D&D 5E Wandering Monsters: Big Beasts

[Tonguez]

so how is Dolktand Vlamschaal better than Daggertooth Flamescale or Dreihoorn better than Threehorn?

 

[Alzrius]

Well, it's a good name for a kid's movie targeted at 8-year-olds that adopts naming conventions like an 8-year-old might use.

Oh come on, surely calling the brontosaurus "littlefoot" will go over big with the kids who want to play D&D?

 

[lutecius]

I don't mind what they call dinosaurs, but the fewer COMPOUND_ADJECTIVE NOUN monsters we get this edition, the better.

this. I can live with behemoths (even though I rather envision the mythical behemoth as a mammal) but latin names are fine too. at least they give the reader a quick idea of what a particular beast is supposed to be and you can always give it a flavorful local name in your campaign (or not name it at all, just describe it and then refer to it as "the beast")

Though really any in the core should stick with the popular stock dinos like T. rex, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, a dromaeosaurid, a sauropod, and maybe one or two others.

yeah, we don't need separate entries for creatures that will feel very similar in an encounter. a couple of variant stats for smaller and larger species in each broad category (theropod, sauropod, ceratopsid...) or different damages for "club tailed" and "spiked tailed" eurypoda would probably do.

Drop the dire animals. 3e's insistance on calling all big mammals "dire" and sticking bone ridges all over them was silly. Go back to the old giant rats, cave bears, and carnivorous apes.

that too.

 

[I'm A Banana]

so how is Dolktand Vlamschaal better than Daggertooth Flamescale or Dreihoorn better than Threehorn?

Well, they're not much better (still a little too recognizable -- gotta torture those syllables a little more!). But at least they don't sound much like something an English-speaking 8-year-old would come up with. They're not just baldly descriptive. They've got a bit of character to them.

Oh come on, surely calling the brontosaurus "littlefoot" will go over big with the kids who want to play D&D?

Well, maybe in 1988.

These days, you might have to tall it a Tyranitar, but I suspect even that's a little dated.

 

[Sunseeker]

I pretty much entirely disagree that "sharptooth" is a good name for anything.

Well, it's a good name for a kid's movie targeted at 8-year-olds that adopts naming conventions like an 8-year-old might use. It sounds childish. It sounds simplistic. It sounds goofy. Like calling an axe "sharpblade" or a club "thudstick."

"Sharptooth" and "Three horn" are pretty much "CoolName."

Give me something better. Heck, for T-rexes and their kin, "Tyrant" works pretty well. I'm fond of "Behemoth" for sauropods. Others might be a little harder, but I'm sure we can do better than "Well, it probably has a long tail, so lets call it a Longtail."

My issue with names like "tyrant" or "behemoth" is that they're too generic. The number of monsters, even dinosaurs that could be described by "tyrant" or "behemoth" is huge. Tyrant Umber Behemoth. Tyrant red wrym behemoth lizard monster king! They're useless words because they're designed to be complimentary. Tyrant "king" or Tyrant "lizard"(the literal latin translation for tyrannosarus Rex"). They go back to the CoolWord WeirdName.


And really we need to consider the average IQ of the peoples naming these monsters. Creatures designed for a "lost world" setting aren't going to be named by high society with its complex naming systems.

 

[Alzrius]

Well, maybe in 1988.

Hey, a dozen sequels can't be wrong.

 

[I'm A Banana]

My issue with names like "tyrant" or "behemoth" is that they're too generic. The number of monsters, even dinosaurs that could be described by "tyrant" or "behemoth" is huge. Tyrant Umber Behemoth. Tyrant red wrym behemoth lizard monster king! They're useless words because they're designed to be complimentary. Tyrant "king" or Tyrant "lizard"(the literal latin translation for tyrannosarus Rex"). They go back to the CoolWord WeirdName.


And really we need to consider the average IQ of the peoples naming these monsters. Creatures designed for a "lost world" setting aren't going to be named by high society with its complex naming systems.

It's a fair point that "behemoth" and "tyrant" are pretty generic (Beholders are eye tyrants! This means they are T-rexes!?). And while we can keep the names primitive, it's a fair bet that Thog on the Lost Continent isn't speaking common when he calls the thing a "Long Tail," so what does it sound like when he speaks it? "Uktag?" "Baflurg?" That's the word we should be using. Triceratops doesn't sound dumb even though it literally means "Three Horn Face." So what does "Three Horn Face" sound like in Elvish, or Old Suel, or Orc, or Gnoll, or wherever this thing is living? If it sounds too academic in Greek, and too childish in English, lets use our fantasy languages to come up with something that sounds authentic to the world.

 

[Nymrohd]

It's a fair point that "behemoth" and "tyrant" are pretty generic (Beholders are eye tyrants! This means they are T-rexes!?). And while we can keep the names primitive, it's a fair bet that Thog on the Lost Continent isn't speaking common when he calls the thing a "Long Tail," so what does it sound like when he speaks it? "Uktag?" "Baflurg?" That's the word we should be using. Triceratops doesn't sound dumb even though it literally means "Three Horn Face." So what does "Three Horn Face" sound like in Elvish, or Old Suel, or Orc, or Gnoll, or wherever this thing is living? If it sounds too academic in Greek, and too childish in English, lets use our fantasy languages to come up with something that sounds authentic to the world.

hehe never thought of it that way but really, the scientific names ARE CoolWord WierdName, just in latin or greek

 

[Mike Eagling]

Personally I'd prefer a triceratops to be called as such. Much as I'd call a tiger a tiger not a stripyfur fangbiter. Would thog the caveman, or whoever, refer to a dinosaur by its given name? No. But the MM is designed so that I can find the stats not thog.

 

[GX.Sigma]

(Beholders are eye tyrants! This means they are T-rexes!?)

I-rexes, surely.