PDA

View Full Version : size categories and amounts



abraham_lincoln
2011-02-18, 02:05 PM
Hello everyone!

I had a question regarding size categories and amounts. Its actually a two part question. This is in regards to D&D 3.x's size categories (medium, large, huge, gargantuan, and colossal).

1) What are the size categories for transportation?

2) How many commoners would it take to be an even match for a creature in each size category?

Chilingsworth
2011-02-18, 02:18 PM
What do you mean by "amounts?" Do you mean "how much food do creatures of size x need?" "How much do creatures of size x wiegh?" "What size mount do creatures of size x require?" or something else?

Also, did you forget about the smaller size categories (Small, Tiny, Diminutive, and Fine,) or do you just not care about them?

As for your more specific questions:

1) The Arms and Equipment Guide lists stats for many vehicles, including vehicle size. (most of) the vehicles they list are designed to carry medium creatures, though.

2) That varries widely depending on exactly which creature you're considering. There is no "creature of size x = y commoners to kill" formula.

Consider: Properly built & equiped 20th level halfling (any PC class): Probably infinate commoners would still fail to take him/her down.

OR 1st level (human) commoner with Enlarge Person cast on him: Yeah, he'd be alittle be tougher than a normal commoner, but if the other commoners gang up on him, he's still only got one attack per round, and his AC just got debuffed. So, he'd probably be an easy match for 3-5 normal (human) commoners, tops. Of course, he'd likely take at least one down, but that's to be expected, since even friggen housecats can kill commoners.

Also, depends on what race your commoners are. Human commoners are going to be alot weaker than, say, ogre (or even moreso, orgre mage,) commoners.

Zaydos
2011-02-18, 02:23 PM
Each size category is presented as being ~ x2 in each dimension of that below it and 1/2 of that above it. This doesn't actually work out in practice (just look at halfling/gnome weights and human weights, the former should be ~1/8 the later).

abraham_lincoln
2011-02-18, 02:37 PM
the amounts was concerning the amount of commoners.

i'm just curious how many soldiers the kingdom would send out to battle the dragon as opposed to an ogre. (when no brave PC's are around)

And thanks on the A&E GB tip. I'll have to dig that out of the closet.

Zaydos
2011-02-18, 03:24 PM
0. They'd depopulate their country sending commoners against a dragon.

Skorj
2011-02-18, 03:34 PM
0. They'd depopulate their country sending commoners against a dragon.

So says the dragon. :smallamused: They's send just one commoner, dipped in BBQ sauce laced with just the right poison.

Tvtyrant
2011-02-18, 03:39 PM
Or 5 or 6 dozen poisons put in needles that are inserted into his body... That assassin really knows his bio-bombs :P

Mando Knight
2011-02-18, 04:10 PM
i'm just curious how many soldiers the kingdom would send out to battle the dragon as opposed to an ogre. (when no brave PC's are around)
First, it depends on the age category and type of dragon. A Red dragon is much harder to fight than a White dragon of the same age category except if you're carrying only cold-based attacks. Similarly, an Ancient dragon will be harder to fight than a Young Adult.

Commoners cannot take out most dragons. They're nigh-immune to attacks from anyone other than seasoned warriors or other combat-centric creatures.

Rather than size, a better judge of a creature's combat ability is its CR. CR is flawed, but at least you won't be making the mistake of judging a Wyrmling Gold Dragon (a Medium creature) to be less dangerous than a horse (a Large creature). However, creatures of a certain CR below their opponents are not considered threats, and you don't add creatures' CRs together to calculate their effective CR. Forty CR 1/4 commoners cannot threaten a Juvenile Red Dragon, a CR 10 creature, except by sheer luck. Thanks to the nat-20-equals-auto-hit rule, four hundred to eight thousand commoners might bother the dragon if they keep attacking, but it'll still massacre swaths of peasants before that occurs.