Basic Functional Hit Points

Calculating a simple means to give a linier value to the damage output of a figure was to me a straightforward task (see my previous post on Basic Functional Damage). Calculating a value for durability was not nearly as straightforward as I had hoped. I had many failed formulas that I was unsatisfied with, but I will spare you the details. Ultimately what I decided to do was what Guy suggested in a similar thread on the WOTC message boards: convert AC and other durability factors into an equivalent amount of HP. Factors I need to consider are AC, Morale (level and fearless), and Conceal. And the command rating of a commander can contribute to the functional HP of a figure incrementally. For simplicity rally is not considered.

• First, I only take half of the printed HP value of the base. This is the only "Guaranteed" HP you have.
• Next, I multiply the remaining half by the figures level/save, and divide by 20.
• For Fearless creatures, I consider their level to be 20, effectively giving the other half of their HP.
• Next I take the AC of the figure, subtract a normalized attack bonus, and divide by 20 to get the hit percentage, and then multiply that by the figures HP.
• Finally I take the conceal percentage, multiply that by the functional HP at this point, and add it again.

The one item I had the most concern about what to use for the normalized attack bonus. I finally settled on +10. Why +10? Only one createure has an AC lowere than 10, the oddball Ochre Jelly has an AC of 4. But the lowest AC you will see in serious play is AC 10, and you will see it in the CG Inspired Frenzy band. My reasoning was that the lowest AC should offer no additional "functional HP." This also gives a baseline for a number, factoring in Fearless and ignoring Burnout that gives the Frenzied Berserker 90 Functional HP.

From this, we can derive the following formula, for what I shall call "Basic Functional Hit Points"

HP *	(Save + 2*AC)	*	19 + Conceal
	40		20

For creatures without the Conceal ability Conceal = 1
For Fearless creatures Save = 20

What results does this give us? The top 10 are...

	Figure	FHP
1	Large Silver Dragon	240
2	Fire Giant	196
3	Stone Golem	189
4	Frost Giant	175.5
5	Thaskor	175
6	Aspect of Bane	174
7	Large Red Dragon	171.88
8t	Zombie White Dragon	162.5
8t	Aspect of Nerull	162.5
10	Vrock	155.25