Adversary Sizes

[Glorelendil]

Has anybody put together a table of relative hero and adversary sizes? I remember seeing something about this somewhere but can't find it now.

I want to add functionality for "Small Folk" and "Giant-slaying Spear" to my sim, but am not entirely clear on sizing.

Are goblins hobbit-sized?
Attercops and Giant Spiders?
Orc Chieftans?
Etc...

I think I only need 3 categories: Hobbit and Smaller, Man/Elf/Dwarf, and Large, but I'll probably add one category off either end to future proof the code a little bit.

[Angelalex242]

All enemies are human sized, (minimum dwarf) unless they actually have the great size ability listed in their abilities list.

Nothing is small enough to be hobbit sized that I know of.

[Rich H]

Nothing is small enough to be hobbit sized that I know of.

From the LM book, I think it's fair to say that Goblin Archers and Great Bats are [small enough]. At least that's how I have them in my game.

The AB says "When you are being attacked in close combat by a creature bigger than you (very often)" for the Small Folk virtue. That means that some opponents have to be the same size as a hobbit (or thereabouts) otherwise the above quote would say 'always'.

Open to debate: Attercops, Snaga Trackers. Personally, I say they are small enough to not be affected by the Small Folk virtue, thus giving 4 adversaries out of the LM book. Seems about right to support the "very often" quote above.

[Glorelendil]

Great Spiders have this description... "They are gigantic in size, sometimes as big as horses or greater..." but they don't have the Great Size ability. Which is too bad because it would have been simple to just check for the Great Size ability when using Giant Slaying Spear.

I'll just add a variable, doing my best based on descriptions. I'll include Snaga Trackers and Attercops as hobbit-sized for now; easy enough to fix later.

Thanks.

[Michebugio]

Just a tip: remember that Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as "Orcs" in Mordor, so it's right to assume that some Orc species are Hobbit-sized, or very close to that size. Which species is just up to you, I guess.

By the way, sometimes I laugh at the giant Uruk-hai portrayed in Peter Jackson's movies. The biggest, non-trollish Orc ever encountered in the books was described by Tolkien as "almost human-sized"! They are simply brutish, violent and sometimes stronger than Humans: doesn't mean that they have the size of overgrown Samoan rugby players. In fact, they are almost always smaller than men (strange, huh?).

[Woodclaw]

By the way, sometimes I laugh at the giant Uruk-hai portrayed in Peter Jackson's movies. The biggest, non-trollish Orc ever encountered in the books was described by Tolkien as "almost human-sized"! They are simply brutish, violent and sometimes stronger than Humans: doesn't mean that they have the size of overgrown Samoan rugby players. In fact, they are almost always smaller than men (strange, huh?).

Well the Uruk-Hai were quite a different beast from the common orcs and nearly 2 meters tall is hardly above human size - especially if we consider that the humans of Middle-Earth tend to be unusually tall, in particular those of Westron blood.

[Michebugio]

Well the Uruk-Hai were quite a different beast from the common orcs and nearly 2 meters tall is hardly above human size - especially if we consider that the humans of Middle-Earth tend to be unusually tall, in particular those of Westron blood.

As far as I know, the exact heights of Middle-Earth races are never stated (I may be wrong). But we know about comparative heights, so the Elves are the tallest race, then there are the Men, the Dwarves and finally the Hobbits.
Orcs, even Uruks, never surpass the height of an adult man, whichever that may be. But they are broader and more muscular, somewhere in-between Humans and Dwarves, and occasionally even Hobbit-sized.

Moreover, a curious fact is that Tolkien once clearly stated he conceived Orcs as an ugly, brutish version of the mongolian human phenotype (that may appear quite racist), and Asian phenotypes are, as a matter of fact, shorter than Caucasian.

[Stormcrow]

doesn't mean that they have the size of overgrown Samoan rugby players.

Heh! I quite agree: PJ's orcs don't look at all like my idea of orcs.

[DavetheLost]

Well noted that whenever a particularly big Orc appears and is called out as such it is noted as being "almost man height".

Hobbits are described as being of child-like size and build. Since Frodo and Sam are able to pass as orcs among orcs simply by putting on Orc dress and gear their stature is not substantially different to that of most orcs. Neither Frodo nor Sam are described as being particularly tall for hobbits.

For most creatures and situations it is probably intentionally left to the LM's discretion.

[Angelalex242]

Unless the orcs thought they were orc children?