D&D (2024) How did I miss this about the Half races/ancestries

[Horwath]

Nah. Let a halfling barbarian use a big ol' axe for comedy.

If people can use any magic, a strong enough halfling barbarian can just, heft a giant axe

If that halfling weights 100kg then sure, but as average halfling weights 15-20kg he cannot use that huge ax.

also huge axes are a stupid idea.

 

[Mecheon]

If that halfling weights 100kg then sure, but as average halfling weights 15-20kg he cannot use that huge ax.

Counterargument: funny, neat, and its not like its going to be unbalanced numbers wise. Plus, folks complain about rapiers being the be-all end-all weapon, so don't just deny weapons from other characters and just, let them use fun stuff

also huge axes are a stupid idea.

Iconic to the general fantasy brand though. Plus, well, Danish axes existed so they got a leg up on a few types of armor existing

 

[Horwath]

Counterargument: funny, neat, and its not like its going to be unbalanced numbers wise. Plus, folks complain about rapiers being the be-all end-all weapon, so don't just deny weapons from other characters and just, let them use fun stuff

Iconic to the general fantasy brand though. Plus, well, Danish axes existed so they got a leg up on a few types of armor existing

yes, dane axe that weights 2kg. Not some fantasy oversized lump of iron on a stick.
even PHBs 3kg greataxe is pushing it in terms of mass.

 

[CreamCloud0]

How would you change small sized characters?

variant of an idea i originally had for a halfling trait specifically, small sized characters get crit range expansion 19-20 on melee attack rolls when facing a creature of any size class larger than themselves, representing how they're better able to target a monster's 'soft underbelly' or target a chink in the armour that isn't easily accesible to larger creatures, and compensates for the fact they have disadvantage on using heavy weapons.

 

[Guest 85555]

I never worried too much about Halflings on that front. I did find the old -1 to STR and not being able to roll exceptional strength was sufficient in older editions (along with all the other restrictions and bonuses). But it didn't strike me as a problem when they changed for 3rd edition. I know the halfling thing does come up a lot though in conversation

 

[Remathilis]

Go the 3.5e way.
Small characters use small weapons.
reduce damage die by step or two.

All fun and games until random treasure is distributed and the halfling yet again finds a magical medium-sized short sword he can't wield due to it being the wrong size.

 

[Guest 85555]

Go the 3.5e way.
Small characters use small weapons.
reduce damage die by step or two.

I understood many of the changes in 3.5 but I think those kinds of things just bogged down the game a bit. In concept the damage die reduction works but I remember it being a little tricky in practice for people to get used to (maybe I need to review the rules though).

With something like halflings, I would say either impose a strength penalty or just hand wave it and don't worry (anything more involved just adds more layers to the game). The other issue is once you start factoring in size and weight with handlings you kind of have to start doing that for other races too. I don't know what the current break down is but gnomes and elves are also considerably lighter than humans in prior editions. Halflings much more so but the old base weight for elves was something like 90 pounds with the possibility of going up by 30 to 120 pounds (which maxes them out at like a bantam weight or feather weight maybe. Humans were base 140 and could go up by 60. Obviously these aren't strict limits (I was 118 pounds in my teens and people can get over 200 pounds). Gnomes are just a little better than halfligns. Dwarves and humans are pretty comparable weightwise. So if you are going to make this important, it raises questions about why elves are also able to swing an axe like a human or dwarven barbarian. Personally I don't see D&D as being all that focused on realism, but rather nodding towards it. So I am fine handwaving it, or fine with just dealing with Halflings and gnomes because they are so small and giving them some kind of penalty (personally I would just give them a flat damage cap on the dice for melee weapons to make it easy---i.e. they can never roll more than a d8 or d10 for example, but don't make it more complicated than that....or just make it a penalty to STR). But I am also fine with this not being addressed at all (if you need to explain it, you can just say the handling with the big axe is usually strong, heavy or large for a halfling (there are unusually large humans like Andre the Giant).

 

[Horwath]

All fun and games until random treasure is distributed and the halfling yet again finds a magical medium-sized short sword he can't wield due to it being the wrong size.

We always played that all magic gear gets resized to the user.

as for mundane weapons, well, they are mundane so who cares.

Also; people still use magic tables for random loot?

 

[Horwath]

I understood many of the changes in 3.5 but I think those kinds of things just bogged down the game a bit. In concept the damage die reduction works but I remember it being a little tricky in practice for people to get used to (maybe I need to review the rules though).

tricky?

you just need to write it down once on your character sheet and you are good to go.

 

[Remathilis]

We always played that all magic gear gets resized to the user.

as for mundane weapons, well, they are mundane so who cares.

Also; people still use magic tables for random loot?

That's cool, but it wasn't RAW. And in 3.5 the DM used RAW so the halfling player routinely had to sell loot and burn XP to get magic gear of appropriate level.

It might not make sense, but I don't miss specific gear for small PCs.