Thursday, December 18, 2008

4e size rules Grumbles & Races for my Fantasy Setting

I like 4th edition D&D.

It's not perfect, but I enjoy playing.

One of the imperfections is that in its simplification, it has removed a lot most of the rules and info for sizes. I'm sure that this does not bug many people, but it bugs me. Why? Because I'm weird. Most playable classes are of the Medium size category, with a few exceptions that are small sized (four out of the twenty five playable races), and the only difference between medium and small races is a small box labeled as "being small."
BEING SMALL
Small characters follow most of the same rules as Medium
ones, with the following exceptions.
✦ You can’t use two-handed weapons.
✦ When you use a versatile weapon you must use it two-handed,
but you don’t deal additional damage for doing so.

The only other mentioning of size rules was in the monster manual where it explain how many squares creatures of different size fill. This is a pretty large difference from the 3.5 rules for size, where it was in the race description that they have a bonus to AC, attack rolls, and hide checks, but got smaller weapons and could only carry 3/4 of what a medium sized character could. Also in the 3.5 PHB, is a table explaining the sizes (not just in squares) and has a handy diagram showing the sizes in relation to each other. The main reason I have a problem with the size rules in 4e is that I want to create races that are not medium or small in size, although the over simplification of the small size rules bugs me as well. I mean, they don't even have size rules for monsters!

But anyway, I wanted to post the races in my fantasy setting, according to the ages they first show up in (I'll explain those later), odds are that nobody will want to ever play the first few ages, but you never know. The three central planes: Avion (the main setting), Avito, and Avire. All of these are "material planes."

First age: age of kingdoms- Humans fighting amongst themselves, ends when one king takes over all of the known lands and continues to expand until he runs into elf and dwarf lands.
Humans-
as PHB, from Avion

Second age: War between Elves, Humans and Dwarves, ends when they finally make a truce.
Elves-
as player's handbook(PHB), from Avion
Dwarves-
as PHB, from Avion


Third age: First age of exploration- meeting of the little folk, races and cultures mix, ends when the three inter planes collide.
Halflings-
as PHB, from Avion
Gnomes-
6" tall "lawn gnome" type of gnomes, tiny but fierce warriors, almost feral but speak common and gnomish, from Avion. Still working on the tiny size rules for these.
Ellobin-
6" tall Snails, more intelligent than most medium sized people, tendency towards arcane magics. Still working on the tiny size rules for these, somehow found on all the main planes.
Portal Cats-
Looks like an ordinary house cat, but is intelligent and can create small portals that it can leap through to somewhere within 30 ft. Portals are only about 1ft in size, but some say that when large numbers of portal cats gather, they can make larger portals that can go further, and even go to other planes, which explains how they are on all of the planes. Just came up with them before writing this post. Still working on the tiny size rules for these.
Half Breeds-
half-elf- Half elf and half human, as PHB
Half-Dwarf- Half dwarf and half human. Looks like a short, stocky human. Rules to come.
"Dwelf" (tentative title)- Half elf and half dwarf, looks unnervingly human, and yet quite attractive to elves, dwarves, and humans alike.

Fourth age- After the planar collision, people (and large chunks of land) from all of the planes are sent to the other planes. Some believe it to be an invasion, others that it is the end of the world. War begins between the grouped races of each plane, a war that is fueled by confusion and fear, the age ends as the war ends and portals between the worlds are opened.
Orcs-
As Monster manual(MM), from Avire.
Hobgoblins-
As MM, are decedents of goblin/orc pairings, ancestors were slaves, from Avire.
Goblins-
As MM, From Avire.
Imps-
Tiny, bat-winged humanoids with red Fur, thought to be demons when they were first seen by people from Avion. from Avire.
Beastfolk-
A collection of many different animal-like Humanoid races. Each Animal-type has several sub races. (dragonborn count as dragon [or maybe lizard] type Beastfolk.) From Avito.
Kobolds-
As MM, The ruling class of Avito, built many powerful kingdoms.
Pixies-
Small winged humanoids with tribal tendencies, usually ignores intelligent creatures unless they steal their prey, attack them, or they are in need of food enough. Still working on the tiny size rules for these.

Fifth age- The new peace allows people to explore their planes as well as new planes that they discover- the elemental planes
More half-breeds

Sixth age- *Top Secret*


Playable stats on the new races and more details on old favorites later on, as well as more of an explanation of the planes.

2 comments:

Francis Bousho said...

I found additional rules for character sizes while trying to figure out tiny size. There isn't much, but try page 282 of your PH.

MacGuffen said...

Oh, Good find! I need to get around to reading the core books cover to cover... thanks for commenting!