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<blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 7970117" data-attributes="member: 18"><p>Great now I've got pictures of barbarians tearing through Lake Woebegone stuck in my mind!</p><p></p><p>We use fixed-HP in all the 5E campaigns I'm in except one. I found traditional rolling to be unhelpful in long-term campaigns long ago, because it effectively means a few lucky or unlucky rolls can permanently make a character massively stronger or weaker, moreso than traditionally-rolled stats even. The odds of getting a bunch of 1s, 2s, and 3s on, say, 10 d10 rolls are actually quite high. And that utterly cripples a Fighter and makes most characters a push-over. It was even worse in 2E, where you only rolled dice until L9 or L10 or so. High rolls are slightly less problematic (in part because its easier to lose HP than get them back), but they can still be an issue. HP are just so fundamental to D&D balance that it's bizarre that this system has survived this long - a true sacred cow.</p><p></p><p>In 2E and 3E we experimented with various systems (but not this seemingly-common DM and PC both roll thing - that's a nice approach in that it makes bad HP 50% less likely). In 2E after just fudging it for ages and letting people re-roll (at first 1s, then 2s, then 3s) we started using an approach which was like, for a 1d10 HD class, we'd roll 4+1d6. It was in 3E we started using a fixed value (I think we went with 7 for d10 HP classes), but we tried a lot of things in 3E, including starting people with L3 HP and just not adding a L2 and L3. In 4E I think we used fixed HP.</p><p></p><p>I notice that in fixed-HP games, people value CON a lot more!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ruin Explorer, post: 7970117, member: 18"] Great now I've got pictures of barbarians tearing through Lake Woebegone stuck in my mind! We use fixed-HP in all the 5E campaigns I'm in except one. I found traditional rolling to be unhelpful in long-term campaigns long ago, because it effectively means a few lucky or unlucky rolls can permanently make a character massively stronger or weaker, moreso than traditionally-rolled stats even. The odds of getting a bunch of 1s, 2s, and 3s on, say, 10 d10 rolls are actually quite high. And that utterly cripples a Fighter and makes most characters a push-over. It was even worse in 2E, where you only rolled dice until L9 or L10 or so. High rolls are slightly less problematic (in part because its easier to lose HP than get them back), but they can still be an issue. HP are just so fundamental to D&D balance that it's bizarre that this system has survived this long - a true sacred cow. In 2E and 3E we experimented with various systems (but not this seemingly-common DM and PC both roll thing - that's a nice approach in that it makes bad HP 50% less likely). In 2E after just fudging it for ages and letting people re-roll (at first 1s, then 2s, then 3s) we started using an approach which was like, for a 1d10 HD class, we'd roll 4+1d6. It was in 3E we started using a fixed value (I think we went with 7 for d10 HP classes), but we tried a lot of things in 3E, including starting people with L3 HP and just not adding a L2 and L3. In 4E I think we used fixed HP. I notice that in fixed-HP games, people value CON a lot more! [/QUOTE]
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