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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Voadam" data-source="post: 8490828" data-attributes="member: 2209">1. Why would a barbarian earn a d12 for hit dice, while a sorcerer gains only a d6? What is the reason why some classes have larger hit die types than others?Tank classes are designed to deal with incoming damage better than other classes. The glass cannon spellcasters are most focused as classes on their magical power and deal with incoming damage less. So a 4e swordmage is a magical tank class with a lot of HP that might use its magic narratively to deal with incoming damage and explain its hp while a sorcerer is a class designed to use their magic in other ways. A tank barbarian is better at withstanding tons of attacks than a striker rogue which is designed to be hard hitting but not durable.2. Medium creatures use a d8. Most PCs are medium in size, so why not give them the same d8 for hit dice? If we did, would it be too harsh on small characters to give them the d6 small creatures gain for hit dice?For monsters what matters is total hp in relation to their CR and other stats, so they might be a glass cannon monster or a tough one for their CR but this is done by giving them more or less HD for their CR. PC classes are built more around balanced combat roles at each level, so the HD are different. A wizard monster has fewer HD than a warrior monster of the same level, a wizard PC and fighter have the same number of HD but design wise you want them have hp appropriate for their class combat niches.3. Due to the metaphysical or abstract nature of hit points, why is only the Constitution modifier used? Would the other abilities represent other abstract aspects of hit points, such as Dexterity representing the reflexes aspect, equally well? What about Wisdom or Charisma representing divine favor or luck, etc.?You can think of Constitution as adding hp by increased ability to keep pushing yourself as necessary to avoid damaging things. Action hero dodging out of the way of harm like fireballs takes effort, tough guys can keep doing that again and again so have more hp to not be touched directly. Other characters get fatigued after avoiding fewer attacks and then the dangers actually hit the meat of the last few hp.4. Could hit dice be gained in ways other than by leveling, such as a magic item?Not sure whether you mean permanently for max hp but I think that would generally be a bad idea for design balance, some options like a tank class feature to have increased HD for healing could be neat. There are a bunch of healing and temp hp mechanics.5. Could a creature or character have more hit dice than its level?Creatures are designed to have an end number of hp for their CR and combat role so they have whatever number of HD they need to hit those numbers.I think it is a good design to have PC max hp HD = level.</blockquote>

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