Whether you're using tiles or a hexagonal grid in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons, size matters, if you're a Dungeon Master or a fledgling player, understanding how creature sizes can affect the game can be important to over🃏coming even the strongest of foes (or makiꩵng those foes even more imposing, as a DM).

There arꦉe a lot of creative ways to utilize size difference♔s that may not be immediately clear in the Player's Handbook or the Dungeon Master's Guide. The easiest way to start is to know how different sizes may affect your character.

Updated on June 29, 2024, by Marissa Fiore: While creature size has stayed the same in the Fifth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons, there have been some species added through sourcebooks, as well as some debate over the speed of others. This article has been updated to reflect that and meet current publication standards.

Creature Sizes

All creatures can be broken down into six separate size categories:

😼There are several ways that size can influence your games, including some differences that might be clearer than others.

The space the creatures take up is not a representation of their literal size but instead, the area that they envelop in game terms. Even though a three-foot-tall Gnome is much shorter than a seven-foot-tall Goliath, they still ܫmaintain the same five-foot square.

Although fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons doesn't break down the specifics regarding height and weight dimensions, there are several 🧸resources from prior editions that go into more detail, such as from .

Creature Movement And Actions

Utilizing your size is as easy as standing in the right place. A standard door frame can be blocked by a Small or Medium-sized creature.

A hostile creature can only move through your space if it is at least two sizes large or smaller than you, and even then, consider your space as difficult terrain (requiring them to use twi💙ce their movement to move through🐟 your tile or hex).

Variant Rules

If your DM allows it, Page 272 of the Dungeon Master's Guide also allows for the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:variant rules Overrun (When a creature tries to move through a hostile creature's space, the mover can try to force its way through by overrunning the hostile creature) and Tumble (A creature can try to tumble through a hostile creature's space, ducking and weaving past the opponent).

Squeezing

If a given area is no more than one size smaller than you, you can still move throu▨gh it. However, it comes with a price.

While a Large-sized creature occupies a space meant for a Medium-sized creature, for example, the creature's movement is halved, they have disadvantage on attack rolls and Dexterity Saving Throws, and attack rolls against the creature have advantage. If you're going to move in a tight space, mak﷽e sure you're no꧙t there for long.

As a small or tiny character, it might be worth looking f𒀰or smaller areas to sneak through, especially in ruins or caves. It could provid♏e an upper hand against larger enemies.

Since Medium and Small creatures technically occupy the same 5-foot tile, it's ultimately up to the DM's discretion where and h🌳ow a Medium creature would squeeze in places that a Small creature can move thrꩵough normally.

However, there are some creatures and species the squeezing rules don't apply to. This is thanks to an ability called Amorphous. A creature that has this ability can move through any space, so long as it is larger than one inch. The catch is that you have to wear and carry nothing.

One species that has this ability is 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the plasmoid. Much like many of the oozes in D&D, a plasmoid can successfully navigate these small openings, not suffering from the disadvantages that any other creature might face.

In addition to this way of squeezing through areas that would otherwise be closed to a creature of the same size, you also would have advantage on escaping or catching a foe in a grapple. Grappling will be talked about a little further𝔍 in this guide.

Flanking

Even without the flanking variant rule, surrounding a creature is much easier if they're larger. Given a standard tile grid, for example, a Medium-sized creature can be attacked simultaneously by up to eight opponents in melee range, whereas a Large-sized creature can be attacked by up to 12 different creatures.

If the flanking rule is𒁏 in effect, it just means more o🐠pportunities to flank.

Grappling

Abilities like grappling specify that the target must be no more than one size larger than you. However, that one-step of size difference doesn't penalize your checks in any way. The same goes for grabbing a smaller creature and for shoving.

Cover

It should stand to reason that shooting through a Large-sized creature to hit a Small-sized Goblin should be affected by some form of cover (whether that be half cover, three-quarters cover, or total cover).

Even though there isn't a rule in the handbook about it, ask your Dungeon Master if your three-foot tall Gnome Warlock can hide behind the leg of your 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:seven-foot tall Bugbear Goliath buddy for half cover (+2 to AC and Dexterity saving throws).

Speed

When it comes to movement, there are similarities between creatures that share a size. For example, most medium-sized creatures have 30 feet of movement they can take in a turn. That, however, is n♌ot the case for all medium creatures. In fact, th💝ere is one species that has been hotly debated among players and DMs alike.

Dwarves, as listed in the Player's Handbook, are between four and five feet tall and are medium-sized creatures. Not small, counting as medium. Just medium. However, unlike the other medium species to pick from, like humans, tieflings, and the like, a player choosing a dwarf will only have 25 feet of movement.

The reason this has been a controversial topic is that a character's or creature's movement can have great consequences in combat terms.

Just how creatures take up a certain amount of feet on the map, the more you're able to move, the better you can position yourself and even the easier time you have escaping if things go poorly.

While speed ca💫n still vary greatly among creatures of the same size, just like in the dwarvish example above, the majority of creatures who share a size can also share a speed. The fol🍸lowing table will give you some examples.

The above table is based on walking speed. Not all creatures hav💫e an additional way to move, and those that do may swim, fly, burrow, etc., much faster or slower than they walk.

Carrying Capacity

Larger or smaller creatures have different carrying capacities based on the ruling from page 176 of the Player's Handbook. Normal carrying capacity allows you to carry up to 15 times your Strength score as a Medium creature (in pounds), whereas pushing, dragging, or lifting any weight is calculated by 30 times your Strength score. If you go beyond this range, your speed d෴rops toꦓ 5 feet.

This changes when you get larger; each size category above Medium doubles your carrying capacity.

On the contrary, a Tiny-sized creature has that carrying capacity halved.

Creatures like Goliaths have the ability Powerful Build, which allows them to be cons🎀idered one size larger when determining their carrying capacity.

This carries over if the Goliath grows in size for whatever reason (like Enlarge Reduce), making it possible for them to carry soꦓme ver𓃲y impressive weights.

Once again, this doesn't seem to mention a distinction between Small and Medium-sized creatures, so the general assumption is that you treat Small-sized creature🔴s to have the same carrying capacity as a Medium-sized creature.

Heavy Weapons

Although weapon sizes are a thing of the past, there is still a hang-up with Heavy Weapons. Small and Tiny-sized creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls when using them. This 𒀰includes Glaives𝓀, Greataxes, Greatswords, Halberds, Mauls, Pikes, Heavy Crossbows and Longbows.

As a💯lways, you can talk to your DM if you want your Halfling Fighter to have a personalized Halberd that fits your aesthetic.

Larger Races

Several Medium-sized races have abilities that allow them to act as if they were larger, allowing them to carry and lift more than t♍he others. Here's a short list of the ra♐ces that let you feel like you're larger than life.

How Size Effects Spells

You might already be aware of the spell Enlarge Reduce, which is a convenient way for spell-casters to increase or decrease the size category of an ally. But there are other spells that also reference the size category of ඣeither the caster or their targets.

Feel free to use these methods of influencing your spell-casting, but keep in mind that Enlarge Reduce only lasts for one minute. Use that time wisely.

Other Ways To Grow

With all the different classes and abilities, there are a few that either influence your size or utilize the size of others.