Expanded Size Categories (3.5e Variant Rule)

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Author: Eiji-kun (talk)
Date Created: 10-22-12
Status: Complete
Editing: Clarity edits only please
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Expanded Size Categories[edit]

Size categories are borked. Things are pretty good when it comes to medium sized creatures and things close to medium size, but the larger and larger you get (and vice versa), you start to notice the scaling is off. Things the size of mountains have combat squares barely able to fit a single one of their feet. Monsters with arms made of skyscrapers have the reach of a gnat. It's really messed up.

Attempts at fixing this have been made, from the scaling seen in the Immortal's Handbook to our own attempts, and they work well. There is one small problem with both however; at Huge size and beyond things get different numbers from what currently exists, requiring some alteration when it comes to re-sizing monsters for gameplay and on maps. It's probably more accurate, but requires a bit of retooling of pre-existing material.

While current Colossal and below sizes are technically incorrect, they are not so far up the scale for the problem to be too grievous. With compatibility with pre-existing material in mind, I present a size chart which covers the very big and very small, but requires no changes from Fine to Colossal size.

Off The Charts[edit]

Like the Immortal's Handbook and Revised Size, Colossal+ receives a name - Titanic.

Beyond Titanic, the scale repeats, but this time with a prefix; Macro. Macro-Fine is one size larger than Titanic and two larger than Colossal, or Colossal++ as WotC would put it. Macro-Diminutive is three times the size, and so on and so forth. Each time you reach the end, a higher prefix is added as shown below on the Size Category Scales table. This also goes in reverse, starting as Micro and going down.

Size Category Scales
Size Category Scale Example
Yocto Neutrinos
Zepto -
Atto Protons
Femto Electromagnetic wavelengths
Pico Red blood cells
Nano Dust particles
Micro Fleas
Standard Humanoids
Macro Mountains
Mega Planets
Giga Stars
Tera Solar systems
Peta Small nebulae
Exa Large nebulae
Zetta Galaxies
Yotta Superclusters

At Titanic and beyond, and lower than Fine, the scaling changes to match up better with reality. It results in some pretty crazy numbers. After a certain point, creatures like this are more living terrain, or non-existent threats. After a while, Strength and Size benefits and penalties start evening out as well. The problem of large creatures being unable to carry anything appropriately sized for them is handled separately by listing out the carrying capacity on a different scale for said beings. See the Size Charts below.

Size Charts[edit]

The size charts have been written out below. The extremes are rather unfeasible for actual play, but they're here for the sake of completeness.

Expanded Size Categories (3.5e Variant Rule)/Yocto

Expanded Size Categories (3.5e Variant Rule)/Zepto

Expanded Size Categories (3.5e Variant Rule)/Atto

Expanded Size Categories (3.5e Variant Rule)/Femto

Expanded Size Categories (3.5e Variant Rule)/Pico

Expanded Size Categories (3.5e Variant Rule)/Nano

Expanded Size Categories (3.5e Variant Rule)/Micro

Table: Standard Creature Size and Scale [Expand]
Table: Macro Creature Size and Scale [Expand]
Table: Mega Creature Size and Scale [Expand]
Table: Giga Creature Size and Scale [Expand]
Table: Tera Creature Size and Scale [Expand]
Table: Peta Creature Size and Scale [Expand]
Table: Exa Creature Size and Scale [Expand]
Table: Zetta Creature Size and Scale [Expand]
Table: Yotta Creature Size and Scale [Expand]

Changing Monster Sizes[edit]

What are you doing? Didn't I just say you shouldn't bother running monsters which become the size of landmasses? Well alright, here's the scaling for monsters above colossal and beyond.

Table: Changes to Statistics by Size (Growth)
Old Size1 New Size Str Dex Con Natural
Armor
AC/
Attack
Colossal Titanic +16 Same +4 +6 -8
Titanic Macro-Fine +20 Same +4 +8 -10
Macro-Fine Macro-Diminutive and beyond2 +20 Same +4 +10 –10
  1. Repeat the adjustment if the creature moves up more than one size.
  2. Repeat the adjustment for each size up beyond Macro-Diminutive.

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Eiji-kun's Homebrew (5657 Articles)
Eiji-kunv [Expand]
AuthorEiji-kun +
Identifier3.5e Variant Rule +
Rated ByMecheye +
RatingRating Pending +
SummaryExpanded sizes from smaller than fine and bigger than colossal. Now compatible with current size categories without alteration! +
TitleExpanded Size Categories +