Starting hit points?

[Papa-DRB]

Max hit die, +con modifier, +racial.

Helped a *lot* with reducing the 15 minute adventuring day.....

 

[delericho]

For Pathfinder, and future 3.5e campaigns, I'm toying with a "hit point advance" rule. Characters will start with the equivalent of their hit points at 3rd level (for a Fighter, this would be 10 + 6 + 6 + three times Con mod).

However, they then would not gain any more hit points until the new total they 'should' have exceeds their current max. For single classed characters, this will happen at 4th level. For characters who multiclass into a class with a different die type, it may happen at a slightly different time.

This has the dual benefits of giving low-level characters some additional sticking power, while not inflating the already high hit point totals at high levels even further.

 

[Roman]

Delericho, I like your idea. So far I have been partial to a racial or a flat bonus at level 1 and I still think it has some advantages, but your idea has definite elegance to it as well. I would not, however, keep the maximum hit points at level 1 - that simply makes multiclassing unfair based on the order in which classes are taken - hit points from hit dice at any level should be determined using the same system (whether it is rolling, or average hit points or maximum hit points, or whatever).

 

[delericho]

I would not, however, keep the maximum hit points at level 1 - that simply makes multiclassing unfair based on the order in which classes are taken

Ah yes. I forgot a house rule I've been using ever since my first 3.0e campaign: when a character multiclasses into a (base) class with a higher hit die, he gets additional hit points to make up the difference. The total gain is the number of hit points he would have gained for a level in his old class plus the difference in the dice size.

So, a Wizard 3 would have 10 hit points (assuming no Con bonus). If that character took a level of Fighter, he would gain a further 9 hit points, to bring him up to what he 'should' have. (That is, 3 for gaining a level in Wizard plus 6 for the difference between d4 and d10.)

I have a similar house rule regarding skill points.

However...

I have been considering going with a slightly higher fixed number of hit points for all levels including first (as you suggest), especially if using the 'hit point advance' rule.

I have also been toying with dropping the "four times skill points at first level" rule, changing the max to 1 rank per level, and reducing all fixed skill difficulties by 3. (That or giving everyone 3 free ranks in every skill - that might be a simpler change with the same effect. Especially since I was also probably going to drop trained-only uses of skills.)

 

[Lord Zack]

What I'm going to be doing is having them roll for hit points, but give +6 hp. That way when creating characters of a higher level you need not worry about which class was chosen first.

 

[MRick]

Does anyone knows if folks at Paizo already decided what rule will be in the final release of Pathfinder ?
Do you think they would let these options open, or they will decide that one of them will be the "canon" ???

If yes, which one ???

We will start a new campaign using pathfinder beta rules but we'll probably switch to final rules when it will be available. If we play with Con Stat + Max HP and the future rules says otherwise...

 

[DaveMage]

I'm really ok with any of them at this point, although I think the racial one is probably my least favorite since that would become one more thing to consider when creating or statting a race.

Reducing complexity (without reducing options) seems like a good idea where possible.

 

[Roman]

Does anyone knows if folks at Paizo already decided what rule will be in the final release of Pathfinder ?
Do you think they would let these options open, or they will decide that one of them will be the "canon" ???

If yes, which one ???

We will start a new campaign using pathfinder beta rules but we'll probably switch to final rules when it will be available. If we play with Con Stat + Max HP and the future rules says otherwise...

I cannot tell you with absolute certainty, because none of the final rules have been revealed, but the latest thinking was that the core rules on starting hit points would not change from 3.5E and all those options would be presented in a sidebar as optional, so that will be the most likely final outcome.

I might bear some responsibility for this development, since I 'campaigned' vigorously on Paizo boards against power increases of the characters and particularly targeted hit point inflation as one of the worst culprits. Of course, I actually like more starting hit points and was primarily concerned about things like increased hit dice, favored classes and the new toughness, which continue to provide more and more hit points whereas the starting hit point bonus only gives a one-time boost, but it seems that whereas my concerns with hit point inflation were noticed, they decided on a different solution than I would have chosen.

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

I always use max HD+ con mod. I used the racial option once, and found it too much for my taste. If I want 3rd level pc's I will make them 3rd level YMMV