Of gishes and arcane defencers and whatnot: Is 4th ed. language for everyone?

[Hairfoot]

Chill out, daddy-o. The modern kids are hip to rad wuxia anime warcraft, yo? Ain't groovy to harsh them on account of da way dey rap at ya. If the hep young cats want a blinged-up tank/controller named "w00tHaXXor von ROFL III", it's all cool, man. All cool.

 

[RigaMortus2]

Love it or loathe it, the word's not going away. In this case, the best thing that could happen would be for WotC to formalize it in a 4E product as a real and important term.
For instance:
"Swordmages, also called Gish, blend arcane magic with swordplay..."
"Some cultures refer to a Swordmage as a Gish."
"Some say swordmages are an attempt to emulate the combined melee and magic prowess of the Githyanki Gish."

I'd like to see it as a derogatory...

"Bah, he's just a gish!"

 

[Deverash]

In two generations, they'll be using these terms as military code.

Wow. In 2 generations the military will be using arcane magic to buff up the soldiers? Where's suspended animation when you need it.

 

[Tewligan]

This thread is making my laptop float away on a river of my tears.

 

[Gunpowder]

Funny, I know what a gish is, but the term F-MU would need to be explained. Is this a problem? Not in the slightest. Its all jargon. You are either familiar with it or not.
My eyes gloss over when my comp sci friends start talking about C++ or B-- or whatever, and they don't know the hell I am talking about when I start talking about the recruitment rate of Juniperus ashei. They are just terms that a group of people decided that X should refer to Y.
To mangle Shakespeare, What's in a name? Would a gish by any other name would wallop any less hard?

 

[Mirtek]

it is used in the Fiend Folio as name for Githyanki fighter-magic users, but its generic usage is quite recent... at least in my experience.

AFAIk it's new popularity is because of the article about Githyanki society in the incursion issue of Dungeon some time ago.

FM-U? And you think Gish is confusing. Let's see, it's been years since wizards were called a magic-user, Gish can also refer to a fighter/sorcerer, or any other combination of combat class and arcane spell user.

And to paladins, clerics, rangers, blackguars, psychic warrior, hexbladem, ... -> AFAIK to the Githyankti any warrior able to cast/manifest something is a member of the gish caste

 

[Hairfoot]

If RPG terms make no sense, RPG forum terms make even less.

When I hear conceited hipsters criticise a musical genre or musician (which is often), I'm tempted to shout "badwrongfun!". But that would mark me out as deeply uncool, and embarrass my far-more-tolerant-of-hipster-cretins girlfriend.

 

[Werebat]

It was the official name for a githyanki fighter/mage, first used (I believe) in the 1e Fiend Folio.

Yes. Knowing this is why I was able to figure out the term's newer (almost identical) useage when I encountered it on the WotC boards. And this "new" term has been in use for several years now.

Then again, I'm an English and ESL teacher and fond of deciphering the meanings of high school, hip hop slang, and multilingual terms. I think I have ranks in Decipher Script.

- Ron ^*^

 

[Werebat]

Chill out, daddy-o. The modern kids are hip to rad wuxia anime warcraft, yo? Ain't groovy to harsh them on account of da way dey rap at ya. If the hep young cats want a blinged-up tank/controller named "w00tHaXXor von ROFL III", it's all cool, man. All cool.

My favorite wuxia is Wiwaxia wuxia. Of course the Wiwaxia would have to be awakened first, wouldn't it?

Dag, yo, brotha got ALL da lyricals! Y'all must be RACKIN' da dimes!

- Ron ^*^

 

[Sqwonk]

I don't mean to fly off the handle. I just remember on the CO boards getting tired of,

"I need help with some kind of character. Maybe a bladesinger. Is that good?"
"Bladesingers rate pretty low as gishes. Blah blah blah. Codzilla. Blah blah blah."
"What's a gish?""

What is CoDZilla?