Hit Die Adjustment (3.5e Variant Rule)

''"Boys, I may look skinny, but during my career I've been skewered, frozen, slashed, burned, bludgeoned, oozed on and a few other things you don't even wanna know about. And I'm still standing here in front of your armor-clad asses. So take your best shot. We'll see who drops first."


 * -Adropos the wizard, to an unknown Sergeant-at-arms and his squad of troops (now deceased)

Hit Die Adjustment
Sure it makes sense for a 1st level sorcerer to have 4 HP at first level. But after a long and successful life of adventuring (since the unsuccessful ones are dead), you'd think they'd have learned a trick or two. There's plenty of ways to squeeze extra HP into your squishy PC with feats or dips. This Variant Rule adds extra HP at a parabolic rate as you gain levels, giving you a bit of breathing room so you're free to have fun with a build and not worrying so much about getting one-shotted in mid to late levels.

Adjusting Hit Dice by Class Levels
At every 7th character level your PC gains, their Hit Die increases by one step. This increase is NOT retroactive, and does not apply to racial hit dice. So a 7th level wizard would now roll a d6 instead of a d4. Then at 14th level, the wizard rolls a d8 instead of a d6. At 21st level it increases one final step to a d10.

Increases beyond a d12
After a PC's Hit Die increases to a d12, it does not increase further. However, the PC gains an additional +1 hit point per level once another 7 levels have been obtained.

Hit Points Gained By Level 20
Classes with d4, d6, and d8 base hit dice will have received an extra 42 HP by 20th level.

Classes with d10 base hit dice will have received an extra 35 HP by 20th level.

Classes with d12 base hit dice will have received an extra 21 HP by 20th level.