Hit Dice for monsters...could someone please explain?

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I read in the descriptions for various HLAs, the term Hit Dice. I have a hard time understand what Hit Dice exactly means...also, is there any way of knowing which creature has how many HDs...for example, so that I can know which creatures are vulnerable to Death Spell, Greater Deathblow, etc etc.

So, could someone help me out please?

 

Hit Die is a term used to tell you how many time you have to roll the die to get their hp. Basically it means what level they are.

 

You know how your PCs have varying hit dice to determine their hit points? D6 for a rogue, D10 for a fighter? Well, monsters use n D8 to determine their hit points (or at least they do in pen-and-paper Dungeons And Dragons) where n is the number of their hit dice.

 

I have a slightly related question. How does this relate to human characters, with levels? Since you only roll a die up to level 9 to get their HP, are their levels used instead?

 

A monster's hit dice is used to determine its effective level when determining spell effects and suchlike along with THACO and saving throws. NPC characters of all types have a level independent of their hit dice or hit points. An iron golem, for example, has an effective level of 18 (not that any spells are likely to affect it anyway) while Matron Mother Ardulace has a real level of 23 (she's a 23rd level cleric and, with 190 HP, is one tough cookie).