Talk:Tiny Player Characters (5e Variant Rule)

Why would I want to play a tiny creature? Very few benefits. But a large number of disadvantages. Maybe tiny creatures could gain advantage on stealth rolls. Something, anything, just give me a reason to play a tiny creature.

If you don't consider the benefits presented here as useful, then don't play a tiny creature. I'm not going to give them advantage on stealth rolls when they already benefit from being able to hide behind a larger variety of things. They can slip through small gaps, so they make good thieves and spies. Their penalties are related to weapon attacks, so they still make fine spellcasters. They can be carried easily by their Medium allies. They can use a dog as a mount. The racial traits of a specific Tiny race might also grant related benefits. Marasmusine (talk) 08:45, 19 October 2015 (MDT)

What about tiny versions of standard weapons? What if a tiny smith made a proportionately scaled great sword? OK, silly hypothetical aside, my main problem with these rules is that they basically make any weapons given by your class useless. You may argue that such disproportionate objects should be relatively awkward for a tiny person, and I'd agree- except that their chain mail still somehow fits them just fine. And they have no problem carrying that shield in their off-hand. That explorer's pack fits on their back just fine, they can't use their tinder box as a boat, and their sleeping bag is not a 10-man tent. If everything else they carry scales to suit them, why do their weapons suddenly become garbage? Why would they even carry such burdensom trash in the first place? I should note that there are tiny people in the MM who have normal weapons which they use just fine- they just deal significantly less damage. --Kydo (talk) 01:42, 14 February 2016 (MST)

I haven't noted any rules down for tiny equipment and armor. That's still to do, but most of it is common sense. Obviously they can have tiny-sized backpacks with less capacity. Obviously it's tiny-sized chainmail. Obviously a tiny-sized shield would still proportionally give them +2 AC. Obviously a tiny weapon deals less damage than a regular weapon.

As for the tiny greatsword, tiny weapons are always from the perspective of regular Small and Medium creatures. A tiny greatsword isn't a greatsword. For a tiny version of a greatsword, use the statistics for a longsword, since it is versatile, and that's the "equivalent" of a two-handed weapon for a tiny creature. So I'm not sure what you mean by "weapons given by your class are useless." A tiny barbarian can pick any martial melee weapon. A tiny rogue can still use a rapier or shortsword. Marasmusine (talk) 04:45, 14 February 2016 (MST)

It would be helpful if you can tell me which tiny people in the MM have weapons, so I can take a look (I can only think of pixies right now). It's also reasonable that such a creature might have a racial trait (if it were to be homebrewed as a PC race) that helps them with normal weapons - for example the 4e pixie had the "wee warrior" trait. Marasmusine (talk) 04:53, 14 February 2016 (MST)

I'd like to point out that 5e's equipment rules assume that all equipment is always Medium size. An easy way to handle it is to decide that a character's starting and purchased equipment is sized for that character's size specifically, and use normal rules up until equipment moves to a differently-sized character. Heavy weapons have disadvantage if you're one size step away from the owner, normal items have disadvantage if you're two steps away, and light weapons don't get disadvantage from size differences. Tiny items weigh half as much as Medium ones, so that Tiny characters don't get shafted by having to hold overly heavy oversized junk. Preserves the spirit of the official rules, without being a middle finger to anyone that wants to play non-Medium characters. (E.g., a Tiny character has a Tiny greataxe, which is half a normal greataxe's weight and heavy for Tiny characters. Since a Tiny character has half encumbrance from Str, this means that the halfs cancel out and the Tiny greataxe is essentially normal weight to Tiny characters. If a Small or Medium character tries to wield the Tiny greataxe, they have disadvantage; if the Tiny character tries to wield a Small or Medium greataxe, they have disadvantage. A Tiny greataxe is half weight to Small or Medium characters, and a Medium greataxe is double weight to Tiny characters.)