D&D 5E First Level Hit Points Need to Increase

[Chris_Nightwing]

as long as you don´t do a monsters as character thing later on, this would also explain, why goblins don´t have much hp... their racial hp are 0.

Or their racial HP are low and none of them have any class levels or hit dice, they are goblin peasants.

 

[Son of Meepo]

A lot of people are arguing that it doesn't matter because you can just house rule level 1 hp. The problem is that there is one place you can't, organized play. As someone who mostly plays in various living campaigns, if I have to go back to characters that risk being one-shotted at level 1, then I'm less likely to want to play in an organized play campaign using DDN. There were several times where I've been dropped before getting an action in a low level 3.5 game. Having to sit there for the next hour doing nothing but rolling stabilization checks wasn't fun.

I think in all my 4e experience, I'd seen it happen once.

 

[Gorgoroth]

Lol...son of Meepo! Meepo getting one-shotted, now that's something I have heard before j/k

I think it's sad you'd only seen it once in 4e, that means the game is too easy IMO. I bet you've also seen (much) fewer deaths comparatively at other levels too. Thing is, having your PC die should be a good chance to roll up a new one! Turn a negative into a positive. Next time you might even roll three 18s for stats. Oh, right, nobody rolls in tournament play because it's unfair that everyone isn't born equal. I like the idea of point buy for competitive play, but not because it's balanced, but because I can pre-make a bunch more characters. I prefer rolling, though in 4e you could completely gimp your character unless you had that 16-18 in at least one stat

 

[GSHamster]

I think Son of Meepo was talking specifically about dying before getting an action, not dying in general.

 

[ferratus]

I think Son of Meepo was talking specifically about dying before getting an action, not dying in general.

I know that if I'm playing a game where I'm going to be feeding characters into the wood chipper before I ever get an action, character creation should take less than 3 minutes. Then I can spend 15 minutes and create 5. The one who survives get the experience and levels up to where he can survive his first hit.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

Hit point bloat needs to go away. Across the board. I want the numbers to be as low as possible, especially hit points.

 

[keterys]

Hit point bloat needs to go away. Across the board. I want the numbers to be as low as possible, especially hit points.

Have you played any of the newer D&D boardgames (like Castle Ravenloft)? Most attacks deal 1 point of damage and most creatures have 1 hit point. Some things have 2 hit points or deal 2 hit points, but it's pretty notable and abilities that deal half damage are often awesome cause they autokill lesser creatures.

I suspect a lot of people would want a slightly more granular game, though.

Like, for damage
Bats/Stirges: 1
Goblins/Kobolds: 2
Gnolls/Orcs: 3
Bears: 4
Minotaurs/Ogres: 5
etc.

It's pretty tough, though, because 3 goblins being more dangerous than an ogre feels odd too.

Brainstorming, what if bonuses to hit points from Con and bonuses to damage (from Str / Dex) were bounded to max out the die at most? For example, 1d8 + 4 hit points / damage gives you a range from 5 - 8 (rolling a 9, 10, 11 or 12 still means an 8)

You could simplify PC damage to 1d6 (max 6) one-handed and 1d12 (max 12) two-handed say.

 

[jhunton]

First level HP are just too low right now. I recommend that they be increased to Constitution score + hit die. Right now, it's just too easy for a first level character to be one-shot.

thats why it called first leve. it easy to be killed so some times you don,t fight you run. just saying

 

[jodyjohnson]

So is command in the same boat?

Flee - spend one turn running and one turn running back. Combat's over.

The full party stun in Against the Cult of Chaos wasn't much better. Boom! Have the party stunned for half the combat. Luckily the Wizard avoided it and cleared the room.

Or Hold Person. Miss your save twice and the fight is over.

Bad stuff happens and your guy doesn't get to do much.

 

[Sunseeker]

thats why it called first leve. it easy to be killed so some times you don,t fight you run. just saying

First level is also the "hook" of the game. You don't make Bob roll up a new character because you want him to sit on the sidelines do you?