Flavorful Names That Make No Difference

[Hussar]

hit points are points that you subtract from when you are hit.

Unless you drink a con damaging poison and lose hit points.

Or you happen to be drowning, in which case your hp's drop to zero automatically.

Or...

 

[Cam Banks]

I do see the point. I just think people are making a bigger issue out of this than what it really is. Seriously, how many times have we had to file off the serial numbers from any spell beginning with Tenser or Bigby? Then do we just get rid of all the deity names from the PHB and call them Draconic Entity of Good and Deity of the Storm?

Those do not impinge upon the play experience nearly as much as adding flavor names directly to character building elements do. It's easy to file the "Mordenkainen" off a spell name. It's not as easy to file off "Cobalt Chimera Strike" off a feat that most characters would be taking. Can you imagine if Power Attack were called Kiri-Jolith's Bison Horns of Doom? What would you file off? Kiri-Jolith? Kiri-Jolith's Bison? Does "Horns of Doom" make any sense in connection with what it does?

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Brother MacLaren]

And wizards practise wizardry

I had heard that "wizard" was like the words "braggart" and "drunkard."

Braggart = one who brags a lot
Drunkard = one who is drunk a lot
Wizard = one who is very wise

Based on this, I always viewed a wizard's mind as his most important asset, and I have loved stories in which wizards solved problems by being clever or knowledgeable rather than using firepower.

Magic-user, rather than wizard, is a better name for describing what WoTC seems to think the class should be.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I had heard that "wizard" was like the words "braggart" and "drunkard."

Braggart = one who brags a lot
Drunkard = one who is drunk a lot
Wizard = one who is very wise

Based on this, I always viewed a wizard's mind as his most important asset, and I have loved stories in which wizards solved problems by being clever or knowledgeable rather than using firepower.

Magic-user, rather than wizard, is a better name for describing what WoTC seems to think the class should be.

Or rather, what the class in D&D has always been about.