Hit Points

Give a creature HP in the moderate range unless its theme strongly suggests it should use another range. Spellcasters, for example, often have low HP. Brutish creatures usually have high HP, compensating with lower AC, weaker saves, few tactical options, or other limitations. As mentioned in the Armor Class section above, you don’t want a creature with extreme AC to have high HP too.

Hit Points are closely tied in with immunities, weaknesses, and resistances, so if your creature has any of those, look at that section before finalizing HP (page 63).

Regeneration and Healing Abilities

Your creature might have regeneration, fast healing, or some other ability to heal itself. These healing abilities can greatly affect the flow of a fight. Regeneration or fast healing heals some number of hits each round—usually one to one and a half hits. To determine the number of Hit Points it should restore, look at the high damage value on Table 2–10: Strike Damage (page 65) and multiply that value by the number of hits healed. For instance, if the high damage is 20, regeneration between 20 to 30 makes sense. The value should be higher if the regeneration is easy to overcome—and remember that most regeneration gets easier to overcome at higher levels. Also, you might want to decrease the creature’s total HP by double its regeneration value. Fast healing follows the same rules, but because it can’t prevent a creature’s death and there isn’t always have a way to deactivate it, you might want to give the creature more HP instead of fast healing to keep things simple.

If a creature can use an ability that heals it, that ability typically restores more HP since it costs actions. An at-will healing ability should be based on a heal spell 2 levels lower than the highest-level spell a creature of that level could ordinarily cast (for example, an 11th-level creature can typically cast up to 6th-level spells, so you would base its healing ability on a 4th-level heal spell). If the ability both deals damage and heals, use that same baseline scale from above but with vampiric touch instead of heal.

High

Moderate

Low

–1	9	8–7	6–5
0	20–17	16–14	13–11
1	26–24	21–19	16–14
2	40–36	32–28	25–21
3	59–53	48–42	37–31
4	78–72	63–57	48–42
5	97–91	78–72	59–53
6	123–115	99–91	75–67
7	148–140	119–111	90–82
8	173–165	139–131	105–97
9	198–190	159–151	120–112
10	223–215	179–171	135–127
11	248–240	199–191	150–142
12	273–265	219–211	165–157
13	298–290	239–231	180–172
14	323–315	259–251	195–187
15	348–340	279–271	210–202
16	373–365	299–291	225–217
17	398–390	319–311	240–232
18	423–415	339–331	255–247
19	448–440	359–351	270–262
20	473–465	379–371	285–277
21	505–495	405–395	305–295
22	544–532	436–424	329–317
23	581–569	466–454	351–339
24	633–617	508–492	383–367