The Phantasie Project

Constitution never gives a hero hit points

The manual says the higher a hero's Constitution, the more hit points he has. The game never once looks at Constitution when it gives out hit points.

  • Making and training heroes
  • Manual vs Code
  • Tested by running the original code

Constitution 6

The character sheet of Rolf, a level 1 Human Fighter: Strength 11, Intelligence 8, Dexterity 12, Constitution 6, Charisma 13, Luck 8; Hit Points 15/15; Swimming 14.

Rolf: 15 hit points, the most a new Fighter can roll. Swimming 14.

Constitution 18

The character sheet of Tarn, a level 1 Human Fighter: Strength 17, Intelligence 8, Dexterity 18, Constitution 18, Charisma 12, Luck 11; Hit Points 10/10; Swimming 38.

Tarn: 10 hit points, the fewest. Swimming 38, and that is where his Constitution shows.

Two new Human Fighters on the 1987 character sheet (key E on the map). They were rolled for this picture by our recreation's copy of the game's creation routine, which makes the same hero as the 1987 program from the same random numbers, and put in the party with our test controls.

What the manual says

The manual is clear about it. Constitution is "endurance, physical toughness, and a modifier on the number of Hit Points an adventurer has. The higher the adventurer's Constitution, the more hit points he has, and the longer that he might live!" It even prints a chart of hit points by class and level "for Adventurers with 10 Constitution", as if a hero with more would have more.

How it came up

In November 2026, after I introduced my recreation on the Phantasie thread at RPG Codex, Francois424, who plays the Atari ST version, remembered that Constitution below 10 hurts a hero's hit points and above 10 does nothing. We checked, and Constitution does nothing to hit points at any value, on the ST or on the Amiga.

Where hit points come from

Hit points come from a hero's class, his level and the dice. Nothing else.

When a hero is made, the game throws his hit point dice before it has rolled a single attribute. A Fighter throws 5 dice, a Priest, Ranger or Monk 4, and a Thief or Wizard 3, each worth 2 or 3. His Constitution does not exist yet when his hit points are decided.

At every new level the game throws again from scratch, as many dice worth 1 to 3 as his class's table gives for the new level. If the total comes out no higher than before, he gets his old maximum plus 1. Constitution is not part of it.

We ran the original program's training on the same Fighter three times, with the same dice and a Constitution of 3, 10 and 25. Each time he reached level 2 with 19 hit points. We ran the Atari ST program the same way, with 5, 10 and 20, for every class, and got the same answer.

The chart in the manual

The manual's chart turns out to be the game's own dice table, doubled. A Fighter throws 5 dice at level 1, 10 at level 2 and 16 at level 3, and the chart says 10, 20 and 32. From level 2 on, that is what dice worth 1 to 3 give on average. At level 1 it is the least a new hero can have. The "10 Constitution" in its title never comes into it.

What Constitution does do

It is not useless. It matters in four places:

  • Swimming. A hero's Swimming is built on twice his Constitution, when he is made and every time he trains it. Each point of Constitution is worth 2 points of Swimming, and Swimming is what keeps him from taking damage in the water. The two Fighters at the top of this page show it. Tarn's Constitution 18 bought him no hit points, but 24 more points of Swimming than Rolf.
  • The Astral judgement. When the whole party dies, the gods judge each hero. One with a Constitution below 2 is destroyed at once, with no roll. It is the only place the game asks for a minimum Constitution. A hero who comes back loses 1.
  • Resurrection costs 1 or 2 points, as the manual says, but it never leaves a hero below 3. Healing I on a dead hero costs nothing at all.
  • Joining the party cuts it to 22, the same as Strength, Intelligence and Dexterity.

No hero is made with less than 3, and Resurrection never leaves less than 3, so only the Astral can bring a hero below 2. A hero at 3 who keeps coming back from the Astral is at 1 after two trips, and the third destroys him.

Three events raise Constitution, by 1 for every living hero while it is below 30. They are the giant in the Giant Caves who offers a wrestle with the Guaggle Beast, and the soup of constitution the old man offers in the Straw Hut and the Dragon Caves (two bowls in all). No event anywhere tests it.