D&D 5E My sister wants to be a Halfling Barbarian (Starter Set)

[Dausuul]

Do you also ban humans from having Strength 20? After all, a grizzly bear only has Strength 19, and the strongest human that ever lived is nowhere near as strong as a bear.

Strength in 5E, as in 3E, scales by size. A Str 19 Large creature is stronger than a Str 19 Medium creature. If you want to make halflings more realistic, I would simply take the size-related encumbrance modifiers and extend them to cover Small creatures (instead of half encumbrance for Tiny creatures, make it half encumbrance for Small and quarter encumbrance for Tiny).

But be sure to adjust the weight of halfling equipment to match. Halfling armor should weigh 1/4 as much as equivalent human armor.

 

[Mistwell]

[/U]

Stats	Info
Class	Barbarian
Background	Outlander with Exile / Outcast origin
Player name	Anton (Male)
Race	Stout (+1 Con) Halfling (+2 Dex)
Alignment	Chaotic Neutral

Ability	Points	Modifier
Strength	15	+2
Dexterity	15	+2
Constitution	15	+2
Intelligence	8	-1
Wisdom	12	+1
Charisma	10	+0

Default array was used (15 14 13 12 10 8)

Stat	Points
HP	12 + 2 Con = 14
AC	10 + 2 Con + 2 Dex = 14

Weapon	Name	Damage + to hit
Primary weapon	Battle axe	1d8 (1d10) +2 slashing, +4 to hit
Secondary weapon 1	2 x Hand axe	1d6 + 2 slashing, +4 to hit
Secondary weapon 2	4 x Javelin	1d6 + 2 piercing, +4 to hit

Personality:

- I have a lesson for every situation, drawn from observing nature
- I'm always picking things up, absently fiddling with them and sometimes accidentally breaking them

Ideal:

- Nature The natural world is more important than all the constructs of civilisation (Neutral)

Bond:

- An injury to the unspoiled wilderness of my home is an injury to me.

Flaw:

- I am slow to trust members of other races, tribes, and societies.


I would also like some help to give her character a good tie-in to the story like the other pregens have.
Any suggestions?

My sister specified that he would be a loner, that he doesn't really have a clan to live with.
So I have a loner Exile / Outcast that is Chaotic Neutral and loves nature above all else.

Now I need a reason for him to join the group that Gundren recruited.
Perhaps he knows Gundren from before his loner days and asked him to help with the removal of several threats to Nature that have recently appeared (the Dragon, the Goblins, the Orcs,...)

Seems like we are missing the skills section, which would help fleshing out the character tie-in to the setting. If this PC has something like Survival or Nature as trained skills, then I think they could have been employed as a scout by Gundren in the past. Or perhaps they rescued or help fend off some wilderness threat to Gundren in the past.

 

[the Jester]

Seems like we are missing the skills section, which would help fleshing out the character tie-in to the setting. If this PC has something like Survival or Nature as trained skills, then I think they could have been employed as a scout by Gundren in the past. Or perhaps they rescued or help fend off some wilderness threat to Gundren in the past.

This is a good point. I like the notion of Gundren having helped him in the past- another similar option is that maybe Gundren found him sick in the wilderness and nursed him back to health, earning his trust on a personal level.

 

[Stalker0]

All, this thread is moving OT.

Trippyhappy gave an opinion, and outlined why. It was not written in a malicious and trolling manner, just an opinion that was clearly stated as such.

The op has heard it and can decide what to do with it.

This thread is not about dissecting a persons house rule, but providing the op advice.

Let's continue to do that

--Stalker0

 

[Nemio]

This is a good point. I like the notion of Gundren having helped him in the past- another similar option is that maybe Gundren found him sick in the wilderness and nursed him back to health, earning his trust on a personal level.

@Mistwell @the Jester

Indeed, I forgot to add the skills

The Outlander background gives the Athletics & Survival proficiencies.
While as Barbarian there are 2 to choose from Animal Handling, Athletics, Intimidation, Nature, Perception and Survival.

It seems I made a mistake there and picked Survival again as well as Perception.
Going to check with her which other one she wants to take.

I also still have to ask her which extra language she knows from this Outlander background.
The Gundren idea is nice so she could then take Dwarven for example.

As Origin she chose Exile / Outcast saying that something happened in the past which caused him to be alone.


So Gundren wanting to use Anton as Scout while looking for "something big" (Wave Echo cave) seems to be a good idea.
But on top of helping an old friend I want to have a personal goal for this character similar to the other pregens.

Since he loves nature above all else I was thinking that something might be threatening his home.
Perhaps the Ash Zombies and Twig Blights from Thundertree are spreading out and coming too close to the place where he lives on his own?
I also imagine he would want to destroy these unnatural creatures.

Gundren might have promised him to help with this after returning from the Scouting mission.

Just thinking out loud, making things up like this is new for me
Thanks already for thinking with me!

 

[TrippyHippy]

[MENTION=27252]TrippyHippy[/MENTION]:
15 STR is not all that much. If you don´t like it, ok. But don´t tell anyone that it is badwrongfun. And forcing anyone to use their lowest stat on str seems really unfun. Creatures that are smaller are relatively stronger and more robust. They can swing a hammer quite fine. Just give a hammer to a random child and ask it to hit you on the head with it as hard as they can.

Strength 15 means, according to the rules it means that Halfling can carry more than 10 times his/her own body weight - cartoon physics in other words. If I want to create a sense of verisimilitude in the games I run, I house-rule it.

It’s not a question of ‘badwrongfun’ - the original poster asked people to criticise and discuss the statistics of that particular character, which I did. It’s up to other people whether they want to implement these thoughts or not.

 

[Bochi]

Most creatures that can lift 15x their body weight are bugs. Therefore halflings are probably the descendants of roaches. As we all knew anyway.

If you want to limit encumbrance to "realistic" levels, you might house rule that nobody can carry more than twice their own weight (which would still be an heroic achievement). But leave the modifiers alone, so that the savage runt is just as effective in a fight as any other ST 15 character.

 

[Wrathamon]

Why hasnt anyone commented on how to add the character's backstory into the default character's stories? What goals and hooks would you suggest for the DM to add to his sister's character? The premades have some very good hooks with this adventure to help them feel tied to the story.

Her character is already outcast and slow to trust. I think she needs a strong hook and motivation.

There is already another Halfling... maybe she is the brother/sister to the rogue and they share the same personal goal: Get your Revenge.

Or maybe tie the character with the archer: Drive off the Dragon?

Is anyone not playing one of the premades? It might be easiest to use the Personal Goal: that is not used, same with the background (if it fits)

 

[Nemio]

Indeed, having a similar goal to the other pregens could also help.

My example in my previous post could bring the archer(Human Folk Hero) and Anton together in clearing Thunder Tree.

But then their future handling of the situation could be different.
The Folk Hero want to drive the dragon off because he wants to rebuild the town.

The Barbarian who loves nature and is Chaotic Neutral might just prefer to leave the town reclaimed by nature and leave the dragon alone.

Then again, my sister wouldn't be too strict about it probably.
It's a bit give or take, they help her, she helps the others.

If anyone has other ideas I'd love to hear them.

 

[jrowland]

Halfling Barbarian?