D&D 5E Player Hit Points

[Distracted DM]

It's going to give a slight edge over normal rolling. Say you roll 2d8. That's a nice triangular distribution, easy to calculate. Now say you roll 1d8 and call it x. Then your roll 2d8, but the minimum result is x + 1. That minimum result is going to push your result up a bit. As it turns out, it pushes the average roll up by 0.41015625.

Calculating it exactly for all of the possibilities would be a pain. So I programmed some simulations. Compared to a rounded up average, the WWN method is down about 3.7 hit points over 20 levels (assuming rolling for first level). On the other hand, the standard D&D method is 10 hit points behind the rounded up average over 20 levels. One difference is that standard D&D rolling is going to be 10 hit points behind regardless of the size of the hit die (the previous results in this paragraph are based on a d8 hit die). For the WWN method how much is lost compared to rounded up average depends on the size of the hit die. For example, a d10 hit die only loses about 2.3 hit points over 20 levels compared to rounded up average.

Thanks, good to know- I might adopt it!

 

[Lanefan]

"far better" is a judgement call. Having an easily calculable (slightly above) average that can be checked at any time, vs. having to find the record of the rolls, made weeks to months apart, to check sum up and check.

Finding the record of rolls is trivially easy: it's on the character sheet...or it bloody well should be; given that we need it to know what to knock you back to if you lose a level.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That's exactly what Shadowdark does. You roll for class features.

Yeah. It's neat.

 

[GrimCo]

Max plus con at lv 1. After that, average plus con. Clean and easy, plus practical for calculating HP when creating higher level PCs. I always hated rolling for HP.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Does anyone have the statistics chops to work out how using the WWN method of "reroll hp each level, only keeping the roll if the result is higher than current" affects character HP over the levels, compared to using average?

I like that method. But it should soon be worse than just using average rolls rounded up.
Maybe roll all hit dice, then you can either: keep your old hp. Take the average rounded up. Take the new rolled hp.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Finding the record of rolls is trivially easy: it's on the character sheet...or it bloody well should be; given that we need it to know what to knock you back to if you lose a level.

Yeah. Players lose levels all the time in 5e. So good thing we keep track of all rolls.

 

[Corinnguard]

so max HP. you do max HP.

Pretty much. My group doesn't do percentages. It's 100% all the way.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Generally, I find player hitpoints are defined by diet, exercise, and overall health.

 

[Corinnguard]

Generally, I find player hitpoints are defined by diet, exercise, and overall health.

Well the player characters do find themselves doing a lot of cardio in a given adventure.

Cardio= attacking an opponent, running away from an opponent, making the occasional STR/DEX/CON save, dodging fireballs...

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

It's going to give a slight edge over normal rolling. Say you roll 2d8. That's a nice triangular distribution, easy to calculate. Now say you roll 1d8 and call it x. Then your roll 2d8, but the minimum result is x + 1. That minimum result is going to push your result up a bit. As it turns out, it pushes the average roll up by 0.41015625.

Calculating it exactly for all of the possibilities would be a pain. So I programmed some simulations. Compared to a rounded up average, the WWN method is down about 3.7 hit points over 20 levels (assuming rolling for first level). On the other hand, the standard D&D method is 10 hit points behind the rounded up average over 20 levels. One difference is that standard D&D rolling is going to be 10 hit points behind regardless of the size of the hit die (the previous results in this paragraph are based on a d8 hit die). For the WWN method how much is lost compared to rounded up average depends on the size of the hit die. For example, a d10 hit die only loses about 2.3 hit points over 20 levels compared to rounded up average.

WWN only uses d6 s if that makes a difference.

I like that method. But it should soon be worse than just using average rolls rounded up.
Maybe roll all hit dice, then you can either: keep your old hp. Take the average rounded up. Take the new rolled hp.

You always end up with at least one more Hp than the previous level regardless of how crappy your roll is.