Is there a way to randomly generate creature HP?
I don't like every monster of the same type having the exact same HP, but there's no Hit Die in this system so I can't just roll xD8 to generate them.
Anyone have any ideas?
Flip a coin and roll a D20. Heads, up the hp by the percent you rolled on the d20, tails reduce it by the same percentage.
I think this is more of a homebrew question than a rules question, though.
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The first question's a rules question: No.
I agree it can be wonky to have clones running around, especially coming from old school D&D where there could be huge variance in say a tribe of Hill Giants. And that variance IMO did add flavor re: describing the different giants.
I've come to accept that there's enough variance re: damage to ignore needing as much variance on the receiving end, especially since it's unlikely in PF2 to have an AoE that just barely does or doesn't wipe out a specific group of monsters.
As well as Hammerjack's proposal (w/ whichever die you desire), I'll add one I've used when translating some older Paizo & TSR products. In a group of clones, I'd subtract some h.p. from one to give to another.
For example, there was an encounter with three wolves with one being dominant, yet not so much that they're Elite vs. Weak (which would be another fine approach).
In PF2, they'd have 24 h.p. each, but a better translation of that module might be 16 h.p./16 h.p./40 h.p. (yes, it was extreme then too) or maybe 20/20/32. Essentially the pool would remain the same, and it lets the GM point out "this one's different" which IMO is kind of cool and adds some realism that they're not all alike.
*Best might be Weak/Weak/Normal given the relative power, but that's because there's a difference in wolves then vs. now.
That's fair. I was focusing too much on the "any ideas?" part of it, and thinking of it as the main question in my head, since I was thinking from the second line that we were all on the page of "this system doesn't do that".
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Do you have your PCs with different hit points if they have the same die size and Constitution? Its essentially the same thing. 2E is standardized for simplicity and ease of play, but remember, all the rules are optional at the GM's discretion. If you want similar creatures to have different hit points, then just give them different hit points. The GameMastery Guide shows a range of hit points for creating new creatures which could be applied to existing ones. Good luck
Do you have your PCs with different hit points if they have the same die size and Constitution? Its essentially the same thing. 2E is standardized for simplicity and ease of play, but remember, all the rules are optional at the GM's discretion. If you want similar creatures to have different hit points, then just give them different hit points. The GameMastery Guide shows a range of hit points for creating new creatures which could be applied to existing ones. Good luck
Ah, I didn't even think of the GMG--good idea.
I'd still prefer an HD system where I can quickly roll them all up, but this should work.
I like the +/- 10%. Simple, quick, not as much of an adjustment as Weak or Elite, and no chance that you'd randomly roll a bunch of 1s and 2s for whatever Hit Die you determined.
I like the idea of having a bunch of 1s and 2s rolled. Sometimes there's just the runt of the litter. And with using the Con modifier, they still wouldn't be too weak.
If you want a wider range of possible HP results, you could probably still use a percentage based thing. If you wanted creatures to range from 50% health to 150% health, for example, you could roll 5d10 for the percentage, so that there's at least a bell curve on it, because big swings being too common could start really distorting encounter balance, sometimes.
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I like the idea of having a bunch of 1s and 2s rolled. Sometimes there's just the runt of the litter. And with using the Con modifier, they still wouldn't be too weak.
In that case...
(HP-(CRxCon))/(CR) to find out what the "Racial HP" is, and use that to determine "Racial HD" (I think that's the old-school AD&D term, anyways).
Example: Carrion Golem
(60-(4x3))/(4)=12 Racial HP
60-12=4(3+X) to determine average HP/Level
9 is the average result of a d17
So now 12+(4d17+3) will give you a randomly determined spread of hit points for each creature.
To end up with a narrow range of HP for similar enemies:
Pick a range of variance that you want (Say, 8 HP range). Use a die of that size (so a d8). Subtract half that amount from the creature's standard HP to get a new base HP value. Roll the die and add that many HP to its base HP.
So instead of having 40 HP for all of the enemies, you could have 36 + 1d8 HP. Range ends up being 37 to 44 HP.
Remember if you use this that using multiple dice will cause the distribution to tend toward the center. For example: while 1d12, 2d6, and 3d4 all have the same maximum and similar average, the 1d12 will end up with more extreme values in total, while the 3d4 will end up between 6 and 9 almost always.
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Another possibility might be to tweak the monster levels and all associated stats. For example, if you have an encounter with four level 3 creatures, you could make them levels 4, 3, 2, and 2 instead.
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I like the idea of having a bunch of 1s and 2s rolled. Sometimes there's just the runt of the litter. And with using the Con modifier, they still wouldn't be too weak.
Technically that is already accounted for with the Weak/Elite adjustments, though there is nothing stopping you from just making the hit points whatever you want. You really don't need specified hit dice or some system rules for variable hit points. The game already tells you what the creature's hit points should be. Just adjust from there.
If are using a VTT and you set your VTT to show an approximate bar instead of the exact number of HP, you don't have to adjust the hit points.
If are using a VTT and you set your VTT to show an approximate bar instead of the exact number of HP, you don't have to adjust the hit points.
The creatures still have the same HP though; it still takes the same amount of damage to kill them, so not really achieving what I want.
That must be a VTT-specific option as it is not something I am aware of being possible in Roll20
The Health Estimate module for Foundry does this.