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

[Minigiant]

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.

Humans have nobles and knights and rangers and men at arms protecting their lands.

 

[Gammadoodler]

The write-ups of gnomes specifically reference their use of illusion magic to hide and protect their homes, and their working with good-aligned fey to the same end.

The write-ups of dwarves specifically calls out their martial traditions and their piety.

The write-up of elves specifically calls out their martial tradition with sword and bow, and their magic tradition.

The halfling tradition...says that they are farmers that love good cheer, good food and fine comforts.

And also, what the write-up says is that halflings “avoid notice”. Fair enough, they avoid trouble in the first place, they are good at scurrying out of the way if it looks like a fight will start, they are even naturally stealthy and good at concealing themselves behind larger creatures.

Concluding that they are good at hiding their entire community IS a pretty big extrapolation from what is described, especially since gnomes who DO hide their entire community are specifically described as doing so.

So why is it that gnomes have such a better write-up than halflings?

I won't disagree that the gnomes have the better write-up, whatever the reason.

That said, you list that they are good at being out of the way, naturally stealthy, and good at hiding. Things, by the way, which gnomes are noted to be good at, hell things which some of them are nigh on actively bad at (looking at you tinkers)

The only difference in the comparison is that the halfling write-up doesn't include the word "magic". Seriously, add the word "magically" into any of the descriptions in that list, and see what that does to your willingness to extrapolate.

 

[FrozenNorth]

The only difference in the comparison is that the halfling write-up doesn't include the word "magic". Seriously, add the word "magically" into any of the descriptions in that list, and see what that does to your willingness to extrapolate.

Hey, if we are changing their write-up (which I entirely support BTW), we could do even better than inserting the word “magically”, in a couple of places.

Since halfling bards make sense, why not several references to a strong musical or oral tradition?

 

[Gammadoodler]

Hey, if we are changing their write-up (which I entirely support BTW), we could do even better than inserting the word “magically”, in a couple of places.

Since halfling bards make sense, why not several references to a strong musical or oral tradition?

My point was that all that addition does is give you explicit license to disengage from logic.. with no additional reasoning or explanation provided.

All those wheel marks and smoke plumes that would be "dead giveaways" for our naturally stealthy types who are good at hiding and being out of the way, can simply be ignored for our magic folks who aren't naturally stealthy and good at being out of the way.

It's silly.

 

[Oofta]

My point was that all that addition does is give you explicit license to disengage from logic.. with no additional reasoning or explanation provided.

All those wheel marks and smoke plumes that would be "dead giveaways" for our naturally stealthy types who are good at hiding and being out of the way, can simply be ignored for our magic folks who aren't naturally stealthy and good at being out of the way.

It's silly.

Right, just remember that all gnomes can use magic to hide themselves because forest gnomes have a 5 ft square illusion that lasts for a whole minute.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Humans have nobles and knights and rangers and men at arms protecting their lands.

I.e the live in safe areas - just like the halflings do. Since there are no halfling nations, the vast majority of halfling villages are located within the boarders of human nations, where, with their skill in agriculture, music and moonshining they are highly valued subjects.

And the original Shire was, explicitly, protected by rangers.

 

[Minigiant]

That said, you list that they are good at being out of the way, naturally stealthy, and good at hiding. Things, by the way, which gnomes are noted to be good at, hell things which some of them are nigh on actively bad at (looking at you tinkers)

The only difference in the comparison is that the halfling write-up doesn't include the word "magic". Seriously, add the word "magically" into any of the descriptions in that list, and see what that does to your willingness to extrapolate

Well D&D has a rich history of having the mundane jump through hoops to get accepted but the magical is seen instantly as reasonable with only power level being an issue.

 

[tetrasodium]

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.

It's only 33$ on amazon right now, even with parts being stripped down & reprinted in tashas it has a lot of great stuff in it & ton of races

Spoiler: ToC

Spoiler: yet another halfling

 

[Don Durito]

The point of the PHB descriptions isn't to create a good or consistent setting but to make you go "Yep, this is D&D, safe and familiar and not to out of line with what I'd expect". This was obvious in 2014.

 

[tetrasodium]

The point of the PHB descriptions isn't to create a good or consistent setting but to make you go "Yep, this is D&D, safe and familiar and not to out of line with what I'd expect". This was obvious in 2014.

If it was universally "good" we wouldn't be on page 67 right now discussing how a supposedly setting neutral core book left out halflings(any everything else) from settings that differ from FR/Greyhawk after you brought up the need for e GM to apply setting specific deities to the ones in that setting neutral core rulebook for the shire halfling described to work. Settings like eberron, darksun, & others existed well before 2014 & the omission was still a frustrating obvious omission to anyone who preferred those settings.