HP bloat is fine.
Don't hear you crying that your characters automatically get max hp every level.
This game is too easy as it is.
Characters don't get max hp every level...???
Never mind you don't even understand what you're asking for,
Without HP you'll have to either lower hit-chance to keep the same level of combat, meaning that even more of your attacks would be annoying misses, which is not fun for anyone, or you have to add more enemy creatures to every encounter, and the whole thing lurches very fast off-balance, since more creatures means more attacks on you, meaning instead of fun well calculated fights u have a horde fight on ur hands every time and it just becomes silly.
The problem is that HP bloat (combined with
only AC reduction) has other consequences, like making spells that affect HP (sleep) or spells against Saves (sacred flame) suck. I'd be much more fine with HP increase if they decreased AC
and enemy Saving Throws and
proportionally buffed spells like Sleep. But then you run into the problem of "Okay, sleep is now too powerful against the normal-HP players, which means player HP has to increase, which means now enemies need to be buffed.....etc, etc.
Simple solution. Don't buff HP. Just reduce enemy AC and ST on lower difficulties. This allows players to hit often on easier difficulties (and thus have more fun) but doesn't have a cascading chain of effects.