D&D 5E Large Size PCs?

Charlaquin

Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
Yeah, Druids are op lol

In all seriousness though, yeah, I don’t think large size is all the devs crack it up to be. They’re probably just being over-cautious.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

I

Immortal Sun

Guest
Having DMed for a Large PC over the course of 16 levels (level 5 through level 20), the amount of space they take up in combat is a total non-issue.

This. I've had party members who are large. I've had party members who are long 5x and 5y but 10z+. I've had party members who were tall 5x, 10y, 5z. I've had party members who were even larger in order editions. The tradeoffs were fair. You can be surrounded by more enemies. You can't fit into small places. You took penalties for squeezing when regular sized players would not. The fear of "bigger weapons" really doesn't pan out.

The fact that Wizards has insisted that many races that are large are actually medium has been a rather jarring point in my imagination. I don't mind it so much for centuars for firbolgs or even goliaths. Being 8 feet tall is still REALLY BIG to the average 5'6 human, but it jarrs when it starts applying to Minotaurs and in Ravnica, Loxodon.

All that said, since centuars are a thing, I REALLY want driders.

Of course: nothing is stopping me from just saying these creatures are large. Which I do. No stat changes. Just "Poof, you're large!".
 



DEFCON 1

Legend
Supporter
Like most things, the designers made a default that would be easier for most (and newer) players to use, requiring the least amount of "Yeah, but"s... from people wanting to figure out how Large PCs interact with the world. They did this, knowing full well that any DM who wanted Large PCs could just make them in their game if they really felt the need. They didn't need to overcomplicate the base game just because some DMs felt they were advanced enough to handle the "tough stuff".

If you only people would take them up on that. :)
 

I

Immortal Sun

Guest
Like most things, the designers made a default that would be easier for most (and newer) players to use, requiring the least amount of "Yeah, but"s... from people wanting to figure out how Large PCs interact with the world. They did this, knowing full well that any DM who wanted Large PCs could just make them in their game if they really felt the need. They didn't need to overcomplicate the base game just because some DMs felt they were advanced enough to handle the "tough stuff".

If you only people would take them up on that. :)

I think it's fair to point out that all the potentially large PC races show up in supplemental books and they were all added long after the core game had been released and established on the market. The base game doesn't change at all from their addition. No new player who picks up the PHB ever has to worry about large PCs and their idiosyncrasies. Assuming the DM has the ability to say "no" to things outside their ken, ie: run a core/PHB-only game, neither do they.

While understandably you're speculating, posing it this way makes it come across like any number of the threads on this very board about "Hey how can I fix this thing I don't even know may be a problem yet?"
 

77IM

Explorer!!!
Supporter
Like most things, the designers made a default that would be easier for most (and newer) players to use, requiring the least amount of "Yeah, but"s... from people wanting to figure out how Large PCs interact with the world. They did this, knowing full well that any DM who wanted Large PCs could just make them in their game if they really felt the need. They didn't need to overcomplicate the base game just because some DMs felt they were advanced enough to handle the "tough stuff".

If you only people would take them up on that. :)

In general, if a player wants to play an exotic race, they want it to be exotic. The player who picks "centaur" doesn't want to play a "humanoid who is bad at climbing," they want to play a mother:):):):)ing centaur, Large size and all.

Besides, Large size isn't that complicated. You take up 4 spaces (for those playing on a grid -- TotM groups probably don't worry about this as much) and you might have to squeeze more often. That's it. I don't think that's really a complexity barrier for many players.
 

G

Guest 6801328

Guest
It's not about space on the tactical grid, it's because ceiling height: most campaigns spend a lot of time in taverns, and standard tavern ceiling heights just can't accommodate large creatures.
 

DEFCON 1

Legend
Supporter
I don't think that's really a complexity barrier for many players.

Heh heh, really? Based upon the types of questions people keep tweeting Crawford asking how so and so rule works, and his answer is to just read a particular page in the Player's Handbook and follow what it says... I wouldn't be surprised if Jeremy now believes most players are not all that ready for any amount of complexity. He's probably thinking "Geez... if this rule you are asking me is tripping you up this badly, maybe you should just go grab yourself the Basic Rules and start there." Adding in Large PCs is probably a barrier too far. ;)
 

DEFCON 1

Legend
Supporter
It's not about space on the tactical grid, it's because ceiling height: most campaigns spend a lot of time in taverns, and standard tavern ceiling heights just can't accommodate large creatures.

Let alone the chairs. The chairs can't handle them either. :)
 

Remove ads

Top