D&D 5E Losing HP as you level up

[Charlaquin]

I know people like to roll.

The question is why should you be actively penalized for this desire?

Agreed. Rolling for hit points is a losing bet. Sure, there’s a chance you might roll above the average-rounded-up, but there’s a greater chance you’ll roll under it, so you’re actually lowering your expected value for the privilege of getting to determine your hit points randomly. The risk/reward factor of having the option to roll is a good thing, but you shouldn’t have both a greater risk and a lower expected reward. Otherwise the risk is objectively not worth taking.

 

[Coroc]

So and if you got a negative modifier on your attack stat you hit yourself when the total roll is below Zero?

If the mathematical result of a damage roll is negative you heal the mob by tenderly patting it?

Cmon guys, i dunno how official / AL conform / rules lawyer wet dream conform this might be, but it is of course a minimum of 1 hp when you Level up, it always has been and always will be, and if someone forgot to write that in the PHB, then only because it is a Kind of natural law in D&D already.

 

[Ath-kethin]

I know people like to roll.

The question is why should you be actively penalized for this desire?

Some people like to spend half their paycheck on lottery tickets, too. Doesn't make it a wise choice.

I remember playing a wizard back in 2e who had a whopping 8 hit points at 5th level. Rolling is fun, but it's a gamble. If you want to gamble, you have to accept the risk that you will likely lose more than you will win.

I run together campaigns with smaller-than-standard groups (my ideal group size is 3 players and me as DM). In my group everybody gets max hit points every time they level. I figure it's worth the temporary loss of fun (that is, not rolling dice) in favor of long term gain of fun (not being killed by a cat's scratch at level 5).

 

[Shiroiken]

I'm surprised that anyone roll HP, given that the "average" they give is slightly above average. I almost house ruled in my campaign that HP had to be rolled, including 1st level, but the players didn't go for it.

Sage Advice is just advice, not official canon. The 5E mantra is Rulings, not Rules. The DM has the final say on how to interpret the rules for their table, not someone on the internet. JC is a little too rules lawyery for me, so I tend to ignore a lot of his advice.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Refer back to my post you quoted.

The signature of champions.

This one?

Sounds like he doesn't know what he's talking about so it's safe to ignore him.

The signature of champions.

Did I misunderstand the context?
Was it Crawford that you were saying doesn't know what he is talking about in response to that rules query, or was that insult directed at Li Shenron?

 

[mgshamster]

Sounds like he doesn't know what he's talking about so it's safe to ignore him.

Nah, it's easy to ignore them. Just tell them that they can lose hit points on level up if they want but you will always gain a minimum of 1 hit point on level up.

These two seem out of sync with one another. The first says JC is wrong by the rules, the second suggests a houserule to fix the problem of the rules. But if the second is true, the first can't also be true.

Checking the PHB for myself, I don't see where it says that there's a minimum for rolling HP when you level. Perhaps I just missed it; can you cite something that shows JC is wrong?

 

[5ekyu]

I will worry about this ruling the day i see a PC with less than 10 CON.

Sent from my VS995 using EN World mobile app

 

[Bigsta]

Yeah, given that this is the same guy who ruled that it takes a whole hour of combat to interrupt a long rest - ignoring seems wise.

But that's actually true.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

We took the heroic fantasy approach in our game: roll for hp each level and if you get less than the average you take the average - plus/minus CON mod. The characters were less squishy at lower levels and I could throw more interesting monsters at them earlier than usual. YMMV

 

[acorn_stasis]

We took the heroic fantasy approach in our game: roll for hp each level and if you get less than the average you take the average - plus/minus CON mod. The characters were less squishy...

we had this rule too. I think it a good one.