It seems relevant only for the first couple of levels. After a character gains a couple more hit dice, the difference is within the margin of the subsequent random HP rolls.
Seems like a fussy thing to keep in mind for a marginal advantage, so it's simpler to just go with the first hit die for simplicity's sake in order to avoid having an unlucky 1st level character with just 1 HP.
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All it would really mean is that when you first add a larger HD class, you gain bonus HP equal to the difference and then roll your old HD size for one level. Which is fair, logical and balanced, but not very intuitive.
The people I used to play with, used half the die plus one.
Maxing the largest die, instead of the first, is annoying, but not worth walking away from the game. Actually, a bard/rogue would not be very affected. A ranger/sorcerer is something that this might discourage. A level of sorcerer that gives you true strike and only 1 freaking hit point, is it worth it?
Because it's unnecessarily complicated? Because whey you take a level in Barbarian, you don't want to roll a d6 hit die?
We're talking about at most 3 HP difference if looking at averages, and 6 HP is looking at maxima. And that's for Barbarian/Arcane full caster multiclasses, for most cases, it's merely +1/+2 HP.
The real question is why HP rolling was ever included as the default system!
If you want to go for it, won't matter much unless we are talking about 2nd level games where you go from a d6 to a d12 and even then not THAT big.
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I was thinking, "Will this persuade everyone to take one level of barbarian?"
Then I thought, "Do some Munchkins have their wizard start out with a level of barbarian now?"
Because that results in characters with HP significantly different from the expected. Which is not the case for a calculation based on the average.
Max HP shifts the balance, making making spells and other effects more powerful (especially save-or-suck effects). It decreases relative healing, meaning the GM has to alter treasure as well, otherwise, it makes the party weaker compared to enemies. It also increases the differences between HDs, i.e. the HP difference between a Rogue and a proper martial class will be more pronounced (that may be a good thing when it makes martial classes relatively better, but can be problematic when Rogue, Ninja, cMonk or Vigilante are used).
In addition, it can lead to long (real time) lasting combats, depending on the characters and players.
Of course it's possible, and I'd say it's better than rolling HP, but the changes are big enough to not simply implement it in an afterthought.
What works and is fun for your group might not work or be fun for another group. An "average HD" rule is suitable for every single group.
In general, max HP leads to longer fights, which means more damage taken by the party. Either the party needs to heal more, or has to start (more) combats with less than max HP, at which point the party doesn't profit from the houserule, but the enemies do; a shift in power away from the PCs. That's just basic math.
Don't get me wrong, I've played in a campaign where I really wished we'd used max HP (because it was indeed too rocket tag-y). But to pick up the thread's original question, it does present issues!
Since humanoids are class levels, drow straight up wizards are hurt as much.
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Our table adds Con *score* to starting hit points (as 4th edition did), and that hasn't presented any problems. Monsters get the same benefit, so it just smooths out combat in the early levels and makes it so that a PC can't be easily killed in one shot due to an unlucky crit.
The people I used to play with, used half the die plus one.
Which is basically approximate to PFS' max at 1st, then half-round-up thereafter.
It's difficult to plan any martial build in a game whose GM mandates rolled dice for HP. Roll lousy twice, and that character would prudently retire from adventuring.
Sorry for cutting in but I wanted to ask... How exactly does HP work in the first place? I just assumed you maximized all of their hit dice.
Sorry for cutting in but I wanted to ask... How exactly does HP work in the first place? I just assumed you maximized all of their hit dice.
They're dice. You roll them.
Except the first PC class level's hit die is maximized, and NPCs and PFS characters take the average of any non-maximized hit dice. Or something. And there's retraining for hit points.
...Yeah, I can see how it might be a bit confusing.
