Fellow DM, How do you handle Hit Point at each new level ?

[the Lorax]

Maybe I got this system from an ENWorlder or maybe WotC boards... I dunno. I've ben using it as the defualt for some time now.

Player and DM roll dice. The die the DM rolled is hidden however. The PC gets to choose their roll or the DMs.

It's lots of fun.

Edit: Forgot to mention. If I (being the DM) notice that both the PC and DM roll a 1, then the PC gets max HP!

I've played in a campaign where this was used, and find it a decent rule. Really I suspect that the DM was using it as a way to try to get the HPs to be something close to average, I rarely saw people get less HPs (although it did happen on occasion) with the DMs roll, although the die was always revealed untouched.

I can definately see a reason to do average. Shortly after 3.0 came out I was in a campaign where there was a Half-orc Barbarian with a decent Con (with a bonus, +2 or +3 IIRC) and at 8th level he had 48 HP, this with a "Max HP at first level" rule, but keep it as you roll it in place. He didn't make such a good Barbarian.

For my part, I dont watch my players roll HPs. Roll and keep it, dont roll and fake it, roll and fudge, I'm fairly indifferent, but would prefer that the players dont cheat - too badly. HPs are just a limitor on how long a PC will stay in a battle, low HP characters will bail from battle, and the High HP characters seem to realize too late that they have damage and are in actual danger.

 

[Ry]

I use a formula based on the ability bonuses.

(CON * 4) + (STR * 2) + (WIL * 2) + 24 + bonus due to Toughness score. Of course, that's not level-dependent, unless you count improving the Toughness score.








Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

[blargney the second]

We use 3/4 of max. Round alternately down then up. (Incidentally, first-level PCs also get 3/4 of max starting gold.)

-blarg

 

[shilsen]

I'm generous, so if a player rolls less than half for the hit die (2 on d4, 6 on d12), the PC gets the half score. It prevents situations where the lucky mage has more hit points than the fighter and in my game the PCs need it.

 

[GlassJaw]

Roll twice, take the highest.

Simple, effective, and everyone seems to like it. If you get two bad rolls, you can't say you didn't have a chance.

 

[Jdvn1]

We use 3/4 of max.

I wonder if anyone uses 1/4 of max. Y'know, for a real sense of mortality.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I wonder if anyone uses 1/4 of max. Y'know, for a real sense of mortality.

For the "real sense of mortality", I like setting the Massive Damage Threshold to CON and scaling the difficulty of the Fortitude save based on how much damage you just took.

 

[Gentlegamer]

Let the die fall where it may.

 

[Catavarie]

In my games we reroll all 1s during character creation/development, a 1 isn't a 1 untill your rolling your damage or your d20

 

[Nifft]

max(roll(die), max(die)/2)

So, if you roll a d6, you will get at least 3.

Likewise, if you roll d12, you will get at least 6.

On average, this adds ~1 hp/level. Best of all, the expected benefit scales with hit die size -- so a d4 dude expects to gain +0.25 hp/level, while a d12 dude will expect +1.25 hp/level.

-- N