D&D 5E Wandering Monsters: Big Beasts

[Nymrohd]

So, I have to ask. Am I the only one who misread the title of this thread as "Wandering Monsters: Big Breasts"?

We will eventually have that article you know. We need a definite survey on the crucial issue: should crystal construct creatures and reptilian females have double Ds or can you be a girl in the world (of D&D) without ?

 

[Nymrohd]

This article covers two of my pet peeves from 3e and 4e (I'm edition agnostic, all versions of D&D can grind my gears and make me dance).

These two peeves are: 3e's Dire-Hippo spikey nonsense and 4e's cringe worthy Webvenom Meanspider silliness.

(althouth 3e did technically start it with late-era monster manuals and Ebberon dinos, 4e made it something... special... and not in a good way).

Both Dire-Hippos and Webvenom Meanspiders need to go the way of THACO and descending AC IMO. I'm pleased that there will be Spotted Lions, Sabre-Toothed Tigers, and Cave Bears. Oh My!

In the case of the dinos, I am all for flavourful names ... but the thing is that Wyatt's Ebberon/4e dino names are in no way flavourful (or at least, not flavoured like anything I'd put in my mouth). They should not have been presented as such in the wording of the survey questions because it loads the questions with a certain bias.

As an aside, the latin/scientific names are also the common English names. The idea that D&D shouldn't use those names because there's no latin or science in the Magical Land of Zog is no more right or wrong than expecting the inhabitants of said Magical Land to use words like "Goblin" or "Coatl" or "Tarrasque" or "Samurai".

My preference, which was in no way allowed for in the survey, is for flavourful dino names without the portmanteau overload, plus the English/scientific names in parentheses.

Also, dinos should be included in the core MM because... DINOSAURS!

(all IMO of course, YMMV)

I couldn't agree more on the hatred of compound nonsense names.

I have to say though, keeping the scientific names of dinos does not suit me. If we had living dinosaurs among us today, they would have common names. We'd have Tyrant Lizards and ThreeHorns. I have to say, I'm Greek so to me most of the scientific dinosaur names are pretty reasonable (because their meaning and derivation is so apparent). But having my jungle dwarves in FR chult talking about the deinonychus that disemboweled their granddad would kind of break immersion for me. It just sounds inherently scholarly.

 

[I'm A Banana]

It just sounds inherently scholarly.

It's a fair point.

Of course, "Threehorn" sounds inherently dumb. It's like calling a dog a Fangtooth Howlbeast, or a cat a Stealthclaw Yowler.

At the very least, throw a few associated words into Google Translate a few times until it's incoherent and pick something that sounds like a word in and of itself. Call it a trikudo or a dreuilin or a serutruska or trubluzi or something. Those probably aren't great examples. But what does the word "three horn" sound like when spoken in Halfling? Might it sound a little less goofy? Yeah, I can go with that.

And the dino name in parentheses for the 13 year olds who are all "AWESOME, T-REXES IN A WORLD OF DRAGONS AND MAGIC"

 

[Nymrohd]

It's a fair point.

Of course, "Threehorn" sounds inherently dumb. It's like calling a dog a Fangtooth Howlbeast, or a cat a Stealthclaw Yowler.

At the very least, throw a few associated words into Google Translate a few times until it's incoherent and pick something that sounds like a word in and of itself. Call it a trikudo or a dreuilin or a serutruska or trubluzi or something. Those probably aren't great examples. But what does the word "three horn" sound like when spoken in Halfling? Might it sound a little less goofy? Yeah, I can go with that.

And the dino name in parentheses for the 13 year olds who are all "AWESOME, T-REXES IN A WORLD OF DRAGONS AND MAGIC"

Actually FR did that for the deinonychus in my example. The Yuan-ti call them Ti-Khana, and it stuck among the other locals as well.

Actually this could be a solution, at least for Eberron. The humans are of Sarlonan descend and have not seen a dino before they arrived. So you could come with cool sounding gibberish names for all of the reptiles and say that this is how the indigenous halflings called them and the humans just picked up the names.
This would ofc suggest that in the MM you'd still use the scientific terminology and just give the names in the ECS (like it was done in 3.5).

 

[Tonguez]

So, I have to ask. Am I the only one who misread the title of this thread as "Wandering Monsters: Big Breasts"?

Yes it was just you.

anyway I hate elfs so disagree with them being linked to eagles and owls . As I said above giant eagles imc = Roc, giant owls work with druids and fae.

I agree that the dire label makes for better organisation but organising the MM into an Animal section to include normal beasts, giant beast, dinos and mundane fictional creatures (eg Banth) would be better.

And whats wrong with Threehorn? Triceratops is three-horn face or we could just use Tagalog and call them Tigatanduk

 

[Libramarian]

As an aside, the latin/scientific names are also the common English names. The idea that D&D shouldn't use those names because there's no latin or science in the Magical Land of Zog is no more right or wrong than expecting the inhabitants of said Magical Land to use words like "Goblin" or "Coatl" or "Tarrasque" or "Samurai".

This. When you rename dinosaurs by translating the name into simpler English you're breaking down English words needlessly, which sounds bad because (at least in English) modifying/compounding simple words instead of using a specific word sounds facile and dimwitted. Or at best childish.

Calling a velociraptor a "clawfoot" is like calling swords "cutters" and axes "choppers". It's terrible.

Also dinosaurs are cool. It seems absurd to be bothered by the conceptual weirdness of fighting a dinosaur in a world of dragons and hydras when a shaolin monk is fighting alongside a medieval paladin. I'm sure somebody on the dev team for the first Tomb Raider game thought it would be weird to throw in a fight against a T. rex. Obviously it's a good thing they didn't listen to that person.

I think there should be the most well-known dinosaurs--tyrannosaurus rex, velociraptor, stegosaurus, triceratops, dimetrodon, apatosaurus, ankylosaurus, pteranodon, plesiosaur--and a few other ancient animals like the sabretooth tiger, cave bear, dire wolf and woolly mammoth. And then use "behemoth" for a new type of giant monster.

I certainly agree with getting rid of "dire" as a general category.

 

[Savage Wombat]

I think there should be a minimal list of prehistoric creatures in core, since I'm sure a lot of gamers avoid using them. I like that they're there, but we do need to consider space. Save the extended list for the MM2. I'd also suggest keeping both names.

 

[Zaukrie]

Hate the scientific names for dinos.....but if a few were in core I could live with that. I would also be ok if they were not in MM1.

 

[Alzrius]

This. When you rename dinosaurs by translating the name into simpler English you're breaking down English words needlessly, which sounds bad because (at least in English) modifying/compounding simple words instead of using a specific word sounds facile and dimwitted. Or at best childish.

Calling a velociraptor a "clawfoot" is like calling swords "cutters" and axes "choppers". It's terrible.

This about sums it up for me.

I certainly agree with getting rid of "dire" as a general category.

I had no problem with "dire" animals, as it helped to establish that there were, as a general rule, bigger and meaner versions of most animals out there, rather than individuating them (e.g. carnivorous ape), which didn't seem to be worthwhile.

So, I have to ask. Am I the only one who misread the title of this thread as "Wandering Monsters: Big Breasts"?

Nope.

 

[Klaus]

I like dinosaurs, because the image of a hobgoblin war patrol riding atop a triceratops is AWESOME!

I like some of the fantasy names: fastieth (and its smaller cousin, the bantam fastieth), bladeback (stegosaurus), macetail (ankylosaurus). But I also want the real-world terms in parentheses. When I did Counter Collection 3, I had to do some detective work to figure out the behemoths described in the MM3.