Twiggly the Gnome
Legend
If "Warlord" and "Commander" don't work, why not "Champion"?
The main reason would probably be that it's already being used as the name of the basic fighter subclass.
If "Warlord" and "Commander" don't work, why not "Champion"?
WARLO- which kind of does bug me.
I'd have probably renamed the Warlock the Sorcerer in 5e, but I'm a monster.
In one case, we have a mechanical niche (buffing and nonmagical healing) that lacks a proper descriptive name that doesn't denote military rank or nobility (which traditionally are the only ways people became leaders of men, but I digress).
There's no doubt that early D&D had this /idea/ that the Fighter would eventually become a 'Lord' (though just about every class could stake out a territory at name level or acquire some followers, the fighter's presentation was a little more serious about it), but no edition ever followed through with mechanics to support it. Instead, they kept making fighters into more and more specialized combatants, with no use whatsoever for INT or CHA and no applicable skills for running such a little fiefdom.I've long held that the correct term for the concept frequently called warlord is "Fighter".
It's simply the "smart fighter" or "charismatic fighter" archetype. Every fighter eventually should reach a point when they are no longer just a grunt on the field, but a legitimate leader of men in battle.
Warlord seems to be the worst possible name for the class - except for all the others.I still say Warlord rolls best off the tongue, and its overall connotation is fine, someone that leads or commands men in battle, which is after all a lot of what the class is about, and engages in politics of some sort, another aspect of the class.
Formal military and noble ranks fail as good names because they are too narrow and specific - and backgrounds can be used for the lower ranks and leveling and/or PrCs for the higher ones. So the name needs to evoke leadership (leadership skills) more than authority (position, formal rank), and it'd be nice if it wasn't too historically/culturally specific (unlike Paladin, for instance). That excludes the runner-up, Marshal, a high formal military rank as a class name, but it could make a good PrC name.Its not that 'nobility leads', its that 'leaders are ennobled'. If you're a really effective leader, you're going to achieve status and rank in a warrior society, ...IMHO the Warlord is that guy. He's the one that simply has the talent to lead and inspire. Is he nobility? Eh, maybe, but that's why he's 'warlord' and not 'baron', 'knight', or 'marshal'. Maybe he'll be that, maybe some background will give him that on day one, but that part of things is largely a matter of details of the setting and game, not really part of class mechanics proper.
Warlord seems to be the worst possible name for the class - except for all the others.
Formal military and noble ranks fail as good names because they are too narrow and specific - and backgrounds can be used for the lower ranks and leveling and/or PrCs for the higher ones. So the name needs to evoke leadership more than authority, and it'd be nice if it wasn't too historically/culturally specific (unlike Paladin, for instance). That excludes the runner-up, Marshal, a high formal military rank as a class name, but it could make a good PrC name.
I gotta ask, what negative connotation comes with "Bard"? Unless you just really, really don't like lutes.
Seems appropriate. That makes Alice the Warlord, yes? Wrangling the party into line and cleaning up their messes?