The Gaming Den

The idea is that the game has generic classes that give a PC their hit dice, attack bonus, spell slots and such. You then take a kit that gives you abilities and determines your spell choices. Gish kits include Templar, Duskblade, Warden, Dragon Knight, Warmind and maybe Bard. Armiger might be a good bet, since it’s a fancy-sounding word that means ‘can carry weapons’ and all the kits above use weapons. (Monks are a warrior kit.)

If you want to avoid something like Gish then I would probably go with Mage Knight. It rolls off the tongue better than something like warrior-mage or fighter/wizard, is generic without sounding too generic and (at least to me) brings to mind someone who casts spells, wears armor, and uses weapons, without suggesting the use of any specific weapon.

ETortoise wrote:What are some good, generic terms for Gish? I mean, there’s obviously Warrior-Mage, but there’s gotta be something better. The idea is that it’d be an in-game term that could be used to describe a cleric, duskblade or any other fighting+spell casting character.

Wuxia, Warlock, Samurai (Wizardry ones are Fighter/Wizards)

It also depends on what 'mundane' does in your world. Like can they still yell really loud to collapse bridges and throw temple pillars bare handed or is that a 'magic only' thing

Isn't that basically what Paladins usually do?

Stahlseele wrote:Isn't that basically what Paladins usually do?

Yeah I had Roland/Orlando Furioso in mind, though I think he tooted a magic horn so hard his head exploded and the mountain collapsed on the saurusians

The fighter/magic user is a classic archetype, but there isn't an agreed upon name for it. In Might and Magic, it was called 'Archer' which doesn't inherently make any sense, but is as good as anything. In Star Wars, it was called 'Jedi' which is completely made up, but is also as good as anything. In The Witcher, such characters are called 'Witcher' which is a word so incredibly obscure that it sounds completely made up and that is also as good as anything.

The thing is that there isn't inherently a word in English that means 'Wizard who also fights with a sword' because the idea that Wizards wouldn't fight with a sword is an invention of Gary Gygax based on game mechanical role protection. For fuck's sake, Gandalf used a damn sword. The natural English word for a Wizard who also has a sword is 'Wizard.'

So you need to pick a word for the concept that makes sense in your setting and then just stick to using it. It can be a made up word like Sardaukar, a repurposed word like Corsair, or an obscure word like Banneret. The chosen word doesn't matter. The audacity of sticking to the chosen word is what matters.

-Username17

Isn't using something like "Corsair", which is a real word with a real meaning totally unlike the one you are looking for a bad idea? Unless all your Corsairs in your world happened to be spellswords for some reason, which could be a thing, I guess.

Though, V:TM was massively popular.

Thaluikhain wrote:Isn't using something like "Corsair", which is a real word with a real meaning totally unlike the one you are looking for a bad idea? Unless all your Corsairs in your world happened to be spellswords for some reason, which could be a thing, I guess.

Though, V:TM was massively popular.

Not really? As long as the word you're using isn't something that has a real meaning that is also likely to come up in conversation, you can pretty much Humpty Dumpty words to mean whatever you want. So like, it would be hard to get people to talk about magical warriors as 'Postmen,' 'Waiters,' or 'Stewardesses' in a modern setting, because those words are likely to come up. But as long as the normal word isn't likely to come up and the made up definition comes up frequently that you get a chance to reinforce it, you're basically fine.

So Final Fantasy pays no price for calling character types 'Dragoons,' Dragon Age pays no price for calling character types 'Templars,' and so on and so on.

-Username17

Spellsword

I like using the word Gish

If the given wizard uses a particular weapon, I say go for the portmanteau. A sword wizard is a swizard, a spear wizard is a spizard or sorcereranseur, a shuriken wizard is a shwizard, and a bow wizard is a bowarlock. Alternatively, a F/M could be considered a Fim. If it's just a term used for rules discussions getting the point across is more important than if it's an in-setting term, where consistency has some nominal value.

Wait a minute, I just remembered I had a bookmark to a wonderful little list...

SOOTHSLAYER
KILLUSIONIST
TRANSMUTILATOR
ELEMENTALFIST
MAN-AT-CHARMS
WAR WARLOCK
MARKSMEDIUM
ENCHANTERMINATOR
CHARMS DEALER
THAUMATURGE TO KILL
PSYCHO PSYCHIC
GORACLE
HEXECUTIONER
GRASSCHOPPER
METEOBRAWLOGIST
GI GLOW
AUGER AUGUR
BRAWNJURER
IRE ELEMENTALIST
MALLEABELLIGERENT
HOCUS POKER
ABRACASTABRA
MALEKICKTOR
SWORDSERER
PERFORACLE
AXORCIST
TRANSFLOGRIFIER
SLICE ELEMENTALIST
FATALCHEMIST
SPELLCLASHER
CHARMBATANT
DWEOMERDERER
DESPAIR ELEMENTALIST
NECROMANSLAUGHTERER
TRAUMATURGE
HEXORCIST
MURDERMANCER
CASTERRORIST
DEATHVINER
GENOMANCER
RUINOUS RECITER
SPELLCRUSHER
PUNCHCASTER
ATOMIC ARCHMAGE
BOISTEROUS BIBLIOPHILE
CANTANKEROUS CASTER
EPIC EVOKER
MAGICAL MALINGERER
MASSACREGICIAN

WAR WARLOCK

why not just WAR²LOCK?

Oh, fuck, that sounds like a badass B-movie title. I love it.

Axeorcist.

Next character concept. Thank you .

Why are the mimic and bag of devouring two distinct things? Why not just say the bag of devouring is a mimic?

Prak wrote:Why are the mimic and bag of devouring two distinct things? Why not just say the bag of devouring is a mimic?

Presumably so the bag can use Gygaxian bullshit cursed item rules.

^^

With a mimic you can just stab it and root through the carcass when it eats your shit. With the Bag of Devouring if you "successfully" put something into it then it's probably gone forever. If it tries eating you personally then you also get to have a slapfight with your DM because the rules for this process is a bunch of bespoke nonsense that almost certainly contradicts the standard setup of the edition you're playing. If it doesn't seem all that contradictory then you're likely playing 1st or 2nd edition, in which case it only fits in because absolutely everything is bespoke nonsense.

If Thaumaturge to Kill isn't already an urban fantasy novel title, I'll be mildly upset on the Internet.

I like making the Gish your generic hero/Fighter class, because Dragon Quest and also the Witcher. Also because I'm a giant weeb. Because of that, Hero, Brave or Bravo would be what I call it. The pure swords guy then becomes Soldier (like Frank's Bo9S class) or Warlord and gets tactical stuff.

You could also be cute and call them some riff on Wizard, then call your Black Mage a Thaumaturge, Mage, Mystic, Sorcerer or Sage.

I tried to find posts talking about action/hero/fate/whatever points, but only found posts mentioning such and such game had them, or Zine talking about games that give you points to spend on actions each round.

I'm working on some transformer homebrew for 3.5, and am looking at using an action point set up for that, fluffed as energon.

What do people think of action points?

Prak wrote:I tried to find posts talking about action/hero/fate/whatever points, but only found posts mentioning such and such game had them, or Zine talking about games that give you points to spend on actions each round.

I'm working on some transformer homebrew for 3.5, and am looking at using an action point set up for that, fluffed as energon.

What do people think of action points?

It's a bit more book-keeping than free-simple-complex action systems, with a bit more flexibility. It's not a great system, but it's about as good as any similar system.

I think Prak is talking about the other things called action points, which are basically Edge for D&D. Getting to reroll a die or some similar bonus once or twice per [longish time period] takes some of the edge off the RNG (ironically) so that trying Very Important actions with a 30% failure rate doesn't ruin everything quite as quickly.

Foxwarrior wrote:I think Prak is talking about the other things called action points, which are basically Edge for D&D. Getting to reroll a die or some similar bonus once or twice per [longish time period] takes some of the edge off the RNG (ironically) so that trying Very Important actions with a 30% failure rate doesn't ruin everything quite as quickly.

Ah, I had forgotten about that. Back in the halcyon days where a 30% failure rate for Very Important actions was on the low end, not power-gaming/playing the game wrong.

virgil wrote:I like using the word Gish

Whenever I see anyone use the term "Gish" I wonder if they have any idea of where it comes from.

What is the actual origin? All I have ever thought of was Lillian Gish.