Streamlining ans simplifying character creation : [3 / 5] Too few hp at level 1

[mekka2000]

One critical can kill you... Hard when you discover rpg and are a beginner.

Inspired by PF2 playtest.

Add a "racial hp bonus" to your character at level 1 :

Base is 8
If the race is small, -2
If the race is large, +2
If the race has a bonus to CON, +2
If the race has a malus to CON, -2
I think I reverse engineered how pf2 calculate it :)

So :
Dwarves : 10 hp
Elves : 6 hp
Halfling : 6 hp
Humans : 8 hp
Half-elf : 8 hp
Half-orc : 8hp
Gnomes : 6 hp

What do you think about ?

[LordKailas]

It's one solution, but you'll want to make sure your players understand that you've buffed their HP and that this isn't the norm.

Personally, this is why I like to roll behind a screen. Have the following notes for each character that you can easily reference.

Total HP, Save bonuses, skills like perception and hide.

This way, you'll know when you've rolled something that will splat the character and can use dm fiat to reduce the damage to something that's still scary but not fatal. Just don't let players know you're doing this. Some DMs prefer to roll openly but you lose the ability to subtly swing things in favor of the players.

I find it useful since it allows you to avoid TPKs in situations where the player's aren't at fault via making bad decisions.

[Lynxden]

We just add Constitution score to total health at first level instead of constitution mod. It can buff health quite a bit, but that's kinda the idea. My wife starting playing with us because of that rule, since her first ever character was killed via critical by a rat. Poisoned her against the game for years.

Not sure if it's something you want to use, but I thought I'd add in what works with my table.

[Juda de Kerioth]

mekka2000 wrote:

Inspired by PF2 playtest.

Add a "racial hp bonus" to your character at level 1 :

Base is 8
If the race is small, -2
If the race is large, +2
If the race has a bonus to CON, +2
If the race has a malus to CON, -2
I think I reverse engineered how pf2 calculate it :)

you could check my houserules in some of my posts. I always give 8 hp as ahumanoid racial bonus at character creation.

The variation of hp from pf2 comes from unearthed arcana 3.5, but since humanoid have HD d8 it not make sense, since the races has pluses and minuses to their stats to represent this very variation.

So, it is kind of silly to gves an orc 12 hp (unearthed arcana version) when you will give him alongisde that 12 a +2 to constitution.

I use Sanity rules from Horror Adventures, mixed with Cthulhu Mythis from Sandy Petersen, as a Sanity bonus I use those Vitality granted by racial bonus in Starfinder.

[ckdragons]

Or... you can provide Toughness as a bonus feat to all characters? 3 hit points at 1st level is extremely useful, but isn't game breaking at later levels.

Or... you can start the characters at 3rd level with normal starting gold. This will allow the characters to have some edge while they adventure, especially without the "1-2 fights, time to rest".