Hit points at level-up

[Obscure]

A little survey for everyone (maybe someone with more clout than I could turn this into a poll):

How do you determine a PC's hit points when they level up? Do you have them add the newly gained HP to both the max HP and current HP, or just max? Do their current HP increase just enough to keep their "percentage health" the same?

What if the PC is at negative HP at the time of level up? Can they regain consciousness due to levelling up? Or do they not level up until after regaining consciousness?

I allow my players to add the new HP to both current and max HP. The trouble is I now have an unconscious PC due to level up and I'm not sure what to do with him (i.e., should he regain consciousness from levelling up? Seems kind of strange...).

 

[Tarangil]

I allow both to be raised, it keeps their health at the same ratio it was before they levelled.

 

[I'm A Banana]

If he's unconcious, he can't earn XP.

When he wakes up, he'll feel more powerful. Right now, he's still unconcious.

 

[was]

I allow them to add those HP to both. If a pc wakes up from this, so be it. It's better when a pc is conscious and can see death coming for him/her.

 

[Staffan]

I generally only allow levelling up during downtime, and during downtime you're usually healed up anyway. So, not a big problem for me.

 

[The_Gneech]

In my game, characters only level up between sessions, so it's rare that a character is down on hp when it happens. On those occasions, however, it's added directly to both their current and their max hp. If this happens to bring them back above 0 hp, it just means they recovered on their own.

-The Gneech

 

[Mark Hope]

I add the newly gained hp to both max and current in order to maintain the same ratio.

The DM in the Eberron game I am currently playing in, however, rerolls our entire hp total at every level-up. So, yeah, you might level up and wind up with less hit points. Insane!!! Still, as my 3rd-level kalashtar psion/wizard with aspirations of cerebremancy is likely to be tortured to death by a frickin' vampire in the first few minutes of the next session, I don't suppose it matters much any more... (>goes off on frothing rant about the Rose Quarry encounter in "Shadows of the Last War<)

 

[Ranger REG]

How do you determine a PC's hit points when they level up? Do you have them add the newly gained HP to both the max HP and current HP, or just max? Do their current HP increase just enough to keep their "percentage health" the same?

I don't allow level-ups in the middle of the adventure, but hypothetically if that happens, the new hit die roll result (modified by Con) is then applied to both current and total HP.

What if the PC is at negative HP at the time of level up? Can they regain consciousness due to levelling up? Or do they not level up until after regaining consciousness?

If the current HP is at negative value, then the hit die result is applied only to the PC's total HP.

 

[IronWolf]

If a character levels up while they are wounded I have the player add the newly gained hit points to the current hp the character has and to the character's maximium.

 

[Arkhandus]

How do you determine a PC's hit points when they level up? Do you have them add the newly gained HP to both the max HP and current HP, or just max? Do their current HP increase just enough to keep their "percentage health" the same?

In my present Rhunaria homebrew campaign, the PCs get full HP at 1st-level, while rolling for HP at later levels. If they roll below the average, they get the average instead; this is before considering modifiers such as Constitution. So if they gain a new level of Rogue and roll a 1 or 2 on a d6, they instead get 3 HP, but if their Constitution is 7 or lower, then it'll end up reducing their actual HP gain to 1 point. This avoids the PCs becoming terrible paper tigers, as I've noticed a few of my players have wretched luck with rolling HP every level.

What if the PC is at negative HP at the time of level up? Can they regain consciousness due to levelling up? Or do they not level up until after regaining consciousness?

Simple enough. An unconscious PC can't very well level-up, he's rather incapacitated at the moment. Can't learn nothin', reflect on one's battles and what tactics worked, or practice to perfect a new technique when you're unconscious. I only level-up PCs when they get a night's rest or something, so it's not a sudden "Yeah! I just finished off that last goblin and suddenly I feel more vigorous than I did 6 seconds ago when he hit me with his morningstar, even though I'm still bleeding from that!"

If a PC is unconscious, they really need an ally to make a Heal checks to stabilize them, until they succeed. The Heal check can be attempted untrained (you don't need ranks, and you don't need a healer's kit), and it's DC 15 to stabilize an ally as a standard action. Assuming they don't have anyone who can cast a Cure spell on the fellow, or administer a healing potion to the unconscious fella. It takes a full-round action to coax a potion down an unconscious character's throat, as noted in the rules. Cure Minor Wounds, or a potion thereof (only 25 gp!) works best when you just want to make sure your ally's stable and not dying. Once a character's stable, they have a chance to regain conscious each hour, IIRC.

If you don't have healing handy, and nobody's succeeding with Heal skill checks, you could instead provide the unconscious ally with an Endurance (Bear's Endurance in 3.5) spell or item, such as an Amulet of Health +2 (or better). I think a Belt of Dwarvenkind gives non-dwarves +2 Constitution too or something, but I'm not certain. Anything that boosts your friend's Constitution score will give them extra hit points, even if they only last until the Constitution boost wears off or is removed. This can potentially render then conscious, if it grants them enough extra hit points, even if it's only temporary.