Templated Creature Naming Convention?

[unseenmage]

Assume that a theoretical Ultimate Monster Manual exists containing every possible templated creature.

How exactly should/would templated creatures be listed in such a tome?

Do they each show up under their template listing? If so what of creatures with multiple templates?

Are they listed 'Creature Name, Template' or 'Template Creature Name'?

Are multiple templates listed in the creature name alphabetically or in the order aquired?

Is there already an established printed naming convention for such? Does it need ratified at all due to the sheer volume of listings in our theoretical book?

[MisterKaws]

Assume that a theoretical Ultimate Monster Manual exists containing every possible templated creature.

How exactly should/would templated creatures be listed in such a tome?

Do they each show up under their template listing? If so what of creatures with multiple templates?

Are they listed 'Creature Name, Template' or 'Template Creature Name'?

Are multiple templates listed in the creature name alphabetically or in the order aquired?

Is there already an established printed naming convention for such? Does it need ratified at all due to the sheer volume of listings in our theoretical book?

I think you should stop before someone comes around and proves the turing-completeness of 3.5 templates. They did it to Magic: The Gathering just the other day...

[unseenmage]

I think you should stop before someone comes around and proves the turing-completeness of 3.5 templates. They did it to Magic: The Gathering just the other day...

That is def not when one should stop. That point is certainly the point at which to go all in. :smallbiggrin:

[unseenmage]

There are also odd corner cases where I have in the past arranged a templated creatures name for my own convenience.

Fir the 3rd party Amalgam and Monstrous Lycanthrope templates were Creature Name Template Name Creature Name as both templates effectively glue two creatures together.

[Katie Boundary]

Assume that a theoretical Ultimate Monster Manual exists containing every possible templated creature.

It does exist, on my external hard drive, though it's not complete yet. It also includes base classes, prestige classes, deities, and cleric domains.

Sorting out the subraces and figuring out what to name everything is an epic pain in the ass. For example, I currently have "Dwarf, Gray, Psionic (Psionic Duergar)" as a subrace of "Dwarf, Gray (Duergar)", which in turn is a subrace of dwarf. Entries like "Dragon, Faerie" will probably get renamed "Faerie Dragon" so that ones like "Dragon, True - Red" can be reduced to "Dragon, Red". I have barely any idea what to do with the Dargonesti and Dimernesti, but most of my ideas result in something hideous like "Elf, Sea - Elf, Shoal (Dimernesti)". For that matter, I think the Dragonlance elves and their stupid names are the single biggest reason why I've abandoned and restarted this project multiple times over the past few years.

Anyway, what was this thread about?

[ExLibrisMortis]

Anyway, what was this thread about?
Not that :smalltongue:. Unseenmage is asking about a hypothetical listing of every templated creature, including an entry for every possible template-base combination. It's not actually possible to write up the full list, because certain (series of) templates can be stacked without limit (i.e. Evolved Undead, Incarnate Construct + Dustform looping), but since his question only concerns the formatting of the name, that shouldn't be a problem.


The ordering of such names is a linguistic matter, not a rules matter. For example, I'd call a gnome with the draconic and lich (lich after draconic) templates a "draconic gnome lich", whereas I'd call a gnome with the draconic and half-elemental (half-elemental after draconic) templates a half-elemental draconic gnome, and a gnome with the draconic and shadow (shadow after draconic) templates a draconic shadow gnome (not a shadow draconic gnome). That said, if you were actually organizing a reference work, I would sort all creatures by base creature, then templates in the order they are applied.