Basic HD Progression

[Frilf]

I'm curious.

What is the standard HD progression for creature sizes? Anyone care to post it or know where it can be found (web or otherwise)?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[the Jester]

There is no 'standard' HD progression for creature size, but some guidelines have been published.

The 3.0 MM2 has a good set of charts and tables broken up by monster type that gives recommended ranges of HD by size, but you'll often find monsters that break these 'rules'... especially at higher levels.

In general, monsters that advance by HD seem to hit a new size category at around double to triple their base HD, depending on the creature.

Hope this helps- if you need anything else just post!

 

[Knight Otu]

As Jester said, there are no true rules, only guidelines. The easiest might be to split monsters into "fast-growing" and "slow-growing".

Most fast-growing creatures advance in size once they gain the first HD, up to 1.25 times their original HD, and advance again at twice their original HD. They might advance again at 3 times, but only few creatures advance in size more than twice.

Slow-growing creatures usually advance in size once they have 150% to 200% their original HD, and advance again at 3 times their original HD.

Most creatures stop advancing at 3 times their original HD, but there are some that stop at twice, or never stop advancing.

 

[Frilf]

As Jester said, there are no true rules, only guidelines. The easiest might be to split monsters into "fast-growing" and "slow-growing".

Most fast-growing creatures advance in size once they gain the first HD, up to 1.25 times their original HD, and advance again at twice their original HD. They might advance again at 3 times, but only few creatures advance in size more than twice.

Slow-growing creatures usually advance in size once they have 150% to 200% their original HD, and advance again at 3 times their original HD.

Most creatures stop advancing at 3 times their original HD, but there are some that stop at twice, or never stop advancing.

Thanks for the 411, guys. I've always wondered about that, but I've never really taken the time to study it out. I love coming up with critter ideas, I just have been slow to stat them up because of weird stuff like HD progression, skill points, etc.

So basically, HD progression is rule of thumb? That's a bit on the ambiguous side for me. I always figured there was some sort of "formal" structure to it. I'll go with this guidelines and see where it gets me (thanks!)

BTW, are there general ranges of HD for size categories or can you have a 16 HD Fine creature and a 3 HD Colossal one? (I know these are a bit wacky, but I'm just illustrating the point). Ideas?

 

[Knight Otu]

Again, no hard and fast rules, but solid guidelines. The MM2 has long tables with mimimum and maximum HDs per size and creature type. I think that the general minimums were about this:

Fine 1/16
Diminutive 1/8
Tiny 1/4
Small 1/2
Medium 1
Large 2
Huge 4
Gargantuan 16
Colossal 32

Here's a link to a pdf with an older version of these tables, from a Dungeon Magazine, posted on the Creature Catalog with permission. Note that the article is 3.0, not 3.5, so quite a bit of the information will be outdated.

 

[Frilf]

Thanks, Knight Otu! Very helpful stuff!