Height - code vs. desc

[Kregor]

I find it difficult to believe that a weak goblin of at the most four feet could gouge out a seven foot tall man's eyes

<snip>

This passage brings up a topic digressing from the original post for me...

Has anyone ever noticed, that the veer from a PCs coded height on this game seems to verge on the *extreme*?

I seem to see tons of seven-foot tall humans, six-foot tall elves, etc, when The coded height of the average human PC is going to be a scant over 6 feet. Even in the guidebooks for the Forgotten Realms, the averages for height don't go beyond what the coded heights turn out to be.

So.. what happened? Some PC a long time back decided they had a 7 foot human? and gods help us, we cant have a character that's shorter than that now, why, we wouldn't be intimidating enough! So what we have is a large contingent of PCs running around with pituitary defects.

I don't quite understand, when there is a height score in the game, why we have to totally disregard it for the sake of making ourselves larger than life.

[Larethiel]

I've got an elf who's about 4'7 or something like that and I love it Smaller charcaters have more advantages than the big ones.

Yes, the big ones may be intimidating, I currently met a big human in the Peaks and it was kind of threatening how he acted and it was obviously that he didn't take this small elf serious but that's one mare advantage I guess. The "little" charcaters will or may be underestimated by those, bigger than they are. Some will undergo a surprise, then.

And by the way, has anybody seen a rogue, who's a 7-feet high massive building? I guess not.... It's just distinctive. (lol imagine a 7 feet tall rogue hiding in the shadows of a small dustbin or bush while curious looking people pass by)

Moreover if there's a tendency of player's making their characters height (strange syntax ) what about the races which are small by nature? Kregor's talking about humans and elves, but what about Halfings, gnomes and dwarves?

Hrhrhr Hope I made my point understandable in my lack of time and knowledge of english

[Tandria]

I'd like to point out that a lot of characters do come across that kind of height naturally through their scoresheet. Sometimes people choose "tall" and it ends up that way. Elves and halfelves don't, but I have a couple of humans that are well over six feet tall in their scoresheets, and they are female (case in point, a 6'3 female and a 6'4). In the game, then gender difference certainly affects this, so I really would not be surprised to see a scoresheet that had at least six and a half feet.

I don't think it's fair to point fingers at people and say they're trying to be more intimidating than others. The character creation heights may be extremes in general. I have seen some really light halflings and gnomes, not to mention, who are less than three feet tall and weigh less than 50 pounds. Maybe the issue should be with the current natural heights in the game.

[Mele]

Code: Select all

     Height: 6' 0in.      

A female human. I'd imagine a male human choosing tall would have several inches over a female human choosing tall. I don't think a few inches around the code score height is inappropriate.

But, since when is height the one thing that notes intimidation? I like to tell myself during her day Daunyelle was quite intimidating, and she is under five feet in height. Why call someone out saying they're using height for intimidation when it holds such a small piece of it? Until you see someone trying to oocly force it on someone during an RP, or even ICly for that matter, I hardly think it's a threat for people to enjoy a character being extremely tall.

-D

[Gwain]

Years ago, I am not sure if it is on this board or the old forums, but I think height was discussed indepth, it was either asked if pc's could rp the height they chose when they created their character or to apply for the right to be another height (within reason). Frankly height is serious to me. The code in game uses height to judge how you do combat or suffer damage, in the same way that weight or alignment measure how much you can carry or how you are precived by mobiles and players. When I am forced to I rp my height, which varies from character to character, but I like to do my best to rp my actual height when it comes up. Some pc's are kind enough to list their game height in their descriptions. I would rather see people rping their height much more than making it up or changing it with adjectives. Much like it is bad form and generally against the rules to rp being incredibly beautiful when your CHA is average or lower, I would like to see pc's compelled to rp being average height if they are actually that height and not towering. To do otherwise might as well be abuse. Because the pc might be using the advantages of an average height while rping very tall height, while another player is doing their best at bing code tall and suffering the setbacks of tallness icly and codewise. It would be far fairer to rp your chaacter's coded height. I agree with Kregor, that height needs to be taken seriously when it comes up and is not something that should be changed with impunity.

[Zach]

Code: Select all

Height: 5' 11"

Just shy of 6 feet, add 4-7 inches on that for a man and he would be just under 7 feet...

but people who code w/ average height and RPing being taller then others is abuse because of what Gwain stated, the code uses your height for fighting and damage taken.

[Kregor]

6'3, 6'4, 6'5... none of these would be rightfully classified as near-7-feet. I'm 6'3.5 IRL, I could not round myself off to 7' on my drivers license. We could make it a poll and have people cite the tallest coded height PC they have

And as far as racial hieghts and weights go...

Players Guide to Faerun, page 32, males of the following races:

Illuskan human (tallest human in the realms): 5'2" + 2d8 = 6.5 feet tall, max,
Rashemi human (shortest) 4'10" + 2d8 = 6.16 feet, max,
Halfling 2'8" + 2d4 = 2'10" - 3'4" and 32 - 38 pounds,
gnome 3'0" + 2d4 = 3'2" - 3'8" and 42-48 pounds.

These may be a little off from the hard code, but a 3', 30 pound halfling or gnome is not out of place, nor would a 6 foot elf, a 7 foot human would be quite rare. And I'm not saying you should play your height to the inch. But taking a 6.5 foot human and saying he's seven feet should be an app, not a liberty.

And granted, not all players who make a 7 foot tall PC are going for intimitation factor. But one who smotes staring down a bugbear PC "nearly eye to eye from his over 7-foot height", or one who resorts to griefing other players over IMer because they don't act "terrified enough" of their PC, surely are. But that is yet another digression.

[Balek]

Code: Select all

Height: 6' 7in.
Weight: 219lbs

I think this is the tallest Human PC I have. He is described as being 'over six-and-a-half feet tall'

Code: Select all

Height: 9' 0in.
Weight: 1099lbs

This is the tallest, heaviest PC I have. Not surprisingly, he's not human.

Code: Select all

Height: 3'11in.
Weight: 150lbs

This is one of the shortest PCs I have. Dwarven.

[Layna]

I have no issue with people being asked to roleplay their height as what's actually on their score sheet (I myself prefer small characters, most of then are around the 5ft mark) but if this is going to be the case could we maybe have a look at the Aasimar and Tiefling heights? I understand they're supposed to be roughly human height (from what I've read anyway...) but even rolling a Tiefling as tall didn't push it past 5ft <_<


(Edit for spelling ^_^)

[Kregor]

I have no issue with people being asked to roleplay their height as what's actually on their score sheet (I myself prefer small characters, most of then are around the 5ft mark) but if this is going to be the case could we maybe have a look at the Assaamir and Tiefling heights? I understand they're supposed to be roughly human height (from what I've read anyway...) but even rolling a Tiefling as tall didn't push it past 5ft <_<

Disclaimer: There ARE some chars who were created with short (per the books) Aasimar and Tieflings when they were first put in the new char generator (likely because the race files were copied from a shorter race, and height slipped thru the edits). But that could be fixed on a case by case basis on the PC file. I think we have human height planars now in the char gen, or does this still need fixing?

They should be 4'10 + 2d10 in height. If some can post in bugs that a recently created planar is still around 4' tall, can you make a topic post in the bugs forum so that we can get the race file changed??

[Layna]

I have no issue with people being asked to roleplay their height as what's actually on their score sheet (I myself prefer small characters, most of then are around the 5ft mark) but if this is going to be the case could we maybe have a look at the Assaamir and Tiefling heights? I understand they're supposed to be roughly human height (from what I've read anyway...) but even rolling a Tiefling as tall didn't push it past 5ft <_<

Disclaimer: There ARE some chars who were created with short (per the books) Aasimar and Tieflings when they were first put in the new char generator (likely because the race files were copied from a shorter race, and height slipped thru the edits). But that could be fixed on a case by case basis on the PC file. I think we have human height planars now in the char gen, or does this still need fixing?

They should be 4'10 + 2d10 in height. If some can post in bugs that a recently created planar is still around 4' tall, can you make a topic post in the bugs forum so that we can get the race file changed??

This one was probably four or five months ago and a post was made in the bug forum. (I should clarify that it was my IRL partners character, not my own)

I also recall being told by Mystra (with relation to a completely different character) that the imms couldn't change height scores on a character sheet. Has this changed too? o_O

[Kregor]

I also recall being told by Mystra (with relation to a completely different character) that the imms couldn't change height scores on a character sheet. Has this changed too? o_O

Possibly it was a matter of policy, rather than ability. Perhaps Dalvyn could say as to whether imms can and may, at the present point, set the height of planars who were improperly set at creation.

I'll test the planars on the testport, and report it if any of them are still turning up sub-human height.

[Scylere]

Just to point out...

My character is 6'8" coded. I was exaggerating using "7 foot" because four inches doesn't change much.

[Harroghty]

And by the way, has anybody seen a rogue, who's a 7-feet high massive building? I guess not.... It's just distinctive. (lol imagine a 7 feet tall rogue hiding in the shadows of a small dustbin or bush while curious looking people pass by)

I hate to be arguementative. Well, okay, I like being contrary, but I just wanted to point out old Erevis Cale. Thief, chosen of Mask, and looming, behemoth of a butler.

[Selveem]

By that same token, if you look at Sun Elves height in the Races of Faerun book shows them to be of the following height: 4'10" +2d10.

By my math, that means the maximum AVERAGE would be about 5'8" at least. When I created a Sun Elf character who was selected as tall, I came out 4'11".

In these players' defense, oftentimes the code is not exactly rolling properly and they may have taken liberties to reflect their intended rolls. Personally, as long as they did select to be tall and are within the guidelines, I think it's fine.

That being said, if I see an innately 8' tall human, that is a bit hard to imagine. Yes, I'm certain it is possible as there are always variations in nature where there are unique creatures born, but this would be a stretch.

I don't think it's a big deal unless they're abusing the code and choosing the opposite of what their character really is (for example: a description listing a very obese character who is seven foot tall, yet in creation the player chose 'short' and 'light').

Now, if they're out of the guidelines, I agree - special RP request. By submit only! Also, they may find their choices in armors/weapons may also be limited.

[Isolrem]

here's what I don't get:
A person wants to make a character, and he wants it to be of a reasonable height.
If the imms feel that the person should have no say on the height of his character, then why not just randomize it.
if the imm feels the character should have any height the player deems appropriate (extremities by application), why not just let the player state the desired height?
What is the benefit of locking it down to three categories?

[Selveem]

What is the benefit of locking it down to three categories?

Simple answer: Affects combat code.

[Tortus]

A possibility could be to set a maximum and a minimum value for each race and sex, and let the players choose between.

[Isolrem]

yes, and the categories could then be applied according to the choice for combat-mode reasons

[Kelemvor]

A possibility could be to set a maximum and a minimum value for each race and sex, and let the players choose between.

This is pretty much how it works already.

Each race has a max and min and the player chooses short medium or tall to reflect their own desire. Build may influence this, in that tall and skinny gets the greatest height where tall and plump does not

I may be recalling wrongly, but I do not believe that height impacts upon combat, it is the size of the PC or NPC which does this and size is set by race and can not be changed.