Problems of the small

[Nygenn]

Greetings Mr. Long

I have a question regarding attacks on and by smaller targets.

1) Do attacks against really small characters automatically become area of effect attacks? As for an example I have a minuscule sized Fairy character in combat with a normal human sized opponent. The GM in this case argues that since the hand of the human is large enough to normally encompass all of my character the attack would automatically count as an area of effect.

2) That same minuscule Fairy is going to attack the human back with a melee attack (ignore the futility of a fairy's physical punches). I want the Fairy to fly up to the man's face and attack. The GM tells me that will require me to take the -8 OCV to aim for the head. I argue that since I am up in the man's face, with my limited threat range I can only hit the face even if I swing with my eyes closed and should thus, not get the aimed penalty. I am however, required to take a move action first to reach the head.

I believe that the answers of both questions boil down to a similar answer concerning "reach" of smaller characters. I hope you can shine some light on these situations.

Thank you.

[Steve Long]

1. Attacks against characters who are smaller than normal Human size do not automatically count as Area-affecting attacks. They do a sort of enhanced Knockback, as described under the Size Templates and under Shrinking, but that’s it. In fact, unusually small characters are actually harder to hit (they get a DCV bonus from Shrinking, or pay for one as part of a Size Template). Converting attacks against them into Area-affecting attacks effectively eliminates that part of the Power/Template in a way that strikes me as particularly unfair.

2. A character’s size has no effect on the Hit Location modifiers. If a very small character tries to attack someone in the Head, he suffers the standard -8 OCV penalty, regardless of the fact that the head may actually be larger than he is. (This assumes, of course, that the character wants the standard bonuses for hitting the Head. If that’s not the case, the GM can toss both bonus and penalty out the window if he’s so inclined. The penalty exists to balance the bonus, after all.)

3. Being unusually small, whether through using Shrinking or buying a Size Template, has no effect on a character’s standard 1m Reach under the rules. It would certainly be possible to apply such an effect as an automatic Side Effect on Shrinking, or a Physical Complication for a permanently small character, but it’s not part of the standard HERO System rules.

Of course, a GM is free to rule otherwise if he wishes on any of these issues — it’s his campaign so he gets the final say. But I would suggest that if he’s going to unduly penalize a character who’s small (by, say, converting most attacks against the character into Area-affecting attacks), he ought to balance that by giving the small character some other bonus (like reduced or eliminated Hit Location OCV penalties in HTH Combat).