CON Penalties and HP rolls

[WolverineJon]

For a PC, is a temporary penalty to max HP conferred by a temporary penalty to Constitution dependant on the HP rolls of that character?

For example, consider a 3rd-level fighter with a base Constitution of 10, and HP rolls of 1 and 10 (at 2nd and 3rd level respectively) for a total max HP of 21.

If this character takes 4 points of temporary Constitution damage, dropping his CON to 6 (-2 penalty), does his max HP temporarily drop to 17 (since at least one max HP is gained per level, regardless of constitution penalty) or to 15 (by just applying a penalty to HP of (CON penalty * level), and ignoring what the specific rolls were)?

Edit: Fixed a math error. (Thanks Hypersmurf!)

 

[Xeoble]

HP go to 15

if you're at CON 1 and 20th level, you have 20 hit points, regardless of rolls

 

[Hypersmurf]

My intepretation is that any given HD can not confer less than 1 hit point, regardless of Con penalties.

If a player has faithfully recorded his roll-history for hit points, then I'll take that into account - if they're getting a -3 Con penalty, then any die that goes below 1 is still treated as 1.

If, on the other hand, they haven't bothered to keep track of what they rolled at each level, that's their problem - they suffer the full penalty.

However, I won't let a Con penalty drop someone's Max hit points below their number of Hit Dice. A Wiz-10 even with a -4 Con penalty - can't have less than 10 max hit points.

By the way - in your example, I'd have the fighter have 17 Max hit points, since his three modified hit dice are 10 - 2 = 8, 1 - 2 = -1 => 1, and 10 - 2=8 respectively. 8 + 1 + 8 = 17.

-Hyp.

 

[fba827]

Wow - thought the answer was more cut and dry until I read your question more carefully

Going by the DMG, however, the example on p72 seems to imply that you go down to 15HP (go down by con adjustment loss * HD) regardless of individual rolls.

That example further clarifies, the way it accounts for the "still 1 hp per HD" is that your 3rd level fight , in your example, could not have below 3 HP regardless of Con penalty adjustments.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Going by the DMG, however, the example on p72 seems to imply that you go down to 15HP (go down by con adjustment loss * HD) regardless of individual rolls.

I'll have to read it again when I get home... but it sounds like a quick-n-dirty method that could have problems in certain situations.

It breaks the whole "retroactive effect" of Con bonuses...

If someone has a -3 Con penalty, and they level and roll a 1, and then their Con goes up so their penalty is only -2, do they get an extra hit point for that level?

-Hyp.

 

[WolverineJon]

By the way - in your example, I'd have the fighter have 17 Max hit points, since his three modified hit dice are 10 - 2 = 8, 1 - 2 = -1 => 1, and 10 - 2=8 respectively. 8 + 1 + 8 = 17.

Thanks, Hypersmurf. I'll edit my original post to reflect this correction.

 

[Stalker0]

Con damage cannot bring you lower than 1 hp per HD.

 

[CRGreathouse]

HP go to 15

if you're at CON 1 and 20th level, you have 20 hit points, regardless of rolls

What if you're a first-level cleric? Wouldn't you have 1d8-5 = 3 hit points?

Shouldn't a 20th-level cleric with Con 1 have about 29 hit points? Shouldn't a 20th-level barbarian with Con 1 have ~59 hit points?

 

[Xeoble]

Originally posted by Xeoble:
HP go to 15

if you're at CON 1 and 20th level, you have 20 hit points, regardless of rolls ...


Sorry, i meant in reference to classes that have less than 1d8 hit dice, which i didn't state, my bad, berate me for my stupidity!