Hit point generation methods

[Liminal Syzygy]

Hi all,

I've seen many threads on ability score generation methods but don't recall seeing any on hit point generation methods (but my community supporter status seems to have expired and I can't search for past threads).

Hit points seem tricky to me... As a DM I don't want to have any characters crippled by random rolls but I also don't want to overinflate (at least by too much statistically).

In a recent challenging campaign I ran that just ended, I started by raising any rolls that were below average minus 0.5 to the average minus 0.5. So d6 HD =3, d10 = 5, etc.

This was fine for the first few levels, but as the characters gained many levels and this was compounded I realized it was too big of a boost. So I switched to a system in which the player's history of rolls is still tracked, but if their hit points fall below the average (minus 0.5) for all their levels then it is raised to the overall average.

So a Rogue 6 would have (not taking CON into account) this minimum "floor":
6 3 3 3 3 3 = 21 hp
If the player rolled 21 or below it would be raised to 21 (But again the history would be recorded. So several bad rolls in a row may relegate you to staying at the minimum floor the rest of your forseeable career, but wouldn't overly handicap the character).

I found this to be a good compromise.

The DM in my current game (I'm a player this time) is thinking about random HP generation so I'm thinking about this issue again. His idea is actually random, but reroll any 1s up to one time. As a player of a Barbarian I'm pretty worried about the chances of having my character crippled by the random results of HP at levels 2 and 3.

I'm also not sure if the "reroll 1s" is fair considering the lower your hit dice, the more chance you get to benefit from this reroll policy (and thus boost your average HPs).

Thoughts? What do you use in your game?

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

I let them re-roll ones. That's it.

 

[LostSoul]

I'm playing in a game where we can roll twice (have to take the second roll if we do so), and we have a minimum of 1/2 max. Can't complain as a player.

I'm running a game where I roll for hit points, compare it to the PC's roll, and the PC takes the higher of the two. Seems okay, totals are pretty decent all around.

I ran a campaign where I gave the PCs from 1/2 to maximum hit points per level. 1d4 was 1d3+1, 1d6 was 1d4+2, etc. Hit point totals were very high, even for low-con PCs. Since I was going for that, I had no problem with it.

 

[The Human Target]

Yeah, random HP results can be a drag. Actually this week I'm going to change how my group gets HP. They will get a static amount every level. People use different things, but I'm going with max hp. Some might see it as over powered but I think HP at low levels is way underpowered. At tenth level I may have them start rolling again but I'm going to wait and see. And I decided to up Wizards and Sorcerers to a d6 (or 6 as it will be.)

 

[Spatula]

I allow the choice of rolling or taking the average, rounded down. One reroll for the life of the character.

In a past campaign the DM gave us the average, rounded up. Which was pretty sweet for my wizard.

It's a tricky subject. Hit points are crucial to the combat classes, so it seems unfair to penalize them for bad luck. The last two fighter characters I played rolled several 1's for hp, and it wasn't much fun. But I dislike the cookie-cutter approach that has every fighter of the same level and Con mod having the same exact hit points.

 

[arscott]

an interesting method that I've heard about is to allow infinite rerolls, but have the die decrease by one step each time.

So if your barbarian rolls a 2 for hitpoints, they you can roll again, but you'll be rolling a d10. That's probably going to work out better than a 2 (and if it doesn't, you can roll a d8), but prevents the 'reroll anything marginally bad' syndrome and the HP inflation that goes with it.

I've also seen a setup where players could choose between the natural roll result and the overall result of getting (ave-.5) on every die. So if your Barbarian rolled a 2 for 2nd level, he could have 18+con instead of 14+con. But if he rolled a 12 for 3rd level, he'd add that result to the rolled total of 14 (resulting in 26+con), or take the average if it was still better (which at 24+con, it isn't).

 

[The Human Target]

I don't mind all characters of a given class and level having similar HP. I hope characters are defined by more than hit points. They should be defiend by the coolness of their hats.

 

[reanjr]

Core method of allowing them to choose half-0.5. This works really well (probably why it's in the book). If they roll, they keep what they get. If they're worried about that, they can take the low average. It's best to take low average at approx 2nd-4th for survivability guarantee. After that, it's best to get that 0.5 hp each level. Alternatively, you can give them the high average. Most players would take this route and forgo the chance of getting a high number for an overall higher hp count and no chance of low numbers.

Let em reroll on a lower die.

Absolute average. At even level, the character gets average rounded up, odd levels get average rounded down. The characters will all be within 0.5 hp of what the designers anticipated.

Reduce the die type and add 1. Example:

* Original: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12
* New roll: d2+1, d4+1, d6+1, d8+1, d10+1

Taking the previous example further, have them all roll d4s and adjust:

* Original: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12
* New roll: d4, d4+1, d4+2, d4+3, d4+4

If you are alright with slightly above average rolls (you seem to be), have them roll two dice for a bell distribution (for d5, roll d6 and ignore 6s, or d10 and divide by 2, round up):

* Original: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12
* New roll: 2d2, 2d3, 2d4, 2d5, 2d6

 

[Roman]

In my game players reroll get to reroll like this:

d4: reroll 1s
d6: reroll 1s and 2s
d8: reroll 1s, 2s and 3s
d10: reroll 1s, 2s, 3s and 4s
d12: reroll 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s and 5s

Yes, I know it is generous, but I like it that way.

 

[reanjr]

an interesting method that I've heard about is to allow infinite rerolls, but have the die decrease by one step each time.

So if your barbarian rolls a 2 for hitpoints, they you can roll again, but you'll be rolling a d10. That's probably going to work out better than a 2 (and if it doesn't, you can roll a d8), but prevents the 'reroll anything marginally bad' syndrome and the HP inflation that goes with it.

In case anyone wanted to know, you would want to reroll average - 1.5 on d4, d6, and d8, but average - 0.5 on d10 and d12.