Good luck, and have fun! Now don’t mind me as I proceed to leap off a mountain for a cool superhero landing. I hope that anyone reading this finds something of use for the next time they determine HP for a monster or PC. Simple and essential, HP is incredibly useful, and is to be cherished. There is magic (such as Aid) that does increase maximum health, but the math is usually pretty simple. These set numbers are also found on page 276 of the DMG for your convenience.įor all levels, creatures add their constitution modifier, and any other bonuses (such as the Hill Dwarf’s Dwarven Toughness feature, or the Tough feat). Monster stat blocks actually use set numbers for the displayed hit points, though you can also roll hit points for them if you really want a unique value for them. And that’s not fun.īeyond the first level, a creature can choose to either roll the die and add the result to your hit points (most groups re-roll 1s), or take an average roll which is always detailed on the class for which you got each set of hit dice, and is always regular. This prevents issues with only having 1 hit point at level 1, which is really bad since you would fall unconscious if you took any damage, or die instantly if you took 2 points at once. Enter, Hit Dice! Of course I did an article about that topic, so I won’t cover the details of that, but they do play a vital role in calculating HP, by determining how many hit points a creature has each level.įor the first level, you always use the largest number on your hit die instead of rolling or taking a standard number. HP! Arguably the most important thing since games first integrated combat, this valuable resource determines how close a creature is to death, and can be depicted in many ways from injuries, to luck, or tenacity.īut as with all information, it’s not very useful with some way to determine it. It’s ridiculous! And everybody wonders why I don’t worry about collateral damage with him.” Visna, reminiscing about her last adventure He fell off a cliff over a couple hundred feet high, took three disintegrate spells directly, got mauled by a manticore while fending off a wyvern, got turned into a porcupine by a needle trap, drank a vial of acid as part of a dare, and still had enough fight to go running into the fray of a battle between the town guard and a large group of particularly bandits, and only stopped to drink one or two healing potions during this entire ordeal. Save Proficiencies: Increase a creature's effective AC by 2 if it has 3 or 4 saving throw proficiencies, or by 4 if it has 5 or 6. But it's nice to know for sure how it works.“Honestly, the many feats of endurance possible are truly mind blowing. Flies and can deal damage at range (CR 0-9 only): A monster's effective AC is increased by 2 if it can fly and deal damage at range, though only if its expected challenge rating is 10 or lower. What do you guys think?Įdit: Yeah, I don't think he's going to get the amulet. I don't know what's more balanced or if there's a rule I've overlooked. My thinking is that if I give him the +4 per level retroactively, then his hit point total is reduced when he takes it off, but if I just give it to him when he levels up, he gets to keep the hit points. Since Con modifier affects total hit points, how would I handle this sudden +4? Do I give him 4xLevel hit points when he puts it on, or do I just let him use the +4 the when he levels up while wearing it? (I'm leaning towards the former) What happens if he takes it off or loses it? So here's the question: if he chooses to keep his stats as they are, I'll probably give him an Amulet of Health somewhere down the line, which will make his Con score 19. It also means the save DC for his breath weapon is only 10, so I'm going to give him the opportunity to re-assign his array, possibly putting that 10 in Strength instead. So he's going to miss out on some hit points until he raises his Con, but I imagine Dex is going to be his first priority for ability score increases. Taking it off will change your armor class, your speed and your constitution, which in turn changes your hit points and your constitution saving throw. Constitution bonuses of OD&D, characters now receive even more hit points. One character is a Dragonborn Rogue with a Con score of 10, so his modifier is +0. In D&D 4th edition only, a character reduced to half hit points acquires the. There's a couple corrections I need to make to their character sheets, but I also have one small problem. So I'm getting ready to DM my first game, and yesterday two of my players built their characters.