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Oeryn
2007-06-15, 10:53 AM
I should probably know this, but what's a "gish"?

DaMullet
2007-06-15, 10:55 AM
As I understand it, it's someone who casts spells and is a fighter (see Duskblade).

Jimp
2007-06-15, 11:09 AM
A Gish is someone who mixes spellcasting with melee power. Usually a 'gish' uses his spells to increase his own melee ability with Feats like Arcane Strike and spells like True Strike.

Arislyn
2007-06-15, 11:26 AM
So, where did the term "gish" come from? It doesn't seem immediately intuitive to me what it derives from.

lotofsnow
2007-06-15, 11:34 AM
For some reason, I've always thought it had to do with githyankis. For instance, in githyanki society there are cross class fighter/magic users called "gish." I'm not sure if I read that somewhere or dreamed it up. My guess is that I read it.

Looks like I did read it, according to this thread:

http://www.enworld.org/archive/index.php/t-144046.html

Fax Celestis
2007-06-15, 11:49 AM
The Githyanki, in 2e (and probably earlier) had a warrior/mage dual-class caste of their society that they called the "Gish". The term was adopted by the gaming community and now applies to warrior/mages in general.

Saithis Bladewing
2007-06-15, 11:51 AM
Funny, I'm usually pretty good about these nicknames, but I've never heard of 'gish' until I saw this thread.

Sutremaine
2007-06-15, 11:59 AM
Did the term 'gish' originate before or after the creation of base classes like the Duskblade? I tend to think of off-the-rack classes like that as hybrids, reserving 'gish' for the custom multiclass builds.

Lemur
2007-06-15, 12:05 PM
Long, long before the duskblade. As previously noted, the term comes from earlier editions, but has been broadened to describe combat arcanists.

Also, there's a Common Terms sticky for this kind of thing.

Person_Man
2007-06-15, 12:55 PM
Githyanki were on the cover of the first edition D&D Fiend Folio (1979). It introduced many iconic enemies into the D&D lexicon, including the Githyanki (or Gish) which were the first Fighting/Magic Using combination enemies. Soon afterwards, players wanted to play builds that mirrored Githyanki, and so the shorthand was born. Old timers like me (I'm 29) insist on keeping the term around.

There was a similar phenomenon having to do with the introduction of Drizzt do Urden into popular novels. But there has since been a backlash, so its rare to hear anyone say they want to "play a Drizzt" anymore.

Oeryn
2007-06-15, 01:19 PM
I'm an "old-timer", too, and well do I remember the Fiend Folio. And the groans that used to ensue when the DM would pull that sucker out.

I remember the Githyanki, but I guess the "Gish" part is just one of the many things that's fallen out of my brain in the last 20 years....

Thanks for the info, everyone.

sleeping fishy
2007-06-15, 01:26 PM
oh wow, this is good to know, ive heard the word but didnt know waht it meant