D&D General why do we have halflings and gnomes?

[Richards]

In a previous 3.5 campaign, I sent a gnome lich against my group's PCs twice. (They failed to find his phylactery the first time.) He laired on the Negative Energy Plane and went by the name "Darklord Drago Von Mordak" - since it sounded more fearsome than his true name, "Toofles Pigwilligan."

In that same campaign, the PCs (and their entire adventurers guild) were turned to stone by an evil gnome baker, Pogo Snuffmuffin. They had to be rescued by a group consisting of the PCs' animal companions/familiars and their elderly hireling.

In the follow-on campaign, the party tank role was taken on by a gnome fighter named Binkadink Dundernoggin, whose gnomish glaive was nearly three times his own size. He also wore a pair of gnomish stilt-boots which could raise him to almost human level. By 20th level, Binkadink had something like 265 hp - he'd started off with a 20 Constitution and kept increasing it by a variety of methods over the course of the campaign. He rode around on an awakened jackalope (which was really a mutant hopper from the Gamma World setting).

I tend to like gnomes. Halflings aren't quite as interesting to me, although the last adventure I put my current group through involved an evil halfling butler shrinking the PCs down to 1/12th their normal height and trying to get them to worship him as a titan (with the help of a potion of alter self).

Johnathan

 

[Charlaquin]

okay, so halflings are just normal people but somehow not just human?

In a nutshell, yes. They fill the narrative role of the Everyman, or more specifically the agrarian class. But it’s important to understand why they were chosen for that role. Well, I mean, they were chosen for it in D&D because it was the role they filled in LotR, but why were they written for that role.

In LotR, humans are special. They’re flawed, but their flaws are what make them great, because unlike elves who are born perfect, humans have the ability to rise above their flaws. Their role in the story is to be the aspirational heroes and cautionary examples. They can’t fill the role of Everyman because their job is to be exemplars, positive and negative. Hobbits, then, are unexceptional humans. And in that, they have a certain admirability as well. They are worldly and humble in a way that the greater men of the setting are not, and that humility is why only a hobbit could be the central protagonist.

Now, that doesn’t really work in D&D. A lot of what D&D took from Tolkien doesn’t really work, because it took the trappings but left the underlying themes behind, which does leave halflings feeling a bit superfluous. That’s why they’ve gradually shifted from being hobbits straight out of LotR, to being a more palatable take on Kender - plucky, curious, with a penchant for mischief and gifted with preternatural good luck, but without the culturally reinforced kleptomania.

There’s nothing wrong with writing halflings out of your setting, if you feel they don’t fill any strong narrative purpose within it. But if you want to include them, consider what purpose they might fill in your world. Is there a use in your setting for a people who are more human than human? Or if not, is there another way you can subvert that theming that will better serve the themes of your own setting?

In my own setting, halflings are an oppressed class. The Tolkienesque agrarian hobbit is a stereotype, derived from the image of Halfling slaves, and the tricksy halfling thief is another stereotype, derived from the image of halflings forced into criminal activity as the result of the material conditions that generational poverty has forced them into. I think that’s an interesting subversion of the existing tropes, and helps explain the relative (though not total) lack of a culture distinct from humanity, as slave owners would have actively worked to erase existing halfling culture.

gnomes magic people who are in the middle of nowhere for some reason?

Gnomes are the Hidden Folk. Fairies and brownies and leprechauns and the like. They fill the role of mysterious magical little folk from the Otherworld left vacant by Tolkien’s elves.

 

[FrozenNorth]

Not a big fan of halflings. All their write-ups emphasize their love of home and comfort... but then their archetypical class is Rogue and one of their traits is that they have advantage against being frightened. Ugh! Most rogues I have seen played are indistinguishable from humans.

Gnomes are pretty cool though. It’s fun to have a race that is as intelligent but not as inherently magical as elves (and doubly cool if you can play an artificer). Forest gnomes can hit that love of nature box without bringing some of the baggage associated with elves. I’ve definitely also seen people lean into their tinker aspect.

 

[steeldragons]

Halflings have been covered and everyone knows where they came from and why they are there.

Gnomes existed in B/X but as a "monster/npc" species to be encountered: potential allies, little people in need of the PCs assistance/rescue, a respite from other dangers, and so on. They became a player character race in 1e AD&D.

Mythologically, gnomes date back to the physician/alchemist Paracelsus, who claims to trace back to ancient greek sources and magical tradition wherein Gnomes are the elemental beings/spirits of the Element of Earth (along with Salamanders: fire, Undines: water, Sylphs: air). In order to engage in magic that required or related to the element of earth, you had to "deal with" (conjure, entreat, bind, negotiate, what have you) a Gnome to get your "spell/ritual/alchemy/etc..." done right. This morphed over the centuries into European folklore of multiple cultures/countries as "magical little people," who lived underground or in dark/hidden places (like in the roots of trees, behind waterfalls, or other removed-from-men places that one would expect to find magic and faeries). They became conflated with brownies, spriggans, the pechs, the picts ("pixies"), kobolds, "knockers," and others.

So that's the origin of what a "Gnome" is.

It became a PC race in AD&D because, I think, there was a desire for a species that was "Earth related", where you had "Elves: trees/forests, Halflings: fields/farming, Dwarves: mountains/stone" I am betting Gygax et al were looking for something to sill in "Hills/craftsy" and the various sorts of gnomish peoples existing in history and mythology have all -since ancient greece, the near east, the ancient British isles- been renowned for their smithing/metal working (moreso than the super-masons that Tolkien dwarves were).

The "Svirfneblin" came about shortly thereafter, introduced in Descent to the Depths of the Earth and Vault of the Drow, added as a playable race in 1e's Unearthed Arcana (the original "UA"). There was also, at the time, a Saturday morning cartoon and toy line, based on a European comic strip/series, called "The Smurfs" that was enormously popular. So, the "svirfs" picked up steam/popularity from npc/"potentially-friendly monster to be encountered" to PC" pretty quickly. Like everything Drow/Descent-related, they were uber magically-powered as compared to "surface" elves/gnomes, and in the case of svirfneblin in particular, their "earth elemental" origins was played up much more than the surface gnome "little people/short "Keebler/Santa" elf/mischief makers" vibe.

The Pech are alleged to be related to/come from tales of the Pictish people (also related to the origins of the folklore of small statured faerie-peoples called Brownies). A Scottish [I think it's scottish] folktale talks about the Pech as a people, with a king, renowned for having impressive physical strength. Of course, the fantasy classic "Willow" used the Pech as the name of the small-folk in that world. And then they made a D&D appearance in the "Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth" as, again, a potentially friendly/ally species, of small (gnomish) stature, and with stone-related/elemental earth magical power. So, the Pech became, through the game's iterations, a replacement for the "Gnome as earth elemental" as the Gnome became more and more closely tied/related to "Faerie land" beings, being either originating [or exiled] from the plane of the fae...which was, not until 4e I believe, rewritten/dubbed "the Feywild." In my campaign world, I have pech as members of the gnome species.

Basically, gnomes are in the game to be another small-statured, non-human, legend/folklore-based people (giving them more "real world gravitas" than even the halfling/hobbit, imho) that has [earth/hill-related] skills and expertise and magic, knows things, other races do not.

 

[Mind of tempest]

okay so lots of people have an idea for gnomes but they have somehow ended up the red-headed stepchild of dnd.

halflings are nothing then just the faceless masses people use fantasy to escape from being?

why was I asked for the lest workable of the classic demihumans?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The little humanoid PC races were the baby Yoda/Grogu of the past generations.

The problem about them is they are too typecasted into stealth classes, or illusonists. A halfling monk may be cool, but without some martial maneuver as a ki version of jump spell couldn't attck giant enemies in the lowest levels.

Gnomes can very dangerous, if a crossbow is not enough, then they can use Valyrian fire to comple fleet. And with some alternate racial traits can be perfect for players who love to play with some monster pet as animal companion. (and sometime I though WotC is openminded about a D&D version of Pokemon/Digimon). And "tinker gnomes" are welcome in settings with some pieces of steampunk.

Dark Sun shows us halfling also can be very cool with the right look change.

My suggestion is to use the idea from Pathfinder 2 where the racial traits are replaced with optional racial feats, allowing more flexibility to create PCs for different classes, for example a cute sorcerer female halfling as a little magical girl/maho shojo. Sometime I tried to imagine a swashbuckler halfling using martial maneuvers, and one of them with an effect as a "ki jump" to hit higher enemies.

* Halflings would be perfect for a hypotetical future D&D videogame of farming simulation.

 

[steeldragons]

okay so lots of people have an idea for gnomes but they have somehow ended up the red-headed stepchild of dnd.

halflings are nothing then just the faceless masses people use fantasy to escape from being?

why was I asked for the lest workable of the classic demihumans?

Well, I mean, ya know, in terms of halflings (coming from Tolkien, repping small-scaled, "normal," hearty "pure/innocent" country folk, existing in the game for players before gnomes, etc...,) some people just like little things. They're just "cute." Some people just like playing up humor or being [harmless] mischief makers. So, halflings fit that bill...without having to be "magic fantasy people."

 

[Oofta]

So for me, halflings are kind of the embodiment of good natured people that don't care much for rigid structure (chaotic). Unlike gnomes they don't really have the trickster/practical joke aspect. They would also prefer to spend their time either enjoying what they have or exploring instead of researching, inventing or playing practical jokes.

So in my campaign, Yondalla is the mother of a thousand gods with halflings seeming to just make up gods as they go. They come off as happy-go-lucky because they don't let anything bother them, having (for the most part) an attitude of "naughty word happens" with a shrug and a smile.

What can appear to be laziness and lack of direction, they view as taking the time to enjoy the moment and the simple pleasures of life. They also tend to be curious, sometimes too curious for their own good. A halfling rogue may break into a building just because they want to know what's in there and the only thing they steal is the "open for business/closed" sign as a momento.

So halflings hardly ever come off as serious, are defined by their sunny disposition and positive attitudes. If life hands them lemons, they'll probably invent a game involving how many lemons you can eat.

 

[Oofta]

The little humanoid PC races were the baby Yoda/Grogu of the past generations.

The problem about them is they are too typecasted into stealth classes, or illusonists. A halfling monk may be cool, but without some martial maneuver as a ki version of jump spell couldn't attck giant enemies in the lowest levels.
...

Mine just parkoured up the giant's leg as part of the attack before doing a backflip to land back on the ground.

 

[Charlaquin]

halflings are nothing then just the faceless masses people use fantasy to escape from being?

No