D&D Classes as College Majors

Book Reviews, GameRT, Resources

by Liz Brown

wooden bookshelf with titles from the artificer book list on display

It all started with an idle thought: “Warlocks would have to major in business, because of all the contracts.” 

Which grew into a question: “What would other Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) classes be as college majors?” 

Which amused me so much, I developed the question into a display at my library, in conjunction with our D&D Halloween Party, our biggest gaming event this semester. (5 game masters from our D&D Club, tutoring center, board game club, and yours truly, running one-short campaigns for tables of 6- all maxed out.) 

Ultimately, this post will not be a step by step guide to how to recreate this display for your own library because every library is different and the materials we choose are a reflection not only of our answers to the posed question but also of our library collections’ strengths and weaknesses. (Although I will provide a title list for the materials I chose.) 

I work in a medium-sized university library. Our ebook resources outnumber our physical print collection and most students use our digital materials exclusively. There has been minimal weeding since the library was founded in the seventies, which makes for some “wacky” finds in the stacks when you start browsing. When creating displays, I look for materials that still have their dust jackets and have not been rebound, so that they look appealing when displayed. I started my display list by searching in the catalog for specific keywords, but pulled just as many titles by browsing specific Library of Congress sections as I did pulling pre-located titles. I did not try to assign one LOC call number to each class, although a limited selection of call numbers emerged as much because of my time constraints in creating the display as any other reason. 

My goal in uniting D&D classes with our materials was to try to develop in our students an appreciation of spontaneous discovery that comes from browsing the stacks. I’m not trying to change their behavior away from digital use, I completely sympathize with the accessibility that drives it. But I am trying to give them “ah ha!” moments of discovery and to point out that not everything worth reading has made it into digital format. When selecting materials, I was looking for titles that sounded like they could be found on a fledgling scholar’s shelf in the D&D worlds as much as in our own, perhaps what might be considered a “core” text. Sometimes I chose titles because they reminded me of the spell list for certain classes. Sometimes I selected on “vibes”, based on my understanding and interpretation of the classes, who plays those classes, what kind of player or student they are.

Some of the D&D classes were easy to figure out: Artificer – engineering, Bard – performing arts, Cleric – nursing, Paladin – social work, Ranger – geography and environmental studies. But other classes were trickier to pin down. Would a Monk study philosophy or religion? What about Barbarians, would they even attend college? I asked students whom I knew played D&D for their opinions and posed the question to the GameRT Discord server. 

This thought experiment, besides being an amusing conversation starter, also made me assess our campus. What programs did we offer? In what fields did we have the most representation? Who would I offend if they thought I misclassified their department? Where were the gaps in our collection? As a selector for the departments I liaise with, this is far from the first time I’ve thought about these considerations, but it is a new way to frame library theory. 

Artificer – Engineering & Applied Science

Bard – Visual & Performing Arts

Cleric – Nursing & Health Sciences

Druid – Biology & Chemistry

Fighter – Cybersecurity

Monk – Philosophy & Religion

Paladin – Public Service

Ranger – Geography & Environmental Studies

Rogue – Anthropology

Warlock – Business & Economics

Wizard – College of Education

I primarily play the Sorcerer class when playing a magic user, so I like the idea of Sorcerers being “undeclared” majors. 

When discussing with others, several good suggestions came in for Barbarians- kinesiology, journalism (as first responders), sports medicine. Unfortunately we don’t have any of those programs on my campus. Due to that and space constraints, I omitted them from the display. 

How would you have approached this display idea? 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.