It seems that some time in the late 80's/early 90's she eased up on her restrictions (according to Wikipedia - so take that with a grain of salt).

I'm nowhere near this stage yet but for final details, do they have plating or are they more like the Fellbeasts from Tolkien, where it's more snake like skin? The illustrations for the books by her and by Todd I've seen are vague and in some cases, contradicting in terms of the skin detail.