Attention Hobbit & Gnome Lovers!

I'm writing an rpg and can't decide how to handle small races. It annoys me how Small races in D&D have nearly identical mechanics than medium races, so here are my two options:

1. Hobbits, gnomes & company are small, but not Small sized. They're at the bottom end of the Medium size category and therefore have no special modifiers due to their size.

2. Hobbits, gnomes & company are Small sized, and have modifiers that make them decidedly weak in melee. These modifiers wouldn't be crippling, and each small race would have racial traits that make them good at other things, but playing a small melee character would be obviously sup-optimal even to new players.

So as small race lovers, vote for your preferred option! If you choose the second, please give me ideas for what other knacks small races might have to make up for their poor melee ability. In other words, what would make you say "wow, hobbits/gnomes/whatever are cool in this game!"?

TS

I fall solidly into the 2nd category. By and large, most small creatures aren't as good in melee as larger ones.

Equalizers exist, though.

1) Chimps, for instance, are inordinately strong for their size, relative to humans. A Small race, therefore, could have an unusually high Str mod and be very stocky...you know, like extra short dwarves, only moreso. Or perhaps they're stocky cusses who have Powerful Build.

2) The "jujitsu" option is valid. Halflings are a decent example of this. They're weak in melee, to be sure, but they get bonuses to Dex AND with thrown objects. Coupled with bonuses to hide and the like, and a small race could be quite nasty.

3) Poison, especially inherent to the species, makes many small RW creatures inordinately dangerous. That could be a touch toxins (like certain frogs and toads), bite-delivered venom (spiders and snakes) or biotoxins (dirty-mouth lizards), nauseating smells (skunks and other rodents), irritants (bombardier beetles), sting delivered venoms (scorpions, anemones and jellyfish) and so forth.

Despite their actual efficacy in nature, I'd advise against both neurotoxins (because they're so deadly) and any delivery system that depends on a critter being eaten (pufferfish).

4) Inherent mastery of some kind of magic. In most RW legends, the Fey are generally smaller than humans, but have innate magics that make them formidable foes. IMHO, gnomes should have been made Fey and given this option at some point (moreso than they were, that is)- either of nature-related magic (like the red-hatted garden gnomes) or crafting magic (like the dwarves/gnomes of Norse legend). Other Small (or smaller) Fey would be powerful Enchanters or Illusionists...or both.

5) RW animal tricks. Sometimes, small creatures just want to get away and have evolved ways to make predators just let go- slimy excretions that make them hard to grasp, unpleasant scents or irritants to make a foe let go reflexively, or just surprises that startle the foe for a second or 2- puffing up in size, squirts of blood to the face, or even the ability to detatch (and later regrow) limbs.

6) Tough as nails. A small race evolved from fish, reptiles or insects might have a lot of natural armor.

7) Just because you're small doesn't mean you're slow. Many RPGs make the assumption that smaller humanoids would be slower than their larger counterparts. This is understandable since it seems to map closely to reality.

However, it need not be this way. Perhaps the race is inordinately fast and nimble for its size...more like a small cat or dog that can flat outrun a human.

It really depends on how the rest of the game works.

Dannyalcatraz said:

I fall solidly into the 2nd category. By and large, most small creatures aren't as good in melee as larger ones.

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I could have the hobbits go the jujitsu route, and the gnomes go the innate magic route. I like that.

Crothian said:

It really depends on how the rest of the game works.

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Well I'm writing a moderately simulationist game, but with more of an eye toward simplicity and balance than 3e. The size categories look much like 3e, except more consistent, so Small creatures have no effective reach.

I'll be happy to answer any other specific questions, at least as far as I've got my rules ironed out. (A lot of them are still rough.)

TS

I like option 1.

In 4e, the halfling is small, but that hardly means anything, especially if you're not a fighter. Melee rogues aren't penalized at all.

Halflings do get racial abilities and feats that play on their small size, but that's not the same thing as a broad spectrum boost-and-nerf.

You don't need to make small races into ninja for them to be playable. If thats a flavor choice that you prefer by all means do it but you shouldn't feel obligated to make small races "equal" in melee combat with larger and stronger opponents. Give the races in your game the traits that you think fit best.

You want these races to be different than the "standard" medium races or else you wouldn't be writing your own game. I say go with your own vision and playtest.

ExploderWizard said:

You want these races to be different than the "standard" medium races or else you wouldn't be writing your own game. I say go with your own vision and playtest.

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Well, see, that's the root of my issue here. I don't have a clear vision. I know that I want to have a small number of races that fulfill archetypes that players like to play, but I don't have a clear vision of what draws players to those archetypes.

Maybe I should have called this thread 'What's Fun About Little Characters?', because I'm not sure. I myself mostly play humans because I've never really been drawn to racial archetypes. So I guess what I really want to know is, do people play little characters just so that their PC's stature matches his/her childish and whimsical personality, or do they play little characters because they provide significantly [mechanically] different traits and abilities?

TS

Tequila Sunrise said:

Well, see, that's the root of my issue here. I don't have a clear vision. I know that I want to have a small number of races that fulfill archetypes that players like to play, but I don't have a clear vision of what draws players to those archetypes.

Maybe I should have called this thread 'What's Fun About Little Characters?', because I'm not sure. I myself mostly play humans because I've never really been drawn to racial archetypes. So I guess what I really want to know is, do people play little characters just so that their PC's stature matches his/her childish and whimsical personality, or do they play little characters because they provide significantly [mechanically] different traits and abilities?

TS

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Perhaps small races represent the underdog? The "even the smallest person can make a difference" type of player who enjoys the challenge of being the little guy. Small races are one way to be different than the average person in a fantasy world.

Some players may like small characters for mechanical reasons too. A lot of small races are well suited to rogue type activities because the abilities of this type of character do not depend on size or strength.

Why just guess? Set up a poll and/or questions here and ask folks what reasons they have for playing different racial types.

I like the gnome-titans in HackMaster. They're small size but with a Str bonus... the background is that they were gnomes which were bred for combat and war... and are much like the Spartans...

Small can be powerful and strong (ie: the chimps argument).

Why do I like small races? Mainly for roleplay.

There are all kinds of real and fictional short personages worthy of using as templates or inspirations for PCs: Napoleon. Cerebus the Aardvark. Geronimo. Wolverine.

A small spellcaster is just as deadly as one of any other size...and he's less likely to be respected. The combination of ego and being "jest-bait" is LOADED with potential. A diminutive Barbarian may SEEM ineffectual...up until he slices you off at the knees.

There's something satisfying about saying "Pick on someone your own size." when you're 3' tall and winning the fight. Other good phrases in such situations could include:

"Now we see eye to eye!"
"I shall be merciful and quick."
"Not so tough now, huh, longlegs?"