Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Centaurs and Minotaurs

As a Dragonlance junkie, it’s interesting to see how they’ve pulled back the damage on the minotaur to make it more workable as a player race (I imagine that working with the Volo races gave them a better baseline). The Hybrid Nature mechanic is interesting here, especially given the number of Fey Ancestry races that we’ve seen so far (who aren’t both Humanoid and Fey), as well as the planar-descended races.

 

[Yaarel]

What's next? Playable Giant race that is still Medium size?

Heh, you think you are joking. Just wait.

 

[Remathilis]

That just seems to a "that's the way things have been done" answer.
If tunnels were made by gnomes, then medium creatures would have to squeeze.
Different sizes have advantages/disadvantages.

Consider this: you have a human, a gnome and an ogre all on a team. They make it to a hole in the wall.

If the hole is sized for a large creature, all can pass.
If the hole is sized for a medium creature, the human and gnome are fine, the ogre squeezes.
If the hole is sized for a small race, the gnome if fine, the human squeezes, and the ogre can't go.
If the hole is sized for a tiny creature, the gnome squeezes and the human and ogre can't go.

The thing is, the game is made for medium sized creatures by default. There are very few times you chase a pixie down a hole, but lots of times you do a goblin, kobold, or larger. Look at some of those dungeons from Yawning Portal; a large pc can't go into White Plume Mountain, the Hidden Shrine, or the Tomb of Horrors without near constant penalty to hit, AC, Dex saves and speed. That's no fun, especially if you are not going to give them the benefits of being large like reach out X2 weapon dice.

It's not elegant, but pseudo-large works better as a PC race. Unless you're running Against the Giants..

 

[Remathilis]

What's next? Playable Giant race that is still Medium size?

Have you seen firbolg or goliath from Volo's yet?

 

[plisnithus8]

Consider this: you have a human, a gnome and an ogre all on a team. They make it to a hole in the wall.

If the hole is sized for a large creature, all can pass.
If the hole is sized for a medium creature, the human and gnome are fine, the ogre squeezes.
If the hole is sized for a small race, the gnome if fine, the human squeezes, and the ogre can't go.
If the hole is sized for a tiny creature, the gnome squeezes and the human and ogre can't go.

The thing is, the game is made for medium sized creatures by default. There are very few times you chase a pixie down a hole, but lots of times you do a goblin, kobold, or larger. Look at some of those dungeons from Yawning Portal; a large pc can't go into White Plume Mountain, the Hidden Shrine, or the Tomb of Horrors without near constant penalty to hit, AC, Dex saves and speed. That's no fun, especially if you are not going to give them the benefits of being large like reach out X2 weapon dice.

It's not elegant, but pseudo-large works better as a PC race. Unless you're running Against the Giants..

It would seem more logical to give large PCs a bonus to weapons like the Enlarge/Reduce spell plus reach and then the squeezing penalties could balance it out.

 

[Yaarel]

I never really thought about how badly we needed a size between Medium and Large before.

The best solution is too split Medium into ‘Lightweight’ and ‘Heavyweight’.



Constitution score: Approximate size
26+: Gargantuan
22-25: Huge
18-21: Large
14-17: Heavyweight (Medium)
10-13: Lightweight (Medium)
6-9: Small
2-5: Tiny


So, being Large means investing in Constitution to be a brute.

Fight sports show how Heavyweight has combat advantages over Lightweight. They really are separate size categories, for grappling and so on.

 

[Leatherhead]

snip

How horrifying.

The best solution is too split Medium into ‘Lightweight’ and ‘Heavyweight’.

Why go with two different Mediums when we have the perfectly good word "Big"?

 

[Yaarel]

Why go with two different Mediums when we have the perfectly good word "Big"?

Heh, because big and large are synonyms? Why not go with little and small?

Weightclasses in combat sports are reallife, and heavyweight and lightweight have cultural meaning.

 

[Parmandur]

Heh, because big and large are synonyms? Why not go with little and small?

Weightclasses in combat sports are reallife, and heavyweight and lightweight have cultural meaning.

Large and Huge are also sunonyms, as are Small and Tiny.

 

[Yaarel]

Large and Huge are also sunonyms, as are Small and Tiny.

At least in my dialect of English, ‘huge’ means *very* large, and ‘tiny’ means *very* small. So strictly they are nonsynonymous.

 

[Leatherhead]

Heh, because big and large are synonyms? Why not go with little and small?

Weightclasses in combat sports are reallife, and heavyweight and lightweight have cultural meaning.

This is true: However, large, huge, gargantuan, and colossal are all synonyms as well.

I suggested "Big" because it cuts down on potential confusion between having two different flavors of Medium.