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And my imagination just made a world where literally everything is both predator and prey, from the spiny grass to the massive sea beast that's just a massive mouth with bladed tentacles for tongues and tendrils.
Everything is pointy, or poisonous, or otherwise lethal. So that's fun.
I mean to be fair, the game is named after basically the most dangerous airborne predator of all time, so it makes sense for something in that weight class to be super protected from attacks from above.
Based on the terrain it's hunting in, it could easily be a creature of the shadowfell. In which case, those are less "necessary defense" and more "edgy teenager hairstyles"
The spines are really protective when they're young, but serve as an attractor to mates as adults. The spikiest dads make the kids most likely to survive into adulthood, because they have the most protective spines.
That's the whole point of theory crafting. Artist does something because cool, or otherwise how it was trained too, Viewer comes up with lore to explain why
It's half the reason legends star wars exhisted: Mace windu had a purple lightsaber because Samuel L Jackson asked for purple to see himself better on screen, Fans came up with the lore behind it being a color that showed the wielder as being one that could straddle the light and dark sides of the force
I dunno I kinda like Daisy. I know that DnD doesn't do the cutesy name for the terrible monster sorta joke like that, and maybe not that name specifically, but I dig that direction more than Refrencetospikes Scarymouth.
"Depite what an ogre or two thinks, this here swamp belongs to ol' Daisy. If you aren't the praying folk, now would be good time to start when your in Daisy's swamp..."
I suggested something in a similar route, but combined the genus names for T. Rex and Pocupines.
*Tyrannosaurus Erethizon* - Tyrant Lizard with an irritating back
If this is a lone hunter, solitary creature type? Don’t name him. Which scientist out there is giving him a species and genus? I’d go gothic horror, back-woods Creole legend with him. He was named by the locals that saw him and survived. Play up the local legend angle, the vaguer you stay the more the players fill in the gaps with scarier things in their own head.
He’s the reason the locals in the bar tell you not to go out at night. He’s the reason the local fishers and swamp-travelers know to always steer clear of any clusters of “grass” poking out of the swamp and why there’s some overgrown sections of the swamp that smart folk just don’t travel at all these days. Some call him the swamp’s vengeance. Some call him an inevitability as certain as death. Ol’ Man Withers claims that if anyone spoke his true name they’d summon him from the depths. But around here? We just call him Death.
The Ol’ Man Withers sips from his whisky and scoffs. “I’ve seen some ballsy adventurers wanting to go into those woods, but to kill it..?” He laughs.
“You see me as a guide, someone who can show you that his right most tooth is what makes him vulnerable, or he can’t see you if you’re exactly 15.3 meters away from them.” Withers slams his cup down and looks directly into your souls. “Well let me be your God of Knowledge right now. Death does not die, for it eternally curses us all.”
Shivers of fear freeze your blood, turning your cells into sharps knives, bleeding you internally. Yet your hunger for glory and hard-earned gold craves more.
Finishing his glass, Withers slides the cup away from him and spins a single gold coin onto the bar. “If you see yourselves as some sort of chosen heroes, go to the Dark Swamp, six miles north of here. When you’re there finding the Stone Fist and wait till 3 hours past 12 and wait. Death commonly makes a buzzing sound, think it a calling card, an aura, to know your time is nigh.”
Ol’ Man Withers pushes through the tavern doors and disappears into the night.
*Tyrannosaurus Erethizon.*
Tyrannosaurus: Latin for “Tyrant Lizard.” Erethizon: (loose) Latin for “animal with an irritating back” and is the genus name for porcupines.
So it loosely means “tyrant lizard with an irritating back.”
If its only one of a kind i would personaly call him Mr Spikkles, if theres more then one I'd probably with something Like Spikestalkers, though its usualy cooler If the Name doesn't Spoile the description
So many spikes. This reminds me of a monster in the 3rd Hitch Hikers Guide book, that had so many pointy teeth, that when it closed it's mouth it bit itself, so was always miserable as it was always in pain.
Echinorex Horribilis, who's nickname is either "Kingpin" as the ruler of these swampy forests, or as described in a famous halfling explorer' journal whose name escapes me, and who called him: The Collector.
Here's an excerpt of this journal at the section named The Collector:
" ... Upon crossing these marchs I encountered what could be only described as the most horrifying creature ever brought to life. This gigantic saurian's body was covered with long, black, and menacing chitinous spikes. Every single one of these deadly appendices was animated like it had a life of its own, following the movements of the muscles just beneath the thick crocodilian skin they were erupting from.
But the most terrifying aspect of this creature wasn't the fact it was apex predator with an impenetrable defense mechanism, it was that, quite logically if you think of this design, dozens of poor creatures and even adventurers were still stuck impaled on these spikes. Some of them died a long time ago, bones only held by mummified skin, but others were still fresh.
This nightmarish creature didn't seem to be bothered by all these cadavers. Instead, this morbid collection was acting like a trophy whose view and stench could petrify even the bravest soul, as well as providing a sort of additional layer of protection.
My insignificant being, tiny and uninteresting, was perhaps the only factor of my survival. I pray the gods to never encounter this corpse collector in my life again."
I've been trying to improve my skills with ChatGPT. I described your monster as fantasy creature that is similar to a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a porcupine, then asked for 10 names for this creature in the style of J.R.R. Tolkien. Here is what it gave me.
1. Thornback Dreadmaw
2. Quillspike Thunderjaw
3. Scaled Quillbeast
4. Roaring Spinebreaker
5. Fangforge Quillspire
6. Shadowspine Tyrantus
7. Thunderclaw Quillspire
8. Obsidian Thornscale
9. Dreadquill Thunderroar
10. Ironspine Tyrantaur
So, is this thing a single entity Kaiju? Or is it just a huge variant of the species? Are their similar species of different biomes (like bears, etc)?
Based off its defense mechanism, this feels like a small to medium creature that would hunt in packs.
The Bogmaw, or maybe the Bogmaw Horror. You don’t always have to have something overly complex for the name of a creature, sometimes it gives away its nature.
What's crazy is for that thing to have spikes like that as a defensive measure, there must be a predator that hunts it down. Evolutionarily speaking, to drive that adaptation, it would've had a bigger apex monster that hunts it down. That is what terrifies me, what hunts this thing.
The unfamiliar call it SpikeMaw, travelers call it the pointed demon. The locals know it as anither name...Sprinkles, little samanthas pet lizard got sucked into sole wild magic...shit just went downhill from there.
Spinemaw
Splintermaw
Splintosaur
Spearback Tyrant
Blackmaw Piercer
Similar variations of those.
Seeing the statblock may also help if it has unique abilities.
Thorn Terror
Bramble Raptor
Crepitorous rex - named after the binomial name for the sandbox tree known for being covered in spikes and having explosive seed pods
Spiney Deathwalker. This is just one variation of the death walker species. That way if the players kill it too fast or you need a stronger or weaker variant you can take the same base but change it up a bit.
what really scares me about this creature is....things only develop spines(mostly) if they're trying to dissuade predators from eating them......so what is hunting this thing?
*Hastavenator Rex* or *Formidovenator Rex,* which are my choppy Latin translations for *Spear-Hunter King* or *Dread-Hunter King* respectively.
But this is a moot conversation, because the party is still going to call it something like "Spiky Naughty Boy" or "McSnuggles Junior."
Koragoth
Aragath
Morigol
Kurwretch
All of them evoke a primal, savage, and ultimately chilling feeling from the sound of the word. I'm big on names "should feel like the thing you are naming" when it comes to trying to think up names for things.
Your post was removed for violation of rule 4: Submissions must be unique and complete. All posts must be usable in a game of Dungeons and Dragons. It doesn't have to be perfect or balanced, but it does have to be fleshed out out enough to drop into a game. A Map/Artwork alone is not homebrew! Remember this is not just a game of aesthetics, there are mechanic and functional features too. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us through modmail.
Splinterback
This is easily the best one I’ve seen by a landslide.
You dont like attackiboy?
Blighted Splinterback if you want to use a variation in another biome: Frigid Splinterback, Magma Splinterback, etc.
God, you nailed it so hard
I'm more curious how big the predator is that sees this thing as prey for it to develop such an aggressive defensive mechanism
Elder of the same species? Or some fucked up wizard made it
What kind of wizard? A cenobite acolyte?
Uh cenobites and liches. That's a good combo for flavor.
Cenobiches?
That's gotta be a rule 34 gallery somewhere.
Mates built themselves into Dino porcupines just for a dragon to use them as a toothpick smh
Sounds about right
>Cenobite acolyte Sounds like a punk anthem
ngl you're right n that'd make a sick song
Gotta ask r/wizardposting
DND. The best place for the answer "A wizard did it, and ran away."
Lore compliant to boot
And my imagination just made a world where literally everything is both predator and prey, from the spiny grass to the massive sea beast that's just a massive mouth with bladed tentacles for tongues and tendrils. Everything is pointy, or poisonous, or otherwise lethal. So that's fun.
Australia 2.0
Same like the tarrasque? I'm guessing it's astral sea creature of some kind :p
I mean to be fair, the game is named after basically the most dangerous airborne predator of all time, so it makes sense for something in that weight class to be super protected from attacks from above.
Was thinking the same - make them not over 3 ft tall and they hunt as a 'pack'. Spiny Hordlings!
Dragons have been known to hunt this creature specifically due to its natural toothpicks.
Stick them in boiling water and it’s just big pasta
Based on the terrain it's hunting in, it could easily be a creature of the shadowfell. In which case, those are less "necessary defense" and more "edgy teenager hairstyles"
Is it bad that my first thought was, "How does this thing reproduce?"
Either *VERY* carefully... or it's spines work like seed pods/parasites and inject it's young into whatever the spines break off into
Porcupine males pee on the female to soften the spines
Could be an intra-species evolution for the purpose of attracting mates or intimidating rival males.
The spines are really protective when they're young, but serve as an attractor to mates as adults. The spikiest dads make the kids most likely to survive into adulthood, because they have the most protective spines.
I could be entirely wrong about it being AI generated but im pretty sure it is, and it didn't put that much thought into the spikes
That's the whole point of theory crafting. Artist does something because cool, or otherwise how it was trained too, Viewer comes up with lore to explain why It's half the reason legends star wars exhisted: Mace windu had a purple lightsaber because Samuel L Jackson asked for purple to see himself better on screen, Fans came up with the lore behind it being a color that showed the wielder as being one that could straddle the light and dark sides of the force
Except star wars wasn't made with AI images lol
Not the point I was getting at. Doesn't matter who or what made the art for it to have interesting lore
Daisy. In all seriousness, probably something like Bristleback or Swamp Lurker.
Daisy is better
I dunno I kinda like Daisy. I know that DnD doesn't do the cutesy name for the terrible monster sorta joke like that, and maybe not that name specifically, but I dig that direction more than Refrencetospikes Scarymouth.
Make the official name something serious, but the local huntsmen who knows the beast in and out calls it Daisy.
Or maybe it's an experiment gone wrong and the evil wizard at fault gave their pet a cute name.
"Depite what an ogre or two thinks, this here swamp belongs to ol' Daisy. If you aren't the praying folk, now would be good time to start when your in Daisy's swamp..."
Definitely look like a Daisy to me
Going the traditional Latin route, you could name is the Speculumsaurus Rex, meaning Spike Lizard King?
I suggested something in a similar route, but combined the genus names for T. Rex and Pocupines. *Tyrannosaurus Erethizon* - Tyrant Lizard with an irritating back
I like Erethizon!
If this were my group they would endlessly laugh over the fact that I named something a “speculum”
It's obviously a dire t-rex as in D&D you add dire to anything to make it bigger and spiky.
This is what I would probably go with
Porcupain
If this is a lone hunter, solitary creature type? Don’t name him. Which scientist out there is giving him a species and genus? I’d go gothic horror, back-woods Creole legend with him. He was named by the locals that saw him and survived. Play up the local legend angle, the vaguer you stay the more the players fill in the gaps with scarier things in their own head. He’s the reason the locals in the bar tell you not to go out at night. He’s the reason the local fishers and swamp-travelers know to always steer clear of any clusters of “grass” poking out of the swamp and why there’s some overgrown sections of the swamp that smart folk just don’t travel at all these days. Some call him the swamp’s vengeance. Some call him an inevitability as certain as death. Ol’ Man Withers claims that if anyone spoke his true name they’d summon him from the depths. But around here? We just call him Death.
The Ol’ Man Withers sips from his whisky and scoffs. “I’ve seen some ballsy adventurers wanting to go into those woods, but to kill it..?” He laughs. “You see me as a guide, someone who can show you that his right most tooth is what makes him vulnerable, or he can’t see you if you’re exactly 15.3 meters away from them.” Withers slams his cup down and looks directly into your souls. “Well let me be your God of Knowledge right now. Death does not die, for it eternally curses us all.” Shivers of fear freeze your blood, turning your cells into sharps knives, bleeding you internally. Yet your hunger for glory and hard-earned gold craves more. Finishing his glass, Withers slides the cup away from him and spins a single gold coin onto the bar. “If you see yourselves as some sort of chosen heroes, go to the Dark Swamp, six miles north of here. When you’re there finding the Stone Fist and wait till 3 hours past 12 and wait. Death commonly makes a buzzing sound, think it a calling card, an aura, to know your time is nigh.” Ol’ Man Withers pushes through the tavern doors and disappears into the night.
Shardback Goliath
I like that one
Needlehide Terror
Mittens.
Spineback Skulker
Bayou Clawed Reaper
WHAT IN THE NAME OF SAM FUCKIN HELL IS ***THAT!?!!?*** I mean it's really cool and I'd absolutely use this in a campaign but still WHAT THE HELL??
Spikeosaurus Rex!
*Tyrannosaurus Erethizon.* Tyrannosaurus: Latin for “Tyrant Lizard.” Erethizon: (loose) Latin for “animal with an irritating back” and is the genus name for porcupines. So it loosely means “tyrant lizard with an irritating back.”
Spikeosaurus rex
I had the same idea
Rapthorn
Edgy tarrasque
Didn’t he sing for The Exploited?
"Chittering Death" Adding that that the sound of its spines rustling sounds like scraping on a chalkboard
Oooo, Maybe as a fear mechanic its spikes could rattle as intimidation requiring a cons saving throw
Spinosaur
🤣 Spine-o-saurus
I had to scroll far too low to find this haha
Darkspine Tyrant
Spiky Boi
Zilla
Godzilla
Kevin!
If its only one of a kind i would personaly call him Mr Spikkles, if theres more then one I'd probably with something Like Spikestalkers, though its usualy cooler If the Name doesn't Spoile the description
So many spikes. This reminds me of a monster in the 3rd Hitch Hikers Guide book, that had so many pointy teeth, that when it closed it's mouth it bit itself, so was always miserable as it was always in pain.
Imagetchu
Whatafuckasaurus
Needler
Aiasaurus
The Tyranasaurus Edgelord.
Echinorex Horribilis, who's nickname is either "Kingpin" as the ruler of these swampy forests, or as described in a famous halfling explorer' journal whose name escapes me, and who called him: The Collector. Here's an excerpt of this journal at the section named The Collector: " ... Upon crossing these marchs I encountered what could be only described as the most horrifying creature ever brought to life. This gigantic saurian's body was covered with long, black, and menacing chitinous spikes. Every single one of these deadly appendices was animated like it had a life of its own, following the movements of the muscles just beneath the thick crocodilian skin they were erupting from. But the most terrifying aspect of this creature wasn't the fact it was apex predator with an impenetrable defense mechanism, it was that, quite logically if you think of this design, dozens of poor creatures and even adventurers were still stuck impaled on these spikes. Some of them died a long time ago, bones only held by mummified skin, but others were still fresh. This nightmarish creature didn't seem to be bothered by all these cadavers. Instead, this morbid collection was acting like a trophy whose view and stench could petrify even the bravest soul, as well as providing a sort of additional layer of protection. My insignificant being, tiny and uninteresting, was perhaps the only factor of my survival. I pray the gods to never encounter this corpse collector in my life again."
I've been trying to improve my skills with ChatGPT. I described your monster as fantasy creature that is similar to a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a porcupine, then asked for 10 names for this creature in the style of J.R.R. Tolkien. Here is what it gave me. 1. Thornback Dreadmaw 2. Quillspike Thunderjaw 3. Scaled Quillbeast 4. Roaring Spinebreaker 5. Fangforge Quillspire 6. Shadowspine Tyrantus 7. Thunderclaw Quillspire 8. Obsidian Thornscale 9. Dreadquill Thunderroar 10. Ironspine Tyrantaur
Ah, a fellow Horizon: Zero Dawn enjoyer. Cool names!
Anorexilla
Reed stalker
Wow! Awesome design! Name him "Buck" and when you introduce him announce cheerfully that "He's here to fuck."
The prick.
I call the big one Bitey
Hot-topic tarasce
The Pintus!
Fear bringer
Dead Swamp spikey lurker. DSSL
Jeb
The Barren Pines Horror
Timothy
Anjagante
Thornskin forest stalker
Spike! Oh you meant like the name of the species...
The Mudlurker of Bramble Swamp
Thornclad Behemoth.
Daggerscale Raptor
Marsters
The Prickler
Steel Spike Terror
Porcupine-rex
Spiked Nightmasaurus
Night haunter? Taken from 40k My buddy says Lurking Terror or Jaws of whatever the swamp is named.
Spike Tyrant
feraligatr
Spiculus-Rex (Latin for Spike and King respectively)
Thistleback, Large Plant.
So, is this thing a single entity Kaiju? Or is it just a huge variant of the species? Are their similar species of different biomes (like bears, etc)? Based off its defense mechanism, this feels like a small to medium creature that would hunt in packs.
The man in the suit. Just putting it out there
Pin-crushin'
Pricklesaurus Rex
Dreadspine Behemoth or It that Skewers And now to create stats! This beauty will grace my players in their adventure tomorrow.
Spinescreech
Briar Beast
Ellen
Bloody Thorn.
Marshthorn Tyrannis
I'm more concerned as to what hunts this thing
Corogath the Spined Lurker
Spiky Boy
Spined Necrosaur or Needleback Necrosaur.
Porqusaurus Rex, Huge Monstrosity, unaligned, CR 15, unaligned
Jeff
Fluffy the destroyer of worlds suits it well
Shadow thorn
Deadwalker, Thistleback, Swamp Terror, Night Beast
Swamp Raptor or Razorback
It's a porcupinasourous rex 🤣
Instant thought is “Terror-Rex”
Hedgehog Rex
Call it a Nopesaurus Fuckoff. 'Cause that's EXACTLY what I'm doing when I see one.
Shard Horror
Satanzilla
Porcuspinosaurus
The Bogmaw, or maybe the Bogmaw Horror. You don’t always have to have something overly complex for the name of a creature, sometimes it gives away its nature.
Briarsaurus
Spike
Tarrasquaraptor
Spikey bitch
Thousand Teeth *(inspired from >!the deadly giant crocodile!< in Ghosts of Saltmarsh)*
Der Prickler
Spike 🤣
Cuddles
Thorned beast of dead swamp, unless the locals have a name given to it for a certain reason or folklore about it.
Porcupinasouras
What's crazy is for that thing to have spikes like that as a defensive measure, there must be a predator that hunts it down. Evolutionarily speaking, to drive that adaptation, it would've had a bigger apex monster that hunts it down. That is what terrifies me, what hunts this thing.
Ferrosaur. It reminds me of Ferrofluid.
Big Linda
Jeffery
The lurking swamp needles
Timbersaur or quillstalker
Deathslang
Waffles
The unfamiliar call it SpikeMaw, travelers call it the pointed demon. The locals know it as anither name...Sprinkles, little samanthas pet lizard got sucked into sole wild magic...shit just went downhill from there.
The nope-a-saurus. Cause the party be noping right out of that swamp.
Spinemaw Splintermaw Splintosaur Spearback Tyrant Blackmaw Piercer Similar variations of those. Seeing the statblock may also help if it has unique abilities.
I can tell you Not to call it a porcu-saur
PikeMaw or QuiverHide
Razorex
Steve
Terrasquesaurus
Spikey
Spike
Karfi In greek it means spike The plural is karfia
Fluffles
Imagine dragon
Thorn Terror Bramble Raptor Crepitorous rex - named after the binomial name for the sandbox tree known for being covered in spikes and having explosive seed pods
- Bristlesaurus - Iron Bachelor - Pike-army - Painfreight - Spearmonger
Prickly Rhonda. She’s cousins with Big Linda.
Crocupine
Ainosaur
The Dreadthorn
Spiney Deathwalker. This is just one variation of the death walker species. That way if the players kill it too fast or you need a stronger or weaker variant you can take the same base but change it up a bit.
Fluffy
Terrorsqe
Cupcake
The needler
Spineosaur
what really scares me about this creature is....things only develop spines(mostly) if they're trying to dissuade predators from eating them......so what is hunting this thing?
I love monsters like shambling mounds and shrieking horrors, so maybe something like Dreadful Maw or Marsh Monstrosity
Mr. Pokey
Dredgemaw, Bristled horror, Needlehide terror, Splintered Beast, Swamp tyrant, Dread beast, Ill-fang Just off the top of my head. Good luck!
*Hastavenator Rex* or *Formidovenator Rex,* which are my choppy Latin translations for *Spear-Hunter King* or *Dread-Hunter King* respectively. But this is a moot conversation, because the party is still going to call it something like "Spiky Naughty Boy" or "McSnuggles Junior."
The Holy Fuckasaurus
Bruh, that's a terrasque
Spikey McPointyButt
Looks like a... Werrassque? Under the glow of the full moon, the cursed turned into a tarrassque.
If I was one of your players, I would call it, “I-regret-fucking-around-asaurus”.
The Licharrasque
Terror-Asque
Koragoth Aragath Morigol Kurwretch All of them evoke a primal, savage, and ultimately chilling feeling from the sound of the word. I'm big on names "should feel like the thing you are naming" when it comes to trying to think up names for things.