Starting Bonus HP

[Tony Vargas]

Any suggestion are appreciated.

Yep, 5e very authentically evokes the classic game by having 1st level PCs that can drop dead more or less instantly. Warms my grognard heart, it does.

Back in the day, we'd give 1st level PCs max hps (5e already does) and add a d6 on top of that on the theory they were your '0 level' hps. Another trick back then was the 'brevet' - a character starting at 2nd, or even with just 2nd level hps, but 0 exp.

An extra HD at 1st has also been suggested and wouldn't hurt.


In 5e, just starting above 1st (3rd is a good option) is perfectly reasonable.

 

[Hrothgar Rannúlfr]

For our most recent set of characters, we decided on starting with 10 HP + Max 1st level HP + CON modifier.

And, as we're using some customized classes for 5E based on 1E classes, we decided that warrior classes get double benefits (or penalties) from CON modifiers.

It's working pretty well, so far.