How does your group handle a character's Hit Points?

[Driddle]

I've always preferred taking one-half the average die roll, rounded up -- 1d4=3, 1d10=6, etc. Maxing hit points was never a big deal for me; I have the somewhat parental-like view, "As long as he's healthy, I'm happy." (But along that same vein, I also usually arrange my stats so that Con has at least a 12 with +1 modifier.)

"Doctor, it hurts when I do this."
"Then don't do that."

Lesson revealed in old joke: Regardless of your hit points, DON'T GET INJURED.

 

[DiFier]

we often use the "I didn't see that" method. You roll your dice in fornt of the DM if you roll poorly 1 on a d6 1 or 2 on anything else (maybe 1-3 on d10 and 12) then the DM says I'm sorry I didn't see that I guess your gonna have to roll that again.

 

[dren]

Max HPs from levels 1 - 10, they roll for hp after that.

I use the same rules for my monstersl. Undead and constructs get max hp at all racial levels. NPCs with classes get max hp for the first five levels, then I use average. Monsters usually get the average, i.e. the stated value in the MM book.

 

[Thanee]

My other GM (swashbuckling D&D game) makes us roll. It fits the light & chaotic tone of the game.

...and her “name”.

Bye
Thanee

 

[milotha]

We roll against Gm. Player and GM roll die. Take the higher of the two. It gives the players a false sense of confidence.

 

[malladin]

Before rolling you can choose to simply take 1/2 max for your hit dice that level.

I'm a bit more generous. I let them take the half after they've rolled. Half is actually slightly less than the average for a given dice roll, anyway.

It's a simple way to avoid the perpetual disappointment when your Barbarian rolls a 1 .

Cheerio,

Ben

 

[LicheHazel]

Every player is responcible for their own roll, if its bad it's bad, end of story, but there again, i think it adds to the background of the game

 

[Hoog]

In one game I am playing in we roll so that you get between half +1 to max this is a high powered game and the gm does not pull punches so he wants characters with staying power

 

[Ogre Mage]

We have 2 options --

1. The standard roll. No rerolling if you get a bad one.

2. A modified roll based on your HD:

d4 = d4
d6 = d4+1
d8 = d4+2
d10 = d4+3
d12 = d4+4

The average for both methods is the same, but the deviation is quite different. Method 1 is the "take a chance and hope to roll big" way, but you can get screwed. Method 2 is the "safe" method as it allows some randomness, but your HP will fall within an "average" range. It primarily impacts the higher HD classes since they have to most to gain or lose.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Every class rolls 1d4-1. This is subtracted from the maximum for their class. The idea is that the hit die becomes more of a reliable class feature so the barbarian doesn't get stuck with less hit points than the rogue by random accident.

As an example to illustrate, let's say the character is a fighter. He rolls the d4, and gets a 3. -1 is 2. 10-2=8, so he gets 8 hit points that level. It's 1d4-1 so that you can roll a 0, and get max hit points.

I like this a lot.