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As I'm playtesting the Daredevil, many of the class's limitations have become quickly apparent, and a particularly arbitrary one in my opinion is prop size. Specifically, what counts as a prop is based on the size of your Daredevil character, which leads to the following silly scenario:
Situation: Matt the Daredevil Shoves a Medium gangster into another Medium gangster. Does Matt deal stunt damage to this gangster?
Case A: Matt is a gnome. He deals stunt damage.
Case B: Matt is a human. He doesn't deal stunt damage.
For whichever reason, this situation is entirely dependent on your size, and not that of the creature being moved into an obstacle (and as a completely unrelated pet peeve, "obstacle" in my opinion is a much better name for what's being discussed here than "prop"). In my opinion, this makes strictly no sense, and leads to situations where by all rights the Daredevil should be dealing stunt damage, but can't.
This to me feels like a development oversight, but regardless of the reasons behind the current wording, I think the fix here is simple: instead of creatures only counting as props if they're larger than you, the Daredevil, they ought to count as props if they're the same size or larger than the creature colliding with the prop. If you're using a creature or terrain feature to push yourself off with Propelling Strides, you're colliding with the prop, and if you're moving a creature into something, that creature is what's colliding with the prop. Not only would this I think make what is and isn't a prop far more intuitive based on the situation at hand, easing the size restrictions as well ought to make for more props to interact with overall.
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That would generally make the restrictions stricter, not ease them.
And I think the goal here was to give the Daredevil different advantages based on size--the bigger you are, the more targets for your maneuvers, the smaller you are, the more useful props. Changing that will just make bigger better.
Isn't that also quicker and more consistent to adjudicate, as long as you don't have multiple Daredevils of different sizes in the same party?
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That would generally make the restrictions stricter, not ease them.
How so?
And I think the goal here was to give the Daredevil different advantages based on size--the bigger you are, the more targets for your maneuvers, the smaller you are, the more useful props. Changing that will just make bigger better.
Or, hear me out, we don't impose arbitrary size limitations on the Daredevil to begin with, so that there are fewer things to completely shut them down.
Isn't that also quicker and more consistent to adjudicate, as long as you don't have multiple Daredevils of different sizes in the same party?
Lol no. As the above case shows, it's counter-intuitive and requires checking the Daredevil's size every time, even when they're moving other creatures around.
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A creature larger than the enemy will be much less common, since groups of enemies are often the same size and often larger than the PCs.
How fortunate then that I recommended the condition change to the prop creature being the same size or larger than the creature colliding with the prop. I even bolded it in the OP, so I'm not sure how you could have missed that.
As a matter of fact, how about we simplify this proposal even further, and just state that any creature is a prop so long as they're not Tiny. That way, you could shove virtually anyone into anyone else for damage. The restriction on Tiny creatures means you wouldn't be able to state that you're shoving a Huge creature onto a passing rat or the like, but it means you'd be able to make most enemies collide with each other without trouble.
The Daredevil's size doesn't change (at least not often). Your proposal is the one that would require checking.
Literally any version would require checking, because you would need to reference the Daredevil's size to whoever it is you're moving your target into in the vanilla version. If groups of enemies are often the same size as you say, then you wouldn't need to constantly check either.
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The Daredevil's size doesn't change (at least not often).
Enlarge is a rank 2 spell for large and 4th rank for huge. It's not hard for the Daredevil to jump sizes regularly when needed. Taking into account several ancestries/heritages have feats that grant enlarge as an innate spell, the daredevil can change sizes without needing a buddy to do it. Add to that, you can get Size-Changing on your armor, Dinosaur Boots, Applereed Mutagen [w/ Collar of the Shifting Spider], wands of enlarge, ect.
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I had noticed back in the discussion of the name "Prop" that size is a bad defining quality for a Prop. Even the sidebox definition of Prop says that size is not always valid: "For instance, the GM might decide that you can’t use a Huge ooze as a prop, due to the consistency of its protoplasm."
Furthermore, consider a stone pillar. It fits into a single square, so technically its size is Medium, except for its height. But it looks perfectly suitable as a Prop to me. I had mentioned starting blocks for races. The runners push off of them for a faster start, just like daredevils do with Props. And they are Tiny--their suitability comes from being secured to the ground.
The true defining property of a Prop is that when the daredevil pushes off of it or slams an enemy into it, it does not give. It stays in place and does not bend softly or step aside. But any creature can step aside, because of the Dexterity bonus to their AC. The designers decided arbitrarily that "larger than you" means that the creature cannot step aside fast enough. They can dodge a hammer swing but not their friend being Shoving into them.
A more logical divider would be that allied creatures willing to stand firm, especially when they wear heavy armor or raised a shield, can serve as Props, regardless of size. Enemy creatures, on the other hand, won't cooperate.
Even simpler would be that creatures cannot serve as Props, because they are too mobile. But the Pathfinder battlemaps have too many empty spaces, including grass fields with no walls or trees at all. The daredevil would need to bring their own Props, such as their allies or their horses.
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I think the image of someone taking a bottle, chair, or similar object and smashing it in the head of someone is common enough of a trope, even though in the opposite way of how props work, to justify props of any size to work against creatures. That's already the logic behind the Breakaway Feat, so there's presedence in the class already of dealing damage through the enviroment without taking into account sizes.
This makes me wonder if, thinking about the posts from a few days ago talking about Stunt Damage's damage and how it seems guardian is going to be a popular pick for daredevils because of Punishing Shove, Breakaway Attack could be merged into Stunt Damage somehow, tweaking Stunt Damage to instead deal an amount of damage equal to your fist unarmed attack, which would also be the damage you'll use for improvised weapons.