5-foot step and Huge Monsters

[el-remmen]

I know now we are in the realm of house rules.

But in the past I have done it by increasing the 5' step by 5' for every two size categories larger than medium. So Large creatures would still only take 5' steps, but Huge-sized would take 10' steps and 15' steps for Colossal creatures.

Sure it changes the game - but I am totally willing (for my style of game) to make huge things that much scarier and encourage strategy in handling such foes.

 

[Pielorinho]

As I see it, the main effect this change would have would be to devalue melee attackers in favor of ranged attackers (especially ranged attackers with flight). Unless this is a change you want--or unless you make other changes, such as removing flight from the game (or removing the ability for PCs to fly and shoot simultaneously)--this could prove an unwelcome side-effect.

Daniel

 

[jimpaladin]

I've given thought to this also but from a dfferent angle. I don't like guargantuan sized creatures. How the heck does a red dragon that size even survive eating just a few cattle per day and how does it not outgrow it hidey-hole every year or so. I prefer that no creature is larger that huge and I'll allow in certain instances that hp and ac stay as if it could be larger. I haven't done this in a game yet but I look at it more all the time.

 

[kreynolds]

I always figured dragons, regardless of size, survive on as little food as they do due to slow metabolisms. After all, it takes a black dragon 1,001 years to become garantuan in size. That tells me they have a very slow metabolism. As for outgrowing their lairs, well, they have very big claws for digging.

 

[frankthedm]

the larger creature will always get a full attack on you , but you almost never get one on him.

Actually, full attacks can be denied to both sided simply by the DM saying the first hit from the jumbo critter knocks the victim away 20 or 30 feet.

 

[IanB]

I can't see giving larger creatures the bigger step rule and allowing them to keep reach. Otherwise melee combat with anything other than medium (or smaller) creatures just breaks.

 

[phindar]

It'd make the title of Giant-Killer mean something.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

frank

that doesn't seem to be a very good solution, as fighters will never be able to hit because they will provoke trying to attack the creature and the creature will knock them back 20 feet.

and if a fighter ever does get toe to toe, the creature could knock them back, take a 20 foot step and attack again as part of its iterative.

its too unbalancing if this is all thats changed. you need to give the pcs something good too. Perhaps spring attack for free, or something like dervish dance for free.

 

[Infiniti2000]

I don't like guargantuan sized creatures. How the heck does a red dragon that size even survive eating just a few cattle per day and how does it not outgrow it hidey-hole every year or so. I prefer that no creature is larger that huge and I'll allow in certain instances that hp and ac stay as if it could be larger. I haven't done this in a game yet but I look at it more all the time.

What do you have against the humpback whale?

This to me is key. It does fundamentally alter the way the game is played, but I don't consider that an argument for or against, only a factor to be considered.

IMO, the real argument against is that a whole lot of rules and balance considerations are predicated on 5ft-steps for everyone. Changing that changes a lot of things and it will take you a lot of work to get it 'right'. The 'right' part is where you will then get to exercise judgment, of course, as certainly right for one person is not right for everyone.

As somewhat of a tangent, one of the issues I always think about when (e.g.) a medium-sized human takes on a t-rex with a longsword is that I would find it unlikely that the human could even effectively hit, never mind the size of the adjustment. After all, he's swinging the sword at no higher than the t-rex's knee so either he's always going for the Achilles tendon or he's readying to attack the face when it tries to bite. This, to me, is a lot more important issue than trying to fix an already artificial rules creation to make it more 'realistic'. Having combat experience myself, I don't think that a 5ft-step in a cyclic system really makes a whole lot of realism sense, so there's absolutely nothing to fix.

 

[satori01]

I have used a further variant on this rule, which is creatures Huge & Greater get a 10' step. So far it has not caused great chaos. First off you have play creatures to their strengths....a hydra wants to eat people so it is not going to play Mohamed Ali and "move like a butterfly sting like a bee", it is going to try to eat you like a hydra.

Secondly it also encourages meleeist to wolfpack a creature, not only for the flanking bonuses but to control the range of the creatures ability to step. It definitely adds drama to an encounter. I would recommend to people to at least run one encounter with it, even as a test. Just tell your players the creature has a special 10' step ability. Very fun and flavorful way to bring power to a Huge creature.