Gah! That's the awful concept art I was thinking about... the original sin... giant head and tiny feet. How can she even stand, let alone jump and do rogue things? She looks like she's going to plummet headfirst if she lets go of that branch.
Funny how J.Schindehette was being defensive about this piece by Conceptopolis, saying it was just concept art, but the final art ended up being even worse. Wonder how it would have turned out if he hadn’t left.
The one on the left looks fine. The head is slightly larger proportionally, hinting that he's smaller than a regular human adult, but so are his hands an feet so it looks balanced.
The arms may be a bit too long compared to the legs but at least it doesn't look like a handicap (chimpanzees are both strong and agile).
The other three do look like they have some genetic disorder.
D&D Halflings will always look like this to me, rather than the 5e abominations.
Yes, they look both small and heroic. Note the heads are also large compared to their body but not but not hideously so. And they have big feet. I could do without the hair patches, though.
It seems to me that, as a race, Halflings are defined by what they are not: not Hobbits, not Gnomes, not Kenders. You really have to wonder what they are all about, what's their hook, what sets them apart. I don't think that WotC really has found a satisfactory answer to that.
Agreed. That's why I merged them all into one single race long ago in my campaigns.
I don't think that's all true.
Halflings are defined mentally and socially. Traditional, practical, but adventurous, and curious.
Sound like a hobbit to me. Or at least Frodo (and Bilbo, after a while). The problem is D&D never really decided if the typical halfling was the traditional, homebody hobbit or the unusually adventurous and adaptable protagonists. So you end up with a muddled, sometimes conflicting, racial archetype.
D&D gnomes are almost the opposite of traditional and practical. They love to joke, trick, experiment, and nudge. Gnomes try to see how close to the line/edge they can get without going over (deep gnomes are grumpy since their answer is "not very far."). Halflings sit back and look at the gnomes.
So you mean the gnome is also curious and, possibly, adventurous?
Not all versions of the gnome were Tinker gnomes either. In older editions they were basically thin dwarves with a sense of humour but still reclusive and reserved with strangers, which doesn’t mesh well with your description. And conversely, the 4e river gypsy halfling and of course the kender both encroach on the trickster archetype.
