Fans of the Dwarven Fighter have demanded a new name, akin to Craft-Priest, Spellsword, and Nightblade.
Some initial suggestions:
Dwarven Slayer
Dwarven Tunnel-Fighter
Dwarven Defender
Dwarven Shieldbreaker
Dwarven Sentinel
Dwarven Warden
Others??
There’s an implied setting issue that comes up in the name. Are Dwarven fighters inherently conceived of as defensive? Many of the names suggested so far (Defender, Sentinel, Warden…) have that feel, which has resonance in my conception of dwarves. “The goblins attack our holds, and we make them pay for every inch of tunnel.” I really like Sentinel if you’re going for that feel, but I’m not sure it’s ideal for what is, after all, a PC class in a game that will rarely (at low levels, at least) be about defending the dwarven holds. Something that has more of a pro-active feel may be better for a PC. Tunnel-Fighter and Slayer are better in this regard; Shieldbreaker as well, although I don’t actually like that name.
Dwarven Venturer? Wayfinder (a term used for thief-fighter dwarves in a homebrew setting I played in)? Seekers?
“The dwarven fighter class represents a dwarf trained as a soldier in the endless underground wars of his people,” according to the game rules. The Auran Empire setting assumes dwarves are slowly going extinct, displaced by the superior breeding of beastmen. So while there might be local counter-attacks, it’s a Long Defeat.
Some more ideas…
Dwarven Axe-brother
Dwarven Hammer-kin
Dwarven Soldier
Dwarven Warsworn
Dwarven Sworn Shield
Dwarven Axebearer
“Dwarven Soldier”, along with “Dwarven Warrior”, were a couple that I considered, but they feel a bit dull to me. “Dwarven Warsworn” sounds 4e as heck, and is hard to pronounce, to boot.
I like “Axe-brother”, but it implies a male character, and surely one could play a female dwarf fighter type. (Let’s not get into the whole “female dwarves have beards” issue.) A lot of these ideas also imply using a particular weapon, but then again, so does “Elven Spellsword”.
Some other suggestions:
Dwarven Man-At-Arms (yes, I know this suggests a male character, too)
Dwarven Vindicator
Dwarven Armiger
Dwarven Guardian
Dwarven Battler
Dwarven Champion (probably too lofty)
Dwarven Partisan
Dwarven Battle-Sage
Dwarven Warmaster
Dwarven Beast-Slayer
If nothing else, a lot of the suggestions could be used as level titles.
In Dragonage, their dwarves had a nice concept of the "legion of the dead’ where disgraced dwarves would be considered ‘dead’ and go down into the deep roads where the blight had overrun, and fight the evil as long as they could. A bit like the Night Watch in Game of Thrones. I kind assume that at dwarven fighter is like an immovable object- he waits for his enemies to come to him, and he will hold his ground against all comers. Have one guarding a tunnel, and no creature getting through there. Also there is something cool about them being the ones who go deeper in the earth then even the other dwarves are willing to go.
How about something like Deepwatch or Vaultguard?
I think I kind of like “Vaultguard”. Maybe throw a hyphen in there (Vault-Guard) to make it consistent with Craft-Priest?
I like Vault-guard. If we call them Vault-guards, I could rename the Dwarven strongholds “vaults” instead of “citadels” to go with the name.
The word for “citadel” in Dwarven (in the Auran Empire) is “Azen”, which sounds like it should mean Vault!
ps I should probably eliminate the hyphen in craft-priest or add a hyphen to bladedancer, nightblade, and spellsword. There’s no rhyme or reason right now…
I like hyphens, as I feel they add a certain Old World vibe, but it might be best to drop them. For some reason “Vault-Guard” looks like a 1950s brand name to me. Something that should come in a spray can.
Vault-Guard is filled with dwarven goodness.
Maybe dwarves are culturally prone to over-hyphenation.
Isn’t the “pizzaz” of the dwarven fighter names extant in the level titles? In 0d&d the class was a generic descriptor; This is the fighting-man, this is the man-who-uses-magic aka magic-user. Why does the descriptor have to be florid as well?
This is why I’m not terribly taken with class names like “night blade”. It’s just a fancy word for something quite simple. Put the cool names as level titles. I should be able to simply look at a class name and know what it is; things like dwarven warden or blade dancer could be a dwarven ranger or cleric or is the blade dancer a f/mu? or mu/th? or f/th? f/cl? how am I suppose to know unless I have to slog through the text?
There’s an argument to be made that the elf, dwarf, and new class’ level titles are too bland and therefore people want to spice up the class name a bit to compensate, but I think that approach is backwards to what would be best.
I actually agree with Bargle, but I assumed that the elven class names (and “bladedancer”) were not open to discussion. I’d actually prefer simpler class names and florid level titles, but that’s just me. Assuming that all of the demi-humans are going to get fancy names (and that’s just the way it is), “dwarven fighter” doesn’t really cut it.
I like Vaultguard or Vaultsworn.
(This cries out for a 3pp sourcebook called ‘Vaults of Antiquity’)
I think with demihumans the classes need to imply more of a story. I think most people have a good idea of the fighter/MU/Cleric/Thief ones because while they are classes, they are pretty similar to careers too- and humasn with jobs are something we can all visualize pretty easily. When it comes to demihumans, it is an unknown race’s culture and lifestyle you are trying to wrap your brain around when you start a new character. And something like “Dwarven Fighter” is non-specific as far as how it differs from a regular fighter. Giving a bit of a story via an evocative name helps make it clearer how a bladedancer, etc differs from a vanilla human fighter.
Florid level titles are fun, but by the time a PC gets that level, you already have a handle on who your character is, and they only serve to be a nice title to toss out when talking to NPCs.
I am pleased to present the new and more flavorful Dwarven Vaultguard, which will make its first appearance in v17 of the rules. Flavor text and level titles are below.
Dwarves are stout, short, bearded demi-humans who average a height of approximately 4’ and weigh about 150lbs. Perhaps not surprisingly, they have skin, hair and eye colors in earth tones. Dwarves have a reputation for having surly attitudes, and are particularly gruff with elves. They value precious metals and stones, and live in deep underground vaults, where they endure constant raids from the orcs, trolls, and even worse denizens of the darkness below. In the Auran Empire, dwarves are rarely seen, for their strongholds lie to the south, in the great Meniri Mountains on the edge of the Waste.
Dwarves trained to defend their race’s underground vault from the endless hordes that threaten it are called vaultguards. Though most vaultguards are born, live and die in the vault, from time to time a young vaultguard will be dispatched to foreign realms on a warrior’s pilgrimage. The few vaultguards who return from such pilgrimages bring gold and glory to their clans, often leading them to new vaults and becoming great lords. The dwarven vaultguard class represents such a dwarf.
Sentry 1
Warden 2
Shieldbearer 3
Defender 4
Sentinel 5
Guardian 6
Champion 7
Vaultguard 8
Vaultlord 9
Vaultlord 10
Vaultlord 11
Vaultlord 12
‘Vaultguard’ sounds so right to me - hardy like a dwarf, and natural too. Nice one, Jedo! I’ve really enjoyed this thread 