Template Hit Die oddity, Am I missing something?


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


The Mythical creature template from tomb of horrers say to increase HD by 50% then double that amount. As that is equivalent to simply tripling HD, and as at least a full HD is required, I am wondering why this seemingly overly complicated wording was chosen.


TheAlicornSage wrote:
The Mythical creature template from tomb of horrers say to increase HD by 50% then double that amount. As that is equivalent to simply tripling HD, and as at least a full HD is required, I am wondering why this seemingly overly complicated wording was chosen.

Looking at the mythical lion, it has 14 hit dice. A normal lion has 5. 5 x1.5 = 7.5 (round down to 7), x 2 = 14 hit dice.

It seems they want you to round down after increasing by 50%. That means it isn't always triple the normal number of hit dice.


As Jeraa said, after you increase by 50%, you need to round down. The "increase HD by 50%, then double that amount" is equivalent to the following: Triple the HD, then round the HD down to the nearest multiple of two. Going back to the 5 HD lion to 14 HD mythical lion: 5 x 3 = 15, 15 - 15%2 = 14. It's an arcane and clunky system and I have no idea why the template does this, but this is distinct from simply tripling.


And this only makes a difference when the base creature has an odd number of HD, which makes it pretty stupid if you ask me.


Why would you round down in the middle of it without them saying so? In math you always do rounding last.

And in that case though, wouldn't it just be simpler to say "triple hd, rounded down to nearest even number." Less confusion and you aren't relying on people figuring out to round things in the middle of a calculation, something completely backwards and unthinkable for some of us.

Also, is there something wrong with odd numbers of hd?


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BREAKING NEWS: It is alleged that the publishers of "Tomb of Horrors Complete(TM)" created a shoddy, badly thought out rules element. The writers of the book have yet to comment thus far. More details at 11:00.

In other news, water is wet.


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Snowblind, Snarkwyrm wrote:

BREAKING NEWS: It is alleged that the publishers of "Tomb of Horrors Complete(TM)" created a shoddy, badly thought out rules element. The writers of the book have yet to comment thus far. More details at 11:00.

In other news, water is wet.

I've been wondering. What religion is the Pope?


Orfamay Quest wrote:

...

I've been wondering. What religion is the Pope?

Garden variety or Space Lizard Pope?


Ah yes, cause it is always better to assume the designers were idiots (and call them out on it) rather than suggest them seeing or understanding something different from you or the community in general, which may have led them to a design which seems stupid to others.
[/sarcasm]

Meanwhile, is there something important about even numbered hd?


Other than not requiring rounding when taking average numbers of hit points?

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