D&D 5E DMs of EN World: How do YOU assign HP to monsters?

[5ekyu]

Do you just take the average amount listed in the stat block?
Do you roll for hit points?
Do you just assign an amount within the possible range presented?
Do you wing it and adjust on the fly during combat?
Something else?

I actually used to roll all the time - an old habit from my AD&D days I suppose. But that became too time consuming for my session prep. Now I usually take the average amount unless I have a reason to adjust up or down for story reasons. For a group of enemies, I might make some weaker and some stronger, but otherwise aim for the average overall. And I almost always stick to the numbers I wrote down prior to the session (with the occasional "close enough" if the monster is down to just a few hit points and the combat is getting old or I want to reward a particular character with the "killing" blow).

If i am not simply mashing several things for larger custom i use average, max or halfway between depending on scenario needs. Often they are rpunded to a zero.

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[Rhenny]

I've been running all of my games on Fantasy Grounds so it is easy to change monster HP toggling Average, Roll and Max. I like to switch it up. Some encounters are average, some roll and some are max. I use max when I want to scare PCs.

 

[Sunseeker]

Typically, I use 75% of maximum. Prevents a lot of one-hit drops. Anything intended to be felled by one swing is replaced with a 4E-style Minion (5HP).

Custom monsters use custom HP based on how long I want them to last in a fight. I usually estimate 5hp*round*APL, so if my party is 5th level and I want my monster to last ~5 rounds ~125HP. Double that for "bosses"/unique NPCs.

 

[DrunkWolf]

Dpends on how tough I want the fight to be. Usually I would go with the stated HP total for a normal fight, or max hp if I want to make it a hard encounter. If the combat went too easy, I can adjust on the fly to make things a little more interesting.

 

[Harzel]

I usually roll; if not I use average. I think I might start bumping things up a bit by maxing a few dice and rolling the rest.

I never adjust on the fly. (At least I never have so far; I suppose it's possible some circumstance could make it seem desirable - maybe if it were a game for young kids where I wanted to avoid PC death.)

 

[werecorpse]

I use the average in the stat block but if I want a tougher creature I just add a bunch of HP regardless of the hit die.

So a leader gnoll just give some bonus ability and +30 HP

 

[ccs]

For many monsters I'll just use the average.

For some I'll give them max.

Sometimes I'll also set a min. # of rounds for a creature. So long as the party doesn't do something extraordinarily damaging/creative the monster cannot die before round x, even if driven into negative HP.
Once that min # of rounds has passed, if the creature has 0/less HP anytime it takes damage it gets a single 10+ death save. Success: it fights on, failure: the killing blow is finally struck.

 

[Tallifer]

Do you wing it and adjust on the fly during combat?

More or less this. Likewise with defenses, damage and special abilities.

Partly because I can never guarantee how many players will show up for each session: usually five or six, but sometimes as few as two or as many as eight.

 

[Li Shenron]

Do you just take the average amount listed in the stat block?

Nearly always.

Do you roll for hit points?
Do you just assign an amount within the possible range presented?

Both very rarely, and typically only when I have multiple identical monsters and I want more randomness among the group.

Do you wing it and adjust on the fly during combat?

No.

 

[delericho]

Do you just take the average amount listed in the stat block?
Do you roll for hit points?
Do you just assign an amount within the possible range presented?
Do you wing it and adjust on the fly during combat?
Something else?

If it's a named individual (Meepo the kobold) then I'll probably roll. If it's not then I'll use the value in the stat-block.

Where time permits, I'll also try to assign at least one named 'leader' for any group of otherwise-identical humanoids. So that if the PCs decide to parley, they're talking to someone with a name. That representative will be named, and so have rolled hit points.