D&D 4E 4e HP speculation based on new D&D podcast

[Dragonblade]

New D&D podcast was mostly about DDM, but there was an interesting offhand comment about HP in 4e referring to static HPs. From that I'm going to take a wild speculative guess on how 4e HP will work:

Controllers get 4 HP/lvl
Leaders/Strikers get 5 HP/lvl
Defenders get 6 HP/lvl

Based on the fact that we already know that the 4e version of Toughness gives +3 hp and an additional +1 per level after the first and based on the precedent set in SW Saga of x3 starting HP, I also guess that starting HP in D&D 4e will be x3 the base.

So a level 1 Wizard has 12 HP, a level 1 Warlord has 15 HP, and a level 1 Fighter has 18 HP. This can of course be modified by CON bonus or the Toughness feat.

If we extrapolate out of level 30, a Fighter has 192 HP and if we assume a CON of say 14, that would be 252 HP. With Toughness thats 284 HP. With a CON of 18 that would be 312 HP (344 HP with Toughness). Certainly reasonable given that this is level 30 and based on the Pit Fiend stats (350 HP and a level 26 Elite soldier).

I suspect also that there perhaps may be HP bonuses at Paragon or Epic tiers or perhaps even magic items or buffs that grant a flat HP bonus (since they have said that no more ability score boosting items exist in 4e).

Thoughts?

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I think it´s rather 3,5,7. But then I think it is different than what we assume now.

We already know that a low level cleric has about 30 hp and a LVL 15 fighter IIRC about 120 hp.

 

[Dragonblade]

I have to add that if this is how they do it, I will be pretty happy.

 

[Mirtek]

Controllers get 4 HP/lvl
Leaders/Strikers get 5 HP/lvl
Defenders get 6 HP/lvl

Sounds like the Average HD (rounded up)

d4 = 2.5 = 3
d6 = 3.5 = 4
d8 = 4.5 = 5
d10 = 5.5 = 6
d12 = 6.5 = 7

Or maybe the Living Greyhawk model of average HD (rounded up) +1. In this case we have

d4 = 2.5 + 1 = 4
d6 = 3.5 + 1 = 5
d8 = 4.5 + 1 = 6

So d4 is in for controller but defenders get only d8 instead of d10?

 

[Khuxan]

Controllers get 4 HP/lvl
Leaders/Strikers get 5 HP/lvl
Defenders get 6 HP/lvl

Thoughts?

Hit points will, I think, be based on class not role. It makes sense that defenders will get many hit points, but what about a martial controller? It needs more than 4 hp/level, surely. And a bard could manage with only 4 hp.

I'd say:

4 hp/level: wizard, warlock
5 hp/level: rogue, ranger, cleric, warlord
6 hp/level: fighter, paladin

a LVL 15 fighter IIRC about 120 hp.

6 x 17 + 2 x 17 = 136. Pretty close (assumes Con 14).

 

[A'koss]

Hmm... so if a 15th level fighter has 120 HPs, a couple of possibilities spring to mind.

A. 1st level: 22 HPs (20 + 2 Con?), 7 HP/Lvl thereafter (5 + 2 Con?)
- I can't imagine anything less than 14-15 Con for a fighter. Possibly no Con bonus after 1st level (static 7 HP/level)?

or...

B. 1st level 36 HP, 6 HP/Lvl thereafter
- Which means that Con is even less likely to factor in after 1st level.

 

[Andalusian]

Assuming the different classes have different static HP per level, I hope starting HP isn't really 3x whatever your starting class is. Would hate to see everyone wanting to start off as Fighter (or some other buff class) and then multiclassing out just to maximize HP's (unless multiclassing sucks, of course).

Instead of starting with class HP x 3, I'd prefer if it was more like 5 + 5 + class HP (or whatever).

 

[Rechan]

Are you SURE that this was stated about 4e?

Because DDM has static damage too.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Are you SURE that this was stated about 4e?

Because DDM has static damage too.

Well they have said that rolling for HP is gone multiple times since the announcement. So I think all that's left is class based static HP or something riffing off the new BAB calcs where its a static bonus + class based bonus.

 

[Nathan P. Mahney]

Boo. My players will still be rolling for hit points! I may even reinstitute rolling at 1st level as a form of protest!