Hit Points per Level

[Advilaar]

I was talking with a friend the other day (also a DM) about house rules. He said that he does hit points like this:

1. Starting hit points = your CON score.
2. Hit points per level = 1 + CON mod (min. 1).
3. Toughness feat = +1 hp per level.
4. Favored Class = +1 hp per level.

It's not necessarily my cup of tea, but it works for him and his gaming group. Maybe this is something worth considering in 5E.

Some of these DMs like really weak PCs. I gaurantee you he is not adjusting his monsters downward.

That said, I do think particularly in 3e, some of these monsters had way too few HPs and in 4e many of the solos had way too many.

For PCs, it is kind of a sweet spot. I do not want the 2e thing where a wizard could get two shot by a house cat. But, you probably should not have men and orcs with the hit points of a dragon the size of a building either.

I have always thought HP should be by size as well as level.

 

[Victim]

Some of these DMs like really weak PCs. I gaurantee you he is not adjusting his monsters downward.

That said, I do think particularly in 3e, some of these monsters had way too few HPs and in 4e many of the solos had way too many.

For PCs, it is kind of a sweet spot. I do not want the 2e thing where a wizard could get two shot by a house cat. But, you probably should not have men and orcs with the hit points of a dragon the size of a building either.

I have always thought HP should be by size as well as level.

4e is basically the only version of DnD where men and orcs don't end up with the HP of big ass dragons. A lot of dragons in 2e had less than 100 HP, which could be reached by fighter type PCs with good Con. A dwarf with huge Con - and perhaps Fitness pumped with subabilities - could have that many HP without even capping out HD.

 

[Advilaar]

4e is basically the only version of DnD where men and orcs don't end up with the HP of big ass dragons. A lot of dragons in 2e had less than 100 HP, which could be reached by fighter type PCs with good Con. A dwarf with huge Con - and perhaps Fitness pumped with subabilities - could have that many HP without even capping out HD.

4e, for the most part, I agree with you.

Although they probably should have kept 3e epic level stats for the greater dragons. I saw one with a 28 STR score. Telling me some PC fighters were as strong as biss ass dragons? Plus, with some of those STR scores, the dragon would not even be able to bear it's own wieght! Elite HP as per 4e Draconomicon 2 is fine. Solo was a bit too much HP and made for boring fights. Increasing the stats also helped with weak solo damage of pre-essentials tuning.

In my games, I had to tune the stats up to those levels and put a spellcaster template on them (without the +hp, that's too much) just to get them to the flavor of a classic 2e/3e dragon. Of course, psionic templates for homebrew gem dragons.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I liked the minimum set by constitution.

however I think, the minimum should have been x+con for different classes.

wizard: 1d4 or 2+constitution bonus
rogue: 1d6 or 3+constitution bonus
cleric: 1d8 or 4+constitution bonus
this way, constitution could potentially raise a wizard to 6hp per level, but no more. A healthy Cleric can have always maximum hp, and so on.

 

[Zustiur]

I thought we learnt from 3E that Con mod per level was a terrible mistake. It is overpowering in comparison to your HD (ie: Wiz +1 Con has better HP than Rog +0 Con).

It was in 1e and 2e as well by the way. The difference with 3E is that your HP progression didn't plateau around 10th level.