Base Classes: What are they? [3.P]

[Tanuki Tales]

In case anyone just reads the title and skips over this little blurb of mine, no, I'm not literally asking what they are. I know fully well what a base class is, what is considered a base class and all that jazz. What I'm asking is, when you think of a specific base class (pick any), what kind of feeling and imagery does it evoke? Ignoring the actual mechanics and written fluff, what do you feel like it is and should be from just the name?

So basically, this is a word association exercise. :smalltongue:

[3WhiteFox3]

In case anyone just reads the title and skips over this little blurb of mine, no, I'm not literally asking what they are. I know fully well what a base class is, what is considered a base class and all that jazz. What I'm asking is, when you think of a specific base class (pick any), what kind of feeling and imagery does it evoke? Ignoring the actual mechanics and written fluff, what do you feel like it is and should be from just the name?

So basically, this is a word association exercise. :smalltongue:

A foundation for a character, something you build a character off of. Something basic and generic, while it could be a character in it's own right, it's not the sole part. It needs other things to supplement the character to make an interesting, well-rounded specific character.

[Jurai]

Artificer: Repairman. Fixes things. The Doctor, when he isn't being a charming rogue.

Mountebank (Dragon Compendium): Svengali.

Factotum: The Question.

Wizard: Doctor Fate.

Sorcerer: Doctor Strange.

Healer: Doctor House.

[Laura Eternata]

Ignoring mechanics, you say? Okay, sounds fun.

Swashbuckler - a romantic seaman equipped with a quick wit, a dazzling smile, and a razor sharp cutlass. He's able to pull off spectacular acrobatic feats in combat, especially when he has a love interest on the line. He's moral, for the most part; a bit salty, maybe, but he absolutely has a heart of gold. Almost certainly does not use a buckler.

Incarnate - the ur-example of any given ideal. Whatever it is she stands for, the incarnate is that concept made manifest. She doesn't just pursue it; she embodies it. If she stands for order, then her every action is meticulously planned out. If she stands for misery, then you can be sure that any who come in contact with her will be feeling a hell of a lot worse about themselves after the encounter. She might not even realize that she is a concept incarnate, as thinking in any other manner is too alien to even try to comprehend.

Swordsage - half swordsman, half philosopher, all badass. This is the mysterious an on the mountain who doesn't just teach you how to fight; he teaches you why to fight. He has a complex ethical code that he follows to the letter, never so much as drawing his sword if the situation does not, according to his code, call for it.

Factotum - the ultimate renaissance man. Need some shelves put up? Sure, he can handle it, he used to hang out with a carpenter. Need a replacement performer for when the bard's being unreliable? Yeah, he can do that, his mother always said he had a nice voice. Need someone to grab the fighter's sword and hold off the beasties while someone handles the healing? Why not, he took a fencing class once. Anything you can do, he can do... not necessarily better, but you wouldn't know it by asking him.

Ninja - a Japanese assassin, clad in black from head to toe. Points for originality, Wizards.

Samurai - a Japanese noble warrior who fights with a katana. Come on, would a little creativity kill you guys?

Warblade - a... sword... that fights? A guy that fights with a sword, I guess? This wasn't really what I was asking for, Wizards.

Dread Necromancer - a mage with an unhealthy fascination with corpses and the raising thereof. Except more dreadful than all those other necromancers, I guess. She probably wears flowing black robes and overdoes the eyeshadow.

This is fun. I think I'll do some more later.

[Jurai]

Warblade - a... sword... that fights? A guy that fights with a sword, I guess? This wasn't really what I was asking for, Wizards.

Think Fighter McWarrior from Eight-bit Theater.

[BWR]

Right, this will take a while, sticking only to single word classes,and going entirely by my first association

Archivist A librarian

Beguiler ultimate seducer, probably using magic

Binder someone who ties something down somehow (alternately, a place to keep all these old character sheets and CCG cards)

Crusader Someone who fought in the Cruscades, alternately someone who fights very vehemently for or against something,

Duskblade a sneaky stabber

Healer someone who heals

Hexblade a warrior who curses people

Incarnate an avatar

Knight heavy armor wearing feudal warrior

Marshal leader of troops

Ninja non-super powered sneaky guy in black pajamas

Samurai a Japanese warrior

Scout a scout

Shaman someone who talks to spirits

Shadowcaster someone with a shadow

Shugenja like the shaman, someone who talks to spirits, a priest of sorts

Sohei this (http://blog.grisd.net/wp/grjh-art/files/2010/05/Sohei-painting.jpg)

Soulborn a person with a soul

Spellthief someone who steals spells

Spirit Shaman see 'shaman' above

Swashbuckler Errol Flynn, any 3 Musketeeres movie - rapiers, wit, swinging from chandeliers etc.

Swordsage someone who tries to be mystical about swords, and sounds like a pretentious ****

Totemist eh

Truenamer calls a spade a spade

Warblade as opposed to a peace blade?

Warlock evil wizard

Warmage Jaya Ballard

Wu Jen Oriental Gandalf


(guess I'm pretty literal minded)

[Tanuki Tales]

Warblade, for me, evokes the image of an elite warrior in intricate full body armor wielding a deadly, mystic weapon. They're like the Special Ops of medieval armies and are more one-man armies than actual singular beings.

Instead of...you know...what the Fighter should have been at the get go.

[Urpriest]

Warblade to me sounds like it's related to the Fighter in the same way that Warmage is supposed to be related to the Wizard: the Fighter fights dudes in dungeons, the Warblade does it on battlefields.

Factotum, I think of this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq_0wPYFp9A).

[Zaydos]

Not touching core, too many of them formed their concepts in my childish mind (fighter, sorcerer, and wizard being the potential exceptions).

Outside of core:

Adept: A 3rd level wizard :smalltongue: I think that's the level that was called an adept in Red Box, either way it's where I first learned the word so the word still brings to mind a wizard on the lower end of their skill.

Archivist: A librarian; someone who draws their power from books and knowledge, maybe some specialist wizard.

Aristocrat: A noble.

Beguiler: An illusionist/enchanter of some sort, possibly a hypnotist.

Binder: A demon summoner; someone who binds fiends to their will.

Crusader: A holy warrior with the emphasis on warrior.

Dragon Shaman: A divine spellcaster drawing power from dragons in some savage world style campaign setting.

Dragonfire Adept: I have no real idea.

Dread Necromancer: A pretentious necromancer. Massive death effects and armies of the dead.

Duskblade: A spellsword-assassin who dabbles in black magic.

Factotum: A PrC that grants abilities based upon your (Planescape) Faction. What it's where I learned the word.

Favored Soul: Some sort of chosen one. Saint with intense magical power, sacrificing martial power compared to a cleric and more closely tied to their (good aligned) god.

Healer: Divine caster with magical and non-magical means of healing creatures; a surgeon with a literal godhand (I've watched too many J-dramas recently).

Hexblade: Something silly. Also Jonas Hex as shown in Justice League Unlimited.

Incarnate: A god made flesh. I might have almost named a homebrewed class this (changed it to Incarnation) when I made a class for someone becoming a god.

Knight: Heavily armored mounted warrior. Good diplomacy.

Marshal: A leader of men. Offers buffs, and tactical combat options (similar to White Raven).

Ninja: A rogue, possibly a rogue prestige class that gains additional stealth and combat ability at the price of non-stealth/combat options.

Samurai: A fighter. Maybe a variant that functions without armor gaining evasive and ki based abilities.

Scout: A stealth based martial character. A ranger that trades Wilderness for better Stealth.

Shaman: Monster clerics, or animistic priests; not particularly Shinto or other East Asian, though.

Shadowcaster: Someone with shadow themed magic. An uninspired choice of name.

Shugenja: Divination and animated paper dolls.

Sohei: Nothing, nothing at all.

Soulborn: Some type of monster made from petitioners honestly. Failing that, a warrior in the service of an outsider lord (demon prince, lord of the nine, one of the tome archons, etc).

Spellthief: A wizard-rogue who can steal casting ability from other spell casters.

Spirit Shaman: Someone who talks to nature spirits and the spirits of the dead, probably a divine caster.

Swashbuckler: A lightly armored warrior, lots of panache, cinematic moves, and a focus on one handed swords. Surprisingly nothing about being able to use shields even bucklers, though possibly abilities to aid with using a cloak to defend yourself (cloak fighting).

Swordsage: An oriental warrior who is a master of all forms of swordplay and weapons. Abilities that bring humanoid abilities to super-human levels.

Totemist: A divine caster which draws their power from one or more beast totems (possibly including monsters such as dragons, elementals, and chaos beasts). Less casting than a cleric but more martial power.

Truenamer: Someone able to use various true names in the vein of Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea books. At will magic, ability to put stuff together on the fly, not directly affecting other creatures (such true names being effectively minor artifacts not class features).

Warblade: A melee combatant focused purely on attack; a glass cannon warrior.

Warlock: A dark mage. Demonically powered. Loses versatility, for power although even that comes at a cost (physical pain/damage, insanity, etc).

Warmage: A combat focused mage. Reduced divination, enchantment, and illusion (although retaining Mirage Arcana and Invisibility spells for example), conjuration, transmutation (polymorph), and lots of evocation.

Wu Jen: 404 image not found.

[Grayson01]

Begiler: A Magic using Con artist
Bard: A traveling Scoundral (most likely witha lute or Silver Flute) who husles people out of money and seduces Queens
Barbarian: Conan Raging Wild hulk of the wildrness
Cleric: Holy Priest who goes about spreading his faith and Helping the Dontroten
Druid: Wilderness Priest oh a savage nature
Duskblade: Twilight (Not the Sparkaling Vampire) Magic Warrior mixs the Arcane Arts and skill full Sword play
Dragon Shaman: A person who revels in the power and magisty of Dragons, Natrual based living of the land
Favored Soul: Chosen of a Deity graced with a small fraction of thier power
Hexblade: Warrior Curse or touched by dark magic in someway Hunter of the Arcane Evils of the world
Knight: Lance A-lot
Monk: Jacky Chan!
Marshal: Battle field Commander general and Vetran
Psion: Mentalist revels in the power of the Mind, Tattos, White Aladin Pants, and a Purple Vest!
Paladin: Holy Warrior who roots out evil and monsters at all cost to personal saftey and Sacrfise (But not Lawful Stupid) a Pargon of Virtue beyond reprouch
Ranger: Hunter Master of the wild and Archer
Rouge: Skills master on Thievery both physical and social master of his own body pushing his limits to of Natural Skill. Survies of the prowess of ones own skills physical and mental without the trappings of magic
Scout: Wilderness Rouge military Trained to go out a head and clear the way for his squad almost Special forces in my mind.
Spelltheif: Magical Theif who robs Magical artifacts and wizards relics
Sorc: Weilder of the Arcane Arts by pure force of Will
Swashbuckler: Princess Bride all I am going to say (I am not Left handed!)
Wujen: Mystic Far east Wizard (Conan's Wizard friend or old guy from Big trouble in little China)
Warmage: War Wizard Blaster battle Field controler with non of the fluff or subtilty
Warlock: Power/knowledge Hungery person making packs with Fey/Demons/Devils and powers beyond the natural world.
Wizard: Blue Hat, Staff, long white Beard contacarous!