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

[doctorbadwolf]

You know, I tend not to include halflings in my campaigns, but this thread has made think about how I would incorporate them into a setting without falling on hobbit tropes that don't make much sense outside Middle-Earth.

Looking at the stats, the main thing they have going for them is Luck. Mechanically this isn't so much drawing a good result but averting a bad one. So, what if halflings had a relationship to apotropaic magic in the way that gnomes do to illusion?

Every halfling barn has a prominent hex sign painted on it, halfling ladies wearing nazar earrings, and halfling gents sporting shiny coppers in their loafers. Some halflings take this warding magic to the next level and initiate into the School of Abjuration. These Abjurers may appear as simple trinket makers to outsiders, but it is their magics that make the halflings' bucolic lifestyle possible.

Could even take this far enough to say that they are the source of the Dunamancy spells from the Wildemount guide, especially the spells relating to luck/probabilities.

Unless they're halflings of course.

But I'm talking about bog-standard commoners and what options they will have available. Sure, if they have a spear or bow they'll use them. However, according to the MM commoners use clubs.

The MM is explicitly not exhaustive. It gives some examples, and that's it.

You mean am I still referring to the text in the book that explicitly says this? Yes, yes I am.

But it doesn't say that. At all. It speaks to how they train as kids in a variety of tactics handed down as religious/community games. (folk religion tends to be much less somber than going to church, btw, in case anyone thinks that religious games is an odd concept. It isn't.) That section says nothing about whether or not grown halflings use actual weaponry, and indeed we know from the art in the books that halflings know how to use real weapons.

And we know from the PHB, ya know the actual core book?, that Halflings defend their homes fiercely when needed, and that they aren't all farmers, and many of them are instead nomadic, living in wagons or riverboats.

Funny how you guys keep attacking the same strawman position that I never made.

What strawman? I literally replied directly to your explicit statements.

But I'm just using the rules from the MM that says commoners by default use clubs.

That isn't a rule, it's an example creature.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Because they are small.

I could get Giants being carefree because the number of humanoids who can really scare them could be counted with Thier toes.

But a 3ft guy? A 3ft guys has to think about these stuff. And halflings in 3e and 4e kind of do. Not be in constant fear but be mindful.

They're lucky and brave. They don't worry about it, they just live their lives, and train with folksy tools and tactics to repel threats when they can't be avoided.

And what part of "avoid notice, and avoid offense if that fails, then defend the home fiercely if all else fails" implies not being mindful, to you?

 

[Vaalingrade]

As a player, NPC gnome villages and bard troupes are not as common as groups of halflings. And many of my DMs didn't know what to do with them.

That sounds like a 'them' problem. They seem to be perfectly fine not putting in gnomes or bards if they don't want them. So why are they forcing themselves to use the halflings they don't understand?

Because they are small.

I could get Giants being carefree because the number of humanoids who can really scare them could be counted with Thier toes.

But a 3ft guy? A 3ft guys has to think about these stuff. And halflings in 3e and 4e kind of do. Not be in constant fear but be mindful.

Well...
1) Giants are naughty words. There's no particular reason for them to be other than to justify murdering them, but they aren't carefree because they are all awful.

2) Halflings are not naughty words. There's no overt reason to racism them to death and they're good neighbors. Unless you yourself are an naughty word, there's no reason to attack them.

3) In a land of militant jaggoffs yearning to find people to kill and loot, the Giants are more visible targets, which would take the attention off the 3ft dudes who don't even care about keeping good loots. The 'good' villainous races are off slaughtering the 'evil' ones, the evil ones are attacking and sacking the 'good' ones for the loot they stole from the first guys, and it's not worth the effort to divert resources into finding and killing halflings whose defeat would fill the coffers with potpies and blackberry buckles.

4) There is an actual human reaction to child-like things that reduces aggression and makes it harder to commit violence toward them. If other humanoids are anything like humans, there may be an innate taboo against killing them which only gets broken by the desperate and the stupid.

5) If they really are living in a hellish death world, it might not be being carefree as much as Darkness Induced Apathy where so much crap is wrong that they just don't give the basic elements of a damn anymore about danger.

 

[Oofta]

Could even take this far enough to say that they are the source of the Dunamancy spells from the Wildemount guide, especially the spells relating to luck/probabilities.

The MM is explicitly not exhaustive. It gives some examples, and that's it.

But it doesn't say that. At all. It speaks to how they train as kids in a variety of tactics handed down as religious/community games. (folk religion tends to be much less somber than going to church, btw, in case anyone thinks that religious games is an odd concept. It isn't.) That section says nothing about whether or not grown halflings use actual weaponry, and indeed we know from the art in the books that halflings know how to use real weapons.

And we know from the PHB, ya know the actual core book?, that Halflings defend their homes fiercely when needed, and that they aren't all farmers, and many of them are instead nomadic, living in wagons or riverboats.

What strawman? I literally replied directly to your explicit statements.

That isn't a rule, it's an example creature.

If commoners use weapons other than clubs when they are available, then halflings will use weapons other than sticks and stones when they're available.

In many areas most commoners will not have any implement not directly related to farming, none of which will be much more effective than a generic club (or "stick").

If they are in an area where hunting is allowed and available some may have shortbows regardless of race. If they have other implements of war because the area is dangerous then race again should not matter.

 

[Maxperson]

That isn't a rule, it's an example creature.

And I already showed him this actual rule which he is conveniently ignoring.

"Most people can use simple weapons with proficiency. These weapons include clubs, maces, and other weapons often found in the hands of commoners."

 

[doctorbadwolf]

5) If they really are living in a hellish death world, it might not be being carefree as much as Darkness Induced Apathy where so much crap is wrong that they just don't give the basic elements of a damn anymore about danger.

There is a decently fun image of a carefree village of small folk who, when threatened directly, disappear into tunnels and such that only small folk can fit in, popping out like gophers to hamstring bandits or whatever and then slitting their throats when they're down, and just turn the whole town into a prolonged scene from a horror movie, butcher the bodies and throw them in the mulch, and go back to singing and dancing and smoking pot once the cleaning up is done, and no one ever hears from the bandits or whatever ever again.

 

[Oofta]

And I already showed him this actual rule which he is conveniently ignoring.

"Most people can use simple weapons with proficiency. These weapons include clubs, maces, and other weapons often found in the hands of commoners."

Just to be clear: I'm not saying that commoners won't use other weapons if available. They simply don't do more damage than clubs unless you have an implement specifically designed to be a weapon (i.e. mace, hand axe).

If you think commoners have weapons lying around that can't be used for any purpose other than offense, that's fine. Then halflings will also have access to such weapons. I just don't think that's an assumption.

 

[Vaalingrade]

There is a decently fun image of a carefree village of small folk who, when threatened directly, disappear into tunnels and such that only small folk can fit in, popping out like gophers to hamstring bandits or whatever and then slitting their throats when they're down, and just turn the whole town into a prolonged scene from a horror movie, butcher the bodies and throw them in the mulch, and go back to singing and dancing and smoking pot once the cleaning up is done, and no one ever hears from the bandits or whatever ever again.

I've done that, only with conjured fog, wolves and kusari-gama.

It was a fun scene: bandits on horseback, charge the halfling wagons only to be mired in fog up to their horses' flanks. Then men start getting pulled off their mounts into the mists and horses start screaming as their legs get taken out from them. When it's over, the children and the old, who were working as spotters divvy up the bandit gear in a 'keep what you kill' system. The bandits are left where they fell, the live horses are set to be sold, the dead horses are delicious.

The wagon moves on. The bandit survivors return to camp with yet another tale about how the Lord of Fortune turned the woods against them the second they attack halflings.

 

[Maxperson]

Just to be clear: I'm not saying that commoners won't use other weapons if available. They simply don't do more damage than clubs unless you have an implement specifically designed to be a weapon (i.e. mace, hand axe).

If you think commoners have weapons lying around that can't be used for any purpose other than offense, that's fine. Then halflings will also have access to such weapons. I just don't think that's an assumption.

Sure, which is why I named Spear, Axe, Short Bow and Dagger specifically. All of those would be weapons Halflings would have lying around due to their utility uses.

 

[Oofta]

Sure, which is why I named Spear, Axe, Short Bow and Dagger specifically. All of those would be weapons Halflings would have lying around due to their utility uses.

Why would they have spears and short bows? I mean, yes, if they hunt I agree. Even then, I guess I think of spears for hunting to be pretty specialized for particularly dangerous animals such as bear or boars.

Daggers ... maybe. I guess I wouldn't qualify most utility knives as a dagger, but that doesn't really matter much.

In my campaign world they use slings both for hunting and defense.