How do you determine hitpoints?

[Beale Knight]

At first level, everyone gets the maximum possible hit points. At subsequent levels it's the usual random roll with one house rule - if you roll a 1 you get to re-roll and take whatever the next roll is, even if it's another 1.

 

[Ed Cha]

1st level = roll hit die and add 1d6

subsequent levels = roll hit die, can re-roll once (but must take the re-roll only)

 

[Laslo Tremaine]

All of my games, and 99% of the groups I've played with, we use adjusted median.

d4 = 3
d6 = 4
d8 = 5
d10 = 6
d12 = 7

This is exactly what our groups do...

 

[Voadam]

The game I took over it is max level 1 and then average round up. My new campaign is max every level and some classes get a HD bump, because I like lots of smacking around. Hackmaster 3.5! (without the crap jokes and anachronisms).

 

[IronWolf]

I have players roll and if they get less than 50% on the die rolled, they get the 50% amount. It prevents weird situations like the barbarian ending up with less hit points than the rogue. And in my experience the PCs can use the extra hit points

This is what I do for games I DM. It seemed to work well for me.

In the game I am playing it we roll and take what we get. That's not so bad either, but I am playing a Dwarven Cleric with improved toughness so I get a reasonable amount of HP even if I roll a 1.

 

[Digital M@]

Max HP @ 1st lvl

Roll for all other levels, any roll less than half max counts as half max.



IMO, HP are too valuable to sucumb to total randomness, a few bad rolls can devastate almost any character.

 

[Rassilon]

I haven't voted yet, as my option isn't there.

The method I'm using I stole from ENworld, with a minor modification.

Max HP at first level of course, but all HP a rerolled every level. So a 4th level Ftr gets 10 + 3d10 + Con modifiers.

When the Ftr reaches 5th level, he gets 10 + 4d10 + Con modifiers. The minimum at any level is previous level + con modifer + 1.

It lets PCs have a series of bad rolls that don't cripple their character, and if a character gets 90% of the die, he will still geta few hit points every level until statistical dominance reasserts itself.


Rassilon.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

We've started using Max HP/level in both our games.

That was a result of the DMs talking and deciding that, as the only random part of the leveling process, that should be eliminated. It was decided that Max would be tried for a while, and it does increase survivability somewhat; well, at least my dwarven fighter stays upright for one more round.

Brad

 

[Shemeska]

I didn't vote, since none of the options are what I do.

I arbitrarily assign hitpoints for any major NPCs, and I'll usually take average (out of the book) hitpoints for minor critters without names with the caveat of giving them higher or lower by 10% or so sometimes just to make things interesting if there is more than one of a particular critter type in a single encounter.

 

[Henry]

For our group we use book rules. (Max HP first level, and random roll for every level thereafter). In our group, the DM has total fiat to either let a poor roll stand, or allow the player one reroll.

I've even toyed with "best 1 out of 2" with every level, but I've never tried it. It doesn't change the average dramatically, but reduces the chance of a low roll.