Race Height/Size Comparison Charts (photos) for Baldur's Gate (AD&D 2nd Edition)

BCaesar

I'm helping to work on a mod and I wanted to know what the relative sizes of the races were so that we could know for our writing. So using the 2nd Edition player's handbook's dice rolls for height and weight I created the following.

First here's the heights and weights for a PC, assuming their height and weight is average for their race (using the Player's Handbook for all the races except Drow and Half-Orc which I got from the Monstrous Manual and the Book of Humanoids).


Player Character is a Man
Halfling: 41" (3' 5") tall and 64.5 pounds.
Gnome: 41.5" (3' 5.5") tall and 84.5 pounds.
Elf: 60.5" (5' 0.5") tall and 106.5 pounds.
Half-Elf: 67" (5' 7") tall and 129.5 pounds.
Dwarf: 47.5 (3' 11.5") tall and 152 pounds.
Half-Orc: 66.5" (5' 6.5") tall and 168 pounds.
Human: 71" (5' 11") tall and 173 pounds.

Player Character is a Woman
Halfling: 39" (3' 3") tall and 60.5 pounds.
Gnome: 39.5" (3' 3.5") tall and 80.5 pounds.
Elf: 55.5" (4' 7.5") tall and 86.5 pounds.
Drow: 60" (5') tall and 107.5 pounds.
Half-Elf: 65" (5' 5") tall and 104.5 pounds.
Dwarf: 46.5" (3' 10.5") tall and 127 pounds.
Half-Orc: 64.5" (5' 4.5") tall and 128 pounds.
Human: 70" (5'10") tall and 133 pounds.


So using those, and pictures from Athlete by Howard Schatz I tried to find pictures of various athletes with a similar body-mass index to each character and then made some of the pictures bigger and smaller as necessary. In some cases I could not find any picture that really matched so I just picked the best one.

Pictures have been modified if I couldn't find anyone the right size (for example the athletes representing halflings, dwarves, and gnomes are all taller and some are thinner as well).






The athletes involved are:
Women:
Gnome: Dawn Ellerbe- hammer throwing
Drow: Tobey Gifford- sport aerobics
Half-Orc: Stacy Dragila- pole vault
Human: Stacey Sykora- volleyball
Half-Elf: Svetlana Khorkina- gymnastics
Elf: Tara Nott- weightlifting
Dwarf: Cheryl Haworth-weightlifting
Halfling: Connie Price-Smith- shotput

Men:
Gnome: Adam Nelson- shotput
Dwarf: Shane Hamman- weightlifting
Half-Orc: Brandon Slay- wrestling
Human: Dan O'Brien- decathlon
Half-Elf: Bob Kennedy- long distance running
Elf: Johnny Gray- running
Halfling: Vince Munoz- handball

Photos used without Howard Schwatz's permission, but I linked to both his website and his book on amazon so hopefully that makes up for it. Here they are again: The Book. The website.

lunar

Cool! I didn't notice elves are that smaller than humans. Well, I think my faves are half-elves.

Nuin

Half-orcs always came across as burlier and taller than humans for me, it's weird that they're supposed to be shorter.

Gnomes always came across as a mix of halfling and dwarf.

BCaesar

Nuin said:

Half-orcs always came across as burlier and taller than humans for me, it's weird that they're supposed to be shorter.

Gnomes always came across as a mix of halfling and dwarf.

The gigantic half-orcs started in 3rd edition. Baldur's Gate is supposed to be AD&D 2nd Edition, but they picked up the idea of gigantic half-orcs with super strength and con. Here's the height and weight charts from the D&D 3.5 player's manual. Notice the differences from the photos above (3.5 has gigantic half-orcs and much smaller gnomes and halflings):

ThacoBell

I'm much more a fan of the more human like interpretation of half orcs. I always use EEKeeper to use a human avatar and color it green I also reduce some of the bonus stats.

Lord_Tansheron

I usually don't even talk to people under 6', I always imagine my party to reflect that. Aerie will always be a lank 6'5" beauty in my eyes, and Neera a delightful 6'3" tower with a pink crown.

BCaesar

Lord_Tansheron said:

I usually don't even talk to people under 6', I always imagine my party to reflect that. Aerie will always be a lank 6'5" beauty in my eyes, and Neera a delightful 6'3" tower with a pink crown.

As opposed to Neera looking like Svetlana Khorkina? At 5' 5" she was a giant gymnast. She towered over all her competition in the Olympics.

Lord_Tansheron

BCaesar said:

As opposed to Neera looking like Svetlana Khorkina? At 5' 5" she was a giant gymnast. She towered over all her competition in the Olympics.

I don't do halflings.

ThacoBell

Lord_Tansheron said:

BCaesar said:

As opposed to Neera looking like Svetlana Khorkina? At 5' 5" she was a giant gymnast. She towered over all her competition in the Olympics.

I don't do halflings.

Your loss.

Lord_Tansheron

ThacoBell said:

Your loss.

But not a big one.

BCaesar

Lord_Tansheron said:

I don't do halflings.

Haha. 5'5" is half-elves. Halflings are 3'3".

So I suppose if you were a halfling then Neera and Aerie would be a giants, but your giant human character could probably rest your chin on their heads, because they are little tiny (fictional) women. Short. Petite. Not tall at all. They look lanky only because they're also really skinny. Just something to think about when you're playing. Aerie probably isn't even 4' 9". Not that I'm trying to ruin your game or anything...

BCaesar

Lord_Tansheron said:

I usually don't even talk to people under 6', I always imagine my party to reflect that. Aerie will always be a lank 6'5" beauty in my eyes, and Neera a delightful 6'3" tower with a pink crown.

Just curious, how tall are you anyway?

Lord_Tansheron

BCaesar said:

Just curious, how tall are you anyway?

Too.

BCaesar

Lord_Tansheron said:

BCaesar said:

Just curious, how tall are you anyway?

Too.

Hmm, I can work with that. What portrait do you like to use when you play?

Lord_Tansheron

BCaesar said:

Hmm, I can work with that. What portrait do you like to use when you play?

Never default for CHARNAME, always custom. NPCs are mostly default, except for Imoen.

BCaesar

Lord_Tansheron said:

BCaesar said:

Hmm, I can work with that. What portrait do you like to use when you play?

Never default for CHARNAME, always custom. NPCs are mostly default, except for Imoen.

Well then, this will have to do. I made you a gift. You are played by Alonzo Mourning. I didn't even have to shrink or grow anyone, as Alonzo Mourning is that tall and I also found Aerie and Neera sized athletes (in this case a gymnast and a long-distance runner).

unholy_avenger

Wait a minute. Why are Half-Orcs shorter and lighter than humans? Were Orcs dyel in 2E or something?

BCaesar

unholy_avenger said:

Wait a minute. Why are Half-Orcs shorter and lighter than humans? Were Orcs dyel in 2E or something?

In first and second edition orcs were like the smaller orcs in Lord of the Rings (where D&D got them). Smaller than humans, generally low-level cannon fodder. There were also bigger orcs in Lord of the Rings (made by Saruman by breeding them with humans) which were more like the orcs used in WarHammer (and later Warcraft). By 3.5 D&D moved to the bigger orcs which is why half-orcs there are gigantic.

So 2nd Edition half-orcs are shorter and lighter than humans, but they actually are heavier for their height (similar to dwarves) which is why they're stronger.