[RANT] Small creatures, phatoooey

[RigaMortus]

[RANT]

So, I find it very annoying that small creatures have a favored postion in D&D.

If a 6ft human fights a 10ft ogre he has to go through its reach.
If a 10 ft ogre fights an 18ft cloud giant he has to go through its reach.
If a 18ft cloud giant fights a 32ft tall animated statue he has to go through its reach.
And even if a 1.5 ft grig fights a 3ft halfling he has to go through its reach.
But a 3ft halfling doesn't have to go through any reach to fight a 6ft human.

In 3.5 they even make the ridicluous rule that a small creatures reach weapon is just as effective as a medium creatures. So, a human wielding a 6ft long greatsword cannot fight an ogre without going through reach (he has to use a big old 12ft long spear to avoid reach), but a 3ft halfling with a small longspear (6ft long?) can - strange but the human with the halfling longspear can also do the same trick (still looks to be 6ft weapon) but will have a -2 to hit.

I think I want to play in a world where an evil wizard who hates halflings has cast enlarge on everything. So now all the halflings are medium sized and all the humans are large. Ignoring the real world physics, in a magic world you might say since everything changed you don't even notice the difference. Except now a halfling has to pass through a human's reach to fight him, but those damn grigs are starting to kick some halfling butt.

Of course, they would also notice that it takes twice as long to get anywhere since increasing your size doesn' t increase your speed in D&D mechanics - but that can be saved for another rant.

[/RANT]

 

[Old Gumphrey]

Well God forbid the poor halfling players would have a disadvantage.

 

[the Jester]

As long as you let the halflings keep their longspears, nothing's changed indeed. They still don't suffer AoOs from the humans.

 

[mmu1]

I don't think Small creatures have much of a favored position at all - especially not with 3.5.

They get encumbered instantly (it actually makes a big difference if you pay attention to what you carry), have to use weapons with a smaller damage die, and are absolutely screwed when it comes to any grapples, trips, disarms, bull rushes, etc. because of the -4 size penalty they suffer. An enemy with one of the "Improved" feats is just going to walk right over them.
They're also destined to be swallowed whole or snatched a lot more than Medium-size creatures.

If they had to suffer AAOs for reach against nearly everyone they fought, they'd be completely unplayable. (except as casters)

 

[RigaMortus]

But what sense does it make that a Reach Weapon for a Halfling has the same Reach if a Human used it? A small Spiked Chain is an uber weapon. It is effectively a short sword with Reach. It does 1d6 damage, can be used in one-hand, you can threaten 5 AND 10 feet in front of you AND you can use a shield with it. And all you take is a measily -2 to hit... Huh?

Went off on a bit of a tangent there. My main point is, what sense does it make that a "medium" Longspear has the same Reach for a Human as a "small" Longspear has for a Halfling?

 

[Shin Okada]

Maybe, medium reach weapons may have 12 feet or so of reach and rounded down to 10 ft. And small reach weapons may have 7.5 ft or so of reach and rounded up to 10 ft.

Anyway, actually, playing small creatures are, from power gaming point of view, a tough challenge. Being small is a hard way. -2 str combined with smaller damage dice, they inflicts at least -2 smaller damage per hit in average. They are slow (remember now Dwarves are not slower than humans when they are wearing medium/heavy armor). And vulnerable against various special attacks due to their -4 special size modifiers.

About 3 months ago, a PC Deep Halfling Rogue in my campaign has been swallowed by a large sized worm-like monster. He wouldn't have died if he were a medium sized character.

 

[Whitemage Bishieboy]

its simple,small size is for pcs.if humans had reach over halflings it would be too unbalenceing.and as a fantasy GAME,realism < playability.realisticly there would be a diffrence between a 5ft. and 4ft. reach,way too many problems.

 

[Darklone]

Just apply the Monster Manual size attribute changes to the small races and be happy

Don't forget that halfling fighters with Spiked Chains can use Power Attack and Weapon Finesse to cause on average more damage than a human (with the same feats).

 

[Falling Icicle]

I don't think Small creatures have much of a favored position at all - especially not with 3.5.

They get encumbered instantly (it actually makes a big difference if you pay attention to what you carry), have to use weapons with a smaller damage die, and are absolutely screwed when it comes to any grapples, trips, disarms, bull rushes, etc. because of the -4 size penalty they suffer. An enemy with one of the "Improved" feats is just going to walk right over them.
They're also destined to be swallowed whole or snatched a lot more than Medium-size creatures.

If they had to suffer AAOs for reach against nearly everyone they fought, they'd be completely unplayable. (except as casters)

Amen! Truer words have never been spoken. Well said.

But what sense does it make that a Reach Weapon for a Halfling has the same Reach if a Human used it? A small Spiked Chain is an uber weapon. It is effectively a short sword with Reach. It does 1d6 damage, can be used in one-hand, you can threaten 5 AND 10 feet in front of you AND you can use a shield with it. And all you take is a measily -2 to hit... Huh?

Well, a human can use a large version of a weapon with a "measly" -2 penalty, and that will give him more benefits than the small character is getting for using a medium weapon.

Went off on a bit of a tangent there. My main point is, what sense does it make that a "medium" Longspear has the same Reach for a Human as a "small" Longspear has for a Halfling?

This is D&D, not reality. Alot of things aren't very realistic in this game, and that's because having rules that are fun and easy to play is usually more important than exact realism. The hardest part of designing game mechanics is finding the right balance between realism and playability, and I think you are being way too nitpicky here. If small characters suffered the disadvantages you want them to, they would be not only be pointless to play, but such complicated spacing rules would also be detrimental to gameplay. Do you really want to have to space everything in 2.5 foot squares? I don't. I don't know anyone who does.

Does it make sense that a Halfling has the reach they do? I suppose not. But how much sense does it make that a horse takes up a 10 cubic foot space? I don't know of any horse that is 10 feet wide. How much sense does it make that a human takes up a 5 foot space? The only 5 foot wide humans in this world are so obese they can't even move. I can go on and on, but if you want to complain about the spacing and dimensions in this game, you are choosing the most insignificant and minor issue to complain about. Is it really that big of a deal?

 

[RigaMortus]

Well, I think they would have a substantial negative level adjustment
compared to medium sized characters (-1 or -2 level adjustment), but it
would make it much better in my mind. I realize for character balance they
had to do it that way, so people who like to play halflings and gnomes would
be happy. However, if there were no small size standard PC's, wouldn't we
all think the game was more logical if we got AoO's on those 3' goblins as
they charged in on us?

Again - my point is if you were in a big fight with a bunch of goblins in an
open field, and suddenly a wild magic burst went off that cast an enlarge
spell on everyone - your proportional sizes wouldn't change but now all of a
sudden you would get AoO's on the goblins.

It is clear that the rule was totally cobbled in to make it so people could
effectively play halflings and gnomes, when otherwise it just wouldn't make
sense (as well it shouldn't - which is why I can't imagine playing one,
maybe if the rules actually gave me the reach disadvantage I should have
then I might be able to visualize it).