►Archer: archer (Thank Guillaume le Conquérant for this one. From arc, French for bow.)
►Armor: armure
Cleric: clerc is the closest translation. However, everybody use prêtre (priest) instead.
►Combat: combat.
►Dragon: dragon.
►Dungeon: cachot. However, to keep the rhyming and alliterations, early editions of D&D were translated as Donjons & Dragons. This lead to the incorrect translation of dungeon by donjon (as everybody knows, dungeons are caves, donjons are towers). You'll notice that for D&D3, the title has not been translated this time (so the books read "Dungeons & Dragons" even though everybody keeps saying "Donjons & Dragons") in order to save a few pennies by not registering the trademark in every language.
►Dwarf: nain. You'll notice that what you call garden gnomes, we call them nains de jardin (garden dwarfs). And it's only logical, as they are most often molded in the shape of one of Snow-White's (Blanche-Neige) seven dwarfs.
►Elf: elfe.
►Evil: mal.
►Fighter: combattant is the literal translation. However, in D&D terms, it's translated by guerrier (warrior).
►Fireball: boule de feu.
►Good: bien.
►Halfling: halfling. That's the term I usually use. The fact is, there's no consistent translation of this word. •In the LotR translation, it's literally translated as "semi-homme" -- which, one should admit, doesn't sound right. Sounds like some slur saying they are subhumans. •Vance used the halfling term for fey creatures in the Lyonesse books, and the translator, here, choose to adapt the word rather than translate it. So, in Vance's books, it's hafelin. •In the AD&D books, it was translated a bit differently, by "petites gens" (little folk). The problem being, gens is plural and has no singular. Saying "Je suis un petites gens" (I'm a little folk) is awkward and doesn't sound grammatically right. It can't easily be derived as an adjective, either. So, yeah, really clumsy. •In D&D3, the translator said he used the same translation as Vance's translator did, but he lied. They're halfélin, not hafelin.
►Mount: monture.
►Orc: orque.
►Rogue: roublard. There was quite a linguistical debate, as roublard is an adjective, not a noun. ("Il est roublard" rather than "c'est un roublard" to say that someone is a rogue.) However, adjectivation of nouns and, err, nounification of adjectives happen often enough for this not to bother me. Especially given that the other translations a dictionary would give you of rogue are somewhat mawkish now. Words like "fripon" have lost all their strength and are now only used as endearing words for capricious toddlers (or slightly kinky lovers), so... •Interestingly enough, there's a French word that is spelt rogue. Fortunately, the translator was, although barely, learned enough to avoid using it. It means haughty, scornful, arrogant, etc. rather than its English homonym.
►Spell: sort, or sortilège. Sortilège sounds better alone, but since sort is shorter, it's better to use in constructions like "jeteur de sort" or "lanceur de sort" (spellcaster).
►Sword: épée. Yes, I know that there's one type of sword that's called an epee in English. But in French it's a generic word. A short sword would be called a glaive (which made it strange when I saw in my Player's Handbook what D&D in English called a glaive), a longsword could be called an espadon.
►Wizard: sorcier is the translation the most often used outside of D&D. In D&D, wizard is translated by magicien. And sorcier is the translation used for warlock, continuing on the erroneous belief that warlock is the masculine form of witch (sorcière). Oh well.
