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

[Paul Farquhar]

Top Right, the halfling village of Gullykin, from Baldur's Gate. Note walls and defensible cliff top location.

 

[tetrasodium]

Halflings haven't been magicless in any edition since OSR. Even with the racial restriction's of 1st edition halflings could be clerics.

We know that the phb shire halflings don't have a tradition of magic like other races for all of the reasons already given by others & explicitly by the glaring omission of these halflings

Spoiler: blue/green age

Spoiler: Not these either

Spoiler: or these

Spoiler: or any of these ones

Spoiler: and certainly not these magically inclined ones

Admitting the existence of those martially & magically enthusiastic halflings in the phb would have removed the shire exclusivity & given GMs something to point at before saying words along the lines of "closer to these buuut..."

 

[Minigiant]

If halflings are all Villages Hidden in the Leaves, then aren’t they gnomes?

What. Wait..

hmm...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The PHB lists halfling deities. Halflings have clerics, they have always had clerics. This is not a "magic tradition" because it is a religious tradition.

They just tend not to grow their own wizards. There is no halfling Hogwarts, if you meet a halfling wizard they probably where not taught by another halfling.

 

[Minigiant]

I don't think anyone said halflings can't use magic.

What is said is they lack a magic tradition. So the only halfling in the village would be clerics/priests and maybe a retired adventurer. Halfling caster leave home.

Unless they are ninja.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I don't think anyone said halflings can't use magic.

What is said is they lack a magic tradition. So the only halfling in the village would be clerics/priests and maybe a retired adventurer. Halfling caster leave home.

Unless they are ninja.

Which is true. But most villages of under 100, no matter what the main race was, wouldn't include a wizard school. Any prospective wizard would leave to go to Hogwarts/The Big City and therefore would not be present to defend the village.

When it comes to defending, the village cleric is probably at least as good as a wizard in any case.

 

[Minigiant]

Which is true. But most villages of under 100, no matter what the main race was, wouldn't include a wizard school. Any prospective wizard would leave to go to Hogwarts/The Big City and therefore would not be present to defend the village.

When it comes to defending, the village cleric is probably at least as good as a wizard in any case.

The difference is for races like elves and gnomes, their wizards mostly go back home. If you go to an Elven or gnomish village and there is a wizard, it wouldn't be usual.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The difference is for races like elves and gnomes, their wizards mostly go back home. If you go to an Elven or gnomish village and there is a wizard, it wouldn't be usual.

The elves and gnomes might go home, but I find it hard to imagine many human wizards returning to their home village after training to be a wizard in the Big City. And, since humans are the most numerous race, it is obvious those human villages are not destroyed, despite the lack of wizards.

Practically, Unless they are at least 5th level, I would rather have a decent bowman defending the village than some wizard.

 

[tetrasodium]

The PHB lists halfling deities. Halflings have clerics, they have always had clerics. This is not a "magic tradition" because it is a religious tradition.

They just tend not to grow their own wizards. There is no halfling Hogwarts, if you meet a halfling wizard they probably where not taught by another halfling.

People defendng the phb as not being setting specific love to point at

Spoiler: excerpt phb293-299

except when you require setting specific pantheons to support a core race with plot armor it gets in the way of worlds where these apply & forces the gm to fight the core book

Spoiler: when the gm wants these

-

 

[FrozenNorth]

We know that the phb shire halflings don't have a tradition of magic like other races for all of the reasons already given by others & explicitly by the glaring omission of

Spoiler: or any of these ones

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I don’t have the Eberron book, but the write-up of the “Halflings of the 5 Nations” is a much better write-up than the halflings in the PHB, despite being shorter.