Actually, on the background of all absolutely cool and sweet
atmosphere of CF, the name for offensive clerics just clashes.
Shamans are priests of primitive religions praising animal and ancestor spirits. Tribal witch doctors.

They are not supposed to be any more offensive than a healer.

Make a contest for the better name, seriously.
It could be closer to... crusader, templar, warrior priest, whatever.
Just not shaman.

The same, to a smaller extent, applies to anti-paladin.

Seriously, give it a thought.

Thank you.

Probably not on the priority list for Imms. It's just a class name, unless major changes follow.

People seem to get used to the term, but for every newcomer
or outsider it is a shock to see how the term "shaman" is
understood on CF.

I agree with this. When I first started, and saw the name "shaman" I was not picturing an offense priest. More witch-docter or something a goblin village would have as a religous leader.

should be revamped. Let the name follow the revamp.

Shaman are a well-balanced class, for the most part, but they're boring. For my idea that has been shot down several times, search it on these forums.

>Make a contest for the better name, seriously.
>It could be closer to... crusader, templar, warrior priest,
>whatever.

All these suggestions scream "Paladin!". How about shaman? I can't think of a better one.

>The same, to a smaller extent, applies to anti-paladin.

People tend to call them Death Knights at times if you don't like the name. The academy guild stuff says that Anti-Paladins hate paladins and the weaknesses(or virtues, depending on your point of view) they represent, hence the name.

>All these suggestions scream "Paladin!". How about shaman? I can't >think of a better one.

Only because you are used to it in the game. Otherwise
"Shaman" would be associated with some tribal medicine man,
at best. Well, I am not a big authority.

Google "Define: shaman" and see how shamans are associated with animalistic religions, that is, shamans are not about the gods generally, but about spirits - of dead, of animals, of ancestors, etc.

one of the definitions: A witch doctor or medicine man who communicates with spirits while in a trance and who has the power of healing.

If you still do not believe me ask someone who is far from CF to describe how s/he sees a shaman.

>People tend to call them Death Knights at times if you don't like the >name. The academy guild stuff says that Anti-Paladins hate paladins and
>the weaknesses(or virtues, depending on your point of view) they >represent, hence the name.

Well, this a weak justification. Maybe it sounds weird just for me. Death, or Dark Knights are much better choice. Else, why not call Orc class Anti-Rangers? :)

Dreadlord
Deathknight
Blackguard
Malefactor
Torturer
Destroyer
Defiler

blah blah blah blah. I like Blackguard best.

There have been quests in the past and other little details that prevent the moniker 'Death Knights' from going to Anti-Paladins.

There is already a class of demon/undead that fits this description that has played a minor part in Theran quests/history at one point or another, as Valguarnera told me once a year or two ago.

The academy guild explains it nicely. The black sea dude wanted to change it, so I tossed something that's commonly used as nickname. But a nice piece of information anyway. So the main contribution of my post was the cool new idea of calling the offensive cleric class shaman.

Fine, AP is more or less acceptable.
About shamans... they are out of context, absolutely.
Already explained that twice above.

Again, if you do not believe me, check dictionary,
or google and see the context.

But Inquisitor is a tad bit too Christian for my liking. But if you google offensive cleric, most of the time it offers Shaman. Shaman is more multi-religious in RL world than Inquisitor, which is the part of the context that is conserved in CF pantheon. If shaman class goes forked ways with specializations some day, Inquisitor and Exorcist could be some kind of path names.

True, google gives references of Shaman as offensive cleric, but three of the four references go to Carrionfield, so the point is bad.

I agree however that inquisitor is too much Christian, but at least it conveys functions appropriately, where Shaman is neither appropriate nor informative (as was told, the only meaning of this word in the world outside CF is animalistic medicine man (just as Inquisitor refers to certain epoch and religion, Shaman refers to certain society type), where Inquisitor is no doubt cleric that does retribution).

Whatever... if most people are happy with it, I give up. After all, this change would require help files overhaul.

Would be interesting to hear some IMP's position on this issue though.

I thought it would go without saying that we're fine with the current name or we wouldn't have picked it. ;)

More akin to savage druidic stuff.

The closest thing to the general meaning of shaman in cf is the mundunugu adaptation for orcs. Still, I think the name works, and there's not anything I'd replace it with.

Shaman = Evangelist, Avenger
Anti-paladin = Hellion, Archfiend, Corrupter

-E.

I really like the name Avenger. Evangelist is too close to Christianity,
and not sounding any offensive.

Archfiend is nice, but more like a title..
Dark Knight maybe, or Evil Champion?

You see, Anti-Paladin is just... funny? Or is it just me?

Like think Anti-Assassin, Anti-Transmuter, Anti-Warrior, Anti-Healer.

Hmm. I'm not so sure about these. Avenger also sounds paladinny. I keep wanting to call shamans "priests", as in "not a warrior priest" (which would be a paladin. But then the "priest" label would include healers as well. It's almost like they need to be the same class, "Priest", with "Shaman" and "Healer" being specializations within the "Priest" class. Of course, that would bring us full-circle to the days of Clerics.

nt