Alternatives to HP

[Amechra]

This is less of a "I'm planning on making this character, dudes" thing, and more of a personal curiosity thing: Can you make a viable character with a Constitution of 8 that is not some kind of extreme backliner? I'm not expecting a tank or anything like that - I'm wondering if you could possibly jury-rig something together out of temporary hitpoints or an Abjuration Wizard's ward.

[Anderlith]

The next best thing to soaking hits is not getting hit in the first place. There’s a few ways to do this. From being super sneaky, super mobile, or super tanky.

[Theodoxus]

I've never seen a character starting at 1st level with a Con of 8 make it to level 2. If you somehow do that (and Abjuration doesn't kick in until 2) then you'll probably be ok. You'll need to play very smart - it's the big hits that have the potential to kill. Avoid anything with a big weapons...

Theorycrafting here, but I think a viable option might be vhuman Cleric (Forge, Life, Nature, Tempest or War (for heavy armor) with Heavy Armor Mastery. You'll not want to tank, obviously, but if you can manage to attract the attention/actively engage the guys with simple weapons or short bows... eliminating 3 points of damage from each hit would greatly up your survival chances.

[JackPhoenix]

Sure. Get Amulet of Health. Now your Con 8 is Con 19.

Inspiring Leader and good Cha is another option: at 1st level with Cha 16, it's equivalent of having a 4 points higher Con bonus (i.e. Con 16). Doesn't stack with other sources of THP, unfortunately, and can't be healed, but it comes back after short rest.

Moon druid doesn't really care what his caster form Con is.

[Dork_Forge]

Whilst it wouldn't be smooth sailing there's plenty to negotiate around a Con of 8:


As already mentioned Inpsiring Leader and Abjurerer's Ward go a long way
A Hill Dwarf gets a racial +1hp, but you'd need to dump Con down to 6 to make it to 8
Aid and Heroism are good low level spells to compensate
Fiendish Vigor (at will False Life) will guarantee always having temp hp
The Tough feat would take you to the hp equivalent of +1 Con (over the course of a campaign topping yourself up during rests will become harder)
An Artillierists Arcane Cannon can give you temp HP every turn
Damage reduction is also an option: resistances, HAM, Stone's Endurance
Other abilities that will keep you on your feet e.g. Relentless Endurance, Death Ward


That's just dealing with actually taking damage, you can also use the various AC boosts, disadvantage to attackers, Mirror image etc.

[MaxWilson]

This is less of a "I'm planning on making this character, dudes" thing, and more of a personal curiosity thing: Can you make a viable character with a Constitution of 8 that is not some kind of extreme backliner? I'm not expecting a tank or anything like that - I'm wondering if you could possibly jury-rig something together out of temporary hitpoints or an Abjuration Wizard's ward.

Well, at level 11+ there's Long Death Monk. :) Burn ki instead of HP.

Or just have good AC and be in a party with a Shepherd Druid.

Just think about how often you see Tier 2 Con 14ish PCs get within ~20-30 HP of going down, and voila! that's how often they would go down if they had Con 8 instead of Con 14. IMO it's not so often as to make Con 8 impossible to play. It's a definite weakness, but it isn't crippling the same way having AC 8 is.

[Grognerd]

This is less of a "I'm planning on making this character, dudes" thing, and more of a personal curiosity thing: Can you make a viable character with a Constitution of 8 that is not some kind of extreme backliner? I'm not expecting a tank or anything like that - I'm wondering if you could possibly jury-rig something together out of temporary hitpoints or an Abjuration Wizard's ward.

Sure. Not only can I, but I did and enjoyed it immensely. And yes... it was a predominantly front-line character.

Backstory was that he was the victim of the "Red Plague" when he was a child. He survived because of the intervention of a priest of Lathander who healed him, though his health was permanently ruined. Nonetheless, his healing was a miracle that convinced him that Lathander had a greater plan for him. So... CON 8, Paladin.

He was paired with a cleric of Lathander (Life Domain), and together they formed the "Sword & Shield". Both were built as Variant Humans, and the cleric took the Heavy Armor Mastery feat. My character took Toughness (the +2 HP helped offset the HP penalty), and wielded a Glaive. Using the reach weapon, the heavy armored with a shield cleric took the front tier as the defense (the Shield), while the paladin struck with the reach weapon from behind the cleric (the Sword).

The other player and I had codes that we used to indicate what our actions needed to be to sync with each other. Even when I was not behind the cleric, I had heavy armor and a net HP adjustment of +1. Was I vulnerable to CON save attacks? Of course, but it was more than viable. Plus, once he leveled and was able to apply his CHA modifer to his saves, that helped offset the CON 8 as well.

Worked great.

[SpawnOfMorbo]

This is less of a "I'm planning on making this character, dudes" thing, and more of a personal curiosity thing: Can you make a viable character with a Constitution of 8 that is not some kind of extreme backliner? I'm not expecting a tank or anything like that - I'm wondering if you could possibly jury-rig something together out of temporary hitpoints or an Abjuration Wizard's ward.

Easy. Core only.


V Human (Dungeon Delver or Lucky) Barbarian (Bear Totem) 3 /Rogue (Any) 10/ Barbarian 7

This gets you medium armor, shields, danger sense, uncanny dodge, and Evasion.

Boost Strength, Dex goes to 14 and stays there, and then you can boost your choice of two from Int, Wis, or Cha (based around rouge choices).

HP @ 1: 11

HP @ 3: 23

HP @ 10: 50

However... You have advantage on dex saves and well, evasion is also a thing. If something attacks you and you use your reaction, that's half damage. Then there's bear totem so... A damage can be put down to 1/4 easily.

So that 50 hp is worth a lot more than it seems. Plus Dungeon Delver makes it where traps aren't gonna hurt you as much (1/2 damage)... So... Yeah, fun times.

Rogue and Barbarian are awesome.

[Kane0]

And of course you could just always shout dinner and drinks for the DM.

[SpawnOfMorbo]

And of course you could just always shout dinner and drinks for the DM.

PIZZA, WILD TURKEY, AND MT. DEW

Not sure if that would work... I'll give it a try.

[Segev]

In 5e, the problem with low hp is that you have no "cushion." Especially at level 1, maybe 2, having hit points as low as 5 means that you can be one-shot straight to dead by anything that can deal 10 points of damage in one hit.

Low-level enemies that can do this are mercifully pretty rare, but crits do happen (and, in fact, are one of the ways that your AC, no matter how high, is not going to help).

One solution would be to play a half-orc. Orcish Resliliance guarantees that you will take a minimum of two hits to put down (though this may not be a mercy if the enemy can do 6 damage, but not 10). If you do take this route, playing a particularly sneaky/cowardly half-orc who feigns "going down" with knocked to 1 hp may be wise.

Getting a high armor class by any means will help a lot; monsters don't have the same high to-hit bonuses that characters specialized in combat do. Making sure you force disadvantage on those attacking you will also help. Most CR 1 or lower monsters will have +3 or less to hit. With even a simple mage armor stacking disadvantage onto that will reduce the chance of a hit to about 30%.

Yo-yo healing is quite possible in 5e, since being in a state to make death saves isn't...dangerous, as long as you have an ally nearby who can act to save you. Once you have enough hp that it's unlikely that single hits will hammer through them twice over, you can afford at least one hit slipping through your defenses, which is enough to let you fight until it's too dangerous before retreating.