Sunday, October 30, 2022

The Best Way to Roll for Hit Points

Here is my favorite approach to rolling Hit Points, especially for 5E.  

Per the 5E rules, you can roll the dice or accept the "standard" roll for each class.  Much discussion here: https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/48198/why-would-i-ever-choose-rolling-hit-points

However, I think we can have the best of both worlds.  We can roll the dice yet tweak the odds so our outcome is better than average dice rolls and our characters are not stuck with bad rolls.


The mechanism is simple.  Simply use the lower sized dice for your character class, but always add 2 to your roll result.  The minimum roll for everyone becomes a 3.

Wizard    d6    instead    d4 +2

Sorcerer    d6    instead    d4 +2

Warlock    d8    instead    d6 +2

Cleric    d8    instead    d6 +2

Bard    d8    instead    d6 +2

Rogue    d8    instead    d6 +2

Druid    d8    instead    d6 +2

Monk    d8    instead    d6 +2

Ranger    d10    instead    d8 +2

Fighter    d10    instead    d8 +2

Paladin    d10    instead    d8 +2

Barbarian    d12    instead    d10 +2



The Best Way to Roll for Hit Points

Here is my favorite approach to rolling Hit Points, especially for 5E.   Per the 5E rules, you can roll the dice or accept the "standar...