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More concerns over hit points
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<blockquote data-quote="eamon" data-source="post: 5925445" data-attributes="member: 51942"><p>I think the current mechanic's OK, and I don't see why hit-die + con mod would be better; it just causes hit-point inflation which is not good.</p><p></p><p>However, I could see a few tweaks:</p><p></p><p>As trs31 rightly points out, the current rule makes Con mod increases more effective in absolute sense for wizards than for fighters. While I don't intrinsically think that's a problem, you could fix it by rerolling hit-die rolls that come out too low rather than just raising them to the minimum. I.e. if you have 14 Con and roll a 1, then reroll instead of raising it to 2. This way, higher hit dice benefit a little more; indeed every point of con mod would increase hp/level on average by 0.5 for all classes (assuming con mod is greater than 1 and no more than the hit die maximum).</p><p></p><p>Also, the current implementation raises the hit points rolled upto the Con mod if your roll is <em>lower</em>. This means constitution scores of 10-13 are essentially no better than Con 10 since you always roll a 1. Even Con 14-15 helps only to a very small extent - e.g. a fighter with Con 15 over the span of 12 levels on average gains only 1 hit point more than a fighter with Con 10, though he does start with 4 more hit points. Over the same span of levels even a wizard would gain just 3 hit points. All in all, this strikes me as a bit of a trap rule; if you choose a high Con (assuming you can choose somehow) you might think you're getting more hit points, but that really only works if your Con is <em>very</em> high and preferably a wizard. So I'd vote to reroll not if you roll <em>lower</em> than your Con mod, but reroll when you roll lower or <em>equal</em> to your Con mod. That way, even a Con of 12 helps a bit.</p><p></p><p>Finally (a little more optionally) if you wanted to smooth the progression so that odd constitution scores have some use, you could allow PCs with odd constitution scores above 10 to flip a coin when they roll an odd result on a hit die: on heads, gain a +1 bonus to hit points.</p><p></p><p>With these modifications, the maximal hit point scores remain unaltered; and the average hit point score assuming Con 10 remains unaltered, but every point of constitution raises average hit points per level by 0.25 (i.e. Con 10->11 is just as large a change as Con 15->16). Note that since the wizard cannot roll higher than a 4 on his hit die, a Con of greater than 16 would have no effect.</p><p></p><p>Finally, if they <em>don't</em> tweak the rule (about raising low rolls when levelling) somehow, I'd vote to abolish it. It's just too much of a trap as it is.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="eamon, post: 5925445, member: 51942"] I think the current mechanic's OK, and I don't see why hit-die + con mod would be better; it just causes hit-point inflation which is not good. However, I could see a few tweaks: As trs31 rightly points out, the current rule makes Con mod increases more effective in absolute sense for wizards than for fighters. While I don't intrinsically think that's a problem, you could fix it by rerolling hit-die rolls that come out too low rather than just raising them to the minimum. I.e. if you have 14 Con and roll a 1, then reroll instead of raising it to 2. This way, higher hit dice benefit a little more; indeed every point of con mod would increase hp/level on average by 0.5 for all classes (assuming con mod is greater than 1 and no more than the hit die maximum). Also, the current implementation raises the hit points rolled upto the Con mod if your roll is [I]lower[/I]. This means constitution scores of 10-13 are essentially no better than Con 10 since you always roll a 1. Even Con 14-15 helps only to a very small extent - e.g. a fighter with Con 15 over the span of 12 levels on average gains only 1 hit point more than a fighter with Con 10, though he does start with 4 more hit points. Over the same span of levels even a wizard would gain just 3 hit points. All in all, this strikes me as a bit of a trap rule; if you choose a high Con (assuming you can choose somehow) you might think you're getting more hit points, but that really only works if your Con is [I]very[/I] high and preferably a wizard. So I'd vote to reroll not if you roll [I]lower[/I] than your Con mod, but reroll when you roll lower or [I]equal[/I] to your Con mod. That way, even a Con of 12 helps a bit. Finally (a little more optionally) if you wanted to smooth the progression so that odd constitution scores have some use, you could allow PCs with odd constitution scores above 10 to flip a coin when they roll an odd result on a hit die: on heads, gain a +1 bonus to hit points. With these modifications, the maximal hit point scores remain unaltered; and the average hit point score assuming Con 10 remains unaltered, but every point of constitution raises average hit points per level by 0.25 (i.e. Con 10->11 is just as large a change as Con 15->16). Note that since the wizard cannot roll higher than a 4 on his hit die, a Con of greater than 16 would have no effect. Finally, if they [I]don't[/I] tweak the rule (about raising low rolls when levelling) somehow, I'd vote to abolish it. It's just too much of a trap as it is. [/QUOTE]
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