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

[RavenProject]

Everything else in character creation is without randomness. So, why should the elementary HP be random? For me, rolling a die for HP is a left-over from the old days and some kind of "it has always been that way" attitude. Average scores seems to be the logical conclusion to D&D3E+ concept of character creation. Along with PointBuy, of course.

 

[Ferret]

Roll and reroll low numbers like 1 for a wizard and 3 for a fighter say.

 

[DragonLancer]

Max at first level, and then roll every level after.

 

[Deadguy]

Whilst I prefer the approach that Creamsteak uses (75% of max), one game I play in uses average or roll. And in that game (which also used 4d6-in-order-drop-lowest), the difference between the two 7th level fighters is now 40 hit points!

Hit Points are too important in D&D to leave to a random die roll. They are the resource which every character must manage over the course of the game. And as others have astutely obserrved (I am pretty scure that Eric was one of them), D&D mechanically is all about resource management. A Fighter who rolls badly for a couple of levels can become a real dud, whilst a low-rolling Wizard can expire from things that everone else shrugs off.

I think for the next campaign I am simply going to give the PCs max hit points at every level. Partly this is because it's a small group. partly because I don't need the uncertainty of the random roll. Some people have asked already 'but what about the randomising effect?' To which I have replied: why does it need to be randomised? Other games do just fine without random hit points. I play a lot of earthdawn which bases hit points off of Toughness and Discipline (class) without ever rolling. It causes no problems if two PCs have the same score.

Of course, as I have realised (when discussing random rolls for ability scores over points-buy)... YMMV!

 

[Brakkart]

Max at 1st level, then roll every level afterwards. You can re-roll 1's and 2's, but you have to keep the result of the second roll, even if it is lower.

 

[MonsterMash]

Straight roll + any con adjustments (though I will allow even low con characters a minimum of 1 hp).

 

[Azizar]

My method

Max hp at 1st (and 2nd level if they are new players), then take average rounded down or roll.

I think rerolls of 1's and 2's are a bad idea because that rule favors low die classes, like wizards. Take maximum all the way hp is a bad idea, because it favors classes with high hit die. You can take real average, and just add the .5 like you would add fractional bab or save bonuses, but i like the idea that rolling a dice is better on average, so that players will roll for the hitpoints. But, if they really need those hp, they can chose to take the fixed ,but on average lower, number of hp.

 

[Eccles]

Roll the dice.

Reroll 1s (and sometimes 2s - depends on who's DM)

Take the second roll regardless.

 

[dbm]

In the campaign I run, we play 'by the book', so max at level 1, a straight roll there after. If you use other methods of HP generation, you just de-value Constitution in my opinion. Want a character with lots of hits? Put your highest stat in Con.

In my experience, no one puts their best stat in Con, yet everyone wants lots of HPs. I let my PCs take the responsibilty of how they assign their stats, knowing full well how it will effect their characters.

Dan

 

[Westwind]

For generating characters above level 1 I use the average hp rule from the DMG (4 on even levels, 5 on odd levels for a d8, etc.). Once play has started I'll usually continue that but if the players want to roll against the DM, I'd be fine with that too. I'm not a fan of randomness in character generation. Partly because I come up with character concepts and then try to put the character together and partly because I've spent many years playing with the GM's girlfriend/wife who somehow manages to roll multiple 18s for her catperson monk at chargen and then ends up with roughly 90% of her max possible hps by level 8. Did I mention it's a Chaotic Good Monk? I digress...in sum, I've seen what unbalanced numbers can do to a campaign and I prefer to avoid it.