D&D General Rethinking the class name "Druid".

[Jack Daniel]

It is really, because Wizard doesn't mean female Sorcerer.

A wizard is a "wise man," a sorcerer is a "lot-caster," a warlock is an "oath-breaker," and a witch is "a magic-user or soothsayer" of uncertain etymological origin. I don't see how any of that matters today.

(Especially in a game where the wise man uses Intelligence as its key stat, the lot-caster has only a handful divinations on its spell list, and the oath-breaker is literally based on pact-magic.)

 

[Staffan]

Just make sure you don't confuse the " and ' symbols.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

(Has there even been a pop culture thing that makes "witches & warlocks" the same thing since Bewitched? Did Sabrina do that? I honestly have no clue.)

Yes quite a few - but it's clearly basically a derivation from Bewitched. It's a pretty standard joke in any modern fantasy involving witches to have man-witches and there be some sort of discussion of whether they should be called warlocks.

A wizard is a "wise man," a sorcerer is a "lot-caster," a warlock is an "oath-breaker," and a witch is "a magic-user or soothsayer" of uncertain etymological origin. I don't see how any of that matters today.

I mean, this is kind of dubious.

You're talking not about the actual words, but their root-words. Sorcerer, the English word has never meant "a lot caster". It's always meant something more akin to well, a Sorcerer. The medieval Latin in originally derived from meant "lot caster". Likewise, Warlock doesn't just mean "oath-breaker", for at least several hundred, perhaps a thousand years it's meant "one who is in league with the devil" - 3/4/5E actually use it more correctly than most.

If we really want to dial word backs to meaning what their root-words mean, then English is going to get extremely confusing.

But your overall point is I think that people generally understand them in their D&D sense, which is correct.

 

[Endroren]

Personally, I'd like to see the introduction of new takes on Druids (and Bards for that matter) rather than renaming. Leave the official 5E D&D Druid as is, properly named or not, and add something new to the library of cool stuff we have to choose from in our games. As long as it's not offensive in some way expand rather than rename.

 

[Charlaquin]

It is really, because Wizard doesn't mean female Sorcerer.

Nor does warlock actually mean male witch.

 

[Blue Orange]

How about just "witch," then?

It fits with the theme of the subclasses: Circle of the Land, Circle of the Moon, etc., etc. You could even change "circle" to "coven."

The witch is kind of its own archetype at this point, medial between druids and wizards (more or less wizard + rural - fireballs) and often female and sometimes evil. I suspect due to the gender baggage and the issues with the real-life Wicca religion it never becomes an official class, but there have been a lot of homebrews and it made it into Pathfinder as an expanded class (not to mention Dragon magazine 4 times, Role Aids, 5 different indie publishers in the d20 era, etc.)

 

[payn]

Nor does warlock actually mean male witch.

Its pretty much every dictionary definition. That might be a very general statement about what Warlock means, but tis going to be the first and most popular experience folks have with the term.

 

[Arilyn]

I've never really liked the druid name. We know very very little about historical druids, other than a few bits and pieces from the ancient Romans, who would have been extremely biased. So I like the idea of changing the name, especially since druid is a very specific name. Same reason I don't care for the paladin name too.

I like Monte Cook's Greenbond name as well.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

In Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved, he called his druidic-like class the 'Greenbond'.

Yes, I was trying to remember that one, thank you.

There was also another class in a later supplement that was more "transformation-y" than the Greenbond's "nature priest": the Totem Speaker.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Yes quite a few - but it's clearly basically a derivation from Bewitched. It's a pretty standard joke in any modern fantasy involving witches to have man-witches and there be some sort of discussion of whether they should be called warlocks.

I prefer the term "sloppy joe".