Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 abs1nth Mar 08, 2015 17:01:06	In 5e your HP almost doubles from level 1 to 2. I would really love a system where the HP between a lvl 1 and 10 character maybe triples.   I'm a huge fan of the Elder Scrolls series, in particular Morrowind. In that game you can beat the final boss with lvl 1 if you know what you are doing and have the right resources. This is an extreme example but I generally like the idea of wits and resources being more important than lvl and in 5e lvl is much more important.   I'm currently running a sandbox game and I hear a lot of people talking about not level scaling the monsters to the PCs, you know, screw the balance, make a living, breathing world. While I philosophically, fundamentally agree, 5e doesn't work with that ethos. If you include monsters that are too high CR for your players all you're doing is at best gating content, at worst causing TPKs because the players simply didn't know.   Often these same people make the comparison to Dark Souls, totally ignoring the fact that in Dark Souls pretty much any Boss can be beaten the moment you encounter it (the red Dragon being the only exception I can think of). Not level scaling enemies in Dark Souls works because the system is build in a way where player skill trumps player stats and thus all is beatable. In 5e that is absolutely not the case.   Of course there is also the realism/suspension of disbelief factor of doubling your HP in one level being really hard to swallow.   Now, the bad news: Hacking 5e to allow this would be a lot of work but I'll think about it because I REALLY would prefer this. I think it could work if I figure out a basic conversion system that I could apply to all the monsters, classes and spells to readjust their damage and HP. Something like instead of hit dice + Con Mod per lvl, it's Con Mod + class modifier divided by two or something like that.
#2 Nevvur Mar 08, 2015 18:17:31	I know it's a contentious issue, but most criticisms of HP and healing systems ignore the abstraction of HPs as being a combination of physical and mental fortitude, will to live, luck, etc. You can add character skill into that list. The fighter becomes more skilled at turning the blade along his armor, the wizard becomes swifter at ducking the incoming arrow, whatever. I'm probably not telling you anything you haven't heard before, and I understand people who prefer to narrate every successful attack as actual physical damage. Not here to argue preferences (hint: neither is intrinsically better or worse)   Still, I have yet to see a HP/healing system modification that was both more realistic, and more fun than the default. The systems designed to add realism were unwieldly and out of touch with the spirit of 5th edition's streamlined rules. You already wrote that you understand it will be a lot of work. If whatever you devise is mechanically sound, kudos, but consider how fun it is once you have a working system. Having both Realism and Fun is not a zero sum equation, so I hope you land on something that captures both. However, I think adapting your narrative style to using the default (HPs as an abstraction) is way less work than system modification, and the game will still be fun.
#3 FFSAA Mar 08, 2015 18:19:37	A common recommendation is to skip the "apprentice levels" and start play at level 4.  This would give you the HP progression you want from a starting character to a level 10 character.
#4 abs1nth Mar 08, 2015 18:43:32	FFSAA wrote:
#5 Noon Mar 08, 2015 20:06:51	abs1nth wrote:
#6 Tony_Vargas Mar 08, 2015 20:13:27	abs1nth wrote:
#7 Varden_Khol Mar 08, 2015 20:27:14	Noon wrote:
#8 abs1nth Mar 08, 2015 21:34:58	Noon wrote:
(Reply to #4) Nevvur	abs1nth wrote:
#10 abs1nth Mar 09, 2015 19:10:49	Nevvur wrote:
#11 strider13x Mar 09, 2015 19:40:18	Easy. At 1st level any successful attack can only do 1-2 HP damage (no other bonuses apply). At second level 1d4, third 1d6. After that all bets are off! No conversion needed!!
#12 arderkrag Mar 10, 2015 4:35:24	If you want a flatter hp progression, such a system is easily devised. Observe: At first level, every character gains 10 x (avg of hit dice + con mod). A character with a d10 for hps, for example, would gain 10 x (5.5 +con mod) At each successive level, each character gains: d6 = 1+ con mod hps d8 = 2+con mod hps d10 = 3+con mod hps d12 = 4+con mod hps. Additionally, at every odd level, a character gains an additional amount of damage dice equal to the base damage dice of the weapon they are using.
#13 Karnos Mar 10, 2015 6:25:26	arderkrag wrote:
#14 mellored Mar 10, 2015 6:30:10	Flattening the curve is easy.   Each creature has 30 + 1/2 their normal hit points.
#15 Karnos Mar 10, 2015 6:48:59	mellored wrote:
#16 mellored Mar 10, 2015 6:51:08	Karnos wrote:
#17 Karnos Mar 10, 2015 7:22:24	Yes it does, which is why I said it isn't easy.   But if you don't do it, you have 50+ hp level 1 characters, and monsters of supposedly decent challenge will be doing an average of 2 hp of damage to them each round... unless your combats run for 30+ rounds, nobody is ever going to be in much danger, and increasing monster hp just leads to excessivly long fights.
#18 IxidorRS Mar 10, 2015 8:23:22	You'd have to lower how much damage each creature and spell does as well as a lot of monster's HP.   I think this could be done but just seems like far too much work.   One of my favorite systems, Dungeon World, you only gain HP if your Constitution score goes up but dragons only have about 22 HP so that tells you how different that system is.
#19 mellored Mar 10, 2015 8:32:41	Karnos wrote: