Tiny and Large Species

In Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, all playable species presented in official works are either Medium or Small - even creatures like Goliaths and Firbolgs that tower over humans are slapped with the Powerful Build trait and made Medium. For the most part, this is fine, but every so often you wanna go big. When Fairies were introduced in The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, they were made Small, standing around 3 feet tall, which is at least three times too big to fulfill the fantasy of playing as a little fairy fluttering around - sometimes you just wanna go small. Others have felt this way as well, and various proposals and rulesets have been invented to allow these alternate sizes for player characters.

The best two that I have seen are the article "Demystifying Large Player Characters" by Reddit user MRQueitsch and the homebrew supplement "Tiny Races Underfoot" by Reddit user Ogskive. The rules below are adapted from these two articles, in easy to read bullet-point form, with a few additions and modifications of my own.

Large Playable Characters

• You control a space equal to a 10-foot cube. You can move through a space as small at 5 feet, but must squeeze.
• Your carrying capacity is equal to your Strength score times 15, times 2.
• Small or smaller hostile creatures can move through your space.
• You can grapple and shove creatures that are Huge or smaller, and Small or smaller creatures cannot grapple or shove you.
• A Huge or larger creature can serve as a mount for you.
• When you wield a weapon designed for a Large creature, you make your damage roll with double the damage dice of a normal-sized weapon.
• Attacks you make with weapons designed for Medium or smaller creatures deal normal damage.
• You can wield weapons designed for Huge creatures, but have disadvantage on attack rolls. Weapons designed for huge creatures deal triple the normal damage dice.
• You cannot wear armour or clothing designed for Medium or smaller, or Huge and larger, creatures.
• You must consume 9 pounds of food and 6 gallons of water per day, or half-rations of 4.5 pounds of food and 3 gallons of water.
• When you make an ability check with tools designed for Medium or smaller creatures, you have disadvantage on the roll.
• The cost of armour, clothing, weapons, and other equipment designed for Large creatures is tripled.

Tiny Playable Characters

• You control a space equal to a 2.5-foot cube. Four Tiny creatures can occupy a 5-foot cube. You can move through a space as small as 6 inches, but must squeeze.
• Your carrying capacity is equal to your Strength score times 15, divided by 2.
• You can move through the space of a Medium or larger hostile creature.
• You can grapple and shove creatures that are Small or smaller.
• A Small or larger creature can serve as a mount for you.
• When you wield a weapon designed for a Tiny creature, you make your damage roll with dice one size smaller than normal.
• You can wield weapons designed for Small or Medium creatures, but have disadvantage on attack rolls unless the weapons have the Light property. Weapons designed for Small or Medium creatures deal their normal damage dice.
• When you wield a weapon designed for a Small or Medium creature, you must use both hands to hold it.
• You cannot wield weapons designed for Small or Medium creatures that have the Heavy, Two-Handed, or Versatile properties.
• You cannot wear armour and clothing designed for Small or larger creatures.
• You must consume half a pound of food and half a gallon of water per day, or half-rations of a quarter of a pound of food and a quart of water.
• When you make an ability check with tools designed for Small or larger creatures, you have disadvantage on the roll.
• The cost of armour, clothing, weapons, and other equipment designed for Tiny creatures is one third of the normal cost.

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