Calculating hit points per level

[Octavious]

As a PC levels up for hit dice it says ( I will use Ranger as example) 1d10( or 6) + Constitution per Ranger level. I think I may be interpreting this wrong. Does it mean you can take the 6 or if you choose not to, roll the 1d10 and you have to take the roll even if it is lower than 6 . Or does it mean you can roll the 1d10 and if you do not like the roll you can take the 6 . ?

[Zacchaeus]

It means that you either take the 6 or roll a d10 and accept whatever you get. The 'standard' method is to take the 6 whilst the d10 is an alternative so FG follows the standard and awards the 6 each time. In both cases you still add in your CON modifier and any racial bonuses.

[damned]

On average taking the dice roll will leave you worse off. But some players insist that they will beat the odds :)

[Octavious]

Thanks for the reply. I was doing it wrong.. before.. I was letting the players take the roll if it was higher or take the standard if they rolled low. Live and learn.. !

[Trenloe]

Thanks for the reply. I was doing it wrong.. before.. I was letting the players take the roll if it was higher or take the standard if they rolled low. Live and learn.. !
Hey, you're the GM - so you're not doing it wrong at all. Go with whatever you want for your group. My GM in a local Strahd game is doing it exactly this way too.

[Octavious]

Thanks for that info too Trenloe.. I think ill do it either ways depending on the game..

[Nyghtmare]

I also houserule it in my own campaign that they can roll and keep whichever is higher, that roll or the normal average.

[epithet]

That's how I do it - I let them roll every level with the average as a safety net. It helps me feel good about throwing extra bad guys at them whenever I feel like it.

[GunnarGreybeard]

I usually give them the choice but if they roll low, so be it. But I do allow them to reroll any 1, once. If they roll a 1 twice, its on them.

[tadkil]

Hey, you're the GM - so you're not doing it wrong at all. Go with whatever you want for your group. My GM in a local Strahd game is doing it exactly this way too.

Word.

[tadkil]

From a design perspective letting players roll their own HP can create mayhem. What happens if a character rolls in the bottom 25% for 3-4 levels? What happens if his peer maxes? The disparity can make designing challenges that are not inordinately lethal very difficult. You can let higher AC items in to harden the skin of low HP players, but you'll find yourself designing to this challenge more than you like.

I have run with both and until 3.0 always had my players roll their HP. I like the average now. Safer for them and easier to manage for the DM.

[Mad Nomad]

I recently came up with some house rules on this.
- For reasons mentioned earlier, pure rolling is too swingy and not really viable.
- Taking average is fine, but takes some of the variability out of it so I didn't like that either.
- Rolling and allowing player to take the roll if it's higher than average or take average if it is lower is common house rule, but it does scew PCs HP higher than game is technically base don.

So to try to keep rolling and variance in the game but remove some of the crazy "swinginess" and risk of rolling really low I adopted these rules.
If normal HD is…

1d6 (normally 4 average): you gain 2+1d4 (now ranges (3-6) avg 4.5)

1d8 (normally 5 average): you gain 3+ 1d4 (now ranges (4-7) avg 5.5)

1d10 (normally 6 average): you gain 4+1d4 (now ranges (5-8) avg 6.5)

1d12 (normally 7 average): you gain 5+1d4 (now ranges (6-9) avg 7.5)

+ Con modifier of course

[JohnD]

I've always done the following:

1st level - maximum HP
2nd level - roll 2 dice taking the higher roll but minimum of 50%+1
3rd level & beyond - roll 2 dice taking the higher roll

It works... still skews to the high end but allows for a few lower rolls.

[damned]

In Castles & Crusades I usually went:
1st: max hp
2nd: 75% rounded up
3rd: 75% rounded up
4th: roll your own