D&D (2024) PHB Playtest Packet 7 drops Thrusday, September 7.

[Micah Sweet]

The absurdity is a selling point for me. Also, there's just too many things to know where to stop at. As dragons can fly, and giants can exist without collapsing under their own mass, so can fairies bench-press orcs, okay.

I would not be opposed at all to a game where races had more concrete rules to them - fairies being unable to pick up anything bigger than a book, etc, but this game with multiplicative hitpoints is not that sort of a game.

To me, the fact that it's hard to know where to stop doesn't inevitably lead to, "don't stop anywhere". And hit points will never be a mike drop argument for that idea.

 

[Scribe]

We're talking are exceptional characters with training in class levels, not farmers. An adult halfling is not a human child. They have adult muscle-mass for their size. Size does not equate muscle. Go ahead, arm wrestle a chimpanzee (a small non-human) and see what happens. If the gameworld mechanics say that adult members of Small non-human species have appropriate lean muscle mass to be 3ft.tall and have a 20 Strength, then enjoy the fantasy.

I've seen 5'6ft.-tall humans wield 7ft.-long greatswords (and they aren't fantasy fighters with a 16 Str). I can see a 3'6-tall adult halfling wielding a 5ft.-long greataxe. They may not wield it the same way, but as expert warriors who train for their own survivability, it can totally work.

Theres a reason Wizards moved away from Size/Weight values.

Halflings are 40lbs. Now, folks can like and do whatever they like, it can have as much impact as they like, but the idea that a small being that weighs less than the weights humans curl flinging around a sword or axe or hammer?

Do as you will, but it will never work for me, we all have our lines in the sand.

 

[Charlaquin]

You basically get a facehugger/chestburster. Creepy AF. And they'll probably tweak the stats in the MM so that it is competitive with other options.

Hopefully

 

[Stalker0]

If you don't like the extra roll part, then don't roll?

If the answer to a mechanic is "don't use it", that's not a great sales pitch for the mechanic.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

If the answer to a mechanic is "don't use it", that's not a great sales pitch for the mechanic.

Depends on what you consider the main mechanic to be. To me it's Tides + spell triggering a surge... while the 5% filler roll is just a ribbon feature for people who like to make extra rolls.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Theres a reason Wizards moved away from Size/Weight values.

Halflings are 40lbs. Now, folks can like and do whatever they like, it can have as much impact as they like, but the idea that a small being that weighs less than the weights humans curl flinging around a sword or axe or hammer?

The small folk in WotC editions of D&D are ridiculously underweight. In 2e a male gnome weighed between 77 and 92 lb, which is more in line with similarly sized adult primates.

 

[Scribe]

The small folk in WotC editions of D&D are ridiculously underweight. In 2e a male gnome weighed between 77 and 92 lb, which is more in line with similarly sized adult primates.

That's a Gnome though. What's a Gnome weigh in 5e?

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

That's a Gnome though. What's a Gnome weigh in 5e?

Around 40 lb, so about half of what they did.

 

[Scribe]

Around 40 lb, so about half of what they did.

Frustrating. But I suppose if most people don't worry about such things, I don't blame Wizards for not paying attention.

 

[Yaarel]

See, I just wanted Fairy to be Tiny. Not a Toddler with a Greatsword who hits as hard as a 7 foot talk 300 lbs Goliath.

It's just a bridge too far to me.

Glad you enjoy it but it's a day 0 patch for me.

In Norway, the "gnome" (tomte) has superstrength, being supernaturally strong.

I am fine with magical creatures having extremely high Strength.

But if the Halfling is, in concept, nonmagical, then for it to have extreme Strength gives me pause.

Generally, Strength should correlate with size, even if there are exceptions for specific reasons.