D&D 5E [Poll] How does your group do hit points per level?

[CapnZapp]

Rounding down is the D&D "way", though. Rounding up would be the exception.

Excuse me?

 

[Remathilis]

Eh. I got tired of rolling because my players notoriously rolled on the high end of the Bell curve. All of them. All the time. As in scores that have 12s as minimums and 75% of potential max HP. So might as well give them fixed average rather than the illusion of suck but above average reality.

 

[Lanefan]

Forcing a player to play a role or class they're not interested in is also a self-correcting problem. That is, you'll lose the player.

Or they'll play something else, and eventually the party will realize they still need a Cleric and go out and hire an NPC!

There's more than one way to solve problems like this.

Excuse me?

The official rule in 5e is that wherever any number would be rounded it is always rounded down.

Lan-"the main classes in any edition are the fighter and wizard, but the essential classes in any edition are always the thief and cleric"-efan

 

[Sunseeker]

Or they'll play something else, and eventually the party will realize they still need a Cleric and go out and hire an NPC!

Or the DM could design the campaign to not require the holy trinity.

 

[guachi]

I'm the DM and I have my players take the average. No need to remember what the roll was and it allows a player to make changes to his PC if he wants if the player wants to try something out.

 

[Henry]

My 5e group uses half round up, my pathfinder group uses half round down, because try as i might, i just can't get them to follow the PF rule as written (round up)

 

[Lanefan]

Or the DM could design the campaign to not require the holy trinity.

That'd indicate a much less combat-oriented campaign than most are used to, if they don't want to spend all their time resting while their wounds heal and they don't mind death being permanent. For a relatively low-danger exploration type of campaign, or a Birthright-style diplomacy campaign, no problem; in fact the divinatory abilties of high-level Clerics could somewhat ruin a diplomacy-based setting (as could scrying, but that's another issue).

But for D&D the way many of us are used to playing it some sort of quick healing is essential, which is where the party Cleric (usually) comes in.

There's other options for healing, of course: Rangers could heal via magical herbs they find on their travels, parties could load up on potions (or wands in 3.x), parties could just spend lots of time resting, and so forth. But you'd still be losing the divinations and other magics only Clerics can do; I think the average party would still miss having one even after working around the healing question.

Lan-"a magic-user can make you invisible, but only a cleric can make you silent"-efan

EDIT: p.s. - I have to say the old-schooler in me is shocked at the results so far in this poll: I never dreamed rolling for h.p. would be the least-favoured option.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

That'd indicate a much less combat-oriented campaign than most are used to, if they don't want to spend all their time resting while their wounds heal and they don't mind death being permanent. For a relatively low-danger exploration type of campaign, or a Birthright-style diplomacy campaign, no problem; in fact the divinatory abilties of high-level Clerics could somewhat ruin a diplomacy-based setting (as could scrying, but that's another issue).

But for D&D the way many of us are used to playing it some sort of quick healing is essential, which is where the party Cleric (usually) comes in.

But 5E is different than AD&D, in that there are more ways to do damage mitigation. In the last eight months or so of weekly play I think I've seen a grand total of maybe 50 HP of magical healing. Beyond that, resting suffices for all healing needs. You can use undead minions to soak damage instead of healing; you can use Shield spells and dodging to prevent damage; you can use missile weapons to inflict damage without taking any yourself (perhaps while another PC does the Dodge thing); you can use the Mobile feat to substitute movement for AC.

What you need a healer for isn't HP restoration, it is Revivify/Greater Restoration. My players had to resort to seeking out a Couatl and trading favors with him in order to end an Intellect Devourer's Perma-Stun on two characters, because there weren't any PCs who could cast Greater Restoration. (They also needed him to Greater Restoration a third character who had been cursed by a Rakshasa.)

 

[werecorpse]

We roll and take a minimum of half max. So if you have a d10 hit dice you roll and 1-5 count as 5, 6 and up you keep the number. It results in a slightly higher average hit points (about 1 hp per level) but avoids the bunch of low rolls.

 

[CapnZapp]

That's a slow way to roll 1d6+4