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General Tabletop Discussion
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What monster names are public domain?
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<blockquote data-quote="Bacon Bits" data-source="post: 8922826" data-attributes="member: 6777737"><p>Carrion Crawler is one of the specifically claimed Product Identities in the OGL 1.0a SRD v5.1, so I would question that being in the public domain. It's a pretty weak name, but it's probably protected.</p><p></p><p>Couatl is the Aztec name for a day of the week, also meaning serpent or twin.</p><p></p><p>Death knight as a name is a little... dubious as copyrightable, IMO. Blizzard has used the term in Warcraft.</p><p></p><p>Demons and devils are public domain, but the anti-satanic panic 2e AD&D names are protected. Some names like Balor are somewhat questionable, since they're literally knock-offs of Balrogs. Treant is similarly a knock-off Ent.</p><p></p><p>Kenku not public domain, but they're literally tengu from Japanese myth.</p><p></p><p>Pegasus is pubic domain. It's the name of the winged horse from the Greek myth of Perseus.</p><p></p><p>A lot of the names are very minimally creative. I'm not sure how much protection they could get. Shadow dragon, faerie dragon, water weird, pseudodragon, shield guardian, purple worm, rust monster, shambling mound, invisible stalker. Some of them might stand up, but <em>as names</em> they're not particularly more creative than "red dragon". If the name is just an adjective and a generic monster name, that makes it harder. Vermithrax Pejorative? Oh yeah, that's creative. Shivan Dragon? Yes, sure. Shadow dragon? Eh....</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bacon Bits, post: 8922826, member: 6777737"] Carrion Crawler is one of the specifically claimed Product Identities in the OGL 1.0a SRD v5.1, so I would question that being in the public domain. It's a pretty weak name, but it's probably protected. Couatl is the Aztec name for a day of the week, also meaning serpent or twin. Death knight as a name is a little... dubious as copyrightable, IMO. Blizzard has used the term in Warcraft. Demons and devils are public domain, but the anti-satanic panic 2e AD&D names are protected. Some names like Balor are somewhat questionable, since they're literally knock-offs of Balrogs. Treant is similarly a knock-off Ent. Kenku not public domain, but they're literally tengu from Japanese myth. Pegasus is pubic domain. It's the name of the winged horse from the Greek myth of Perseus. A lot of the names are very minimally creative. I'm not sure how much protection they could get. Shadow dragon, faerie dragon, water weird, pseudodragon, shield guardian, purple worm, rust monster, shambling mound, invisible stalker. Some of them might stand up, but [I]as names[/I] they're not particularly more creative than "red dragon". If the name is just an adjective and a generic monster name, that makes it harder. Vermithrax Pejorative? Oh yeah, that's creative. Shivan Dragon? Yes, sure. Shadow dragon? Eh.... [/QUOTE]
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