What has high SM ever done for us?

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by RedMattis

Maybe you're right. I read something about Low Tech Companion 2 having rules for scaling weapons? Perhaps the simple fact of being able to wield huge weapons makes playing something like a Yrth Giant a bit more worth it.

Realistically, you could still use heavier weapons at lower SM, at least to a point. A sword with a wider blade (counterbalanced by a wider pommel, or one filled with lead or whatever) but otherwise the same Reach as normal would work just fine for a character with SM+0 and ST 50 or whatever. You could have an issue (although GURPS doesn't have any way I'm aware of to represent this) where the weapon is heavy enough to markedly shift your center of balance as you move it around, which is going to make it hard to use, but if that's a serious concern... weight in GURPS is a Feature, so you could technically have an SM-6 pixie who weighs 2,000 lb without an issue (I suspect it would break through thin floors and sink into soft soil, due to its high ground pressure, but Flight avoids that issue). Beyond that, realistically you can get to a point where a handle thin enough for the character to grab won't be able to support the weight of the weapon, but I suspect that calls for a rather extreme mismatch of SM and ST (particularly given that most weapons could be designed to have cutouts for your hands, with the bulk of what looks like a handle serving the purpose of a basket hilt), and in many fantasy settings you can get a hold of some pretty amazingly-resilient materials (like DF orichalcum, which is canonically indestructible). Once you get small enough, however, I suspect fighting unarmed and/or with natural weapons is your best bet if you're markedly stronger than your size indicates. Of course, the Hell Fairy I posted earlier can just utilize its TK to wield any weapon appropriate for its TK (which serves as ST), and do so from a distance, with complete disregard for the SM the weapon was designed for (unless, as you noted, the GM decides the pixie's "TK hands" are the same size as the pixie's hands... although taking Area Effect, 1 yard +25% might alleviate that issue).

I feel the benefit of high SM isn't so much the weapons, but the armor - as I noted upthread, an SM+0 character at TL 6 can, at best, get to around DR 16 (on average; I'd double this for Chest and Skull, halve it for Neck and joints) with worn armor; going higher than this should be possible, but with a DX penalty that would jump up rapidly. An SM+2 character in the same TL can get to around DR 32 instead, which is a marked increase. Meanwhile, an SM-6 pixie in the same setting can only manage DR 1 or 2 (1.6 - how you round that is up to the GM). Of course, there's a massive premium - in terms of armor weight - to being larger - that DR 32 armor on the SM+2 character weighs 8x as much as the SM+0 character's DR 16 armor (x4 to weight per DR), while DR 1 armor on an SM-6 pixie would weigh 1/1,600x what the SM+0 character's DR 16 armor did (x1/100 to weight per DR). And keep in mind armor costs general scale linearly with weight - that SM+0 DR 16 plate armor costs $2,352 ($147 per DR), the SM+2 DR 32 plate armor costs $18,816 ($588 per DR), and the SM+6 DR 1 plate armor costs $1.47. Personally, I feel "armor weighs and costs far more" to outweigh "armor can be thicker," making positive SM a net Disadvantage there.

[Eric Funk]

Originally Posted by CarrionPeacock

So really, what has high SM ever done for us?

www.sjgames.com/gurps/faq/FAQ4-3.html#SS3.4.2.23
"4.2.23 Is large SM nothing but trouble"?

Also, discussion here:

https://gurps.fandom.com/wiki/Size_Modifier

See the Weapon and armour scaling in GURPS Low-tech companion 2 Weapons/armour.
As noted being big allows for larger weapons with higher max damage. (see ST reqiurement, p. B270). The weapons are inherantly more damaging plus let a user apply their ST sw / thr dice!

[Eric Funk]

Originally Posted by RedMattis

Anyway, I suspect leader-types would try to either manipulate the giant from a safe distance, or subtly sow seeds of distrust...

Cue later seasons' plot devices of Attack on Titan...

[naloth]

Originally Posted by Eric Funk

www.sjgames.com/gurps/faq/FAQ4-3.html#SS3.4.2.23
"4.2.23 Is large SM nothing but trouble"?

IMO, the ST discount doesn't really work well. A +1 to hit for 1 point off ST isn't really significant and having a higher ST tends to rapidly hit diminishing returns. Large animals typically benefit more from NFM making this limitation pretty trivial.

As much as I hate bundled traits, I'd rather SM was a 0 point trait that:
- adjusts your effective ST 1 per level for everything but HP. This replaces all the grappling bonuses for SM difference.
- adjusts your effective Base Move 1 per level (not speed) for all movement
- adjusts your reach 1 per level (min 0).
- leave obstacles, cover, bonuses to hit, equipment size, and intimidation the same way.

A SM+1 Ogre starts off with a +1 ST and +1 Move bonus, and usually has a racial bonus to ST as well. Choosing to be a SM-1 Halfling or Dwarf is an effective ST-1 and Move-1, but you're also at -1 to be hit. Choosing to be a SM-4 fairy gives you an effective ST-4 and (base) Move -4 but you're also -4 to be hit. Note that because of the built-in ST penalties, racial profiles for small animals won't want as much -ST (essentially reducing the pool of "free" points since small animals usually aren't for carrying/attacking), which seems more balanced.

You can also use these rules for Growth and Shrinking as well. For Growth you'll want to add other limited advantages to get your ST, DR, HP, and Enhanced Move to the right level but you'll start with a nice bonus to ST and Move. For Shrinking, it redefines what you get from SM-1 to SM-5 in terms of reasonable penalties. Beyond that you're taking enhancements to keep your regular stats anyway since the 1/10 at SM-6 is rarely ever used.

Edit: adjusted ST effective bonus to keep things simpler. Arguably including HP would make things even easier unless you have an ability that lets you adjust your SM.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Eric Funk

www.sjgames.com/gurps/faq/FAQ4-3.html#SS3.4.2.23
"4.2.23 Is large SM nothing but trouble"?

Also, discussion here:

https://gurps.fandom.com/wiki/Size_Modifier

See the Weapon and armour scaling in GURPS Low-tech companion 2 Weapons/armour.
As noted being big allows for larger weapons with higher max damage. (see ST reqiurement, p. B270). The weapons are inherantly more damaging plus let a user apply their ST sw / thr dice!

Basically, all of this comes up every time this topic appears, and the topic continually reappears because:

1. A lot of the benefits are confusing or hard to find.
2. Those 'balancing' factors aren't very convincingly balanced in the first place.