Hit Points: to Kick or Not to Kick

In the game Hackmaster, it dealt with the two problems of brittle level 1 PC's and useless level 0 guys by adding a 20 hit point "kicker" to every single character and monster in the game.   Hackmaster also had complex critical hit system and exploding damage dice, both of which helped keep the "kicker" in proportion.  I used a similar kicker (of 10 points) in a D&D style game 3 or 4 years ago.  It seemed to work okay there.

However, when we played D&D 4e two years ago, I was disenchanted with the high hit point totals of all the monsters.  As a player, I was frustrated that I could use my best attack, score a maximum damage critical hit, and it wouldn't kill a bandit.

I know it's a bit of a paradox.  I want level 0 humans to be good for something.  Yet, I know as a player I like to be able to hack down orcs, bandits and hobgoblins in a single hit on frequent occasions.

Another factor with just using a kicker is that it nerfs damage-inflicting spells.   Magic missile and Fireball are suddenly much less powerful than Charm Person or Web.  As a DM, I don't find this especially distressing, but putting myself into the shoes of the players, I might find it full of suck.

My current plan is not to use a kicker.   I'll talk about level-0 guys later.   But, for player characters my thought was to give each character (PC or NPC) who has a class and level, 1 extra hit die.  So a first level magic-user will start with 2d4, a first level ranger with 3d8.

The other feature of PC hit points has to do with the die roll.   My plan is to have the players re-roll the hit points each game month, with each adventure session usually being a month apart in game time.   The number of times they can roll the dice (in order to pick the best total) will vary depending on how much treasure they spend on maintenance.  For example, if they spend 100gp times their current level, they can roll their hit points 3 times and take the best total.  They will also have to spend maintenance on various henchmen, hirelings, horses and dogs, with more money spent meaning better hit points and morale.

The extra hit die, and the multiple rolls, will make it so that the PC's hit points will be, on average, higher than the "by the book" total.  This will make it so that the lower level characters are more useful, the dungeon trips can last longer, and a character won't be doomed by losy hit point rolls (which totally sucks).