attics or basements. They formed from children left to die forgotten and alone. Their single drive in undeath is to find a friend to play with. [[Film/TheShining Forever and ever and ever.]]
* WorldOfSnark: Going by the flavor text alone, one could be forgiven for concluding that almost every single iconic character is a borderline HeroicComedicSociopath who speaks entirely in snarky one-liners. With the possible exceptions of Seelah and Sajan, they're sarcastic, bloodthirsty, indifferent to one another's injuries and casually consider either leaving their companions behind or actively killing them out of annoyance.
* WorldOfTechnicolorHair: Gnomes are close kin to fey and often have brightly-colored hair -- scarlet, blue, purple, green, yellow, white, and so on -- as a result; mundane shades are almost entirely unknown. Elves also have more diverse coloring than humans but tend to match their surroundings, so their primary unusual color is green for forest-dwelling elves.
* TheWormThatWalks: {{Hive Mind}}ed piles of vermin formed when a particularly evil spellcaster clings to life by possessing the scavenging creatures -- usually worms or maggots -- eating its corpse.
* WretchedHive: Kaer Maga. And Riddleport. And Bloodcove. And Ilizmagorti. And Daggermark. And Zirnakaynin. And almost every settlement in the Shackles. And... let's just say there's a lot of scum and villainy in Golarion.
* WritingAroundTrademarks: Since the phrase ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' is trademarked by Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast, Paizo has to refer to it as "the world's oldest fantasy roleplaying game".
* WrittenByTheWinners: Ask an average dwarf about their ancestral Quest for the Sky, and they'll describe a [[GoldenAge glorious time]] when the dwarven people united as one, heroically fought their way out of the Darklands, and found their way to the surface of Golarion. Ask your average orc, whose ancestors were brutally attacked and displaced by the dwarves with near-genocidal tactics during the Quest, and you'll get a ''very'' different perspective.
* YouAllMeetInACell: The Strange Aeons Adventure Path starts with the [=PCs=] waking up in adjacent cells in a mental asylum, with [[AmnesiacHero no memories of who they are or how they got there]], while their jailor is torturing a man to death on a table right next to them. Since this is a crossover AP with ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'', things somehow manage to get [[CosmicHorrorStory worse from there]]!
* YouAreAlreadyDead: In a possible ShoutOut to [[Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar the Trope Namer]]. 15th-level monks can cause this with their Quivering Palm ability.
* YouHaveResearchedBreathing: Retroactive example. In Pathfinder Second Edition's Core Rulebook, there's an Acrobat background meant for tumblers that performed in the circus. They receive a feat that allows them to balance more easily. This made sense at the time, but if the background was added after the Advanced Players Guide was released they'd almost certainly receive the feat that allows the character to use the Acrobatics skill to Perform instead, as they've been doing that their entire lives.
* {{Youkai}}: Lots. As per Paizo's [[AuthorAppeal love for obscure mythical creatures]], Bestiaries 3 and 4 as well as the ''Jade Regent'' campaign detail many obscure ones like ''jimenju'', ''sagari'', ''umibozu'', and ''aoandon''.
* YourHeadASplode:
** There's a spell in ''Occult Adventures'' called Explode Head. It does what you'd expect.
** Psychics in ''Second Edition'' can take the [[https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=3692 Cranial Detonation]] feat at Level 18, which allows them to ''chain detonate'' people's heads when they use a spell to defeat a non-mindless creature.
[[/folder]]

*** Cheliax can be seen as some weird form of Satan-worshipping UsefulNotes/NaziGermany / UsefulNotes/FascistItaly hybrid if you look at it the right (wrong) way.

* OrwellianRetcon: The January 2023 controversy over Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast's attempts to change the [[UsefulNotes/D20System Open Game License]] prompted Creator/{{Paizo}} to begin divesting Second Edition of remaining references to classic D&D lore. So far for "2.5e", drow have been deleted from the setting in favor of expanding the role of the serpentfolk, in effect rendering the Second Darkness AP CanonDiscontinuity.

* AlchemyIsMagic: The alchemist is a base class introduced in the ''Advanced Player's Guide''. It focuses on infusing chemical reagents with magical energy, creating potions, poisons, mutagens, and incendiaries. Its ultimate (20th-level) ability is the "grand discovery", which can take numerous forms, including immortality or the creation of a philosopher's stone. The ''Ultimate Magic'' splatbook adds more Discoveries, many with a BodyHorror and MadScientist vibe. Also lots of [[Film/ReAnimator Herbert West]] shout-outs.
** Mostly averted (mechanically, at least) by ''Second Edition'', where alchemy uses a completely different system from magic.

** ''VideoGame/PathfinderAdventures'', a video game adaption developed by Creator/ObsidianEntertainment and released for mobile devices in 2016 and computers (via UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}) in 2017.