Smallest playable size

[bob_says_hello]

I'm trying to find by RAW what the smallest state a playable character can get to. I have a character idea but getting to small or tiny isn't really feasible for it if that's all i can do.

I don't have all the extra books but i have some of them, I haven't noticed much play in RAW sources of reduction. Any suggestions would be appreciated - Race/Class/Feat/Spell/Item.

Ideally it would be permanent or at minimum 1hr/day. Bonus items for <1hr/day use but that is secondary and not really needed.

Ideas?

[Segev]

I don't think D&D 5e has a size category smaller than Tiny. Can you explain what you want more precisely? Maybe there are fluff and abuse-of-fluff options we can figure out. Or maybe you just will need to work it out with your DM, but we can help you figure out any balance issues that need addressing.

[Joe the Rat]

Yeah, category-wise Tiny is it - everything from individual insects to 15-pound cats. You can try to shrink a tiny, but now you are changing physical dimensions.

Options:
Enlarge/Reduce (1 minute limit). Reduce halves height, inverse cubes weight, and drops a size category. Also imposes disadvantage on strength checks and saves, and reduces damage by 1d4. Applied to a small creature (gnome, halfling, goblin, etc), they become tiny. Applied to a tiny creature, they get, er, tinier.

Potion of Diminution (rare): Reduce(as above) for 1d4 hours.

Wildshape (Druid 2+): while there is an upper limit on CR, there is no lower limit on size. Spider-Druid for stealth scouting is an option. Usable twice/rest, duration 1/2 druid level. Cannot cast while wildhsaped until high level, but you can maintain concentration on spells.

[Man_Over_Game]

Someone more clever than myself once brought up the idea of playing a fairy in a warforged mech.

It'd play out as a Warlock, when Pact of the Chain at level three would allow you to safely leave your combat suit.

You could do something similar, where you are something cosmically bound to an empty Warforged that keeps you alive for as long as it stays powered.

[bob_says_hello]

Someone more clever than myself once brought up the idea of playing a fairy in a warforged mech.

It'd play out as a Warlock, when Pact of the Chain at level three would allow you to safely leave your combat suit.

You could do something similar, where you are something cosmically bound to an empty Warforged that keeps you alive for as long as it stays powered.

Ideas like this. I have a religious reason, magical reason, and a few character trait reasons that i want to try and play out so i can come at this from various approaches. But lets go with your idea because it sounds fun.

Is there a way to start as a Tiny character - or become Tiny without spells, then casting reduce on your character? The DND5E doesn't have much RAW that i've found like that but i'm not as proficient as i was with Pathfinder. The size category in 5e only goes to Tiny-Gargantuan compared to Fine-Colossal in 3.5

[Nagog]

Ideas like this. I have a religious reason, magical reason, and a few character trait reasons that i want to try and play out so i can come at this from various approaches. But lets go with your idea because it sounds fun.

Is there a way to start as a Tiny character - or become Tiny without spells, then casting reduce on your character? The DND5E doesn't have much RAW that i've found like that but i'm not as proficient as i was with Pathfinder. The size category in 5e only goes to Tiny-Gargantuan compared to Fine-Colossal in 3.5

5e definitely has much less concrete content than Pathfinder, and overall it makes it a better system for it. Unfortunately the smallest RAW races are the likes of Gnomes, Halfling, Kobolds, Grungs, and Goblins clocking in at Small. I'm sure there are Homebrew races that are smaller though. What sort of shenanigans do you have in mind?


Someone more clever than myself once brought up the idea of playing a fairy in a warforged mech.

It'd play out as a Warlock, when Pact of the Chain at level three would allow you to safely leave your combat suit.

You could do something similar, where you are something cosmically bound to an empty Warforged that keeps you alive for as long as it stays powered.

I had the idea of a Kobold in a mech suit, but a Fairy and the Pact of the Chain is a wonderful take.

[terodil]

I'm curious where you want to go with this. As a DM I would be somewhat worried about size shenanigans. I believe we even had such stuff happen in OOTS where V got him/herself swallowed and then 'shpchng'ed so that the beast exploded. Now imagine a PC regularly being small enough to fly into nostrils, ears etc and shapechanging/enlarge personing once inside.

[Segev]

An oddity of having no sizes below Tiny means that you can't have anything riding a housecat. No matter how small. Of course, DMs can rule differently.

That aside, you could potentially make a subrace of gnome or halfling that is Tiny sized. There's not a lot of mechanical advantage to such a size change.

[MaxWilson]

Yeah, category-wise Tiny is it - everything from individual insects to 15-pound cats. You can try to shrink a tiny, but now you are changing physical dimensions.

Options:
Enlarge/Reduce (1 minute limit). Reduce halves height, inverse cubes weight, and drops a size category. Also imposes disadvantage on strength checks and saves, and reduces damage by 1d4. Applied to a small creature (gnome, halfling, goblin, etc), they become tiny. Applied to a tiny creature, they get, er, tinier.

Potion of Diminution (rare): Reduce(as above) for 1d4 hours.

Wildshape (Druid 2+): while there is an upper limit on CR, there is no lower limit on size. Spider-Druid for stealth scouting is an option. Usable twice/rest, duration 1/2 druid level. Cannot cast while wildhsaped until high level, but you can maintain concentration on spells.

If a druid wildshapes into a Tiny insect, and then someone casts Reduce on them, does the universe BSOD?

[nickl_2000]

If a druid wildshapes into a Tiny insect, and then someone casts Reduce on them, does the universe BSOD?

Nah, it just cycles back to the top making them Gargantuan.

*I'm on mobile, so no color editing, but this should be blue

[bob_says_hello]

Understandably any wild abuse like trying to use your body or gear as explosive detonations should be nixed fairly quickly by your DM. Same with any real abuse that outweighs the sacrifices due to the sizing. The limitation of RAW methods makes it so it seems like there's really no obvious way to build this into any campaign, making it DM and campaign agreeable specific - which is fine, just less simple.

starting from a small character and doing a wildshape druid looks like my best method to try it out. If anyone knows another method, i'd be happy to hear it.


Several character ideas, though most if not all are spellcaster based.
- Character traumatized as child getting stuck, now believes smaller = better without exception.
- Religious but believes through history that you are viewed less by deities the smaller you are.
- Invisible stealing can still leave you stuck in places, smaller & invisible less so.
- Deity told them the planes are held apart by barriers, but tiny things still migrate between.
- and yes small creature in big suit is cool, as a way to augment a small body.

I have a few more but most are less variants of the above. Playing out these types of characters and their evolution or realizations would be fun - but it seems like i'll need to hold them for just the right group or another RPG style.