JustinM said:You need to reread your DMG, then. One of those is a RAW creation option, and one other is only one digit off. I won't tell you which, though--you can do your own homework.
It sure as heck isn't a rules as written creation option when used without asking the DM and without making sure the rest of the players are doing it too. They didn't think it was one of many character creation options, they believed it was the actual default that everyone in the world was using.
As to the actual point of the thread, random (or at least semi-random) hp is the only system that makes sense to me. If you have two soldiers in the Army with the same amount of combat experience and both get hit with some sort of ammunition in roughly the same place on their bodies, there is no reason to believe they will be affected identically. None whatsoever.
This is covered completely by the fact that we roll damage. Two characters with 8 hit points each hit for 1d10 damage will be affected differently.