User talk:IGTN/Feral Libram/Size Matters

Hey, wb IGTN! I'm out of town and will give this a more thorough ponder and response in a few days. Couple of quick things though. I'm not super attached to my setup though, and if this works better there's not a good reason to try to make them interchangeable. I appreciate the thought though.

Second, most of what's here looks written from a relative pov, but this part doesn't appear to be: "Small creatures fill smaller portions of their spaces than big creatures do, which is intentional because small creatures are much more nimble and able to maneuver within their space than big creatures are, even with similar dexterity." What are the implications of this when two small creatures face off against each other? What about when a small creature faces off against a much smaller creature? It seems odd to have this one absolute setup in an otherwise relative one, and a blind application of your phrasing suggests that their space sizes change in response to their foes. Nimbleness doesn't really have anything to do with size, it seems more a tag that gets applied to a creature in addition to whatever their other qualities are that differentiates them from other creatures of the same size.

I haven't really thought this through, but creature space sizing could be a function of size and base speed, using whichever would result in a larger space. And the 5' step could be replaced with a quarter move action, giving faster creatures a larger adjustment and slower creatures a smaller one. Then small things get big spaces still if they actually are mobile / nimble and small spaces if they're not and big creatures get the same, essentially divorcing the idea of nimbleness from size. I'm not sure if I like Barbs taking up more squares because they have fast movement or not yet, or that creatures could have different space sizes for different movement modes, or that spells that affect base move might get complicated, but I'm willing to put it down here so I don't forget it before I get back.

Alternately, sufficient size differentials could apply haste or slow or other effects to various members, but that seems like it would run into issues any time there was an assortment of sizes in play. Again, haven't thought it through all that much, I just don't want to lose it before I get home. - Tarkisflux 17:56, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

The nimbleness thing is more the way the ground and the square/cube law work out. Admittedly, that's bringing real-world physics in (and the square/cube law says that giants shouldn't exist, but we're conveniently ignoring that part), but I think what it offers is worth it, since it gives us the chance to have big things do terrain damage when they start dodging like little things.

Basically, I'm approaching this from the perspective that being 60' tall isn't like being 6' tall isn't like being 6" tall. At 6" tall, you can afford to throw your weight around, and not risk breaking everything or hurting yourself too much. At 60' tall, you have to be a lot more careful.

Reconfiguring the entire thing so that speed can give you a larger square size and adjustment length could work and making medium creatures occupy space with their speed works. 1/4 move for space size and adjustment length; immobile medium creatures are 30" (2-1/2') and scale from there. Colossal gets to 40' unless it has a movement speed greater than 160'. The only problem is adding in speeds that aren't particularly maneuverable (Fly speeds less than Good or maybe even less than Perfect, for instance), but that can be worked out later.

For extra-nimble big things under the draft system I have up now, I was planning to add a feat with a high Dex prereq that gets higher the smaller you are that doubles your space and adjustment length (something like Dex 15+ at Colossal, +2 more dex per size category smaller) --IGTN 19:21, 27 March 2011 (UTC)