Pre-Adult Small Race Heights

[Morgarion]

Does anyone know if there's any information on how tall small races are in infancy and childhood? I was just thinking that if the adults are around 3 to 3.5 feet tall, would that mean that young gnome and halfling children are around a foot and a half tall? Are their babies six inches long? How ridiculous would that be to see?

Or is it the case that they are born, proportionally speaking, bigger and grow more slowly?

[molten_dragon]

Does anyone know if there's any information on how tall small races are in infancy and childhood? I was just thinking that if the adults are around 3 to 3.5 feet tall, would that mean that young gnome and halfling children are around a foot and a half tall? Are their babies six inches long? How ridiculous would that be to see?

Or is it the case that they are born, proportionally speaking, bigger and grow more slowly?

I don't know of any game rules about it.

Well, adult gnomes and halflings are roughly half the height of an adult human, so babies/children are probably roughly half the height too. That means babies will probably be around 10 inches long and weigh 1-1.5 pounds or so. By 8 years old they'll probably be around 2 feet tall and weigh maybe 10-15 pounds.

Halfling women would need proportionally larger hips than a human woman if they were going to give birth to a proportionally larger child, and they don't seem to have them, so their babies are probably not born bigger than half human size.

[Jeff the Green]

I don't know of any game rules about it.

Well, adult gnomes and halflings are roughly half the height of an adult human, so babies/children are probably roughly half the height too. That means babies will probably be around 10 inches long and weigh 1-1.5 pounds or so. By 8 years old they'll probably be around 2 feet tall and weigh maybe 10-15 pounds.

Halfling women would need proportionally larger hips than a human woman if they were going to give birth to a proportionally larger child, and they don't seem to have them, so their babies are probably not born bigger than half human size.

Alternatively, the infants are born at a relatively younger developmental age and so with much smaller heads. Of course, that would leave them horribly open to brain damage.

Oh, hey! That's why humans get a bonus feat!

[Fax Celestis]

For reference, my two and a half year old is the size of a halfling, per PHB height/weight rules.

So the next time you see a toddler, think to yourself: that's a full-grown halfling.

I would imagine that halflings, who are about the size of toddlers, are about the size of a small dog (like, say, a beagle--I have both, they're about the same). Infant halflings, then, would be about the size of beagle pups.

[Rubik]

Alternatively, the infants are born at a relatively younger developmental age and so with much smaller heads. Of course, that would leave them horribly open to brain damage.

Oh, hey! That's why humans get a bonus feat!Humans are already born premature. That's why babies are so horrifically ugly compared to the young of most other animals, and why it takes so long for us to start walking. A.) We need the extra post-pregnancy time for our brains to develop for proper intellect and socialization, and B.) by that age, our skulls are already extremely large compared to our bodies, and birth is already excessively difficult enough without the extra growth that another month or two would entail.

[TuggyNE]

Humans are already born premature.

Well, moderately premature. There is some smallish margin for error in the design, which is why preemies don't just die flat-out, but it is certainly true that humans are born far less proportionally developed in most ways than nearly any (other) animal.

Cutting that margin out might, however, have a much higher chance of truly unfortunate results, as Jeff suggested.