HP optimisation for your character.
If you want to survive in D&D, having a decent stack of hit points is one of the best ways to do so. Hit Points represent your physical durability and the more you have, the longer you can last.
You may want to know how you can get more hit points for your character. Fortunately, I have the answers if you read on below.
What determines your hit points?
We should start by understanding what determines your base hit points and primarily, this comes down to 2 factors; hit dice and constitution.
Hit dice
Your hit dice are determined by your class and tell you what dice you roll when you level up to determine the extra hit points you get. At level 1, you get the maximum possible hit points for your hit die.
They also determine the dice you roll for healing on a short rest.
Different classes will grant a different hit die which means that some classes naturally end up with more hit points than others.
| Hit Die | Class |
|---|---|
| d12 | Barbarian |
| d10 | Fighter, paladin, ranger |
| d8 | Artificer, bard, cleric, druid, monk, rogue, warlock |
| d6 | Sorcerer, wizard |
As you can see, a d8 is the most common. Barbarians clearly do best when it comes to hit dice while sorcerers and wizards are quite weak in this department.
Constitution
On top of this, your constitution modifier will determine the additional hit points you gain each time you level up. This means that constitution is a good ability score for any class as more hit points is always useful.
How can you increase your hit points?
If you want to build a character with more hit points, there are a few ways to do this:
- High hit dice class: You could play a class with high hit dice. A barbarian is best here but fighters, paladins and rangers are all pretty good too. Multiclassing into a high hit dice class will also grant those levels with higher hit dice.
- Increase your constitution: Increasing your constitution will increase your hit points per level.
- Be a Dwarf: Dwarves get an extra hit point per level.
- Take the tough origin feat: The tough feat will get you an extra 2HP per level. You can get this through the farmer, flaming fist mercenary and Rashemi wanderer backgrounds or by taking it as an extra origin feat for a Human.
- Boon of fortitude: If you reach level 19, you can take the epic boon of fortitude to increase your hit points by 40.
Temporarily increasing hit points
There aren’t loads of ways to increase your hit points in a permanent way. However, if you need a temporary boost, there are quite a few ways to do this.
These hit point boosts fall under 2 categories; temporary hit points and temporarily increasing your hit point maximum.
Gaining temporary hit points
Gaining temporary hit points is by far the most common option of the 2. Below are some ways you can gain temporary hit points (just be aware that these methods don’t stack, you have access to one source of temporary hit points at a time):
- With spells: Spells like armor of Agathys and false life both grant temporary hit points.
- Wild shape: Druids that wild shape gain a number of temporary hit points equal to their druid level except moon druids who get 3 times their druid level. In fact, other shapechanging effects like polymorph and the epic boon of fluid forms also grant temporary hit points.
- Feats: Feats like inspiring leader and chef both grant temporary hit points. The epic boon of the bright sun grants an aura of consistent temporary hit points while the boon of bountiful health enhances the temporary hit points you receive.
- Class and subclass features: Some features like a glamour bard’s mantle of inspiration and a world tree barbarian’s vitality of the tree can provide temporary hit points.
Temporarily increasing your hit point maximum
Its much rarer, but you can increase your hit point maximum temporarily which does stack with temporary hit points. There are 2 spells that will do this in aid and heroes’ feast.
Making your hit points last longer
Resilience isn’t all about having more hit points. Some characters can last longer in combat with other methods including:
- Resistances: These will half damage of a certain type that you receive.
- Increased AC: This will make you harder to hit.
- Increased saving throws: This will make you more resilient to many spells and other effects that can harm you.
- Evasiveness: Simply staying out of harms way like through flight, hiding, fighting at range or invisibility can also help you last longer.
- Healing: Having a healer or some healing potions on hand can make you last longer by rejuvenating lost hit points.
- Other resilience features: Some other features will also help you last longer too. For example, an Orc can survive being dropped to 0HP once per long rest.
If you need to beef up your character with more hit points, there’s a bunch of stuff you can do. It’s most important for frontline warriors, but any class will benefit from more hit points.
Got any other tips for making the most of hit points? Let me know in the comments below.
While high level, Power Word Fortify has been a game changer at my table.