From: Rannou@info.polymtl.ca (Patrick Rannou)
Subject: Re: Multi-Class Hit Points
Organization: Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada
	<1992Aug18.203628.11656@beaver.cs.washington.edu>
	<1992Aug18.211538.17632@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Distribution: na
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 08:29:09 GMT

In article <1992Aug18.211538.17632@m.cs.uiuc.edu> silber@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Ami A. Silberman) writes:



   We always retained the fractions. We didn't split the CON bonuses either.
   Basically, what we did was add up all the hit points the character would have
   gotten if he/she had been single class, and divided by the number of classes.
   Seemed to work out OK.


Yup. That's what I do. I sum up all the dices rolled, then divide, and
round up. Since I always write down all the dices on the PC sheets (in case
they get drained by an undead), it's easy to calculate.

Ex:  Cleric/Fighter 7/4 (what's wrong with a cleric which isn't such a
great fighter? I always hated that "levels must have a maximal difference
of one" bit anyway)):

HP = (5+3)(8+8)(3+4)(5+5)(2+10)(4)(5)(2) = 32
      /2    /2  /2   /2    /2  /2 /2 /2

       8   16   7    10    12      11
           31              33
                   64

I do this because when a PC gets drained a level, I like to think that when
the PC gets "restored" his level, he has the SAME amount of XPs as before.

Otherwise, you could end up with the following:

A party CAPTUREs a level draining undead, and controls it to drop one PC a
level, heal him, drop him another levle, heal, etc... Use of spells like
"aid" that add hit points over the normal maximum (but don`t prevent
draining) are useful for the first few times. So you get the PC to go down
until he's level 1. The level 1 hit dice is the only one you're stuck with,
but then you go up a level (using priestly high-power magic and mega dodles
cash). Reroll, oh, the fighter didn't roll a ten. OK, let's make him get
down to level 1 again and restore him again. Repeat until the roll is
"satisfactory". Then repeat for level 2, 3, etc... until the PC is back at
his original level (that's what I call MEGABUCKS spendings!).

Of course, you do this only on single class fighters or clerics... or maybe
even thieves or REAL desperate mages. When you have THAT much mnoney it's
cheaper to find a way to raise your constitution anyway...

Result: min/maxing munchkinsm! Of course any sane GM would prevent it, but
"by the book", it's possible to do it.

I just made sure that when a PC has some amount of it points, he HAS that
amount of hit points. Letting a single "drain" followed by the obvious
restoration (hey, have you ever heard of a PC getting drained a level and
NOT trying to get it restored?) change that amount HAS produced THAT
discgusting siutuation in my campaign:


Priest: Oh, no! I didn't succeed at turning it!
fighter: I`ll hack it up! But I'd hate being hit, my last level's Hit Dice
roll was a 10!
Mage & Thief: Let us at it first! We'll try to make him attack us instead
of you (while you hack it from behind). We only rolled ones when we last
gained levels!

Actually, the fact that these two players HOPED to get hit so that they
could reroll their hit dice "better" and also the fact that the fighter
feared the drain not because he was going to lose a level, but because he
was going to lose a "10" on his hit dice rolls, was the tiny bit that maded
it go overboard. I imediately installed my "HPs are fixed" rule, and gave
the players NO xps for "bad roleplaying".

Also, I just HATE it when a PC lose a level at the START of an adventure.
You just KNOW that whatever he does in the rest of it, after "restoration"
of the lost levels, the PC WILL be at the EXACT point in XPs where he was
at the moment of the drain (if not worse, like "at the start of the
level"). So I still let the PC KEEP his XPs. In fact, the beast doesn't
drain ANY XP at all! It just make the PC *operates* at a LOWER level than
ordinary.

I.E. It's exactly as if the PC was still at his higher level, but all his
habilities suffer from a "negative" effect. He fights as if X level lowers,
can cast spell as if X level lowers, has max hit points as if X levels
lower, etc...

Also, since I assume that when you fight and are hit, the hit points you
lose from damage are the ones from your MOST RECENTLY ACQUIRED LEVELS, the
drain doesn't make the PC suffer ADDITIONNAL damage. Being drained is bad
enough already as it is without adding that extra nastiness!

I mean, take a typical draining monster that has 4 attacks a round and
drain a level on any hit, doing say D4 damage. This monster can take any
one PC of HIS own hit dice and reduce it in a new undead 90% of the time.
No need to add the "draining" damage on top of that!

Pat.
--
/---------------------------\
| Patrick "Paradak" Rannou. |
| Rannou@info.polymtl.ca    |
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