Before we get there, I thought I’d bring up the only random part of leveling up– hit points. There are a lot of campaigns out there, and they’ve each got a take on how to solve it. I think we’d all prefer not to have too many ones… especially for the first few levels when it really matters.
a) Three-quarters of max each level. This is the most generous guaranteed hit points that I’ve seen. [I have seen a few “just give max at each level”, but really, why make it a die type at that point?]
b) Use WOTC’s Monster design rules- average hit points per level (so 4.5 per d8 for example).
c) Roll the die. If it comes up a one, reroll it. Still pretty variable, but at least you’re not stuck with ones.
d) Roll two dice & keep the better one. While there’s still a chance of a low number (even a one), it’s pretty slim.
e) Roll three dice and keep the middle one. This cuts back on the extremes- both high and low are unlikely, so you’ll often have a mid range roll.
f) High minimum old school For the first ten levels, characters are guaranteed high hit points (reroll anything falling in the bottom half). From 10 on, the con bonus is eliminated, and it returns to +1,+2, or +3 per level, like old 2nd edition. (It’s an interesting tradeoff, but it doesn’t reflect 3e’s assumptions very well.)
There are more options, but they tend to make large changes to the game. “Grim and Gritty” has hit points as above, but criticals do damage straight to CON (though without the multiplier). This ensures that death from any blow is always possible, no matter what level you are. It messes with standard hit point assumptions though, and makes a lucky critical very deadly at high level. Below is a variation on it– kind of a halfway point to wound points.
g) Vitality/Wound Points A rationalization of hit points. Recovering positive hit points is very easy (much faster than even D&D’s quick level per day rates), while negative hit points are a broader range but represent impairing blows that are slow to heal, even with magic.
Last time, we used (c), rerolling ones. There was also a variable mercy rule, so that if you got twos, sometimes you would be pitied and allowed to reroll. Because I’m a player, I’d lean towards (d)– if multiple dice hose me, then I’m hosed… but a whole level’s gain shouldn’t be hosed by one perverse die. It should be a little less good than (a) on average.
Death’s Door
An EnWorld thread discussing several options about moving “Death’s Door” (Warning: EnWorld is slow loading.) Eryu tinkers with “death’s door” a little differently.
Andy Collins has a good discussion about The High Cost of Dying, and a solid, simple fix. Brianna expands on this in an article about death and restoration, bringing restoration spells in line with the high cost of dying article.
I’ve blathered on plenty. What do you think?
8 replies on “Death and Hit Points”
Those of you who survived last week may want to ask around for major healing scrolls. After all ogres have brothers too! 😉
Well, I’m definetly not the one to ask about hit points. I’d be thrilled if we used a plan that eliminated the 1. With just a d4, taking the average or take the high role is just almost the same.
As for death and healing, it seems like it ought to be a tiered system, kind of like life. If you’re really sick you always seem to heal slower than if you’re just under the weather. (Unless, like me, you have a cough that just never seems to completely go away)
1. You’re close to death (think grave injury or possibly lethal illness) [you’ve only got 10 percent of HP]
I like the idea of a heal check. If you make the roll, you heal for a max number of points (say, 10 percent of what you’re down). If you don’t make the check, but don’t critically fail, you heal for a min number of points (say 1 percent of what you’re down). If you critically fail you actually lose points (this adding in a bit of danger — what if you get an infection? what if there’s poor health care?)
2. You’re sick, but not dying (think minor injury or a bad bout of the flu) [you’ve got between 10 and 75 percent HP]
Roll for a check — if you make, you make up 25 percent of what you’re down. If you don’t, you make up 10 percent.
3. You’re fine, but you’re still short HP
[you’re above 75 percent HP]
You recover a set up. Maybe as suggested on EnWorld, level plus CON bonus.
Oh, and I’ll be there Friday — had a great time last week.
I’d say c,d and e are all decent ideas, helps to reduce chances of very low rolls, but not guaranteing any particularly high rolls.
On hit points: I like taking the better of 2 dice; hit points are a big part of the choice in class.
On the death threshold: Reining in my desire to tinker, I suggest inserting a -level staggered threshold; it makes it more likely at higher levels that you won’t fall from OK to dead in one hit. [It doesn’t help much at low levels, but there aren’t many solutions that wouldn’t warp the whole system.]
Hey guys just wanted to throw in my two cents on the hit points question. Up in San Francisco we have gave Vitality/Wounds a try, and all thought it was a phenomenal system. It makes action more cinematic, and it’s far more realistic. Vitality is HP’s, and reflects stamina, dodging, blows deflecting off armor and just about any cinematic device you want to throw in, and gets better at each level just as HP’s always have, but your CON or Wounds remains the same or rises slowly through Ability boosts. This is far more realistic I mean how exactly is your ability to take damage raising at each level? Despite the fact that Criticals go straight to Wounds the system actually increases survivability of characters since without a Critical all damage goes to Vitality first and then Wounds after Vitality is exhausted. Anyway it is your game and I hate to intrude, but I have found it to be a great system.
Thanks for chiming in Zach. It’s the “and this is the way it worked out in our game” part that was missing from the discussion.
Another method I’ve used before is the Half HD rule: if you roll a number that’s less than half your hit die, just take half. If you roll greater than half, you get what you rolled. So if your hit die is a d8 you’ll always get at least 4hp per level.
That sounds workable too, Jay– enough so that you never feel like you’re falling too far behind, but without lots of rerolls or other bias towards inflation.