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General Tabletop Discussion
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Do you ever roll for monster HPs in 5E?
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<blockquote data-quote="timbannock" data-source="post: 9254000" data-attributes="member: 17913"><p>When I have the encounter prepped (9 outta 10 times), yes, I roll for HP. I also add B/X-style morale.</p><p></p><p>I have definitely seen some especially good or bad rolls change how a combat goes. The most blatant examples are when I ran LMoP back in the day (not rolling for HP, not using Morale, not using average damage) versus running it recently (roll for HP, use Morale, and use average damage sometimes, but other times use a variation on Sly Flourish's recent tip of "average damage minus 3, plus 1d6"). I've found that Morale is a very useful tool for making combats end faster, while rolling for HP can make low level (1-3) fights significantly more swingy, but after that it seems to stop mattering.</p><p></p><p>Especially low HP plus morale makes a fight almost more of a foregone conclusion. Absurdly high HP plus morale gives you that extra "out" of morale, but if the rolls don't favor the PCs, it can get a little more sloggy, so you have to be extra aware of everyone's enjoyment of the specific fight. Again, this all seems to wash out after level 3 or so, where things just get swingier by the nature of the game and the components that make up the PCs' ability to dish out damage.</p><p></p><p>Not sure if this matters, but I'll state it: I have a rule where if you want to intimidate creatures, it's an action but if successful, the monsters have to make a morale check on their next turn (even if none of the other criteria like "leader's dead" or "half their allies are dead" or "they are at half HP" are met), and they do so at disadvantage. (If it fails, the don't have advantage, and they only make a morale check if one of the other criteria is true.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="timbannock, post: 9254000, member: 17913"] When I have the encounter prepped (9 outta 10 times), yes, I roll for HP. I also add B/X-style morale. I have definitely seen some especially good or bad rolls change how a combat goes. The most blatant examples are when I ran LMoP back in the day (not rolling for HP, not using Morale, not using average damage) versus running it recently (roll for HP, use Morale, and use average damage sometimes, but other times use a variation on Sly Flourish's recent tip of "average damage minus 3, plus 1d6"). I've found that Morale is a very useful tool for making combats end faster, while rolling for HP can make low level (1-3) fights significantly more swingy, but after that it seems to stop mattering. Especially low HP plus morale makes a fight almost more of a foregone conclusion. Absurdly high HP plus morale gives you that extra "out" of morale, but if the rolls don't favor the PCs, it can get a little more sloggy, so you have to be extra aware of everyone's enjoyment of the specific fight. Again, this all seems to wash out after level 3 or so, where things just get swingier by the nature of the game and the components that make up the PCs' ability to dish out damage. Not sure if this matters, but I'll state it: I have a rule where if you want to intimidate creatures, it's an action but if successful, the monsters have to make a morale check on their next turn (even if none of the other criteria like "leader's dead" or "half their allies are dead" or "they are at half HP" are met), and they do so at disadvantage. (If it fails, the don't have advantage, and they only make a morale check if one of the other criteria is true.) [/QUOTE]
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Do you ever roll for monster HPs in 5E?
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