What exactly is a Hedge Wizard?

[WayneLigon]

So what is a Hedge Knight then? I have heard that term used before but I don't remember where.

It's from George R. R. Martin; Song of Fire and Ice, referring to a knight that is either base (common) birth, or who comes about knighthood in a manner not befitting the nobility of the calling. There's a novella in the first Legends collection, plus it's also being adapted as an excellent comic mini-series.

In general, 'hedge' is going to refer to the common folk, rather than the nobility or the other grand people of the land. Hedge Knight is probably used in a derogatory sense, and there is that sense about the 'hedge wizard' as well; they're just not as educated as a 'normal' wizard.

 

[Wombat]

Actually the term "Hedge Knight" goes back much further than Martin. The term goes back to the later Middle Ages, with pretty much the same definition Martin gives it -- many "men-at-arms" (read: looks exactly like a knight, fights exactly like a knight, does not have the gentle birth) fell into this category, but "Hedge Knight" also implied the scruffier, rougher form. In many ways think of Toshiro Mifune -- has the skills of a samurai, but no one would admit to calling him one, not merely because of lower birth, but also due to appearance.

As for Hedge Wizard ... well, that's more easily defined in Ars Magica than in D&D

 

[Krieg]

Something of a con-artist with little to no legitimate magical talent - as one person above said - the type that sells snake oil to villagers at 10 gp a bottle promising that it will cure all their ills or make somebody fall in love with them.

That would be a Mountebank.

 

[Olive]

This suggests that it might see use as a derogatory term directed at sorcerors (self-taught innate ability) by wizards (schooled and trained).

We call them hedge wirches in my campaign for exactly that reason. The problem with the adept is that they are divine casters, but I'm sure you could tinker and make an NPC class.

There was an Ars Magica suplememnt that detailed hedge magic.

Personally, I tend to think fo them as low leve wiz/exp with useful spells, not combat ones particularly. I don't think there's really a need for a whole new class.

 

[De Arco]

We call them hedge wirches in my campaign for exactly that reason. The problem with the adept is that they are divine casters, but I'm sure you could tinker and make an NPC class.

There was an Ars Magica suplememnt that detailed hedge magic.

Personally, I tend to think fo them as low leve wiz/exp with useful spells, not combat ones particularly. I don't think there's really a need for a whole new class.

I agree. Just alter the spell list a little to avoid the big flashy ones and put the skill points in things other than knowledge arcana. No need to make a whole new class.

 

[Dogbrain]

It is an historical term, that comes up related to the inquisition.

Funny, but I've never seen it come up in actual Inquisitorial documents I've seen. From my research into the Inquisition, it seems that they spent a great deal of time trying to convince people that "witches" and "wizards" simply did not exist at all. Indeed, they went so far as to try to get belief in the existence of witches treated as a heresy. Unfortunately, the secular authorities opposed this.

As far as I can tell, the original term came from England in the reign of Elizabeth I. No Inquisition in that country at that time, that's for darnshureyoobetcha. The original term was "hedge priest". It was an insult coined in England to refer to uneducated clergy in Roman Catholic countries. Earliest use is 1550, as an insult against the French, according to the OED.