Enlarge / Reduce Person spells for non-humanoids


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


So i am playing a Monsterous Humanoid Arcanist/Fighter and eventually i will become a Construct via the Green Star Adept prestige class adapted to Pathfinder. I am Large size and want to be able to cast Enlarge Person and Reduce Person on myself during certain situations but they only affect humanoids.

If i was to research new versions of these spells that would affect any (or perhaps a half dozen) creature types, then what level would such spells be?
And If i researched the spells to only affect Target: Personal would that bring the spell level down?

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

1. up to your GM. Third or Fourth level at least.

2. a disadvantage which is no disadvantage gets no discount.


There is a reason that getting PCs to Huge is made very difficult. It's a huge [smirk] benefit. The system is built around medium PCs and the action-economy boost from being Huge tends to be game-breaking.


GinoA wrote:
There is a reason that getting PCs to Huge is made very difficult. It's a huge [smirk] benefit. The system is built around medium PCs and the action-economy boost from being Huge tends to be game-breaking.

Enlarge Person would work on a Humanoid (Giant) PC, making him Huge (or bigger) with no rule hangups. The system is built around the assumption that PC's will always be Humanoids, not Medium-sized.

I see no problem with a GM tweaking the spells Enlarge/Reduce Person to target other creatures of the same type as the caster, instead of always only Humanoid, regardless of caster. So an Outsider casting Enlarge Person could only target other Outsiders, a Monstrous Humanoid can only target other Monstrous Humanoids, etc.

A Spell that can affect several different types would certainly be a higher level. Using Disguise Self (1st level) and Seeming (5th level) as a comparison in level jumps, I'd say it would be a 5th level spell.

Dark Archive

Ascendant Enlarge Person gets you to Huge size. It is a 6th-level spell.

Scarab Sages

Even if you make an Enlarge Person spell that works on Constructs, they would still be immune to it because they are immune to any effect that allows a fortitude save.

Enlarge/Reduce allow a fort save.

Silver Crusade

Imbicatus wrote:

Even if you make an Enlarge Person spell that works on Constructs, they would still be immune to it because they are immune to any effect that allows a fortitude save.

Enlarge/Reduce allow a fort save.

If he made it to work on constructs, it would by definition work on constructs. :-P

Basically, if you really want to be a construct and change size, your spell has to be able to affect creatures AND objects. The spell level is climbing.


Cuup wrote:


I see no problem with a GM tweaking the spells Enlarge/Reduce Person to target other creatures of the same type as the caster, instead of always only Humanoid, regardless of caster. So an Outsider casting Enlarge Person could only target other Outsiders, a Monstrous Humanoid can only target other Monstrous Humanoids, etc.

A Spell that can affect several different types would certainly be a higher level. Using Disguise Self (1st level) and Seeming (5th level) as a comparison in level jumps, I'd say it would be a 5th level spell.

Imbicatus wrote:

Even if you make an Enlarge Person spell that works on Constructs, they would still be immune to it because they are immune to any effect that allows a fortitude save.

Enlarge/Reduce allow a fort save.

Well as Cuup said, Enlarge and Reduce Persons spells work on any humanoid regardles of size. Heck you could cast Enlarge Person on a Rune Giant (the biggest of giants being Gargantuan size) to jump him up to Colossal and it would still be a Lvl 1 spell. Also i would like to b able to use these spells for other characters since i love playing non-human caster characters. Basically the starting size of the caster should not affect the basic utility of the spell nor its Spell Level.

1. Now in regards to what Imbicatus said; isnt it possible for intelligent creatures to allow spells to bypass Saves and Resistances if they want to? For instance couldn't a Vampire allow say, an Enlarge Monster spell to affect him if he wanted?

2. So with all this being said would would you all think should be the spell level for Enlarge/Reduce Monster spells that can target any creature type?

Dark Archive

Truedragon wrote:


1. Now in regards to what Imbicatus said; isnt it possible for intelligent creatures to allow spells to bypass Saves and Resistances if they want to? For instance couldn't a Vampire allow say, an Enlarge Monster spell to affect him if he wanted?

2. So with all this being said would would you all think should be the spell level for Enlarge/Reduce Monster spells that can target any creature type?

1a) Saving throws yes, any creature can willingly forego a saving throw.

1b) Spell Resistance - you have to lower it first (unless you are the one casting the spell on yourself.) Lowering SR is a standard action.
1c) Other immunities - no, a vampire is no longer human, so he cannot benefit from Enlarge Person even if he wants to.

2) We can look at other Person/Monster spells to get an idea.

Charm Person (1)/Charm Monster (4)
Hold Person (2)/Hold Monster (5)
Dominate Person (4)/Dominate Monster (9)

So somewhere between +3 and +5 spell levels. I would split the difference and say 4, making "Enlarge Monster" a 5th-level spell.

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