Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Conners_of_Sharptooth 09-19-06, 11:44 PM	I was looking at the character traits and flaws in the Unearthed Arcana book and I noticed there wasn't much there for big characters. There was stout but not large. I want to make a really big character but not so big that he changes from medium to large in size. I also don't really want him to be fat just tall, like 7+ ft. I was wondering if anyone made up some traits or flaws that address this.
Xeviat-DM 09-20-06, 12:35 AM	I too thought this would be a great idea at a time. I don't mean to be condencending, but I believe this is already covered with two different things in D&D. First is simply having a high Strength score. In the animal kingdom, size generally aquates with strength; stronger creatures are bigger than smaller creatures. For instance, I am 6'1" 260 lbs, while my girlfriend is 5'3" 120 lbs. When I'm "in season", I can bench my girlfriend's weight easily, while she is unable to do one push up (we're going to assume that a push up is equal to lifting half your weight, and we're going to assume that a chest press is equivalent to lifting the weight above your head; not sure how accurate that is). By that, my strength is at least a 12, because I know I could lift 130 lbs over my head, where as my girlfriend's is closer to 5, because she can't lift 60 lbs over her head. This is a function largely of size. The second that exists is a trait which grants a +1 bonus to strength skills and checks and a -2 to dexterity skills and checks. This also implies an increase in size. If you're really wanting almost large but not quite, you must ask yourself what you want: are you wanting all the benefits of large with none of the penalties (as you gain with powerful build?), or are you wanting something closer to being balanced? If you don't want to pay the LA to get powerful build, here is my advice: First, take the flaw which grants a -1 penalty to AC (this will compare to the size penalty to AC large creatures get). With the bonus feat you gain, take monkey grip. Then take the Musclebound trait (mentioned above), which will end up giving you a -2 penalty to hide (along with other Dex checks), but will give you a +1 bonus to bull rush, overruns, and other strength checks and skills. There you go, you're big.