This is about the same as action points in my eyes. Just it costs more over all.
Buying HP towards maximum
Any PC may pay 50XP to increase their rolled HP by one. This can be done multiple times, but the HP total cannot exceed the normal maximums. HP can only be bought in this fashion when the character has a quiet period to train in. (Ie, at the GM's discretion - I usually use just after XP awards at the end of a session.)
Players cannot retroactively buy HP for any level than the one they are currently in, aka - no buying up 50 HP in one shot. Extra HP can only be bought for the level you are currently at.Why: If I'm brutally honest, I put this rule in so that I could put the PCs up against tough fights without feeling like I was murdering them. But every group I've run for has enjoyed this rule - as a player I know the pain of being a barbarian with bad HP.Pro: It really balances the unfairness of bad dice rolls. Also, I occasionally give Named NPCs above-average HP in order to reflect that they have done the same (and who likes a villain that goes down too easy?) Theoretically a Fighter or Barbarian's XP would balance out as the mage types typically spend XP on creating items for the party.
Con: Get ready to meet some VERY tough mages if you allow this. Almost every magic user seems to use this system to max out their HP. Personally it doesn't bother me that much, but if you find this a problem, check out the Variant rule.
Variant:You can scale the cost of the HP's to the HD of the character buying, but this makes for slightly more book-keeping. I would suggest the following costs.
- Barbarian, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Monk 50 XP/HP
- Bard, Cleric, Druid, Rogue 75 XP/HP
- Sorcerer, Wizard 100 XP/HP
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Mon, 2005-01-10 22:03
#3
Buying HP towards maximum
Thu, 2005-01-13 10:54
#4
Buying HP towards maximum
I like the variant version. As they're supposed to be focused on magical issues, It makes sense for wizards to have to pay a slightly higher cost for a greater amount of HP.
Wed, 2005-04-20 12:03
#5
Reroll low dice
I would not bother with it, myself, though it is interesting. The random nature of hit points is there precisely because sometimes the big guy isn't as tough as he looks. However, if a player rolls low consistently, playing a combat oriented class, it can indeed hinder their abilities. I generally allow any 1s to be rerolled which significantly shifts the average, as it as (more than many non-maths types realize - d6 average becomes 4 not 3.5, d8 average becomes 5 not 4.5) with the chance for maximum points becoming 1/5 for a D6 and 1/7 for a d8, etc.
If used though, I would say that you need to implement the scaling by hit die. A character with a d4 hit die gets a lot more benefit from even one extra hitpoint than a character with a d10 hit die.
Fri, 2005-04-22 08:54
#6
Buying HP towards maximum
This is a really cool idea. One problem I see, though, is the DM knowing when to nudge up a villain's HP. How much XP should he assume that this particular villain spent fixing his low HP rolls?
I would base the scaled XP/HP cost on the hit die itself, not on the classes. It's a slight distinction, but the way it's written now sort of re-establishes 2e's classification of classes (Wizard/Warrior/Priest/Rogue, then within that you had mage/specialist, fighter/paladin/ranger, cleric, thief/bard, etc.). It just makes it so that there's no question of how expensive a prestige class's hit points are and so on, with new base classes and all of that.
Tue, 2006-07-04 19:22
#7
Buying HP towards maximum
I'm not fond of the variant. I'd rather focus on trying to get fighter types to spend more xp on something than penalize mages for doing situps.
Thu, 2006-07-13 18:52
#8
Buying HP towards maximum
We always use to reroll anything that was less than half the maximum. So a fighter would get a minimum of 5 hp per level, a mage 2.
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Fri, 2008-07-04 23:21
#9
Buying HP towards maximum
I can see the potential use of this - especially for the player who chronically rolls low. An alternate solution to that problem that my own gaming group uses is to reroll 1's.
I really like this, though it's good as a house rule since some DMs might not like it. I also like the idea of giving combat and sneaky types something to use XP on. I never liked having my magic user craft items because it sets him back in the party's advancement scheme, but if everyone else is using XP to better their effectiveness to then things are balanced.