One of the best abilities in D&D (in my opinion at least) is reach. While weapon reach is just OK, natural reach is where the party’s at. Nothing beats a large threaten area along with being able to attack adjacent foes. Well, maybe some things, but not many.
How Do You Get Big?
The simplest way of getting bigger is to have your friendly neighborhood wizard or sorcerer cast Enlarge Person on you. If you’re a cleric with a few levels under your belt, you have the magnificent Righteous Might spell to bring the hurt to the infidels.
Depending on how your group keeps up to date with the rules, you have another avenue with the Druid if they have the Natural Spell feat.
The PHB states that a Druid’s Wild Shape ability “functions like the polymorph spell, except as noted here.” Polymorph states, “The subject’s creature type and subtype (if any) change to match the new form.”
This has been changed in the official errata. The Druid’s Wild Shape ability now reads “This ability functions like the alternate form special ability, except as noted here.” And alternate form says, “The creature retains the type and subtype of its original form. It gains the size of its new form.”
What this means is that if you go by just the PHB, a Druid can summon a bunch of animals, wild shape and then cast Animal Growth on the lot of them. Animal Growth is a great spell! If you do take the errata into account, you no longer have this option. The only reason this works is because in the original text, a Druid’s type changes to Animal while in animal form. If you include the errata, the Druid’s type does not change and they are likely not a valid target of animal growth.
While other classes have access to Animal Growth, I think it works best when a Druid is able to grow themselves, along with the creatures they’ve summoned. This can be a powerful combination.
Some Limitations
Righteous Might’s big limitation is that the range is personal, so you can only cast it on yourself. It’s probably best that way because the effects would be crazy if you cast it on a high level warrior or barbarian. Clerics are forces to be reckoned with and this is another nice ace in their pocket for cracking some skulls.
As for Enlarge Person, the biggest limitation is that it only effects humanoids. For anyone playing a non-humanoid race, you’re SOL.
The thing that makes Animal Growth slightly less attractive is that you need the Natural Spell feat to do it (and it may not even be allowed in your campaign).
All of those details aside, the other detriment to enlarging yourself is that you’re now easier to hit. Let’s face the facts – you’re a larger target now than you were before. Throwing a rock and hitting a mouse is considerably more difficult than throwing a rock and hitting a cow. I’d still be more intimidated by a cow charging me than a mouse though!
Despite these points, the ability to enlarge yourself to gain reach – especially if you’re a melee fighter – is a huge bonus.
There’s Another Way
Everything I mentioned to enlarge yourself above are spells. There’s something else that I wanted to mention on it’s own since it’s not a huge component in most games – Psionics.
The psionic power Expansion is a very nice power indeed. Its effects are pretty much the same as Enlarge Person with the main exception that the range is personal. However, if you’re playing a class like Psychic Warrior, this isn’t a problem at all – since your powers are largely designed to buff you, not other people.
The other big benefit to Expansion is that there’s no limitation of the creature type that it applies to. This is one of the few ways non-humanoids can be enlarged without designing your own spells.
I’m Big – Now What?
All of the benefits that go along with being enlarged should be enough to do some damage. You have more HP and have a bonus to strength. You also have reach now, which lets you bash more heads from afar. Beyond that, here’s some other things to consider with reach:
- A feat like Whirlwind Attack plays very nicely with reach since you can target “against each opponent within reach.”
- If you wish to trip or disarm someone smaller than you and you don’t have the Improved Trip or Improved Disarm feats, you get a size bonus and they also can’t take their Attack of Opportunity against you unless they have a reach weapon. Since you need to threaten someone to attack them with your Attack of Opportunity, the target can’t get at you to take that attack.
- Characters with Combat Reflexes can be dangerous while larger since their threat range increases. This increases the chances of someone leaving one of your threatened squares
- Don’t forget this important tidbit, your weapon now does damage as a larger weapon – beasts like Greatswords or Greataxes go to a full 3d6 base damage. Nice.
- Spiked Chains – nuff said.
Time To Bring The Hurt
If enlarging yourself or party members isn’t something you’ve included in your battle tactics, then give it a go. With some basic understanding of reach and movement during combat, you can own a large portion of a battle by your sheer size alone.
If you’re a fighter, your larger size should also draw more attention to you – giving the spell casters a few more rounds before they’re targeted again. Also, don’t forget that the Intimidate skill has a size modifier. Remember, the bigger you are, the scarier you are!
And don’t rule out psionics as a possible option. A Psychic Warrior build can be a lot more focused than dipping into Sorcerer for a level or two.