Rogues (originally called "thieves") began with d4 hit dice, but by D&D 5th edition had risen to d8.Įvery character class appearing in OD&D has eventually had its hit dice increased in a later edition of the rules. Fighters, originally using a d8, increased to d10, while wizards increased from d4 to d6. For example, color spray in D&D 3.5 is more effective against creatures with fewer hit dice.Īn observed phenomenon is that the type of die available to character classes tends to increase between editions of D&D. Some spells affect targets differently based on their hit dice. These include base attack bonus, base saving throw bonus, number of feats, and the difficulty class of some supernatural attacks. In D&D 3rd edition in particular, several of a monster's statistics are calculated based on their hit dice, in the same way that some of a player character's stats are based on character level. As a result, many rules regarding monsters in particular are affected by hit dice. Hit dice are often synonymous with character level, and is often used in place of "level" when referring to monsters. This essentially gives player characters reserve of hit points to recover outside of combat. In D&D 5th edition specifically, a character can "spend" hit dice to heal out of combat. This also helps to avoid an unlucky player having a low number of hit points. This helps improve the survivability of characters at first level and avoids the situation where an unlucky player character can start with only a single hit point.Ī rule, optional in some editions, allows players to take the average value instead of rolling the hit die. In some editions of D&D, a player character standardly gains the maximum possible roll at first level. This feature would be carried through to later editions of D&D.Ī player character's Constitution score can increase or decrease their hit point total. While characters originally used six-sided dice to calculate hit points, an early innovation presented in Greyhawk (Supplement 1) (1975) gave classes different hit dice, giving fighters more hit points and magic-users fewer. A minotaur, which has six hit dice, rolls six dice to determine its hit point total. A newly-created 1st level character rolls one die to determine their hit point total. In the original 1974 Dungeons & Dragons, a player character's hit dice are equal to their character level.
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