HP: how many per level?

[Elder-Basilisk]

I usually play max at first level and half+1 thereafter. D4=3hp, d6=4hp, d8=5hp, d10=6hp, d12=7hp per level.

In most of the home games I play (we have several DMs in the group and rotate through campaigns), the other DMs use 75% (I think we're supposed to alternate rounding up or down or something like that). I prefer my method because going higher than average exaggerates the difference in hit points between the fighting classes and non-fighting classes. (An average fighter has 2+2x lvl more hit points than a rogue of equal level, but if you use 75%, the fighter ends up with 4+3x (lvl-1) hit points more than an equal level rogue. My observation is that A. DMs like to challenge players in combat and often define challenge by how close PCs come to death, and B. The fighting classes are in the front, taking the damage whenever they can be. The end result is that I would expect a 75% campaign to be more lethal for non-fighter types than an average or a 50% campaign.

 

[Aus_Snow]

1st: Max
2nd+: (HD/2)+1


Heh. It does make me chuckle when I see people insisting on rolling things like ability scores and HPs (for that exciting randomness, d00d), then insisting on rerolling them until it turns out 'right' (i.e, it's not at all random!)

But whatever; each to their own.

 

[Artoomis]

1st: Max
2nd+: (HD/2)+1


Heh. It does make me chuckle when I see people insisting on rolling things like ability scores and HPs (for that exciting randomness, d00d), then insisting on rerolling them until it turns out 'right' (i.e, it's not at all random!)

But whatever; each to their own.

Right - random only if you get high scores.

I prefer taking the randomness out for all character generation items unless someone wants it for flavor (like random eye color, etc.). I find it someone less than fun to have one player get really high scores and another really low scores (ability scores or hit points), unless, of course, you've got a really great game that is not too combat-driven.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Somewhere I heard of rerolling all your hp each level. If your reroll is higher than your current total, take it. If it is lower, take your current total plus 1. (You still get max hit points at first level; it's all the other dice you reroll).

A bad roll will only set you back for a level; a good roll is something you'll probably only enjoy for a level. But it's not very different from just rolling the numbers once. The difference is that people shouldn't give up on a character that rolled poorly- they get to start from scratch the next level.

Never tried it, but it sounds like it could be fun.

Empire of the Petal Throne in the 1970's used this system. As you say, it meant that a good role didn't boost you forever and a poor roll didn't hamper you forever. It worked OK as a system in that regards, except that sometimes PCs would gain a level and not gain any hp at all (because of a good roll last level and a poor roll this level) and thus felt cheated!

Cheers

 

[KarinsDad]

1) Its all about the hitpoints.

2) You can never have too many hitpoints.

I use half +1, max at 1st.

Precisely. Every point buy PC I make, I put the 14 in CON before doing anything else.

I then take Dwarf in order to bump it up to 16.

I also watch as the PC of the player who put 10 in CON for a D6 Scout dies.

 

[KarinsDad]

I mandate players roll hit points, but can wind up with no less than half full hit points. Thus a Fighter that rolls a 3 for hit points, can hand wave the roll to a 5.

Nothing sucks worse than when the tank blows his hit point roll.

That's like what we did in our last campaign (we rolled up half to 6 though). The tank rolled a 1 or 2 on 7 of his 8 rolls and would have had about 30 fewer hit points at 9th level without that house rule. As it was, he was low man on the hit point totem pole with regard to the combatant types.

 

[Li Shenron]

The aspect of this that it seems like you're missing, to me, is that you're keeping damage constant while creating a difference in resilience. A 5th level barbarian with 60+con hps is a lot less threatened by a 5d6 fireball than a 5th level barbarian with 38+con hps, but a 5th level mage with 20+con hps is still very threatened by a d12+6 greataxe compared to his counterpart with 14+con hps.

If you still roll hps for NPCs, this is obviously less important though.

Well we're currently using this house rule in one of games and so far it seems both the Barbarian and the Wizard player are enjoying it

I still roll for NPCs (actually I don't roll, I use averages or just make something on the spot, but anyway not max) and I think so too that this is for good. I was going to give monsters max hp too, but I was convinced not to do that after reading another thread about it.

 

[Drowbane]

Our group just maxs HP for PCs and major Villains. Normal monsters just get average hp.

We still suffer the occasional PC death. Our SC party has alot of fire-power going, so max-hp villains just tend to last one or two rounds longer...

 

[WhatGravitas]

1d4 is 1d4
1d6 is 1d4 + 2
1d8 is 1d4 + 4
1d10 is 1d4 + 6
1d12 is 1d4 + 8

Similar system here:
1d4 (2.5 avg) => 1d3+1 (3 avg)
1d6 (3.5 avg) => 1d4+2 (4.5 avg)
1d8 (4.5 avg) => 1d6+2 (5.5 avg)
1d10 (5.5 avg) => 1d8+2 (6.5 avg)
1d12 (6.5 avg) => 1d10+2 (7.5 avg)
____________________________________

The average is now about one higher, and totally botched rolls are gone. Usually, I don't use the system for NPCs or monsters though, just for the players.

However, unique monsters/story involved NPCs get fully rolled HP (using this system).

However, the beauty of this system is the easy adjustment: Just add the monster's/NPC's HD to his hp and you get the new average (except for the d4 classes... but these NPCs need a boost, or suffer from glass jaw...)

 

[Bagpuss]

Our group we roll, but the minimum you get is the low average.

So say you are d10 hit dice, you roll a d10, on 1 to 5 you get 5 hit points, on 6 to 10 you get the number on the dice.