HP at level 1


Rules Questions


hi guys. i ran inot a bit of a problem making my new charicter. someone told me that you got your entire con. not the bonus. this was disputed by the others as being 4e rules he had mixed up. so wich is it? will my rouge with 16 con get 11 HP or 19 HP? cheers


Con bonus.

If you go into negatives, you have to hit -Con in total to die. So for a 16 Con rogue at 1st level you will get 11hp (maxed 1d8 + Con Mod of 3). To be killed you have to be reduced to -16 hit points.


Dabbler wrote:

Con bonus.

If you go into negatives, you have to hit -Con in total to die. So for a 16 Con rogue at 1st level you will get 11hp (maxed 1d8 + Con Mod of 3). To be killed you have to be reduced to -16 hit points.

ok great. cheers


It is however a pretty common house rule, and I think it was one of the options in an incarnation of the beta rules. That is probably where the confusion comes from.

Scarab Sages

Personally, I usually allow max HP at lvl 1, plus CON bonus if any, and that one feat if the player takes it (most don't) plus favored class bonus if taken.

Just a query, if a Half-Elf chooses not to ever multi-class, would you allow him/her to take the favored class bonuses as both a +1 skill and +1 HP? Dunno how I feel about that one.


There was an option for HP in the Pathfinder BETA test phb/dmg combo, it gave multiple options for starting HP:

Standard - Max hit die + Con Mod

Double - Max hit die x2, + Con Mod

Racial - As Standard, +X
X = 4(Elf,Gnome,Halfling) or 6(Half-Elf,Human) or 8(Dwarf,Half-Orc)

Flat - As Standard, + a flat bonus to all players(Paizo recommended 6)

Constitution - Max hit die + Constitution score

Of course, these are all options that never officially made it into the actual release as far as I am aware but IMO, Constitution at level 1 is not a big deal and makes the level a lot more survivable for the players.. no more wizards with 7hp getting 1 shotted before they act in the first combat they see(or at least a significantly lowered ratio or them)

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