ezo
Hero
Anyway, as for "the right amount" from your earlier post...
Hit Points
Ok, we know hit points are abstract. They represent a lot. Physical health and resilience, mental fortitude, skill in combat, luck, divine favor, agility and reaction, will to live, etc. But, let's look at how Hit Points are determined:
Constitution modifier. Sure, physical health and resistance to pain, etc.
Hit Dice. More abstract, but I have to think mostly this is skill in combat, however part of it is likely a mixture of the other aspects.
Frankly, I feel using the Constitution modifier for each hit die places too much emphasis on it. Polls have shown the majority of PCs have CON 14 or better due primarily to the game's reliance on hit points. This makes CON often tertiary, if not secondary, in the ranking of ability scores (prime class-dependent score, DEX or CON, CON or DEX, remaining ability scores are 4th to 6th; for heavy armor PCs, DEX is usually replaced by WIS).
So, we changed things up by granting a Hit Point bonus for ALL your ability modifiers at 1st-level. Why did we do this?
STR - physical resilience
DEX - agility and reaction
CON - resistance to pain
INT - tactical awareness
WIS - sense of danger (possibly divine favor?)
CHA - will to live (possible luck?)
And I am sure we could come up with other abstract justifications why every ability modifer can and should influence hit points.
By adding all the modifiers at level 1, it increases PC survivability. It isn't until around 4th or 5th level that PCs using this concept start to lag behind RAW. And, of course, when a PC increases an ability modifier (permanently), their HP increase by a like amount.
Here is an example showing a RAW Fighter with CON 16. The Revised Fighter begins with +7 for ability modifiers (assuming standard array with +2/+1 to scores) and in this table never increases them. As you can see, the hit points are close to AD&D up to 9th level, and ahead after that. Compared to RAW, it is close until 3rd level, then lags behind slightly, averaging out to about 70%.
OPTION: Roll HP with Advantage. To offset this an option is to allow PCs to roll HP with advantage. This gets you closer to the "round-up" average available when you level-up, and increases the average to about 83%-- a fair balance between 5E and AD&D.
CONVERTING FOR 5E CREATURES
This is fairly simple since HP are shown with HD+CON bonus. Just remove the CON bonus, then add all the ability modifiers, if you want to. Frankly, it is easier to not bother...
Hit Points
Ok, we know hit points are abstract. They represent a lot. Physical health and resilience, mental fortitude, skill in combat, luck, divine favor, agility and reaction, will to live, etc. But, let's look at how Hit Points are determined:
Constitution modifier. Sure, physical health and resistance to pain, etc.
Hit Dice. More abstract, but I have to think mostly this is skill in combat, however part of it is likely a mixture of the other aspects.
Frankly, I feel using the Constitution modifier for each hit die places too much emphasis on it. Polls have shown the majority of PCs have CON 14 or better due primarily to the game's reliance on hit points. This makes CON often tertiary, if not secondary, in the ranking of ability scores (prime class-dependent score, DEX or CON, CON or DEX, remaining ability scores are 4th to 6th; for heavy armor PCs, DEX is usually replaced by WIS).
So, we changed things up by granting a Hit Point bonus for ALL your ability modifiers at 1st-level. Why did we do this?
STR - physical resilience
DEX - agility and reaction
CON - resistance to pain
INT - tactical awareness
WIS - sense of danger (possibly divine favor?)
CHA - will to live (possible luck?)
And I am sure we could come up with other abstract justifications why every ability modifer can and should influence hit points.
By adding all the modifiers at level 1, it increases PC survivability. It isn't until around 4th or 5th level that PCs using this concept start to lag behind RAW. And, of course, when a PC increases an ability modifier (permanently), their HP increase by a like amount.
Here is an example showing a RAW Fighter with CON 16. The Revised Fighter begins with +7 for ability modifiers (assuming standard array with +2/+1 to scores) and in this table never increases them. As you can see, the hit points are close to AD&D up to 9th level, and ahead after that. Compared to RAW, it is close until 3rd level, then lags behind slightly, averaging out to about 70%.
OPTION: Roll HP with Advantage. To offset this an option is to allow PCs to roll HP with advantage. This gets you closer to the "round-up" average available when you level-up, and increases the average to about 83%-- a fair balance between 5E and AD&D.
CONVERTING FOR 5E CREATURES
This is fairly simple since HP are shown with HD+CON bonus. Just remove the CON bonus, then add all the ability modifiers, if you want to. Frankly, it is easier to not bother...