Any advantages to being Small?

Quote from Kyt0n >>

CounterPoint all the small races weigh between 35 and 40 lbs enlarge/reduce reduces your weight by 1/8th so a 40lbs Gnome now weighs 5 lbs.  Mage hand can pick up 10lbs and now you can hoist yourself in the air and fly around.  Useless?  Maybe but funny.

 Mage hand can only manipulate objects, not creatures.

Quote from HailRobonia >>

Quote from Kyt0n >>

CounterPoint all the small races weigh between 35 and 40 lbs enlarge/reduce reduces your weight by 1/8th so a 40lbs Gnome now weighs 5 lbs.  Mage hand can pick up 10lbs and now you can hoist yourself in the air and fly around.  Useless?  Maybe but funny.

 Mage hand can only manipulate objects, not creatures.

Creatures often wear clothes. Clothes are objects. If someone yanks my belt, I'm going with it.

Quote from Ravnodaus >>

Quote from HailRobonia >>

Quote from Kyt0n >>

CounterPoint all the small races weigh between 35 and 40 lbs enlarge/reduce reduces your weight by 1/8th so a 40lbs Gnome now weighs 5 lbs.  Mage hand can pick up 10lbs and now you can hoist yourself in the air and fly around.  Useless?  Maybe but funny.

 Mage hand can only manipulate objects, not creatures.

Creatures often wear clothes. Clothes are objects. If someone yanks my belt, I'm going with it.

 This guy gets it.

Quote from BricingWolf >>

Quote from Matthias_von_Schwarzwald >>

Quote from BricingWolf>>

 So, not as bad as I was thinking. I think that what I need to do is review what weapons are heavy, and almost certainly make the Longbow and Glaive lose the heavy property. 

 Longbow and anything that does 1d10 or better (except via Versatile), except the lance. 

 Are you trying to tell me what weapons are heavy? *rereads what I wrote before*

AH, ok. That's my bad. What I meant was, "review whether the heavy weapons should be heavy*. 

Sorry for the mix up. 

Quote from Werlynn >>

The advantages of being small are situational and mostly narrative. Don't let folks distract you with an exclusive focus on mechanics. You might be capable of doing things that other players shouldn't even look at their dice for.

Maybe there's nothing in this scene large enough for an elf or human to hide behind, but the gnome is fine behind that stump. Maybe your the only one light enough to cross the ice without checking to fall through. Maybe being a halfling makes it easier for you to trick an orc into underestimating you.

Remember that your DM is very busy managing a lot of stuff (story, clues, monsters, NPCs, time for each player, etc). They may not remember to account for your size (or similar things for each individual player). If the DM describes a scene and you think being small might be an advantage don't be afraid to ask. 

 I'm the primary DM in my group. 

I'm coming at this from the perspective of a DM and game designer, not just that of a player. 

My point is exactly that most of the benefits of being small are very situational and DM dependent, while the drawbacks neither. A small ranged weapon user can't get the same damage as a medium creature. 

A small great weapon fighter will always be a damage die behind a medium GWF. 

This creates a circumstance that I don't like, wherein most halflings and gnomes are casters and rogues, or rogue-like fighters and rangers. Every archer ranger I've seen in public play that is small has taken levels or rogue for SA to make up for being stuck with the shortbow, unless the DM handwaived the heavy property. In those games, the same players went from planning to MC, to going full ranger, because they literally were only taking rogue levels to make up the damage difference. 

I've seen longsword GWF gnome barbarians, but again they tend to find ways to get damage sources outside their main class because even though 1 die step isn't actually a big deal statistically, it feels like it. 

And of course, there are no RAW Gnomish pikemen, because every reach weapon  but the whip is heavy. 

That arbitrary stifling of concept is what I don't like. 

 

But like I said in my last post, I think that ditching Heavy on the Longbow and Glaive, or adding a few weapons that fit the bill with different descriptions, will solve the problem. I may restrict the new reach weapon to 1d8, but maybe not. It's not like small creatures can't already get d10 with verstatile weapons. 

 Thats the problem. you're looking at DND like tis a video Game. but the beauty of DND is adaptability. It's being able to have elastic rules instead of just set code. use that. Small creatures are also just kinda fun too. more exploration, usually lighter, and better at hiding/sneaking. And if thats not the kinda build you wanna play, thats fine. Yes, they can't weild great weapons or Grapple well. But not every creature is gonna be good at everything. Also, just to mention, certain Items/abilities can only be used by Small creatures. One of my favorite items in the game is the Heavy Golem Armour, which can only be used by your small guys. 

Gnomish Cunning: advantage on ALL int, wis, and cha saving throws.

I love building gnome paladins, max out cha, max out their aura, and you are going to make all mental saves

I have a Halfling Wizard player who has been quite successful in avoiding being attacked at all. Because of her Small size, I allow that taking cover behind a fallen foe's (Medium sized) body provides 3/4 cover. I also allow her to take cover behind other players if they aren't taking a move and are aware she's doing so. (Her favorite is the group Cleric, who has a high AC and can conveniently heal her if needed.) She takes full advantage of being able to move through large creatures' space. There have only been a few fights where she was targeted specifically or found herself with combatants in her face, and she's handily gotten herself out of each of them. The player herself is petite and it's been pretty cool to see how naturally she utilizes her small size.   

Someone has used a lot of 300gp diamonds resurecting this thread. But since it has...

Responding to Bricing Wolf above, I think it makes sense to create slightly reduced pole arms et al. that small charecters can use. Maybe reduce them to D8, and still require the two handed property. Think about it though - if you were in charge of the guard for a Halfling community, and one of you're concerns was addressing the threat from 2 meter tall "giants," you would want a weapon that would allow your meter-high guards to strike at the vitals, and keep the giants at bay - a Halfling sized long-spear, glave, or halberd.

As for longbows,  it does not have to be a two-meter English longbow, as I think some assume upthread. Composite bows, which date back to the bronze era, often give comperable performance in a much shorter package, often better performance (yada yada, technical bow stuff, I could provide the references). It wouldn't be way outside the realm of quasi-realism for a small PC to handle a composite horn-bow that had at least the same range, if not power, of a longbow - it would not be a terribly wild homebrew. 

There is also something awesome about the idea of a 1 meter Halfling fighter or barbarian with a 20 strength that bashes down doors and can lift up the 2-meter plus knight and his armor. The bar fights alone would be hysterical.