D&D 5E Hit dice used

[Urban Nightmare]

Okay this is probably a stupid question but since I don't know exactly how it works I'm going to ask.

On all of the character sheets I've seen I've noticed and area for hit points and hit dice. I know what hit points are for (I played 2nd Ed 10+ years ago) and I know what the hit dice are used for. But the column that shows "Used" or "Hit dice spent" I don't know what that is used for.

Thanks for the assistance.

Urban Nightmare
Living the dream...

 

[Paraxis]

Hit dice can be used to recover lost hit points during a short rest. You can spend one and roll it adding your Con modifier to recover that many hit points, well you can spend any number of them at a time.

So you record your spent hit dice in that area.

You regain half your Hit Dice when you take a long rest.

Oh, and welcome to the boards just noticed this was your first post.

 

[Urban Nightmare]

Thanks for the warm welcome.

When you say "you regain half your hit dice when you take a long rest", you mean you erase half of the hit dice spent after a long rest or you roll half of your hit dice and regain that many hit points?

For some reason these hit dice rules are just messing me up. I think I get most everything else but I guess we'll see when I play my first game Friday night. Hope the DM is patient.

 

[Ravenheart87]

Thanks for the warm welcome.

When you say "you regain half your hit dice when you take a long rest", you mean you erase half of the hit dice spent after a long rest or you roll half of your hit dice and regain that many hit points?

For some reason these hit dice rules are just messing me up. I think I get most everything else but I guess we'll see when I play my first game Friday night. Hope the DM is patient.

Hit Dice is not exactly the same as in AD&D. It is a resource you can use to heal during short rest. You have as much as your level. When have a long you rest, you regain half of them.

For example you are a 4th level cleric with 14 Constitution (+2 modifier) and 28 maximum Hit Points. As a 4th level character you have 4 HD. You are wounded after a battle with only 6 HP remaining. You take a short rest and spend 3 HD to recover. For each Hit Die spent in this way, the player rolls the die and adds the character’s Constitution modifier to it - says the book, so this will give you 3d8+6 HP back. You roll 13, so you recover 19 HP. You have now 25 HP and 1 HD remaining. The night comes, you take a long rest. You recover all your lost HP and half your HD, so you get back 2 HD. Thus you have 3 HD after you finish the long rest, which you can spend during short rests to recover HP until you take another long rest.

 

[Staffan]

Hit Dice in 5e are something different than in previous editions. They are technically not connected to your hit points per level (although in all current cases they are the same, but you could theoretically make a class with extraordinary recuperative powers that gained 5/1d8 hp per level but had d12s for hit dice).

When you take a short rest, you can spend hit dice for healing (adding Con bonus to each die). So if you're a 6th level fighter with Con 14, you have 6 d10+2 "self-heals" available to spend during short rests. You don't have to decide ahead of time how many to roll, you can roll one die, see that you're still quite hurt, and then roll another - that's all part of the same short rest.

When you take a long rest, you (a) heal all remaining damage, and (b) recover half your maximum number of hit dice (rounded down, minimum 1). So our 6th level fighter regains three of his hit dice during a long rest. If he used 5 hit dice yesterday, he's still a big weary, so today he only has 4 hit dice available (one remaining from yesterday, plus recovering three during the long rest).

 

[aramis erak]

Thanks for the warm welcome.

When you say "you regain half your hit dice when you take a long rest", you mean you erase half of the hit dice spent after a long rest or you roll half of your hit dice and regain that many hit points?

For some reason these hit dice rules are just messing me up. I think I get most everything else but I guess we'll see when I play my first game Friday night. Hope the DM is patient.

No. when you regain HD, you regain a number of them equal to half your character level, rounded down, minimum 1, hit die. So, if you have spent less than half your level, all spent HD are recovered.

 

[Beleriphon]

If it helps think of Hit Dice as pool of token rather than the actual term. You spend your tokens during a short rest to heal up a bit. When you get a long rest you gain half your level in tokens, to the maximum in your pool. For first little while it might help to actually have tokens or another visible tracker to show how many hit dice you can actually spend rather than getting the terms confused.

 

[Urban Nightmare]

Thanks for this. Still getting used to all the new rules. Like I say I haven't played since 2nd Ed and that was a long time ago.

 

[Henry]

Welcome to the forums, and no worries -- it's not a concept that's been around for very long in D&D. 4e had something called "healing surges", which healed you in between combats (same idea, taking a short breather to regain some stamina); this edition is the first time that hit dice has been used this way, and all in all it sounds like it's working pretty well in practice.

 

[aramis erak]

Welcome to the forums, and no worries -- it's not a concept that's been around for very long in D&D. 4e had something called "healing surges", which healed you in between combats (same idea, taking a short breather to regain some stamina); this edition is the first time that hit dice has been used this way, and all in all it sounds like it's working pretty well in practice.

Indeed, it's worked for me... a dedicated healer is no longer essential. Still, really useful - heal spells are now about "return to this combat" and "avoid 1-4 hours downtime"...

It's worth warning that "Prior Edition Knowledge" is not all that useful a lot of the time. If something looks like a new use of an old term, it probably is. Lots of spells don't work the same.