Characters of Literature and Legend

[MerricB]

D&D is shaped by the mythologies we are exposed to - both ancient and modern. With the explosion of fantasy and science-fiction books in the modern era, some of the traditional archetypes are changing.

One way of examining that is to guess what classes the characters from Literature and Legend are in terms of the D&D rules system. Of course, many of them will be approximations, but that's ok.

I'm particularly interested in multi-class spellcasters, so I'll begin with a few of those:

Rand al'Thor - Fighter/Sorcerer - Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
Richard Rahl - Ranger/Sorcerer - Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind
Ingold Inglorion - Fighter/Wizard - Darwath Trilogy by Barbara Hambly
Vlad Taltos - Rogue/Sorcerer/Wizard/Assassin - Taltos series by Steven Brust

Although there are quite a few such multiclasses, one can also see a great number of single classed characters and other non-spellcasting characters.

Perrin - Expert/Fighter - Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
Mat - Rogue/Fighter - Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
Kahlan - Confessor* Expert - Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind
Zedd - Wizard - Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind
Gil Shalos - Expert/Fighter - Darwath Trilogy by Barbara Hambly
Rudy - Wizard - Darwath Trilogy by Barbara Hambly

Kahlan is interesting - in effect, she has racial abilities due to her Confessor heritage. Heritage can play a large part in determing magical abilities - so that the elvenkind are often innately magical whilst their class is straight fighter or rogue...

Modern Fantasy also gives us telepaths like the Heralds of Valdemar - probably best handled by a Psychic Warror/Paladin hybrid class.

Actual mythology - of the Greek kind - gives us fighters, more fighters, perhaps a rogue or two, and if you're very lucky, a blind seer. Priests are known for their ability to curse (see the cause of the Wrath of Achilles), but not so much for curative powers.

Cheers!

 

[Eosin the Red]

A quick search of my "Historical Mages" file turned up the following (note that it does not include gods). There are many other "wizards" historically and in fiction but these gave me a start.

PS Rand al' Thor is a Wilder/Initiate/Woodsman/Blademaster - come on they got a d20 WOT book!

Mog Ruith
Circe
Media
Semiramis
Baba Yaga
Merlin
Morgan Le Fay
Wizard of Oz
Glinda
The Wicked Witches
Faust
Prospero
Simon Magus
Hermes Trismegistus
Giles De Rais
John Dee

 

[Ron]

I've read much of the Wheel of Time and Sword of Truth series (if only I could forget it and give better use to my memory ). Concerning Richard Rahl, he is a classic AD&D dual class character. He left the ranger class for good and started being a Sorcerer, while his wife, Kahlan is better viewed as a single class (although the Confessor class was never designed).

Wheel of Time characters are more developed and, not surprising, don't fit well in the rigid D&D's class system, that's why near all of them are multiclassed in the game.

 

[diaglo]

martin Redwall is clearly a fighting mouse.
Allanon Sword of Shannara, etc... is clearly a druid.
pen wen of Lloyd Alexander's series is an NPC sage.

 

[Glyfair]

He left the ranger class for good and started being a Sorcerer, while his wife, Kahlan is better viewed as a single class (although the Confessor class was never designed).

In game terms, I'm sure the Confessor wouldn't be a race or a class, it would be a template (although its abilities might be tied into character level).