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

[doctorbadwolf]

D&D. D&D usually has goblins and kobolds scrounging for scraps to make improvised items.






So if goblins lived near humans, goblins would live in happy rustic villages too?

Goblins aren’t described as wanting that sort of life. But if they lived in “civilization” rather than the wild, some probably would.

I’d see them more wanting city life or to be scouts and the like, because they seem more like they crave excitement and risk/reward scenarios, to me, but that’s just my general take on them. Eberron sees them pretty differently, craving hierarchy and a known place in society.

 

[Umbran]

Halflings have neighbors that trade extensively.

Sure. But then the halflings need to trade with their neighbors to get those goods, don't they?

 

[Maxperson]

I don't see why in a fantasy world that they would have to trade for those spices, or at least why they wouldn't have their own local spices to make good food. There's no need for Halflings to engage in lots of trade.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Or the huge number of adventurers they canonically produce return with cuttings and bushel baskets for the halflings to grow and tinker with ala the Dutch.

 

[Oofta]

All you need is one trader from generations ago that provided a wide variety seeds and cuttings for various herbs and spices to have a huge variety depending on local climate.

Of course different regions and villages are going to have different specialties depending on what they can grow.

Now the real question is why all these unique and separate villages all speak common. In much of the world you can hardly throw a stone without hitting someone who speaks a different language.

 

[Gammadoodler]

All you need is one trader from generations ago that provided a wide variety seeds and cuttings for various herbs and spices to have a huge variety depending on local climate.

Of course different regions and villages are going to have different specialties depending on what they can grow.

Now the real question is why all these unique and separate villages all speak common. In much of the world you can hardly throw a stone without hitting someone who speaks a different language.

That same trader brought this language with the cuttings?..best I got.

 

[Vaalingrade]

There was no Tower of Babel.

Or rather, the PCS haven't gone through that module yet to advance the metaplot.

 

[Minigiant]

The thing I find interesting is that there's broad agreement that gnomes can hide their communities via magic, but halflings can't do it via skill. Being "naturally stealthy" is a feature some significant portion of their community just..is.

Well onlyone subrace gets it. And only lets the halfling hide behind medium stuff, not hide their homes and villages.


You could make the point that WOTC (or TSR before it) should have put this in the base section of the race. Or stressed the stealthiness of halflings. That WOTC and TSR messed up.

But then you'd get to my point.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Because after a day or so, the whole city marches out the mountain, armed, armored, and ready to die a glorious death.

It's right there in the book of "Stupid things Dwarfs do".

They do? I’ve never read that about Dwarves.

 

[Gammadoodler]

Well onlyone subrace gets it. And only lets the halfling hide behind medium stuff, not hide their homes and villages.


You could make the point that WOTC (or TSR before it) should have put this in the base section of the race. Or stressed the stealthiness of halflings. That WOTC and TSR messed up.

But then you'd get to my point.

Sure, but they all get the bump to dex. And only one gnome subrace gets illusion magic, and only minor illusion, which lasts 1 minute at a time and only covers a 5ft cube, not their whole home or village. You see how this comparison is exactly equivalent?