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The 24 Most Embarrassing Dungeons & Dragons Character Classes
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Ubiquitous
Jan 9, 2016, 10:37:51 PM1/9/16
to
Fighters. Mages. Priests. Rogues. These are the primary four character
classes in Dungeons & Dragons, and they have served the role-playing
game well for over 30 years. But there are many others in addition to
these — some awesome, some weird, and some just ridiculous. Here are 24
real D&D specialty classes that should force any player to make a
saving throw against shame.
1) Fighting Man
In the original Dungeons & Dragons game, there were three classes:
Magic-User, Cleric and Fighting Man. How Gary Gygax came up with
"Fighting Man" as opposed to "Fighter" is unknowable. A Fighter is a
profession. A Fighting Man is basically a violent drunk. It's no wonder
this class changed names at the first opportunity
2) Beggar
This is not a joke. AD&D really gave you the options to willingly play
a beggar. Beggars had recommended skills, like "Seamstress/Tailor."
They had to be Chaotic in alignment. It was suggested they take the
Inherent Immunity to Cold and Heat traits. This is insane.
3) Peasant Hero
In one of the best examples of TSR making things way too complicated,
they debuted the Peasant Hero class, which to be fair looked pretty
good in comparison to the Beggar. Why this needed its own set of rules
instead of just letting character play heroes who also happen to be
heroes is unknown. I guess if you really wanted to shape up the
peasant-ness of your character, the Peasant Hero does give you the
awesome benefit of getting help from other peasants, although they
never have anything worthwhile, because they're goddamn peasants.
Peasant Heroes are basically just fighters with no money.
4) Arctic Druid
There are many different types of Druid in the 2nd Edition's Complete
Druid's Handbook — Desert Druid, Gray Druid, Jungle Druid, Mountain
Druid, Plains Druid, and Swamp Druid, for example. But only one Druid
has decided to celebrate his bond with nature by going to a place
devoid of nature and covered in snow, and that's the Arctic Druid.
Sure, they get some cool ice magic, but really, these guys are
basically just magic Eskimos.
?The 24 Most Embarrassing Dungeons & Dragons Character Classes
5) Defiler
In the Dark Sun campaign, which was like Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome but
with magic instead of technology, there were evil wizards called
Defilers. They sucked the energy out of vegetation and other living
things nearby to gain their magical powers, which is a large part of
the reason the world of Dark Sun is barren and dying. This is kind of
badass, but you really can't go around calling yourself a Defiler
without someone sniggering at you behind your back.
6) Anchorite
An Anchorite is a real term for someone who has withdrawn from the real
world to stay in one place and focus on their religion and
spiritualism. Like a monk, for example. In the Ravenloft supplement
Domains of Dread (Ravenloft being D&D's horror fantasy setting), an
Anchorite is either a cleric or a magic-user who loses all their magic
abilities if they venture more than 100 yards from their chosen place
of anchoring. In a game that is primarily focuses on storytelling an
adventure, maybe you can see the problem with playing a character that
can't leave his yard.
?The 24 Most Embarrassing Dungeons & Dragons Character Classes
4
7) Barbarian Fighter
I assume this second edition AD&D class is a dude who only fights
barbarians. Because otherwise he would be called a barbarian or a
fighter, correct?
8) Clown
In the mostly forgotten Forgotten Realms supplement City of Gold, you
could — willingly — choose to play a Clown, which combined the least
cool parts of Thieves and Bards and did away with all the cool stuff.
So if you wanted to be able to tumble around and entertain but not
steal, backstab or influence people with your music, you certainly are
a fool.
9) Fetishist
On the plus side, though, at least Clowns aren't Fetishists. The City
of Gold supplement included a whole new type of magic called Fetishism,
which I can't find anything about because you know what happens when
you enter "dungeons" and "fetishism" into a Google search? Nothing
good, that's what. Moving on.
?The 24 Most Embarrassing Dungeons & Dragons Character Classes
5
10) Unicorn Rider
From the Elves of Evermeet supplement, which features the results of
the brief period when Lisa Frank was brought on as an advisor.
11) Dandy
Another Ravenloft supplement, Masque of the Red Death included a great
many new character classes for the horror world, of which Dandy was
hardly the worst. In the game the Dandy is a noble that can wield
social influence and has a large income, none of which matters when you
could be eaten by a vampire at practically any moment. And, if I was a
vampire in Ravenloft, the first thing I would is run around killing
everyone who willingly called themselves a Dandy.
12) Laborer
But then you could also be a Laborer in Red Death, which was like a
Dandy except you had no social influence and no money, but you could
build some things and you had at least enough pride that you weren't
running around calling yourself a Dandy. Who the hell would willingly
play this class?
13) Thug
Thugs are basically fighters who start the game wanted by the local
authorities. Great. Did that really need to be its own class, TSR?
Couldn't the player and dungeon master just have agreed to that being
part of the character's back-story? Or, god forbid, letting the player
do something in the game that would earn the ire of the police?
Actually, my favorite thing about the Thug class is that in 2nd
Edition, characters gained experience points almost exclusively by
killing things, so pretty much every character was a thug, regardless
of what their class was.
?The 24 Most Embarrassing Dungeons & Dragons Character Classes
14) Pest Controller
This is exactly what it sounds like, although you should know this is a
class from The Complete Book of Dwarves. They are dwarves that
specialize is a bizarre and not-particularly-applicable-to-adventure
skill set, namely ridding their underground dwarven stronghold of small
pests. As the handbook puts it, "Pest Controllers are members of the
Pest Control Guild." Great. Awesome.
15) Rapid Response Rider
These are essentially the Dwarven version of cavalry, which would have
been a much better name given the Rapid Response Rider immediately
implies they have glowing sirens on their heads. They usually ride
ponies or mules, and the handbook says very few dwarven strongholds
even employ them, because even the fictional setting knows this is
ludicrous.
16) Ghetto Fighter
NO. JUST NO. Another completely insane and needless Dwarf specialty
class, which included the following lines in its description:" The
Ghetto Fighter never forgets his lowly origins and may harbor
resentments against dwarves who are better off. However, he stays true
to his roots, and will try to better the lives of ghetto children."
?The 24 Most Embarrassing Dungeons & Dragons Character Classes
17) Goblinsticker
Not content to let the dwarves hog all the bizarre character classes,
The Complete Book of Gnomes and Halflings introduced the Goblinsticker,
who are basically insane gnomes determined to commit goblin and kobold
genocide. The handbook suggests these guys are motivated by some past
tragedy, which makes them the Batmen of the D&D world, which is pretty
cool until you you remember they call themselves Goblinstickers.
18) Mouseburgler
These are Gnome/Halfling specialty thieves, but they are called
mouseburglers. Because mice are small and they are small. Get it? GET
IT?! Hell, even a class that specifically stole stuff from mice would
be more interesting.
19) Mine Rowdy
Not an elf, dwarf, gnome or halfling? Then you might have ended up in
The Complete Book of Humanoids, the point where TSR had clearly run out
of ideas but was going to churn out as many supplements as they could.
Enter the Mine Rowdy, which is a fighter who's specialized in working
at mines and beating the prisoners who act up or try to stop working.
Great. That was super-necessary, guys. I really wanted to play a
fighter, but I was looking for a way to make sure he was penalized -1
for fighting outside of underground tunnels, so this is perfect!
20) Lost Druid
From The Complete Druid's Handbook, of course. Lost Druids actually
sound pretty cool — they're Druids whose elands have been completely
destroyed, and they've devoted their lives to getting revenge. So
they're formidable warriors, but generally lose their Druid magic in
exchange. WHICH MAKES THEM ANOTHER GODDAMN FIGHTER.
21) Pacifist
Well, you can't say this Druid class is a Fighter. In fact, they refuse
to fight. This isn't actually a bad character concept… for other role-
playing games. But again, 2nd Edition AD&D is a game focused almost
entirely about murdering things, so you get more experience points to
get more powers to be able to murder more things, and taking their gold
so you can get better equipment in order to be more efficient at
murdering things. How a Pacifist Druid ever advances past first level
is beyond me.
?The 24 Most Embarrassing Dungeons & Dragons Character Classes
678
22) Mountain Man
I'm sorry, Complete Book of Rangers, but a Mountain Man is just a
forest hobo, Period.
23) Paladin of Slaughter
This 3rd edition character class is trying waaaaay too hard. First of
all, the idea of someone so completely devoted to evil as regular
paladins are to good is absurd, even for D&D. Second of all, paladin is
D&D terms is a holy heroic knight, so these guys are essentially called
"holy heroic knights of slaughter. That's like a "superhero of death."
The most ridiculous part of these guys is that like Paladins, they lose
all their powers if they don't don't constantly commit acts of evil.
How much evil could you really accomplish if you're constantly taking
candy from babies and preventing old women from crossing the street?
24) Urban Druid
These members of this 3.5 edition class celebrate nature by… staying as
far as hell away from it as possible. Hell, at least the Arctic Druids
may occasionally encounter a penguin or something. Clearly this is just
a cheat to let players have Druid powers while ignoring everything else
about Druids, which I'm kind of down with in principle, but even just
typing it sounds completely obnoxious. These guys are the hipsters of
the Druid world. "Yeah, I liked nature all right, but then all these
other Druids moved out and ruined everything, So I've come to the city
to get my head together. Maybe start a band or something."
--
The old Soviet leaders had it right. Our destruction comes from within:
Moochers, parasites, and Obama.
classes in Dungeons & Dragons, and they have served the role-playing
game well for over 30 years. But there are many others in addition to
these — some awesome, some weird, and some just ridiculous. Here are 24
real D&D specialty classes that should force any player to make a
saving throw against shame.
1) Fighting Man
In the original Dungeons & Dragons game, there were three classes:
Magic-User, Cleric and Fighting Man. How Gary Gygax came up with
"Fighting Man" as opposed to "Fighter" is unknowable. A Fighter is a
profession. A Fighting Man is basically a violent drunk. It's no wonder
this class changed names at the first opportunity
2) Beggar
This is not a joke. AD&D really gave you the options to willingly play
a beggar. Beggars had recommended skills, like "Seamstress/Tailor."
They had to be Chaotic in alignment. It was suggested they take the
Inherent Immunity to Cold and Heat traits. This is insane.
3) Peasant Hero
In one of the best examples of TSR making things way too complicated,
they debuted the Peasant Hero class, which to be fair looked pretty
good in comparison to the Beggar. Why this needed its own set of rules
instead of just letting character play heroes who also happen to be
heroes is unknown. I guess if you really wanted to shape up the
peasant-ness of your character, the Peasant Hero does give you the
awesome benefit of getting help from other peasants, although they
never have anything worthwhile, because they're goddamn peasants.
Peasant Heroes are basically just fighters with no money.
4) Arctic Druid
There are many different types of Druid in the 2nd Edition's Complete
Druid's Handbook — Desert Druid, Gray Druid, Jungle Druid, Mountain
Druid, Plains Druid, and Swamp Druid, for example. But only one Druid
has decided to celebrate his bond with nature by going to a place
devoid of nature and covered in snow, and that's the Arctic Druid.
Sure, they get some cool ice magic, but really, these guys are
basically just magic Eskimos.
?The 24 Most Embarrassing Dungeons & Dragons Character Classes
5) Defiler
In the Dark Sun campaign, which was like Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome but
with magic instead of technology, there were evil wizards called
Defilers. They sucked the energy out of vegetation and other living
things nearby to gain their magical powers, which is a large part of
the reason the world of Dark Sun is barren and dying. This is kind of
badass, but you really can't go around calling yourself a Defiler
without someone sniggering at you behind your back.
6) Anchorite
An Anchorite is a real term for someone who has withdrawn from the real
world to stay in one place and focus on their religion and
spiritualism. Like a monk, for example. In the Ravenloft supplement
Domains of Dread (Ravenloft being D&D's horror fantasy setting), an
Anchorite is either a cleric or a magic-user who loses all their magic
abilities if they venture more than 100 yards from their chosen place
of anchoring. In a game that is primarily focuses on storytelling an
adventure, maybe you can see the problem with playing a character that
can't leave his yard.
?The 24 Most Embarrassing Dungeons & Dragons Character Classes
4
7) Barbarian Fighter
I assume this second edition AD&D class is a dude who only fights
barbarians. Because otherwise he would be called a barbarian or a
fighter, correct?
8) Clown
In the mostly forgotten Forgotten Realms supplement City of Gold, you
could — willingly — choose to play a Clown, which combined the least
cool parts of Thieves and Bards and did away with all the cool stuff.
So if you wanted to be able to tumble around and entertain but not
steal, backstab or influence people with your music, you certainly are
a fool.
9) Fetishist
On the plus side, though, at least Clowns aren't Fetishists. The City
of Gold supplement included a whole new type of magic called Fetishism,
which I can't find anything about because you know what happens when
you enter "dungeons" and "fetishism" into a Google search? Nothing
good, that's what. Moving on.
?The 24 Most Embarrassing Dungeons & Dragons Character Classes
5
10) Unicorn Rider
From the Elves of Evermeet supplement, which features the results of
the brief period when Lisa Frank was brought on as an advisor.
11) Dandy
Another Ravenloft supplement, Masque of the Red Death included a great
many new character classes for the horror world, of which Dandy was
hardly the worst. In the game the Dandy is a noble that can wield
social influence and has a large income, none of which matters when you
could be eaten by a vampire at practically any moment. And, if I was a
vampire in Ravenloft, the first thing I would is run around killing
everyone who willingly called themselves a Dandy.
12) Laborer
But then you could also be a Laborer in Red Death, which was like a
Dandy except you had no social influence and no money, but you could
build some things and you had at least enough pride that you weren't
running around calling yourself a Dandy. Who the hell would willingly
play this class?
13) Thug
Thugs are basically fighters who start the game wanted by the local
authorities. Great. Did that really need to be its own class, TSR?
Couldn't the player and dungeon master just have agreed to that being
part of the character's back-story? Or, god forbid, letting the player
do something in the game that would earn the ire of the police?
Actually, my favorite thing about the Thug class is that in 2nd
Edition, characters gained experience points almost exclusively by
killing things, so pretty much every character was a thug, regardless
of what their class was.
?The 24 Most Embarrassing Dungeons & Dragons Character Classes
14) Pest Controller
This is exactly what it sounds like, although you should know this is a
class from The Complete Book of Dwarves. They are dwarves that
specialize is a bizarre and not-particularly-applicable-to-adventure
skill set, namely ridding their underground dwarven stronghold of small
pests. As the handbook puts it, "Pest Controllers are members of the
Pest Control Guild." Great. Awesome.
15) Rapid Response Rider
These are essentially the Dwarven version of cavalry, which would have
been a much better name given the Rapid Response Rider immediately
implies they have glowing sirens on their heads. They usually ride
ponies or mules, and the handbook says very few dwarven strongholds
even employ them, because even the fictional setting knows this is
ludicrous.
16) Ghetto Fighter
NO. JUST NO. Another completely insane and needless Dwarf specialty
class, which included the following lines in its description:" The
Ghetto Fighter never forgets his lowly origins and may harbor
resentments against dwarves who are better off. However, he stays true
to his roots, and will try to better the lives of ghetto children."
?The 24 Most Embarrassing Dungeons & Dragons Character Classes
17) Goblinsticker
Not content to let the dwarves hog all the bizarre character classes,
The Complete Book of Gnomes and Halflings introduced the Goblinsticker,
who are basically insane gnomes determined to commit goblin and kobold
genocide. The handbook suggests these guys are motivated by some past
tragedy, which makes them the Batmen of the D&D world, which is pretty
cool until you you remember they call themselves Goblinstickers.
18) Mouseburgler
These are Gnome/Halfling specialty thieves, but they are called
mouseburglers. Because mice are small and they are small. Get it? GET
IT?! Hell, even a class that specifically stole stuff from mice would
be more interesting.
19) Mine Rowdy
Not an elf, dwarf, gnome or halfling? Then you might have ended up in
The Complete Book of Humanoids, the point where TSR had clearly run out
of ideas but was going to churn out as many supplements as they could.
Enter the Mine Rowdy, which is a fighter who's specialized in working
at mines and beating the prisoners who act up or try to stop working.
Great. That was super-necessary, guys. I really wanted to play a
fighter, but I was looking for a way to make sure he was penalized -1
for fighting outside of underground tunnels, so this is perfect!
20) Lost Druid
From The Complete Druid's Handbook, of course. Lost Druids actually
sound pretty cool — they're Druids whose elands have been completely
destroyed, and they've devoted their lives to getting revenge. So
they're formidable warriors, but generally lose their Druid magic in
exchange. WHICH MAKES THEM ANOTHER GODDAMN FIGHTER.
21) Pacifist
Well, you can't say this Druid class is a Fighter. In fact, they refuse
to fight. This isn't actually a bad character concept… for other role-
playing games. But again, 2nd Edition AD&D is a game focused almost
entirely about murdering things, so you get more experience points to
get more powers to be able to murder more things, and taking their gold
so you can get better equipment in order to be more efficient at
murdering things. How a Pacifist Druid ever advances past first level
is beyond me.
?The 24 Most Embarrassing Dungeons & Dragons Character Classes
678
22) Mountain Man
I'm sorry, Complete Book of Rangers, but a Mountain Man is just a
forest hobo, Period.
23) Paladin of Slaughter
This 3rd edition character class is trying waaaaay too hard. First of
all, the idea of someone so completely devoted to evil as regular
paladins are to good is absurd, even for D&D. Second of all, paladin is
D&D terms is a holy heroic knight, so these guys are essentially called
"holy heroic knights of slaughter. That's like a "superhero of death."
The most ridiculous part of these guys is that like Paladins, they lose
all their powers if they don't don't constantly commit acts of evil.
How much evil could you really accomplish if you're constantly taking
candy from babies and preventing old women from crossing the street?
24) Urban Druid
These members of this 3.5 edition class celebrate nature by… staying as
far as hell away from it as possible. Hell, at least the Arctic Druids
may occasionally encounter a penguin or something. Clearly this is just
a cheat to let players have Druid powers while ignoring everything else
about Druids, which I'm kind of down with in principle, but even just
typing it sounds completely obnoxious. These guys are the hipsters of
the Druid world. "Yeah, I liked nature all right, but then all these
other Druids moved out and ruined everything, So I've come to the city
to get my head together. Maybe start a band or something."
--
The old Soviet leaders had it right. Our destruction comes from within:
Moochers, parasites, and Obama.
David Trimboli
Jan 9, 2016, 11:34:07 PM1/9/16
to
On 1/9/2016 5:37 PM, Ubiquitous wrote:
> 1) Fighting Man
>
> In the original Dungeons & Dragons game, there were three classes:
> Magic-User, Cleric and Fighting Man. How Gary Gygax came up with
> "Fighting Man" as opposed to "Fighter" is unknowable. A Fighter is a
> profession. A Fighting Man is basically a violent drunk. It's no wonder
> this class changed names at the first opportunity
It's called a fighting-man because that term is used occasionally in the
> 1) Fighting Man
>
> In the original Dungeons & Dragons game, there were three classes:
> Magic-User, Cleric and Fighting Man. How Gary Gygax came up with
> "Fighting Man" as opposed to "Fighter" is unknowable. A Fighter is a
> profession. A Fighting Man is basically a violent drunk. It's no wonder
> this class changed names at the first opportunity
literature that inspired the class, including Conan.
--
David Trimboli
http://www.trimboli.name/
Tetsubo
Jan 10, 2016, 1:13:59 AM1/10/16
to
can't ever imagine calling myself a 'fighter'.
--
Tetsubo
Deviant Art: http://ironstaff.deviantart.com/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/tetsubo57
hamis...@gmail.com
Jan 10, 2016, 2:21:11 AM1/10/16
to
On Sunday, January 10, 2016 at 12:13:59 PM UTC+11, Tetsubo wrote:
> On 1/9/2016 6:34 PM, David Trimboli wrote:
> > On 1/9/2016 5:37 PM, Ubiquitous wrote:
> >> 1) Fighting Man
> >>
> >> In the original Dungeons & Dragons game, there were three classes:
> >> Magic-User, Cleric and Fighting Man. How Gary Gygax came up with
> >> "Fighting Man" as opposed to "Fighter" is unknowable. A Fighter is a
> >> profession. A Fighting Man is basically a violent drunk. It's no wonder
> >> this class changed names at the first opportunity
> >
> > It's called a fighting-man because that term is used occasionally in the
> > literature that inspired the class, including Conan.
> >
> Frankly I always preferred warrior or sell-sword or blade for hire. I
> can't ever imagine calling myself a 'fighter'.
>
I don't see too many people calling themselves 'magic-users' either...
> On 1/9/2016 6:34 PM, David Trimboli wrote:
> > On 1/9/2016 5:37 PM, Ubiquitous wrote:
> >> 1) Fighting Man
> >>
> >> In the original Dungeons & Dragons game, there were three classes:
> >> Magic-User, Cleric and Fighting Man. How Gary Gygax came up with
> >> "Fighting Man" as opposed to "Fighter" is unknowable. A Fighter is a
> >> profession. A Fighting Man is basically a violent drunk. It's no wonder
> >> this class changed names at the first opportunity
> >
> > It's called a fighting-man because that term is used occasionally in the
> > literature that inspired the class, including Conan.
> >
> Frankly I always preferred warrior or sell-sword or blade for hire. I
> can't ever imagine calling myself a 'fighter'.
>
Tetsubo
Jan 10, 2016, 2:41:03 AM1/10/16
to
folk use. Anyone that isn't a 'priest' is a 'mage'. Those in the know,
and the practitioners themselves, use 'wizard', 'witch' or 'sorcerer'.
Unless they start getting *really* specific and use arcane school
nomenclature. Bit pretentious really.
'
LL
Jan 11, 2016, 9:29:28 AM1/11/16
to
On 09.01.2016 23:37, Ubiquitous wrote:
> 24) Urban Druid
>
> These members of this 3.5 edition class celebrate nature by staying as
> far as hell away from it as possible. Hell, at least the Arctic Druids
> may occasionally encounter a penguin or something.
You misspelled Antarctic Druid or confused a polar bear with a penguin.
> 24) Urban Druid
>
> These members of this 3.5 edition class celebrate nature by staying as
> far as hell away from it as possible. Hell, at least the Arctic Druids
> may occasionally encounter a penguin or something.
HTH HAND :-)
AD&D is to Pathfinder in RPG what Adam West is to Christian Bale in
Batman.
Spalls Hurgenson
Jan 11, 2016, 2:01:09 PM1/11/16
to
On Mon, 11 Jan 2016 10:38:25 +0100, LL <Loren...@invalid.invalid>
wrote:
>AD&D is to Pathfinder in RPG what Adam West is to Christian Bale in
>Batman.
More imaginative, more fun and less a cookie-cutter rehash of everyone
else's generic fantasy?
;-)
wrote:
>AD&D is to Pathfinder in RPG what Adam West is to Christian Bale in
>Batman.
else's generic fantasy?
;-)
JimP
Jan 11, 2016, 3:48:24 PM1/11/16
to
imagination on the parts of the designers, the players, and the DMs.
--
JimP.
Justisaur
Jan 11, 2016, 4:21:38 PM1/11/16
to
"The Phoenix on the Sword" - Robert E. Howard 1932
"When I was a fighting-man, the kettle-drums they beat,
The people scattered gold-dust before my horse's feet;
But now I am a great king, the people hound my track
With poison in my wine-cup, and daggers at my back."
Any info on the origin of Magic-User? The wikis say Arneson &
Gygax invented the term, but I find that hard to believe. I do
prefer Wizard, but then originally a Wizard was a more advanced
Magic-User.
I don't like Rogue, but then I don't like Thief either. A thief implies that the class has to steel, and I've had plenty of trouble from people playing those. While on the other hand a Rogue is dishonest man. Neither convey the purpose in a D&D party, which is scouting & dealing with mechanical devices. The problem is it's really a number of different classifications.
- Justisaur
Ubiquitous
Jan 11, 2016, 5:50:09 PM1/11/16
to
just...@gmail.com wrote:
>On Saturday, January 9, 2016 at 3:34:07 PM UTC-8, David Trimboli wrote:
>> On 1/9/2016 5:37 PM, Ubiquitous wrote:
>> > 1) Fighting Man
>> >
>> > In the original Dungeons & Dragons game, there were three classes:
>> > Magic-User, Cleric and Fighting Man. How Gary Gygax came up with
>> > "Fighting Man" as opposed to "Fighter" is unknowable. A Fighter is a
>> > profession. A Fighting Man is basically a violent drunk. It's no wonder
>> > this class changed names at the first opportunity
>>
>> It's called a fighting-man because that term is used occasionally in the
>> literature that inspired the class, including Conan.
>
>Interesting, I'd never noticed that before, and had wondered at the origin.
>
>"The Phoenix on the Sword" - Robert E. Howard 1932
>
>"When I was a fighting-man, the kettle-drums they beat,
>The people scattered gold-dust before my horse's feet;
>But now I am a great king, the people hound my track
>With poison in my wine-cup, and daggers at my back."
>
>Any info on the origin of Magic-User? The wikis say Arneson &
>Gygax invented the term, but I find that hard to believe. I do
>prefer Wizard, but then originally a Wizard was a more advanced
>Magic-User.
I assumed it was Arneson and Gygax.
>On Saturday, January 9, 2016 at 3:34:07 PM UTC-8, David Trimboli wrote:
>> On 1/9/2016 5:37 PM, Ubiquitous wrote:
>> > 1) Fighting Man
>> >
>> > In the original Dungeons & Dragons game, there were three classes:
>> > Magic-User, Cleric and Fighting Man. How Gary Gygax came up with
>> > "Fighting Man" as opposed to "Fighter" is unknowable. A Fighter is a
>> > profession. A Fighting Man is basically a violent drunk. It's no wonder
>> > this class changed names at the first opportunity
>>
>> It's called a fighting-man because that term is used occasionally in the
>> literature that inspired the class, including Conan.
>
>Interesting, I'd never noticed that before, and had wondered at the origin.
>
>"The Phoenix on the Sword" - Robert E. Howard 1932
>
>"When I was a fighting-man, the kettle-drums they beat,
>The people scattered gold-dust before my horse's feet;
>But now I am a great king, the people hound my track
>With poison in my wine-cup, and daggers at my back."
>
>Any info on the origin of Magic-User? The wikis say Arneson &
>Gygax invented the term, but I find that hard to believe. I do
>prefer Wizard, but then originally a Wizard was a more advanced
>Magic-User.
>I don't like Rogue, but then I don't like Thief either. A thief implies that
>the class has to steel, and I've had plenty of trouble from people playing
those.
>While on the other hand a Rogue is dishonest man. Neit
--
Pres Obama officially endorses Hillary Clinton, because he doesn't want
to be known forever as the worst president.
David Trimboli
Jan 12, 2016, 12:19:28 AM1/12/16
to
On 1/11/2016 11:21 AM, Justisaur wrote:
> Any info on the origin of Magic-User? The wikis say Arneson & Gygax
> invented the term, but I find that hard to believe. I do prefer
> Wizard, but then originally a Wizard was a more advanced Magic-User.
I can only guess that it was invented in parallel with "fighting-man."
> Any info on the origin of Magic-User? The wikis say Arneson & Gygax
> invented the term, but I find that hard to believe. I do prefer
> Wizard, but then originally a Wizard was a more advanced Magic-User.
CHAINMAIL had Heroes, Superheroes, which are both fighting-men, and
Wizards. Wizards are obviously very powerful, so in D&D they would have
been devising all the lower-level versions, keeping Wizard as the upper
level. In looking for a generic name for all the different types of
spell-casting types, they sought something similar to "fighting-men,"
and came up with "magic-user."
"Cleric" doesn't follow this pattern probably because it was created
separately, in the Blackmoor campaign as a vampire-hunter dressed in
medieval style and generalized into an undead-monster–hunter.
> I don't like Rogue, but then I don't like Thief either. A thief
> implies that the class has to steel, and I've had plenty of trouble
> from people playing those. While on the other hand a Rogue is
> dishonest man. Neither convey the purpose in a D&D party, which is
> scouting & dealing with mechanical devices. The problem is it's
> really a number of different classifications.
creators, a Dungeons & Beavers group whose member Gary Switzer told Gary
Gygax about it. The class DOES steal, but don't think of that only as
picking pockets. A tomb-robber is a thief, for example. It's the guy who
gets treasure out of the dungeon without magic and by avoiding direct
conflicts.
Much explanation of the original version of the class by someone who was
there: <http://odd74.proboards.com/thread/9279/manual-aurania>
It came about like this, one group had a dwarf who wanted to try
picking locks with his dagger, so I had the idea for a Burglar
class, which we drew up like a Magic user but with skills (like Lock
picking) instead of spells. The consensus was to call the class
“Thief”.
Mart van de Wege
Jan 12, 2016, 9:42:08 AM1/12/16
to
Ubiquitous <web...@polaris.net> writes:
Dude, you just copy/pasted the full text of someone else's article, and
*you* have the gall to complain about moochers and parasites in your
.sig?
Mart
--
"We will need a longer wall when the revolution comes."
--- AJS, quoting an uncertain source.
Dude, you just copy/pasted the full text of someone else's article, and
*you* have the gall to complain about moochers and parasites in your
.sig?
Mart
--
"We will need a longer wall when the revolution comes."
--- AJS, quoting an uncertain source.
Spalls Hurgenson
Jan 12, 2016, 11:09:36 PM1/12/16
to
Mind you, I haven't done much Pathfinder. Supposedly it is a better
system than 4E (that's a pretty low bar to cross, though). Its books
don't really inspire me to become a fan though.
Of course, these days there's too much focus on the system anyway.
AD&D was awful in many ways, but that just encouraged DMs and players
to creatively work around its limitations. Nowadays everything is so
balanced and playtested that there's no charm, excitement or
uniqueness.
AD&D is to Pathfinder as an
Old_School_Metal_Jungle_Gym_Built_On_Concrete is to
Modern_rounded_corner_plastic_jungle_gym_built_over_foam_chips :)
</grumpy old man>
tussock
Jan 14, 2016, 9:47:46 AM1/14/16
to
Mart van de Wege wrote:
> Ubiquitous <web...@polaris.net> writes:
<snip>
> Dude, you just copy/pasted the full text of someone else's article, and
> *you* have the gall to complain about moochers and parasites in your
> .sig?
It's difficult to be rational if you're going to quote Republicans.
I mean, when he talks about parasites, he doesn't even realise the
term most properly applies to the capitalist class.
--
tussock
> Ubiquitous <web...@polaris.net> writes:
<snip>
> Dude, you just copy/pasted the full text of someone else's article, and
> *you* have the gall to complain about moochers and parasites in your
> .sig?
I mean, when he talks about parasites, he doesn't even realise the
term most properly applies to the capitalist class.
--
tussock
Tetsubo
Jan 14, 2016, 12:43:36 PM1/14/16
to
the regressives.
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