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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 5059193" data-attributes="member: 8461">I'm not quite sure I follow you with the idea that a creature's initial Hit Dice are arbitrary - that seems to imply that there's some sort of order that it needs to follow, but is eschewing in favor of greater randomness. Likewise, advancement is usually pretty clear in terms of a creature that can gain additional racial Hit Dice can gain up to twice it's "normal" Hit Dice.That said, I recognize that there are some odd questions that can be raised regarding what creatures can and can't gain greater racial Hit Dice, or why the racial Hit Dice limits are occasionally altered (the succubus, for example, can only gain double its racial Hit Dice, rather than triple). That's why I much prefer the Pathfinder method, which just eschews exact listings for how a creature can advance, leaving it up to the DM to use the advancement rules as (s)he sees fit.Well, the implication seems to be that a creature with the "base" racial Hit Dice is an adult, fully-grown version of that creature.As for the "why" of the designers picking it, I don't know, but I don't think it matters very much, does it? I know that some monsters were made to fill a specific niche (the krenshar, for example, was made because they wanted a monster that the paladin's aura of courage could function against at low-level play. On the other hand, I suspect some monsters have the Hit Dice they have simply because that's what they had in previous editions, and were translated over that way.If you mean racial Hit Die (as opposed to class Hit Die) then I find it to be the nature part of the "nature versus nurture" equation. That is, racial Hit Dice define the creature's physicality, whereas class levels represent deliberate training and work in a given field. A character with Sorcerer levels may have a story-based bloodline that allows them to cast sorcerer spells, but they're gaining those levels because they're actively trying to. A creature with natural Hit Dice was either born with those Hit Dice, or gained them as a part of reaching maturity.Well, this is the hard part of the equation, as there's a slight disconnect between the fluff and the crunch between gaining class levels versus gaining racial Hit Dice.Gaining class levels takes a deliberate act of will on the part of the character, in-game. They gain levels because they're trying to get better.A creature that gains racial Hit Dice upwards of what the standard racial Hit Dice for that kind of monster, however, isn't doing so deliberately - rather, it's still growing into its full physical potential, which isn't a voluntary procedure.From a meta-game standpoint, there's no difference between the two. Both are a result of advancement - the gaining and spending of XP (though since almost all creatures with racial Hit Dice are NPCs/monsters, that takes place off-stage). But the in-game interpretation is different; class levels represent active training; racial Hit Dice represent growing. This can be seen as "meat only" but bear in mind that physical growth tends to encompass virtually all aspects of a creature - it can become smarter, stronger, faster, or even more magically-powerful as a result.Well, if the question is about comparing creatures' abilities to gain racial Hit Dice at all, and how many, then yes, the mechanics do seem somewhat arbitrary. In point of fact, it seems slanted towards the idea that intelligent creatures gain class levels, whereas non-intelligent creatures (that is, non-sentient) can only grow more.As I said, this is why I prefer Pathfinder's hands-off approach. It lets the DM handle these questions, rather than puzzle out the game's approach. Hopefully, the TB monster book will take that same stance.</blockquote>

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