D&D General Group Names: What to Say When Everyone Picks the Same Class

Snarf Zagyg

Notorious Liquefactionist
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A little while ago, I was riding the Pineapple Express. And let me tell you, I was more stoned than Pisidice of Methymna. But that's not the point of this post.

I was visiting the Pineapple Express thread (the rootin'est tootin'est hootenanny this side of Ibiza, heavy on the hoot, light on the nanny) and I was discussing my love of collective nouns. What? Forbidden loves are the best kind, don't judge. Any way, collective nouns are the (sometimes weird) names we give to groups... some of them are so engrained in usage we don't even think of them as weird anymore (a litter of puppies?). Most of the fun ones are for animals... all of us know that it's a PRIDE OF LIONS, but there are some really good ones.

A murmuration of swallows.
A murder of crows (sometimes you will see this as a murder of ravens, but a bunch of Edgar Allan Poe flyin' wannabes is an unkindness).
An obstinacy of buffaloes.
A confusion of guinea fowl.
A sneak of weasels.
An ostentation of peacocks.
A troubling of goldfish.

Anyway, most of these terms are very old (Middle Ages, coming from courtly hunting and known as 'terms of venery' and basically used to show off erudition*), but some? Not so much! A parliament of owls dates all the way back to ... CS Lewis in his Narnia books.

*I fully expect someone to draw the link between this and, um, an unfortunate sufferer of profligate logorrhea in the comments.

Anyway, the actual history is interesting. For a very tiny and minute value of interesting. The super-abridged version is this... after the Norman invasion of England, the French ruled while the English did whatever "not ruling" is. Which is why the English language often has different words for the living animal and the animal you eat. The muckity-mucks didn't deal with cows, but they did like to eat their boeuf. Anyway, in addition to aristocratin' around, they also hunted ("venery" is a very old term for hunting) and probably enjoyed taunting each other in erudition games with their jargon. Or with their incredibly silly accents.

Anyway, this was the start of collective nouns. And collective nouns aren't just used for the lil' critters of nature! If you, like DEREK!!!!, screw up all the time, you don't just have a lot of errors, you have a comedy of errors. A group of husbands that have unfaithful wives? An incredulity of cuckolds. A group of jurors might not just be a jury- it's also a damning of jurors. And all those nuns? A superfluity of nuns. A bunch of vicars, whether wearing a tutu or not? A prudence of vicars.

Now, some of those might sound weird, but again, some of them you are quite used to. A fleet of lorries. A flock of seagulls birds. A band of musicians. A board of directors .A pack (or den) of thieves. A swarm of bees....

not-the-bees.gif


Finally, an eloquence of lawyers. Suck it, person who keeps making those lawyer jokes. Oh, wait. That's me? Never mind.

Anyway, I ended up proposing a collective name for Bards (a GRAVEYARD of bards) but then I thought ... what about the classes that don't both suck and blow? Well, here is my list of proposed collective nouns for all the official 5e24 classes! Feel free to tell me how awesome and correct I am in the comments.


A yawp of barbarians.
A graveyard of bards.
A fang of clerics.
A kush of druids.
A mercury of fighters.
A grasshopper of monks.
A melee of paladins.
An aragorn of rangers.
A gallery of rogues.
A godel of sorcerers.
A pewing of warlocks.
A choleric of wizards.

Oh, and how about a forgotten of artificers?

I know. You didn't realize you needed this, did you? But now.... you can thank me later!
 
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From a previous post:

A group of fighters is a platoon, a group of clerics is a pew, and a group of bards is a mistake.

I like the pewing for Warlocks, because, um, pew pew pew. But your cleric ain't bad.

And the bard name? I would do the chef's kiss but I learned that might be cringe. I don't wanna be cringe like bards, I wanna be lit! But then again, me saying "lit" might also be cringe.

So .... I salute you, good sir, and all your fine works!
 




A peck of halflings

This is my favorite so far. Along those same lines...

Groups of four witches are commonly named after the cardinal directions, but a group of four druids are known as Pete, Georgie, Dim, and Alex.

In Disney lore a group of dwarfs is a septet. But in Tolkien lore a group of dwarves is an irregular plural.

A pair of martial artists is a dyslexic wedding.

A pair of halflings is one ling.

A citation of sorcerers (archaic form: a bibliography).

A sockfull of warlocks.

Also, a couple old threads:
 
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