Babale
2013-03-13, 06:52 PM
In my Skype-based D&D game, we use Roll20 as our tabletop. This works really well, especially since I can load any picture I want into the game without players asking "so the dire boar is the dire, and the fiendish tyrannosaurus is the celestial triceratops?" since I don't have the right minis. I achieve this by not only using appropriate pictures for icons (for example, a full-plated dwarf for the warriors and a robed dwarf for the casters) but also by giving them names.
I tend to vary up the classes of mooks the PCs will face when they fight humanoids. For example, the average Bandit Outpost probably has mostly 2nd level fighters, a few 4th level barbarians as elite melee units, 2nd level rogues or rangers as archers, and 5th level casters as minibosses. Which raises a problem. The generic name for a fighter, for example, might be a warrior. The same goes for a barbarian, or an NPC classed warrior. But having the party fight 4 Bandit Warriors and then find out that one of them can Rage, another uses two weapons instead of one, and the third has way more hit points than the others is just confusing. But I don't want to name them after their class either, since if they know the bugbears are Bugbear Rogues, they'll automatically know that they shouldn't let the bugbears flank them. Yet a bugbear with Rogue training probably equips and carries itself differently than a bugbear with Ranger training, so just calling both of them Bugbear Warriors feels like cheating the party.
So I came up with a bunch of different names for different types of units, inspired by the names on D&D Miniatures cards or by the names of monsters in D&D Online.
Why do this? Because it makes enemies more unique and memorable. If your party fights a number of drow at level 8 and then fights drow with the same classes and levels at level 12, that might not mean much to them. If, on the other hand, they nearly get slaughtered by a Drow Champion backed up by Drow Sharpshooters and Drow Evokers at level 8 and then meet a similar group at level 12, they will be weary and fearful. When their higher level characters slaughter the opposition, it will be that much more satisfying to them.
Here's what I have so far. Suggestions are welcome, especially for casters!
No Class
Enemies that lack class levels should just be named after their race. So Troglodytes, Ogres, and Hill Giants with no class levels will also not have a name. This also applies to the generic monsters inhabiting the dungeon; for example, if the weakest rank of mook Goblins all have 4 Warrior levels since the party is too strong for simple goblins to be challenging, then those goblins will be known as Goblins.
Infantry
The enemies with some combat training above the norm but who aren't especially skilled will have names from this list:
Warrior
Fighter
Footpad (for races for whom sneakiness is the norm)
More militant groups, such as Hobgoblins, might have more militarized names:
Soldier
Trooper
Guard
Private
Recruit
Mid level troops (in terms of their group, not overall; in an Orcish horde with a level range of 3-8, 5 would be midlevel) could have fancier or more specialized names, such as:
Berserker (especially for barbarians!)
Sergeant (for a midlevel troop commanding many lowlevel troops)
Outrider
Infiltrator (for Rogues or Rangers)
Assassin
Spy
Paladin (appropriate for any holy warrior)
Crusader
High level melee units are probably going to be even more specialized, and their names should reflect that:
Commander
Valkyrie
Charger
Champion
Themed units should also have unique names. Don't name your coastal town's grunts Warriors; name them Pirates or Sailors.
Another name that is appropriate for units of any level is (Weapon)(man) (IE axedwarf, hammerorc, bowman). If the main thing separating your troops is equipment, which is especially common at the lower levels, then a Crossbowkobold is very different from a Spearkobold or a Kobold Grenader.
Archery
Low leveled archers can either choose from the above list (for example, a predominantly ranged Elven army can give longbows to Elven Footpads or Half-Elf Troopers) or use a generic term:
Archer
Bow_____
Javeliner, Grenader, etc. etc.
Midlevel and highlevel archers deserve more unique names. For example:
Sharpshooter
Sniper
Marksman
Themed units can have special names here too. A gnollish warband probably doesn't have many archers, and those archers it does have probably use their skills for hunting more than for archery; a Gnoll Archer is a very different unit than a Gnoll Hunter, even if they share the same stats.
Units manning artillery positions are probably low-level grunts, maybe even Experts, with lots of ranks in their siege profession. As such, their names can be defined by their equipment:
Gunner for a cannon, Engineer or Siege Engineer for almost everything else.
If you are playing in the standard D&D campaign, then guns are pretty rare. So if your dwarves discovered gunpowder, their units should have cool names like Dwarf Musketeer or Dwarf Janissary, as opposed to boring names like Dwarf Marksman. Unless, of course, that particular dwarf focuses on making very distant shots with his musket, in which case Marksman is appropriate.
Casters
Lowlevel casters have a number of simple names that don't really differentiate between Arcane and Divine casters:
Adept
Apprentice
Midlevel casters and above should be divided based on whether they are Divine or Arcane.
Arcane Caster:
Schools work well for specialists. Evokers, Diviners, Abjurers, etc.
Themes work well for Sorcerers with themed list. An Azer Earthscorcher, for example, is probably going to burn your face off.
Sorcerer and Wizard are actually decent profession names too.
Mage
Battlemage
Witch
Seawitch (for naval campaigns)
Savant
Divine Caster:
Acolyte
Cultist (though those can be Arcane or even mundane as well)
Priest
Priest of _______
Warpriest
Medium
Witch Doctor
Healer
Cleric and Druid aren't terrible either, especially Cleric of ______
Preacher
Deacon
I tend to vary up the classes of mooks the PCs will face when they fight humanoids. For example, the average Bandit Outpost probably has mostly 2nd level fighters, a few 4th level barbarians as elite melee units, 2nd level rogues or rangers as archers, and 5th level casters as minibosses. Which raises a problem. The generic name for a fighter, for example, might be a warrior. The same goes for a barbarian, or an NPC classed warrior. But having the party fight 4 Bandit Warriors and then find out that one of them can Rage, another uses two weapons instead of one, and the third has way more hit points than the others is just confusing. But I don't want to name them after their class either, since if they know the bugbears are Bugbear Rogues, they'll automatically know that they shouldn't let the bugbears flank them. Yet a bugbear with Rogue training probably equips and carries itself differently than a bugbear with Ranger training, so just calling both of them Bugbear Warriors feels like cheating the party.
So I came up with a bunch of different names for different types of units, inspired by the names on D&D Miniatures cards or by the names of monsters in D&D Online.
Why do this? Because it makes enemies more unique and memorable. If your party fights a number of drow at level 8 and then fights drow with the same classes and levels at level 12, that might not mean much to them. If, on the other hand, they nearly get slaughtered by a Drow Champion backed up by Drow Sharpshooters and Drow Evokers at level 8 and then meet a similar group at level 12, they will be weary and fearful. When their higher level characters slaughter the opposition, it will be that much more satisfying to them.
Here's what I have so far. Suggestions are welcome, especially for casters!
No Class
Enemies that lack class levels should just be named after their race. So Troglodytes, Ogres, and Hill Giants with no class levels will also not have a name. This also applies to the generic monsters inhabiting the dungeon; for example, if the weakest rank of mook Goblins all have 4 Warrior levels since the party is too strong for simple goblins to be challenging, then those goblins will be known as Goblins.
Infantry
The enemies with some combat training above the norm but who aren't especially skilled will have names from this list:
Warrior
Fighter
Footpad (for races for whom sneakiness is the norm)
More militant groups, such as Hobgoblins, might have more militarized names:
Soldier
Trooper
Guard
Private
Recruit
Mid level troops (in terms of their group, not overall; in an Orcish horde with a level range of 3-8, 5 would be midlevel) could have fancier or more specialized names, such as:
Berserker (especially for barbarians!)
Sergeant (for a midlevel troop commanding many lowlevel troops)
Outrider
Infiltrator (for Rogues or Rangers)
Assassin
Spy
Paladin (appropriate for any holy warrior)
Crusader
High level melee units are probably going to be even more specialized, and their names should reflect that:
Commander
Valkyrie
Charger
Champion
Themed units should also have unique names. Don't name your coastal town's grunts Warriors; name them Pirates or Sailors.
Another name that is appropriate for units of any level is (Weapon)(man) (IE axedwarf, hammerorc, bowman). If the main thing separating your troops is equipment, which is especially common at the lower levels, then a Crossbowkobold is very different from a Spearkobold or a Kobold Grenader.
Archery
Low leveled archers can either choose from the above list (for example, a predominantly ranged Elven army can give longbows to Elven Footpads or Half-Elf Troopers) or use a generic term:
Archer
Bow_____
Javeliner, Grenader, etc. etc.
Midlevel and highlevel archers deserve more unique names. For example:
Sharpshooter
Sniper
Marksman
Themed units can have special names here too. A gnollish warband probably doesn't have many archers, and those archers it does have probably use their skills for hunting more than for archery; a Gnoll Archer is a very different unit than a Gnoll Hunter, even if they share the same stats.
Units manning artillery positions are probably low-level grunts, maybe even Experts, with lots of ranks in their siege profession. As such, their names can be defined by their equipment:
Gunner for a cannon, Engineer or Siege Engineer for almost everything else.
If you are playing in the standard D&D campaign, then guns are pretty rare. So if your dwarves discovered gunpowder, their units should have cool names like Dwarf Musketeer or Dwarf Janissary, as opposed to boring names like Dwarf Marksman. Unless, of course, that particular dwarf focuses on making very distant shots with his musket, in which case Marksman is appropriate.
Casters
Lowlevel casters have a number of simple names that don't really differentiate between Arcane and Divine casters:
Adept
Apprentice
Midlevel casters and above should be divided based on whether they are Divine or Arcane.
Arcane Caster:
Schools work well for specialists. Evokers, Diviners, Abjurers, etc.
Themes work well for Sorcerers with themed list. An Azer Earthscorcher, for example, is probably going to burn your face off.
Sorcerer and Wizard are actually decent profession names too.
Mage
Battlemage
Witch
Seawitch (for naval campaigns)
Savant
Divine Caster:
Acolyte
Cultist (though those can be Arcane or even mundane as well)
Priest
Priest of _______
Warpriest
Medium
Witch Doctor
Healer
Cleric and Druid aren't terrible either, especially Cleric of ______
Preacher
Deacon