D&D 5E What's Your (Character's) Constitution Score?

[Horwath]

IME this is not correct. You can have a very weak character and survive quite easily as the game is biased towards the players, not the monsters. In combat smart play and tactics underpinned by great math skills will beat a good constitution every time.,

We had a Bladesinger at our table with a 9 rolled constitution. She survived fine from level 1 through all of tier 2. As a matter fact, she was the most powerful character in the party. This was an early SCAG bladesinger. During the transition from tier 1-2 she was not hit by a single attack at all for 3 levels straight (level 4-7 if I recall correctly) and she was in melee every single fight.

I think people overestimate how important constitution is. Two points of constitution is only 7 hps at 7th level. That is the same as you get from false life cast at 1st level. A Fighter with 60 hps is not that much more powerful than one with 50 hps at that level ... or even one with 70. If you are using the PHB default method and rolling hit points your roll is going to be a lot more important to your hit point total than 2 points of constitution will be.

well that also depends on the DM and how much you get thrown at you.

Current campaign we have 4 characters, we are level 8 now.
We have 3 characters with 14 con and one with 16(barbarian).

On average, we get one knockdown(0HP) per fight.

5th level wizard with 8 Con has 17HP, even a barbarian with 8 Con would look very fragile with 35HP.

CR 5&6 monsters hit like a truck, how long can you last if you get surprised by a Troll or a Mage?

 

[JiffyPopTart]

The characters in the party I'm running for have Con scores 14-16, with the 14 being most common.

It seems pretty pointless stat, as there is no much variation, in practice the range seems to be 12-16, and it has no skills, and doesn't usually affect rolls other than the Con save.

I also am not quite sure why people see 14 over 12 as important. Under point buy that is sort of an investment. Is handful of HP and +1 to Con saves really a big deal? I don't really see it.

I haven't made a character for a while, but I'd be fine with 12 or even 10. I'd rather have something more active, it's the healer's problem to keep me alive.

Since the extra HP is doubled because of Hit Die use on short rests, it's not an insubstantial amount of extra juice. A 6th level character is getting 12 extra HP over the course of the day with that extra two points of CON. For the low HP classes you might be approaching an extra 20% HP in a day (higher if you roll HP and are unlucky).

 

[ECMO3]

CR 5&6 monsters hit like a truck, how long can you last if you get surprised by a Troll or a Mage?

For as long as your cleric has Healing Word .... which is usually long enough to win the fight in 5E.

As I said the number you roll is more imporant than the con bonus. A 5th level Wizard with an 8 con can have anywhere between 9 and 25hps, and what you roll on the hit die is going to matter more than the constitution score.

A Deadly encounter level for a 5th level character is 1100xp per character. This means 5th level characters should outnumber trolls 3 to 2. Three Wizards with 17hps and spells like Fear will beat two Trolls almost every time. Even if all 3 of the Wizards lose initiative they are still usually going to win this encounter unless they get a disaster in terms of saves, Troll attacks and damage. If you want to go the melee route a single 5th level Bladesinger running Haste/silvery barbs/shield or blur/shield is going to get hit once every 50 attacks by Trolls so that is about 1 hit in an 8 round fight with two trolls and a single hit won't often kill her at 17hps. Green Flame Blade with 2 more attacks in 8 turns will be close to taking both Trolls down, even with the other two wizards standing by doing nothing.


A Mage should be outnumbered 2:1 by the PCs at 5th level for a deadly encounter. If you have 2 wizards, you have 2 counterspells to his one. This is a tougher fight than the trolls because it is dominated with dice. If Mage wins initiative and you get a bad roll on counterspell and your wizards fail their saves it could be over for both of them in one turn, but the statistics still favor the two low-hp wizards in this fight and if one of them wins initiative it is virtually certain they will win this encounter. Consider a 17hp wizard with a 16 dex and absorb elements will survive a Mage's cone of cold over 70% of the time. So even if they both lose initiative, are inside the cone AOE and can't counterspell it there is a good chance one or even both survive. Assuming the 17hp Wizards have shield spell, that is the only first round play I see that has a chance to be successful for the Mage. If he gets one of them down with cone of cold this is a managable fight which he still might lose easily but if both the 17hp Wizards survive this first round alpha strike or if one wins initiative it is over for the Mage.

Surprise can change that sure, but the hit point difference is not going to matter a whole lot. Trolls against AC16 surprised wizards can't usually kill one in the first round (by kill I mean dead not 0). If they concentrate on only one and beat all three of them in initiative, with good rolls they can probably down one in the first round and kill that same one in the second round while he is unconscious. They can do that if he has a 14 Con though too and once any remaining wizards get in the fight it is over. A Mage that surprises and wins initiative and can catch both Wizards in a Cone of Cold AOE will probably win that fight. He needs to do all of that though to do it reliably, without both surprise and initiative and spacing they will have reactions and it will be tough for him to take them both down. He also needs to do average or better damage on the cone of cold.

I am not saying such characters can't die, but odds are against them dying unless you upscale the monsters beyond recommended, get great rolls or use alternate death rules. Even if you do those things though it will rarely be the Constitution score specifically that is the deciding factor between life and death. Constitution might be the difference between going down to 0 and not going to 0, but even that is going to be relatively rare. An enemy who takes you to zero with an 8 constitution is usually going to take you to 0 with a 10 or a 12 too and take you to zero on the next attack it makes with a 14 or 16.

 

[jmartkdr2]

My 20th level wizard turned herself permanently into a dragon, so 27 but you can go ahead and call that an outlier.

My rune knight has an amulet of health, so 19.

My artificer has a 13, I intend to raise that.

In general, I shoot for at least a 12. I did start that wizard with an 8 Con just to see what would happen - she died easy (but got better.) I don't consider a 14 to be necessary myself but if I somehow had spare points I'd put them into Con.

 

[ECMO3]

Since the extra HP is doubled because of Hit Die use on short rests, it's not an insubstantial amount of extra juice. A 6th level character is getting 12 extra HP over the course of the day with that extra two points of CON. For the low HP classes you might be approaching an extra 20% HP in a day (higher if you roll HP and are unlucky).

No long term it is 6 extra hps on the first day and 3 every day after that at 6th level.

2 points of constitution is worth 1 point per hit dice, so that would be 6 more hps using all your hit dice. However, you only recover half your hit dice with a long rest, so that is only 3 hit dice you can use every day unless you have a day rest between your combat days.

 

[Ogre Mage]

I always play casters. My constitution scores fall within the 14-16 range. 16 con with proficiency in constitution saves is usually as high as I go. I prefer this if maintaining concentration is very important (such as for a summoner). For a blaster caster, I'd be more likely to run with a 14 Con and constitution save proficiency is less of a priority.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

No long term it is 6 extra hps on the first day and 3 every day after that at 6th level.

2 points of constitution is worth 1 point per hit dice, so that would be 6 more hps using all your hit dice. However, you only recover half your hit dice with a long rest, so that is only 3 hit dice you can use every day unless you have a day rest between your combat days.

This is true. The value would vary from 9-12 depending on how often your games feature downtime. Either way it's a number greater than 6.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Since the extra HP is doubled because of Hit Die use on short rests, it's not an insubstantial amount of extra juice. A 6th level character is getting 12 extra HP over the course of the day with that extra two points of CON. For the low HP classes you might be approaching an extra 20% HP in a day (higher if you roll HP and are unlucky).

No long term it is 6 extra hps on the first day and 3 every day after that at 6th level.

2 points of constitution is worth 1 point per hit dice, so that would be 6 more hps using all your hit dice. However, you only recover half your hit dice with a long rest, so that is only 3 hit dice you can use every day unless you have a day rest between your combat days.

This is true. The value would vary from 9-12 depending on how often your games feature downtime. Either way it's a number greater than 6.

Good points.

What if when you used HD after a short rest you didn't get to add your CON modifier to the roll?

That way, the bonus hp for CON would only be once per long rest. I wonder if players would still feel that CON carried so much importance or if it would carry even more?

 

[ECMO3]

nm