D&D 5E What is squishy, really?

[Warpiglet]

I see a lot of worry about d8 for hit dice.

and a lot of a angst about less than heavy armor.

are people really squeamish or has my old age made me too cavalier?

how would we define or operationalize squishy really?

 

[commandercrud]

I see a lot of worry about d8 for hit dice.

This is news to me.

 

[Warpiglet]

when people call a character squishy it is as often classes other than wizard or sorcerer as not. So I am wondering if it is more AC issue vs. hit dice.

 

[prabe]

My suspicion is it's a combination of AC and HP, possibly with a touch of "(not) built for melee." I wouldn't be inclined to describe a ranger as "squishy," but the archer-ranger in one of the campaigns I'm running got stuck in melee and had a near-death experience.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

Generally I view a d8 hit die as the average option since d10 hit die is the tanky option for martial characters. But if a character lacks other suitability tools they still might be considered squishy. Primarily here I'd be talking about Bards and Warlocks that wear light armour and don't take any spells for personal defense. These classes can make choices to have more defense like going valor bard for medium armour + shield, or the mage armour invocation, but these choices are mutually exclusive with other options.

Other d8 classes like Cleric, Druid, Monk and Rogue aren't considered squishy due to having other defensive boons like medium or heavy armour, having Dex as a primary ability score to make light armour not suck, or other defensive features like wild shape for an extra pool of hp, uncanny dodge, dodge as a bonus action. I wouldn't consider these classes to be particularly tanky unless they really focus defense, but rather these make up the average baseline in my mind.

 

[RogueJK]

I see a lot of worry about d8 for hit dice.

I'm not sure why...

With the exception of the first level, the different between each step in Hit Dice is 1 point.

d10 = 5.5 average (rounded to 6)
d8 = 4.5 average (rounded to 5)
d6 = 3.5 average (rounded to 4)

So on leveling up, the difference between a Fighter's new hit points and those of the "squishier" classes is just 1 or 2 points per level (on average when using the rolling option, or fixed if using the average HP option).

If you're that worried about 1 or 2 hit points per level making a huge difference, there are a number of ways to make up for that, like a combination of a slightly higher CON, some subclasses that grant extra HP (e.g. Draconic Sorcerer) or temp HP (e.g. Abjurer), races that get extra HP and/or higher CON bonuses (e.g. Hill Dwarf), the Tough feat, etc.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Warpiglet]

Haha yeah! I would try to get a con bonus for my M-U so a breeze would not cause him save vs. frailty!

 

[Mistwell]

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Back in the old days, I briefly played a magic-user that had 1 HP. Nothing has felt squishy since then.

I don't think d8 is all that bad. Heck, conceivably a PC with a high con could be rocking more HP than a character with a higher hit die.

I'd say that squishiness is a variety of factors. Low HP and Low AC are a part of it. If I had to quantify it, I'd say it's how quickly a character goes from max HP to making death saves. You could have a cleric with leather armor, a shield, and no con modifier, but make them a life domain cleric and: