D&D 5E All character races are Medium-sized...why?

[LordEntrails]

All I'm gonna say is that I once hosted a one-shot game where half the party was Large-sized: an ogre, a minotaur, and a centaur were all in the party, along with a medium tiefling and a medium half-elf. And it was perfectly fine.

How did I do it? I changed the grid from 1 square = 5 x 5 feet, to 1 square = 10 x 10 feet. That's all.

Everything scaled up accordingly (all areas, ranges, etc., were converted to "squares" and played accordingly. "Range 30 feet"? That's 6 squares.) Medium-sized creatures still occupied "one square," but so did Large-sized creatures. It didn't break the game, even though it doubled the ranges, movement rates, and areas of effect. Characters were still moving 6 squares per turn, still able to reach adjacent creatures, still had darkvision out to 12 squares, etc., regardless of their size.

We didn't have Small characters in the party, but if we did, I would have treated them like I do Tiny creatures on a 5' grid.

That's not changing anything. Its just redefining everything so that Minotaurs and Centaurs etc are one square creatures. Just like a medium creature is in RAW. It wuld have been easier to just say that minotaurs etc are medium creatures per RAW, exact same effects.

 

[CleverNickName]

That's not changing anything. Its just redefining everything so that Minotaurs and Centaurs etc are one square creatures. Just like a medium creature is in RAW. It wuld have been easier to just say that minotaurs etc are medium creatures per RAW, exact same effects.

Yep, and I tried to do it that way to begin with, but a couple of my players immediately protested. So I flipped the script, so to speak, and they realized that it really didn't really matter.

 

[Weiley31]

I'm pretty sure a 15-foot aura isn't gonna be game breaking.

 

[Deset Gled]

I'm pretty sure a 15-foot aura isn't gonna be game breaking.

Is a medium sized minotaur game breaking?

Also, did I miss it, or did we really make it this far without referring to them as "mini-taurs"?

 

[Weiley31]

Is a medium sized minotaur game breaking?

Heck no it isn't!

 

[Jaeger]

Agree or disagree, here's the rationale from Crawford himself:

In my opinion; The rational comes down to wanting to put them as playable races in the game, and keep everything the same.

When everything is Medium regardless of what the MM says, then It's all just different flavored skinsuits at that point.

think the main reason is that nobody in WotC wants to fix any problems in existing adventures that would occur if you get large PCs. The complaints would never stop if a large PC cannot get access to parts of a dungeon or find a particular clue. "WotC broke the game!" And it might be in a few words hidden in an adventure book. All adventures were written with medium & small PCs in mind.

If this is a foreseeable issue, why can't the GM just tell the player: "No large PC's in this game. Because..."

Or: "Yes, but here are some good reasons you might not want to..."

Because 5E players aren't as wonderfully flexible as you all seem to claim.

Is being told "No" by a GM on a PC race choice really that bad?

If you are going to put larger MM races in the game as playable option, there is no need to 'downsize' them.

There is nothing wrong with letting the GM's make the ruling for allowing large MM races as PC's at their table.

 

[cbwjm]

It's easy enough to remove the aura issue by making the aura a 10' radius (or whatever size) centered on the creature. Then Large creatures would be able to impact fewer other creatures with their aura because they take up more of it themselves. Then you can make them Large again and not worry about it.

I think it would be better to just not worry about the extra space a large creatures aura creates.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I think it would be better to just not worry about the extra space a large creatures aura creates.

Wouldn't matter to me in the least, but for those it does... Just make it a radius centered on the creature.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Pondering this that centaurs and minotaurs are both size M when used as player races, yet when encountered as NPCs are L. Does anyone know of any specific rationale into shoehorning all races into size M rather than just leting them be size L and rolling with it so to speak?

Are you sure that the settings with playable centaurs and minotaurs actually do have Large-sized centaurs and minotaurs as standard?

 

[James Gasik]

In the case of Theros, yes, since this is art of a Theros Centaur.