Why are hit points generated randomly?

[shilsen]

(The opinions presented are satire and hyperbole for comedic effect. It should not be read as a slam to anyone's gaming philosophy. Nor should it be read as a legitimate way to run your game unless you have an aversion to "players". No animals were harmed in the forming of this post. Please don't ban me.)

You are a bad man !

 

[SteveC]

Sacred cow. I use 3/4 die roll: d4 -> 3, d6 -> 4, d8 -> 6, d10 -> 7, d12 -> 9.

Yep, I use the same thing and have for some time now. My players thank me for it!

Random hit points are one thing that I truly believe has to go next edition, for two reasons:

They represent a truly random power boost that you can't ultimately do anything about. A poor hit point rolling character is, to my mind, about one level down in terms of power, while an exceptional roller can be a whole level up!

Second, WotC rates hit points rather high as a bonus in a class. I don't like having a class bonus that may or may not give you something good, depending on a very small number of die rolls.

--Steve

 

[GlassJaw]

It's a sacred cow that should have been put to pasture (pun intended) long ago.

 

[GreatLemur]

Then, there will be the pressure to make damage a fixed thing as well (since it is measured against known hit points, this leads to more mathematically sound balancing).

It's been pointed out already, but that doesn't really make any sense.

 

[Chimera]

Played a campaign where you could chose (in advance) either to roll the die or take 'low average' (ie, 3 on d6, 4 on d8). Very few people ever took the GM up on that one.

Next game, different GM, option to roll or take 'high average' (4 on d6, 5 on d8). Lots more people took him up on that, including me a few times.

Me personally, When I GM, I take a hard look at the PCs every couple of levels. If they are below average hit points, I'll cut them a break the next time they roll hp, by ensuring that their new roll is not below average for the die. Heck, for one guy who ended up way below average at 4th level (usually the first spot I really worry about it), I just grabbed the d8 that he'd rolled a '1' on and flipped it to '8'.

But then, I'm one of those people who likes high point buys too.

 

[Woas]

I think I got the idea from a thread here at ENWorld on the subject of "How does every do hitpoint generation." that my group uses now. Its the one where the player rolls their appropriate hit die and I roll one (me being the DM) too, but mine is hidden. The player can then choose theirs which they can see or my hidden one. It works well.

For me, I'm torn between a point-buy state of mind and rolling for random numbers state of mind. Like others, I don't want to see a group of characters where the one who rolled the best gets to do the most. But on the other hand I do like the idea of random elements bending the definition of a character. So I've had characters roll randomly for their birthday (actually, their zodiac sign which in turn defines when the characters birthday is) and I am a big proponent of random height/weight.

 

[Nifft]

IMHO, it's mostly for monsters and NPCs, so the PCs don't know that every Orc has exactly 6 hp. If they knew how hard it was to kill stuff, that might tend to encourage meta-game thinking.

-- N

 

[Umbran]

Eh. I don't buy that. There are many games that don't have a stitch of random chargen that is full on random in play.

And, there are other games that have no random elements at all in the mechanics. So clearly, there's a spread of possibilities.

I'm not seeing the concepts as linked and see no "slippery slope" existing.

Hm, perhaps my last two sentences didn't get the point across - the logic is a slippery slope, in that it does not dictate a particular stopping point. You stop sliding down it because you make a choice in design, to suit some particular purpose, because the randomness can be useful.

Thus - there is no objective general reason to have them be either set or random. There are only specific reasons.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

Why don't we just ditch the dice altogether? A magic missile can do 3 points per 2 caster levels , fireballs 3 per level, a long sword does 5 danage, a dagger 2. Down with dice! Up the revolution!

 

[jrients]

Oh, yeah? Well we randomly roll what system we use:

1 = Dungeons & Dragons*
2 = Tunnels & Trolls
3 = Palladium
4 = Man, Myth & Magic
5 = Powers & Perils
6 = Lords of Creation

*With a subtable for editions, obviously

Is that at the beginning of each session? I'd try something like that...