Chris_Nightwing said:
I can easily envisage a 1st level Paladin - they've just joined the holy order, they've picked up a few skills and some fighting prowess, and maybe they've been blessed a little, but they're still novices. Novices who usually get respect and have the authority of their church admittedly, but you don't usually play a childish paladin.
That's because it's a classical name. Everyone that plays the game already ties the name "Paladin" to that character concept that you mentioned.
To me Warlord sounds like a very generic name for someone who excels at making war and commanding it. Someone with power over others in the battle. It can be an army, a band of mercenaries or a adventure party. They are not necessary "lords" of anything, it's just a name that evokes power and command in battle. Of course we can discuss semantics, but it's a wasted time when we have a game with Paladins, Druids, Monks, Warlocks, Ninjas, Samurais, Jedi, Bards, Knights, etc.
I think the best way to see if a class name is ok is to take a look at its abilities and see if a character with those abilities could be called a Warlord, for example. Are those abilities stuff that "warlords" should have? If so the class name is ok. That's the point of a class name, to let people feel what the class is about, to understand what all those powers inside it are about, and not to determine the character concept.
I want my character to be a captain of the city guard.
Take levels in the Warlord Class.
I want my character to be the leader of a mercenary group(the PC party)
Ok, take levels in Warlord.
I want to create a 15th level general NPC for my campaign.
Make him a Warlord character.
I want to create a character that one day will be a great general.
Take levels in Warlord.
I want my character to be a tactician, that cares about coordinating the group in battle with wits rather than fighting it.
Takel levels in Warlord.
Warlord is a generic name enough to fits all those concepts of character. All of them are in any way "warlords". But the opposite doesn't happen.
Every great and powerful general is a Warlord or can be considered a Warlord, but not every Warlord is a general. The same happens with Marshals, etc.
A fighter is a class that can fit lots of character concepts. A duelist, gladiator, fencer, swordsman, soldier, guard, etc is a fighter.
I believe the same may work with the Warlord class. Its class abilities can fit many character concepts, and all of them will be in any way or another types of "warlords".
