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<blockquote data-quote="Jack Daniel" data-source="post: 8813894" data-attributes="member: 694">I'm working on a revision of one of my old game designs, and EN World has in the past been pretty great about helping me name character classes. But this one might prove a conundrum: when to comes to naming the archetypical warrior-mage, which term conjures the stronger image of a sword-swinging spellcaster in your mind — wizard or sorcerer? (Keeping in mind that I'll doubtless wind up using the other word for just the archetypical mage.) On the one hand, a wizard with a sword is iconic — Gandalf. And a sorcerer without a sword — Mickey Mouse — is also iconic, at least for an apprentice sorcerer.On the other hand, the notion that wizards eschew weapons and armor is pervasive in heroic fantasy. Whereas the term sorcerer nigh-instantly drives one's thoughts to pulp sword &amp; sorcery, where a robed sorcerer with unnatural strength may yet cross swords with the likes of Conan or Kull or Elric (who is himself a sorcerer).For purely aesthetic reasons, I'll be avoiding compound terms like &quot;mage-knight&quot; or &quot;spell-blade.&quot; Other than that, I turn the topic over to the community. Sword-mage: what do?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jack Daniel, post: 8813894, member: 694"] I'm working on a revision of one of my old game designs, and EN World has in the past been pretty great about helping me name character classes. But this one might prove a conundrum: when to comes to naming the archetypical warrior-mage, which term conjures the stronger image of a sword-swinging spellcaster in your mind — [I]wizard [/I]or [I]sorcerer[/I]? (Keeping in mind that I'll doubtless wind up using the other word for just the archetypical mage.) On the one hand, a wizard with a sword is iconic — Gandalf. And a sorcerer without a sword — Mickey Mouse — is also iconic, at least for an apprentice sorcerer. On the other hand, the notion that wizards eschew weapons and armor is pervasive in heroic fantasy. Whereas the term [I]sorcerer[/I] nigh-instantly drives one's thoughts to pulp sword & sorcery, where a robed sorcerer with unnatural strength may yet cross swords with the likes of Conan or Kull or Elric (who is himself a sorcerer). For purely aesthetic reasons, I'll be avoiding compound terms like "mage-knight" or "spell-blade." Other than that, I turn the topic over to the community. Sword-mage: what do? [/QUOTE]

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