Random Hit Points

Perhaps one of the sacred cows of the D&D game is rolling for hit points. Now while rolling dice as a game mechanic can be fun, the problem with rolling for hit points is that it has long term consequences. Unlike an attack roll or skill check where the repercussions will only be felt for that particular encounter, rolling for hit points has repercussions that last for the entire campaign. All is well and good when you roll high but what happens when you roll low? And while statistics tell us that it all evens out, sometimes simply bad luck can end us having a 5th-level Fighter who has less than 20 hit points.

3rd Edition gave us a partial remedy to random hit points. First, all characters begin with maximized hit points. So the party wizard begins with at least 4 hit points, instead of rolling a 1d4 at first level. As for the succeeding levels, one could take the average plus one, or even some of the RPGA rules which is a variation of that (8 hit points for d12 classes, 2 for d4 classes). Some players even use the variation of getting three quarters of the maximum hit points per level. The weakness of fixed hit points, however, is that hit points loses its “random” factor. Again, there’s a thrill when you roll the highest number possible in a die but a problem arises when we roll the minimum. Is there a way to have our cake and eat it too?

Mike Mearl’s Iron Heroes has a nice variation when it comes to determining hit points. Everyone rolls a d4 every level but it has a fixed number attached to each class. At the minimum, you’re rolling for d4+2 hit points per level (plus your Constitution modifier). At best, it’s a d4+8. It’s a good system but the focus of Iron Heroes is action/adventure in a world without magic items. Thus characters need all the help they can get. Using the same formula for your regular D&D game might be giving an unnecessary boon to your players (since you’ll almost always be getting better than the average hit points with the exception of those stuck simply rolling d4s). And come on, some people might scoff at rolling d4s for hit points. So what’s a possible solution?

Taking a page from Mike Mearls, one could use this chart when rolling for hit points per level:

d4 = d2+2

d6 = d3+3

d8 = d4+4

d10 = 2d3+4

d12 = d6+6

With this, you’ll be getting at the very least half plus one of your maximum possible hit points. You’ll also be using a variety of die types depending on the classes you take and get the same thrill when you roll the highest possible number. Still, if you want to keep things simple, the formula presented in Iron Heroes seems the neatest although you will have to make some adjustments when it comes to classes with d4 hit points.