Dungeons & Dragons the movie: "level" reference

[Crothian]

At least he didn't say, "You're a 1st level abjurer," or something.

So, how do you refer to characters of high power level in your games? I actually have a magical academy in my campaign, so they have levels of education the same way we have Bachelors, Masters, and Doctors.

We have a 7th level wizard who is our Arch Mage. In the games I run most people of power have a title that they've either earned or given themselves. There are different organizations that bestow titles like the Mage Guild and all the major churches. However, many titles require more then just a certain level. Actually they require a level of comitment.

 

[Graf]

this thread brings up a key point and one of my pet peeves.

Levels are an obvious fact of life in D&D. Especially Wizard levels. Every known arcane caster casts the same number and sort of spells with a few specific regular deviations (related to attributes, feats, magic items, etc).

The idea that, since the begining of recorded time, nobody noticed that all wizards have advanced in the same progression in terms of number and level of spells caster per day is just ludicrus. Especially when you're talking about a tradtion which, sterotypically, is filled with the most analyical and academic people with the highest intelligence scores. This tradition does training in either one-on-one sessions (where a master closely works with an aprentice and has themselves gone through the same level progression) or magical colleges where people pass through (sterotypically) rigorous tests.

I think that I can say thsi applies to Druids, Clerics, Paladins, etc. as well.

So, yes, I think that informed people are well aware of the level system. Wizards in my world often use different idioms but they fully understand what it means to 'have progressed six steps on the path to arcane power'.

 

[Henry]

Keep two things in mind:

1) low-level is a phrase occasionally used in common parlance, e.g. a low-level authority, as others have said.

2) 1st edition D&D actually have level titles - when you hit 4th level magic user, you were a theurgist, or some such.

Yes, I am defending that crappy movie - why do you ask?

 

[Rashak Mani]

You didnt like the movie ! Of course not...

When it was in the big screen about 40 gamers joined up to see it together. Every single one of us knew it was going to be a silly movie. We had read the dismayed comments on boards like this one a long time before it hit the movie screens.

So 40 gamers together... we all went for laughs and therefore had a lot of fun. If you take it as a serious attempt at a movie you can only feel very very sad.

When the movie finished we were discussing "aspects" of the movie when a friend asked why the big warrior had pink lipstick... roars of laugther ! This guys is daltonic ... saw the blue lipstick as pink... hehe...

Well as for levels... 1st Edition had titles for most levels... so that you could say "I´m 2nd level cleric". You would say you were an Acoylte instead thou. Earthdawn characters know the Circle they are in and use it to determine what a fair fight is. If you challenged a NPC 2 circles lower than you it would be well understood you were a coward and so forth.

Change level to another name... or determine names for lvl 1-3 fighter types, 1-3 lvl mages... 4-6 lvl.... 7-9 lvls... etc...

 

[reapersaurus]

Well, I don't mind discussing, and defending this unappreciated movie.

The line about "level" WAS because of different levels in the Mage School.

Just because the term is used in D&D doesn't mean they don't use the term in normal conversation.

Much more if you want.....

 

[FireLance]

Like everyone said, it could be a metagaming in-joke, or it could just be common use. Remember that the word "level" had a meaning before D&D was invented.

When I talk about a "high-level Government official" IRL, I'm certainly not referring to how many Hit Dice he has.

[Edit - spelling]

 

[mmu1]

Unappreciated? What's not to appreciate?

One of the main villains had lipstick on his teeth.

Thora Birch was channeling William Shatner, which was a neat trick seeing how he isn't even dead yet.

A dwarf fighter chose to join the party because they disturbed him from a drunken stupor in a pile of garbage, and many an enemy fell to his trusty axe with a 2" thick wobbly rubber blade.

A beholder was tricked into not looking the right way because someone threw a rock behind it, getting it to turn around to see what it was...

The artifact which the movie was centered on was in a dungeon filled with devilish traps the like of which no one has ever seen... Like a slide leading right to the rod of power practically from the very entrance, its course littered by bodies of would-be heroes who succumbed to horrid firction burns of the buttocks...

 

[Rashak Mani]

The lipstick is the one that bothers me the most thou... what was the idea behind the lipstick ? Maybe the original script was a baddie woman and then they changed to a man and forgot to change some details of the background/story ?

 

[Silverthrone]

I do not believe chracters ever knew their effective level, though it makes sense for wizards to do so. Characters have always know their classes and alignments though. If you were chaotic good for example, you knew it, and understood what someone meant if they asked you what your alignment was.

 

[Paladin]

The lipstick is the one that bothers me the most thou... what was the idea behind the lipstick ? Maybe the original script was a baddie woman and then they changed to a man and forgot to change some details of the background/story ?

If I'm remembering correctly: the blue lipstick, and distinct lack of hair, were the result of how Damodar got his nice suit of black dragon scale armor. Apparently the dragon let him have the line of acid in the head, then Damodar scored a critical or something. This was from the book, the movie never even hints to this. They also only call the dwarf, "Dwarf," throughout the whole movie, not his name: Elwood. Boy, I can't wait for the sequel! Maybe the next time the hero will inexplicably have a unicorn horn jutting from his forehead, and they'll never explain that one either....(half-narwhale template anyone?)