D&D 5E What effect on CR if I keep my giants Large instead of Huge?

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zoroaster100

First Post

• Aug 22, 2014

• #1

For some reason, it seems that every edition we go back and forth about the size of giants in the game.

In Fourth Edition, the few giants that were huge (storm, cloud) in Third Edition, shrunk down to Large. Now in Fifth, it looks like the giants that traditional were Large (Hill, Fire, Stone, Frost) all blew up to Huge.

I have a zillion beautiful giant miniatures, including many I painted myself, and they are mostly Large sized hill, stone, frost and fire giants. I will not readily agree to toss them aside for Fifth Edition. Is the impact of size in Fifth Edition combat significant?

I may come up with alternate stats for "half-giants" or "young giants" to use my Large minis. But if I use the stats in the Monster Manual except for Large instead of Huge size, would the CR be impacted? I welcome any feedback on this.

 

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jodyjohnson

Adventurer

• Aug 22, 2014

• #2

The main difference for bases sizes seems to be the number of adjacent spaces.

Huge creatures can be meleed by more creatures at a time.
Large creatures are easier to flank or go around.

Neither of those seems especially significant.

For consistency the HD size is determined by size, as is damage dice but I wouldn't bother adjusting that.

 

T

The Crimson Binome

Hero

• Aug 22, 2014

• #3

From what I understand, size is what determines the amount of damage you deal with a weapon. For each size category you grow above medium, your weapon deals an additional die of damage. If a longsword is 1d8, then a large longsword is 2d8, and a huge longsword is 3d8. A huge greatsword deals 6d6 damage. This is quite significant, as it is the main source of damage for giants, who no longer add such a huge bonus from their tremendous Strength as they had in 3E.

If you reduced your giants from huge size to merely large, I would give them the Bugbear's "Brute" trait, which allows them to deal weapon damage as though they were one size larger.

 

Last edited: Aug 22, 2014

F

fjw70

Adventurer

• Aug 22, 2014

• #4

I am sure I will be doing the same thing. Just keep the stats the same and it should be fine.

 

A

Ashkelon

First Post

• Aug 22, 2014

• #5

Why not just use the stats for the Ogre? That is technically a large sized giant.

If you really want large giants, remember a few things: Monsters melee damage is based on size. Medium does 1W, large 2W, huge 3W. Large sized creatures can be grappled and soved by medium ones, huge cannot. Size affects the HD type, large is d10, huge is d12. Large sized creatures only be attacked by up to 10 creatures, huge can be attacked by up to 16.

 

F

fjw70

Adventurer

• Aug 22, 2014

• #6

[MAP][/MAP]

Ashkelon said:

Why not just use the stats for the Ogre? That is technically a large sized giant.

If you really want large giants, remember a few things: Monsters melee damage is based on size. Medium does 1W, large 2W, huge 3W. Large sized creatures can be grappled and soved by medium ones, huge cannot. Size affects the HD type, large is d10, huge is d12. Large sized creatures only be attacked by up to 10 creatures, huge can be attacked by up to 16.

Click to expand...

Just give giants the Giant trait.

Giant - Treat as a huge creature for everything except the size of the miniature you use.

 

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Scorpio616

First Post

• Aug 22, 2014

• #7

Well, the giant miniatures for 5E look like they are still on 2" bases. Also there is no rule you can't just use the old minis and just say they are taller than the figure. This isn't a WYSIWYG wargame.

Personally I like giants to be the size of Action figures.


3" base

 

jodyjohnson

Adventurer

• Aug 22, 2014

• #8

Sometimes I stand on the table and rampage. Any mini left standing survives.

 

Z

zoroaster100

First Post

• Aug 22, 2014

• #9

What action figure is that? That makes for a very scary fire giant/titan!

I think I'm going to create two types of giants for my games, Large and Huge. Maybe the Huge ones will be called "True Giants" or "Jottunn Giants". I will probably have the Large giants use the stats in the Monster Manual, but refiguring their number of HD so they end up with the same hp using smaller dice, and using Bugbear's "Brute" trait to keep their damage the same, as Saelorn recommended. Then I'll create higher CR Legendary huge giants to lead groups of the smaller "Large" giants, and to face higher level characters.

 

Sir Brennen

Legend

• Aug 22, 2014

• #10

In our games, if we lack an appropriate mini of Large or Larger, we have 2x2 and 3x3 inch squares of heavy black cardboard to stand in, or use as a bigger base for a mini that looks correct, but is too small. The squares are also used for designating pits, cube area effects, etc. If you're really just worried about your current mini's being too small, just stick them on a correctly sized base with a bit of poster tack putty or tape loop.

That said, where are all the fan rules/calculations for up/down scaling monsters? I need a down-sized version of the 5B water elemental