I thought I might let them use an action point when levelling up to gain max hit points for that level instead of rolling. How likely is this to upset adventure balance at higher levels? Should I apply a level cap to this option (option available only up to level 3 or 5 or something)?
Thanks in advance,
Jamie
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
|
I thought I might let them use an action point when levelling up to gain max hit points for that level instead of rolling. How likely is this to upset adventure balance at higher levels? Should I apply a level cap to this option (option available only up to level 3 or 5 or something)?
That seems a bit powerful to me. I would recommend allowing an action point to permit the player to roll two hit dice and take the higher one, otherwise (since action points refresh at each level up anyway) almost everyone is going to use this option. Plus, keep in mind how much difference there is in allowing the barbarian to automatically get max hit points versus the wizard. The barbarian is almost certainly going to use this option for his d12 while the wizard probably won't care if he rolls a 1 or 2 on his d4.
You might want to instead let them spend an action point to get 3/4 of the max value of the die, so that there is some reason to *not* just spend one action point per level to max the hitdie.
Spending the action point has a variable value depending on how quickly your players go through them. At lower levels where you don't have as many available, its a big resource spend... "Do I max my hps, or do I save this for a fortsave I might not otherwise pass?"
At higher levels, where you are getting 10 or so each level, then spending one to max the die doesn't really hurt you at all, unless your players go through and exhaust their supply every level.
I agree that this is a bit much.
However, if you want to give you players a bit of an edge you can use a house rule similar to one my group uses. No one can ever have less than half a full hit die when they level (rounded up). So a d4 gets a 3 if they roll a 1,2, or 3. A d8 gets at least 5, a d12 gets at least 7 - etc. This lets everyone get a reasonably substantial bump in HP without going nuts.
Somewhere in the DMG, the option of letting PCs take average rounded down hit points each level is discussed--you end up slightly on the low side, but you have some insurance against rolling a 1 two levels in a row. What I'm doing in conjunction with a high-powered point-buy campaign is giving players average rounded up each level.
I haven't generally used action points, but I think if I did, I'd like to save the flavor of those by making them usable for "action" situations only. It's not supposed to be something to munchkinize your character sheet with, it's supposed to be something that allows you to escape from difficulty by the skin of your teeth--a representation of the luck that the heroes always have.
A good compromise our group has used on occasion is:
Roll hit points and take the better of the roll verses the average roll for that dice. Works great. Noone gets hosed for a bad roll because they can take the average for the dice type and if they roll good (above average), they can take the die roll.
It means everyone has from average to above average hit points and noone suffers for having a string of bad luck when rolling hit points.
Somewhere in the DMG, the option of letting PCs take average rounded down hit points each level is discussed--you end up slightly on the low side, but you have some insurance against rolling a 1 two levels in a row. What I'm doing in conjunction with a high-powered point-buy campaign is giving players average rounded up each level.
Actually, the option in the DMG gives average hitpoints overall (after 1st level). Basically, at odd levels above 1st you take average rounded up, and at even levels you take average rounded down. There's a table on page 198 showing the amounts per level for each die size.
Personally, I just have PCs take average rounded up at every level, and have run the game with that rule for some time. It works well, and saves a lot of fussing at level up.
I haven't generally used action points, but I think if I did, I'd like to save the flavor of those by making them usable for "action" situations only. It's not supposed to be something to munchkinize your character sheet with, it's supposed to be something that allows you to escape from difficulty by the skin of your teeth--a representation of the luck that the heroes always have.
I'd agree with that. I'm running the game in Eberron, and Action Points make for a nice heroism-enhancer in dire situations. I wouldn't want them reduced to being favour-tokens.
|
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
|
Okay, I have one of the strangest hit die house rules in existance. Ready?
Take your Constitution modifier (if positive) and multiply by 10. This is the bottom percentage of any given hit die you are allowed to reroll (round up). If your CON score is 11 or lower, what you roll is what you get.
"What the hell does that mean, Fatespinner? Why are you so needlessly complicated?"
Because I like being difficult. What this means is, for example, a wizard with a +2 CON modifier can reroll the lower 20% of his hit die. On a d4, a roll of 1 is the bottom 25%, so a +2 would only allow him to reroll 1s. If the CON modifier were +3, however, the wizard could reroll the bottom 30% of his hit die, meaning he would get to reroll 2s as well as 1s (since 30% is greater than the 25% that a '1' represents).
For fighters (or any other d10 HD class), the math is easy. You can reroll any die result less than or equal to your CON modifier.
We always round up. For example, say a cleric has a +3 CON modifier. He can reroll the bottom 30% of his hit die. On a d8, the bottom 30% would be 2.4 or lower. We round up, meaning that the cleric would be able to reroll a 3 as well as a 2 or 1.
It should also be noted that only your BASE Constitution is considered for this, not counting any bonuses you get from magical items or spell effects (though they still add their normal bonus hit points to each hit die as usual).
Okay, I have one of the strangest hit die house rules in existance. Ready?
Take your Constitution modifier (if positive) and multiply by 10. This is the bottom percentage of any given hit die you are allowed to reroll (round up). If your CON score is 11 or lower, what you roll is what you get.
Given that Constitution already modifies hit points, aren't you basically just doubling up that effect, making a decent Constitution score doubly important - and thus doubly penalising races with CON penalties?
A good compromise our group has used on occasion is:
Roll hit points and take the better of the roll verses the average roll for that dice. Works great. Noone gets hosed for a bad roll because they can take the average for the dice type and if they roll good (above average), they can take the die roll.
It means everyone has from average to above average hit points and noone suffers for having a string of bad luck when rolling hit points.
This is precisely what I'm using in my AoW campaign. The players are still feeling slightly hosed at level 3, since most of them rolled low enough that they're sitting on the average, but at least the weakest among them has more than 10 hps!
If someone has a bad roll for hit points they have the option to have the DM make a second roll for them. If they choose this option they take the DM's roll no matter what comes up on the die.
I generally use a "reroll if its in, at most, the lower 25%," kinda rule. That is, classes with d4s for hp can reroll on a 1, and barbarians can reroll on a 1, 2, or 3. d8s can reroll with a 1 or 2 as well. However, classes with d6s only get to reroll on a 1, and d10s on a 1 or 2. It means that those low rolls won't bite you on the bum, and still takes the classes hit dice into consideration.
using a "roll once", if you don't like re-roll, but be stuck with the second die" method. MY own campaigns and the ones I play in. Works fine
The method usually helps with not getting stuck with HP too low, yet prevents angling excessively high results.
On a personal note, if a character is already "weak", I usually increase "1"s on the second roll to "2"s (for D4 and D6) and "3"s (for anything bigger ) as a personal GM-privilege. To be honest - asingle HP doesnot really change all that much in a PCs fate, but is certainly increases the players confidence.
The reason I'd been considering this is that my party has very little experience at optimizing PCs or tactics, and I know the APs tend to be rather lethal. But I think I'll let them maximize the hp through lvl 3, then go with either the roll-or-half HD method or the higher of two rolls method from lvl 4 and up.
Thanks for the input!
Jamie
Our DM rolls hit dice along with us and we take the higher of the two dice + our con modifier. i.e. hit dice is a d8 you roll a 2, DM rolls a 7, you take to DM's roll and a your con mod to it.
|
Boy, all this makes me sound like a bad DM! My rule? You roll your dice. What you roll is what you get (+ Mod). Move on. :)
........................................................................
But hey, since we're playing with house rules, how about this:
When you level up, you may use an action point of that new level and roll the appropriate no. of d6, and add the highest roll to you HD roll. Certainly, this would benefit EVERYONE.
........................................................................
Okay, that does seem a bit excessive. But on the flip side, you can always put a game back into balance:
PLAYER: "Okay, I use MY action point to give my character a full dice roll for his next level up of hit points."
DM: "Okay. You find yourself in a dungeon room. You are being attacked by ogres." (Note to self: Ogres are all at full hit points, too.)
........................................................................
That said, I actually don't find the originally suggested house rule to be too unbalancing. Or rather, maybe it may seem unbalancing at lower levels, but not necessarily at higher levels, especially where the number of hit points may not be as important as a Will save when it's truly needed. I.e., what would be unbalancing would be to let them use any left-over action points from a previous level.
My house rule is you roll only for the upper half of your hps. So if you get a d8 for HD you roll a d4 and add 4.
|
|
Meh, I just do like they do in the Living Greyhawk games (even though I don't play LG):
Max hp (+mods) at 1st-level as usual, and half the hit die size plus one (+mods) at each additional level. So a 3rd-level cleric with a 12 Con would have 21 hp--8 (+1 from Con) at 1st-level, 5 (+1 from Con) at 2nd-level, and 5 (+1 from Con) at 3rd-level.