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

[Umbran]

Not to me it isn't.

So, is that that it isn't integrated, or that you're not a fan of how it is integrated and what it's position is?

 

[Voadam]

Averaging 40 pounds, they burn significantly less calories than larger sized creatures. The many meals a day si not detailed in the PHB, just outside sources like Tolkien, and that also doesn't mean that those are large meals. One real world diet method is eating lots of small meals during the day in order not to feel hungry and binge.

Please, try to discuss in good faith. When there isn't any discussion about food consumption in general for the races, using weasel words of "I've seen nothing to state that" as a method of overruling both common sense and what we observe in the modern world of calorie consumption of smaller mammal bipeds - that's just trying to win an argument, not actually trying to be right.

Calories burnt is not detailed in the 5e PH either.

The 5e PH does however have some rules on foraging and how 2 lbs. of rations provide a day's meals for a person which does not seem to differentiate between mass of the person. I do not see anything in there saying there are rules saying small sized characters need less food than medium sized ones, but I have not done an exhaustive search.

I would say realism considerations are a valid basis for discussion here, but so would a well established trope for the fantasy archetype or possible implications of the rules extrapolated onto the fantasy world.

 

[Minigiant]

So, is that that it isn't integrated, or that you're not a fan of how it is integrated and what it's position is?

That it isn't integrates. Halflings feel to me like they were just plopped in because people like the idea of them due to the residual fandom of another property. They don't feel like they are entwined in the default setting and rules to me. I feel D&D goes more out of its way to describe and justify the cltures,society, attitude, people, and adventurers of other races compared to halflings. If halflings are a major race in D&D, I'd expect more. I also feel that the editions that attempted to integrate halfling more into the base setting had mo much baggage from elsewhere that a lot of progress on the race was lost and the race is becoming reliant on Toklien again.

I wanna bee halfling magic items ,weapons, warrior sets, army comps, adventurer tools, conflicts, animosities, nations, kingdoms, debates, etc

 

[QuentinGeorge]

That it isn't integrates. Halflings feel to me like they were just plopped in because people like the idea of them due to the residual fandom of another property. They don't feel like they are entwined in the default setting and rules to me. I feel D&D goes more out of its way to describe and justify the cltures,society, attitude, people, and adventurers of other races compared to halflings. If halflings are a major race in D&D, I'd expect more. I also feel that the editions that attempted to integrate halfling more into the base setting had mo much baggage from elsewhere that a lot of progress on the race was lost and the race is becoming reliant on Toklien again.

I wanna bee halfling magic items ,weapons, warrior sets, army comps, adventurer tools, conflicts, animosities, nations, kingdoms, debates, etc

 

[FrozenNorth]

This is what the PHB says about dwarf adventurers:

GODS, GOLD, AND CLAN
Dwarves who take up adventuring life might be motivated by a desire for treasure - for its own sake, for a specific purpose, or even out of an altruistic desire to help others. Other dwarves are driven by the command or inspiration of their deity, a direct calling, or simply a desire to bring glory to one of the dwarf gods. Clan and ancestry are also important motivators. A dwarf might seek to restore a clan's lost honor, avenge an ancient wrong the clan suffered, or earn a new place within the clan after having been exiled. Or a dwarf might search for the axe wielded by a might ancestor, lost on the field of battle centuries ago.

Elves:

EXPLORATION AND ADVENTURE
Elves take up adventuring out of wanderlust. Since they are so long-lived, they can enjoy centuries of exploration and discovery. They dislike the pace of human society, which is regimented from day to day but constantly changing over decades, so they find careers that let them travel freely and set their own pace. Elves also enjoy exercising their martial prowess or gaining greater magical power, and adventuring allows them to do so. Some might join with rebels fighting against oppression, and others might become champions of moral causes.

Halflings:

EXPLORING OPPORTUNITIES
Halflings usually set out on the adventurer's path to defend their communities, support their friends, or explore a wide and wonder-filled world. For them, adventuring is less a career than an opportunity or sometimes a necessity.

Two sentences. And the second one undercuts the first.

 

[Charlaquin]

This is what the PHB says about dwarf adventurers:
Elves:

Halflings:

Two sentences. And the second one undercuts the first.

So now the goalposts have shifted from “halflings are written like NPCs” to “halflings have fewer sentences written about why they might go adventuring than elves and dwarves do.”

 

[QuentinGeorge]

So horrific, halflings have communal reasons for adventuring rather than self-centred individualistic ones.

 

[Minigiant]

So now the goalposts have shifted from “halflings are written like NPCs” to “halflings have fewer sentences written about why they might go adventuring than elves and dwarves do.”

The goalpostsare the same.

Halflings are not written like how the other 3 top races are.

books

I remember the one of those books saying that most halflings think halfling adventurers are crazy and that the whole race except adventurers suffers from mild to severe agroraphobia about anything outside their shires. I think it's the AD&D one. Could be misremembering it though.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I'm sorry, but... your notions of civil defense seem to be as outmoded as the notion that a thick-walled castle is useful when the opponent has flying people throwing fireballs and sappers with stone shape.

1) Most DnD cities still have big walls. Mostly for those enemies I mentioned like Orc Hordes and Gnoll Ravages that don't tend to use magic. We can both agree that from a world-building position, that is kind of dumb, but it is the current shape of DnD

2) What then would you recommend for civil defense? Or, better, what do you think DnD actually does in that regard?

So, let us remember that Phandalin is in the context of being a few days from Neverwinter. If any force tries to "wipe out the town", Neverwinter is going to see that as a particular threat, and will drop a Bag Full of Paladins^tm on the mess and let the gods sort them out. The risk-to-reward ratio for "wipe out the town" is poor, even for a particularly dim-witted orc.

Nope, that is a poor way to look at what the map tells us.

Phandalin looks to be about (counting hexes) 65 miles from Neverwinter. So if someone ran full speed, it would take two days to reach Neverwinter. And that is cutting cross-country.

Phandalin is between Neverwinter and the Sword Mountains, and about 10 mils from those mountains, where the Orcs live.

So, even assuming magical communication that warned Neverwinter the moment the Orcs started massing for an attack... the Orcs arrive in 4 hours, the Neverwinter paladin squad arrives in 48.

Neverwinter Wood is slightly better, looks like they are about 20 miles, so it would take the Goblins and Hobgoblins a full day. So by the time they were back in Cragmaw castle with the loot, the Paladin squad would be arriving at the burnt out remains of the village.

The theory of living near a city so the city army can protect you doesn't work when the city is farther away than the threats. It is supposed to work by the enemies needing to approach the city to do any harm, and they can ride out to intercept. Which they just can't do in this situation.

What you forget is that Phandalin isn't actually undefended. It just isn't defended by a wall and a standing army. They're defended by an intelligence network that calls in adventurers when signs of nastiness arise. The Forgotten Realms is a world not of entrenching a standing army in every village, but of letting elite special forces units take care of issues.

True in theory, but also a bit like playing Russian Roullette. Adventurers are rarely in a town more than a few days, and you have to hope that you spot a threat, an adventurer party is nearby, they accept the quest, nothing else happens while they are away, and they actually succeed.

That is a lot of risk.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Not really. None of those things actually happen with any frequency, and when they do, MToF suggests that a decent percentage of halflings experience wanderlust and go adventuring before settling down, so every village probably has a handful of retired adventurers on top of thier militia.

They seem to happen with rather alarming frequency. Especially considering how many of those monstrous raiders are described as doing nothing except raiding and pillaging.

And those numbers are not good odds. You need to have 1) Halflings who left to adventure 2) Halflings who survived adventuring 3) Halflings who survived adventuring and became large enough threats to stop a force that outnumbers them fairly significantly, or can handle the exact threat attacking 4) Those halfling adventurers being in town and still capable of fighting when the threat comes.

Those are long odds for every single halfling village.