el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
One of the things I remember doing, basically every time, when prepping monsters in previous editions, was actually rolling their hit dice to determine their hit points. In this way, some examples of a monster were weaker than average (some much weaker) and others were heartier than average (some much heartier). Of course, sometimes I would decide ahead of time that the monster needs to last longer due to its role in an adventure, so I'd decide to re-roll all 1s or give it a couple of hit dice at max and roll the rest or simply choose a number (something that became my standard approach for most monsters in the latter 3E era and that has stuck with me in 5E).
I am very averse to simply using average hit points (and never use average damage, since I find the idea that it actually saves appreciable time laughable and finding the anticipation of the damage roll's result part of what makes combat exciting - I roll in the open), and even when using "average," I tend to give the monsters of more than 1 HD the max for their first HD as PCs get for their first level hit points.
However, I was just now prepping an encounter and statted up a bugbear sub-chief and his two lieutenants and couldn't decide how many HPs to give the latter two. I could have made them stronger or weaker or used average, but I decided to simply roll randomly and see what the result was and use that to determine more about them. Maybe if one had fewer hps than average, I might play them sneakier, while one with closer to max hps might be more brazen and willing to soak up damage.
Anyway, this was literally the first time I have rolled for monster hps in this newest edition and it just reminded me of how that used to be a regular part of game prep and in doing it I decided I am going to do it more often.
So my questions are, does anyone else roll for monster hit points in 5E? Do you always use average? Do you use some other system for determining hps? For those of you obsessed with encounter challenge and CR, do you think the wide range in how many hps a monster can have effects how challenging they are and how they are rated? For example, a typical bugbear could have as few as 10 hps and as many as 45.
I am very averse to simply using average hit points (and never use average damage, since I find the idea that it actually saves appreciable time laughable and finding the anticipation of the damage roll's result part of what makes combat exciting - I roll in the open), and even when using "average," I tend to give the monsters of more than 1 HD the max for their first HD as PCs get for their first level hit points.
However, I was just now prepping an encounter and statted up a bugbear sub-chief and his two lieutenants and couldn't decide how many HPs to give the latter two. I could have made them stronger or weaker or used average, but I decided to simply roll randomly and see what the result was and use that to determine more about them. Maybe if one had fewer hps than average, I might play them sneakier, while one with closer to max hps might be more brazen and willing to soak up damage.
Anyway, this was literally the first time I have rolled for monster hps in this newest edition and it just reminded me of how that used to be a regular part of game prep and in doing it I decided I am going to do it more often.
So my questions are, does anyone else roll for monster hit points in 5E? Do you always use average? Do you use some other system for determining hps? For those of you obsessed with encounter challenge and CR, do you think the wide range in how many hps a monster can have effects how challenging they are and how they are rated? For example, a typical bugbear could have as few as 10 hps and as many as 45.
