Mightiest Monsters: Chainmail

Chainmail, the precursor to D&D, doesn't use hit dice. So instead I'm going to go by the point value of the various monsters. Normal figures like elves and orcs and such all have point values of 5 or less. Here are all the monsters listed at 10 points or more.

Basilisk (not rated, see below)
Dragon (100)
Troll (75)
Giant (50)
Lycanthrope (20)
Roc (includes wyverns and griffons) (20)
Ogre (15)
Treant (15)
Wraith (10)
Wight (10)

Elementals are not given a point value because they can only be brought into play when a wizard summons one, but they would easily make this list otherwise. Basilisks are unrated because their devasting stone gaze is considered beyond the scope of the point system to measure. That puts them on the top of the food chain, in my opinion. Trolls come in very strong with 75 points, more than a standard Giant and almost twice as many points as a Super-Hero. That's because they are effin' hard to kill. In the rulebook the entry for Trolls lists the two subcategories Ogre and Troll (True), making Ogres non-regenerating trolls. In my old Greymoor Campaign (my 3e campaign nominally set in the World of Greyhawk version of Blackmoor) I had some special stats made up for True Trolls. They were a sort of Super-Troll and meant to be one of the tougher encounters in the campaign. The party never fought one. I may have to use the True Troll in Cinder.

Mightiest Monsters: 1st ed. MM2

Again, I'm omitting unique entities from this list.

Hangman Tree (61hp/year old)
Mold, Russet (12-16 hp per 10' square)
Pseudo-Undead (varies)
Pyrolisk (43 HD but see below)
Solar (177 hp, i.e. ~39HD)
Planetar (144 hp, i.e. ~32 HD)
Bloodthorn (5-30 HD)
Choke Creeper (25 HD)
Kraken (20 HD)
Phoenix (20 HD)
Time Elemental (12-20 HD)
Willow, Black (12-19 HD)
Verme (18+18 HD)
Modron (1-1 to 18+18 HD)
Froghemoth (16 HD)
Demon, Cambion, Baron/Marquis (9 to 16 HD)
Para-Elemental (8-16 HD)
Afanc (15 HD)
Demodands (11-15 HD)
Daemons (6 to 14+28 HD)
Shedu, Greater (14+14 HD)
Dragon, Cloud (12-14 HD)
Dinosaur (various ) (10-14)
Giant, Formorian & Firbolg (13+ some points HD)
Death, Crimson (13 HD)
Marid (13 HD)
Baku (12+12 HD)
Barghest (6+6 to 12+12 HD)
Lammasu, Greater (12+7 HD)
Aurumvorax (12 HD)
Behir (12 HD)
Squealer (12 HD)
Thessalhydra (12 HD)
Annis (7+3 to 12 HD)
Quasi-Elemental, Lightning (6-12 HD)
Foo Lion (11+11 HD)
Brown Pudding (11 HD)
Dragon, Mist (9-11 HD)
Behemoth (10+5 HD)
Oliphant, domesticated (10+5 HD)
Wereshark (10+3 HD)
Apsis, Cow (10 HD)
Basilisk, Greater (10 HD)
Gorgimera (10 HD)
Mantis, Giant (10 HD)
Miner (10 HD)
Tenebrous Worm (10 HD)
Galeb Duhr (8-10 HD)
Catfish, Giant (7-10 HD)
Quickwood (5-10 HD)

The body of a Hangman Tree gets a flat 61 hit points per year of age, or about 13 or 14 Hit Dice worth of hp. The text for the Tree considers the possibility of specimens in excess of 150 years old. That would work out to 2,038+ HD. I kinda suspect that we have a typo here and the intention was for 6 hitpoints (roughly one hit die) per year of age. Even that would make an ancient Hangman Tree pretty badass, but more in line with the Bloodthorn, Choke Creeper, and other floral menaces of the MM2. Another case of a typo is the Pyrolisk. 43HD is just plain wrong for this fire-themed cockatrice variant. 4+3 HD is probably correct. But imagine a world where nigh unkillable magic fire chickens sit on the top of the food chain! Pseudo-Undead, living humanoids that mimic the undead in appearance, have the same hit dice as the undead they mimic. So where they fit into your campaign depends on what your biggest undeader happens to be.

By the way, the Verme and Afanc are giant fish. Giant fish are cool.

Mightiest Monsters: Rules Cyclopedia

I like the Rules Cyclopedia a lot, but parts of it can be pretty weird to players used to AD&D. The skill system and weapon mastery rules are decent rules, but they don't feel like core D&D mechanics to me. And the monster list varies a lot from the MM. Behold! The baddest dudes in the RC:

Elemental (1-80 HD)
Gargantua (25-51 HD, but see below)
Dinosaur (1-40 HD)
Roc (6-36 HD)
Whales (6-36 HD)
Dragon Turtle (30 HD)
Nightshade (17-30 HD)
Dragon (6-22 HD)
Horde (3-21 HD)
Archon (20 HD)
Drolem (20 HD)
Giant (8-20 HD)
Golem (2+2 to 20 HD)
Beholder, Undead (20 HD)
Hag, Black (11-20 HD)
Efreeti (10-20 HD)
Greater Phoenix (18 HD)
Spirit (14-18 HD)
Aerial Servant (16 HD)
Mek (11-16 HD)
Giant Crocodile (15 HD)
Djinni, Greater (15 HD)
Purple Worm (15 HD)
Elephant (9-15 HD)
Hsiao (Guardian Owl) (4-15 HD)
Athach (14 HD)
Haunt (12-14 HD)
Cyclops (13 HD)
Frost Salamander (12 HD)
Sphinx (12 HD)
Phantom (10-12 HD)
Plasm (6-12 HD)
Hydra (5-12 HD)
Hydrax (5-12 HD)
Actaeon (Elk Centaur) (11 HD)
Beholder (11 HD)
Nuckalavee (11 HD)
Giant Sturgeon (10+2 HD)
Black Pudding (10 HD)
Great Boar (10 HD)
Giant Manta Ray (10 HD)
Revener (10 HD)
Spider, Planar (5-10 HD)
Grab Grass (1 HD per 5' square)

Grab Grass, like the Holmes version of Yellow Mold and the Fiend Folio Enveloper, is another monster with no theoretical upper limit. The hit dice range listed for Gargantua actually refers to sample creatures. The Gargantua is actually a pre-3e example of a template, though the terminology was not yet in use. IIRC any creature can be made into a Gargantua, which results in 8 times normal hit dice, with any bonus hit points turning into additional hit dice. So a Gargantua Giant Sturgeon would be (10 x 8) + 2 = 82 Hit Dice. I guess that means the biggest RC creature (aside from from a prairie full of Grab Grass) would actually be a Gargantua Elemental of largest size, weighing in at a whopping 640 Hit Dice!

Mightiest Monsters: Mentzer & general commentary

So there aren't a whole lot of differences in the monster lists going from Moldvay Basic and Cook/Marsh Expert to the Mentzer version of the game. The big dogs in the Basic rules remain unchanged. Mentzer Expert actually drops three monsters from the list, the Titanothere, the Whale, and the Dragon Turtle.

If memory serves, sea travels are given more screen time in the Companion rules, so I bet the latter two reappear later in the BECMI sequence. But I can't say for sure. I haven't owned the Companion, Masters, or Immortal rules in a long time. I do have the Rules Cyclopedia and that will get its own entry in this series.

Also absent from the Mightiest Monsters listing will be the 2nd edition of Advanced. I don't presently have any monster books for it. I really need to get a Monstrous Manual one of these days. That always struck me as a great critter book. I wish the Wizards had kept the Monstrous format for 3e. It was much cleaner and more user-friendly, in my opinion.

Just to let everyone know, I plan on covering the MM2 for 1st edition, the Rules Cyclopedia, and the Monster Manuals for 3e and 3.5. And maybe I'll offer a final general commentary post on this little project. I dunno.

In the Fiend Folio entry Gameblog reader jer left the following comment:

So, as a companion piece to these, have you thought about doing a comparison of the low-level monsters in each of the books (3HD or less)? I'm going to have to break out my Fiend Folio and see what a group of starting adventurers would be fighting in a campaign where it's the primary monster book (as opposed to "running away from in terror", which is what these posts have been showing).

Does that interest anyone else? Sounds like even more work than the present deal, but it might yield some interesting insights.

Mightiest Monsters: 1st ed. Fiend Folio

Time to see who rules the roost in one of my alltime favorite monster books. Again, I'm omitting unique creatures because it's non-controversial that Lolth is one tough cookie.

Slaad (7 to 15+7 HD)
Giant, Fog (14 HD)
Dragon, Oriental (5-13 HD)
Nycadaemon (12+36 HD)
Eye of Fear & Flame (12 HD)
Giant, Mountain (12 HD)
Mezzodaemon (10+40 HD)
Lamia Noble (10+1 HD)
Retreiver (10 HD)
Troll, Giant Two-Headed (10 HD)
Enveloper (3+ HD)

The Enveloper has no upper limit to its hit dice. A truly ancient Enveloper could easily be the most badass monster in your FF-powered gameworld. That would be even weirder than the Hundred Headed Hydra that stomps around the Holmes Basicverse. More than once I've argued for the ultimate awesomeness of a world where the Fiend Folio is the primary monster book. And looking at the scant list above I'm actually kinda leaning towards the idea that the FF better fits with the 3 Little Beige Books than the Monster Manual. What would a game world look like where the original daemons and the slaad were the primary extraplanar foes? A world where the Eye of Fear & Flame was the number one undead baddie? Where people feared fogbanks because they might contain the mightiest of giants? Sounds pretty effin' cool to me. Maybe it's time to put my money where my mouth is and use the FF (but not the MM) for the World of Cinder. Though I may have to keep Taylor's suggestion in the last post for dino-riding titans. That's too rad to ignore.

Mightiest Monsters: 1st ed. Monster Manual

So here's all the creeps of 10 hit dice or more from the first edition Monster Manual. I've omitted unique entities. You don't need me to tell you that Asmodeus is a badass mofo.

Whale (12 to 36 HD)
Dinosaurs (3+3 to 30 HD)
Titan (17 to 22 HD)
Roc (18 HD)
Golem (9-18 HD)
Aerial Servant (16 HD)
Elementals (8-16 HD)
Purple Worm (15 HD)
Giant Shark (10-15 HD)
Giant Turtle (10-15 HD)
Giants (8-15 HD)
Beholder (45-75 hp, ~14.5 HD)
Balichitherium (14 HD)
Dragon Turtle (12-14 HD)
Remorhaz (7-14 HD)
Pit Fiend (13 HD)
Mammoth (13 HD)
Giant Rhinoceros Beetle (12 HD)
Ki-Rin (12 HD)
Mastodon (12 HD)
Giant Slug (12 HD)
Giant Squid (12 HD)
Titanothere (12 HD)
Trapper (12 HD)
Eye of the Deep (10-12 HD)
Roper (10-12 HD)
Neo-Otyugh (9-12 HD)
Sphinx (8-12 HD)
Naga (7-12 HD)
Treant (7-12 HD)
Dragons (5-12 HD)
Hydra (5-12 HD)
Lich (11+ HD)
Type IV Demon (11 HD)
Ice Devil (11 HD)
Elephant (10-11 HD)
Manta Ray (8-11 HD)
Black Pudding (10 HD)
Type III Demon (10 HD)
Efreeti (10 HD)
Ettin (10 HD)
Ghost (10 HD)
Lurker Above (10 HD)
Wooly Rhino (10 HD)
Shambling Mound (8-10 HD)
Giant Sea Snake (8-10 HD)
Mimic (7 to 10 HD)
Lizard, Giant (3+1 to 10 HD)

Holy crap! This list is long! The power creep from OD&D to 1st edition Advanced is pretty obvious, given how beefier the opposition gets here. Dinosaurs and Titans sitting next to each other kinda makes my head spin. How do creatures from 63 million years ago fit into the same world as the titans of Greek myth? I love that these sorts of obvious contradictions are part of the implied setting of D&D. A foolish consistency is the low hitdie humanoid of little minds.

N.B. Even as early as this book, the first Advanced tome published, the direct relationship between hit dice and raw power is starting to come unraveled. The Type VI demon, the Will O' Wisp, and the Rakshasa don't make the 10 HD cutoff for this list, but would you really expect them to have much trouble dispatching a Giant Lizard or a Hydra? Special Ability Creep is a particular bugaboo of mine, as I have tons of trouble tracking all the abilities of demons and such when DMing. And as editions develop, more and more creatures are little more than a pile of special abilities.

Mightiest Monsters: Cook/Marsh Expert

In my mind, it's the Cook/Marsh Expert set where the judge finalizes the divorce between AD&D and 'Classic' D&D, so to speak. And the monster section is where this separation is most obvious. Absent are the Gygaxian Icons such as the beholder, mind flayers, etc. Here are the highest hitdice baddies in the '81 Expert rules.



Roc (6-36 HD)
Whale (6-36 HD)
Dragon Turtle (30 HD)
T. Rex (20 HD)
Golems (2+2 to 20 HD)
Elementals (8 to 16 HD)
Purple Worm (15 HD)
Mastodon (15 HD)
Giant Crocodile (15 HD)
Giants (8-15 HD)
Cyclops (13 HD)
Frost Salamander (12 HD)
Titanothere (12 HD)
Hydra (5-12 HD)
Stegosaurus (11 HD)
Triceratops (11 HD)
Giant Sturgeon (10+2 HD)
Efreet (10 HD)
Black Pudding (10 HD)

Who knew Giant Sturgeon were so nasty? I love how many of the critters listed here are basically wild animals on steroids or dinosaurs.

Mightiest Monsters: Moldvay Basic

Here are the biggest critters (by hit dice) in the D&D rulebook with which I started my roleplaying hobby.

Dragons (6-11 HD)
Great Cats (3+2 to 8 HD)
Bears (4-7 HD)
Minotaur (6 HD)
Lycanthropes (3-6 HD)
Giant Lizards (3-6 HD)
Ochre Jelly (5 HD)
Owlbear (5 HD)
Rust Monster (5 HD)
Living Statues (3-5 HD)
Snakes (1-5 HD)

I don't remember Sabre Tooth Tigers being so bad ass, but at 8HD they were mightier than some dragons! Imagine how freaked out the PCs would be if they stumbled upon one of these big cats chewing on a freshly killed dragon! Cave bears and Polar Bears are also high up on the food chain, which I think is totally awesome. I think the record will show that I am firmly pro-bearmauling in my games.

If you compare this list to its predecessor, you'll note that the HD trend lower with the exception of dragons. The Moldvay edition may be the secret origin of the "OMG! Dragonz R teh best!" design trend over the last several editions. If the people who built the stats for the 2nd and 3rd edition dragons started playing with Moldvay Basic, of course they would assume that dragons are supposed to be the toughest monsters in the world. That runs counters to the assumption that because dragons are in the name of the game, they should be ubiquitous as well. Thus you end up with the situation in 3e where dragons range from tiny lizard babies at CR -2 to Godzilla level CR 57,000 threats. Personally, I'm not of the opinion that dragons have to be supergiganto to work in D&D. They should be too tough for low level adventurers to handle, but high level people should be able to subdue them and ride them around like firebreathing skyponies. That's one of the advantages of being high level!

The other thing I notice about this chart is that, aside from dragons, there is no overlap with the Holmes list or the OD&D list. Adventurers coming up in the implied setting of Moldvay's version had a very different world than the earlier incarnations of D&D. Perhaps Moldvay's vision of the D&D world was more inspired by lost civilizations struggling to survive the extinction of the ice age? That would go far to explain all the giant bears and sabre tooths and bigass snakes.

Mightiest Monsters: Holmes Basic

One of my favorite posts from OD&D blogger Delta is this great analysis of the baddest mofos in the original game, looking at hit dice as the primary indicator of raw power. I've decided to look at other D&D books with a similar eye, just to see what monsters rule the roost in various editions. I'll be starting today with the Holmes version of Basic D&D, the so-called 'Blue Book'. So here are the toughest monsters in my copy of that venerable tome:

Hydra (variable, see below)
Yellow Mold (variable, see below)
Purple Worm (15 HD)
Giants (8-15 HD)
Dragons (5-11 HD)
Black Pudding (10 HD)
Chimera (9 HD)
Vampire (7-9 HD)
Djinni (7+1 HD)
Griffon (7 HD)
Hellhound (3-7 HD)
Troll (6+3 HD)

Under Dr. Holmes's rules Hydra's possess one hit die per head, like most other versions of D&D. However, no range for the number of heads is given. A one-headed hydra is a legit encounter under these rules, as would be a hundred-headed hydra. Now that I think about, that would be awesome. Maybe that bigass hydra doesn't really have a hundred heads, but it has so freakin' many that people call it the Hundred Headed Hydra. It would be the Tarrasque of a Holmesian campaign world. Similarly, Yellow Mold gets 2 hit dice for every 10 square feet of contiguous growth, with no upper limit. By my math if the Humungous Fungus were a yellow mold it would have over 18 million hit dice!

Even setting these weird special cases aside, for a book designed for levels 1 to 3 the upper end of the competition is pretty dang steep. My gut tells me that run as-is a group of Holmes players would spend a lot of time running away from the monsters listed above.