D&D 5E More HP - was it a good idea?

[Xeviat]

The other danger is that it significantly inflates the HP totals of low-level enemies. A goblin would go from 7hp to 17hp under this system, and a kobold goes from 5hp to 16hp. A stirge would go from 2hp to 13hp.

Monsters don't need to use the same rules as players. They don't get max HP for their first HD either, and use "average HP" rather than the "average-round up" HP PCs use.

I'm likely to treat your con HP as "wounds" and the rest of your HP as "vitality points". So not giving extra HP to monsters is fine by me; they go down once you hit them good.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I have never yet either DMed or played in a party (ignoring one-offs) that had Heal available as a hard-castable spell in the field.

IDK about 'in the field,' but compared to sitting around a day to get back 10% of your hp, Heal would be very fast, and Cure Critical & a slate of whatever else each day, not exactly slow...

The trouble is making sure Con is still a useful stat and weighed against the others, but not so perceptively important that everyone ends up having a 14 Con.

CON mod to HD every level makes CON highly desireable to increase later, CON score at 1st makes it highly desireable at chargen.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Monsters don't need to use the same rules as players. They don't get max HP for their first HD either, and use "average HP" rather than the "average-round up" HP PCs use.

I guess you could do it that way, but it's not going to fly for a lot of players. As you widen the gap between the rules for PCs and the rules for NPCs, the rules themselves become less a reflection of how the game world actually works and more just a game mechanic. That was one of the major failures of 4E.

 

[mellored]

I think the biggest reason was to simplify things. 15 con to get +1, doesn't follow any sort of pattern.
Much easier to keep all the stats and bonuses consistant. If this means HP and damage go up, that's fine.

The second reason is to reduce swinginess. It's very difficult to be KO'd in one turn. You want players to be able to have at least one thing they can do. But it's still hard to survive more than 3 turns.

Those low HP really helped balanced out the might of the 2nd ed wizard. Was this a good move to increase HP? Or did we lose "something"?

That's also another reason. Since casters have all the special effects. The only thing left to give weapon users is damage.

 

[Zardnaar]

They cranked the healing up relative to most editions but they also cranked the damage up. 5E Kobolds, Hobgoblins, Ogres, Orcs, Bugbears etc all hit hard.

Its the variable healing I don't like mixing long rest/short rest healing for example makes pacing hard.