So many words #016 - Dungeons & Dragons (Part 2)

This could have been me if I hadn't discovered D&D

This took a good while longer than I originally anticipated, but picking up where I left off last week, here's part 2 of Dungeons & Dragons (龍與地下城 Lóng yǔ Dìxiàchéng) in Chinese。

Playing Baldur's Gate 2 in Chinese has been a blast so far. My favorite part is seeing the cheesy high fantasy chatter (準備納命!) translated into Chinese. I'm slowly preparing a new instalment of "How to talk like a Villain in Chinese" based on the stuff I've jotted down so far. 

Weapons (武器 wǔqì):

In D&D, weapons are divided into two basic categories: melee (近戰武器 jìnzhàn wǔqì) and ranged (遠程武器 yuǎnchéng wǔqì). Melee weapons are then further divided in three types depending on what kind of damage they do, they are slashing (揮砍 huīkǎn), crushing (粉碎) and piercing (穿刺 chuāncì).

The weapon names themselves are pretty dull and unremarkable with most of them being literal translations like 長劍 chángjiàn longsword, 短弓 duǎngōng shortbow, perhaps the most egregious example being 十字弓 shízìgōng crossbow, so I won't go any further into them here. 

Damage (傷害 shānghài)

Hitpoints are known as 生命點 shēngmìngdiǎn, i.e. "life points".  IMO Another case of the Chinese translation being superior to the English original, "hit points" sounds like the amount of points you have available to hit something. 

Hitting a target is represented by the verb 命中 mìngzhòng. As you might already be aware, 中 has two pronunciations associated with it, zhōng and zhòng, the former a location expression meaning middle and the latter a verb that means to hit or to be hit. There are several other characters with multiple pronunciations that contain a similar pattern of being a verb in fourth tone, like the 和 hè in 和詩 hèshī compose a poem in reply. 中 is a commonly used verb, by itself it is collocated with such words as 埋伏 máifu ambush:

我們中了埋伏. We have gone into an ambush.

As a verbal complement it is collocated with verbs like 打 dǎ or 射 shè (see my earlier post on guns). 

To cause damage is represented by the VO construction 造成傷害 zàochéng shānghài. If you hit the target you will most likely cause 1 or more points (點 diǎn) of damage. This is then united with the coverb 對 for something like this:

你打中了，對半獸人造成七點傷害 You hit, and damage the half-orc for 7 hitpoints 

In D&D, a critical hit or a critical failure is when you roll a 20 or a 1, respectively. Critical hits might double or even triple the damage, critical failures makes you lose a turn or drop your weapon or something similar. In Chinese, critical hit has been translated with 致命一擊, which exists as a set phrase in Chinese already and Wenlin translates with deathblow. Critical failure has been translated fairly literally with 嚴重失誤, i.e. "serious failure".

• 致命一擊 zhìmìng yī jí - critical hit.
  
• 嚴重失誤 yánzhòng shīwù - critical miss.

Magic (魔法)

A spellcaster is known as 施法者 shīfǎzhě, spellcasting is known as 施法. The various spells are collocated with 施展 shīzhǎn, or more colloquially 用 yòng to use or 打 dǎ. As with damage, the coverb 對 is used to indicate what the spell is targeted against.

我對狗頭人施展律令：沉睡 I cast power word: sleep on the kobold

The spells themselves are known as 法術 fǎshù, and are divided into a variety of different schools (系 xì). The noun for a mage (法師 fǎshī) who specializes in one of these schools can be formed easily by substituting a 師 for the 系. An illusionist would then be 幻術師 and a necromancer 死靈師 et.c. The eight schools available are as follows:

• 護法系 hùfǎxì  - Abjuration
  
• 咒法系 zhòufǎxì - Conjuration 
  
• 預言系 yùyánxì - Divination
  
• 附魔系 fùmóxì - Enchantment
  
• 幻術系 huànshùxì - Illusion
  
• 塑能系 sùnéngxì - -Evocation
  
• 死靈系 sǐlíngxì - Necromancy
  
• 煉金系 liànjīnxì - Transmutation

All player characters and enemies have a certain rate of resistance (豁免率 huòmiǎnlǜ) to magic, and to see if a spell is successfully resisted, a saving throw (豁免率檢定 huòmiǎnlǜ jiǎndìng) will have to be made. Finally, here's a list of some common spells to give you an indication of how they are translated in Chinese (very literally in many cases).

• 閃電術 shǎndiànshù - lightning bolt
  
• 小火球 xiǎohuǒqiú - fireball
  
• 魔法飛彈 mófǎ fēidàn - magic missile
  
• 明了陣營 míngliǎo zhènyíng - detect alignment
  
• 治療中等傷害 zhìliáo zhōngděng shānghài - cure medium wounds

Experience (經驗)

Finally, we come to the lifeblood of any RPG, experience points (經驗值 jīngyànzhí or 經驗點 jīngyàndiǎn, depending on which game you're playing). Experience points are collocated with 獲得 huòdé to obtain. When the character gets enough of these, he/she will 提升等級 level up. Thus, a plausible situation might look like this:

艾古爾獲得1000經驗值而提升等級 Aighor gets 1000XP and levels up

And that's it for D&D in Chinese! I originally wrote some snark for this but it seemed a bit out of place so I left it out. There'll be more than enough of that in my upcoming post about Bernie Madoff.