D&D General My Problem(s) With Halflings, and How To Create Engaging/Interesting Fantasy Races

[Ruin Explorer]

Merlin was a cambion in some accounts and most did not have him with demonic features as far as I can recall (I think I recall one story of him having a tail, but I might be wrong). As for Planescape influences, they should, in my opinon, be moved back to a Planescape book (and Spelljammer material should be kept in a Spelljamne supplement)

That's an incredibly "Get off my lawn" attitude. A staggering one that actively wants D&D to be less popular and less successful, given Dragonborn and Tieflings alone are 15% of PCs.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Actually there's an idea. Let's give halflings exactly as much of a niche as dwarves.

They already yammer about food and home as much as dwarves do crafting and rock. Let's give them Swedish accents and sweet moustaches.

Boom! Dwarf-level racial niche, more of a niche than humans.

Truly vile. Also kind of somehow incredibly insulting to make something so British, Swedish.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Truly vile. Also kind of somehow incredibly insulting to make something so British, Swedish.

Elves already have British accents. Can't step on their niche. It's to important to allowing people to play them.

 

[Greg K]

Book contains Goliaths, Devas, shifter, Avengers, Barbarians, Bards, Druids, Invokers, and Sorcerers.

Honestly, looking back calling the gnome a low point might not be as much of an insult as I thought. PHB 2 kind of rocked all over the place.

For me the Avenger, Barbarian, Invoker, and Sorcerer were the low points of PHB2 (edit: and I really wanted to like the Invoker when I first hear of a robed priest being included)

 

[Mind of tempest]

Can we also move Dragonborn and Tieflings out of the main book and into a supplement that focuses on material influenced/inspired by Warcraft, Everquest, etc? Then, have WOTC print a supplement that focuses on Anime influences and inspiration. I'd buy the latter.

why they are popular and capture the current spirit well, hey maybe we could move every race out of the phb so we can put them in the relevant book?

Dragonborn went to top 5 because 'half dragon' is what everyone wanted and Dragonborn are as close as they'll give us, cruelly withholding tails and wings for no reason.

The past three editions made humans super 'the special' and nothing like H. sapiens sapiens as we know them. Not the NPCS, that entire species.

as opposed to what race of self-destructive dumb weak losers? humans naturally think we matter hence why we are used as the baseline can spect to everything race.

 

[Aldarc]

PHB2 is my nominee for single best 4e book, with the possible exception of Neverwinter.

Mine is Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale. The combination of setting book, GM hooks, and monster manual. It was the sort of book I want to see more of.

 

[Yaarel]

Actually there's an idea. Let's give halflings exactly as much of a niche as dwarves.

They already yammer about food and home as much as dwarves do crafting and rock. Let's give them Swedish accents and sweet moustaches.

Boom! Dwarf-level racial niche, more of a niche than humans.

I am not suggesting this, but systemwise, it would be easy to combine Dwarf-Halfling-Gnome into one lineage with ethnicities.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

To be fair, personally, I am less into the Dwarf too.

Yeah, me too. I never understood the appeal. Unlike halflings, they're not even cute!

I am familiar with the Norse Dvergar who is a rock spirit that personfies magic and curses, the German Twerg who is a short nightmare spirit, the French Oberon who is a short Faerie, and the Anglo-Saxon Dwarf who is a bad-fate spirit.

When I look at Tolkien making the Dwarf a grumpy short Human, it has less appeal. When D&D emulates Tolkien, it has even less appeal.

To you. And to me*. But I can assure you emulating Tolkien is a feature, not a bug to many people.

(*I love Tolkien, I'm bored with humdrum Tolkien pastiches though. Been there, done that.)

Nevertheless, the D&D Dwarf evolved as a concept informed by toughness and religiosity, and beer, with and isolationist but strong military tradition, and a rivalry with the Elf. Also, there is a Druid thing going on that links it moreso as a nature spirit, and now a Wizard thing going on that allows it moreso to identify with magic.

The Dwarf is still too Human for my taste, but seems popular enough, and has a meaningful contribution to the FR setting.

Seriously, what's this obsession with FR? To be incredibly charitable it is a mediocre generic fantasy setting whose defining feature is that it's a kitchen sink of fantasy tropes. Saying that some random trope has no place in FR is just silly. Halflings are a common fantasy trope, of course they belong to FR!

 

[Vaalingrade]

For me the Avenger, Barbarian, Invoker, and Sorcerer were the low points of PHB2 (edit: and I really wanted to like the Invoker when I first hear of a robed priest being included)

I cn get not liking Primal power in general I guess, but you didn't like 'paladin done right'?

 

[Greg K]

That's an incredibly "Get off my lawn" attitude. A staggering one that actively wants D&D to be less popular and less successful, given Dragonborn and Tieflings alone are 15% of PCs.

Hey, I prefer having Lizardman and Snake people, but I would not put them in a core PHB book either, but a S&S supplement. What I want is a basic set (or book) with the races and classes of the free 5e set on the website (if it has not been updated) and then modular theme books that can be used as add-ons or standalones.