Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chris_Nightwing" data-source="post: 5921237" data-attributes="member: 882">I shan't quote the rule, but the way in which Constitution interacts with rolling hitpoints appears very interesting on paper, but gave me immediate concern that it may not function that well in practice. So I ran the numbers.For each possible positive Con modifier (+1 to +5) and for each likely HD (d4-6-8-10-12), I calculated the probability distribution of eventual HP (gained through hit dice only). I then grouped these by Con modifier and plotted them over each other (first row of graphs). I also plotted reverse distributions (if you have X HP, how likely is it that you have a given HD compared to the other HD) to assess those (second row).Then I did the same, but grouping by HD.[SBLOCK]<img src="http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~cmf40/hp.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><img src="http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~cmf40/hp3.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />[/SBLOCK]Now, what can I say? Well, this rule has the effect of both increasing your average HP and narrowing the distribution of HP as your Con bonus increases. This becomes really noticeable when the d4 line disappears (it becomes a fixed value: maximum). In general though, a bigger HD makes it more likely that you have more HP for a given Con bonus.Increasing your Con bonus has a more extreme effect if you have a lower HD. The best HD, d12, has broad bands of probability for different Con bonuses, ie: it's mostly down to luck. This is obvious.To assess the question of whether it's better to be a low HD, high Con character or a high HD, low Con character, I plotted everything all at once.[SBLOCK]<img src="http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~cmf40/hp5.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />[/SBLOCK]Now here we need to apply a bit of common sense, and suggest that low HD characters won't reach 20 Con. This still leaves d6(+4) better off than plain old d8(0/+1) and d4(+4) better than d6(+3), but beyond that point the HD becomes overall dominant (at least in terms of averages).If they have reconfigured HD to d6-8-10, this rule will not make Con score all  that dominant, and whilst it bothers me that +1 Con mod does nothing (here), I would be happy to play by this rule. If you were to dish out average HP (Con mod has no effect), Con would still be relevant to healing and resistance.One more thing: I will find time to model a different, but similar rule, which is that you add your Con bonus to your HD roll, but it maxes out at the relevant maximum roll. This would make +1 Con mod relevant and make a high HD more important (says my gut instinct).</blockquote>

Verification