D&D General Size matters

[parodocs]

Hi, my question is pretty simple: does anyone have any homebrew ideas for Size in combat, how it effects AC, movement etc...
5e is lacking in the rules I think are relevant; combat is the first place to start: size does matter
Thank you, have a happy day.
Parodocs

 

[GMMichael]

Being bigger grants advantage to melee attack rolls. Being smaller grants advantage to saving throws and ranged attack rolls.

This indirectly affects AC, and movement doesn't change - bigger creatures have more inertia.

 

[ezo]

You tagged this as D&D General, do you have a particular edition in mind?

 

[aco175]

@parodocs welcome to your first thread even though you joined a few years ago.

I might point to the new racial abilities modifiers for PCs to say size does not matter. Halflings are no longer weaker on average than orcs or humans. Same as when we get to the thread that DEX matters most of all.

 

[Vaalingrade]

3x had it so Small was +1 AC / -1 Attack and Large was +1 Attack / -1 AC.

With bounded accuracy, that's a way bigger penalty than in 3x, and advantage disadvantage is even worse, rolling up to around +/- 3.

Heavy weapon property tells Small characters they're just not really allowed to be certain classes.

If you really want to 'make size matter' in combat, consider giving bigger/smaller combatants a special combat ability or just ban bigger/smaller combatants altogether.

 

[Morrus]

@parodocs welcome to your first thread even though you joined a few years ago.

I might point to the new racial abilities modifiers for PCs to say size does not matter. Halflings are no longer weaker on average than orcs or humans. Same as when we get to the thread that DEX matters most of all.

You’re confusing size mattering with ability scores. There are still size categories in D&D, from Tiny up to Garguantuan, and size does make a difference. It just doesn’t directly affect PC ability scores. That’s a far cry from “not mattering”, unless one feels that PC ability scores are the only thing in the whole of D&D that matters.

 

[Nefermandias]

3x had it so Small was +1 AC / -1 Attack and Large was +1 Attack / -1 AC.

With bounded accuracy, that's a way bigger penalty than in 3x, and advantage disadvantage is even worse, rolling up to around +/- 3.

Heavy weapon property tells Small characters they're just not really allowed to be certain classes.

If you really want to 'make size matter' in combat, consider giving bigger/smaller combatants a special combat ability or just ban bigger/smaller combatants altogether.

No. 3e had Small +1 AC AND Attack, and large -1 AC AND Attack.

It went like this from +8 for diminutive creatures up to -8 for colossal creatures.

 

[bedir than]

If I were to do adjustments to hit in 5e I would want it for differences of two sizes or more.

 

[Quickleaf]

If you're small, like a hobbit or dwarf, bigguns' suffer -4 to hit yo...

Oh, wait, which edition?

 

[parodocs]

You tagged this as D&D General, do you have a particular edition in mind?

Hello,
I'm building a campaign using 1st, 2nd, 3.5 modified (favourite) and a little 5th (more the stories and critters (with modifications).
Epic fantasy, epic magic, epic critters: I'm designing rules for fighting colossal monsters.