1st level hit points: class HD full or not?

[Ravellion]

I am currently playing with the first class HD (level 1) as not being full, as the characters are getting their constitution score as bonus hit points anyway. The rules seem not to be definitive on this. What is the official take and/or how have you ran this?

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I am currently playing with the first class HD (level 1) as not being full, as the characters are getting their constitution score as bonus hit points anyway. The rules seem not to be definitive on this. What is the official take and/or how have you ran this?

I give FULL HD + CON score + CON modifier.

So Fighter with a 16 CON would get 10 + 16 + 3 = 29 hit points.

I want players to have hit points. That was the philosophy behind the design change in the first place. There's really no reason to snip 2-4 hit points off the new, beefy number.

 

[Ravellion]

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[GlassJaw]

Just to expand a bit, after 1st level, you have some choices.

You can continue to give out max hit points, which we did for a while during out playtesting, but ultimately thought that was a little too much. We scaled it back to average per Hit Die, rounded up (7 for 1d12, 6 for 1d10, etc).

We all preferred a set amount of hit points as opposed to rolling as well but that's more of a personal preference.

 

[ValhallaGH]

We all preferred a set amount of hit points as opposed to rolling as well but that's more of a personal preference.

As do I, but I tried something different with this campaign (that's been working well).

Player and DM both roll for HP. The player can keep their's, or they can take the DM's, but if they take the DM's roll then they are stuck with it.
I've found that it keeps the HP around average (maybe low average; we all kind of suck at rolling hit points).

 

[BryonD]

Another variant on the same theme:

I have players roll, anything less than 1/2 max counts as half max.
So a fighter can get 5,5,5,5,5,6,7,8,9, or 10.

All the fun of rolling and hoping for a big number, none of the permanent holdback of a 1.