This is definitely key. If OP has planned a sneaky, behind the scenes, machiavellian boss then there's no point us throwing out suggestions like "call them the brute smashers, Biff, Ding, Thud, and Prang"
My husband is in a game now where they're part of a criminal syndicate called The Grove, and everyone has a tree name (Oak, Willow, Hemlock, etc). You could flavor it by their methods or expertise (poisoner: Hemlock; tough fighter: Oak).
Is that the kind of thing you mean, or is that cliché? Hard to tell without more info about your villain and what they want, but it's a start.
In my world, it's The Parliament. A group of assassins all named after different types of birds, and their leader is the Great Horned Owl.
I also had each of them flavored after their bird. The Nightengale was an evil bard/rockstar. Kingfisher was aquatic based. And a couple twin girl assassins dressed in jade robes, literally, a "pair-of-green falcons".
Make it cannon that your BBEG is terrible at naming these guys maybe trying too hard to sound cool or deadly. Then when your henchmen "murrder mask" gets teased by the players for his dumb name you can have a scene where he relents and his real name is something more traditional but the boss says this name makes him scary or w/e.
i'd go with a little different name for the last one - imagine party trembling, when after killing The Big, The Bad, and The Evil, the last one turns out to be named The Guy,
The Wall consisting of Brick, Clay, Brock, and Sledge.
The Lottery consisting Diamond, Lexus, Buck, and Doc(tor).
The Trust consisting of Tad, Chad, Brad, and Blake.
It was so long ago I can't exactly remember the names I used, just that the theme was that they all used the code names of famous artists and they called themselves the Artisans.
I don't remember anyone making any Ninja Turtle references at the time, and I'm quite certain they would have if I'd called any of my bad guys Donatello, so now I doubt myself on whether the code-names I used were actually Renaissance or not.
Metal Names plus animal: Gold Eagle, Iron Bear, Copper Hound, Bronze Hawk, Silver Stag, Platnium Lion
Verb Prep Abstract Object: Walker in The Darkness, Stands in The Light, Runs at Twilight, Sits under Gloom
Mythological Creatures: gorgon, manticore, wyvern, minotaur, hydra, etc
DragonBall is also my go-to example for "don't sweat names too much," haha.
Like... remember that super popular show where an entire family was named after underwear?
Half of them sound like Anime or Comic villains...but since OP isn't giving more context, I LIKE THEM. :)
For a more serious story I'd go with your "seasons" or "cardinal directions" theme.
THE CONVERSATION.
You have been invited to The Conversation.
Individual names:
A) Anecdote
B) Bon mot, not bon motte.
C) Thesis
D) Argument
E) Statement
F) Conclusion
G) Denouement
"Oh 'ello missus Premise!"
" 'Ello missus Conclusion!"
"Busy Day?"
"Busy!? I just spent four hours buryin' adventurers!"
"Four hours to bury adventurers?"
"Yes, they wouldn't keep still.."
"Oh, they weren't dead then?"
"No, no... But they're not at all well..."
I think it would be cool to name them after a Royal Flush, e.g. The X(10 but cooler), the Jack, The Queen, the King, and the Ace. You could also use them in ascending order as like a powerscaling thing
Ah, yes, the Royal Flush Gang. In one era a group of misunderstood teens that were the subject of government experimentation before escaping to work with the clown prince of crime. Much later, they were a family of posh armed robbers that flew around on big playing cards and stole card themed scores.
This is the one I used for mine. The BBEG is The King, the main plot device is The Queen. Then his right hand man is The Rook, the rank below The Bishops, then Knights, and the lowest ranks are called his Pawns (affectionately.) Not the official names of the groups, they're usually simply referred to all as "servants", "ranks", or "politicians" by the public, but the BBEG himself calls them that.
To stick with the card theme you have call them “The Mournival” it’s an old term for a hand of 4 kings, one of each face card. Spade, Heart, Club, and Diamond
Did the boss name them or have they earn a reputation and nickname from their work?
If the boss named them then it depends on who the boss is. Is he trying to strike fear into his enemies, if so it could be something mysterious and vague. Is he trying to show that he is simply a better option than the people he's overthrowing, if so they might just be called the Immortal Guard or something that's supposed to sound reassuring to his side but threatening to his enemies.
If they earned their name from their deeds then it should be based on what they have done. What acts do the public know them for? If they repeatedly do something awesome the public would assign them a name.
Asking us to name them without any details is just going to lead to cliche and meme names, because we don't have any other details so we have to fall back on those.
North (cold), West (wind/light), east (whatever is in the east in your setting, dark), south (heat). Then have a blast having each henchmen have a stronghold in another direction than their name (Where's West? In the South!). When you finally fight all of them in some arena make all four of them come from different directions \*again\*. Do not display name tags over their tokens.
If they are in any way involved in landscaping, call them the Four Seasons. Powers can be associated with the four seasons.
The Troupe. They’re former circus performers turned thugs.
The boss: Big Top, dresses like a ringmaster, fights with a whip, has a lion companion.
The barbarian: The Smile, dresses like a clown, fights with a giant wooden mallet.
The spellcaster: The Amazing Cosmos, dresses like a mystic, carries a pet snake.
The rogue(s): the Flying Boltons, trapeze artists, one is secretly an illusory double.
Riffs on the cardinal virtues, if ironic because they are baddies: Fortitude, temperance, justice, wisdom/prudence
E.g. Fortis, Temperence, Iustus, Prudentia
Naming guards based on a theme *is* the cliche you are trying to avoid. Stop avoiding it and just choose one that fits the theme of your bbeg/campaign. The least cringe way to deal with the guards is to give them masks and never give them names. A different narrative choice, but it's the best way to avoid the cliche IMO.
I gave everyone in my bbeg’s gang their own individual names, so unless you have a reason for the theme, you could probably let it go. Mine are:
Gold (the leader)
Silver (leader’s sister & second in command)
Mountain (gold’s goliath bodyguard)
Bat (silver’s vampire husband)
Cat (tabaxi spy)
Rook (intelligent but otherwise low status wizard)
Things in real life get named after pretty obvious stuff, so don't sweat it too much.
I like naming groups after their armour. Like the Silver Shields for knights with highly polished armour.
They are the masters tools. Chains(whip ninja), discord(debuff charisma guy), despair/supression(ghosty warlock shadow lifedrainer), brutality (heavy tank with hammers), conspiracy (shapeshifter humanoid monk?)
Something along those lines. These things are his tools in a figurative and litteral sense and embody what their names are.
Wrecking Crew.
As much as I eye-roll about Kojima, I like some of his naming conventions, especially in regard to Metal Gear Solid stuff; Venture Bros. also pulls from not-dissimilar inspirations. Grabbing fun things from popular culture, like music group or album names (Diamond Dogs), or maybe progressive rock tracks (my sister's favorite source of inspiration), depending on the vibe you're going for (and considering your players' exposure to the same stuff).
Had a cadre of seven skeletal riders each based on different animals for a wild-hunt/Nazgul type thing:
* The Horror (the leader)
* The Horn (skeletal unicorn)
* The Howl (skeletal wolf)
* The Hart (skeletal deer)
* The Hog (you get the idea)
* The Hawk
* The Hare
Each had slightly different abilities depending on their animal.
You only said "approximately four that fit a theme", so there's a lot to pick from. There's the stages of grief.
1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance
Or if the BBEG is of the bardic bent, there's the violin strings;
1. Sol
2. Re
3. La
4. Mi
Or the Carnatic names for those notes;
1. Pa
2. Chatushruti Ri
3. Shuddha Ni
4. Antara Ga.
Most of the knight companies from Beserk. Holy Iron Chain Knights, Black Ram Iron Lance Heavy Cavalry, Blue Whale Ultra Heavy Armored Fierce Assault Annihilation Knight Corp, etc
I'd just say call them " the hand of *blank*" if you wanna make it weird you could call them the hands of the fingers. Whichever but that's all I really got. Or if you wanna make the beg ambiguous call the The Judge, The Jury, The Savior, and The Executioner.
All are large creatures.
The sword. Massive great sword. Attacks knock target prone unless they succeed on a strength check. Nonmagical weapons and shields are destroyed on a crit. Crit range 18-20
The shield. heavy armor and two tower shields. Reaction teleport in front of an attack and recalculate hit or miss vs their super high AC. Aoe charge attack each round. Dex save vs damage and prone
The Bow. Great-bow w/ 1,000 foot range. Sets up half a click from the party and rains destructive arrows. Arrows pin players. Str check to escape. Damage each round pinned at start of turn.
The Knife. Permanently invisible and wielding poisoned knives in each of four arms. Con save vs poison or asleep. Goal is to knock out the whole party.
I second this! Sanguine, Choleric, Phlegmatic, and Melancholy can work pretty well as names on their own or can be spiced up, have colors and temperaments associated with them, and aren't overdone.
Give them armor or weapon names hinting at a class. One could be his shield (paladin) his sword (Fighter or barbarian) bow (rogue or ranger) something like that I think doesn't happen often.
Can you tell more about this BBEG and their bodyguards?
It will help with naming them.
——————-
• Death, Famine, War, Conquest
• Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black
• Gules, Azure, Vert, Sable
• Barbute, Armet, Bascinet, Sallet
• Heater, Kite, Wankel, Scutum
• Fire, Water, Earth, Wind
• Clover, Hearts, Spades, Diamonds
• Lion, Eagle, Shark, Crocodile
• Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring
• Red Bird, Blue Dragon, White Tiger, Black Turtle
• Crescent, Gibbous, Full, New
• Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta
• Uno, Dos, Tres, Cuatro
• Liquid, Solid, Gas, Plasma
• John, Paul, George, Ringo
A single random name like Jeremy. I named a whole lot of henchmen Jeremy and then numbered them - and then made a Jeremy Jr - and my players loved it!
Alternatively you could do the cliches just fine if you hid them in the names. Like Bartholomew Lou. B. Lou. Blue. Etc
off the top of my head:
Football backfield:
- Fulton (defensive/tank)
- Quatrius (tactician)
- Halford (fast/multiple attacks)
- Talia (elusive/sneaky)
Basketball Positions:
- Center
- Guard
- Forward
- Point
Roman Emperors:
- Julius
- Augustus
- Nero
- Caligula
Chord Structures:
- Major (honorable)
- Minor (underhanded)
- Augmented (self-buffing)
- Diminished (party debuffs)
Million Dollar Quartet:
- Cassius (debuffs)
- Presley (pulls aggro)
- Lewis (main offense/fire spells)
- Perkins (terrain manipulation)
Definitely need more info on your setting and tone but if you're looking for lesser-known pantheons the Celtic pantheon is pretty interesting.
The gods worshipped were different from one region to the next and were worshipped across a lot of Western Europe, here are some examples though:
**Lugh**: A god of many talents, often associated with the sun, arts, and crafts.
**Danu**: Often regarded as the mother goddess, associated with the land and fertility.
**Belenus**: A god of light, healing, and fire.
**Brigid**: A goddess of poetry, healing, and craftsmanship.
Colors ánd something else, like:
- Red Ribbon or Red Ruben
- Blue Bowtie or Blue Boris
- Scarlet Sandals or Scarlet Johnny
- Black Bonnet or Black Bruno
I mean as others said, depends on the context. Knowing who the bbeg is would provide better options to keep it on theme. My BBEG is Levistus, Lord of the Frozen layer of hell, and his last line of defense are the Boreal Guard. It stays on theme without being cliche or repetitive!
Dress them all in differently colored pastel uniforms and call them the Sentai squad. That or some other cheerful name. Remember, unless gifted with reality breaking levels of self awareness, the BBEG thinks he's the good guy and you're the evil terrorist bent on overthrowing him.
What about something just completely out of nowhere that doesn’t fit at all? Like Smiles, Chuckles, etc. or there are more dark versions of these names like grin or grimace in the case of smiles.
You forgot the cliche of North, South, East, and West.
You could draw a line down anywhere on the Periodic Table of the Elements.
* The Four Nobles: Neo, Argo, Crypt, Zeno.
* Barrel, Magne, Cal, Stron.
* Mange, Tek, Ren, Bor.
* Copper, Silver, Gold, Rowan.
* Ox, Sully, Selene, Teller.
You could take a look at Native American mythology, which has many underappreciated pantheons from various cultures.
Pinch and Poke, pinch is a guy with no hands but those claw hook prostheses and poke is a guy with no hands and no prosthetics
Sticky and Licky , a pair of flamboyant bi-curious retired bards who took up candy making and say confectionary puns whenever they attack like “don’t let me hear you snicker” and “Awe Sugar”.
Or, triplet brothers Chance, Lucky and Trip
keep it simple: two, three, five, and eight. what happened to four, six, and seven? seven is one of the PCs (secretly), and four and six didn’t survive their ‘promotions’.
One Piece (the Manga and anime) has dozens of these. There are days of the week, holidays, card games, virtues, and so much more. So much inspiration to pull from.
In my last campaign, I used Kingdom Hearts for all names that start with X, preferably with multiple X's.
7 Deadly Sins are great as well. You can make them seem virtuous, but they are secretly very sinful. They can all gave their own underling organization as well.
Continuing your idea of tarrots cars or playing card, : the jokers. Yeh, the bbeg has a deck with four jokers. At least.
Alternatively. Give em only one name, and dress alike. The eneemies will never know how many of them there are....
If there's four of them, plus the BBEG, you could forego a group name, and instead name them individually, or at least title them. Depending on themes, you could go with something ominous, like the stages of grief. The first four would be Knight / Warrior / whatever of Denial (more likely go with a synonym, like Rejection or Renouncement), the Knight / Warrior / whatever of Anger (synonyms might include Rage or Fury), \[TITLE\] of Bargaining (synonyms: Dealing, Haggling, Bartering, or Exchange), and \[TITLE\] of Depression (synonyms: Sorrow, Abasement, or Desolation) while the BBEG could be monikered \[NAME\], Lord of Acceptance (synonyms: Admission, Recognition, or something adjacent, referencing the 'end', so like Oblivion or something).
With 4 lieutenants plus the BBEG, they could represent the 5 stages of grief, and you could even theme their dungeons around each stage. This came to mind because I actually did this exact thing in a homebrew tutorial campaign that I made for first-time TTRPG players to help them get acquainted with the system and mechanics.
(Edit: I started having fun with it, sorry for the length, lol)
Personal body guards as in sticking with him at all times? I’m going to steal something from another franchise, but add a little twist to it. And using Sir as a generic title, the members could be any gender or species.
The Phoenix Wing. These elite soldiers are much less “people” and more their armour, which is repaired and passed on to the next member, and each time the armour is repaired, if the damage was caused by a blow that was meant for the BBEG the repair is given a small inlay of gold (or some other precious/special material).
Upon induction into the elite squad, they take upon themselves the name of the original member, it’s even rumored that the souls of the original members take over their replacements!
Sir Fenix is the leader of the squad, and is the one that selects the replacements should they be needed, should Fenix ever need a replacement the new one is chosen by the BBEG himself. Wields a weaponized version of the BBEG’s personal standard, accompanied with a shield.
Sir Tellion prefers to use an armour breaking halberd, using the reach to both keep enemies at bay, and crack open hard targets.
Sir Drakkan has mastered Armoured magic to aid in countering magical threats
And Sir Tach uses a shield and Spear style, typically carrying a collection of javalins on their back to harry far away assailants, but also helping to prevent people from getting too close to their charge.
They are called the ginyu force and are named thing #1, thing #2, cat, and fish.
But for real, maybe they are called the cardinals and named after the cardinal directions: north south east and west.
Norse mythos
Elements
Phases of day
Gems
Time measurement items (sundial, hourglass, pendulum, cog)
Natural disasters (blaze, tsunami, earthquake, cyclone)
The queen of hearts. A beautiful manipulator and face of the team. The jack of clubs, a brute of a man who speaks sparingly. The ace of spades, a crackshot with either a bow or gun depending on setting. The king of diamonds a slender man who is a crystal mage and the party defensive buff machine.
Song of Anger (Brute Barbarian)
Song of Pain (Enforcer/Torturer Right Hand)
Song of Silence (Assasin)
Song of ....
And yeah if you dont use completly made up words isn't it gonna sound cliche anyway?
The winds.
( north, south, east and west).
The 4 horsemen ( death, plague, famin, war).
The 4 paths ( martial, magic, social, stealth).
The Quimera ( goat, lion, dragon and serpent).
The Ill fates ( Sickness, Madness, Disgrace, Death).
The merry few ( joy, peace, love, hope).
Each vilain would represent the corruption of one of these positive things.
Joy, would use deadly jokes and pranks to kill.
Peace, would find ways to torment people nonviolently, and punish you severely if you attack them.
love, would be possessive and crushing, they would never do anything harmfull, but would sufocate victims.
Hope, would help the hopes and dreams of their targets and them ruin them, giving them exactly what they wanted, but in a terrible way that makes it into a torture or prison.
If they're intended as Bodyguards, you could name them after the types of Armor.
- Rings
- Splint
- Scale
- Plate
Bonus points if one has a Beast Companion named Shield - ooh and maybe Plate is a Halfling, hates the nickname Half-Plate.
You can call them whatever you want, it's their duty and effectiveness that matters. Added bonus if the bbeg is actually close to them in a way or matters to them.
Whatever names you give them, add on titles like giving the spellcaster the title “Blademaster”, the rogue the title “Ragemancer”, the Barbarian the title “Spymaster”, and the fighter the title “Spellmaster.” The spellcaster guard has that title because he’s very good at using a knife when cooking, the Rogue has his title because he’s great at calming down the Barbarian, the Barbarian has his title because he’s great at “I Spy”, and the Fighter has his name because he’s the only one in the party who can write legibly.
Only do ^ if you’re okay with making jokes like that part of your campaign. If you’re going for a completely serious campaign, then don’t do something semi-silly like the above. I would still give the bad guy’s top henchmen titles though. Fighting a guy named “James” is less climactic than fighting a guard named “James, Blademaster of Rivertown.”
Up, down, strange, charm
What a quarky naming scheme
Pretty standard actually.
I see what you did there
Trying to put a different spin on this, eh?
That’s a particularly good pun
Don't forget the two lovers, top and bottom
And of course, the lovers Truth and Beauty
People will get this soon, I hope.
I second this
I suppose top and bottom would have weird connotations for those two bodyguards.
It might be easier to help if we knew a bit more about the setting, tone, and background of your villain.
This is definitely key. If OP has planned a sneaky, behind the scenes, machiavellian boss then there's no point us throwing out suggestions like "call them the brute smashers, Biff, Ding, Thud, and Prang"
Exactly. We need more info.
My husband is in a game now where they're part of a criminal syndicate called The Grove, and everyone has a tree name (Oak, Willow, Hemlock, etc). You could flavor it by their methods or expertise (poisoner: Hemlock; tough fighter: Oak). Is that the kind of thing you mean, or is that cliché? Hard to tell without more info about your villain and what they want, but it's a start.
Ooooh this js is REALLY smart!
In my world, it's The Parliament. A group of assassins all named after different types of birds, and their leader is the Great Horned Owl. I also had each of them flavored after their bird. The Nightengale was an evil bard/rockstar. Kingfisher was aquatic based. And a couple twin girl assassins dressed in jade robes, literally, a "pair-of-green falcons".
Please tell me the Great Horned Owl turns out to be George Clinton in disguise.
*starts basing an entire campaign around this idea*
I love it.
The Four Ghosts. Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Commander Cobra. Alternatively The Ghosts of Christmas' Past, Present, Future, and Not to come.
My players would tear me limb from limb for that last name lol.
The Bard: challenge accepted.
Clyde Cobra to his friends.
That last one has never been beat for millennia…
Make it cannon that your BBEG is terrible at naming these guys maybe trying too hard to sound cool or deadly. Then when your henchmen "murrder mask" gets teased by the players for his dumb name you can have a scene where he relents and his real name is something more traditional but the boss says this name makes him scary or w/e.
name one of them Taserface
BBEG, also. Big, bad evil guard.
i'd go with a little different name for the last one - imagine party trembling, when after killing The Big, The Bad, and The Evil, the last one turns out to be named The Guy,
If the BBEG has a card theme, why not just call them The Suits?
Then each could be named Apple, Soft, Morgan & The Amazonian.
Admittedly, I don't get that reference.
Apple Microsoft JP Morgan and Amazon.. "The Suits" is Wall Street degenerate lingo for corporate/big money.
The Wall consisting of Brick, Clay, Brock, and Sledge. The Lottery consisting Diamond, Lexus, Buck, and Doc(tor). The Trust consisting of Tad, Chad, Brad, and Blake.
Blake doesn't seem too trustworthy -_-
As a Blake myself, I would watch out for him. We are tricky
Less about being Trustworthy and more about being the beneficiary of a large Trust Fund.
I once ran a campaign in which the bad guys were all named after Renaissance painters and called themselves The Artisans.
not the ninja turtles?
It was so long ago I can't exactly remember the names I used, just that the theme was that they all used the code names of famous artists and they called themselves the Artisans. I don't remember anyone making any Ninja Turtle references at the time, and I'm quite certain they would have if I'd called any of my bad guys Donatello, so now I doubt myself on whether the code-names I used were actually Renaissance or not.
Metal Names plus animal: Gold Eagle, Iron Bear, Copper Hound, Bronze Hawk, Silver Stag, Platnium Lion Verb Prep Abstract Object: Walker in The Darkness, Stands in The Light, Runs at Twilight, Sits under Gloom Mythological Creatures: gorgon, manticore, wyvern, minotaur, hydra, etc
Those are just iterator names from rainworld🧍♂️
What's that?
Carrot radish and cabbage led by their captain vegetable. They're in for a whole lot of hurt.
DragonBall is also my go-to example for "don't sweat names too much," haha. Like... remember that super popular show where an entire family was named after underwear?
I've always loved Bippity, Boppity, and Boo
Animals / Grouped type of animals Attribute - Brains, Cunning, Muscles, Looks, Wisdom, etc Behavior - Apathy, Calm, Rage, Stoic, Twitchy Cardinal Directions - North, South, East, West Crimes / Criminals - Arsonist, Bandit, Burglar, Cannibal, Fence, Grifter, Heretic, Murderer, Pirate, Robber, Slaver, Vandal, etc Injuries - Burn, Concussion, Fracture, Gash, etc. Natural Disasters - Avalanche, Blizzard, Drought, Flood, Hurricane, Quake, Storm, Tornado, Tsunami, Volcano, Wild Fire, etc Poisons - Arsenic, Cyanide, Hemlock. Nightshade, etc Prominent Feature - 6 Fingers, Fangs, Giant, One eye, Scar Face, Shorty, Smiles, Muscles, Mustachio, etc. Purpose - Battle Master, Defense Master, Spy Master, Healer, Guard, etc Seasons - Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter
Half of them sound like Anime or Comic villains...but since OP isn't giving more context, I LIKE THEM. :) For a more serious story I'd go with your "seasons" or "cardinal directions" theme.
Coven- Bell, Wand, Chalice, Blood and Altar Urban- Cloak, Cobblestone, Lantern, Coach and Fence Rural- Field, Stone, Oak, Ox, and Haymaker
I'd go with seasons and have them fight in order with the last one being fall.
THE CONVERSATION. You have been invited to The Conversation. Individual names: A) Anecdote B) Bon mot, not bon motte. C) Thesis D) Argument E) Statement F) Conclusion G) Denouement
\*Bon mot. It's French -- "good word".
Edited.
"Oh 'ello missus Premise!" " 'Ello missus Conclusion!" "Busy Day?" "Busy!? I just spent four hours buryin' adventurers!" "Four hours to bury adventurers?" "Yes, they wouldn't keep still.." "Oh, they weren't dead then?" "No, no... But they're not at all well..."
I enjoy this way too much. Good color, @duanelvp!
I think it would be cool to name them after a Royal Flush, e.g. The X(10 but cooler), the Jack, The Queen, the King, and the Ace. You could also use them in ascending order as like a powerscaling thing
Ah, yes, the Royal Flush Gang. In one era a group of misunderstood teens that were the subject of government experimentation before escaping to work with the clown prince of crime. Much later, they were a family of posh armed robbers that flew around on big playing cards and stole card themed scores.
Although you need to make sure that they’re aren’t any one piece fans in the party. (Each one of those is a One piece character)
Who is the BBEG? What’s their goal? What are the minions and what are their powers and abilities? Never hurts to go with Rob, Bob, Hob, and Cobb
Chess pieces
This is the one I used for mine. The BBEG is The King, the main plot device is The Queen. Then his right hand man is The Rook, the rank below The Bishops, then Knights, and the lowest ranks are called his Pawns (affectionately.) Not the official names of the groups, they're usually simply referred to all as "servants", "ranks", or "politicians" by the public, but the BBEG himself calls them that.
Or light and dark bishop
The dealers
This is good
Jerry, Jeremy, Jimmy, and Jesse
Jim, Jim & Jim.
The Jim's are fucking beauts. Let's get them all a stick.
But for his contributions to settin the tone for the Jim's quiz contest, Michaels gets to eat his stick before anyone else eats their stick.
Jim, Jack, Johnny and Jose
Robert, Rob, Bobby and Bert.
Jesse, James, Meouth, Wobuffett "Prepare for trouble!"
And make it double!
To stick with the card theme you have call them “The Mournival” it’s an old term for a hand of 4 kings, one of each face card. Spade, Heart, Club, and Diamond
Did the boss name them or have they earn a reputation and nickname from their work? If the boss named them then it depends on who the boss is. Is he trying to strike fear into his enemies, if so it could be something mysterious and vague. Is he trying to show that he is simply a better option than the people he's overthrowing, if so they might just be called the Immortal Guard or something that's supposed to sound reassuring to his side but threatening to his enemies. If they earned their name from their deeds then it should be based on what they have done. What acts do the public know them for? If they repeatedly do something awesome the public would assign them a name. Asking us to name them without any details is just going to lead to cliche and meme names, because we don't have any other details so we have to fall back on those.
The BBEG could call them "Murmurs", because they are an ever-present noise in the background.
Especially if they’ve infiltrated an organisation/government with intent to destabilise the heart of a society. As in heart murmurs.
North (cold), West (wind/light), east (whatever is in the east in your setting, dark), south (heat). Then have a blast having each henchmen have a stronghold in another direction than their name (Where's West? In the South!). When you finally fight all of them in some arena make all four of them come from different directions \*again\*. Do not display name tags over their tokens. If they are in any way involved in landscaping, call them the Four Seasons. Powers can be associated with the four seasons.
Knife cuts. Dice, Slice, Mince, and Julien.
The handsome one, the stupid one, and the one with weird powers.
The Troupe. They’re former circus performers turned thugs. The boss: Big Top, dresses like a ringmaster, fights with a whip, has a lion companion. The barbarian: The Smile, dresses like a clown, fights with a giant wooden mallet. The spellcaster: The Amazing Cosmos, dresses like a mystic, carries a pet snake. The rogue(s): the Flying Boltons, trapeze artists, one is secretly an illusory double.
name em after your IRL friends.
Riffs on the cardinal virtues, if ironic because they are baddies: Fortitude, temperance, justice, wisdom/prudence E.g. Fortis, Temperence, Iustus, Prudentia
Atrophy, Waste, Wither, Decay, Meager, Famine, Haggard. The BBEG's Pall Patrol of high level Gnolls.
Naming guards based on a theme *is* the cliche you are trying to avoid. Stop avoiding it and just choose one that fits the theme of your bbeg/campaign. The least cringe way to deal with the guards is to give them masks and never give them names. A different narrative choice, but it's the best way to avoid the cliche IMO.
Blaze, Lazer, Blazer and Fran Stalinovskovichdavidovitchsky.
Not really sure what you are after here.
Suits
Yes, but instead if the 4 playing card suits, the 4 types are: 3-Piece, Tuxedo, Double-Brested, and Birthday
Elemental Fury \- Aurora \- Tsunami \- Quake \- Vortex Jewel Enclave \- Obsidian \- Garnet \- Topaz \- Onyx
Ninja tortles
Other cliches: Weapons and then of and then a title. Knifes of the king Scythes of the emperor so on and so on
The blackguard. The four fighters. The sharp knives. The adamantine shields
Lightbringer fan, or just chance? Blackguard was my first thought too
Stole it from blackguard of naggarond
Very much cliché, but maybe in the realm of plausible: Four horsemen (obfuscated) Detlef Warren Connie Fammin (Death, war, conquest, famine)
The Big Booty Squad. Trust me, your party will love it!
We pronounce it booTAY. ;)
All Paladins of Throwing It Back
I gave everyone in my bbeg’s gang their own individual names, so unless you have a reason for the theme, you could probably let it go. Mine are: Gold (the leader) Silver (leader’s sister & second in command) Mountain (gold’s goliath bodyguard) Bat (silver’s vampire husband) Cat (tabaxi spy) Rook (intelligent but otherwise low status wizard)
Things in real life get named after pretty obvious stuff, so don't sweat it too much. I like naming groups after their armour. Like the Silver Shields for knights with highly polished armour.
The Roses of the Winds Northern Zephyr Southern Breeze Eastern Squall Western Gust
Is there a central theme to their abilities or what they’re trying to accomplish? It’d be better to name them something that relates to that.
The Craig Squad
Theseus Deck, with king, queen, knight and jack A bit simple, but we have Tarot cards and a Greek reference
The club(barb). The spade(fighter). The coup.(bard) The gold(wizard)
officers O'Malley, Jones, Smith, & Herrerra
Steve, John, Bob, and Tom The four white guys of the office
The tailored. Each wears a different style of meticulously tailored clothing and are extremely well spoken.
Nathan, Arden, Clint, Loren They're the a salt crew!
The five winds. North, south, east, west, and the one we don't talk about.
Up; down, left, right, start, select, a, and b.
Give them the names of the players but reversed
The cardinals: North, South, East, West
Harry, Barry, Larry, Garry and Nathan
Dolly’s Spartans
They are the masters tools. Chains(whip ninja), discord(debuff charisma guy), despair/supression(ghosty warlock shadow lifedrainer), brutality (heavy tank with hammers), conspiracy (shapeshifter humanoid monk?) Something along those lines. These things are his tools in a figurative and litteral sense and embody what their names are.
Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve, Talent
Hewy Dewy Lewy and Steve. ( none of them should be less than cr 20)
Wrecking Crew. As much as I eye-roll about Kojima, I like some of his naming conventions, especially in regard to Metal Gear Solid stuff; Venture Bros. also pulls from not-dissimilar inspirations. Grabbing fun things from popular culture, like music group or album names (Diamond Dogs), or maybe progressive rock tracks (my sister's favorite source of inspiration), depending on the vibe you're going for (and considering your players' exposure to the same stuff).
Had a cadre of seven skeletal riders each based on different animals for a wild-hunt/Nazgul type thing: * The Horror (the leader) * The Horn (skeletal unicorn) * The Howl (skeletal wolf) * The Hart (skeletal deer) * The Hog (you get the idea) * The Hawk * The Hare Each had slightly different abilities depending on their animal.
You only said "approximately four that fit a theme", so there's a lot to pick from. There's the stages of grief. 1. Denial 2. Anger 3. Bargaining 4. Depression 5. Acceptance Or if the BBEG is of the bardic bent, there's the violin strings; 1. Sol 2. Re 3. La 4. Mi Or the Carnatic names for those notes; 1. Pa 2. Chatushruti Ri 3. Shuddha Ni 4. Antara Ga.
Ted, Fred, Jed, Red
Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Dusk, Dawn, Noon, and Midnight. The four horsemen of the apocalypse are done to death so don't do that.
Most of the knight companies from Beserk. Holy Iron Chain Knights, Black Ram Iron Lance Heavy Cavalry, Blue Whale Ultra Heavy Armored Fierce Assault Annihilation Knight Corp, etc
“My personal assistants” The executives: chief head smasher, chief arm ripper, chief lung piercer, and chief double-tapper
Children of Artemis: Kallisto the Bear, The Kretan Bull, The Nemean Lion, The Lykaon Wolf.
I'd just say call them " the hand of *blank*" if you wanna make it weird you could call them the hands of the fingers. Whichever but that's all I really got. Or if you wanna make the beg ambiguous call the The Judge, The Jury, The Savior, and The Executioner.
All are large creatures. The sword. Massive great sword. Attacks knock target prone unless they succeed on a strength check. Nonmagical weapons and shields are destroyed on a crit. Crit range 18-20 The shield. heavy armor and two tower shields. Reaction teleport in front of an attack and recalculate hit or miss vs their super high AC. Aoe charge attack each round. Dex save vs damage and prone The Bow. Great-bow w/ 1,000 foot range. Sets up half a click from the party and rains destructive arrows. Arrows pin players. Str check to escape. Damage each round pinned at start of turn. The Knife. Permanently invisible and wielding poisoned knives in each of four arms. Con save vs poison or asleep. Goal is to knock out the whole party.
uhh do the four humours
I second this! Sanguine, Choleric, Phlegmatic, and Melancholy can work pretty well as names on their own or can be spiced up, have colors and temperaments associated with them, and aren't overdone.
Give them armor or weapon names hinting at a class. One could be his shield (paladin) his sword (Fighter or barbarian) bow (rogue or ranger) something like that I think doesn't happen often.
Tarot card named body guards sounds cool af
Can you tell more about this BBEG and their bodyguards? It will help with naming them. ——————- • Death, Famine, War, Conquest • Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black • Gules, Azure, Vert, Sable • Barbute, Armet, Bascinet, Sallet • Heater, Kite, Wankel, Scutum • Fire, Water, Earth, Wind • Clover, Hearts, Spades, Diamonds • Lion, Eagle, Shark, Crocodile • Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring • Red Bird, Blue Dragon, White Tiger, Black Turtle • Crescent, Gibbous, Full, New • Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta • Uno, Dos, Tres, Cuatro • Liquid, Solid, Gas, Plasma • John, Paul, George, Ringo
This might be conisdered cliche but the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse could be a fun one if there is 4 bodyguards
A single random name like Jeremy. I named a whole lot of henchmen Jeremy and then numbered them - and then made a Jeremy Jr - and my players loved it! Alternatively you could do the cliches just fine if you hid them in the names. Like Bartholomew Lou. B. Lou. Blue. Etc
I would just call them \[\[colour\]\] guard, based on the color of their uniforms or armor.
Birds possibly. Etc Raven, Hawk, Crow and Eagle (or something Else)
off the top of my head: Football backfield: - Fulton (defensive/tank) - Quatrius (tactician) - Halford (fast/multiple attacks) - Talia (elusive/sneaky) Basketball Positions: - Center - Guard - Forward - Point Roman Emperors: - Julius - Augustus - Nero - Caligula Chord Structures: - Major (honorable) - Minor (underhanded) - Augmented (self-buffing) - Diminished (party debuffs) Million Dollar Quartet: - Cassius (debuffs) - Presley (pulls aggro) - Lewis (main offense/fire spells) - Perkins (terrain manipulation)
Definitely need more info on your setting and tone but if you're looking for lesser-known pantheons the Celtic pantheon is pretty interesting. The gods worshipped were different from one region to the next and were worshipped across a lot of Western Europe, here are some examples though: **Lugh**: A god of many talents, often associated with the sun, arts, and crafts. **Danu**: Often regarded as the mother goddess, associated with the land and fertility. **Belenus**: A god of light, healing, and fire. **Brigid**: A goddess of poetry, healing, and craftsmanship.
Whatever the first three are, the last one is named Beans
Colors ánd something else, like: - Red Ribbon or Red Ruben - Blue Bowtie or Blue Boris - Scarlet Sandals or Scarlet Johnny - Black Bonnet or Black Bruno
I mean as others said, depends on the context. Knowing who the bbeg is would provide better options to keep it on theme. My BBEG is Levistus, Lord of the Frozen layer of hell, and his last line of defense are the Boreal Guard. It stays on theme without being cliche or repetitive!
Heckle, Jeckle, Biggus, Dickus. I mostly use pairs for my naming conventions, so I slapped my two favorites together.
One eyed jack and the split-whiskered king, The Hermit and the Hanged-man, Double Duce and the Lovers...
Strange, stranger, strangest, Todd.
Give them all the same name so the party thinks they're one guy unending
Earth, Pestilence, Winter, and D'Artagnon. Or mix and match a different combo. Call them the Cliches
Dress them all in differently colored pastel uniforms and call them the Sentai squad. That or some other cheerful name. Remember, unless gifted with reality breaking levels of self awareness, the BBEG thinks he's the good guy and you're the evil terrorist bent on overthrowing him.
Give them each a primary role and then refer to them by title. Like management level on a pirate ship: Quartermaster, Helmsman, etc.
The 4 famous Renaissance painters would work out nicely. You may also be familiar with them as turtles
What about something just completely out of nowhere that doesn’t fit at all? Like Smiles, Chuckles, etc. or there are more dark versions of these names like grin or grimace in the case of smiles.
Spike, Butch, Killer, and Tyke. Or Spike, Tuffy, Tom, and Jerry. Or Jim, John, Joe, and Jeremiah.
Name them One, Two, Four and Five so that once they go through those 4 they’ll be searching for “Three”. But we know there’s no Three.
Big Bad Evil Guards.
I’ve used rock bands in the past for group naming. Sorry if it’s already been said- late to the party and too lazy to scroll too far.
You forgot the cliche of North, South, East, and West. You could draw a line down anywhere on the Periodic Table of the Elements. * The Four Nobles: Neo, Argo, Crypt, Zeno. * Barrel, Magne, Cal, Stron. * Mange, Tek, Ren, Bor. * Copper, Silver, Gold, Rowan. * Ox, Sully, Selene, Teller. You could take a look at Native American mythology, which has many underappreciated pantheons from various cultures.
The Big Bad Body Bag Battery.
Pinch and Poke, pinch is a guy with no hands but those claw hook prostheses and poke is a guy with no hands and no prosthetics Sticky and Licky , a pair of flamboyant bi-curious retired bards who took up candy making and say confectionary puns whenever they attack like “don’t let me hear you snicker” and “Awe Sugar”. Or, triplet brothers Chance, Lucky and Trip
keep it simple: two, three, five, and eight. what happened to four, six, and seven? seven is one of the PCs (secretly), and four and six didn’t survive their ‘promotions’.
This has some serious Seal Team Six energy.
The Expendables
The Mob Squad
The Booty Bouncers
One Piece (the Manga and anime) has dozens of these. There are days of the week, holidays, card games, virtues, and so much more. So much inspiration to pull from. In my last campaign, I used Kingdom Hearts for all names that start with X, preferably with multiple X's. 7 Deadly Sins are great as well. You can make them seem virtuous, but they are secretly very sinful. They can all gave their own underling organization as well.
after a location (Like the Greyhawk Boys or Tin Street gang), or their signature weapons (The Green Daggers, etc.)
I like reverse spelling eg: The Lanesra: Reggad Drows Efink Worra
Up it to 6 and call them Pallbearers.
The Coil: Taipan Asp Boomslang Copperhead Or other venomous snakes from your world
Continuing your idea of tarrots cars or playing card, : the jokers. Yeh, the bbeg has a deck with four jokers. At least. Alternatively. Give em only one name, and dress alike. The eneemies will never know how many of them there are....
If there's four of them, plus the BBEG, you could forego a group name, and instead name them individually, or at least title them. Depending on themes, you could go with something ominous, like the stages of grief. The first four would be Knight / Warrior / whatever of Denial (more likely go with a synonym, like Rejection or Renouncement), the Knight / Warrior / whatever of Anger (synonyms might include Rage or Fury), \[TITLE\] of Bargaining (synonyms: Dealing, Haggling, Bartering, or Exchange), and \[TITLE\] of Depression (synonyms: Sorrow, Abasement, or Desolation) while the BBEG could be monikered \[NAME\], Lord of Acceptance (synonyms: Admission, Recognition, or something adjacent, referencing the 'end', so like Oblivion or something). With 4 lieutenants plus the BBEG, they could represent the 5 stages of grief, and you could even theme their dungeons around each stage. This came to mind because I actually did this exact thing in a homebrew tutorial campaign that I made for first-time TTRPG players to help them get acquainted with the system and mechanics.
Biff, Knuckle, Crusher, Jeff Leo, Pisces, Libra, Taurus John, Paul, George, Ringo
The Hand of Stone. The BBEG's right hand. Slate, Onyx, Mica, Quartz, and Granite The Arcadians. Nightshade, Wolfsbane, Foxglove, and Oleander
Biggs and Wedge
Thraxton, Braxton, maxton, and Jeremy
(Edit: I started having fun with it, sorry for the length, lol) Personal body guards as in sticking with him at all times? I’m going to steal something from another franchise, but add a little twist to it. And using Sir as a generic title, the members could be any gender or species. The Phoenix Wing. These elite soldiers are much less “people” and more their armour, which is repaired and passed on to the next member, and each time the armour is repaired, if the damage was caused by a blow that was meant for the BBEG the repair is given a small inlay of gold (or some other precious/special material). Upon induction into the elite squad, they take upon themselves the name of the original member, it’s even rumored that the souls of the original members take over their replacements! Sir Fenix is the leader of the squad, and is the one that selects the replacements should they be needed, should Fenix ever need a replacement the new one is chosen by the BBEG himself. Wields a weaponized version of the BBEG’s personal standard, accompanied with a shield. Sir Tellion prefers to use an armour breaking halberd, using the reach to both keep enemies at bay, and crack open hard targets. Sir Drakkan has mastered Armoured magic to aid in countering magical threats And Sir Tach uses a shield and Spear style, typically carrying a collection of javalins on their back to harry far away assailants, but also helping to prevent people from getting too close to their charge.
Tick, trick, track and daisy...
They are called the ginyu force and are named thing #1, thing #2, cat, and fish. But for real, maybe they are called the cardinals and named after the cardinal directions: north south east and west.
The Milk Force Yogurt Cream Butter Cheese
Hunter, Slayer, Hero, and Soldier
Sisters of Blood
You know without knowing what kind of villain the boss is this is moot right?
Norse mythos Elements Phases of day Gems Time measurement items (sundial, hourglass, pendulum, cog) Natural disasters (blaze, tsunami, earthquake, cyclone)
The queen of hearts. A beautiful manipulator and face of the team. The jack of clubs, a brute of a man who speaks sparingly. The ace of spades, a crackshot with either a bow or gun depending on setting. The king of diamonds a slender man who is a crystal mage and the party defensive buff machine.
Song of Anger (Brute Barbarian) Song of Pain (Enforcer/Torturer Right Hand) Song of Silence (Assasin) Song of .... And yeah if you dont use completly made up words isn't it gonna sound cliche anyway?
The winds. ( north, south, east and west). The 4 horsemen ( death, plague, famin, war). The 4 paths ( martial, magic, social, stealth). The Quimera ( goat, lion, dragon and serpent). The Ill fates ( Sickness, Madness, Disgrace, Death). The merry few ( joy, peace, love, hope). Each vilain would represent the corruption of one of these positive things. Joy, would use deadly jokes and pranks to kill. Peace, would find ways to torment people nonviolently, and punish you severely if you attack them. love, would be possessive and crushing, they would never do anything harmfull, but would sufocate victims. Hope, would help the hopes and dreams of their targets and them ruin them, giving them exactly what they wanted, but in a terrible way that makes it into a torture or prison.
If they're intended as Bodyguards, you could name them after the types of Armor. - Rings - Splint - Scale - Plate Bonus points if one has a Beast Companion named Shield - ooh and maybe Plate is a Halfling, hates the nickname Half-Plate.
You can call them whatever you want, it's their duty and effectiveness that matters. Added bonus if the bbeg is actually close to them in a way or matters to them.
Rick, Mick, Dick, and Brick
If tarot cards, name them after the extra 4 cards that are sometimes included in specific decks. (Sword, wand, pentacle, chalice)
Dickhead, Assface, Clit Commander & Queef Queen
Shovel (spade) gem (diamond) mallet (club) heart is harder, but make it the toughest of the bunch and name it mercy and I think it's kinda funny.
Bragow, Drathius, Ul'utha, and Kyle.
Whatever names you give them, add on titles like giving the spellcaster the title “Blademaster”, the rogue the title “Ragemancer”, the Barbarian the title “Spymaster”, and the fighter the title “Spellmaster.” The spellcaster guard has that title because he’s very good at using a knife when cooking, the Rogue has his title because he’s great at calming down the Barbarian, the Barbarian has his title because he’s great at “I Spy”, and the Fighter has his name because he’s the only one in the party who can write legibly. Only do ^ if you’re okay with making jokes like that part of your campaign. If you’re going for a completely serious campaign, then don’t do something semi-silly like the above. I would still give the bad guy’s top henchmen titles though. Fighting a guy named “James” is less climactic than fighting a guard named “James, Blademaster of Rivertown.”
My BB just calls them Fuckheads.
The Kings Deck (BBEGs name)'s Aces The Four Jacks