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D&D 5E Large Monsters as PC's - Hit Dice question
- Thread starter Gwarok
- Start date
Not generally, no. Monsters and PCs are different and built differently. So an ogre wizard would still use d6 hit dice.
My process in building a new PC race is to start with an existing one and change just one or two things. For our half-gnoll, I took the half-orc and removed some racial features and added the gnoll's Rampage feature. In general, I make the custom races as good or slightly worse than the standard ones.
My process in building a new PC race is to start with an existing one and change just one or two things. For our half-gnoll, I took the half-orc and removed some racial features and added the gnoll's Rampage feature. In general, I make the custom races as good or slightly worse than the standard ones.
Cap'n Kobold
Hero
Check with your DM, or whatever source you are using that is allowing large size ogre PCs in the first place.
Actually I am the DM, and was wondering what other's take on it would be. When I wish to customize certain bad guys I basically add character levels to fit the flavor of what it is I want to do. But if I do that, I just think it's odd that a human fighter would have base D10, and a Frost giant one would as well, seems a bit off to me on a fundamental level. Perhaps I'll just take whatever die is higher instead of bumping the Dice one level regardless. Would a huge sized Barbarian have as hit dice? I'd have to find a D30 or something 
I think your original post kind of contains your answer already, and you just left out of the example you presented. As you pointed out, monsters get HDs for their sizes. The playable races already contain members of different sizes (medium and small), who do not roll differently when created as PCs. So, if you ever allow large PCs (which I would were I DMing Dark Sun, for instance), you might include in the race a feature such as the hill dwarf resilience, but it does not seem much in place in 5e to actually mess with the hit dice.
If you want to improve monsters, just do it, regardless of rules for player creation. If you want a frost giant with barbarian-like abilities and improved resilience, just add the barbarian abilities you think make sense, increase the number of hit dice to the amount that generates the HPs you are aiming at and check the final CR according to DMG guidelines. There is no need to add actual PC classes, change HD sizes, or anything more complicated. Also, have in mind some features of the PC classes might even interact weirdly with the monster rules (such as extra attack from warrior classes and the monster multiattack feature).
If you want to improve monsters, just do it, regardless of rules for player creation. If you want a frost giant with barbarian-like abilities and improved resilience, just add the barbarian abilities you think make sense, increase the number of hit dice to the amount that generates the HPs you are aiming at and check the final CR according to DMG guidelines. There is no need to add actual PC classes, change HD sizes, or anything more complicated. Also, have in mind some features of the PC classes might even interact weirdly with the monster rules (such as extra attack from warrior classes and the monster multiattack feature).
dave2008
Legend
You stick with the fighter HD for your Ogre PC, possibly with a racial bonus to hit points as noted by Xeviat.
If you just want to add fighter features to a monster, just add the features and don't worry about changing the HD. If you need more hit points, just give it more (the listed HP is the average) or more HD if needed. Of course this will most likely increase the CR as well.
Flamestrike
Legend
Different horses for different courses. Class level HD dont change based on size (Halflings and gnomes dont drop a die).
If I was going to make an Ogre or Large PC race, I would consider giving it the +1 HP per HD racial trait that Dwarves have however.
If I was going to make an Ogre or Large PC race, I would consider giving it the +1 HP per HD racial trait that Dwarves have however.
The Crimson Binome
Hero
There is no correct solution, because the rules are inconsistent. Do whatever you feel like.
That being said, as far as monsters in the book are concerned, creature size is the only factor in determining hit die size. An ogre wizard would have the same size hit dice as an ogre barbarian, because they're both Large creatures.
That being said, as far as monsters in the book are concerned, creature size is the only factor in determining hit die size. An ogre wizard would have the same size hit dice as an ogre barbarian, because they're both Large creatures.
