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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zappo" data-source="post: 630782" data-attributes="member: 633">Not all creatures of the same size are, well, the same size. A Medium-sized creature could be anything from a dwarf to the biggest half-orc. Even between creatures that are equally big, one could have better innate fighting instincts, or superior racial training, so that he gets more HD and everything that goes with them (saves, BAB, etc).In any case, remember that the creatures presented in the MM are the "weakest and most common" examples of their species. The MM fire giant is a fire giant that has never got formal weapon training. He hasn't been in many fights that presented a challenge, if at all. He's never studied any particular profession or class. He hasn't ever gained a significant amount of XP, we can say. All his skills and powers are racial or cultural only. Of course, the higher the creature's CR, the more likely that it has never faced matching challenges, thus the more difficult it is that it has gained XP.So yeah, in D&D a classed monster that is a badass to begin with is very dangerous. That's logical and only to be expected, I think.Anyway, you can always work with stats to reduce the creature's CR if you want. Let the giant cleric have a 13 CON, and reduce the CR accordingly. 13 is legit according to the average stats, but if you wanted less you can always say that he was hit by a big cloud of burnt othur fumes or whatever when he was a child.</blockquote>