Who mugged the Sword Sage?

[Elphilm]

In-game, it would IMO than anyways be up to the player to make his or her character a "Warrior from the Thunderbear clan" instead of a Barbarian, a "Disciple of the five-fold-lotus-school" (or a xia) instead of a Swordsaint or a "Mercenary serving under ol'Steelfist" instead of a Fighter.

This.

I agree with you, and I think that in the end class names should communicate to the players what the class is about rather than be a single term that people in the campaign world would use. "Sword saint" (or perhaps even "weapon master" as in Iron Heroes) does get the point across.

 

[Darkwolf71]

You can't name a base class swordsaint. The whole point of that term is that it's applied to warriors of legendary skill as a way of honoring them. A level one swordsaint is even more absurd than a level one archmage.

It's no more wonky than a level one 'Warlord'. And it sounds cooler.

 

[the Jester]

"apprentice swordsman" would be fine. "apprentice swordsaint" is like "apprentice archmage".

Try "aspiring", then.

Xan Lu is an aspiring sword saint.

I think it works.

 

[Amphimir Míriel]

I used to think barbarian was a silly class name, but I nowadays find that it's a perfectly valid descriptor for a certain character type that is all over fantasy literature. Characters ranging from Tarzan to Conan, Fafhrd, and even Karl Edward Wagner's Kane are examples of barbarians in a fantasy context. You could say that the characters are in D&D terms multiclass Fighter/Rogue/Rangers (or whatever), but since the term barbarian seems to be a widely recognized fantasy stereotype, why not simply use it?

Indeed.

For another example, I have one character who is mechanically a rogue, but he would kick your sorry butt if you called him that (he is actually a kind of hard-boiled detective and investigator, alà Samuel Vimes of the Discworld)... I made him because I was dared to make a credible Lawful Good Rogue character, and it ended up being a very fun character to play.

Moral: the name of the class is an (almost) meaningless crutch meant to help players visualize the type of character they want to play.
That way, Barbarian, Monk, Warlord, Druid or Jedi are all valid class names, because they tell the player what abilities the characters will gain over time.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Try "aspiring", then.

Xan Lu is an aspiring sword saint.

I think it works.

Of course that's what the idea of "name level" in earlier editions was all about. It was the point where the character achieved the public recognition of being what they had set out to become.

 

[Imp]

The reason "swordsaint" does not work (any better than monk) is that it a) implies specialization in swords (as btw does the old "swordsage") and b) coupled with 4E's "swordmage" implies that they are a divinely-powered front-line fighter "defender" or whatever. The reason "weapon master" really does not work is that it treads right the crap over the fighter's shtick. "Martial artist" would be much much better than any of these options, including monk, but I think there's an aversion to giving classes two-word names. Probably stuck with monk, guys.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

"Martial artist" would be much much better than any of these options, including monk, but I think there's an aversion to giving classes two-word names. Probably stuck with monk, guys.

Martial artist is a bit ill-defined too. Most fighters in d&d fit the definition of a martial artist, so would a lot of characters oriented around physical combat (as opposed to magical). Of course the same can be said of naming a class 'fighter'.

I think this might be one of those cases, just like with most d&d classes, where there isn't a clear best choice for the name.

 

[Nifft]

Martial artist is a bit ill-defined too.

IMHO that's part of its charm.

Sword + ki + throws balls of fire = "martial artist".

Fists + brawn + throws foes through walls = "martial artist".

Improvised weapons + finesse + throws foes off balance, then strikes with precision = "martial artist".

But I like builder classes.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Counterspin]

I want my Rogue to be able to non-magically teleport through shadows and choke people with shadowstuff. That would be really cool.

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not, but swordsages can't do that. Most of the shadow hand stuff is supernatural.

 

[VirgilCaine]

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not, but swordsages can't do that. Most of the shadow hand stuff is supernatural.

I'm sorry?

Yes they can, only swordsage gets Shadow Hand school/discipline/pants?