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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 6360455" data-attributes="member: 20323">Thanks for the feedback! Really, there has always been significant art to designing monsters. Clearl it was there in AD&D, was present in 3e despite the structured approach attempted (citation: how many folks complained about 3e CR as an inaccurate measure), and was present in 4e if you tried to do anything beyond a basic monster built by numbers. The crux of it is that you need a strong math foundation for monster basics to establish a baseline around which to build a monster... I'd much rather argue over the CR value of a special ability I want to add rather than argue over the fundamental monster math... But ultimately the interesting stuff that makes monsters unique comes down to the art.I guess I have been looking for some sort of guidelines like "subtract 1 HD to add Perception skill and Darkvision" or "subtract 3 HD to give an area attack." What I'm realizining is that monster HD are rather superfluous.It seems to me the only purpose for Hit Dice (since they're not clearly tied to CR) is to determine the multiplier for Constitution provided Hit Points. Seems like a weak reason to keep them as a rule for monsters...unless they're planning on building design elements that interface with HD in the future.</blockquote>