Size
Crawl uses a discrete system of sizes to decide how large or small a monster is. There are six categories, as follows from smallest to largest:
- Tiny (bat-sized)
- Little (spriggan-sized)
- Small (kobold-sized)
- Medium (human-sized)
- Large (ogre-sized)
- Giant (giant/dragon-sized)
Contents
Player Sizes
Player size mostly affects which weapons and armour can be used, how bad the penalties are for using shields, and how evasive you are. Less dramatically, it also affects your odds of being pushed around by monsters with trample attacks and being grappled by monsters with constriction attacks. While monsters also use these sizes, it is best to treat them separately, as player characters tend to differ from monsters (even those of the same species).
Bear in mind that some species have specific restrictions above and beyond those listed below, and that certain species (felids and octopodes) simply cannot wear armour at all.
Medium
The majority of player species are medium, and can use almost every kind of item. Only giant clubs, giant spiked clubs, large rocks, and bardings are not available.
- Barachi
- Deep dwarf
- Deep elf
- Demigod
- Demonspawn
- Djinni
- Draconian
- Formicid
- Gargoyle
- Ghoul
- Gnoll
- Hill orc
- Human
- Merfolk
- Minotaur
- Mummy
- Octopode
- Tengu
- Vampire
- Vine Stalker
Small
Along with the item restrictions medium species face, small characters cannot use the following: bardiches, battleaxes, dire flails, executioner's axes, glaives, great maces, great swords, halberds, tower shields, longbows, scythes, triple swords, or javelins. Furthermore, broad axes, double swords, magical staves, tridents, and demon tridents are treated as two-handed weapons, and all shield penalties are harder to overcome.
Only one player species is small:
Pig Form makes players small-sized, but disables most types of equipment.
Little
Little players cannot wield anything that small players cannot, and are also prevented from wearing the following:
- Any body armour but robes, troll leather armour, or any kind of dragon armour
- Any gloves
- Any boots
- Helmets
- Kite shields
Two player species are little:
Tiny
No playable species are small enough to qualify as tiny, but there are several transformations that shrink characters down that small. This grants them a considerable boost to evasion but often imposes significant drawbacks (not least of which is the inability to use most equipment).
Hybrids
The hybrid species have large-sized bodies but medium-sized torsos, and may wear anything medium-sized characters wear except for boots. Instead, they may use barding. Their larger-than-average mass lets them carry shields more easily, but their unusual frames cause body armour to grant half the normal base AC bonus. Additionally, they don't fumble when attacking while standing in shallow water (though they still get the normal movement penalties while wading through it).
Large
Large species are subject to all the same armour restrictions as little species, except that they can use kite shields and tower shields but can't use bucklers. However, they may use any weapon they find, including giant clubs, giant spiked clubs, and large rocks, some of the most devastating weapons in the game. Like hybrids, they have an easier time wielding shields than medium or smaller species, and they can use melee attacks with no penalty when in shallow water.
Players in Ice Form are also considered large, but cannot make use of any equipment.
Giant
There are no giant species, but Dragon Form will make you this size.
Giant creatures have a quality known as "fake amphibious" that lets them move through deep water without drowning. (They are tall enough that their heads stay above the water.) Unlike creatures that are truly amphibious or native to water, they get penalties to fighting when standing in deep water. They are also too large to be trapped in throwing nets.
