D&D 4E Should hit points continue to be generated randomly in 4e?

[Jack99]

I totally agree.

"Hey, Hal, bummer that you've rolled nothing above a 3 for your paladin's hp the last four levels."

In 2e, I had a 3rd level paladin with 4 hps \o/

 

[Baby Samurai]

In 2e, I had a 3rd level paladin with 4 hps \o/

Case in point.

 

[Eagle Prince]

Random hit points and attributes would be the first things I'd drop. I already do that in 3e when I DM (just make up a stat array and let players put them where they want). But I'd keep random stats and hp rules in a sidebar or something as a variant rule.

 

[Darkness]

In 2e, I had a 3rd level paladin with 4 hps \o/

Ouch. How did you manage to survive to 3rd level? Must have been painful (i.e., in negative hp a lot).

Edit - Well, unless you were an archer or something, of course.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

No randomness in character generation. Put it in the DMG as an alternative. Point buy should be the standard ability generation, and fixed HP should be standard ability score generation.

The randomness comes in at the game table. I always liked how non-random character generation allows people to create their characters at home without supervision.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Not just no, but hell no.

You dont roll randomly to see if your BAB increases do you? How many spell slots you gain? Skill points?

Random HP are an outlier. I realize some gamers will doubtless cry due to the loss of seeing their "friend" rolla bunch of 1's and 2's for HP on their barbarian. Oh well. Maybe eventually we can get to where gamers approach the baseline for human decency.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

real players roll Ability scores and hit points randomly. "Pre-set no possability of a sucky character" takes all of the excitment out of the game when you Know you wont get something bad ever. I had a player at level 7 with 28 hit points. He was a Elven Duskblade. He was a noob and didnt whine once even when some players had double or triple that!

And real s take joy in others misfortune. Thanks for displaying your stripes there.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

PEOPLE ARE NOT ALL THE SAME! Characters that abstractly represent people shouldn't be, either.

I agree. It would be awesome to roll to see if you got a BAB increase even. Just think of the fun when leveling up your fighter... you might get 3hp, no BAB, no save increase and 1 skill. WOO HOO! RANDOMNESS IS AWESOME! Real men roll randomly to see what they do every round! Its boring to have wizards cast spells. Why not roll to see if he charges the enemy, casts magic missile at his familiar or eats a pie!?!

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I don't understand this apparently Fordist desire to have everything cookie-cutter, standardized and rationalized.

Let's have some randomness and variety, please. I don't want them to balance the game into utter dreary predictability.

Because ditching randomness in character creation automatically leads to ditching it in game play.

It would be nice if you guys could at least pretend to throw up a decent argument.

 

[Alceste]

I hate random hit points, always have. I hope this is one sacred cow that will be slaughtered in 4e.

QFT! I will never forget how bad I rolled for a fighter and gave up the character because of that (ie 2,4,3,2). This cow needs to be slaughtered.