tahsin
First Post
Warlock75 said:
I tried to find the stats on 1st Edition dragons, but instead found this:
From: http://home.earthlink.net/~danielrcollins1/dndmisc/monster_changes.html
In general, monster hit dice have been converted in a straightforward manner: from (AD&D1) some number of 8-sided dice plus a unique hp bonus, to (D&D3) some number of varying dice (see below) plus standard CON bonus. This generally makes for a larger bonus and hence, more hit points.
New Hit-Die-Type Categories in 3rd Edition (per MM p. 13)
d12 dragons, undead.
d10 beasts, magical beasts, constructs, oozes.
d8 all others (animals, humanoids, giants, plants, etc.).
d6 fey.
Obvious results from my analysis are that: (1) the number of hit dice for any monster is usually identical, and (2) armor class has stayed very close to the same (under the 20-AC conversion). However, hit dice have been improved for a number of great monster-types, like dragons, giants, demons, and so forth. Furthermore, the added Constitution hit point bonuses (and die type changes) have caused large hit point increases. Monster hit points have increased an average of +117% -- or about +55% when ignoring the greater monsters that have had HD increases. (Notably, the average Elf lost -40% hit points: going from 5 to 3 hp, they are one of the very few monsters to lose hit points.)
AD&D 1st Edition dragons have basically the same hit dice as "very young" dragons in D&D 3rd Edition (age category #2 out of 12; 6-15 years old). An AD&D1 "ancient" dragon, +55% hp, equals a D&D3 "young" dragon.
Of course in 8e, you pay for monsters individually, downloading them to your phone/PDA like ringtones. 
