Revamping the fairy to make it "tiny"

[TyGuy]

5e design has made it clear that all PCs will be small or medium. For all intents and purposes, a would-be large creature like a goliath, firbolg and centaur get Powerful Build or Equine Build as a compromise. A token to signify that while mechanically the goliath, firbolg, and centaur are confined to a 5'x5' square as a PC, they still get to interact with the world in some capacity as a large character.
And so there's the fairy. A would-be tiny creature but just like we won't have large PCs, there will be no tiny PCs. However, the fairy in print has no token feature signifying that it's "tiny" at heart.
Now going large is easier because large creature carrying capacity is a buff over medium. It's trickier with balancing tiny because it's a nerf. For that reason, I'm inclined to go the route of the original kobold with a bipolar high highs and low lows.

I'm thinking
Flight 30'
Diminutive build. Count as tiny for carrying, pushing, etc. And can squeeze through 0.5' diameter space. Completely incapable of using heavy weapons. Disadvantage with non-light weapons. And can use some light melee weapons as versatile to go up a damage dice.
Fairy magic. Druidcraft & 1/LR Faerie Fire.
Fey ancestry.

At a glance do you think the scales are generally balanced with that or in need of something to tilt it up or down a notch? How would you approach this (if you are/would approach it)
If you think it's fine RAW that's cool, please don't clog up or derail the thread though.

[LibraryOgre]

If I may suggest...

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?637350-Pixie-PCs

So, for Hackmaster, I've done a lot of work with Tiny and Large PCs. Most games don't handle them terribly well, partially because the system assumes a Small or Medium range PC. However, I think a lot of that can be overcome by simply working within the system. In Hackmaster, you increase the size bonus to HP, and things like knockback.

In the Pixies, above, I thought about being Tiny, and what it would mean for equipment. I did not go as far with D&D Pixies as I did with Hackmaster Pixie-Fairies1, but the limitation of

"¼ carrying capacity2. Cannot use Heavy, Two-Handed, or Versatile weapons. Any weapon that is not Light cannot be Finesse weapon. Weapons that are neither finesse nor light require two hands"

So. The 1/4 carrying capacity is in the PH; carry 3.75 your Str (so, 37.5 pounds at a 10 strength), push/pull/lift 7.5 times your strength. A lot for a tiny creature, but a reasonable amount based on size... especially since the game doesn't provide any modification to weight for armor based on size.

For them, weapons that require 2 hands are
Javelin
Mace
Crossbows (hand)
Sling
Flail
Lance (TBH, they should not be able to)
Morningstar
War Pick
Blowgun


Weapons they can use 1 handed, but not finesse
Club
Hand axe
Light Hammer
Sickle
Rapier
Whip

Weapons they can finesse
Dagger
Scimitar
Short Sword

This winds up with a weird one... the lance, since a human-sized lance would be difficult to use, even when mounted (one might argue that it is versatile, in a sense, and disallow it on those grounds). And they can wield human-sized scimitars and short swords with finesse... but it's a workable list that restricts them based on the characteristics of the weapons.

With larger races, one temptation I find people have is to give them a lot more strength, but this isn't really necessary. Give them more carrying capacity, and let their weapons be bigger. A Large race in 5e could use versatile and 2-handed weapons in one hand, and might have an array of special weapons that only they can use because they are so large. So, a Large Minotaur can swing a longsword with 1 hand and do 1d10 damage with it. He can hold a two-handed sword in a single hand and do 2d6 (though I might add a bit more nuance, where heavy, two-handed, weapons might require more than versatile). When you factor in that the character can carry twice as much (30 times Strength for carrying, 60 times for lifting/pulling/dragging), they ARE stronger, even if they don't have a higher Strength score than someone medium sized.

1 for Hackmaster Pixie-Faeries, I severely restricted their armor; the kind of leather you can carry when you're 18 inches tall isn't going to do much good against an axe.
2 Looking at it, I see that I'm only supposed to halve the weights for tiny creatures, not halve for small and quarter for tiny. C'est la vie.

[JackPhoenix]

Just add permanent reduce effect of Enlarge/Reduce to the character?

[qube]

Just add permanent reduce effect of Enlarge/Reduce to the character?
simple, elegant ... I like it!

[KorvinStarmast]

Just add permanent reduce effect of Enlarge/Reduce to the character? Good idea. I, on the other hand, have chosen to just veto fairy PC as I do the yuan ti, kenku, and the tiefling. They add nothing of value for the cost of their fiddly bits.

[Mjolnirbear]

Good idea. I, on the other hand, have chosen to just veto fairy PC as I do the yuan ti, kenku, and the tiefling. They add nothing of value for the cost of their fiddly bits.

Wouldn't kenku be easily fixed by telling the player "talk normally, we'll assume as a group it sounds like Bumblebee from Transformers"