You could also solve the problem by saying that in your world, Always Chaotic Evil is not in play and ordinary people don't expect a given ogre to be evil any more than they'd expect a given dwarf or human to be evil.
Though personally I'd be inclined to not allow Large size PCs and just limit them to Medium size characters with the Powerful Build trait, like Firbolgs, Goliaths, and Minotaurs.
What if one of you're players wanted to be an ogre.
I'd tell them to use the stats for orc player characters and call themselves an ogre instead of an orc, getting Giant as their racial language instead of Orcish.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Why play a large creature when you can be Huge? I love my Rune Knight / Artificer Gnome. Named Lott Scang he uses Giant’s Might to large (bonus action) then casts Enlarge to go huge. Alternatively he can use Reduce to go to tiny for sneaky sneaky.
PC size is absolutely limited for mechanical reasons, not social ones. Maybe Loxodon and Centaur weren't out in 2017, but even then it was obvious that any new setting could have introduced a large race that was just a part of that world and be totally accepted. But even when they had perfectly fine in-world reasons for large PCs, they made them medium.
Large size carries a whole host of mechanical connections. Your STR and CON are supposed to be proportionately higher. Your AC is supposed to be lower. You take up 4x more space in combat and threaten almost 2x more squares. A large character with reach controls 36 squares on a grid. It's way harder to get cover. It's often easier to get line of sight. You pay twice for moving through a square of difficult terrain. So many of the rules are different that it's just better not to go there. This is also why small size follows the same rules as medium in all but a few token differences. It's just a huge can of worms.
an issue that comes along with being a large creature is sacrifiicing some defensive aspects of the game.
a large character would not easily be able to gain cover from positioning behind other players characters. This is usually half cover, +2 AC/Dex saves.
theres also the fact that since a large creature takes up more space, they can be swarmed by more creatures. If the DM turns on horde mode with lots of smaller enemies to hinder you, you would potentially take more damage as more creatures could have the ability to attack you.
going down a “medium” sized tunnel or door would slow movement and cause slot of other detriments due to squeezing rules. This includes disadvantage on attacks vs other creatures AND other creatures have advantage vs you.
there seem to be more Cons than Pros for being large, at least staying large permanently as a PC.
I'd tell them to use the stats for orc player characters and call themselves an ogre instead of an orc, getting Giant as their racial language instead of Orcish.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
an issue that comes along with being a large creature is sacrifiicing some defensive aspects of the game.
a large character would not easily be able to gain cover from positioning behind other players characters. This is usually half cover, +2 AC/Dex saves.
theres also the fact that since a large creature takes up more space, they can be swarmed by more creatures. If the DM turns on horde mode with lots of smaller enemies to hinder you, you would potentially take more damage as more creatures could have the ability to attack you.
going down a “medium” sized tunnel or door would slow movement and cause slot of other detriments due to squeezing rules. This includes disadvantage on attacks vs other creatures AND other creatures have advantage vs you.
there seem to be more Cons than Pros for being large, at least staying large permanently as a PC.
For offensive bonuses it could be worth huge opportunity attack range with sentinel, huger weapons with more damage, a higher con which equals higher hp, higher strength even more damage, and probably automatically being able to dual wield longswords and such or hold them in one hand and deal the 1d10 versatile so it does have pros and cons and it looks like at lower levels you might squishy, but it might for players who want a challenge.
Yup. I've been running a centaur character in a game since January.
I'm not big on centaurs, but I've considered multiple times reskinning one into a drider.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
They're a decent starting point for making a drider, though one of the other players reskinned a minotaur and called it a drider that was based on a wolf spider instead of an orbweaver.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I'd tell them to use the stats for orc player characters and call themselves an ogre instead of an orc, getting Giant as their racial language instead of Orcish.
What if they wanted to play a huge race like treants or a cyclops
Then I tell them no. There are quite a few character races available by this point, if they can't find something among the existing content that they want to run, that's their problem, not mine.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
an issue that comes along with being a large creature is sacrifiicing some defensive aspects of the game.
a large character would not easily be able to gain cover from positioning behind other players characters. This is usually half cover, +2 AC/Dex saves.
theres also the fact that since a large creature takes up more space, they can be swarmed by more creatures. If the DM turns on horde mode with lots of smaller enemies to hinder you, you would potentially take more damage as more creatures could have the ability to attack you.
going down a “medium” sized tunnel or door would slow movement and cause slot of other detriments due to squeezing rules. This includes disadvantage on attacks vs other creatures AND other creatures have advantage vs you.
there seem to be more Cons than Pros for being large, at least staying large permanently as a PC.
For offensive bonuses it could be worth huge opportunity attack range with sentinel, huger weapons with more damage, a higher con which equals higher hp, higher strength even more damage, and probably automatically being able to dual wield longswords and such or hold them in one hand and deal the 1d10 versatile so it does have pros and cons and it looks like at lower levels you might squishy, but it might for players who want a challenge.
Racial ability score bonuses to might reflect the increase to Strength and Constitution. Reach could be copy and pasted from the bugbear. Being able to dual wield non-light weapons may make sense too.
Size: _____ lives between X and XX feet tall and weight between XXX and XXXX pounds. Your size is large.
Long-Limbed: When you make a melee attack on your turn, your reach for it is 5 feet greater than normal.
speed: your base walking speed is 30ft.
Darkvision: You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Assressive: As a bonus action, you can move up to your speed toward an enemy of your choice that you can see or hear. You must end this move closer to the enemy than you started.
Strong-grip: you treat any weapon with the versatile property as being 2 handed while the weapon is held in one hand for the purpose of the higher damage die.
Pretty solid maybe alter it by increasing the damage die on versatile when it is held with both hand so 1 hand equaled 1d10 then two hands equals 1d12 and an extra bonus to two handed weapons also disadvantage on stealth check would probably apply to most large races, so I guess they wouldn't need it, but they might have to pay double for weapons and armor tailored to them though. Also it would make sense for them to be unable to use lgiht weapons because small races can't use heavy weapons. Really looking forward to making a Yuan-ti Abomination
I played a minotaur a long time ago. Couldn't hide well, had to rely on a party member to buy my supplies while i hid in the forests on the outskirts of town, swung a really big axe for a lot of damage but always was attacked first or by multiple creatures. I was an arrow magnet and npc's reacted to me with fear and revulsion. it was pretty cool and was a RPing challenge but it was worth it for the group I had and the campaign we were running. Would it work for all groups? No. Would it work in a human city based campaign? No. Could it be fun? Yes!
Another aspect to consider would be grappling rules. Take the Goliath race, for example. If they were allowed as Large size creatures, with an Enlarge spell cast on them, they could suddenly get a hold of and prone the largest class of creatures, even a Tarrasque or ancient Dragon. It would be too easy to break the half of the possible boss battles with a Barbarian/Bard Goliath grappler build and some low level magic.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
What if one of you're players wanted to be an ogre.
I'd tell them to use the stats for orc player characters and call themselves an ogre instead of an orc, getting Giant as their racial language instead of Orcish.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Why play a large creature when you can be Huge? I love my Rune Knight / Artificer Gnome. Named Lott Scang he uses Giant’s Might to large (bonus action) then casts Enlarge to go huge. Alternatively he can use Reduce to go to tiny for sneaky sneaky.
PC size is absolutely limited for mechanical reasons, not social ones. Maybe Loxodon and Centaur weren't out in 2017, but even then it was obvious that any new setting could have introduced a large race that was just a part of that world and be totally accepted. But even when they had perfectly fine in-world reasons for large PCs, they made them medium.
Large size carries a whole host of mechanical connections. Your STR and CON are supposed to be proportionately higher. Your AC is supposed to be lower. You take up 4x more space in combat and threaten almost 2x more squares. A large character with reach controls 36 squares on a grid. It's way harder to get cover. It's often easier to get line of sight. You pay twice for moving through a square of difficult terrain. So many of the rules are different that it's just better not to go there. This is also why small size follows the same rules as medium in all but a few token differences. It's just a huge can of worms.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
an issue that comes along with being a large creature is sacrifiicing some defensive aspects of the game.
a large character would not easily be able to gain cover from positioning behind other players characters. This is usually half cover, +2 AC/Dex saves.
theres also the fact that since a large creature takes up more space, they can be swarmed by more creatures. If the DM turns on horde mode with lots of smaller enemies to hinder you, you would potentially take more damage as more creatures could have the ability to attack you.
going down a “medium” sized tunnel or door would slow movement and cause slot of other detriments due to squeezing rules. This includes disadvantage on attacks vs other creatures AND other creatures have advantage vs you.
there seem to be more Cons than Pros for being large, at least staying large permanently as a PC.
This is pretty much how centaurs are handled. The monster centaur is large: https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/centaur
The PC centaur is medium: https://www.dndbeyond.com/races/centaur
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Yup. I've been running a centaur character in a game since January.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
For offensive bonuses it could be worth huge opportunity attack range with sentinel, huger weapons with more damage, a higher con which equals higher hp, higher strength even more damage, and probably automatically being able to dual wield longswords and such or hold them in one hand and deal the 1d10 versatile so it does have pros and cons and it looks like at lower levels you might squishy, but it might for players who want a challenge.
I'm not big on centaurs, but I've considered multiple times reskinning one into a drider.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
They're a decent starting point for making a drider, though one of the other players reskinned a minotaur and called it a drider that was based on a wolf spider instead of an orbweaver.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
What if they wanted to play a huge race like treants or a cyclops
Then I tell them no. There are quite a few character races available by this point, if they can't find something among the existing content that they want to run, that's their problem, not mine.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Racial ability score bonuses to might reflect the increase to Strength and Constitution. Reach could be copy and pasted from the bugbear. Being able to dual wield non-light weapons may make sense too.
LARGE PLAYER CHARACTERS TEMPLATE EXAMPLE
Ability Score increase: +2 strength, +2 constitution
Size: _____ lives between X and XX feet tall and weight between XXX and XXXX pounds. Your size is large.
Long-Limbed: When you make a melee attack on your turn, your reach for it is 5 feet greater than normal.
speed: your base walking speed is 30ft.
Darkvision: You can see in dim light within 60 feet
of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Assressive: As a bonus action, you can move up to your speed toward an enemy of your choice that you can see or hear. You must end this move closer to the enemy than you started.
Strong-grip: you treat any weapon with the versatile property as being 2 handed while the weapon is held in one hand for the purpose of the higher damage die.
Pretty solid maybe alter it by increasing the damage die on versatile when it is held with both hand so 1 hand equaled 1d10 then two hands equals 1d12 and an extra bonus to two handed weapons also disadvantage on stealth check would probably apply to most large races, so I guess they wouldn't need it, but they might have to pay double for weapons and armor tailored to them though. Also it would make sense for them to be unable to use lgiht weapons because small races can't use heavy weapons. Really looking forward to making a Yuan-ti Abomination
I played a minotaur a long time ago. Couldn't hide well, had to rely on a party member to buy my supplies while i hid in the forests on the outskirts of town, swung a really big axe for a lot of damage but always was attacked first or by multiple creatures. I was an arrow magnet and npc's reacted to me with fear and revulsion. it was pretty cool and was a RPing challenge but it was worth it for the group I had and the campaign we were running. Would it work for all groups? No. Would it work in a human city based campaign? No. Could it be fun? Yes!
Another aspect to consider would be grappling rules. Take the Goliath race, for example. If they were allowed as Large size creatures, with an Enlarge spell cast on them, they could suddenly get a hold of and prone the largest class of creatures, even a Tarrasque or ancient Dragon. It would be too easy to break the half of the possible boss battles with a Barbarian/Bard Goliath grappler build and some low level magic.