D&D 5E The Taxonomy of Species in D&D Next/7e

[KesselZero]

+1 to the compound-name dislike, with the addition that I'm sick of it being prevalent in personal names as well. I'm really tired of every single NPC in a published product being named Korvus Winterblight or Dargor Hammerfast or whatever. Not everybody should have a last name made up of two words from the modern language of the setting. Does nobody in D&D still have the same last name as their great-grandfather? I know I do.

 

[Sunseeker]

Yeah, so not interested in latin-sounding names, but I do agree that "treesniper" style names are a really bad naming paradigm that seems pretty consistent among everything Wizards has been making recently. It's especially bad among their MTG cards, or was up until the last set or so.

I would rather all creatures be called something fantastical than something scientific.

 

[Minigiant]

Just call them Twigs and Gems and keep it moving. Less made up fake names please.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Sounds like an insult. Botano-americans?

 

[Hassassin]

Once you've accepted the divine lunacy that is the owlbear, I don't see how the appellation "winterclaw" makes it any better or worse.

Owlbear is bad enough as a name, but as long as such names are few they are just irritating. If they become very common they turn ridiculous.

But it's not like this is a huge issue for me. Way down after getting all the iconic monsters, lots of monster ecology fluff, and short stat blocks.

Anyway, on a general level I'd like to see fewer planar beings and more fey.

 

[Shemeska]

Death to compoundname namingschemes.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

At some point in D&D's history, they started using the word "Planetouched" as a catchall term for all the races- Genasi, Tieflings, Aasimar, Azerblooded, Fey'ri, Mephlings and many, many more- that mixed standard & extraplanar origins.

While accurate and thematically appropriate, I felt it lacked poetry. I started using the term "Nephilim" instead.

 

[Mattachine]

I frequently do not give monsters any name at all.

If a monster is first encountered by the PCs, or is generally not known to the populace, the PCs call it whatever they call it.

Likewise, a party encountering a group of orcs is going to call them the "chief", "the shaman", the "mooks with the crappy armor", and so on. It simply doesn't matter to me the name that appears in the MM, since that is often only a metagame term.

 

[Ramaster]

I frequently do not give monsters any name at all.

If a monster is first encountered by the PCs, or is generally not known to the populace, the PCs call it whatever they call it.

Likewise, a party encountering a group of orcs is going to call them the "chief", "the shaman", the "mooks with the crappy armor", and so on. It simply doesn't matter to me the name that appears in the MM, since that is often only a metagame term.

This.

Monster namings (and adjectives attached to them, I.E. Orc Dragonbane) can be thought of as metagame concepts. Plus, they can be sooo easily dropped that it seems like a waste to not include them.

To most not native English speakers they sound pretty cool, too. I'd rather fight a Gnoll Bowlord or a Drow Darkspear rather than a low level hyena dude mook or a mid level androgynous dark elf any day of the week. It makes me feel that there is some kind of purpose to the monster. Maybe they are using a particular fighting style, or fulfill a specific role on their society, or have a title, etc...

 

[grimslade]

Noun Verbnoun needs to DIAF. It is lazy and too literal. Goblin Picador is great, descriptive and to the point. Goblin Throwspear or goblin vileharpoon is just terrible; it reads like a bad translation.
I like Mind Flayer and Illithid. Owlbear works because it is the creation of a mad wizard and sounds like something Dr. Doofensmirtz would call it with -inator at the end. Winterclaw Owlbear is too much stupid in one name though. Monsters with unique mechanics should have unique names. An arctic and cold themed Owlbear might be called the Beast of the Snowy Wastes or the Tundra King. Think of how we name modern cryptozoological critters, Loch Ness Monster, Champ from Lake Champlain, and Bigfoot. The is no call for Bigfoot Hairyman, or Longneck Lakelurker.
4E was the biggest culprit for this, because it needed a lot of names to differentiate several monster builds around a common core monster. So lots of goblin gobbogoblin.
Better bet take the evocative language down to a few examples, and list monsters by type and subtype in parentheses. Winterclaw Owlbear would be Owlbear (Polar) or (Cold). Let DMs build in purple prose or have suggestions for alternate names Bulette is often called a land shark.