Concerning Hit Points/ Hit Die

[soulforge]

Why not just do max HP for every die? If you do this for monsters/everyone, it should balance out without anyone feeling like they got a bad roll that will plague them fo rthe rest of the character's life.

Or you could do all classes HD as a d4+class modifier. Cleric would be d4+4, rogue would be d4+2, barbar d4+6, wiz d4+0...you get the idea.

If you are looking for house rules...

I don't think the max hp would work out as well as the median. The reason being in that this would unbalance the regular consistency of the system as far as damage went and such. Also, this would probably only make combats longer than normal. In my mind the median works much better. I like the d4+ Class HD mod. idea, because it will allow for variation, but think I'll use the median or median + 1 and the Con. bonus is what will provide variation.

 

[Goolpsy]

We always roll in front of the DM or.. let him roll it... abilities in front of the dm and the others... while HD 's mainly done by the DM... (sometimes open sometimes closed, that way a DM can modify the poor 1 on a d12 to 3 etc..)

 

[kenobi65]

All of the RPGA's campaigns do some sort of a fixed HP/HD method, rather than having players roll HPs -- this is basically the same as what Andre suggests above. This is undoubtedly to discourage cheating on the rolls, and standardize the process.

As far as how many they give, it does vary by the campaign. Some campaigns do (1/2max)+1, just like Andre suggested. Others do 2/3 of max, or 75% of max.

 

[Thanee]

Thanee, the conceptual problem with that approach is that the better you roll (below average), then the less of a bonus you receive. E.g. eight-sided HD:

1 - gain +3 hp
2 - gain +2 hp
3 - gain +1 hp
4-8 - gain no additional hp

You're basically rewarding the low rolls.

Nope, it's not rewarding low rolls, it's eliminating low rolls.

You basically roll an 8-sided die, with the numbers 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 on it.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Drowbane]

Shackled City / HP

If it was just any campaign, I'd advocate either: Static HP based on the HD; d4 = 3, d6 = 4, d8 = 5, 10 = 6, 12 = 7 or Safety Net; Roll HD, take average as minimum. d4 = 2 - 4, d6 = 3 - 6, etc.

But you said you're running Shackled City!! And from experience, I know its a total meat-grinder. Consider giving your PCs max hp for it. If not letting them be Gestalt!

When I was up in WA, our DM got three TPKs by the 2nd adventure with those "Balanced by CR / Level" modules. And it just got worse the further we got... because we were lacking lvls / xp / con due to dying constantly...

Shackled City is the new Tomb of Horrors IMO. The kid-gloves are off if you're running that.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I don't even consider using anything else than point buy and fixed HP. No randomness in character creation (well, you can roll your height and weight if you want to, but you can also just pick something within the normal range). One bad roll day at character creation day and you're boned.

 

[Infiniti2000]

Nope, it's not rewarding low rolls, it's eliminating low rolls.

You basically roll an 8-sided die, with the numbers 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 on it.

Bye
Thanee

That's why I said "conceptual" problem.

Most gamers roll dice so that they can be excited to roll well. I bet if you ask 100 gamers if they would prefer to roll a 15 or a 20 (assume that crit doesn't matter and that both hit, and no other modifiers), 90 will say '20' and the other 10 are full of it.

The point is that if one person rolls a 4 and the next person rolls a 1, doing just as well, the person who rolled the 4 will feel cheated. It's not just that they both 'missed' or whatever, having the same outcome, it's that the result of the die was modified. Suddenly, the other person can pick up his die, put it on 4, and say 'voila'. It's a conceptual problem and it sucks. It's far better to roll 1d5+3 (or better yet the 1d4+4 method above that someone else mentioned). That way, the roll is the roll. The roll is not meaningless for 3 numbers.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

If you want to roll HD, but prevent low rolls, the best method (IMHO) is to just roll once and if the roll is below one-half the HD (< 4 on a d8), it simply counts as one-half the HD (4 on a d8).

I've tried at least five different hit points house rules, and this one is by far the best one.

 

[Thanee]

The point is that if one person rolls a 4 and the next person rolls a 1, doing just as well, the person who rolled the 4 will feel cheated.

Not really.

It's far better to roll 1d5+3 (or better yet the 1d4+4 method above that someone else mentioned). That way, the roll is the roll. The roll is not meaningless for 3 numbers.

Nope, because that increases the average far too much.

Most gamers roll dice so that they can be excited to roll well.

Yup, that's what makes the method so perfect, you can still roll well, and unlike every other method, it does neither increase the average too much nor has a chance remaining to roll really bad, as small as it might be, since the worst result is only slightly below average.

Everyone is happy with that, you can be one of them, too!

Bye
Thanee

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Most gamers roll dice so that they can be excited to roll well.

And they have the game sessions for that.