HP (Health)

HP

HP stands for Hit Points or Health Points. This represents how much damage the character can take and thus how close they are to suffering lasting damage. When damage has reduced a character's HP to 0, the character is vulnerable and may not even be able to remain standing.

Current HP, Maximum HP, Temporary HP and HP Level are listed. When HP is generally referred to, assume it means Current HP.

Current HP

Current HP refers to how much of a character's HP is currently remaining - how far they are from collapse and, most likely, from death.

Whenever a character takes damage, their Current HP is lowered by the amount of damage taken, after Temporary HP is exhausted. If already 0, damage is also dealt to VP.

A character's HP cannot be raised above their Maximum HP. If something specifically describes itself as giving a character Temporary HP, it restores Current HP first and then increases Temporary HP.

Current HP is regained by various means of recovery - Healing, Resting, Regeneration, magical spells and from converting Temporary HP into Current HP.

Maximum HP

Maximum HP refers to the total permanent HP received from all sources. It does not include temporary HP.

Temporary HP

A character may gain Temporary HP from various sources - usually magic.

When a character receives damage, Temporary HP is reduced by the damage before applying any remaining damage to Current HP. If a character gains Temporary HP whilst their Current HP is below Maximum, increase Current HP by the Temporary HP instead - any remaining is then added to Temporary HP.

Temporary HP remains until it is lost by damage or until it's duration has expired. If no duration is listed, Temporary HP lasts for 24 hours. Once the duration has expired, 1 point of Temporary HP is converted into Current HP per round. Temporary HP is also converted into Current HP at a rate of 1 point per 10 minutes of rest, regardless of duration.

If a character cannot increase their Current HP with Temporary HP as it has reached Maximum HP and Temporary HP's duration has expired, then 1 point of Temporary HP is lost per round.

HP Level

The character's HP level is equal to their Maximum HP divided by the total number of HD and Levels they possess. Ignore Levels above 10 for the purpose of determining HP Level. This is important for certain conditions - particularly Energy Drain.

Determining HP

A character begins with a number of HP dependent on their Hit-Dice, Levels, Toughness and the Adventure Style. Consult the Hit-Dice page to determine how Hit-Dice and Levels interact.

A character rolls HP for each HD they possess, though Levels above 10 do not grant additional HD. Whenever a character is called upon to roll Hitpoints, they roll a dice of the appropriate Hit-Dice Size.

If the dice roll is less than the character's Minimum HP from Constitution, consider it to be equal to the Minimum HP value. Following this, modify the HP received by Toughness, to a minimum of 1 HP, for all Base HD and for up to 10 levels of classes. Any bonuses received from Base HD are also applied at this point.

Once HP gain has been determined, add this to the character's Maximum HP.

A character can never lose HP for levelling up - they always gain a minimum of 1 HP.

Traditional Adventures - The highest bonus a character who does not have Warrior Levels can receive to their Hit-Dice is +2 from Toughness unless they have 1 +3 or more HD.

Heroic Adventures - Every character's first Level's HD is maximized. Minimum HP is doubled. No effect on Base HD - these must still be rolled for determining Base HP.

Epic Adventures - Every character's Hit-Dice is always maximized.

Base HP

A character with 1+2 or less HD may either use their Base HD or Class Level to determine HP, rolling both and taking the best result (in a Traditional game) or taking the maximised die roll. A Human Wizard, thus, would choose between 4 HP or 8 HP. Characters with HD of 1+3 or greater, meanwhile, use both. In either case, it is modified by Toughness.

HP Gain Above Level 10

A character gains their Hit-Dice Size per Level or additional HD gained. Characters gain fewer HP after Level 10; +3 if their HD Size is 10 or more, +2 if it is d6 to d8 and +1 if it is d4 or less.

Multiclass HP

In terms of HP, they divide each class's HP gain by the number of classes they posses and gain HP for each HD as appropriate. A Fighter 5/Thief 6, for instance, has 5d10/2 and 6d6/2 HP from class, combined. Note, any modifiers applied to a Hit-Dice (such as Toughness) are applied before the division occurs. Fractional HP can be saved for evening out when level increases.

Dualclass HP

In terms of HP, a Dualclass character only gains HP for their Dual-Classing once exceed the Dual-Class Threshold. A character that leveled as a Fighter for 3 levels who dualclassed into Cleric would keep their HP from before becoming a Cleric, but after reaching Level 4 in Cleric, they would begin to add HP from Cleric. They may only gain 10 HD worth of HP from all their class levels combined, however, using the largest dice to determine HP. For example, the character described above would have 3d10 HP from Class levels when they begin dualclassing. Upon hitting level 4, they may add 1d8 HP from Cleric.

HP 0

When a character reaches 0 HP, they are in Critical Condition. In this state, all HP damage is also dealt to VP. As Insidious Damage does HP and VP damage, this means that it effectively deals double damage to VP.

Critical Condition is removed when the character's HP is above 0.

Traditional Adventures - Character is Dead at 0 HP, unless something prevents death or some effect has Destroyed them or caused them to be simply Gone.

Heroic Adventures - No change.

Epic Adventures - No change.

Negative HP

HP can be reduced below 0 but the only effect this has is to make it harder to remove the Critical Condition from the character. For example, a character who is dropped to HP -10 has presumably lost 10 VP and must heal 11 HP (enough to take them up to 1 HP) before they can act normally again and may mean they have to recover longer.

HP Examples

Traditional Adventures - A Level 12 Dwarven Fighter with a Constitution of 19 receives a +5 bonus from Toughness and has a hit-dice size of d10, granting them +3 HP per level after 10. They thus receive 10d10 from Fighter Levels and +50 from Toughness (capping at Level 10) but, after this point, only receive +6 from Levels. Their HP rolls (4 + 4 + 6 + 2 + 9 + 7 + 3 + 2 + 7 + 10) give them 54 before modifiers, 110 HP after modifiers.

Heroic Adventures - A Fighter 5/Thief 6 Ogre with a Constitution of 17 receives a Base HD of 4+1 and a +3 bonus from Toughness. Their Hit-Dice Size is d8 for Ogre, d10 for Fighter and d6 for Thief. They thus receive 4d8+1 from Ogre, (4d10+10)/2 for Fighter and (5d6+6)/2 for Thief and +7.5 HP from Toughness for Fighter and +9 HP from Toughness from Thief. Their HP rolls are (6 + 5 + 2* + 6 + 2*) are 21 for Base HD, (6 + 10 + 9 + 10 + 10) 45/2 for Fighter and (2* + 4 + 2 + 6 + 2 + 6) = 22/2 from Thief. This gives us 19 + 22.5 + 11 + 7.5 + 9HP. This gives us a total of 71 HP after modifiers.

*These HP rolls were 1 but Constitution's Minimum HP value set them to 2.

Epic Adventures - A Fighter 3 -> Cleric 4 Yuan-ti Abomination with a Constitution of 14 receives a Base HD of 9 and no bonus from Toughness. Their Hit-Dice Size is d8 for Yuan-Ti Abomination, d10 for Fighter and d8 for Cleric. They thus receive 72 HP from Yuan-Ti Abomination, 30 HP from Fighter and, having dualclassed into Cleric and only passed the Dualclass Threshold for 1 level, they receive an additional 8hp from Cleric. This gives them a total HP of 110 HP.