Adventures in nomenclature
Class titles and the reclamation of synonyms
What’s my class? Well, according to who you ask, I’m a 1st edition fighter/magic user, 2nd edition bladesinger, 3rd edition eldritch knight, 3.75 edition magus, 4th edition swordmage, and 5th edition spellblade. But actually I belong to an order of mystic myrmidons.
There’s such a wide choice of character classes, kits and archetypes in D20 games that they have almost exhausted the fantasy lexicon. But a class can still go by a different name. NPC knowledge (or, more often, ignorance) and regional variations in their vernacular can lead to many different monikers and epithets. According to game system rules, a character may be a wizard. But within that character’s world, they can still be called a magic-user, magician, mage, sorcerer, warlock or witch, even if those technically exist as other official classes.
New titles can also be gained that are unique to the campaign world, with its various guilds, military, arcane and religious orders all giving opportunities for this, either by class level, by using a system of fame and prestige points, or by major interactions earning enough renown to grant noble status. This might also be inherited (somewhat more heavy-handedly) through bloodline, prophecy, or divine boon.
Imagination and rich use of language to create additional or alternate class titles provides more immersion and can be as useful as the categorization and bureaucracy of system metagaming to determine a hierarchy of power within the campaign world. You don’t need to be restricted. You can mold class names to fit the characters’ reality rather than the other way around. This is especially useful to remember if class names are rooted in real-world cultures that clash with the flavor of your campaign, while the class abilities can be snuck in under a different guise. For example, Viking berserkers, scouts and skalds can be rebranded in a jungle settling as jaguar warriors, eagle atlatlists and skullwhistlers without losing any of their ferocity.