I am confused on the HP of stat blocks in the bestiary.
Lizard, Giant.
hp 11 (2d8+2)
Young Black Dragon
hp 76 (8d12+24)
In every stat block I see (such as the 2 above), the HP is always lower than the dice add up to. Seems Lizard should be HP 18, and dragon 120.
Why is it always significantly lower than the dice would seem?
thanks for schoolin a noob
The number is the listed average roll. Most groups use that to save time. The numbers you listed were the max possible HP. I hope that helps.
Sure does,
So Would not be a great stretch to bump those up to max, on some mobs. Or even roll em out for some of the NPC's...
Thanks :)
Yeah, you may. It is a fairly simple way to bump up difficulty. I'd keep in mind that the CR was probably balanced based off of the average though. Not enough difference to cause a +1 CR, but just be aware.
Generally though, characters take the average result of a dice, except for level 1, where those with class levels take max. Other creatures, including eidolons and animal companions, only get average at first level generally. That is why animal companions have 2 hit dice at the beginning.
This rule can be ignored, but it represents a fairly simply shorthand for everyone involved. Do you want to go around throwing 8 dice every time you make a dragon. Or worse: rolling for each and every kobold in a mine. Since they can be popped like candy when spread out, you could be dealing with 20 or more of the little buggers. Essentially, it seems more important to use with the mooks that get wiped out and forgotten.
Using the average hit points is just a convenience. If you've got an encounter with 6 orc warriors, you could roll each of their hit points - and sometimes that's a good idea, particularly if you're content to have some be tougher and some weaker - but you'll ultimately burn through about the same number of hit points in the aggregate as you would if they all had average hit points.
Deciding how many hit points per die encounter creatures have can be a good way to adjust the difficulty of the encounter without affecting it all that much. Cut the creature to 1 hit point per die and he still has as much of an offensive punch as one with full hit points, but he won't bog a fight down for long. He's also a great target for a less offensively optimized PC to face off with when the adventurers burst into the room. The big damage dealers can get the ones with the high hit points, the lower damage PCs can get the weaker ones, and everyone gets to have fun.
I sometimes use the max HP option when wanting an elite encounter to last longer (my group is above average in size so combats can be brutally short).
In general I save that option for named characters and solo encounters. In groups of mooks its better to just add one to make up the CR issue from a large group. At least that has worked for my group so far.