| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Arion Elenim |
Posted - 16 Oct 2003 : 06:28:44
Do the characters in your campaigns know the D&D names of their spells?
For instance, does Milzander the sorceror say to Flimflam the wizard, "Hey! Nice Magic Missle. Too bad the orc had a Stone Skin?" |
| 4 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Cult_Leader |
Posted - 17 Oct 2003 : 14:01:42
 Oh no he is casting "That flamming orb thinggy" at us again. 
hehehehe  |
| Bookwyrm |
Posted - 17 Oct 2003 : 07:28:11
That's aluded to in the PHB, remember? Under the various Bigby's [insert actions here] Hand spells, it mentions that clerics name the spell after their patron.
Personally, I think there should be variation, like with the web spell you mentioned. Unless it's named after someone (which I like, and think that it shouldn't have been removed in 3.5e), there's no reason why it should be the same everywhere, and every reason why mages from distant lands call it different things. The spells don't change, of course. As the book says, it's a 'language' that was discovered, not invented. But the names aren't a part of that, and the language it's spoken in should matter.
If nothing else, it might mean something different in that language. An Irish-born professor of mine had to get into the habbit of saying "I'll come by" or the like, istead of what he was used to: "I'll knock you up [in the morning]."  And also, in French you never say the direct translation of "I'm feeling hot" unless you mean something (*ahem*) different. 
Also, the PHB says that your characters might customize the things they say. "Lidda, the halfling rogue, talks about 'footpaddin' rather than about 'moving silently' . . . . Ember, the monk, calls . . . [it] 'Rice Paper Walk.'" So why not spells?
Really, this is the sort of thing they should have expanded on in the PHB. I noticed that when I read it the first time, thinking that that chapter was awfully thin, and that was before I got embroiled in the "fluff vs. krunch" debate. |
| Arion Elenim |
Posted - 16 Oct 2003 : 17:48:58
I was thinking that it might depend on the character's background...who trained them, etc. I also thought it would be kind of interesting to make up names for each of the spells....Web might be called "Web" by Elminster, but perhaps Alomar the Smelly calls it "Spider's Snare". |
| The Sage |
Posted - 16 Oct 2003 : 09:55:25
'Flimflam the wizard'...  I like that. It reminds me of a particularly stupid name for one of my first wizard PC's (in the early days of 1e)...Furtbil... .
Anyway to answer your question - a simple rule I sometimes like to use - knowledge of spell names and the like are completely determined by the PC's intelligence ability score (normally of a score higher than 10), and/or having the Spellcraft skill (normally with more than 1 rank).
It's not great I know, but I would think that not every person that is encountered in a fantasy world (especially those who are not magically inclined) would know completely and surely that a 'magic missile' is called a 'magic missile'. Although, this would not always necessarily be the case. I mean in most cases, people would look to a large ball of fire flying across the battlefield and think 'fireball', simply because that is what it is.
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