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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Do Classes Have Concrete Meaning In Your Game?
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<blockquote data-quote="EscherEnigma" data-source="post: 6793873" data-attributes="member: 6750014"><p>To answer the original question... it depends?</p><p></p><p>Mostly on how well understood magic is in the setting. If magic users are common enough that you have a college of 'em somewhere, or that churches reliably have a Cleric†, then there is probably enough understanding of the differences and capabilities of the different paths of magic that there will be <em>some</em> specific term for it. And sure, you could make it such that Druids and Rangers are "Nature Mages", Wizards ares "Book Mages", sorcerers are "Soul Mages", Clerics and Paladins are "God Mages", Warlocks are "Demon Mages", Bards are "Music Mages" and so-on, but at that point you're making the in-game name different from the rules-name just to give your world flavor. Which isn't necessarily bad, but you should do it knowingly. More importantly though, probably only people with Arcana proficiency would really understand the differences.</p><p></p><p>To your common peaseant folk, anyone throwing fireballs, healing wounds, and so-on could be any number of magic-implying names.</p><p></p><p>So it'd be much how in the real world someone might be "the computer guy". But in actuality, they might be an IT professional, a computer scientist, a computer engineer, a software engineer, a software architect, and so-on‡. Yeah, I know the difference between those jobs, what the title implies about the person filling the job, the relative education and experience I'd expect of any of them and so-on. But my husband probably only has a notional idea of the differences, and his mother doesn't understand them at all.</p><p></p><p>All that said, some of the classes do imply more of the in-world structure then others. Particularly Cleric, Druid, Monk and Paladin carry at least some in-world implications regarding religious and monastic orders. So even if your world has monastic orders that aren't so punchy-punchy, if the punchy-punchy ones are common enough to run into more then one Monk there will probably in-world terminology to differentiate them. Similarly, someone that goes up to a Temple of Pelor looking for magical healing is going to know that they don't just need a priest, they need the <em>magical</em> priest, and will probably know the term for that. Whether that magical priest ends up being a Cleric or Paladin would be more iffy.</p><p></p><p>As for the non-magical classes (Barbarian, Fighter, Rogue)... yeah, there probably isn't much in-world differentiation. Especially with the way skill and tool proficiencies work, you could make an (unoptimized) sneak-thief character that does all the breaking and entering, theft, sneaky stuff and so-on without being a "rogue".</p><p></p><p>Then again, depending on how Barbarian rage works in your setting, they might end up as a distinct category called "Berzerker" or something.</p><p></p><p>So to make a long story short: it depends. Magic-using classes with distinct capabilities and paths to power make it likely that there are in-world terms to differentiate between them to some degree, and those terms probably have a nearly 1-to-1 correlation to the game mechanic names, but it's not a sure bet. Classes without magic are less likely to get specific titles.</p><p>________</p><p>†Note: in this post I'll be carefully using capitilization to differentiate a title, such as paladin, cleric, or wizard, from the metagame character class, Paladin, Cleric or Wizard. So all clerics are (self proclaimed) pious servant of a god, but only Clerics (that might also be clerics in a particular religious hierarchy) are the divine casters per the rules in the PHB.</p><p>‡Admittedly, the real-world terms are still fuzzier then the in-game distinction between a Warlock and Wizard would be. I imagine Wizards being <em>very</em> particular that they are <em>not</em> a Warlock (whatever the in-game term would be) and that Warlocks are <em>not</em> a Wizard (again, whatever the term may be).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EscherEnigma, post: 6793873, member: 6750014"] To answer the original question... it depends? Mostly on how well understood magic is in the setting. If magic users are common enough that you have a college of 'em somewhere, or that churches reliably have a Cleric†, then there is probably enough understanding of the differences and capabilities of the different paths of magic that there will be [i]some[/i] specific term for it. And sure, you could make it such that Druids and Rangers are "Nature Mages", Wizards ares "Book Mages", sorcerers are "Soul Mages", Clerics and Paladins are "God Mages", Warlocks are "Demon Mages", Bards are "Music Mages" and so-on, but at that point you're making the in-game name different from the rules-name just to give your world flavor. Which isn't necessarily bad, but you should do it knowingly. More importantly though, probably only people with Arcana proficiency would really understand the differences. To your common peaseant folk, anyone throwing fireballs, healing wounds, and so-on could be any number of magic-implying names. So it'd be much how in the real world someone might be "the computer guy". But in actuality, they might be an IT professional, a computer scientist, a computer engineer, a software engineer, a software architect, and so-on‡. Yeah, I know the difference between those jobs, what the title implies about the person filling the job, the relative education and experience I'd expect of any of them and so-on. But my husband probably only has a notional idea of the differences, and his mother doesn't understand them at all. All that said, some of the classes do imply more of the in-world structure then others. Particularly Cleric, Druid, Monk and Paladin carry at least some in-world implications regarding religious and monastic orders. So even if your world has monastic orders that aren't so punchy-punchy, if the punchy-punchy ones are common enough to run into more then one Monk there will probably in-world terminology to differentiate them. Similarly, someone that goes up to a Temple of Pelor looking for magical healing is going to know that they don't just need a priest, they need the [i]magical[/i] priest, and will probably know the term for that. Whether that magical priest ends up being a Cleric or Paladin would be more iffy. As for the non-magical classes (Barbarian, Fighter, Rogue)... yeah, there probably isn't much in-world differentiation. Especially with the way skill and tool proficiencies work, you could make an (unoptimized) sneak-thief character that does all the breaking and entering, theft, sneaky stuff and so-on without being a "rogue". Then again, depending on how Barbarian rage works in your setting, they might end up as a distinct category called "Berzerker" or something. So to make a long story short: it depends. Magic-using classes with distinct capabilities and paths to power make it likely that there are in-world terms to differentiate between them to some degree, and those terms probably have a nearly 1-to-1 correlation to the game mechanic names, but it's not a sure bet. Classes without magic are less likely to get specific titles. ________ †Note: in this post I'll be carefully using capitilization to differentiate a title, such as paladin, cleric, or wizard, from the metagame character class, Paladin, Cleric or Wizard. So all clerics are (self proclaimed) pious servant of a god, but only Clerics (that might also be clerics in a particular religious hierarchy) are the divine casters per the rules in the PHB. ‡Admittedly, the real-world terms are still fuzzier then the in-game distinction between a Warlock and Wizard would be. I imagine Wizards being [i]very[/i] particular that they are [i]not[/i] a Warlock (whatever the in-game term would be) and that Warlocks are [i]not[/i] a Wizard (again, whatever the term may be). [/QUOTE]
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