jdrakeh
Front Range Warlock
Balok the Strange said:
I agree with this to some small degree, but note that even WotC saw fit to alter many spell names between 2e and 3e specifically so that the names would sound more appropriate when used in-character. it stands to reason that, as in real life, many of those who wield magic (or claim to wield magic) would name their spells and rituals to differentiate between them. While a whole new magic system may not be necessary a 'from/to' langauge conversion key for spell names would go a looooong way toward promoting atmospheric realism during actual play.
Something like this could easily be appended to the existing document as a setting Glossary (pretty standard fare for many such products), or made available as a short, free, web enhancement for Sahasra.
Actually, while holy warriors are common throughout different cultures of our own Earth, the holy warrior who receives miraculous powers channeled by a deity for doing good deeds is fairly exclusive to Christianity. While many cultures have 'holy warriors' who fight for a higher power, few of them espouse a belief that they will be endowed with miraculous powers for this devotion (rather, most of them believe that they will be rewarded solely in the afterlife). Thus, the miracle-wielding, mounted, knight of old is an odd native fixture for an Indian-inspired setting (although, as somebody else pointed out, makes perfect sense for a foreigner).
The problem here is that Buddhists and many Yogi do not worship and/or pray to a single, defined, godhead (which is a pretty standard requirement of a D&D Cleric). In point of fact, praying for miracles (i.e., spells) is another largely Christian ideal. Most Buddhists and Yogi mediate for enlightenment, not magical power (if enlightenment happens to confer that ability, so be it - but it isn't the goal of meditation). More importantly, meditating should not be confused with petitioning (which is what prayer is a form of). I think that if any of the core classes best represent what could be considered a 'priest' as the term applies to Indian mythology, it would be the Monk class.
If it helps, the issue that I cite with classes isn't unique to Sahasra - in particular, this was a huge detriment to suspension of disbelief in the Harn d20 modules (in HarnWorld, priests are priests - not magically endowed warriors - and, more importantly perhaps, gods don't actually exist as living beings, so much as explanations created by men to answer otherwise unanswerable questions). In short, the problem with classes has less to do with how they appear, than with how they function mechanically.
I've said, and as you yourself suggest with the holy warrior analogy, some of this can be easily glossed over - but hiding the cultural innacuracies from anybody familiar with India (either through study or heritage) will take some mechanical re-tooling that reflects the culture in actual play. This is why (in the review) I suggested that, barring the inclusion of setting-appropriate classes, some discussion of how to ease the core classes into the setting so that they make sense as native fixtures would have been very useful.
At any rate, thanks for the informative reply - it certainly helps to illuminate why you chose to include or exclude what you did (and, in truth, two years ago I would have been in 100% agreement with your choices for much the same reasons that you cite). I'll see about posting an Actual Play section for Sahasra on my web site after I get some additional material (i.e., classes and a spell Glossary) cooked up for my friends.
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