I am trying to fill in the "Alternative Character Sheet" (one of the official character sheets provided on Wizards of the Coast's website). It asks me for my "Maximum Hit Dice" and the "Remaining Hit Dice". What do these terms mean?
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3\$\begingroup\$ Have you read the character creation rules on Basic Rules, System reference document or the Player's Handbook? \$\endgroup\$– kviiriNov 6, 2017 at 20:10
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1\$\begingroup\$ If you read my bio, I haven't got Dungeons and Dragons yet, but I am going to get it, so I haven't got the book yet either. \$\endgroup\$– user40250Nov 8, 2017 at 15:37
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1\$\begingroup\$ That is immaterial. You can get the D&D Basic Rules here: media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/PlayerBasicRulesV03.pdf and media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/DMBasicRulesV05.pdf Also, you should not assume other members will read your bio to see your experience in that regard. There's no reason to expect a user will have stated what their experience "Level" is, so 99.99% of users won't waste their time checking. I hate being blunt like this, but you need to try to learn the rules first as a courtesy. We should be a supplement to understand the rules, not your rule source. \$\endgroup\$– Sora TamashiiJul 13, 2018 at 4:26
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2 Answers
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Hit Dice can be "spent" at the end of a Short Rest to recover HP. You have a Maximum number of Hit Dice equal to your total level, with the size of the dice based on your class (As Detailed in the "Hit Points" section of every class description).
Because you can expend Hit Dice to heal, you may presently have fewer Hit Dice available to spend than your total maximum. That's what the second field is for.
So, if you are a 5th level Fighter (using my preferred method of notation), you would put "5(d10)" in the Maximum Hit Dice section.
If you have not spent any Hit Dice, the same value would be put in the Remaining Hit Dice segment. As you spend Hit Dice to heal, you subtract the number expended from that section...and add back to it (up to your max hit dice) when you regain up to half of your max Hit Dice as a result of a Long Rest.
When you level up, increment Max Hit Dice by one.
For further details on how this works, see the segment on Resting in the PHB on page 186
answered Nov 6, 2017 at 20:12
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3\$\begingroup\$ Why the parentheses on “d10”? I gather that this is what you mean by your “preferred method of notation,” but I don’t understand why that’s your preference, and I find it kind of weird and sort of unhelpful to use your personal preferred notation instead of the official one when explaining a basic concept to a new player—this is only going to confuse them when they compare it against the official notation. I think this answer would be improved by just using the official notation, maybe, if you absolutely must, with a footnote about your preference. \$\endgroup\$– KRyanAug 26, 2018 at 19:52
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Hit dice are a reservoir of health.
After finishing a short rest, a character can spend their hit dice to roll them. Each rolled hit die heals the character for a number of hit points equal to the number rolled plus the character's constitution modifier. One does not have to choose in advance how many dice to roll — instead, you can roll them one by one until you run out of hit dice to spend.
Each level grants the character an additional hit die to their hit die maximum. Beefier classes get larger dice than the less physical ones: Barbarians' hit die is d12, for example, while the squishier Wizards and Sorcerers have d6. The full table can be found in the table on Player's Handbook page 45. Multiclassed characters have hit dice of the types of all the classes they have: for example, a Fighter 5/Rogue 2 would have a maximum of five d10 hit dice from Fighter levels, and two d8 hit dice from Rogue levels.
Hit dice are recovered by talking a long rest. A long rest returns hit dice up to half of the player's total hit dice, rounded down as usual but a minimum of one hit die (not in my copy of PHB, but has since been covered in Errata).
The rules don't say that a character has to recover a particular type of dice or distribute the returned dice equally after a long rest. For example, a Fighter 5/Wizard 3 multiclassed character with no remaining hit dice could choose to recover four d10s, instead of two d10s and two d6s.
