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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 6360419" data-attributes="member: 20323">[MENTION=84774]surfarcher[/MENTION]I've been following your blog recently, and really appreciate your fine toothed comb analysis trying to understand how monsters are built in 5e.One thing that perplexes me is Hit Dice. Specifically, how many Hit Dice a monster gets and the relationship between Hit Dice and CR. Any inkling how this works yet?For example, take a CR 1 monster. According to your chart, it should have 9d4 (22.5) hit point if it is Tiny, 7d6 (24.5) if Small, 5d8 (36) if Medium, 3d10 (16.5) if Large, 3d12 (19.5) if Huge, and theoretically 2d20 (21) if Gargantuan. Which seems to completely undermine the idea that bigger things have more hit points.Clearly there is not a perfect correlation between Hit Dice and CR, given the discpancy between old and young dragons (little HD difference but big CR difference) and "glass cannon" monsters with really potent abilities having fewer HD to compensate. There are dials one can turn, for example, one for HD and one for Special Abilities. Both effect CR.What I'm trying to figure out is...(a) What is the Hit Dice baseline for each CR? I think this is one number for each CR, irrespective of a creature's size. For example, 4 HD might be the CR 1 baseline, with a medium creature getting 4d8, a large creature 4d10, etc. I choose "4" as my example because it is the average party size in 5e (the standard range is 3-5 characters), and a CR 1 creature is supposed to be a moderate challenge for an average size level 1 party.(b) What "standards of exchange" between Hit Dice and Special Abilities (or other factors) can be deduced from the existing monsters? For example, if I have a CR 1 monster and I want to make it have less hit points and more Special Abilities while keeping its CR the same, what is a 2 HD (for example) drop worth roughly? An area attack ability? Blindsight? A defensive trait? A Pack Attack trait? A higher AC?Anyhow, I'm looking for answers as I read thru the monsters with an eye toward making connections, not in anywhere as scientific a method, but rather on what I believe is the more fuzzy "art" of monster design.</blockquote>

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