What’s a culture neutral name for a Sha’ir?

[Jervis]

For people not aware, Sha’ir is a obscure dnd class in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th edition that usually functions as a semi-divine wizard with a connection to Gen. It has a connection to Middle Eastern historical and mythological traditions with a very Arabian Knights theme. Sha’ir historically were poets and scholars in the vein of a bard or skilled in some interpretations.

The issue is that the class doesn’t fit all that well with every setting. Sha’ir has been one of my favorite classes or character options in basically every edition it appears in and I’ve had a chance to play one. However, as you can probably tell from my description above it’s very married to users inspiration. The name Sha’ir just doesn’t work unless the setting in question uses the designated real work parody world building. I’m trying to find some name I can use that gives the class a unique identity.

The biggest issue is that any easy translation of the term is already taken by another class with very little overlap mechanically. Bard? Full class in both 3.5 and 5e. Warlock? Already exists. Shaman? Has the exact same problem just moved north and has TWO classes with that name in 3.5, also implies a overlap with Druid. Poet? Makes no sense and bard is a thing. Scholar? Wizard has that role baked in and doesn’t really mesh with their stick either. Mystic? A class in 3.5 and 5e, each with very different mechanics. I’m trying to come up with something as setting neutral as I can get. At very least no more than Barbarian.

Mechanically the class has its rules change every edition but what it has in common in each is that it’s a prepared spellcaster with rules distinct from cleric and wizard but over all serves as a very janky arcane caster. I run 3.5 and 5e games in the same setting so i’m trying to come up with some ideas that work for both.

Also Genie warlock is not 5e Sha’ir, that statement is heresy. And for the sake of full disclosure i’m working on a 5e Sha’ir class that might go up as a product on DTRPG at some point. If you don’t want me to use a suggestion you make for that feel free to tell me. I’m making this for personal setting worldbuilding mostly, the fact i’m working on a 5e Sha’ir is tangential.

[Argis13]

Thaumaturge?

[Rynjin]

I don't see why Sha'ir can't work. It doesn't really matter if a character from the Middle East might not fit into the campaign, what matters is the class itself.

We name plenty of things based on their country of origin that are no longer exclusively from that country.

Sha'ir is what the people who came up with the practice named it, and so that is what foreign practitioners of it also call themselves.

Are Druids the world over required to prove their Celtic roots to practice? Are Magi exclusively from the remnants of the Roman empire equivalent? Are Paladins all required to be from a Germanic cultural root?

I don't feel like anyone reasonable would claim so. So why would Sha'ir be any different?

[brian 333]

Skald fits if your setting is vaguely North European.

[Yakk]

Bargainer
Contractor
Elementalist
Summoner
Scrivener
Algebraist
Philosopher

[thorr-kan]

Sorcerer.

sorcery - noun, plural sor·cer·ies. the art, practices, or spells of a person who is supposed to exercise supernatural powers through the aid of evil spirits; black magic; witchery

Sha'ir boiled down is using a non-Prime creature to fetch spells for you to cast.

As a kit for 2E's mage class, it used an elemental creature. No reason to limit yourself to that. An outsider of the appropriate alignment will work just fine.

[Jervis]

Sorcerer.

sorcery - noun, plural sor·cer·ies. the art, practices, or spells of a person who is supposed to exercise supernatural powers through the aid of evil spirits; black magic; witchery

Sha'ir boiled down is using a non-Prime creature to fetch spells for you to cast.

As a kit for 2E's mage class, it used an elemental creature. No reason to limit yourself to that. An outsider of the appropriate alignment will work just fine.

That is a fair point. I was intending to alter the spirit slightly to be a bound one of multiple different outsiders. I like the elemental theme for the setting they came from but i wanted to open it up to some reflavoring options for people that want to use them elsewhere. Sorcerer is taken in most editions but the idea is good.


Bargainer
Contractor
Elementalist
Summoner
Scrivener
Algebraist
Philosopher

I am definitely using Scrivener for something, that's a perfect class name.


Skald fits if your setting is vaguely North European.

I do like skald though it moves the issue north. That said for a Scandinavian or Germanic fantasy setting its great/


I don't see why Sha'ir can't work. It doesn't really matter if a character from the Middle East might not fit into the campaign, what matters is the class itself.

We name plenty of things based on their country of origin that are no longer exclusively from that country.

Sha'ir is what the people who came up with the practice named it, and so that is what foreign practitioners of it also call themselves.

Are Druids the world over required to prove their Celtic roots to practice? Are Magi exclusively from the remnants of the Roman empire equivalent? Are Paladins all required to be from a Germanic cultural root?

I don't feel like anyone reasonable would claim so. So why would Sha'ir be any different?

that is a very good point. Druid is a base class and it works just fine, i guess its just a case of the word sounding a bit out of place. That said classes are mechanical constructs so yeah i can see just having a adaption paragraph with different names for different regions.


Thaumaturge?

That is nice, it's not used nearly enough

Thanks everyone!

[sreservoir]

I am definitely using Scrivener for something, that's a perfect class name.

Scriveners are pretty much clerks are pretty much clerics, right?

[brian 333]

I'm not sure how you can divorce a word from its language. When using English one accepts that borrow-words are a thing.

The distinction between sorcerer and wizard exists only because D&D define them differently. If your class needs a name to make it distinct from existing classes, use the name you like best, define it to mean that particular class, and enjoy.

If the name being chosen sounds foreign, give it a reason for it to have been imported. Rendezvous exists in English because of William the Conqueror. It means meeting. There was already a word in English, but we went and borrowed another. Your setting can similarly loan words between languages.

[thorr-kan]

Sorcerer.

sorcery - noun, plural sor·cer·ies. the art, practices, or spells of a person who is supposed to exercise supernatural powers through the aid of evil spirits; black magic; witchery

Sha'ir boiled down is using a non-Prime creature to fetch spells for you to cast.

As a kit for 2E's mage class, it used an elemental creature. No reason to limit yourself to that. An outsider of the appropriate alignment will work just fine.

That is a fair point. I was intending to alter the spirit slightly to be a bound one of multiple different outsiders. I like the elemental theme for the setting they came from but i wanted to open it up to some reflavoring options for people that want to use them elsewhere. Sorcerer is taken in most editions but the idea is good.
I'll admit; I was going to suggest witch, based on the familiar. But the entire post came off as catty, and that's not what I wanted to convey.

[sktarq]

You could even have it be a simple compound word that doesn't otherwise exists instead of trying to force a real world word that already has meaning and conotation onto the idea that you want.

take say Gen-worker and then rotate various -worker/-man/-speaker/-caller type suffixes in the English language until you get something that rolls off the tongue. Genist, Geneer or whatever fits with your table and feel and will still be clear that it means someone who works with gen.

[Wintermoot]

"Those casters that use Genii to fetch their spells"


Spell-shuttler.

[Metastachydium]

Hm. (I have no idea what the 2e and 4e variant does, so anything I say may or may not work for those version; with that out of the way) wouldn't a name descriptive of the abilities the class has work better than some translation of the the term the name derives from? In that case you could simply go for something like Inveigler or Suppliant (the latter sounding especially good on a class that can use divine magic).

[Jervis]

Scriveners are pretty much clerks are pretty much clerics, right?

I know the monster Hunter universe uses the term for basically scribes that travel around delivering messages, studying science and history, and researching monsters. That’s a interesting space for a character to occupy


Hm. (I have no idea what the 2e and 4e variant does, so anything I say may or may not work for those version; with that out of the way) wouldn't a name descriptive of the abilities the class has work better than some translation of the the term the name derives from? In that case you could simply go for something like Inveigler or Suppliant (the latter sounding especially good on a class that can use divine magic).

The 2e version is a lot like 3.5. They’re wizard variants that can trade in their spell book for the Gen familiar that can grab any spell they’ve seen. They can also grab any and all priest (cleric) spells but doing so has a lot of risks involved up to and including making a solar mad at you. They also don’t have a limit to their spells per day meaning they can cast as many spells as they can retrieve but they can only have one retrieved spell at a time and they need to cast it within 10 minutes of getting it. So the length of time required to get one means you probably aren’t casting spells during a fight but you’re the king of out of combat utility casting.

4E Sha’ir is basically just a wizard that doesn’t need a spellbook and can swap out at will powers with a familiar. At least that’s my understanding. 4E is the only edition I’ve never played.

[SpoonR]

Binder or Negotiator, or synonyms. Since their essence revolves around bargaining with elemental powers (I think 2E had the idea of a mistreated gen complaining to high power genie who then threatens the person. Bargains, fair treatment type concepts)

Lawyer. All about the wording of contracts. Considering that genie wishes are some of the oldest “keep letter of wish, twist intent so bad things happen”, anyone who willingly and successfully makes a bargain with them had best know a lot about the “laws” of gen-kind

[Metastachydium]

Binder or Negotiator, or synonyms. Since their essence revolves around bargaining with elemental powers (I think 2E had the idea of a mistreated gen complaining to high power genie who then threatens the person. Bargains, fair treatment type concepts)

I don't think either of those really works. Binder is kind of taken in 3.5 and isn't terribly fitting. Binders are called binders because they bind vestiges. The only thing Sha'irs arguable bind to themselves is the gen, but it's essentially a familiar.

As for Negotiator, it's not terribly descriptive either. The Sha'ir doesn't negotiate directly. The Sha'ir merely requests a spell to be retrieved and the haggling is done by the gen.


Lawyer. All about the wording of contracts. Considering that genie wishes are some of the oldest “keep letter of wish, twist intent so bad things happen”, anyone who willingly and successfully makes a bargain with them had best know a lot about the “laws” of gen-kind

Heh. I also considered Soliciter, but gave up on it because of the British legal system muddying those waters.


The 2e version is a lot like 3.5. They’re wizard variants that can trade in their spell book for the Gen familiar that can grab any spell they’ve seen. They can also grab any and all priest (cleric) spells but doing so has a lot of risks involved up to and including making a solar mad at you. They also don’t have a limit to their spells per day meaning they can cast as many spells as they can retrieve but they can only have one retrieved spell at a time and they need to cast it within 10 minutes of getting it. So the length of time required to get one means you probably aren’t casting spells during a fight but you’re the king of out of combat utility casting.

4E Sha’ir is basically just a wizard that doesn’t need a spellbook and can swap out at will powers with a familiar. At least that’s my understanding. 4E is the only edition I’ve never played.

I see, thanks. In that case, I'll make both of my suggestions ('person who requests something from someone else of power') above official:
–Inveigler; the good thing about this option is that inveigling has connotations that evoke skill or trickery; and
–Suppliant or, perhaps better yet, Supplicant; its greatest benefit is again the connotation it carries; supplication is a(n often (at least quasi-))formal(ised) method of petitioning some greater power of the sort that this game would describe as an extraplanar entity that nevertheless doesn't neccessarily require the involvement of the clergy in the process.

[Sapphire Guard]

Favoured

BeFriended

Communer

[Sam113097]

Convoker might be sort of interesting, it plays off of the Invoker divine caster class from 4e and sounds vaguely "religious" while being related to summoning.

Accordant and Covenantor might work as well.

[Ashtagon]

The cultural niche of the sha'ir is a poet with magical powers. That niche is precisely occupied by the bard.

The mechanical niche of the sha'ir is summoning a genie-esque "familiar" who gathers spells for the character to cast. At higher levels, he gains powers associated relevant to commanding elementals and genies. "Spirit Master" seems to be a culture-neutral term that fits. In the medieval sense of the term, "daemonologist" would be precise and correct, but D&D has taken the word daemon for its own purposes, so that no longer words.

The word "sha'ir" etymologically derives from the Arabic verb "to know". Which suggests translations such as savant and seer. Seer has the nice advantage that it sounds a bit like sha'ir.

[Metastachydium]

The word "sha'ir" etymologically derives from the Arabic verb "to know". Which suggests translations such as savant and seer. Seer has the nice advantage that it sounds a bit like sha'ir.

Both of those are kind of taken, though. Seer's another name for a psion specializing in clarsentience while savant is is a DComp base class.

[Jervis]

The cultural niche of the sha'ir is a poet with magical powers. That niche is precisely occupied by the bard.

The mechanical niche of the sha'ir is summoning a genie-esque "familiar" who gathers spells for the character to cast. At higher levels, he gains powers associated relevant to commanding elementals and genies. "Spirit Master" seems to be a culture-neutral term that fits. In the medieval sense of the term, "daemonologist" would be precise and correct, but D&D has taken the word daemon for its own purposes, so that no longer words.

The word "sha'ir" etymologically derives from the Arabic verb "to know". Which suggests translations such as savant and seer. Seer has the nice advantage that it sounds a bit like sha'ir.

Interesting I’ve never found the etymology before. In that case maybe spiritualist? I considered using magi for a while but I actually use that for a regional class variant thing in the setting that had me asking this. Essentially they’re a Sha’ir style archivist mechanically though for the lore I made them specialist priests of a religion roughly based on Zoroastrianism. Sha’ir proper and Magi are sort of that regions wizard and cleric. That said I wanted Sha’ir as a class to be more present in the setting so I was looking for a general name. Lore dump aside thanks.

[Ashtagon]

Both of those are kind of taken, though. Seer's another name for a psion specializing in clarsentience while savant is is a DComp base class.

A name having been taken never stopped game designers before. Consider the ninja. There's the WotC Complete Adventurer version. The AEG Rokugan Campaign Setting version. The Dragon Magazine #318 version. And the Paizo Ultimate Combat version. Four versions in one broadly compatible "3.pf" rules set.

[Aeson]

Animist or Numenist might be reasonable substitutions, if words derived from Latin sound less foreign or misplaced to your ears and you want to preserve some kind of connection to spirits. Animism is the belief that things - people, animals, places, objects, whatever - have 'anima' (sing. animus), spirits; presumably, one might be able to work magic through negotiation with / manipulating / bribing / cajoling / threatening those spirits. Numenism would be basically the same, except that instead of working with anima you'd be working with numina (sing. numen), "powers;" if you wanted to have both anima and numina in the setting, then the spirit of a tree, rock, or ford might be an animus whereas the spirit of a forest, mountain, or river would be a numen. Anima and numina might also include things like the petty gods of individual houses and cities, if your setting has such things - minor deities unlikely to have the sort of mass following necessary for them to have clerics and paladins but which nonetheless exist and might provide some degree of protection or assistance if properly approached and propitiated.

[brian 333]

Bonded Mage/Sorcerer/Wizard

Pact Mage

Vizier

[Metastachydium]

A name having been taken never stopped game designers before. Consider the ninja. There's the WotC Complete Adventurer version. The AEG Rokugan Campaign Setting version. The Dragon Magazine #318 version. And the Paizo Ultimate Combat version. Four versions in one broadly compatible "3.pf" rules set.

Objection! 3rd party and PF don't count!
[Enter two Samurai.]
…
Yeah. There's that. BUt I still don't think that's a good idea. (Even if it is funny at times. (I'm playing a Mountebank/Mountebank in a campaign right now.))


Animist or Numenist

The former would be confusing because of its Real Life meaning; the latter would be numinism, since as pointed out by yourself, the actual root is numin- rather than *numen-.


'anima' (sing. animus)

Nope. Both are singular and often used interchangeably. Anima in the strictest sense means 'breath, lifeforce, life-soul' whereas, again in the strictest sense, animus stands for 'soul as the seat of the capacity for making moral judgements(/rational cognition/both)'. THeir plurals are animae and animi, respectively.

[Ashtagon]

If you're after something as culture-neutral as possible, may I suggest *h2ewois? That's the Proto-Indo-European word for "seer". As almost every language in Europe, Iran, and India derives from that, it's probably about as culture neutral as you're going to get.

nb. I'm studying Proto-Indo-European. I make no claims to being a good student, or that my translation is at all accurate.

[Jervis]

If you're after something as culture-neutral as possible, may I suggest *h2ewois? That's the Proto-Indo-European word for "seer". As almost every language in Europe, Iran, and India derives from that, it's probably about as culture neutral as you're going to get.

Huh, interesting.


Objection! 3rd party and PF don't count!
[Enter two Samurai.]
…
Yeah. There's that. BUt I still don't think that's a good idea. (Even if it is funny at times. (I'm playing a Mountebank/Mountebank in a campaign right now.))


My favorite is still Race: Beguiler with the Class: Beguiler. A player is running one of those in a upcoming game of mine.

[Yakk]

You could even have it be a simple compound word that doesn't otherwise exists instead of trying to force a real world word that already has meaning and conotation onto the idea that you want.

take say Gen-worker and then rotate various -worker/-man/-speaker/-caller type suffixes in the English language until you get something that rolls off the tongue. Genist, Geneer or whatever fits with your table and feel and will still be clear that it means someone who works with gen.

Gen-geneer

[Metastachydium]

My favorite is still Race: Beguiler with the Class: Beguiler. A player is running one of those in a upcoming game of mine.

Ah, that's a classic!


If you're after something as culture-neutral as possible, may I suggest *h2ewois? That's the Proto-Indo-European word for "seer". As almost every language in Europe, Iran, and India derives from that, it's probably about as culture neutral as you're going to get.

Be it known that this suggestion enjoys my approval and support!

[MrStabby]

The cultural niche of the sha'ir is a poet with magical powers. That niche is precisely occupied by the bard.

The mechanical niche of the sha'ir is summoning a genie-esque "familiar" who gathers spells for the character to cast. At higher levels, he gains powers associated relevant to commanding elementals and genies. "Spirit Master" seems to be a culture-neutral term that fits. In the medieval sense of the term, "daemonologist" would be precise and correct, but D&D has taken the word daemon for its own purposes, so that no longer words.

The word "sha'ir" etymologically derives from the Arabic verb "to know". Which suggests translations such as savant and seer. Seer has the nice advantage that it sounds a bit like sha'ir.

So... "Scienist" then?

Or you could play around with that - sciomancer? Sophomanteist?

[Metastachydium]

sciomancer

A shadow diviner sounds pretty badass, but I'm not sure what it has to do with sha'irs.

[MrStabby]

A shadow diviner sounds pretty badass, but I'm not sure what it has to do with sha'irs.

I was going for the modern representation of the Latin root 'scire' to know.

I guess that one was a swing and a miss on my part.