Would it better if Hit Points were determined by Constitution AND Strength?
Nihilus
Member Posts: 192
Disclaimer: I don't expect anything in this post to be actually implemented in the game.
There is no relation between Constitution and Strength in D&D character creation. A character can throw the most powerful punches, and not be able to take anything in return (Glass Cannon), while another character can take obscene amounts of damage, and yet not be able to register any him/herself (Stone Wall).
Now the first example might work for a golem made of glass, and the second one for a sort of squishy blob, but I don't think they work for humanoid creatures, whose muscle composition demands at least some measure of correlation between the ability to cause physical damage and the ability to take physical damage.
So what if it were like this:
There is no relation between Constitution and Strength in D&D character creation. A character can throw the most powerful punches, and not be able to take anything in return (Glass Cannon), while another character can take obscene amounts of damage, and yet not be able to register any him/herself (Stone Wall).
Now the first example might work for a golem made of glass, and the second one for a sort of squishy blob, but I don't think they work for humanoid creatures, whose muscle composition demands at least some measure of correlation between the ability to cause physical damage and the ability to take physical damage.
So what if it were like this:
- Strenght determines damage adjustment, among other things, as usual.
- Constitution determines fatigue, resistance to intoxication, saving throw bonuses (make them available for all races maybe?), resistance to disease and poison?
- An average of Strength and Contitution determines Hit Point bonuses (maybe carrying capacity as well?)
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Strength 6, Constitution 27!!!
Having said that however, D&D also has a ruling that DMs may modify anything to suit they campaign.
The idea of HP is not only about toughness, it also involves certain amount of probabilities such as an element of undefined "luck" and unknown/unexplained extra toughness due to magic or nature etc elements. HP is only, in a very small potion, defined by actual material toughness in most cases otherwise every human or demi-human will be relatively squishy by all means. Thus they do not wish to complicate these factors and thereby making HP improvements only adjusted by constitution.
Another instance why strength should not influence HP for example is diamond. It is a very strong material but it can still be chipped rather easily.
For example, carrying capacity can be determined by an average of STR and CON, while hit adjustment can be determined by STR and DEX (one has to be accurate to register a hit after, even when using melee weapons).
In this scheme, only damage adjustment and bashing would be determined by STR only.
That wouldn't affect Elves much, they're already used to lower HPs, but it would Halflings, who already get the... short... end of the stick, with their rather small class selection. And now all non-Warrior classes would need to roll, what, 16 STR on top of 16 CON to get their best health, while still managing to get high in their needed stats, like WIS and CHA for a Druid, for instance. Oh, and we can't forget the max DEX allowed by the race too, for their AC. Having to get 5 out of 6 stats is MAD beyond belief, and far too much of a pain to do.
And this would affect NPCs too, wouldn't it? Imoen would go from being perfectly designed for Dual-Classing to having even less HP now, making her far too squishy. Will Xan, the squishiest character of the game, suddenly become beefier because of his STR? Will Viccy's health tank now? It's really best to leave things simple. D&D isn't supposed to be 100% realistic, that's its draw. That's why we play it.
D&D wasn't designed that way, and trying to backport it in at this stage wouldn't really add anything interesting.
Martials tend to need both strength and con anyway, wizards don't need either or hitpoints because they have so many other ways to deal with problems.
- Fortitude saves (to resist bodily effects, such as poison, disease, shapechange, etc...), where constitution provides a bonus.
- Reflex saves (to dodge effects, such as traps and fireballs, as well as reacting to something in time), where dexterity provides a bonus.
- Will saves (to resist mental effects, such as charm, sleep, fear, etc...), where wisdom provides a bonus.
5th one-upped that and provided saving throws for all ability scores.
The problem is this: Do Hit Points really represent internal health (allergies or lack thereof, immunities etc.), or are they more about the body's level of endurance against external damage? I think it's the latter.
If an average of STR and CON was used to determine HP - a) would you still use different dice to determine starting HP for different classes?
- what would the math equation for starting hp look like? and what would it look like for each level?
lets says a warrior has a combined 16 CON and 16 STR = 32 and a mage had a combined also of 32 - how would this affect the hp? would it be the same or different? or would class no longer matter when it comes to determining HP?
b) would the average in some way directly affect hp or would it be modified in some way?
c) if you had a high CON but a low STR how would this be adjusted and conversely how would it affect hp? Would it be some kind of % adjustment or something?
d) would CON and STR stat raise or would it be fixed? 2nd ed vs 3rd edition rules for stats.
e) would CON affect all saving throws or only those saving throws that affect the body - ie poison, perhaps elemental spells that affect the body in general rather than lets says running and leaping away from a fireball - which should be a DEX saving throw.
g) Shouldn't DEX also be included in HP modification - since DEX measures your movement ability - low dex basically means you are moving pretty badly and this can affect HP couldn't it? or how about WIS or INT that can negatively or positively affect HP in some way? low INT or WIS can seriously affect an individuals health in general.
If Dragon Ball Z were AD&D (child) Gohan would be a boy with average strength (he's a child) , but those who watched the cartoon remember him being beaten up by every single villain in the game . Clearly he has one of the highest constitutions in the game.
Also, let's not forget our best friend Imoen, as she also fits in that stereotype - a kind, childish maybe physically fragile person, but boy how did she resist all those tests from Irenicus? High constitution must have been more relevant than strength.