frokamen

BUT I don't like Seoni's redesign. Since a)its not much of a redesign when the only thing that's been altered is a piece of cloth...sorry partial cloak added to cover up her cleavage and changing the shade of her hair. b) it doesn't fit her established personality which has been backed up by the Dynamite comic miniseries that come out periodically, her back story and all of those related excerpts attributed to her over the course of the various pathfinder related supplements and rulebooks that have been released over the course of first addition.
If you haven't guessed this is related to the redesigns issued by Paizo the company that produces the Pathfinder Rpg now they are getting ready to release the 2nd edition to their roleplaying franchise. Paizo has over the course of the past decade decided to use "iconics" or a standard version/look/design to represent each of their game's classes so that when ever said individual pops up in art you can recognize the classes being used etc. Most of the redesigns have been well received and quite good or humorous, the bard now looking like a shorter blonde Hugh Jackman being one of them, with the only I've had issues with the sudden swap out of iconics for the Alchemist class Damiel being replaced by the goblin and the new look being used for the iconic barbarian Amiri who now looks...a bit more eskimo then would normally make sense since she's supposed to be a globe trotting adventurer. But then Seoni's, the iconic sorcerer, new look debuted.
I was silent with the exception of one facebook rant when they redesigned Runelord Sorshen's look and decided to mangle her personality in a .... debatable explanation for why after her annexation ploy went into play the various surrounding nations wouldn't rise up and do everything in their collective power to stomp out her dreams of a new Thassilon. That still greatly bugs me.
But not this time with Seoni. I love the pathfinder setting of Golarion and I'm big fan of its lore and regions and while talking a little earlier with my brother over a Marvel redesign he detested I knew I had to do this. The partial cloak looks like she either stole it from the iconic mesmerist who was a Halfling and used it as a full cloak and is now wearing it as spoils of war, she tried to wear the same outfit as the arcanist but found out that it was several sizes to small and just decided to hell with it or she executed a Johnny Haradrim style reveal from either of the earlier two mentioned iconics and never bothered to remove that final remnant of the disguise. It doesn't fit from a mechanical standpoint since with somatic casting being a thing you'd want, if your arcane caster to keep the amount of restrictive casting to a minimum and she's a Charisma based caster so considering how Pathfinder portrays charisma via personality and looks and how much of her still remains exposed it doesn't make sense to obscure the cleavage since she would want to expose it. As a proud varisian female of her age it further doesn't make sense to have a shoulder covering they are a gypsy like people and her looking like an ashamed half assed harry potter cosplayer doesn't make sense.
Sorry for the rant but this design just doesn't make sense as anything other then an attempt to cover her cleavage and lets face it if you wanted to make her appearance seem more modest and less reliant on sex appeal you would cover up more then just that exposed patch of cleavage. The change in hair color is another confusing aspect because up to now I just thought that in a fantasy environment the famous snow white hair represent her sorcerer bloodline (arcane).
I know this may seem like making a big deal about something "cosmetic" but as a fan of the setting and its characters, avid GM/DM, and a devoted player of first addition this both bugs me and depresses me.
I'm going to take a very depressed nap now.

may this season be a particularly joyous and fruitful one for you all.

Sorry I normally try to be on time with my holiday well wishes but these last 8-9 days have been horrid then I would normally expect around this time. Next year I will do my best to be punctual everybody.
Thank you again for your time.

thank you for everything sir you were a true American icon.