New name for "gish"? (forked from Character Concepts: Gish and Teleporter Mage)

[Fifth Element]

Gish sounds so .. made up.

What, like Magic-User? That was made up for D&D.

Edit: Not to mention swordmage...

 

[Oni]

Before today I had no idea what a gish was other than some vague notion that it was a hybrid of some sort, but I could never figure out what from the name.

I don't like it.

1. It does a very poor job of describing what it is. If I say fighter/mage to someone outside the hobby even they might have a reasonable idea of the concept and anyone that games woudl immediately understand. However I'm reasonably sure that if I had uttered the word gish to the avg gamer I would just get a blank stare and have to explain myself. Also related to this terms like magic-user and swordmage are pretty selfexplanitory, something gish lacks.

2. It's needless jargon in a hobby that is already dense with language that can be difficult for new people and outsiders to understand. I feel like it's being used to kind of promote a sense of specialness in the user given that the reference is terribly arcane. I don't see any need to make the language of our hobby more difficult to digest especially in this case there it is 100% completely and totally unnecessary.

3. This is largely the most compelling reason for me. It sounds stupid.

 

[smootrk]

I don't mind using the term, but then I always use something vague while in game. There would never be a character walking up the the innkeeper and saying "by the way, did a strange Elven 'fighter magic user' come by here?"
Gish works as well as anything, but the Gith come first to my mind.

 

[racoffin]

What, like Magic-User? That was made up for D&D.

Edit: Not to mention swordmage...

Yup, both made up for D&D. And yet, they are somewhat descriptive, even to people that don't play this game (but may play others) or even to the average fantasy reader or even the man on the street.

Gish sounds like squish. Does your character squish things? Is it made of protoplasm?

Without adding in the quote, I'll say I agree with all three of Oni's remarks as well.

 

[1Mac]

"Armor Class" is an intuitive term. "AC" is not.

Also, when you say that "gish" is another bit of jargon in an already jargon-heavy hobby, you fail to say why that other jargon is fine, or why you are drawing the line at "gish." Which means there must be some other reason, which means it is not much of a reason by itself.

Also, gish gish gishy gish, gogish, bananafana fofish. Gish.

 

[Merlin the Tuna]

"Armor Class" is an intuitive term.

Yeah, if you're discussing a lecture on blacksmithing.

 

[Agamon]

The problem is, it sounds silly. It's more suited as the name of a monster that flumphs point and laugh at.

I'm not sure why a name is needed. Why don't other mixed archtypes have silly names? Let's call fighter/rogues Puddin. Cleric/wizards can be called Snorf.

 

[hamishspence]

Melee caster and its counterpart, armoured caster?

I think the term "tank mage" is usual for magics who go massively protected, but apart from gish, I'm not sure what the easy name for a melee-fighting caster is.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

How about Zerth? As the replacement for Gish?

Because it's more likely a PC will be playing a Githzerai rather than a Githyanki, especially if the DM has a "No Evil Races" policy.

 

[Rydac]

Before today I had no idea what a gish was other than some vague notion that it was a hybrid of some sort, but I could never figure out what from the name.

I don't like it.

1. It does a very poor job of describing what it is. If I say fighter/mage to someone outside the hobby even they might have a reasonable idea of the concept and anyone that games woudl immediately understand. However I'm reasonably sure that if I had uttered the word gish to the avg gamer I would just get a blank stare and have to explain myself. Also related to this terms like magic-user and swordmage are pretty selfexplanitory, something gish lacks.

2. It's needless jargon in a hobby that is already dense with language that can be difficult for new people and outsiders to understand. I feel like it's being used to kind of promote a sense of specialness in the user given that the reference is terribly arcane. I don't see any need to make the language of our hobby more difficult to digest especially in this case there it is 100% completely and totally unnecessary.

3. This is largely the most compelling reason for me. It sounds stupid.

While I did know what the term was used for before today I do agree 100% with what Oni said....very well put.

I'm surprised Mouseferatu hasn't posted in this thread. he is one of the leaders of the crusade against using "gish" for fighter-mages.