How do you handle rolling for HP?

[Arabesu]

reroll with action points

We use action points in our campaign (its Eberron afterall)...

Typically its roll the die, that is what you get for hp except for NPCs who are the average rounded down.

If someone chooses, when they level up, they can reroll the hp once, but they loose half of their action points for the level (rounded up I think, but can't remember) and half to keep the second result either way.

As the primary melee combatant with a rogue/swsh/scarletcorsair I have used this twice over 10 levels. Going from a 2 to 7 (d8) in one case and a 1 to 6 (d10). Lost arround 10 action points total. Near the end of the level I was hurtin with having to budget my remaining 1 or 2 action points. So we think its pretty fair.

 

[The Blow Leprechaun]

Roll the die. If you get anything other than a 1, that's your number. If you get a 1, roll the die again and take that second result.

This fits with the "all PCs are above average" concept, but doesn't tweak things too greatly. It also doesn't stratify the results to reward higher hit die characters unduly. d4 characters get 2.875 HP on average instead of 2.5, d6s get 3.917 HP instead of 3.5, ... d12s get 6.958 HP instead of 6.5.

PC classes are already above average when it comes to hit dice. What is the warrior NPC class except a fighter with a d8 instead of a d10? An adept except a cleric with a d6 instead of a d8? The game was already designed to put PCs above average, I've never felt like they needed an extra push to be there.

I'd rather scale my encounters down a little than scale the players up, at least as a general rule. I've no problem with scaling players up in specific situations - playing a campaign designed for 6 with 4, or just playing a straight up hack 'n slash campaign that's not supposed to be challenging.

 

[Patlin]

50% +1. It's lovely.

Yeah, that is what we do, too. Average rounded up.

No rolling involved, and conveniently it allows me to preprogram the hp into my character sheet from 1st level. I like to set the sheet up so that when I change the level, all of my statistics automatically update. This way when the DM awards xp, I can change one number in the spreadsheet and be ready to play again.

 

[scranford]

I'm trying something new on the upcoming Savage Tides game. Maximum at 1st level, then every level up roll two HP dice, and take the higher of the rolls. Still allows for a one, but ups the average.

I'm also considering doing the same for Healing spells (Roll an extra d8 for each healing spell and discard the lowest). My players tend to wade in and ask questions later so higher hit points, and better healing fit our game well. I may extend this by using the bonus chance dice to force the characters to stay in character (ie if done on a holy day, or in a holy site sacred to the god of the healing cleric, allow additional d8's and discard the lowest. If you're not playing your alignment / diety focus remove the bonus die until you make ammends.

 

[Quartz]

Yeah, that is what we do, too. Average rounded up.

No rolling involved, and conveniently it allows me to preprogram the hp into my character sheet from 1st level.

This significantly benefits low HD classes. Classes with d4 HP get 75%; classes with d12 HP get 58%.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

I use the old RPGA standard approach from 3E:

1st character level = Maximum hit points;
2nd character level and thereafter = Half of max on die, plus one.

This is how we do it too.

 

[Patlin]

This significantly benefits low HD classes. Classes with d4 HP get 75%; classes with d12 HP get 58%.

Of maximum. Just to throw numbers around, d4 classes get 120% of average, while d12 classes get 107% of average.

If you assume a 14 Con, d4 classes get 111% of average, while d12 classes get 106% of average.

In contrast, the "roll but take a minimum of 1/2 the HD" crowd causes the d4 HD character to get an average of 11/4=2.75 hp and the d12 characer to get an average of 7.75. That's 69% of max and 65% of max, or 110% of average and 119% of average.

With a 14 Con, it's 106% of average and 112% of average.

I'd rather benefit the low HD guys, and I consider the average numbers more significant.

 

[Destil]

My original house rule was full HP at 1st, average afterworld rounding up on even character levels and down at odd character levels...

This got cut to average rounding up at all levels in editing, though (house rules documents longer than 5 pages are a bad thing).

 

[Erywin]

In the 32pt buy high powered gestalt game I run, I give players 75% +Con. This is so they don't get squished right off the bat Altho most of the players have levels in fighter for the BAB and HD, but the Ninja/Wizard definitely has alot less hp then the rest of them, which I found out one session when I nearly two shotted him with Cloud Giant Skeletons For this type of game it works great and allows me to throw tough encounters at the party and not worry too much about it, mind you I apply the 75% rule to most all monsters and major NPCs! All in all I believe my players enjoy it and thats what matters right?

Cheers,
E

 

[Pyrex]

We use the Iron Heroes method...

d4 = d4
d6 = d4 + 2
d8 = d4 + 4
d10 = d4 + 6
d12 = d4 + 8

I like the theory, but the values seem a bit high.

d4+0/1/2/3/4 produces characters with exactly the same average hp as expected (2.5 for a d4 through 6.5 for a d12) without the possiblity of either extremely high or extremely low HP rolls.

It's a bit more work, but if I used something similar in my game I'd probably take the middle road of d4+0/1.5/3/4.5/6.

Or if I wanted less work, I'd just give everyone the equivalent of Improved Toughness and go with d4+1/2/3/4/5 (producing an average of 7.5 for d12 --> d4+5)