Hit Dice and Multiclassing?

[Risen Demon]

I have a dumb question about hit dice. Let's say you're a sorcerer. Your HD is 6. Now, you multi-class into barbarian, whose HD is 12. What is the HD of that character? I don't understand how it would work. Thanks in advance!

[blackbloodtroll]

Your total HD is 7. The hit die per level is what you roll for hit points. So if you take a level of barbarian, you roll a d12 for hit points for that level.

[Lathiira]

For each level you take in the sorcerer class, you roll 1d6, add your Constitution bonus, add any other bonuses (favored class, Toughness), then add that to your total hp. For each level you add in barbarian, do the same, replacing where I said "1d6" with "1d12". Your total hit dice are equal to the number of hit dice you've rolled for your hp, which conveniently for us is equal to the sum total of your class levels in all classes. So if you're a 4th level sorcerer taking your first level in barbarian, you still have 5 hit dice: 4d6 + 1d12 + bonuses.

[Kajehase]

Your don't really have a 'hit dice.' What you have are hit points, which you calculate by rolling the hit dice of your class each time you gain a level. So in the case of your sorcerer, you roll a six-sided die to determine how many hit points he gets at first* level (let's say you roll a 4), and when he then multiclasses into barbarian, you roll a d12 to see how many hit points you gain (let's say 7, making it 11 hp).

*Although I gather it's common to let PCs gain the maximum possible amount of hp at 1st level, since it's not that fun to have to roll up a new character one round into the first combat-encounter.

[Kajehase]

And Lathiira counts her hp in d8s - seeing as she's a ninja.

[glandis]

"HD of a character" usually translates into "how MANY hit dice do you have?" (in other words, usually your level), rather than "what SIZE hit dice do you have?" (which can easily vary across levels). Typically, we wouldn't say "your HD is a 6", we'd say either "this levels' HD is a d6" or "you have x HD", where x will usually be your level.

So a Sorcerer 3/Barbarian 2 would have 5 HD. 3 of them are d6, 2 are d12, and his HP is the sum of his rolls.

Does that address your confusion?

[phantom1592]

Glandis hit it on the head. When spells and such refer to 'affects 8 HD creatures..' it's refering to their 'level.'

2E was really big in that... a 7th level character = 7HD creature.

If you are a 6th level sorcerer and a 1st level Barabarian... you have a character level of 7.

The Die you roll for hitpoints is based on the class you are taking the level in.

I could take 3 levels of Sorcerer rolling a D6... 2 levels of Barbarian rolling a D12 and then go back to 2 more levels of Sorcerer with D6s again...