Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Gnollbane Aug 09, 2014 18:01:57	Looking through the 5E Starter Set  Campaign, I noticed that, in each creature's stat block, there was a dice roll (such as 1d6+2) after their hit points. From what I've found, that's the creatures hit dice. Is that true, and what exactly ARE hit dice?
#2 mrpopstar Aug 09, 2014 19:31:28	Gnollbane wrote:
#3 RedSiegfried Aug 09, 2014 19:45:09	That's not Hit Dice, at least not in the same sense that a PC has Hit Dice.  That 1d6+2 is a die roll that the DM can optionally use to randomly determine each monster's hit points instead of using the same number of hit points for each monster.  Monsters don't get to spend Hit Dice like PCs do, unless there's some monster that's an exception to that which I haven't read yet.   Hit Dice, AFAIK (don't have the rules in front of me at the moment) are only for PCs and are the 5e equivalent of 4e healing surges.    From the Basic Rules PDF:   "A character can spend one or more Hit Dice at the end of a short rest, up to the character’s maximum number of Hit Dice, which is equal to the character’s level. For each Hit Die spent in this way, the player rolls the die and adds the character’s Constitution modifier to it. The character regains hit points equal to the total. The player can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll."   The type of Hit Die rolled (d6, d8, d10, whatever) is determined by the PC's class.    IIRC, PCs don't HAVE to roll for their hit points at each level because they also have a number in parenthesis that they can just take instead of rolling.  But they DO have to roll if they spend a hit die to regain hit points.  So kinda sorta kinda the same, but not really.  Correct me if I'm wrong ... if it isn't already a rule, I could easily see allowing a player to take the static number when they spend a hit die instead of rolling.  For example a fighter rolls a d10 for hit points at each level, but he could also instead just take a 6.  That's 1/2 hp better, on average, and 10 extra hp over 20 levels on average.
#4 Sherman Aug 09, 2014 23:02:26	I missed where it said that monsters can't spend their Hit Dice for healing, is there a reference for that or are you extrapolating from the Basic Rules quote? How do NPCs heal if not with Hit Dice? I had a wizard in my last game run away from a fight only to heal up and return an hour later. Should he have waited an entire day and just heal to full?
(Reply to #4) aljergensen	Sherman wrote:
#6 RedSiegfried Aug 10, 2014 9:42:26	Sherman wrote: