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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pming" data-source="post: 7502868" data-attributes="member: 45197">Hiya!We like to start at level 1. It's just a thing we have always enjoyed. Starting a PC at higher level feels, to me anyway, like I (or the player) is "taking over someone else's character". We like the squishy levels, actually...which is completely opposite from what this thread/OP is going for (hence the term "crazy" <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ).We don't use MC or Feats or other books, so that should remove the majority of HP change/bonus over levels thing.Resting: My group tends to play from the perspective of the PC's as opposed to that of the Players. What I mean is that if the fighter is down to 4hp and everyone else is doing ok, that Player will tend towards having the fighter keep on going, RP'ing the injury and whatnot but also RP'ing the Fighters "pride" at being tough enough to keep on going...because if the Wizard, with 5hp and AC 12 can keep going, why shouldn't he?  Yes, this does lead to some dangerous situations, but if the PC's have only been awake and adventuring for 3 hours they will tend to keep on going...because it's only been 3 hours. If they have all been injured and some of the higher-level spells/abilities were used, so be it. Only when they can't justify "We can do it...we just have to be more careful" do they blurt out "Ok, that's it. If we keep going we're going to die. It sucks it's only been 4 hours, but man o' man have we been in some battles this morning!".Point is...not healing full HP is a common thing in our group's play style. "Close enough" is always "good enough". And when you have 160hp total and "only" have 120 left...well, you're pretty much always going to be "good enough". I also have a different healing method than the core book (no more "POOF! You're healed 100%"; it's based on half-max HD per safe, full 8-hour rest...so each morning the PC would heal, with this max-hd idea, 10HD).We like low level play as well. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> In my games PC's are "folks with a special spark", but not "heroes destined for greatness". Adventurers are generally seen as crazy, stupid, untrustworthy, and dangerous to even be around. A Farmer can go years walking the 5 miles of dirt road from his farm to the city without so much as a whiff of serious danger. If that Farmer is suddenly met by a quintet of "adventurers", his chance of encountering some horrible creature or hoard of undead rises significantly. It's one of those "fantasy RPG 'isms". Because of this 'ism, I have, over the decades, taken to adjusting my campaigns towards a more "boring and mundane" style of backdrop. In other words...I don't tailor the adventure/area to the PC's. This takes the whole "heroes at level 1" thing down quite a bit, making them feel more like 'unusual people with unusual skills'.I think I get what you're getting at; you see the 20-HD idea as primarily a means of keeping the PC's alive at lower/mid levels. I'm not doing this because of that. I am more interested in the effect that having such a huge amount of HP's from the get-go suddenly opens up a HUGE range of monsters I can use at virtually any time in the PC's endevours. They could be fighting a dungeon full of kobolds, and then find out the kobolds are worshiping a full-on dragon....and I can have that dragon actually make an appearance without TPK'ing the whole group in one round. I could have the group pushing back the tide of giants, and then have an army of orcs arrive...and have the group not get TPK'ed in two rounds. Basically, with a huge amount of HP's, an unfortunate random encounter might not be a death sentence.As I said above, we do healing different. It's also not about "healing more" or anything like that...it's about being able to take a hit from something that does 4d10+5 at 2nd level. It's a means of sort of "opening up" the Players ability to choose to do something that interests them right from the get go. If they want to check out "The Kobold Caves", they can. If they want to see what's in the "Valley of the Dragon", they can. If they feel the need to confront the "Dread Knight of Skulls" and his army of undead, they can. All from virtually any 'level'. As D&D stands, that sort of wide-open adventure hooks just isn't really possible. Everyone knows at low level you fight goblins, mid level you fight orcs and ogres, high level you fight giants, very high level you fight demons, devils and dragons. My thought is that, if everyone has as many HP's as they would at level 20...they can jump straight into taking on the "Demon Dragon of Hellmaw Pass" at level 3. And probably loose. But in this case, "loose" actually means loose...not TPK.Anyway, thanks everyone! Got me thinking of a couple of different aspects I didn't really consider well enough. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />^_^Paul L. Ming</blockquote>

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