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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Roman" data-source="post: 3316719" data-attributes="member: 1845">There has been a number of threads surfacing recently peripherally (not in that they do not deal with hit points in detail, but because that is not their primary focus) dealing with the benefits/penalties of hit points in D&D and with possible solutions to some of the issues that are brought up. Well, I thought such discussions deserve their own thread, so here it comes. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> As far as I am concerned, hit points have several advantages: They are ablative and a resource to be managed, hence providing They are a simple mechanic They also have, in my view, several disadvantages in their current incarnation: They provide complete immunity to high level characters against attacks by low level characters The spread in hit points between low levels and high levels is too high, making high level characters a world apart from low level characters by a margin that I find somewhat uncomfortable Problems of internal logical consistency (hit points represent not how tough a character is, but how welll he can roll with the damage... but than why are they modified by Con and not Dex...) The Wounds and Vitality system does a decent job of dealing with the weaknesses of hit points while maintaining the strengths, but it adds another layer of complexity by introducing yet more in-game mechanics (rather than merely dealing with the problem at the point(s) of character creation/advancement). The best solution I can come up with would be to simply add a one time bonus to hit points of all characters (and monsters) at creation and lower the hit point progression by hit dice I am thinking something along the lines of the following: The hit point progression per level/hit dice is reduced by 1 die step. Therefore: d12 --> d10 d10 --> d8 d8 --> d6 d6 --> d4 d4 --> d2 Note that negative constitution modifiers should now be able to bring the hit points gained per level to 0 (but not below), in order to prevent constitution from becoming a dump stat for wizards and their ilk. At the same time, all characters and monsters are given a one time hit point bonus at character creation based on their size and constitution. Something along the lines of the following would probably function: Fine: 1 + Constitution modifier Diminutive: 1d2 + Constitution modifier Tiny: 1d4 + Constitution modifier Small: 1d6 + Constitution modifier Medium: 1d8 + Constitution modifier Large: 2d8 + Constitution modifier Huge: 3d8 + Constitution modifier Gargantuan: 4d8 + Constitution modifier Colossal: 5d8 + Constitution modifier Negative constitution modifier cannot reduce the hit points thus gained below 1. If it were desired, it would be possible to add extra racial modifiers to this. Say Half-Orcs or Orcs gain an extra starting hit point and a really, really tough medium race might gain two extra hit points, while some physically weaker races (eg. Elves) might gain fewer starting hit points. It should be mentioned that I have chosen the starting hit point bonuses in such a way so as to reduce the hit point disparity between the high and low level extremes, but so as to ensure that by level 20, the hit points will not be higher than they would be using the normal system. I have also opted not to simply add automatic hit dice (of say humanoid), so as not to mess with skill points, BAB, saves and other issues affected by hit dice. Anyway, what do you think about the system? I have not play-tested it, but it does reduce the hit point disparities without adding complexity to actual game play (rather than merely character creation). The one problem I do foresee is that it probably does not go far enough in doing so.</blockquote>

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