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Piedmon_Sama
2006-02-05, 10:19 PM
So, my group's first big adventure is approaching a climax and the final confrontation with our BBEG of the month looms on the horizon.

This particular foe is a Hobgoblin commander exiled from his homeland, so with a band of henchmen he enslaved a local goblin tribe. This leaves it to the PCs to free the beleagured tribe and slay the nefarious exile, who has ultimate ambitions on carving out his own empire from subjugated tribes across the wilderness.

Well, this guy (Sasinax) is a level 6 fighter with a +1 Longsword. But ever since taking over the Halfmoon tribe, he's been taking it pretty easy.... living it up in his grand lodge he forced the Goblins to build for him. So over the span of his rule, Sasinax has gotten rather.... fat.

In general, I treat obesity as being burdened with a medium load. -3 Check Penalty & movement reduced to 20. Does this sound like a good house ruling to others here, or maybe there are better ways to take a character's overweight status into consideration....?

Brickwall
2006-02-05, 10:21 PM
Unearthed Arcana has a trait describing a heavy build, BoVD has Vile Deformity (obesity), though that is extreme. If you don't have UA, your rule works well too.

Shhalahr Windrider
2006-02-05, 10:32 PM
Dragon # 328 has Obese as a flaw (for use with the Unearthed Arcana flaw system), though it has a listed prerequisite of Small size.

Essentially, you loose the attack, AC, and Hide bonuses for being Small and have to pay double the cost for armor.

You could expand the idea and say an Obese fellow of any race has all the penalties, but none of the bonuses, of creatures one size-category larger.

The medium load idea is pretty good at factoring other factors into the situation as well. I like it.

Grey Watcher
2006-02-05, 10:36 PM
Well, assuming we're talking about a morbidly obese character, yes. I might also suggest a penalty to either the Fortitude Save, specifically, or the Constitution score in general, to represent the negative health effects of severe obesity.

That said, in general, I shy away from needing a rule for every single thing you can imagine. Unless the character is really, really far gone (ie the equivalent of a 300, 350+ pound adult human male, depending on height and build), I'd make being overweight a purely flavor thing.

Perhaps you could dvelop a chart. Use the standard height and weight derivations in the SRD to determine what your character's optimal weight (from a health perspective), and then develop a chart, based on that optimal weight and the character's race, Strength and/or Constitution, you can determine what set of penalties the character incurs. You might extend the chart to deal with underweight characters..... An intriguing idea.

Townsfolk
2006-02-05, 10:38 PM
If they get fat enough, you could give them a natural armor bonus...

starwoof
2006-02-05, 11:07 PM
If they get fat enough, you could give them a natural armor bonus...

How would that make sense at all? All the fat people I know are sensitive to pain.

Plus, being really munchkiny:

"Im gonna eat pie until I have 45 AC!"

larnman2
2006-02-05, 11:17 PM
Truth be told, i don't even think I considered an obese character. I'm gonna make an epic level monk who who is morbidly obese to the point that hisd point absorbtion goes mainly to heart attacks each round.

Piedmon_Sama
2006-02-05, 11:26 PM
Actually, the idea of a fat monk who's like some kind of walking human tank might not be without merit.... maybe if he got his fat enchanted to act as a sort of damage reducing buffer...

Darkie
2006-02-05, 11:30 PM
Sammo said "I'm fat, not out of shape." ;)

Grey Watcher
2006-02-06, 12:03 AM
Actually, the idea of a fat monk who's like some kind of walking human tank might not be without merit.... maybe if he got his fat enchanted to act as a sort of damage reducing buffer...

Just when you thought there was too much blurring between Japanese and European culture, D&D figures out how to bring Sumo wrestlers into the act. ;-) (Actually, the really big sumos are, as I understand it, heavyweight class. The lighter classes look more like football players.)

SumGuy
2006-02-06, 12:13 AM
Just when you thought there was too much blurring between Japanese and European culture, D&D figures out how to bring Sumo wrestlers into the act. ;-) (Actually, the really big sumos are, as I understand it, heavyweight class. The lighter classes look more like football players.)

I also believe that there are even lightweight and featherweight classes, but they are nowhere near as popular.
/2nd hand info

Piedmon_Sama
2006-02-06, 12:19 AM
It's true there are a lot of guys who look (and are) incredibly heavy, but can move like lightning when they need to. Sumo Wrestlers and football linemen essentially explode out from a ready position and cross a small space in a very short amount of time....

ccelizic
2006-02-06, 02:34 AM
Just represent it in his attributes rather then try to make special mechanics.

Don't bother with charisma, that's more force of personality, there's some really butt-ugly monsters out there that have high charisma.

If he's fat but built like a bear, then you can give him strength. If he's just plain flab with nothing underneath it then he's going to be of lower str.

Dexterity, well there's no way he's going to do anything rapid, that mass is going to mean increased momentum requiring more effort to change his momentum. Plop a low stat into dex.

Now if he's actually acting as a fighter in some respects and doesn't tire out quickly then you can plop something at least fair into constitution. If he really let himself go, then drop something lower in con.

Mental stats of int wis and cha are not linked to his obesity so you can put those high rolls you might have been saving in there. if he's fat and completely out of shape yet still on top of the heap then he's got some serious brains most likely anyway.

I don't fudge around with modifers though, you get a character concept and then you mold the attributes you have to fit it. Easier to work with if you make your npc's off an array or a point buy.

Piedmon_Sama
2006-02-06, 03:24 AM
I see him as being moderately fat but not a completely shapeless blob. In my campaign world, officers in the Hobgoblin army have to constantly watch their back before some enterprising sergeant attempts an "on the spot premotion." So even the highest ranking officers have to at least be able to defend themselves long enough to call for help.

He does have a breastplate especially modified to handle his girth (which, if it isn't completely ruined in the fight, can go to the Half-Ogre fighter in the party.)

In fact, having just drawn up a sketch of Sasinax, I'm not so sure I'd describe him as all that fat.... "beefy" is a better word, and I don't think I'd be so extreme as to point a movement penalty to him. (Although his con may suffer some from all his heavy eating.)

AtomicKitKat
2006-02-06, 06:32 AM
Heh, Ultimate Prestige Classes vol 2 from Mongoose Publishing had a class for hyper-obese clerics. I think by level 10 it turned from a Medium to a Huge creature, with very little reach(like 5 feet from his space at most).

Did a quick Google search and found it. The "Bloated One". ;D

Larrin
2006-02-06, 05:07 PM
pseronally i don't think CON should suffer from obesity, if anything those layers of fat add hit points,. what i think you should do to represent the dangers of obesity is create rules for them tiring much faster, ie, reduce their movement rate as if they were in heavy armour, but let them be able to overcome it, provided that they are then 'tired' for a couple of rounds afterwards.

larnman2
2006-02-06, 05:54 PM
I would think that the con would go up. Have you ever seen a fat man get drunk? He needs a lot. Have you ever seen a fat man that works out take a punch? He's sometime soaks it. But his dex would definitely go down.

Darkie
2006-02-06, 06:48 PM
You ever see a fat man run? That's controlled (controlled, not just affected by) constitution.

You can only run a number of consecutive rounds equal to your constitution score. After that, a DC10 check.

Piedmon_Sama
2006-02-06, 08:07 PM
Well, bear in mind that there are different kinds of fat. There's the kind of fat where you've got pounds of solid muscle underneath, and these are the linemen who explode out of their stance and cross ten yards in the blink of an eye. I could see these guys moving at max speed for a number of rounds equal to their CON stat before making a fatigue check, that's a good idea. Then you've got.... fat-fat, which I would treat as just being burdened wherever you move.

Fat should really not affect strength. Ever seen an olympic power lifter? Those guys don't exactly have the cut of Adonis but they can just about juggle car engines they're so absurdly strong. On the other hand, I've known fat guys who could bench and squat two of me and yet considered running ten yards an epic feat..... so I don't think it should effect strength whatever its detriment to constitution.

Nero24200
2006-02-07, 06:06 AM
Have count as extra weight that you can only get rid of through exersice and healthy eating. Or course, the prospect of eating greens makes me reach for the suicide pill....eh....nah, you know what, its too far

Shhalahr Windrider
2006-02-07, 12:07 PM
I would think that the con would go up. Have you ever seen a fat man get drunk? He needs a lot. Have you ever seen a fat man that works out take a punch?

I'd have to say you have a point there. Fat does tend to increase the amount of alchohol it requires to get drunk. But then fatdecreases other aspects of Constitution.

So, it how about Constitution stays the same, but you get a bonus against poisons and drugs and maybe hit points and a penalty to everything covered by the Endurance feat and heart attacks?


Well, bear in mind that there are different kinds of fat. There's the kind of fat where you've got pounds of solid muscle underneath, and these are the linemen who explode out of their stance and cross ten yards in the blink of an eye. I could see these guys moving at max speed for a number of rounds equal to their CON stat before making a fatigue check, that's a good idea. Then you've got.... fat-fat, which I would treat as just being burdened wherever you move.

Fat should really not affect strength. Ever seen an olympic power lifter? Those guys don't exactly have the cut of Adonis but they can just about juggle car engines they're so absurdly strong. On the other hand, I've known fat guys who could bench and squat two of me and yet considered running ten yards an epic feat..... so I don't think it should effect strength whatever its detriment to constitution.

Of course, those athletes aren't strictly obese. They should have a fairly healthy fat-to-muscle-ratio (or something like that).

When people just get more fat than muscle, they tend to have an effect jus opposite of what you describe.

It's not about weight. It's all about body compostion. ;D

stainboy
2006-02-07, 02:00 PM
I think people are overthinking this. D&D's complex enough without rules for being overweight. If the hobgoblin's not morbidly obese, just stat him out like normal.