>Game balance is tricky concept. During famous Giant-Halfling war of 794
>squad of 11 giants with
>45-gauge boulders maneuvered into squad of 11 halflings with
>"Elven-o-Matics-12" shortbows of
>similar stats. Giants loose the barrage of stones while halflings respond
>with rain of arrows.
>Because giants get quadruple (!) penalty in ranged fire vs. halflings (-1
>for giant size to
>attack, -1 to own AC. +1 to halfling AC, and +1 to their attack. i.e. total
>+4 halflings bonus on
>ranged fire duel) the best they can do is run away screaming "Halflings!
>Halflings! Run for your
>lives!". Not so gamely and not so balanced in my book.
You are leaving or blithely discounting a critical part of the rules -
smaller creatures must use smaller weapons, and smaller weapons do less
damage, have a lower crit multiplier, shorter range, etc. FOEX a halfling
cannot use a heavy crossbow at all.
The inequity exists ONLY if the giants choose to use Halfling-sized toy hand
crossbows, AND if the halflings also choose NOT to use their small size to
their advantage, bu taking partial cover behind SMALL objects.
SOME POINTS
1. Smaller creatures simply DO present smaller targets. This is without
question true. With equal weapons it would without question be easier for
the halfling to hit a giant than for the giant to hit the halfling at the
same range.
2. Much of the BALANCING FACTOR you seem to be either unaware of or are
discounting or ignoring. Being a small creature gives you a +1 to hit, sure
BUT it also reduces your strength by 2, which translates into what? A -1 to
hit AND damage on attacks that use strength.
3. The damage that a weapon does is equally important (if not more) than
base persentage chance to hit. My halfling character has really been
searching long and hard for that hand crossbow that does the same damage as
a boulder thrown by a giant. Let me know where it is to be found, ok.
Point of fact, maybe the giant hits on average 10% more often, but the 300%
+ STRENGTH difference in damage on a successful hit might have something of
an impact.
Faust
The rules are designed to recognize that there are tactical differences
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