Steel Mirror
2014-09-10, 05:49 PM
So this is my attempt at that perennial D&D challenge: making a playable race with a very different shape or size from humans. It's always a balancing act between making them different enough in mechanics to match their flavor without introducing excessive clutter or unbalanced mechanics in the process. Given that 5E is a new system for me, chances are pretty good that I screwed something up.
The fluff is intended for my own personal game in mind, which includes a very cosmopolitan realm where many peoples mix rather freely. If you prefer a race of hidden centaurs that live in the forest and fill interlopers with arrows, or if you are only here to see what I did with game mechanics and don't care about fluff either way, just skip the spoilered sections and proceed to Centaur Traits. If you do read the fluff bits, I don't mind hearing what you think!
Centaur
http://s10.postimg.org/wpk9hraih/centaur_girl_by_owlet_in_chest_d6gtzn0crop600.jpg (http://owlet-in-chest.deviantart.com/art/Centaur-girl-391070124)
Artist Credit: Owlet-in-chest (http://owlet-in-chest.deviantart.com/) on deviantart http://owlet-in-chest.deviantart.com/art/Centaur-girl-391070124
Filika shifted restlessly from hoof to hoof as she waited for her teacher to finish grading her make-up test. Her tail swished wildly as she fretted, making the only sound in the still and otherwise empty classroom. She looked out again through the window, to where the rest of the students were laughing and running in the midday sun. It was so unfair that she was stuck inside with this old gnome!
"I trust that I am not detaining you from some more important engagement, my dear?"
Filika snapped her eyes guiltily back to her teacher, who was looking up at her with an expression of mixed disapproval and amusement. "No, Miss Waywocket," she said, as contritely as she could manage. Darn that old gnome! It was like she could read minds, sometimes. Well, she was a wizard after all-it was possible she really could read minds. Filika's expression froze and her eyes widened, and she tried to think academical thoughts.
"Well, you seem to have mustered a long enough attention span to achieve a passing grade, so you may go. Just remember to do your homework at home, next time, hmmm?"
Filika veritably stampeded towards the classroom door, barely getting out a dutiful "Yes Miss Waywocket, thank you Miss Waywocket!" before she burst outside to meet up with her friends. A sunny spring day was no time to be locked up indoors, after all. Centaurs were born to run!
Centaurs are an industrious people who can be found across the kingdom, sometimes living in traditionally Centaur towns, sometimes as just another race in the cosmopolitan mixing bowls of the kingdom's cities. While they may have come from the forests and plains, they are no more beholden to them these days than are modern humans to their ancestral cave homes or Savannah tribes. They remain well known for their skill at archery and their incredible ability to run, but today a centaur is just as likely to make a living as a baker or musician as an archer or herdsman. Just...don't try to ride one. That seldom works out very well.
Grace and Strength
Despite the typical description of a "half man, half horse", a centaur's proportions mean that their lower half is closer in size to a deer or an antelope than to a full-sized horse. Their humanoid upper bodies are usually slender but strong, and their facial features tend towards large noses, pointed chins, and high cheekbones. Centaur women range from about 5 and a half feet to 6 and a half feet tall. Males grow about a foot taller on average than their female counterparts. While their quadrupedal hindquarters mean that centaurs weigh considerably more than most humans, their slight builds offset that somewhat. The average centaur weighs between 200 and 450 pounds, or a little more than 1.5 times as much as a human of the same height and build.
Centaurs have a great diversity in coloration. Upper body skin colors range from fair to dark, with a unique dusky reddish skin tone comprising about half of the centaur race. Fur colors are incredibly varied. Centaurs from the plains tend to have colors similar to domestic horses, while those from the forest have mottled or spotted white and brown or white and red fur, similar to deer. Even in these generalizations there are exceptions, however, and among centaurs the pattern and color of one's fur is held to be as distinct as one's fingerprints.
The hair on their heads tends to match some element of their fur coloration, and may even be multicolored itself (mottled white and black to match their fur, for instance). A centaur's hair covers the head, as in humans, but also grows along the back of the neck and tapers off along the upper neck, like a mane. Some modern centaurs keep this area shaved or close-cropped, to better match hair and clothing styles worn among the humanoid races, while other centaurs keep luxurious, flowing manes as a matter of pride.
Born to Run
There is as much diversity among centaurs as among any race, but one generalization that can safely be made about the species is that they love to run. Young centaurs physically mature much quicker than humans do, and can walk within a week or so of being born-and are running around about 10 minutes after that. Centaur children run everywhere. Every game they play involves running somehow, and among centaurs running events are held to be the most prestigious of sporting accomplishments. Where a human might take a walk to clear her mind, a centaur will go for a relaxing run.
This is in fact how the centaurs first began integrating into wider humanoid society. Long ago a kingdom employed centaur mercenaries in a string of key battles, where their supreme mobility on the battlefield proved a decisive advantage. It became customary after that time for the kingdom to employ a ceremonial core of centaurs at all times, and by fits and starts the centaur people gradually became an accepted part of everyday life. Even today, where in most places a centaur walking down the street is considered no more out of place than a dwarf in a brewery, having a few centaurs in one's honor guard is considered a mark of great prestige among those wealthy enough to afford such things.
Centaur Culture
Centaurs, unlike horses, are omnivores. They eat meat, though less often than humans do, and particularly enjoy sweets and baked goods. Centaur cuisine has become popular in several parts of the kingdom, as centaurs have a keen sense of taste and a facility for using herbs in pleasing and unexpected combinations. Centaur cuisine is high on herbs, leafy vegetables, and proteins, low on fats and spicy tastes. Centaur bakeries are widely held to be the best in the kingdom, possibly anywhere.
A centaur might choose the adventuring life out of an extension of his basic desire to run free, to see new things and experience new sensations. Others might leave small town life to seek fortune and glory in the big city, or join a mercenary company where their natural gifts are always appreciated. Centaurs choosing to study the magical arts have historically been rather rare (with the exception of druids). Times change, though, and some young centaurs are exploring the new horizons that open up to those who obtain mystic power.
Centaur Names
Male Names: Bucef, Dalan, Edwarn, Jack, Morcred, Pelion, Rae, Toby
Female Names: Chaia, Filika, Harley, Mila, Nephali, Shiron
Family Names: As they have assimilated into a broader society, many centaurs have taken on family names more common to the rest of civilization, or reflecting a trade passed down through their family. Some few have retained family names that hark back to a time when centaurs lived only with other centaurs, e.g. Autia, Cromwen, Killida, Winafras
Centaur Traits
Centaurs are hardy and fast, but their size does make for some occasional awkwardness.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2.
Age. Centaurs mature very quickly when compared to human infants, and are able to walk within two weeks of being born. They reach physical adulthood around the age of 15, but in terms of mental maturity are more or less on par with humans at most stages of adolescence. Centaurs rarely live for more than 60 years, and begin to appear elderly around the age of 45.
Alignment. Centaurs are an industrious people who value both personal freedom and strong community bonds. There's always one bad runner in a herd, though, and some centaurs abandon community spirit in order to pursue solely selfish ends.
Size. Centaurs are larger than humans, though not much taller, averaging from 6 to 7+ feet tall. Your size is Medium, but your DM may rule that you must apply situational modifiers in certain specific circumstances (see Size may Matter, below).
Speed. Your walking speed is 40 feet.
Born to Run. Centaurs love running on a visceral level, and their four legs makes them very good at it. When you take the Dash action, you triple your normal movement instead of doubling it (if your move speed is currently 40 feet, for example, dashing would allow you to gallop 120 feet instead of 80 feet).
Quadrupedal Stability. It's a lot harder to push a centaur over than it is a human or an elf. You have advantage on strength and dexterity saving throws to avoid being knocked prone or forcibly moved.
Quadrupedal Strength. Centaur's are larger than bipeds, and they can carry more stuff as well. Your carrying capacity is doubled.
Superior Impulsion. You gain advantage on strength checks made to jump, so long as you have a running start.
Size can Matter. While in most cases, your larger-than-humanoid size makes very little difference as far as the rules go, there are some times when your DM can rule that your unusual body size and shape gets in the way of certain actions (or, equally rarely, might prove an advantage). For example, when walking down a narrow passage that offers no room to turn around, your DM might declare that you can only move backward at half speed, and cannot take the dash action. When climbing a sheer cliff face, you might have to seek another way past the obstacle. When buying armor, you might have to pay twice the listed price in order to obtain a suit fitted to your specifications. Your DM is, as always, the final arbiter of when and how such circumstances apply.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common, and one other language as determined by your subrace.
Subrace. While the distinction matters less these days than it did ancestrally, and indeed examples of both types can be found even within a single family, you choose to one of either the Woodkin or Plainstriders.
Woodkin CentaurYour ancestors lived among the trees of the forest primeval, where nimbleness and a little healthy paranoia is more important than raw speed and strength. The coloration of plainstriders tends towards mottled patterns of browns and lighter colors, similar to deer or elk fur. Eye colors tend towards greens, blues, and browns.
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Skittish. You have proficiency with the Perception skill.
The Reflexes of the Hunted. In the forest, you can never be 100% sure that there isn't something toothy and hungry ready to leap out at you from behind the next tree. After you roll a single Dexterity check or save, but before you learn the result, you may replace the number you actually rolled with your Dexterity score, plus your proficiency bonus if it was applicable to the original check. For example, if your dexterity were 15 and you rolled a 3 on initiative at the beginning of combat, you could choose to change your total result from a 5 (3+2 dex mod) to a 15 (your dex score, proficiency bonus does not apply) for the rest of the encounter. Once you use this power, you may not use it again until you complete a long rest.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Elvish. Woodkin have a long history of association with Wood Elves, and have traditionally spoken their tongue as their native language. Even the haughty High Elves admit that some of the greatest ballads in Elvish were composed by centaurs.
Plainstrider CentaurPlainstriders live on the wide-open fields, where hiding is mostly futile and the best defense is a good overland pace. Plainstriders’ fur resembles the coloration on domestic horses, and can be a single color, patchy, dotted, and almost anything else you could imagine. Eyes tend to be gold, black, or gray.
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 1.
Natural Sprinters. You have proficiency with the Athletics skill.
Centaur Kick. If you make an unarmed attack using your legs, you roll a minimum of 1d4 for the weapon damage and are considered proficient. Additionally, you may make a kick attack as a bonus action on any turn where you take the Dash action, or at any time as a bonus action targeting an adjacent prone enemy.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write one language of your choice. The plains are a crossroads for many races and cultures, and Plainstriders have been exposed to all of them at one time or another.
Given a centaur's speed and resemblance to a certain domesticated beast of burden, it is inevitable that humanoids have often wondered what it would be like to ride one. Centaurs, on the whole, are much less keen on this idea. They consider it just as demeaning as a human might regard being told to give a stranger a piggyback ride through the streets. In battle they are even less likely to consent to such an arrangement, as having a human-sized passenger on their back can make movement and combat very difficult.
That said, there are times when circumstances make such an action unavoidable. Some centaurs might also not mind giving a ride to certain close humanoid friends, assuming that the friend keeps hands from grabbing anything sensitive and doesn't pull on the hair. Still, while their lower bodies look like a horse, they are in fact much smaller, and supporting a full sized rider is much more difficult for a centaur than a horse.
A centaur can't give a ride to anyone whose weight would combine with the centaur's equipment to exceed their carrying capacity (Strength score multiplied by 25). Even then, if the rider herself weighs more than the centaur's Strength score multiplied by 10, the centaur's move speed decreases by 10 feet and he suffers from disadvantage on Strength and Dexterity checks and saves. Riders who weigh less than that do not unduly burden the centaur.
A centaur with the Mounted Combat feat does not get to apply the benefits solely because he is a centaur and has four legs. A centaur must be mounted on another creature (no easy prospect) in order to gain the benefits of the Mounted Combat feat, just like any other character.
From the rider's perspective, riding a centaur is not much different from riding any intelligent mount (see Mounted Combat, PHB 198), except for the probable lack of a saddle. While certain centaurs in certain situations might allow certain people to ride them, it is rare indeed to find a centaur willing to wear a saddle. There have been several unfortunate events in centaur history involving xenophobia, enslavement, and purposeful humiliation of centaurs by other races, and most centaurs bristle at the merest suggestion that they might wear a saddle and be put at the service of two-legged riders.
My worries are primarily whether I made them too powerful, whether I pigeonholed them into being only playable in certain classes, and whether people think that I handled the "larger than medium, smaller than large" mechanics in a playable and believable way. Mostly my strategy was to give the DM a few examples of how to deal with such issues, and then leave the final determinations in their hands, which I think fits the design philosophy of 5E well, but I appreciate your feedback! Whether you like what I did, hate it, or have some ideas that you think are better, please let me know.
The fluff is intended for my own personal game in mind, which includes a very cosmopolitan realm where many peoples mix rather freely. If you prefer a race of hidden centaurs that live in the forest and fill interlopers with arrows, or if you are only here to see what I did with game mechanics and don't care about fluff either way, just skip the spoilered sections and proceed to Centaur Traits. If you do read the fluff bits, I don't mind hearing what you think!
Centaur
http://s10.postimg.org/wpk9hraih/centaur_girl_by_owlet_in_chest_d6gtzn0crop600.jpg (http://owlet-in-chest.deviantart.com/art/Centaur-girl-391070124)
Artist Credit: Owlet-in-chest (http://owlet-in-chest.deviantart.com/) on deviantart http://owlet-in-chest.deviantart.com/art/Centaur-girl-391070124
Filika shifted restlessly from hoof to hoof as she waited for her teacher to finish grading her make-up test. Her tail swished wildly as she fretted, making the only sound in the still and otherwise empty classroom. She looked out again through the window, to where the rest of the students were laughing and running in the midday sun. It was so unfair that she was stuck inside with this old gnome!
"I trust that I am not detaining you from some more important engagement, my dear?"
Filika snapped her eyes guiltily back to her teacher, who was looking up at her with an expression of mixed disapproval and amusement. "No, Miss Waywocket," she said, as contritely as she could manage. Darn that old gnome! It was like she could read minds, sometimes. Well, she was a wizard after all-it was possible she really could read minds. Filika's expression froze and her eyes widened, and she tried to think academical thoughts.
"Well, you seem to have mustered a long enough attention span to achieve a passing grade, so you may go. Just remember to do your homework at home, next time, hmmm?"
Filika veritably stampeded towards the classroom door, barely getting out a dutiful "Yes Miss Waywocket, thank you Miss Waywocket!" before she burst outside to meet up with her friends. A sunny spring day was no time to be locked up indoors, after all. Centaurs were born to run!
Centaurs are an industrious people who can be found across the kingdom, sometimes living in traditionally Centaur towns, sometimes as just another race in the cosmopolitan mixing bowls of the kingdom's cities. While they may have come from the forests and plains, they are no more beholden to them these days than are modern humans to their ancestral cave homes or Savannah tribes. They remain well known for their skill at archery and their incredible ability to run, but today a centaur is just as likely to make a living as a baker or musician as an archer or herdsman. Just...don't try to ride one. That seldom works out very well.
Grace and Strength
Despite the typical description of a "half man, half horse", a centaur's proportions mean that their lower half is closer in size to a deer or an antelope than to a full-sized horse. Their humanoid upper bodies are usually slender but strong, and their facial features tend towards large noses, pointed chins, and high cheekbones. Centaur women range from about 5 and a half feet to 6 and a half feet tall. Males grow about a foot taller on average than their female counterparts. While their quadrupedal hindquarters mean that centaurs weigh considerably more than most humans, their slight builds offset that somewhat. The average centaur weighs between 200 and 450 pounds, or a little more than 1.5 times as much as a human of the same height and build.
Centaurs have a great diversity in coloration. Upper body skin colors range from fair to dark, with a unique dusky reddish skin tone comprising about half of the centaur race. Fur colors are incredibly varied. Centaurs from the plains tend to have colors similar to domestic horses, while those from the forest have mottled or spotted white and brown or white and red fur, similar to deer. Even in these generalizations there are exceptions, however, and among centaurs the pattern and color of one's fur is held to be as distinct as one's fingerprints.
The hair on their heads tends to match some element of their fur coloration, and may even be multicolored itself (mottled white and black to match their fur, for instance). A centaur's hair covers the head, as in humans, but also grows along the back of the neck and tapers off along the upper neck, like a mane. Some modern centaurs keep this area shaved or close-cropped, to better match hair and clothing styles worn among the humanoid races, while other centaurs keep luxurious, flowing manes as a matter of pride.
Born to Run
There is as much diversity among centaurs as among any race, but one generalization that can safely be made about the species is that they love to run. Young centaurs physically mature much quicker than humans do, and can walk within a week or so of being born-and are running around about 10 minutes after that. Centaur children run everywhere. Every game they play involves running somehow, and among centaurs running events are held to be the most prestigious of sporting accomplishments. Where a human might take a walk to clear her mind, a centaur will go for a relaxing run.
This is in fact how the centaurs first began integrating into wider humanoid society. Long ago a kingdom employed centaur mercenaries in a string of key battles, where their supreme mobility on the battlefield proved a decisive advantage. It became customary after that time for the kingdom to employ a ceremonial core of centaurs at all times, and by fits and starts the centaur people gradually became an accepted part of everyday life. Even today, where in most places a centaur walking down the street is considered no more out of place than a dwarf in a brewery, having a few centaurs in one's honor guard is considered a mark of great prestige among those wealthy enough to afford such things.
Centaur Culture
Centaurs, unlike horses, are omnivores. They eat meat, though less often than humans do, and particularly enjoy sweets and baked goods. Centaur cuisine has become popular in several parts of the kingdom, as centaurs have a keen sense of taste and a facility for using herbs in pleasing and unexpected combinations. Centaur cuisine is high on herbs, leafy vegetables, and proteins, low on fats and spicy tastes. Centaur bakeries are widely held to be the best in the kingdom, possibly anywhere.
A centaur might choose the adventuring life out of an extension of his basic desire to run free, to see new things and experience new sensations. Others might leave small town life to seek fortune and glory in the big city, or join a mercenary company where their natural gifts are always appreciated. Centaurs choosing to study the magical arts have historically been rather rare (with the exception of druids). Times change, though, and some young centaurs are exploring the new horizons that open up to those who obtain mystic power.
Centaur Names
Male Names: Bucef, Dalan, Edwarn, Jack, Morcred, Pelion, Rae, Toby
Female Names: Chaia, Filika, Harley, Mila, Nephali, Shiron
Family Names: As they have assimilated into a broader society, many centaurs have taken on family names more common to the rest of civilization, or reflecting a trade passed down through their family. Some few have retained family names that hark back to a time when centaurs lived only with other centaurs, e.g. Autia, Cromwen, Killida, Winafras
Centaur Traits
Centaurs are hardy and fast, but their size does make for some occasional awkwardness.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2.
Age. Centaurs mature very quickly when compared to human infants, and are able to walk within two weeks of being born. They reach physical adulthood around the age of 15, but in terms of mental maturity are more or less on par with humans at most stages of adolescence. Centaurs rarely live for more than 60 years, and begin to appear elderly around the age of 45.
Alignment. Centaurs are an industrious people who value both personal freedom and strong community bonds. There's always one bad runner in a herd, though, and some centaurs abandon community spirit in order to pursue solely selfish ends.
Size. Centaurs are larger than humans, though not much taller, averaging from 6 to 7+ feet tall. Your size is Medium, but your DM may rule that you must apply situational modifiers in certain specific circumstances (see Size may Matter, below).
Speed. Your walking speed is 40 feet.
Born to Run. Centaurs love running on a visceral level, and their four legs makes them very good at it. When you take the Dash action, you triple your normal movement instead of doubling it (if your move speed is currently 40 feet, for example, dashing would allow you to gallop 120 feet instead of 80 feet).
Quadrupedal Stability. It's a lot harder to push a centaur over than it is a human or an elf. You have advantage on strength and dexterity saving throws to avoid being knocked prone or forcibly moved.
Quadrupedal Strength. Centaur's are larger than bipeds, and they can carry more stuff as well. Your carrying capacity is doubled.
Superior Impulsion. You gain advantage on strength checks made to jump, so long as you have a running start.
Size can Matter. While in most cases, your larger-than-humanoid size makes very little difference as far as the rules go, there are some times when your DM can rule that your unusual body size and shape gets in the way of certain actions (or, equally rarely, might prove an advantage). For example, when walking down a narrow passage that offers no room to turn around, your DM might declare that you can only move backward at half speed, and cannot take the dash action. When climbing a sheer cliff face, you might have to seek another way past the obstacle. When buying armor, you might have to pay twice the listed price in order to obtain a suit fitted to your specifications. Your DM is, as always, the final arbiter of when and how such circumstances apply.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common, and one other language as determined by your subrace.
Subrace. While the distinction matters less these days than it did ancestrally, and indeed examples of both types can be found even within a single family, you choose to one of either the Woodkin or Plainstriders.
Woodkin CentaurYour ancestors lived among the trees of the forest primeval, where nimbleness and a little healthy paranoia is more important than raw speed and strength. The coloration of plainstriders tends towards mottled patterns of browns and lighter colors, similar to deer or elk fur. Eye colors tend towards greens, blues, and browns.
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Skittish. You have proficiency with the Perception skill.
The Reflexes of the Hunted. In the forest, you can never be 100% sure that there isn't something toothy and hungry ready to leap out at you from behind the next tree. After you roll a single Dexterity check or save, but before you learn the result, you may replace the number you actually rolled with your Dexterity score, plus your proficiency bonus if it was applicable to the original check. For example, if your dexterity were 15 and you rolled a 3 on initiative at the beginning of combat, you could choose to change your total result from a 5 (3+2 dex mod) to a 15 (your dex score, proficiency bonus does not apply) for the rest of the encounter. Once you use this power, you may not use it again until you complete a long rest.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Elvish. Woodkin have a long history of association with Wood Elves, and have traditionally spoken their tongue as their native language. Even the haughty High Elves admit that some of the greatest ballads in Elvish were composed by centaurs.
Plainstrider CentaurPlainstriders live on the wide-open fields, where hiding is mostly futile and the best defense is a good overland pace. Plainstriders’ fur resembles the coloration on domestic horses, and can be a single color, patchy, dotted, and almost anything else you could imagine. Eyes tend to be gold, black, or gray.
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 1.
Natural Sprinters. You have proficiency with the Athletics skill.
Centaur Kick. If you make an unarmed attack using your legs, you roll a minimum of 1d4 for the weapon damage and are considered proficient. Additionally, you may make a kick attack as a bonus action on any turn where you take the Dash action, or at any time as a bonus action targeting an adjacent prone enemy.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write one language of your choice. The plains are a crossroads for many races and cultures, and Plainstriders have been exposed to all of them at one time or another.
Given a centaur's speed and resemblance to a certain domesticated beast of burden, it is inevitable that humanoids have often wondered what it would be like to ride one. Centaurs, on the whole, are much less keen on this idea. They consider it just as demeaning as a human might regard being told to give a stranger a piggyback ride through the streets. In battle they are even less likely to consent to such an arrangement, as having a human-sized passenger on their back can make movement and combat very difficult.
That said, there are times when circumstances make such an action unavoidable. Some centaurs might also not mind giving a ride to certain close humanoid friends, assuming that the friend keeps hands from grabbing anything sensitive and doesn't pull on the hair. Still, while their lower bodies look like a horse, they are in fact much smaller, and supporting a full sized rider is much more difficult for a centaur than a horse.
A centaur can't give a ride to anyone whose weight would combine with the centaur's equipment to exceed their carrying capacity (Strength score multiplied by 25). Even then, if the rider herself weighs more than the centaur's Strength score multiplied by 10, the centaur's move speed decreases by 10 feet and he suffers from disadvantage on Strength and Dexterity checks and saves. Riders who weigh less than that do not unduly burden the centaur.
A centaur with the Mounted Combat feat does not get to apply the benefits solely because he is a centaur and has four legs. A centaur must be mounted on another creature (no easy prospect) in order to gain the benefits of the Mounted Combat feat, just like any other character.
From the rider's perspective, riding a centaur is not much different from riding any intelligent mount (see Mounted Combat, PHB 198), except for the probable lack of a saddle. While certain centaurs in certain situations might allow certain people to ride them, it is rare indeed to find a centaur willing to wear a saddle. There have been several unfortunate events in centaur history involving xenophobia, enslavement, and purposeful humiliation of centaurs by other races, and most centaurs bristle at the merest suggestion that they might wear a saddle and be put at the service of two-legged riders.
My worries are primarily whether I made them too powerful, whether I pigeonholed them into being only playable in certain classes, and whether people think that I handled the "larger than medium, smaller than large" mechanics in a playable and believable way. Mostly my strategy was to give the DM a few examples of how to deal with such issues, and then leave the final determinations in their hands, which I think fits the design philosophy of 5E well, but I appreciate your feedback! Whether you like what I did, hate it, or have some ideas that you think are better, please let me know.