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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Reintroducing 3E Size Categories: Consequences?



Grey Watcher
2020-05-10, 08:50 PM
If one were to transplant the 3E size categories into 5e (that is, splitting Tiny into Fine, Diminutive, and Tiny and splitting Gargantuan into Gargantuan and Colossal), what would happen?


You'd have to go through every Tiny and Gargantuan creature (either in advance or as they come up) and figure out which category it belongs in.
Anything that affects "up to n size categories larger/smaller" has some number of creatures that it no longer works on, since they've moved away from the ability user's size category. This is of special note when using Enlarge/Reduce on non-Medium creatures.
Certain effects, like the Alarm spell may have to be reworded, since the original intent was "any creature considered relevant by the game engine," but "Tiny or larger" is no longer synonymous with that. So either the spell has a new weakness (rat-sized and smaller creatures) or it needs to be changed to reflect the new normal (which runs into problems with every last moth and cockroach setting off alarm bells).


That's most of what I can think of. Anything else that gets weird for reintroducing the slightly more granular size system

Yes, they had their reasons for simplifying down to just Tiny through Gargantuan. And to be fair, Fine, Diminutive, and Colossal were already essentially edge cases to begin with, so it probably makes sense not to bother with them. But I'm just curious as a thought experiment what happens if you undo that particular change.