D&D (2024) WotC Fireside Chat: Revised 2024 Player’s Handbook

In this video about the upcoming revised Player’s Handnook, WotC’s Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins reveal a few new tidbits.

• The books are near final and almost ready to go to print
• Psionic subclasses such as the Soulknife and Psi Warrior will appear in the core books
• Named spells have art depicting their creators.
• There are new species in the PHB.

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[Hussar]

I think height variation is more common in humans than dwarves, elves, and orcs.

True, but, I think people don't quite comprehend just how small Small is. We're talking 2-4 feet tall. As in the size of at 3 year old mostly. People tend to think of Small as just a short human. That's not really what Small is. Small is REALLY small. As in coyote sized. We're talking pretty small dog. I mean, there are beavers that are bigger than a size Small character.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

True, but, I think people don't quite comprehend just how small Small is. We're talking 2-4 feet tall. As in the size of at 3 year old mostly. People tend to think of Small as just a short human. That's not really what Small is. Small is REALLY small. As in coyote sized. We're talking pretty small dog. I mean, there are beavers that are bigger than a size Small character.

Speaking as someone who lives among coyotes and nearby to beavers... Our coyotes are at least 4 times the size of our beavers. Is there a really small coyote type and a really big beaver type that I don't know about?

 

[Cadence]

Speaking as someone who lives among coyotes and nearby to beavers... Our coyotes are at least 4 times the size of our beavers. Is there a really small coyote type and a really big beaver type that I don't know about?

Looks like yes.

Coyote vs. North American Beaver | The World of Animals

Coyote - Canis latrans The coyote (Canis latrans), also known as the American jackal or the prairie wolf, is a species of canine found throughout North and Central America, ranging from Panama in t

theworldofanimals.proboards.com

 

[Charlaquin]

They've already accomplished that: that's why Genasi, Aasamir, and tieflings can be Small or Mediumml now, and they have had non-Human origin Genasi in Campaign books.

Though to be fair, humans can also be small or medium in the playtest UAs.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Looks like yes.

Coyote vs. North American Beaver | The World of Animals

Coyote - Canis latrans The coyote (Canis latrans), also known as the American jackal or the prairie wolf, is a species of canine found throughout North and Central America, ranging from Panama in t

theworldofanimals.proboards.com

Huh. Well, there you go. I mean, sure, I expect beavers to be fat and coyotes to be skinny, but the beavers I've seen are like the size of a big fat house cat, but with obviously much bigger tails, and the coyotes are about the same size as my golden retriever (but slimmer). I guess beavers get bigger back east, and coyotes are smaller down south.

 

[Charlaquin]

Being short and being Small sized are different things. Small are between 2-4' tall. Dwarves aren't S.

Is it possible for humans to be that? Sure. Does it reflect 99%+ of the adult population? No.
As a result, it is not accurately modelling "adult human" to say "S or M".

(Or is it the case that Humans can be 2-4' tall, but elves and dwarves and orcs cannot?)

I honestly do not know what they are thinking. It would make much more sense to have Humans M, and allow a sidebar that players of any M race can choose to play as S if they want.

There absolutely are adult humans who fall into the 2-4 foot range in real life. It’s rare, but it’s possible, and acknowledging that possibility in the game rules for playing a member of the human species is consistent with WotC’s efforts towards diversity and inclusion. But I do agree that it’s weird for elves, dwarves, and orcs to not be able to be Small. It does indeed seem to imply either that conditions like dwarfism don’t affect those species. I suppose with orcs, you could make the argument that their average height is close enough to Large that one with dwarfism would still fall into the Medium size range, but that doesn’t work with elves or dwarves.

This does seem to me like the kind of thing likely to get ironed out internally. If we caught this inconsistency, there’s a good chance sensitivity readers would also notice it. I wouldn’t be surprised if all Medium species can also be Small when the revised PHB drops, or at least all of them that don’t have Powerful Build.

 

[Charlaquin]

True, but, I think people don't quite comprehend just how small Small is. We're talking 2-4 feet tall. As in the size of at 3 year old mostly. People tend to think of Small as just a short human. That's not really what Small is. Small is REALLY small. As in coyote sized. We're talking pretty small dog. I mean, there are beavers that are bigger than a size Small character.

There are real humans who are 2-4 feet tall though. In fact, the shortest human on record was 1’9.5”! That might even qualify as Tiny in D&D size terms.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Well, then if you triple the number of skills, you need an entire page of your character sheet just to handle it, you need to triple the number of skills each person gets, who will likely just keep them in the same families, and then you need to remember so much more as a DM and as player...

All so someone can say that their character is a premier climber but can't swim?

Like.... you can choose to fail rolls. I'll even give you unique penalties if you really want to suck at something for flavor. I've got no problem with that.

You're welcome to not see a more elaborate skill system as valuable, of course, but others do and you're not going to change my mind.

 

[Hussar]

Speaking as someone who lives among coyotes and nearby to beavers... Our coyotes are at least 4 times the size of our beavers. Is there a really small coyote type and a really big beaver type that I don't know about?

Coyotes are about 30 pounds usually. A full grown beaver is about 40 pounds and can get upwards of 80. If your coyotes are four times the size of a beaver, those aren't coyotes. Those are wolves.

Here's a beaver and coyote in a photo for comparison:

 

[Hussar]

Huh. Well, there you go. I mean, sure, I expect beavers to be fat and coyotes to be skinny, but the beavers I've seen are like the size of a big fat house cat, but with obviously much bigger tails, and the coyotes are about the same size as my golden retriever (but slimmer). I guess beavers get bigger back east, and coyotes are smaller down south.

Your coyotes are as big as a golden retriever? HOLY CRAP. Dude, that's not a coyote, that really is a wolf.