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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 608983" data-attributes="member: 3146">As for hit points, I do 1/2+1 for every level past first (which is maximum) for both players and monsters. (I let players roll if they preferred to but they had to live with whatever they got--whether their barbarian rolled a 1 or a 12; after the barbarian who rolled 12 twice died nobody rolled again). It let players have decent hit points and not get hosed by rolling several 1s on their big hit dice. It let me figure out monster's and NPCs' hit points very quickly but didn't make them overpowered vis a vis the PCs. I don't think my players ever caught on that that was how I figured monster hit points, if they did, I'd probably add or subtract a few after I was done.As for the Max HP for everyone suggestion, this is how I see it effecting the game:-PC balance: PCs are more survivable in general but the differences between the classes are exacerbated rather than reduced. There's now twice as much difference between the fighter and the barbarian's hit points and the barbarian has three times the hit points of the wizard instead of twice the wizard's hit points.-PC construction: I think it would actually shift the emphasis on PC combat abilities away from AC and towards damage. If you have more hit points, you can afford to be hit every now and then. But if your enemy has max hit points, then you need to dish out lots of damage to kill them. If my 8th level fighter/wizard (a high AC solution) or an 8th level fighter/barbarian (a damage maximized solution) is going up against a raging 14 con, AC 19 (before rage) 8th level barbarian, here's how it plays out:Normal hp: 86 hp while raging.Max hp: 152 hp while raging.Now, the fighter/wizard has a 14 strength but he bull's strengthed himself to 18. He has a 18 dex after cat's grace and wears a +2 mithral chain shirt and a +2 large shield as well as using haste and shield (hasted so he gets 2 attacks/round). In that situation, his AC is 35. If he uses his +1 morning star, he'll deal enough damage to kill the normal hit point barbarian in 5 rounds. He's got one round of Haste left over. The barbarian might hit once or twice if he's lucky. On average (Which isn't particularly meaningful when you need a 20 to hit), he deals 2.475 points of damage per full attack and ends up dealing 13 points of damage to the fighter/wizard. (Out of 50--if we count an extra round for the fighter/wizard to cast Haste and Shield, he'll take an average of 16 points of damage).OTOH, it takes 17 attacks to kill the max HP barbarian with the morning star--that's 5 rounds after his haste wears off.The barbarian is almost certain to hit the fighter/wizard will have one round of rage to hit the fighter wizard for an average of 4.75 points of damage and then 4 rounds after that at 2.31 points of damage per round for a total of about 30 points of damage. If the barbarian was smart and saved his rage until the haste ended, he'll deal about 40 points of damage to the fighter/wizard before being defeated. (All this assuming he doesn't manage to sidestep around the shield spell).Since the fighter/wizard, even with max hp, will have only 60 hit points (as opposed to 50 using the 1/2+1 per HD system), the fighter/wizard comes out of the encounter much worse off than he would have otherwise.OTOH, let's take a damage maximizer: A bull's strengthed, Raging Bbn2/Ftr 6 with an 18 base strength and a +2 greataxe. He's got weapon specialization and improved crit with his greataxe (and the extra rage feat so he can dish out rage damage all the time). Because he's a PC, he's got pretty good equipment-- +2 fullplate and an amulet of natural armor +1 for an AC of 22 with dex (not good but enough to keep his foe from power attacking much.He deals an average of 52.47 points of damage/full attack which means that his opponent lasts 2 rounds normally and 3 rounds with max hp.Now since his foe is an NPC, he'll have slightly worse stats and equipment. Let's say: +1 greataxe and a 16 starting strength; no bull's strength. The 8th level barbarian will deal 23.49 points of damage to him per full attack. So, the normal hp character has 33 (out of 71) hp left over after he drops out of rage and the max hp character has 26 hp left over.So, what's the net result. Mr. max damage had 7 fewer hit points left over after the battle. Mr. AC had 4 to 14 fewer hit points left after the battle. In fact, after the non-max HP battle, Mr AC had more hit points left than Mr. Max Damage but after the second battle, Mr Max Damage has more hit points left than Mr. AC (probably six more to be precise). The difference in percentages of hit points is even more dramatic than that. So it looks like max HP for all characters (PC and NPC) actually makes high AC characters (at least ones who depend upon their own magic for that AC) less viable rather than more viable.More significantly, in both cases, the PC ended up worse off in both relative (percentage of max hp) and absolute (number of hit points remaining) terms under the "everybody gets max hit points" scenario. If the scenario were set up with multiple weaker opponents rather than a single strong opponent, the difference would probably be even more pronounced. The relevant lesson is this:Max hit points for everyone is not good for the PCs.</blockquote>

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