How many hits should a 1st level Fighter be able to take?

[Oni]

This blog post inspired this thread with its incredibly bad poll question.

How durable should a first level fighter be? How many hits, on average, should they be able to withstand from a run of the mill first level foe, such as an orc or skeleton, before going down?

Bonus question: How many hits should a first level wizard be able to take in the same circumstances before going down?

 

[Serendipity]

From what? Without knowing what's wacking at the fighter, this is a pointless question.
Having said that, I should prefer that a beginning fighter be able to take two solid hits (defined as at least a d4 of damage, rolling high) before having trouble, but should still be able to keep going (at least long enough to pull out a retreat if need be) past that.

A beginning wizard should be down or nearly so after one good solid blow in my opinion. Book learning doesn't build the muscles.

 

[GM Dave]

I like this question better than the question of 'how many hit points'.

When someone brings up hit points, I always need to know something of what is doing the damage?

Are we talking broadswords, scimitars, daggers, dragons? I can change these values up or down to get the number of 'hits' that I want to occur verses the amount of hit points.

Being able say a fighter can take 2 hits at first level before going down is a better question for me. It allows me to say that at first level a fighter gets a free pass on one bad roll of the die but they better do something before they get thumped a second time.

The wizard should be 1 hit and down at first level. Getting thumped once was clearly a mistake on the part of the wizard who should know better than run close to combat in some stitched cloth.

I also prefer the 1 or 2 hit values because it will mean the combats are shorter in overall length (you don't want to run an extended combat as every round increases the amount of damage that you can take).

An even better question would be how many times do you feel the combat should go 'round the table'?

Using DnD's usual 50% hit rule, every 2 cycles around the table should be one hit.

Every cycle around the table will likely be ?2 to 4? min per player (depending on the new complexity of characters in combat). You can then figure out how long combat will last and how much of the 'play time' will be consumed on average with each combat (though there should also be a set up and take down amount added to the total and the GM's monster's portion of the time on each turn).

 

[Rogue Agent]

How durable should a first level fighter be? How many hits, on average, should they be able to withstand from a run of the mill first level foe, such as an orc or skeleton, before going down?

I went with 3. Slight increase from OD&D (when it was 2), but feels about right.

Bonus question: How many hits should a first level wizard be able to take in the same circumstances before going down?

I'd say 2.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Should we assume there's a cleric there healing him/her?

 

[Savage Wombat]

Should we assume there's a cleric there healing him/her?

Oh, no. This has to be one warrior vs. one orc, mano-a-urko.

 

[Oni]

Should we assume there's a cleric there healing him/her?

Nope.

 

[Oni]

After a little thought I think the ability to take 4 average hits from an average foe without assistance is a good number. i think that enough to allow the fighter to do hi or her job without taking the edge of danger off. That means they can face down a couple foes at once for a least a round without being completely overwhelmed. They can take a couple of strong hits and probably shake off one strong crit.

I'm thinking a wizard should be able to take 2 average hits, that gives a little leeway for error, but combine that with the fact that he or she will probably be easier to hit be a decent amount provides a marked difference in combat ability.

 

[Stormonu]

A fighter and an orc are in a crowded bar. The orc's been there a bit already, carousing with a few friends and chugging beers as he fritters away coins in a game of Three-Dragon Ante. As the fighter makes his way to a table with his meal and drink in tow, the fighter accidentally bumps the orc's chair. The nudge causes the orc to spill some beer on his grandfather's amulet. It was that amulet the orc had seized after offing the old man in a duel for the right to run the family business. It's not just an heirloom, it's a symbol of the orc's prosperity...

With a roar, the orc knocks over the table. As he rises and the patrons scatter, he draws his battleaxe and points at the warrior. In return, the fighter's cast aside his own meal so he can draw his own sword and retrieve his shield from his back. "You die, human!" the orc shouts as he charges.

The fighter should be able to take at least two hits. One to get his attention, the other to kill him. At most, after three blows he should be down. In return, the fighter should be able to possibly kill the orc with a single lucky blow and go back to his meal, but likely it will take two.

 

[Stormonu]

By the way, that's got to be the worst poll I've seen come out of WotC yet.

Also, the wizard ought to go down from the above example in one hit. Two, if he's lucky.