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Unicorns are probably one of the best-known mythological creatures of medieval Europe, perhaps on a par even with dragons. Their origins are likely earlier than this, with the general concept of "one-horned magical beast" going back to at least the Ancient Greeks and having counterparts in other cultures, too. Some of these were aggressively dangerous, but it's the medieval version, appearing in religious bestiaries as an object lesson in virtuous purity that we're most familiar with and that forms the basis of the D&D creature.
So iconic is the appearance of the unicorn that it's one of the few creatures in D&D that looks pretty much the same in every edition, regardless of artist, and that closely follows its traditional form. Early medieval unicorns weren't necessarily white, and some looked more like a goat than a horse, but such variations have long since vanished from the public mind. Pretty much everyone knows what a unicorn is, and what it looks like.
1E
The unicorn in 1E, therefore, looks exactly as we'd expect it to, and as it continues to look in subsequent editions. It is a generally horse-like animal, but with cloven hooves, a goat-like beard and, of course, a long, spirally-patterned horn projecting from the centre of its forehead. It is white over most of the body, although some individuals apparently have golden manes and tails. The tail is, perhaps, the only source of variation, usually appearing horse-like but sometimes (as in 1E) more resembling that of a lion or antelope.
Unicorns have a remarkably high armour class, and also have more hit dice than even the largest of regular horses. Since they don't seem especially large or physically resilient, this is presumably down to high natural agility and skill at avoiding injury. High agility would also explain their silent movement. It's apparent that they have at least one sense that's highly acute, although the 1E system isn't granular enough for the details to be apparent.
We are told that they live only in temperate forests (which matches the usual legend) and they seem to be social animals, being rarely, if ever, encountered alone. The groups are small, however, perhaps reflecting a mated pair and a few immature children that have yet to find a mate of their own. Unicorns are as intelligent as humans and have their own language, consorting only with what later editions would describe as 'fey' beings.
2E
2E only changes a few minor details about unicorns. They do now sometimes live on their own, and they are able to speak Elven and an unspecified number of related languages such as Dryad and Pixie. Given their entirely non-human mouths, one imagines that this sounds rather odd, but apparently, it's good enough. It's also clarified that (unlike goats) only the males have the beards.
It's in this edition that unicorns get their specific role of protecting woodlands from orcs or other threats, and it's also mentioned that they are virtually immortal. An oddity, carried over from the previous edition, is that they keep small quantities of magical potions and items stashed away in hollow trees and the like. It's unclear why they do this, since a lack of hands would presumably make such things difficult to use... and still less where they get them from.
3E
The greater detail in 3E reveals that unicorns are, in fact, both stronger and more physically resilient than regular horses, having a remarkably tough skin in addition to their agility and skill at avoiding blows. They don't move quite as fast as in previous editions, although still as swiftly as a fast horse. It also becomes clear that both their vision and hearing are acute, although their sense of smell is typically equine.
More significantly, they are much more magical beasts than before, now being able to use active healing magic rather than merely being resistant to such things as poison themselves. A few other defensive magical abilities are added, along with the ability to "see" without light, despite the fact that, living above ground, they must have little need for such an ability, given that they have good night vision anyway. Oddly, they have lost the ability to speak Elven along with their native language, although they can still speak Sylvan (now, of course, a single language, rather than a set of different ones).
5E
Unicorns become even more magically potent in 5E, gaining a wider range of defensive magics, not all of which are entirely passive. Their healing magic is also more effective, and they are inherently resistant to all hostile spells, as well as retaining their existing immunities to mind-controlling magics and the like. Physically, they are toned down, however, having the same strength as a warhorse, and losing the super-tough hide they possessed in 3E. Their ability to speak humanoid languages without an appropriately shaped mouth is now explained as telepathy, which seems fair enough.
Much of this is explained by the fact that unicorns are no longer mere magical animals, but celestials - effectively angelic beings native to the heavens rather than the physical world. They are apparently placed into this world by the gods and the implication is that they are solitary and perhaps not wholly biological (so they might not breed in the usual fashion, for example, but be divinely created). In recognition of this, they now speak the language of angels alongside Sylvan and, once again, Elven.
Where previously they had been Chaotic Good, representing an untamed wild nature alongside benign compassion, they have now switched to Lawful. However, quite what this would mean in practice is debatable, given their solitary lifestyles.
There isn't much to say about the unicorn's basic anatomy, at least assuming it's a regular organic animal, rather than a celestial. Scholars within the world might wonder whether their internal anatomy more resembles that of a horse or a goat, since their external appearance does meld the two to some extent (notably the cloven hooves). The forest habitat implies a browsing diet, closer to that of deer, which might suggest that the latter is a better fit, but there's no biological reason why this would have to be the case and no way for us to know in any event.
Males and females are a similar size, which is what we'd expect if breeding is based around single mated pairs. While horses may not form pair bonds that last for life, as unicorns seem to, this is very different from the pattern with deer (or many other similar animals) where males compete for multiple females, and the stags are correspondingly large and muscular.
Furthermore, the horn is found in both sexes and probably isn't used for intra-sex sparring as it is in most real horned mammals. From the little we can tell, it's likely a real 'horn', composed of a permanent bony core surrounded by a horny keratin sheath... although it's also possible that, like the narwhal's tusks sold as fake unicorn horns in the Middle Ages, it's instead made of ivory. No real-world mammal has an ivory horn but, hey, we're talking about unicorns here.
All editions agree that the unicorn's horn is the focus of its magical abilities, especially those based around its healing powers and resistance to poison. Interestingly, though, as those powers become stronger with each edition, the horn, once detached from the unicorn, becomes less so. Initially, it's the mere possession of the horn that confers full immunity to poison, suggesting, perhaps, that there's some chemical or other component in it that passes into the bloodstream and rapidly negates toxins.
Later on, the horn seems to function more as a means of delivering magic that requires the unicorn to still be alive and attached to it; it's a convenient way of touching the recipient, but not necessarily more than that. In 3E powdered unicorn horn (called alicorn in the real world) can be used as an ingredient in magic potions; in 5E its uses are vaguer, weaker, and come with divine retribution attached.
I mean, seriously, if you're going to cut the horn off a unicorn, you probably deserve what's coming to you. You gitt.
One oddity of the D&D unicorn is its ability to teleport. This is clearly intended as a last-resort means of escape, perhaps to make it harder for adventurers to kill them just for the sake of it. Initially, this is relatively short range, but it's a mile or more in 3E and 5E. It's never stated, but it seems hard to imagine that a vanishing unicorn isn't accompanied by a flash of rainbow-coloured sparkles. But maybe that's just me...
Perhaps the most famous aspect of the medieval version of the unicorn myth is the idea that the animals can be tamed by virgin women. This is referred to in the 1E version, where pure and good-aligned 'maids' (presumably in the sense of 'virgins') can persuade unicorns to serve as mounts. This does raise the question of how they know, but perhaps there's some limited and highly specific form of mind-reading going on. It also becomes a little harder to justify once unicorns become valiant protectors of woodlands unless the woman in question happens to share that particular goal. Nonetheless, it's retained up to 3E.
It's notable, however, that the woman also has to be either human or elven. Logically, that also includes half-elves (which are specifically listed as a subtype of elf in the 1E Monster Manual anyway)... but one wonders what they have against, say, halflings. There's also the question of why virgins in particular; it's the sort of thing that made sense to medieval bestiary writers, given that most of them were monks, but less so in a polytheistic D&D universe.
The Pathfinder version gives a good answer to this, stating that unicorns aren't looking for virginity per se, but for the sort of single-minded devotion from their rider that cannot be shared with a current lover. So the rider isn't necessarily an actual virgin, but it might look that way to outsiders. Furthermore, Pathfinder unicorns seem perfectly happy with pure-hearted dwarven women or the like, merely requiring their rider be humanoid - doubtless for practical reasons.
The 5E version does away with this altogether, stating that its angelic unicorns are sometimes granted as mounts to especially virtuous paladins but giving no indication that they care about their rider's sexual experience, race, or, indeed, gender.
Many other fantasy RPGs include unicorns in one form or another - for example, Glorantha has a whole tribe of unicorn-riding warrior women on the plains of Prax. But, to translate the D&D version to another system, you would basically start with a horse, increasing its physical strength to near or above the usual maximum for such an animal, and boosting its agility, combat skill, or dexterity. Then give it human intelligence and pile on however many magical abilities, such as healing spells, are needed to reflect the specific version you're after.
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