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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Epametheus" data-source="post: 1164740" data-attributes="member: 719">I've never been in a campaign where luck -- good or bad -- could be casually dismissed like that.  I'm sure you've had sessions where all of your monster can't seem to roll below a 15 and at least one of the PCs nevers seems to roll above 5.  Part of the nature of randomness is that it can land in the high range repeatedly.  My experience with 1st level characters is that they don't survive due to superior number crunching; they survive through dumb luck, DM fudging, and through the assistance of the party's cleric.A Barbarian fighting multiple opponents at once will not escape damage.  If he's dueling an orc that can potentially drop him in 1 hit, then the AC will matter more because he has to avoid getting hit at all costs.  If he's fighting say, two goblins, then the odds of escaping damage are much less in his favor, and he could well get reamed if it goes badly.  I'm not expecting that 1 extra HP to keep him going in the fight (though if a generic orc with a great-ax hit him for max damage while he was raging, it actually would); I'm expecting it to buy him another round to bleed quietly while the party can finish off whatever took him down and attend to him.  If he dies anyways, then such is the lot of 1st level characters.</blockquote>