Does anyone feel a little funny switching on the option get full HP on level ups? (excluding first level) I know I do - the game is balanced for averaged out hit point dice rolls per level up (in theory). That would be half the dice roll every level up plus 1 HP every odd level to account for averaging. (average of a d8 is 4.5, not 4, d6 is 3.5, d4 is 2.5 - you get the drill) Is there a possibility of seeing this in a future update? I can hex-edit it or reload spam it myself of course, but I just thought some people might actually prefer averaged HP gain as a default option as it theoretically balances some of the difficulty. Max HP gain is a little extreme I gather (I had enough of that in Baldur's Gate. Let's not talk about NWN).
I'd like to chime in here as well ... Max HP does feel a bit like cheating, and reloading can be annoying. Not sure how great a solution for an 'exact average' HP gain would be. I like the random gains myself, but will reload on low ones. It might be hard to implement a system for the game to keep track of those halves as well. I personally would like to see an "at least half" HP gain option, which I'm fairly sure I've seen someplace else before. (Though I don't know where. Perhaps PS:T ?) Could come in two flavors : a) "Half-standard/half-random" and b) "Random but if < half of max = half" To illustrate using a d10 : Option a) : HP gain = 4+d6 Option b) : HP gain = d10, and if it rolls below 5, the roll is upgraded to a 5. Both would insure an "at least half". a) would offer an equal chance on each possible result (16,7% for 5,6,7,8,9 and 10 HP gain), while b) would give a 50% chance for 5, and 10% for 6,7,8,9 and 10. Option a) gives out 75% of MaxHP (on average), and would be handy for a powergamer who feels max HP is a little too much or likes his randomness. Option b) 's output approaches 66.7% of MaxHP, so would be closer to an average system, and would be quite helpful in keeping people from reloading. Ah!, I have no idea how difficult this would be. Might be even harder than that pure average. I know I would play with either of my suggestions and not worry about reloading for Hit Points, though. (Which I do tend to do at the moment.) -Gerko
I think having an "average HP for PCs" option would be great, since the game has a bad habit of consistently rolling 1s on levelup for some characters, which means I spend a lot of time in the console after levelup bumping characters back up to average. I have no idea what it would take to code it, though.
Max HP is ok IMO for someone starting out to get a feel for things. Lots of folks start over due to corrupted saves, or screwed up builds, or whatever. I agree that an "average HP" solution would be good for those who would like that option as well. Our house rule on average HP used the next smaller die +2 to get a slightly better average. It was more suited to our needs as older 1st Edition characters were being utilized in material really meant for later editions & was being retrofitted on the fly to our style.
Max HP for characters is only acceptable (IMHO) if you also choose maximum hitpoints for all NPC characters/monsters as well.Some of the ogres and elite bugbears in the Temple become extremely powerful with all that extra XP.
I don't like the max HP option for myself, so I just save before leveling up so that I can reload if hte game tries to stick me with a cluster opf low rolls for more than one PC, or if it doesn't account for the 1 HP per level that you are supposed to get from the toughness feat for a character who selected that one. It appears that in TOEE toughness only provides the initial three HP, and not the one extra per level. That makes it a pretty underpowered feat.
I have found myself playing ToEE games where I select Max HPs for everything, select all three of the options.
This is as per the PNP rules. Improved Toughness, which grants an additional HP per level, is a different feat from The Complete Warrior, which is an optional book.
