[Fantasy] Quick question about magical items and sizing.

[zazen]

In D&D 3.0 and beyond, it was a cannon rule that magical items adapted to the wearer's size.

In GURPS, sizing of weapons is less relevant because of the STR requeriments, but I'm wondering about armor sizing.

My group of 5 players has 2 gnomes and a lizardfolk. Considering they are in human lands, I feel like I'd be screwing them out of the few magic items that appeared so far if there was no size adaptation of magical items.

Particulary, a pair of magical boots was found last time we played and I wasn't sure if the non-human characters were even eligible for it.

How do you handle this issue in your game?

[Nereidalbel]

Call it a campaign feature that enchanted armor comes with a free "One size fits all!" enchantment.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

I think there's an unspoken rule of thumb that, unless the GM decides otherwise, items tailored for a given SM will fit anyone of that SM. For my own convenience as GM, that's how I'd run it. If you want more explicit guidelines, I think DF3 provides some, noting exceptions for unusually shaped races.

[Genesis]

I've played both ways - in one campaign magic items were exceedingly rare, and were generally enchanted bespoke for individuals. Second hand items were unlikely to be perfect for the PCs, whether from sizing problems or because the enchantments were of a specific nature (i.e. no general +1 swords). The feel of the setting was restrictive - most of the (very few) magic items to party acquired weren't really helpful to them, or were impossible for them to use. Then they had to go through the trouble of finding a buyer....

That's not what DF is like, really - your players probably expect to kill baddies and take their stuff, rinse+repeat. If you've got a mixed party, in an area with mixed loot, enforcing tailoring restrictions might even be helpful (in allowing you as the GM to steer items towards the characters you want to have them). But if, logically, you're restricted to dishing out human-loot, and none of the PCs are human... well, it will help everyone's enjoyment if you made re-sizing free, or at least cheap (magical tailor in town can do it in a week - two days if you pay for rush delivery).

So, YMMV based on campaign and setting (obviously), but whichever way you go is "fine," in the abstract - all that matters is your enjoyment.

[simply Nathan]

I usually make all armor fit all characters of a given SM, ignoring even whether the character is humanoid, quadrupedal, or centauroid. As such I don't allow build-related disadvantages like Skinny, Hunchback, or Overweight.

If I was doing things down to a finer grain of detail I'd make found items match the build of the creature that the heroes looted it from; centaurs have armor for centaurs, elves have armor for elves, dwarves have armor for dwarves, and goblins have armor for goblins. If one of the PCs isn't the same race as whoever previously owned the armor, that's when they need to have it refitted.

You might also luck out, like how Bilbo found mail intended for a young elf which happened to fit him in Smaug's hoard; the GM can just say that the bad guys had robbed someone of a different race and held on to the equipment because it was valuable even though none of them could use it.

So maybe set up a random table representing the commonality of races in your setting, make the armor match the race the equipment came from, or plan ahead of time what kind of armor fits which characters.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by zazen

How do you handle this issue in your game?

The canonical method for this is the Adjustable Clothing enchantment (Magic 59); this could be cast as a Temporary (1 use) enchantment to reshape it once for a new user. The cost for that spell is poorly explained, however; it appears that reshaping a suit of plate by 10% would be:
50 (base) x3 (full coverage) x5 (plate) = 750, or 113 for a single use.

Alternately, the item can be adjusted normally; while you can't melt a magic item down and reforge it without destroying the enchantment, ordinary modification is possible.

[chandley]

You are only using Fantasy, but it might be relevant: DF races often mention a feature wherein they cannot wear human armor, or even armor not built specifically for their race. If you care to do the work, you might go through your list of races and decide who can wear what from whom.

It appears DF assumes that non-fine armor is wearable by anyone of the same SM and compatible race.

[Balor Patch]

Lizard men specifically have "Features: Armor isn’t interchangeable with human armor." So, while you as GM can certainly change that, I'd start by saying no. If the players wanted to use human armor they shouldn't have picked one of the few races that forbid it.

You can always introduce them to a wizard who happens to know a spell that will fix that and wants.. well, he seems to be crazy so it's hard to tell but that's why adventurers are clever. "Fix" could mean "change the feet" after all.