
Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition) Starfinder RPG

Rules Index | GM Screen | Player's Guide
GM Core / Chapter 2: Building Games / Building Creatures

Hit Points

Source GM Core pg. 118 2.0
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, fewer tactical options, or other limitations. As mentioned in the Defenses 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.

Table 2–7: Hit Points

LevelHighModerateLow
–198–76–5
020–1716–1413–11
126–2421–1916–14
240–3632–2825–21
359–5348–4237–31
478–7263–5748–42
597–9178–7259–53
6123–11599–9175–67
7148–140119–11190–82
8173–165139–131105–97
9198–190159–151120–112
10223–215179–171135–127
11248–240199–191150–142
12273–265219–211165–157
13298–290239–231180–172
14323–315259–251195–187
15348–340279–271210–202
16373–365299–291225–217
17398–390319–311240–232
18423–415339–331255–247
19448–440359–351270–262
20473–465379–371285–277
21505–495405–395305–295
22544–532436–424329–317
23581–569466–454351–339
24633–617508–492383–367

Regeneration and Healing Abilities

Source GM Core pg. 118 2.0
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 a 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 the Strike Damage table 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 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 ranks lower than the highest-rank spell a creature of that level could ordinarily cast (for example, an 11th-level creature can typically cast up to 6th-rank spells, so you would base its healing ability on a 4th-rank heal spell). If the ability both deals damage and heals, use that same baseline scale from above but with vampiric feast instead of heal.