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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KidSnide" data-source="post: 5925215" data-attributes="member: 54710">The math errors shouldn't obscure the OP's essentially correct point: HPs are too important to character balance to be random by default.  Yes, there is a 91% chance that characters will be in the 40-70 range, but there is a huge difference in effectiveness between a 40 hp fighter and a 70 hp fighter.  But the math for this is even worse than this would suggest because balance is a party problem, not a character problem.  If there is a 9% chance that any one character has abnormally high or low hit points, there is a 37.5% chance that any five person party will have at least one member with this problem.  Even worse, the distribution evens out somewhat at higher levels, but new players almost always learn the game at low levels.  One or two capricious die rolls can have a profound impact on whether someone finds D&D fun or not.  Pitty the poor newbie who is trying to play a front line fighter, but rolls a 1 and a 3 on his first two hit point rolls.Rolling HPs clearly needs to be an optional module, but it's not a good default rule for new players.-KS</blockquote>