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<blockquote data-quote="Primal" data-source="post: 4066121" data-attributes="member: 30678">I never thought rolling badly for HPs would make a character &quot;boring&quot; or &quot;unplayable&quot;, as long as your DM realizes that PCs with less-than-average HPs are mechanically weaker in combat and this needs to balanced in some way (e.g. by giving monsters less than average HPs). Just as DMs usually use tougher variants for monsters against a more &quot;effective&quot; party (i.e. a party that has &quot;combat-maximized&quot; builds or powerful magical items). My favourite PC of all time was a (AD&amp;D) half-elven 8th level fighter with 39 HPs (including +2 HPs/level for Con). It didn't make him &quot;unplayable&quot; or &quot;unlucky&quot;, because his foes had lower-than-average HPs, too. And I never felt that he'd have been *more fun* to play just because he'd have doubled his HPs. IMO All this reducing of &quot;randomness&quot; will probably increase *meta-gaming* a lot during play.&nbsp; For example, you can pretty guesstimate any NPC BBEG's HPs, and everyone just chooses their actions accordingly. A concrete example:Player 1 (Warlord): &quot;So this Elven Wizard holds an Orb but does not have any rings on his hands? Alright, he's probably 10th level in that case... he's got 50-60 HPs, assuming Con 14.&quot;Player 2 (Wizards): &quot;Yeah, and since it's an orb, we can expect Acid and Lightning... so I'm using my Fireblast ability at first round to dish out 25-30 points. Can you deal with the rest? Rogue?&quot;Player 3 (Rogue): &quot;My First Strike ability combined with Precise Strike and Sneak Attack will dish out about 25 damage and since it's a Wizard, it's against his Ref defense... yeah, 25 from me.&quot;Player 4 (Fighter): &quot;I'll use my Bulwark of Defense to bolster your Defenses and it'll make him target me anyway, so no worries! Warlord, scream that 'Shaft yon beas... er, wizard... for me!' and you get all extra attacks just in case!&quot;Player 1 (Warlord): &quot;Hell yeah! So we can take him out on round 1? Kewl beans...&quot;DM: &quot;Alright, roll for initiative!&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Primal, post: 4066121, member: 30678"] I never thought rolling badly for HPs would make a character "boring" or "unplayable", as long as your DM realizes that PCs with less-than-average HPs are mechanically weaker in combat and this needs to balanced in some way (e.g. by giving monsters less than average HPs). Just as DMs usually use tougher variants for monsters against a more "effective" party (i.e. a party that has "combat-maximized" builds or powerful magical items). My favourite PC of all time was a (AD&D) half-elven 8th level fighter with 39 HPs (including +2 HPs/level for Con). It didn't make him "unplayable" or "unlucky", because his foes had lower-than-average HPs, too. And I never felt that he'd have been *more fun* to play just because he'd have doubled his HPs. IMO All this reducing of "randomness" will probably increase *meta-gaming* a lot during play. For example, you can pretty guesstimate any NPC BBEG's HPs, and everyone just chooses their actions accordingly. A concrete example: Player 1 (Warlord): "So this Elven Wizard holds an Orb but does not have any rings on his hands? Alright, he's probably 10th level in that case... he's got 50-60 HPs, assuming Con 14." Player 2 (Wizards): "Yeah, and since it's an orb, we can expect Acid and Lightning... so I'm using my Fireblast ability at first round to dish out 25-30 points. Can you deal with the rest? Rogue?" Player 3 (Rogue): "My First Strike ability combined with Precise Strike and Sneak Attack will dish out about 25 damage and since it's a Wizard, it's against his Ref defense... yeah, 25 from me." Player 4 (Fighter): "I'll use my Bulwark of Defense to bolster your Defenses and it'll make him target me anyway, so no worries! Warlord, scream that 'Shaft yon beas... er, wizard... for me!' and you get all extra attacks just in case!" Player 1 (Warlord): "Hell yeah! So we can take him out on round 1? Kewl beans..." DM: "Alright, roll for initiative!" [/QUOTE]

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