D&D 5E Best Name For A “Leader” Class?

[Tony Vargas]

Those Google images are hardly a fair comparison. Warlord has already (and relatively recently) been used as a D&D class name where none of the others have, 1e level titles notwithstanding, thus it's far more likely you're going to find fantasy-based images for Warlord than any of the rest.

Commander was a class name in 13th Age, Captain was used in several Warlord Paragon Paths in 4e, Marshal was a class in the 3e Miniature's handbook.

They just all have much more prevalent modern/RL meanings. Plus, Marshal is a name.

Had the 4e class been called Marshal, say, or Captain, then it'd be that name that pulled the fantasy images while Warlord would pull images of various historical dictators and despots.
Try again.

Happily. Google lets you exclude results, so, here you go, less pages that mention any of the common variations on "Dungeons & Dragons":

Ooh, one picture of a 'mech.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Oh, and for reference of just how little D&D dominated google, sometimes. "Ranger" (it's been a class in every edition!!!)

I mean, just, wow. You think yer mainstreaming...
...OK, -Ford and whatever a Polaris is...

yep, army rangers and park rangers.

But, no, "it was a D&D class" doesn't exactly propel fantasy images to the top of search results.

Fighter, for another instance - no shock, here, all boxers:

OTOH, Warlock, boom, fantasy;

It's more that common RL associations trump fantasy/RPG associations. It's not that you don't or can't have fantasy fighters, rangers, commanders, and the like, it's that the commonplace uses of the words overwhelm them. While, Warlock, Warlord, &c, not so commonplace.

 

[Hurin70]

Had the 4e class been called Marshal, say, or Captain, then it'd be that name that pulled the fantasy images while Warlord would pull images of various historical dictators and despots.

While I understand your point, what you are making is what's called a counterfactual: a statement about what might have been had conditions been different. The problem with a counterfactual is that it is logically impossible to prove. It is speculation, because we can never know for sure.

Also, the 3.5 edition class that the 4e class was based was indeed called the Marshal. But that didn't change ordinary people's impressions of the word Marshal very much, as the images for Marshal that Tony posted above make clear.

Finally, I would note that of the images of Warlords Tony posted above, few (maybe none?) of them are of the 4e Warlord. I see several from the videogame For Honor, which might perhaps have been influenced by 4e; but videogames were using the word Warlord since 1980's Warlords for the Atari. Another of the Warlord images above is from Magic the Gathering, while still others are from completely different games, or unique works by artists, and several are inspired by Asian cultures, which of course have their own traditions of 'warlords' which long, long predate the 4e version.

So I would say 4e used the word Warlord because it was already associated with those sorts of images/characters -- namely, the armored combatant who leads from the front.

 

[Lanefan]

While I understand your point, what you are making is what's called a counterfactual: a statement about what might have been had conditions been different. The problem with a counterfactual is that it is logically impossible to prove. It is speculation, because we can never know for sure.

Of course it's speculation! That doesn't mean it can't be said.

Also, the 3.5 edition class that the 4e class was based was indeed called the Marshal. But that didn't change ordinary people's impressions of the word Marshal very much, as the images for Marshal that Tony posted above make clear.

Was that a core class in 3.5? I don't remember it, but that's not saying much - beyond the very core my 3.5-fu isn't strong at all.

Finally, I would note that of the images of Warlords Tony posted above, few (maybe none?) of them are of the 4e Warlord. ...

So I would say 4e used the word Warlord because it was already associated with those sorts of images/characters -- namely, the armored combatant who leads from the front.

In D&D class terms, the "armoured combatant who leads from the front" should be a Paladin, Knight, or Cavalier...or maybe even a War Cleric.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Was that a core class in 3.5? I don't remember it, but that's not saying much - beyond the very core my 3.5-fu isn't strong at all.

Not at all, the Marshal was WotC-official, but 3e-adjacent, in the Miniatures handbook.

If you search for images with something like "Fantasy Marshal" you'll get some fantasy-looking images.
But, that's also true of "Fantasy Cook" or "Fantasy Accountant."

 

[Fenris-77]

Wow, you do actually get on point results when you google fantasy accountant. That's awesome.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Finally, I would note that of the images of Warlords Tony posted above, few (maybe none?) of them are of the 4e Warlord.

I did repeat the search with D&D images excluded... one of them changed, IIRC. Ironically, I think it was from a "5e Warlord" article of some sort.

I see several from the videogame For Honor, which might perhaps have been influenced by 4e; but videogames were using the word Warlord since 1980's Warlords for the Atari. Another of the Warlord images above is from Magic the Gathering, while still others are from completely different games, or unique works by artists, and several are inspired by Asian cultures...

The 'modern warlord era' in China is one of the negative images the name gets criticized for associating with. Fortunately there's Wikipedia, so you can dig up stuff like that.

So I would say 4e used the word Warlord because it was already associated with those sorts of images/characters -- namely, the armored combatant who leads from the front.

The term is not uncommon in fantasy across media - novels, movies, TV, video games. Yeah, it's often the villain, though not nearly as often as the Sorcerer in classic S&S was the villain, and sometimes, it was the Hero.

 

[Garthanos]

I did repeat the search with D&D images excluded... one of them changed, IIRC. Ironically, I think it was from a "5e Warlord" article of some sort.

The 'modern warlord era' in China is one of the negative images the name gets criticized for associating with. Fortunately there's Wikipedia, so you can dig up stuff like that.

The term is not uncommon in fantasy across media - novels, movies, TV, video games. Yeah, it's often the villain, though not nearly as often as the Sorcerer in classic S&S was the villain, and sometimes, it was the Hero.

John Carter Warlord of Mars.
The Warlord a DC comics hero.
Xena Warrior Princess (Males of the same archetype in story Warlords) herself
for just a few

 

[Hurin70]

I would also point out that warlord is a term that would certainly apply to many of the feudal magnates of the Middle Ages.

The English term warlord appears to date from the mid-19th century, but 'lord' is especially associated with medieval feudalism ('lord and lady') to indicate the holder of a fief. Many of these people were very much warlords in the modern sense of the term: they took and kept power violently, and ruled from fortified castles over a subject peasantry. The Norman dynasties of southern Italy, for example, began as mercenaries and then forcefully seized power for themselves by a distinctive mixture of boldness, bravado, extortion, and outright theft. The entire 'feudal revolution' is often characterized as the violent usurpation of public rights of kings by a more militarized aristocracy of mounted warriors. There are accounts of them kidnapping merchants and literally torturing peasants to death for money.

All of which is just to say, if the word warlord has a bit of an edge to it, that's fine with me, because medieval lords did too.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*