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Message: <blockquote data-quote="grimslade" data-source="post: 5837915" data-attributes="member: 6061">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.</blockquote>