D&D General D&D Archetypes that spread out to other settings and media

[Clint_L]

As for D&D archetypes, I'm gonna go with the Murderhobo.

 

[bedir than]

Horny bards started with D&D and now they're everywhere, so common that most people are surprised by a non-horny bard

 

[Koloth]

Classes - Traveller, by comparison, allowed characters to learn and do about anything. Your initial pick of Service Branch influenced your initial skill set but once you began your Travelling life, any character could learn any skill, if the physical stats were good enough. D&D classes really limited character choices after the class was picked.
Racial profiling - (yes, I know but it really is this). Hobbits were the sneak thieves. Dwarves were the gold greedy underground experts. Elves were the aloof woodland bow experts. Orcs were just plain evil. Humans were often considered an over abundant plague by the other races. This was reinforced by in game stat and ability adjustments. More recent editions have mostly removed this to the point that a racial choice is pretty much just a cosmetic thing.
Vancian spell casting
For those discussing Orcs, the AD&D MM shows the orc as a humanoid with what is best described as a pig head.
Male wizards are old with long beards and heavy robes. Female wizards are young, pretty and scantily clad.

 

[billd91]

Racial profiling - (yes, I know but it really is this). Hobbits were the sneak thieves. Dwarves were the gold greedy underground experts. Elves were the aloof woodland bow experts. Orcs were just plain evil. Humans were often considered an over abundant plague by the other races. This was reinforced by in game stat and ability adjustments. More recent editions have mostly removed this to the point that a racial choice is pretty much just a cosmetic thing.
Vancian spell casting
For those discussing Orcs, the AD&D MM shows the orc as a humanoid with what is best described as a pig head.
Male wizards are old with long beards and heavy robes. Female wizards are young, pretty and scantily clad.

Uh, I think some of that's Tolkien prior to D&D: Burgler Baggins. Dwarves like Thorin affected by dragon sickness. Bow-using elves come from Legolas. Orcs are just plain evil. And the wizards are old with long beards.

 

[Umbran]

Where do you start?

I think a better question is whether we are talking in the sense of broad archetypes, or specific implementations.

The warrior/healer/mage/sneak dynamic of classes.

Like here - this only holds if you are considering those roles very specifically - most notably about the healer. The "quartet with different abilities giving them iconic roles and dynamics in conflicts" goes back to the Fantastic Four, at least.

The shape changing druid.

Again, only if you are being very specific. Otherwise, Celtic mythology would like a word.

Death knights.

Ringwraiths. The Witch King of Angmar is not impressed by Lord Soth.

Color coded elemental dragons.

That one I'll give you.

 

[Distracted DM]

Dwarves being greedy and having dragon-sickness isn't specifically a Tolkien thing- if we look at old folkore we see some real origin story stuff for dwarf greed and dragon-sickness Fáfnir - Wikipedia

Fafnir was a dwarf who killed his own family, stole their ?magic? ring and treasure hoard, and because of his greed became a dragon.

 

[cbwjm]

And Warcraft has a Tinker class. Which predated D&D's Artificer class.

But did it predate the tinker class in dragonlance 1e?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Were industrious gnomes first popularized in Dragonlance?

Dragonlance was itself influenced by some depictions of gnomes and little people in pop culture and folk tales (leprechaun shoemakers, Santa's toymakers), so it didn't come completely out of the blue, and I expect it found traction because when introduced in 1st edition gnomes didn't have much real identity (I think Gygax only put them in to have something that wasn't Tolkien). And it's not clear if Jan Janssen in BG2 was drawing on Dragonlance or other cultural reference points. But certainly by WoW the trope was already well established.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

According to Wikipedia, Tieflings (and presumably the Aasimar and the Genasi as well) appeared in 2e. First in 2e Planescape and then in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting for 3e.

That's another one that can be connected to BG2! After being the breakout stars of the Planescape setting, I think BG2 featured the first official siting of a Tiefling in the FR (although they were a traveller from Sigil).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The Witch King of Angmar is not impressed by Lord Soth.

Lord Vader finds your lack of faith disturbing.

Star Wars was probably as big an influence on Dragonlance as Tolkien was. But the general point is that none of this stuff happens in a cultural vacuum. D&D is in a constant dialogue with popular culture.