I just realized what bugs me about Warlords . . .

[ForceUser]

I'm having a hard time envisioning, from a purely flavor-text/story perpsective, a first-level Warlord.

Ditto. The class, whatever it is, needs a better name.

 

[I'm A Banana]

WTF? Cleric is a WESTERN term applied to a musilim 'churchman', it can apply to any religion. It has nothing to do with Muslims at all. Cleric is a term coming from the middle ages: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cleric

...this kind of shows my point.

Being a cleric in D&D doesn't mean you're Muslim. Being a Warlord in D&D doesn't mean you command massive armies, or somehow get to boss around other PC's.

Have some Semantic Pie.

 

[Korgoth]

...this kind of shows my point.

Being a cleric in D&D doesn't mean you're Muslim. Being a Warlord in D&D doesn't mean you command massive armies, or somehow get to boss around other PC's.

Have some Semantic Pie.

Isn't it the opposite of your point? "Cleric" is a generic term (in Islam you can be an Imam, a Mullah, etc.)... but anybody who is a religious official can be called a cleric. But "Warlord" is not a generic term for an officer. Only an established boss with the material means of waging war constitutes a warlord.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Isn't it the opposite of your point?

Nope.

In the modern, Western world, "cleric" is most commonly used* to refer to the supergrouping of Imams, mullahs, etc.

* - Most commonly used apart from D&D players, at least.

 

[Korgoth]

Nope.

In the modern, Western world, "cleric" is most commonly used* to refer to the supergrouping of Imams, mullahs, etc.

* - Most commonly used apart from D&D players, at least.

Most commonly? What about Catholic priests?

There is absolutely no tie between the word "cleric" and Islam.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Most commonly? What about Catholic priests?

Generally referred to as "priests," oddly enough.

If you were to turn on CNN right now (or read the NYT), and they used the word "cleric," there's a very high chance that they're referring to someone from the Islamic side of the fence.

Only rarely have I ever seen the word used to refer to a Catholic priest (even though, yes, it is a correct usage of the word).

For instance: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Cleric+site:www.nytimes.com

Note that the first article, yes, refers to a Roman Catholic priest (bishop, actually). But keep reading - the rest are almost exlusively Islamic.

 

[Korgoth]

Cleric is a generic term.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Cleric is a generic term.

I agree ... except that, currently, it's used more often to refer to a specific subset, rather than the general set.

 

[RigaMortus2]

What bothers me is that, to my mind, Warlord == High Level Fighter.

This reminds me...

In the Basic D&D set (or perhaps it was 1E AD&D?), they had titles for each class as they levelled up... A high level Fighter had "Veteran" as a title (just to name one).

Anyone else remember this? Anyone happen to have this list handy? It might have some good ideas for alternate class names for the Warlord

 

[Zaruthustran]

This reminds me...

In the Basic D&D set (or perhaps it was 1E AD&D?), they had titles for each class as they levelled up... A high level Fighter had "Veteran" as a title (just to name one).

Anyone else remember this? Anyone happen to have this list handy? It might have some good ideas for alternate class names for the Warlord

Yep, I remember it. I remember that "veteran" was the level name for *first* level.

Fighter
1: Veteran
2: Warrior
3: Swordsman
4: Hero
5: Swashbuckler
6: Myrmidon
7: Champion
8: Superhero
9: Lord

I like "Warlord" as the name of a base class, but I'd be happy with "Champion" as well. Thing is, though, Champion doesn't have any leadership connotations. Hmm... I guess it could also be called:

Captain
Officer
Leader
Marshal
Commander

Of those, I think "Captain" is the best.