HP: how many per level?

[shilsen]

I like the 75% of Hit die, round up on odd class levels and down on even class levels.

I've done that and it worked fine. I'm currenly doing rolling, but if the roll is less than 50% of hit die, you get the 50% score. That prevents things like the Con 12 Fighter with bad rolls who ends up with less hit pts than the Con 14 Wizard who rolled well. It leads to slightly higher hit pt totals, like our 10th lvl druid who has 132 hit pts when buffed, but I've never had problems due to that.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I usually give characters in my campaign either half maximum or half maximum + 1.

 

[Vegepygmy]

We used fixed (average) HP.

 

[Quartz]

Max HP for first two levels, thereafter it's varied. I like Rhun's idea - it allows the players to feel as if they're ok.

 

[pressedcat]

In the gaming groups i'm in, we tend to roll for hit points, rolling once then choosing to keep or reroll once more and keeping this new roll. Seems to work ok for us.

 

[urDrakas]

Roll 'em, and reroll 1's.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

I fail to see how this is really important.

Which is obvious by your analysis. [Not meant as a slam, by the way. It is meant to point out that you immediately jump to a mathematical analysis when my comment is not based on a mathematical assertion.] The difference is not a numerical one, it is a motivational one. I don't like players making decisions based on numbers. I'd rather players make decisions based on flavor. Granted, I do expect them to make decisions that make sense for their character and that often means looking at the numbers just to make sure you aren't screwing your character over! There's nothing wrong with looking at the numbers to make decisions, of course.

[Sblock=A look at the numbers anyway]
Say we've got a fighter 10 / barbarian 10 who started with fighter. If you use my system you end up with 10 + (7*5) + (8*4) = 77 HP from the fighter levels. From the barbarian levels you get (9*10) = 90 HP. So you get 167 total, plus CON and possible feats of course.

If you use a round up on odd character levels and down on even character levels type system they could always choose fighter on odd and barbarian on even. That makes 10 + (8*9) = 82 from the fighter levels. Of course we still have the (9*10) = 90 from the barbarian levels. Of course, the total is 172, or a difference of 5 HP.

I'm not really interested in quibbling over 5 points. Who cares about a difference that small at such high levels? What would bother me is that a player would go to such lengths to plan character development around this type of logic rather than build the character as the RP presents itself. Under my system, it eliminates the necessity to plan character advancement to a powergamer extreme. They could end up at fighter 10/ barbarian 10 using any path and end up with 167 HP (assuming they start with fighter. Starting with barbarian should give 12 + (9*9) + (7*5) + (8*5) = 168 HP. [/Sblock]

But then again, the reason why I have gone away from rolling HP is because my group honestly favors RP over rolling. I prefer to play in systems that support players making flavor decisions over statistical decisions. In my view, a 5 point difference is not nearly as significant as why the player is making the decisions to take a level at level up.

I'd rather allow the player to get to that fighter 10 / barbarian 10 using any path they want than having to pick fighter at odd levels to ensure the largest HP total. There isn't anything wrong with either way, I just want players to make the decisions flavorwise, not powerwise.

 

[Destil]

From my game wiki:

Hit Dice: All PCs and NPCs get maximum hit points for first hit-die. They get average hit points for each following hit die, rounded up on even levels and down on odd levels (a 5th level wizard, for instance, has 5d4: 4 + 3 + 2 + 3 +2 = 14 HP before Con adjustments). Note some times there are exceptions, such as the elementals summoned by Elemental Swarm which are specified as having full HP/hit-die, and ranger animal companions and paladin mounts which are house ruled to have full hit points per hit die.

Die Average(up) Average(down)
d4 2 3
d6 3 4
d8 4 5
d10 5 6
d12 6 7


I note that your need to do rounding based on class level is only due to the rounding issues with 3/4 HP per die. That's a good adjustment and fix for an artifact in the system. Thoes of us who use full or half HP don't need to worry, of course (I also let people add fractional BAB round after adding, so a Rogue 1 / Cleric 1 has a +1 for instance).

 

[catsclaw227]

We roll, but allow the PCs to roll two dice and take the highest. So a Cleric rolls 2d8 and takes the highest roll. It keeps the average up a bit. I haven't done the math, but I imagine that it allows for about an extra 1-3 HP per level over average, depending upon your class.

 

[Darklone]

PC rolls and DM rolls hidden. Player may choose which roll he wants.... and has to take it then.

Usually the DM rolls a lot higher