3.5e vs 5e Monster Creation & Modification: Hit Die and Ability scores

5e SRD Series

D & D 5th Edition and a 5e x 5 SRD Project

The difficulty with 5e escalating HP and Damage.

5e- the fluidity of magic

5e Magic v Technology

5e skill reduction, Modern D20 to 5e

5e Skill Observations compared to 3.5 and OSRIC

3.5 vs 5.0 d20 - Large Spider comparison

Orc comparison: 5e x 5 to other d100 games.

3.5e vs 5e Monster Creation & Modification: Hit Die and Ability scores

In this post I want to look at the differences in monster creation from the 3.5 systems and the 5e system. This first post I'll look at the Hit Die and the basic ability scores. I also want to make a progression based on the 3.5 creature ability arrays.

1. Hit Points and Hit Die

3.5 Hit Die

In 3.5, Hit Die are based on primarily the creature type. Creature types function as the player character classes in that they determine the base die and the level progression of #of Hit Dice.

Type	Hit Die
Aberration	d8
Animal	d8
Construct	d10
Dragon	d12
Elemental	d8
Fey	d6
Giant	d8
Humanoid	d8
Magical beast	d10
Monstrous humanoid	d8
Ooze	d10
Outsider	d8
Plant	d8
Undead	d12
Vermin	d8

5e Hit Die

5e differs in that Hit dice are based on the size of the creature.

Monster Size	Hit Die	Average HP per Die
Tiny	d4	2½
Small	d6	3½
Medium	d8	4½
Large	d10	5½
Huge	d12	6½
Gargantuan	d20	10½

3.5 Consistency v 5e Inconsistency

In a way, this creates an inconsistency between size and class based hit points in 5e.

On one hand, player Hit Dice are determined by the player's class. On the other hand, monster Hit Dice are based on size, which is primarily based on the creature type or the race.

I believe that this inconsistency is mainly to help maintain class balance. If player HP were based on a race based size, then a wizard could just pick the largest player race. That would create a very hard to kill wizard. Whereas, it would discourage picking small races such as the halfling or gnome because they would die much easier. Race does have a minimum influence on hit points due to the Constitution racial ability bonus that some classes have. A +1 or +2 CON bonus may improve the hit point modifier by one.

Maintaining class based HP on the other hand ties the hit points to the function that they will be doing in the game.

2. Base Ability Scores

The 3.5 has mentioned three base scores depending on the how powerful the creature will be.
Standard (average) average 10
Non-Elite 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8
Elite 15, 14, 13, 12, 9, 8

My Attribute Score Progression for 5e

Based on these three pools of stats, I created this progression chart showing a 5e stat increase based on raising two stats by 1 every 4 levels.

	Primary		Secondary		Tertiary
Standard	10	10	10	10	9	8
	11	11	10	10	9	8
	12	11	11	10	9	8
Non-Elite	13	12	11	10	9	8
	14	13	11	10	9	8
	14	13	12	11	9	8
	15	13	12	11	10	8
Elite	15	14	13	11	10	8
	16	15	13	11	10	8
	17	15	14	11	10	8
	18	15	14	12	10	8
	19	16	14	12	10	8
	20	17	14	12	10	8