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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bumamgar" data-source="post: 6380685" data-attributes="member: 38648">Giant Toad (6d10 + 6), avg 39 hp, averages to more than double 4d8, avg 18 hp (3E Dire Toad 4 HD)Giant Hyena (6d10 + 12), avg 45 hp, averages to more than double 5d8, avg 22 hp (AD&D Hyaenodon)Giant Octopous (8d10 + 8), avg 52 hp, is quite a bit more than 8d8, avg 36 hp (3E Giant Octopus)So the trend in 5e is to have significantly more HP than prior editions for the same monsters.  Remember, prior editions used d8 for HD almost exclusively (a few exceptions would call for d10 in the stat-block, but those were rare).  Also, monsters now get their con bonus to HP and while plenty of monsters in 2e had 2 + 2 HD etc, the + portion wasn't as common or as high as it gets in 5e.There are several factors to consider when comparing HD of 5e to prior editions, including size and con bonus.  5e tends to use HP and Damage as its primary scaling factors for monster difficulty.  Prior editions often used THAC0 and AC instead, so generally as the 'challenge rating' of monsters increase, their 5e versions tend to diverge quite a bit from prior edition versions, as the 5e versions get more HP and do more damage, but keep a relatively low AC and BAB in comparison to the 2e/3e version which will often have fewer HD, do less damage per hit, but have better AC and BAB.</blockquote>