When should PCs grow into Large or Huge size?

[harpy]

So I'm hard at work on a system to customize races a bit more and one "very large" thing that has hung on the horizon was integrating large and huge size PCs.

The basic idea is that the race the PC belongs to grows up into a new size bracket. Part of it now has to do with figuring out at what level it would be ok to have these growth spurts without derailing the game.

Right now I've dialed them to:

Large (tall) 9th level
Huge (long) 13th level
Huge (tall) 17th level

The big issue with these sizes mostly comes down to weapon damage and reach.

For weapon damage the average number of points raised from medium to large is 2.5 points worth of damage, although that can go higher if the player is min-maxing their weapon usage.

Going from Large to Huge leaps up the ladder even higher, with an average of 7 points above what medium does. If the player is using a monk then that can reach almost 10 points of average damage higher.

Then of course there is reach. Where the medium PC threatens up to 24 squares with reach weapons and spiked armor, things ramp up quickly with large. Large (long) has a potential area of 32 squares while large (tall) can cover 96 squares.

Going to huge gets more intense, with huge (long) covering up to 112 squares and huge (tall) covering 216 squares when using a reach weapon along with spiked armor or a natural weapon.

Those are the big hurdles, so it's just an issue of trying to figure out at what level it would be appropriate for these things to appear.

 

[Sylrae]

Instead of upping their size all at once, you could do it incrementally, giving the damage, bonuses and penalties, and reach at separate levels.

I'd make a racial class and add it in with the other racial levels, and possibly make it a prestige thing so you have to be a certain level before taking each level of the class that you wanna use if some of the abilities are quite powerful.

Of course, that seems to be my answer to alot of monster issues lately. Honestly, I cant find a situation where that would not work better than the default LA + HD System.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You might want to check out Monte Cook's alternative D&D game, Arcana Unearthed and its revision, Arcana Evolved.

In it, his Giant PC race does indeed increase in size over time.

The mechanic he uses to do this is an improved version of the monster classes that first showed up in Savage Species.

Works like a charm.

 

[Freakohollik]

You might want to check out Monte Cook's alternative D&D game, Arcana Unearthed and its revision, Arcana Evolved.

In it, his Giant PC race does indeed increase in size over time.

The mechanic he uses to do this is an improved version of the monster classes that first showed up in Savage Species.

Works like a charm.

They're just racial paragon classes which appear in Unearthed Arcana. Which I think came first.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

For the record, Savage Species predates Unearthed Arcana by exactly a year.

The Arcana Unearthed/Arcana Evolved racial classes are a bit more than the racial paragon classes, though they're very similar. And they do share certain qualities with the Savage Species monster classes.

For one thing, they cover many more levels. Instead of taking a creature beyond its game-mechanical archetype (as the Paragon classes do), the Racial classes of AU/AE represent the PC's growth into the ultimate expression of the archetype (like the Monster Classes do). After all, the base versions of AU/AE Giants are actually size M- they don't become truly "giant-sized" without taking a few levels of their racial class.

However, unlike the monster classes of SS- and more like the Paragon classes of UA- no PC is required to take th the Racial classes of AU/AE. A PC of a given race may take as few or as many levels in their racial class as they care to. In addition, the AU/AE classes have full BAB and other benefit progressions.