Discussion: "Abjuration" magic school name misleading?

[Ruin Explorer]

The more I think about it, the more likely I think Gygax named it after the "I abjure you, evil spirits!" line. (I've seen it as both abjure and adjure, by the way.)

Dingdingding we have a winner! Tons of stuff in D&D is from '70s Hammer horror movies, and almost certainly this is.

 

[Umbran]

Can I get some feedback from others on this?

Well, technically, "necromancy" has nothing to do with raising up undead - the word really only denotes a style of divination.

So, I'm not gonna sweat the technicality.

 

[Sadras]

That's not to say that Gygax was incapable of infelicity: he describes monks as aesthetics, for instance (PHB p 30) when presumably what was intended was "ascetics".

That's hilarious. Never noticed.

 

[GMMichael]

abjure; adjure. To abjure is to deny or renounce under oath (ie: the defendant abjured the charge of murder) or to declare one's permanent abandonment of a place (ie: to abjure the realm). To adjure is to require someone to do something as if under oath ("I adjure you to keep this secret") or to urge earnestly (the executive committee adjured all the members to approve the plan).

Why can't the defend-ant be abjured of taking damage? It is a defensive school.

Anyway, the next time an NPC says to your group's mage, "'abjuration? What was it, this queer sort of education thou hast partook?" just let the player show his copy of the PHB to the NPC.

/snark

 

[1of3]

And technically, an evocation is a ritual whereby the Roman leader of a besieging army would "call out" the gods of the besieged city by offering them a nicer temple in Rome.


Nota bene: Such etymological discussions don't make sense. Words change their meaning all the time.