Hit points: High side, average, straight roll, what?

[blargney the second]

I'm going to use 3/4 max in my new game. It's like rolling high-sides without the weird randomness. Incidentally, I used 3/4 max wealth for 1st level. Worked really well so far!

-blarg

 

[Anthraxus]

Yep, better of two rolls.

-A

 

[BASTON!!!]

First level full.

And for the other levels, the player as the possibility to re-roll any dice one more time if they wish but they take the result even if it's lower.

Personnaly, i like re-rolling when it's under the average the first time. It almost always give me a better result.

BASTON!!!

 

[Epametheus]

I'm not sure why I'm suddenly wondering about this, but I am.

My group did "take the average or do a straight roll" for our first 3E game right when it came out, and we've been doing "roll high-side" for HP ever since then.

What about the rest of you?

Edit: "Roll high-side" would be rerolling until you get one of the higher numbers on a die -- 3 & 4 on a d4, 4-6 on a d6, 5-8 on a d8, 6-10 on a d10, and 7-12 on a d12.

We do that for the PCs, and we also do that for important NPCs. Generics don't get to have high-side HP.

 

[Goblyn]

Clarification needed.

What do you mean by "roll high-side"?

 

[Phineas Crow]

IMC, PCs use the same system that creatures do (i.e. average + .5).

 

[haiiro]

As a DM, I like a little more margin for error in my future TPK giblets PCs: in our current campaign, it's roll and take 1/2 or what you rolled, whichever is higher.

I'm not a big fan of rolling for HP in general (same goes for stats), but this method has worked pretty well so far.

 

[Nightfall]

HP,

Roll em. Re roll ones and twos. Don't worry about high or low. But then you need a lot HP in my games...usually.

 

[Desdichado]

Roll twice, take the better of the two numbers. While I like the rolling, rather than just taking an average, hit points are something that stays with you for a long time, so I don't like it to rest on the chance of a single roll.

 

[kamosa]

Our group has been rolling against GM for hit points for close to 20 years now. For those unfamilar, the GM and the player each roll a die and the player gets the better of the two rolls. Tends to pump up hit points, especially for the fighter types, but it keeps you from creating the really lame wizard or rogue because they rolled a couple 1's along the way.