As you can tell, one of the things I miss in 4e is rolling your attributes. However, I have never missed rolling for hit points.

Rolling your attributes helps throw some randomness into your character concept, and randomness is usually an aid to creativity.

Rolling for hit points doesn’t spark creativity. It has the potential to sabotage a character you like, and it’s such an important roll that, for me at least, it encourages cheating as little else in D&D does. It just doesn’t seem fair that my cool paladin leveled up and rolled 1 hit point.

Here’s a suggestion for those who would like to roll HP in 4e:

1) Start with your normal 4e HP – or a little less.

2) Roll a HP die at the beginning of every level. This is a special pool of bonus Wound Points. If you have any Wound Points left from last level, they’re gone – they don’t stack.

Wound Points can be used instead of HP at any time: typically on an attack where you would go below 0 HP. (But you always have a choice to save your Wound Points, if you don’t mind falling unconscious.)

Wound points cannot be healed in any way. You only get them when you level.

This rule lets you “roll hit points” every level. It also solves a common 4e objection that an extended rest cures all injuries. There are some wounds that only time can cure.

You can also use it to model semi-permanent injuries. If you are ever at 0 Wound Points, you can be considered to have some nagging injury. I’d play this entirely as a flavor thing, but other DMs could hang some random penalty on it if they wanted.

Using money to restrict the use of rituals and alchemical items doesn’t work particularly well: the D&D designers have admitted this and aren’t exploring the ritual/alchemy design space much these days.

Here’s how I intend to fix the issues in my game:

1) Rituals and alchemical recipes are daily powers. You get one free use of each ritual/alchemical recipe you know. You automatically prepare the ritual, potion, or whatever during each extended rest.

During the extended rest, you can decide to prepare more than one use of the ritual or item: each extra use will cost you the item’s normal cost.

2) Rituals and alchemical recipes are given as treasures. Just as most magic items aren’t sold in magic shops, most rituals and recipes are long-lost prizes awaiting brave adventurers. Low-level parties will have access to only a few, while high-level parties, with access to lots of rituals and consumable items, will have a lot of versatility.

Rituals and alchemical recipes will be sharable among anyone who meets the requirement for using them. Knowing a recipe lets you create any version of that item of your level and lower: for instance, if a level 7 character knows the recipe for alchemist’s fire, he or she can create level 1 or level 6 alchemist’s fire.

3) There will be some common rituals and recipes. Just as characters can buy Common magic items like +1 swords, they will be able to buy well-known rituals and alchemical compounds.

Common rituals:
-All level 1 rituals
-Enchant Magic Item
-Brew Potion
-Linked Portal
-Raise Dead

Common alchemical items:
-All level 1 items
-tanglefoot bag
-alchemical silver

And for fun, here’s a new alchemical item:

Glowgas: Glowgas is stored in a vial, and thrown at enemies the same way holy water is. It has the same cost, range, and attack bonuses as holy water. It can also be applied to objects.

On a hit, the target takes no damage, but is surrounded by a swirling golden light. The target casts dim illumination within two squares, and has a -2 penalty to Stealth checks and all defenses. A creature or object in a glowgas cloud can be seen even inside a zone of darkness.

Once a turn, the target may spend a minor action to try to dissipate the gas: this allows a saving throw. Otherwise, the gas does not disperse until the next rest.

The glowgas recipe is used by dwarven drow hunters, and is only shared with those who prove themselves enemies of the drow.

I know I’ll never fully embrace OD&D because I hate using charts. I prefer simple, easily internalized rules, like 3e’s Base Attack Bonus, rather than 1e’s Attack Matrix charts. 4e’s XP system still has a big ol’ level-advancement chart at the center of it, along with XP entries for every creature in the Monster Manual (which I often don’t use).

The 4e XP system has been formalized and math-checked, which means one of D&D’s central problems is more obvious than it has ever been: it suffers from “inflating-numbers-that-don’t-do-a-goddamn-thing-itis.” At level 1, you fight 10 battles in order to collect 1,000 XP. At level 10, you fight 10 battles to collect 20,500 XP. The specific amount of XP per battle changes, but the number of battles doesn’t.

There’s a historical reason for that. In old D&D, your XP was tied to your income. Since high-level characters won richer and richer treasures, XP totals per level had to rise. Now that characters don’t get 1 XP per GP earned, however, there’s no reason that XP needs to stick to that inflationary model.

Besides, calculating XP is kind of a pain: it involves flipping around in various books to add XP from monsters and traps, and dividing by the number of PCs.

I can’t be bothered to calculate XP, but I’m not ready to totally dump the idea of leveling up. Having the DM bestow levels arbitrarily takes away some of the treadmill charm of D&D. So here’s the super-simple XP system I use nowadays.

Every level costs 10 XP.

Same with quests and skill challenges: 1 XP, or 2 XP for major quests/challenges.

There are some minor variations here from the standard XP system: