How Big are your Hit Dice?

One paltry hit point can be the difference between life and death for a PC, so most players take their Hit Dice pretty seriously. A good roll can make a PC stout or bold, while a poor roll can make him vulnerable or frail.

But which class has the most Hit Dice? It may not be quite as obvious as it looks...

Consider the OD&D Hit Dice progressions from level 1 to level 9 (as per Men & Magic plus Gary Gygax's original pre-Greyhawk Thief class):


...Hit.Dice.Progression
--------------------------
............Hit.Dice
Level..F-M..Clr..Thf..M-U
==========================
..1....1+1...1....1....1
..2.....2....2...1+1..1+1
..3.....3....3....2....2
..4.....4....4...2+1..2+1
..5....5+1..4+1...3....3
..6.....6....5...3+1..3+1
..7....7+1...6....4....4
..8....8+2...7...4+1...5
..9....9+3..7+1...5...6+1
--------------------------


From this alone it would appear that the Fighting-Man is out in front, albeit with the Cleric on a par between levels 2 and 4. But there after it is the Fighting-Man all the way.

It would also appear that while Theives and Magic-Users are behind Fighting-Men and Clerics, they are on par with one another until level 8 from when the Magic-Users pull ahead.


However, if we also consider when these Hit Dice are attained, the picture is quite different. Let's take a look at how many experience points each class requires:


.....Experience.Level.Progression
---------------------------------------
..........Experience.Points.Required
Level....F-M...Cleric...Thief.....M-U
=======================================
..1.........0.......0.......0........0
..2.....2,000...1,500...1,200....2,500
..3.....4,000...3,000...2,400....5,000
..4.....8,000...6,000...4,800...10,000
..5....16,000..12,000...9,600...20,000
..6....32,000..25,000..20,000...35,000
..7....64,000..50,000..40,000...50,000
..8...120,000.100,000..60,000...75,000
..9...240,000.200,000..85,000..100,000
---------------------------------------



Notice that a Thief require only one third as many experience points as a Fighting-Man to attain 9th level, and a Magic-User requires fewer than half as many experience points as a Fighting-Man to attain 9th level.

The Thief and the Magic-User will, thereby, get their Hit Dice correspondingly sooner than the poor Fighting-Man.

With all that in mind, let's take look at a chart of Hit Dice versus experience points earned for each class:



This graphic appears somewhat "busy" at first, but the idea is to pick a number of experience points on the left, and then compare the four classes on that one row.

For example, when 10,000 XP have been attained, a hardened Fighting-Man has 4d6 hit points, a pious Cleric also has 4d6 hit points, our cunning Thief has 3d6 hit points, and our savvy Magic-User has 2d6+1 hit points.

Looking more closely, it is apparent that in the early game (prior to 16,000 XP being attained) the Cleric is on par with -- and even edging ahead of -- the Fighting-Man in terms of hit points. It is not until the Fighting-Man attains 7th level (requiring 64,000 XP) that he genuninely trumps the Cleric in this regard.

And although it initially appeared otherwise above, a Thief can expect to have more hit points than a Magic-User until the mage reaches 8th level -- by which time 75,000 XP have been earned. In fact, due to his rapid advancement, the Thief can anticipate having almost as many hit points as the Cleric and the Fighting-Man until his fellows reach the 3rd level of experience.

So there you have it.

Draw your own conclusions, or not!