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

[tetrasodium]

The whole point of "luck" in a fantasy setting is it overrides statistics.

-Sir Terry Pratchett​

Not as written. It's completely unreasonable to redefine math like that on a thread where someone is defending plot armor by saying that the idea of halfling farmers using a wagon or cart for trade just doesn't happen because it's not explicitly spelled out

 

[Oofta]

Right exactly, how are they surviving?

They don't even have god magic or super luck or hidden locations to protect them.

They should have walls, and militias, and a lot of other things.

Maybe humans should have walls, militias and so on if the world is as dangerous as you say it is. But the maps that show Ten Towns don't show walls around every town. There's no mention of militias or anything similar in the writeups on humans. If you assume humans do such a thing to survive, there's no evidence they are doing anything that halflings could not do as well.

So either every single race takes precautions such as militias and it's just assumed and redundant therefore page count is not wasted on it or by default the assumption is that the world is not as dangerous as you assert.

So this assumption that humans would survive but halflings would not is just a big nothing burger.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

A couple of points:

• Byn Shander has walls and a central location. One would expect Ten Towners to flee there if they came under attack. This is pretty much what happens in the real world when villages are attacked;
• The Ten Towns isn't a "human" settlement. A significant fraction of the population are halflings, along with dwarves etc;
• Roughly 20% of the population of the Ten Towns are "tribal warriors" and about 2% veterans. Various races. The remaining 78% are non-combatants.

 

[FrozenNorth]

Related to this:

Could someone summarize any suggestions to make Halflings or Gnomes more distinct and interesting? I'm sure 40+ pages must have yielded some suggestions?

(And not just the "cannibal nomad" halflings of Dark Sun. Thanks)

One possible head-canon:

Halflings as a race that has been historically enslaved by various empires and other baddies. Their reputation for cheerfulness, good humor and lack of ambition is both a front and a defense mechanism. You’d better believe that halflings take freedom extremely seriously and tend to side-eye anyone (even other halflings) giving orders.

They tend towards rogues (since avoiding notice and picking the locks on manacles is a survival trait) and rangers (some halfling tribes take to nature to avoid their former captors).

 

[Oofta]

A couple of points:

• Byn Shander has walls and a central location. One would expect Ten Towners to flee there if they came under attack. This is pretty much what happens in the real world when villages are attacked;
• The Ten Towns isn't a "human" settlement. A significant fraction of the population are halflings, along with dwarves etc;
• Roughly 20% of the population of the Ten Towns are "tribal warriors" and about 2% veterans. Various races. The remaining 78% are non-combatants.

So if threatened, the residents retreat to a safer area. Halfling communities could do the same, the percentages for a typical village (I assume you get your percentages from a campaign specific book) are not mentioned anywhere.

Still waiting for a single reason halflings are different from humans.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

So if threatened, the residents retreat to a safer area. Halfling communities could do the same, the percentages for a typical village (I assume you get your percentages from a campaign specific book) are not mentioned anywhere.

The % are from Rime of the Frostmaiden. As I said, the Ten Towns is a mixed-race settlement. No reason to suppose adjusting the relative proportions of humans, dwarves, halflings, half elves, half orcs, tieflings and dragonborn (to go by the races of Ten Towners mentioned in the adventure) would change anything.

Still waiting for a single reason halflings are different from humans.

They don't enslave other halflings?

 

[Minigiant]

Related to this:

Could someone summarize any suggestions to make Halflings or Gnomes more distinct and interesting? I'm sure 40+ pages must have yielded some suggestions?

(And not just the "cannibal nomad" halflings of Dark Sun. Thanks)

Like @Mecheon on said, gnomes have feyness, illusion magic, and in high fantasy setting... tech and tinkering. They are fine.

For Halflings the suggestion are

1. Play up the Lucky angle. Make halflings more supernatural and mae them undeniably and overtly lucky.
2. Play up the Acrobat angle. Make halflings more nimble, springy, and tumbly.
3. Play up the Chef angle. Make them Gummi Bears. Give them halfling juice and cakes that act as magic potions.

Back in the day when I was thinking of making my own OSR + 4e lovechild the classes for Gnomes and halflings were:

• Gnome Skulk (basically a swarmkeeper ranger but with small furry animals)
• Gnome Illusionist (gnome mage that targeted will a lot)
• Gnome Tinkerer (more fightery artificer)
• Halfling Urchin (a lucky plucky fighter good with slings and daggers)
• Halfling Prowler (like the Human thief but with more luckpoints and more Acrobatics with less Athletics)
• Halfling Chef (a thief with food alchemy)

 

[Maxperson]

Related to this:

Could someone summarize any suggestions to make Halflings or Gnomes more distinct and interesting? I'm sure 40+ pages must have yielded some suggestions?

(And not just the "cannibal nomad" halflings of Dark Sun. Thanks)

There have been 4 or 5, "This is how I do them in my game." posts that have been pretty interesting, but I can't remember who or what, since I'm not planning on changing them for mine. Sorry

 

[Maxperson]

The whole point of "luck" in a fantasy setting is it overrides statistics.

-Sir Terry Pratchett​

“Scientists have calculated that the chances of something so patently absurd actually existing are millions to one. But magicians have calculated that million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten."

Pratchett for the win.

 

[Maxperson]

Not as written. It's completely unreasonable to redefine math like that on a thread where someone is defending plot armor by saying that the idea of halfling farmers using a wagon or cart for trade just doesn't happen because it's not explicitly spelled out

Wow! Multiple wrong statements there. First wrong statement. That I'm(and it is me you are referring to) am defending plot armor with this. It's not plot armor. Second wrong statement. That I said that it didn't happen because it's not spelled out. Two completely wrong statements in a single sentence. That's impressive. Going for three next time?