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Originally Posted by Bruno
Giraffes are actually pretty substantial animals from the side - that neck is very thick front-to-back.
They're weirdly thin from the front, though, and of course they've got spindly knobbly legs. Don't under-estimate the legs, though - the bones are incredibly high density and the hide is amazingly thick and tough. If the bones weren't tough, the legs would break, and if the hide weren't tough, basically the giraffe would have giant swollen elephantine legs as all the blood pooled in it's ankles. Also, lions would eat their legs if they weren't tough :P
They have the Long enhancement on Extra Legs (4 legs), for sure, and I'd definitely use the Pyramid 3/77 rules for an outsized neck. The horns aren't quite ornamental but I'm not sure I'd call them anything better than a Striking Surface perk. They have absolutely brutal battles between each other by using the back(!) of their heads as a mace, thanks to that neck.
But Giraffes really can't whack people on the ground with their neck or head. They just can't - it's absolutely anatomically impossible for them to do, and they have significant behavioral reinforcement against doing it.
There's a giant thick rubber-band tendon running down from their head, all the way down the back of their neck, and attaching to their entire back - this is how they keep their heads in the air. It's effortless to stand with their neck at about a 40 degree angle because of this powerful tendon, which is good because they do that about 22 hours a day.
It's not without penalties though - the long legs make it very very awkward to lower the body down to drink, and that elastic tendon actually fights their efforts to lower their head down to water. It's a huge strain even to get the head level with the body, let alone lower. Watching a giraffe try to get a drink is kinda painful; it's a real production.
It's also pretty crazy for them to try, because giraffes have a huge blood pressure problem - the blood pressure is crazy high to get blood all the way up that neck to their head. But when they put their head down, that crazy high blood pressure slams down into their head. They've got some really great anatomical adaptations to stop this from exploding their brain, tongue, nasal tissues, etc. but it's still very very uncomfortable, and unhealthy to do for any length of time. It also means any wounds to the neck and head bleed like wohah.
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Yes I remember a doodle in my lecture notes of a giraffe running with it's head down and it's head exploding!
Just to say I wasn't suggesting that they would wack human sized targets with their heads (as you say impossible). Just that the height advantage the neck location would enjoy would depend on what they we're doing, as their necks are long enough to occasionally change relative position enough to matter in that way.
You also raise a good point about front on profile vs. side on profile I'm not sure SM to-hit mods take that into account, (I imagine it would get pretty fiddly)