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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DogBackward" data-source="post: 5848016" data-attributes="member: 50642">I would love to see HP totals (and damage totals) scaled down quite a bit. One thing I did with a homebrew very-low-power game was implement decaying Hit Dice. Everybody gets their Constitution bonus in HP at each level. But each class's Hit Die grants HP equal to the maximum, -2 per level. So at first level, a Barbarian gains 12+Con. HP. At second level, a Barbarian gains 10+Con. HP. At 6th level, a Barbarian gets 2+Con. HP. Finally, from 7th level onwards, even a Barbarian gets only Con. HP per level. (In this system, a negative Con. modifier granted 0 HP).On the same token, a Wizard would gain 6+Con. HP at first level, 4+Con. at second level, 2+Con. at third level and be stuck with only Con. from levels four and up. (This was using Pathfinder as a base, where Hit Die was tied to BAB, and low BAB got a d6).This means that a Barbarian with 10 Con. (silly Barbarian...) would have, at 6th level, 42 Hit Points. A Wizard at with 20 Con. at 6th level would have 42 Hit Points as well. It allows a high Constitution to bridge the gap between low HD and high HD, but only when the difference is truly vast. And Constitution is still important, as that same Wizard with a 10 Con. instead would only have 12 HP. This danger would be mitigated by the drop in damage (none of this "1d6 per level" stuff), but that Wizard would still be in near constant danger of taking a deadly hit.I'm not much into old-school DM'ing, with the adversarial nature and the insta-kill traps and the like. I'm not even a fan of old-school adventuring: I'd take an overland trek or city adventure over a dungeon-crawl any day. But old-school class design has its place: I like the Wizard that can wreak havoc on the enemy, but can't take a hit. My 4e Wizard could go toe-to-toe with some pretty massive beasties for a few rounds without much of a problem, and that seemed very incongruous to me. On the other hand, given a high Constitution and the fact that everybody's HP growth drops off within 6 levels at most, you can still build a Wizard that can take the hits as well as a more combat-oriented class... you just have to sacrifice some of your other stats to do so. Especially if spellcasting power it more closely tied to stats than simple level: if you want staying power, you should lose offensive power. It's the oldest trade-off in the book.</blockquote>

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