D&D 5E I'm really hating Constitution right now

[DND_Reborn]

I was actually thinking about this again today, and then I come here and see my thread was necroed.

Neat.

I'm thinking the 4E solution might be best. Con improves your recovery, not your base HP. So Con adds to Hit Dice rolls, but it doesn't add to HP per level. One would have to change hit dice to recover fully on a long rest, but then high con characters could recover more than their base HP over the course of a day.

I crunched the numbers on it a while back and it was reasonably close to where things were now. Monster math would need to be revised, but monster HD is mostly descriptive now so you could remove that without any loss. I might also add Con score to HP as a buffer at low levels, but I really want to do that anyway.

FWIW, our next game will use a HP adjustment at level 1 equal to your highest ability modifier. After level 1, you only get HD.

CON modifier will function as an exhaustion buffer (think of it as free levels before you feel the effects). Everyone at our table loves the idea of CON working with exhaustion and not HP as we don't view (much) of HP as "meat."

 

[Anoth]

How about randomly assign the ability scores. That would solve the problem

 

[Iry]

But the CR crew is not really a good comparison, in one other regard. They run. They see something they've never seen before. Matt describes something even slightly creepily and they get completely intimidated and am-scray as fast as possible. A fight isn't going well, they start debating if they should run. Most parties you have to assume will not run unless you start putting hundreds of drider minis out. Not CR. They will run when they are overwhelmingly likely to win.

I would run too if my druid cast Heat Metal on my own weapons.

 

[3catcircus]

3d6, in order. There is no substitute for the original.

 

[cbwjm]

I was actually considering of having a bonus to hit points at 1st level equal to your hit die so a wizard would have hit points at 1st level equal to 12 + Constitution modifier. They'd still have only a single hit die for healing during short rests. This idea is more of a consideration if I decided to start players at level 1 (kind of rare for me to do so). If I'm starting at level 3 as I usually do then I don't worry about it.

 

[messy]

Maybe give certain races (Dwarf, Half-Orc, etcetera) a racial bonus to hit points, thus replacing the bonus hit points that come from the ability.

this is an idea i've toyed with because it makes so much sense. maybe +0 for slight races (like elves), +1 for medium races (like humans and halflings), and +2 for broad races (like dwarves and gnomes).

and even if constitution no longer adds to hit points it's still a useful ability score and likely wouldn't get dumped by many characters.

 

[jmucchiello]

and even if constitution no longer adds to hit points it's still a useful ability score and likely wouldn't get dumped by many characters.

It would become more popular among spellcasting classes than among traditionally "tough" classes.