D&D 5E Large Size PCs?

[Cyber-Dave]

If I had to guess, I think it's because large sized weapons break the game. The game says that only large creatures can wield large sized weapons. It then provides large sized weapons that basically deal double the damage dice of their medium sized variants. That breaks the game in half and makes many large sized PCs impossible to balance. The worst offender would be a large sized fighter. Any large sized weapon user, other than the rogue, with two attacks would also be an issue. Ironically, large sized rogues wouldn't be that big of a deal... +1d8 damage on a single attack or +2d6 damage over the course of two attacks isn't all that powerful compared to what a fighter, paladin, or ranger could put out with large sized weapons. The rogues, however, would still have a relative advantage over their medium variants.

It can be done, but to do it well, you pretty much have to turn the large sized PC into a class with 3 levels that then requires you to multiclass out of it (but not before all 3 levels are taken). I created a class like that once for a homebrew Dark Sun game (Half-Giant). I kept them balanced due to the fact that it was a melee class with only simple weapon proficiency. Their damage, as a result, capped at 2d8 for the greatclub. At 4th level they could multiclass and get 4d6 greatsword damage, but they couldn't get a second melee attack until 8th level. All in all, I thought it was fairly balanced and worked for my homebrew campaign. Many players, however, hate "race as class mechanics."

 

[Mecheon]

I know the Large sized player caused big ol' problems in 3E with the half ogre

Generally speaking, I think its mostly because they didn't design with Large player characters in place, hence why the Goliath and Firbolg are sort of half and half

(Mind when it was originally designed, the Goliath was designed with the whole 'sort of large but Medium for game reasons' thing anyway to get away from the mess the half-ogre caused)

 

[Zardnaar]

The Kobolds have made a centaur PC but its treated as medium for weapon sizes.
A large PC can knock huge NPCs prone the so that interacts with the shove action.

 

[Elon Tusk]

It can be done, but to do it well, you pretty much have to turn the large sized PC into a class with 3 levels that then requires you to multiclass out of it (but not before all 3 levels are taken). I created a class like that once for a homebrew Dark Sun game (Half-Giant). I kept them balanced due to the fact that it was a melee class with only simple weapon proficiency. Their damage, as a result, capped at 2d8 for the greatclub. At 4th level they could multiclass and get 4d6 greatsword damage, but they couldn't get a second melee attack until 8th level. All in all, I thought it was fairly balanced and worked for my homebrew campaign. Many players, however, hate "race as class mechanics."

I actually home-brewed some beast folk that way using a race-as-class idea so that a loxodon's tusks and hide wouldn't be nerved into uselessness - that's where my username came from.
Turned out it was not my cup of tea since it is basically multi-classing which I usually avoid.

I think the Mounted Combatant feat could be easily ruled by a DM to not apply to PC-mounts; without the optional feat, that problem is negligible.

I'm not sure how the large weapon issue could be overcome without negative features.
Any ideas?

 

[Elon Tusk]

The Kobolds have made a centaur PC but its treated as medium for weapon sizes.
A large PC can knock huge NPCs prone the so that interacts with the shove action.

Two of the newest UA's have large-size buffs: (Ranger) Guardian Soul and (Mystic) Ogre Form - and then there's becoming huge as (Mystic) Giant Form.
Large weapons are not mentioned with either so are likely not usable by them (which is weird since the Enlarge spell is different).
If that's the case, it seems as if other giant PC races could be created the same way.

 

[Jester David]

I'm curious where you are getting these numbers; I've tried looking in the DMG, MM, & PHB.
Are these your estimates or RAW?

I did find on p. 120 of Volo's that a bugbear can weigh up to 488 pounds, significantly more than 300.

Math.
A Large size creature is twice the height, and width, and length or 8 times the mass of a Medium sized creature (10 feet by 10 feet by 10 feet in terms of "space").
A bugbear is big. It pushes the limits of Medium. But even it's not Large...

 

[Xeviat]

All you need are penalties that are balanced against their benefits. If they have increased damage, give them an attack penalty. Small creatures are very small compared to them. Hard to hit. If being large gives them high con, and this more hp, well being large makes them easier to hit so they have lower AC.


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[Cyber-Dave]

Any ideas?

No. The only way I could make it work was a race-as-class model. In fact, the very downsides of multiclassing (what you dislike about the model) is part of what made it work. I tried downsides too. I couldn't make them work well. They always either overnerfed some race/class combinations or underbalanced others; sometimes, they did both. For the most part, I just think large sized PCs (as a race) are a bad idea. The rare campaign that really requires them (such as Dark Sun) should use a race-as-class model with forced multiclassing.

 

[Jester David]

No. The only way I could make it work was a race-as-class model. In fact, the very downsides of multiclassing (what you dislike about the model) is part of what made it work. I tried downsides too. I couldn't make them work well. They always either overnerfed some race/class combinations or underbalanced others; sometimes, they did both. For the most part, I just think large sized PCs (as a race) are a bad idea. The rare campaign that really requires them (such as Dark Sun) should use a race-as-class model with forced multiclassing.

If I were to do a Large size race I'd hardwire bigger weapons into racial features. Let them use Large-sized simple weapons as a racial feature. But not martial weapons. As Large simple weapons are equivalent to martial weapons, this balances with dwarves and elves. It's *good* but not broken. And by baking it into the race, no places can try and sneakily ask to use Large battle axes...

 

[Elon Tusk]

Math.
A Large size creature is twice the height, and width, and length or 8 times the mass of a Medium sized creature (10 feet by 10 feet by 10 feet in terms of "space").
A bugbear is big. It pushes the limits of Medium. But even it's not Large...

It seems like size large is incredibly nebulous.
Small and medium are both 5' tall cubes.
That seems a little weird that they are the same but okay.
Size tiny is 2.5' tall cubes - the smallest kobolds are 2' 3" tall yet are size small, a bit weird.
Large is a 10' tall cube.
Bugbears, goliaths, and firbolgs max out around 8' tall which seems to fit more in a large cube.
A large creature could max out height within the 10' cube and only be 20% taller than a goliath; I can't see their mass being 8 times the max bugbear mass of 488lbs. (3,900lbs.).