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

[Mind of tempest]

Yes, in the PHB. But there were tons of races in supplements - probably more than now, due to the Splatastic nature of the edition.

where half of those elves or just underdeveloped?

Now I'm tempted to try anyway.

Everyone is saying that halflings are pastoral, that they live in a bucolic bliss. Well, what if your goblins or kobolds are like that, but instead of getting the wonderful, temperate, rolling English-style countryside, they get the part of the Dustbowl part of the world, with droughts, locusts, tornadoes and that sort of stuff? That's a good way to combine the "brutal homes where the focus is on survival" with the "people who enjoy comfort and the status quo."

why does this work?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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

Dwarves in my campaign are Appalachian mountain men, which maps surprisingly well onto them. Highly recommended.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Kobolds? People like kobolds? They definitely are not an acceptable halfling replacement.

People love kobolds, but they are definitely not a halfling replacement, any more than goblins are.

 

[Mercurius]

Now I'm tempted to try anyway.

Everyone is saying that halflings are pastoral, that they live in a bucolic bliss. Well, what if your goblins or kobolds are like that, but instead of getting the wonderful, temperate, rolling English-style countryside, they get the part of the Dustbowl part of the world, with droughts, locusts, tornadoes and that sort of stuff? That's a good way to combine the "brutal homes where the focus is on survival" with the "people who enjoy comfort and the status quo."

Good idea. It reminds me of the orc "origin story" in my current setting. There was a magical apocalypse about a thousand years ago. Most races--or those that survived--hid in various "havens," both underground, in protected woods and valleys, etc. Orcs are the descendants of humans that were essentially "left out" of havens, for certain reasons, and were mutated by the magical storms, becoming more physically hardy and brutish due to the conditions.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

We decided that fireball was actually summon gnome and that meteor swarm was mass summon gnome.

brb, writing up Summon Gnome and Mass Summon Gnome spells, using Fireball and Meteor Swarm as templates.

 

[Faolyn]

what else happened?

It was mostly a running joke at that point. It was a Serious Game otherwise so we never really had actual gnomes.

(It should be noted that the DM in question was far more used to GURPS, which has/had gnomes as "basically dwarfs, but they like gems," thus making them absolutely pointless as a species.)

In a later game (one based as much on Exalted as it was D&D), with a different DM who had played in the first game, we at one point found an orbital gnome-making factory. There was a robotic assembly line, and at the very end, the pointy hat would be put on, at which point the gnome would vanish, to be sent to another world either as a person or as a fireball.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Yes, in the PHB. But there were tons of races in supplements - probably more than now, due to the Splatastic nature of the edition.

Yeah the fact that they had Level Adjustment allowed them to get away with a ton more stuff as playable races too. I mean it was totally unbalanced bollocks because some races were +1 LA and only arguably better than PHB races, and other ones were like +1 LA and broken OP (and this discontinuity got worse as the LA increased), but the concept allowed them to include tons and tons of races you just couldn't have in any other edition (or where things got severely wacky to allow it).

Dwarves in my campaign are Appalachian mountain men, which maps surprisingly well onto them. Highly recommended.

This is a good take on Dwarves.

People love kobolds, but they are definitely not a halfling replacement, any more than goblins are.

Not, like delete halflings from the edition replacement, but replace halflings in the PHB? Sure they are. Put halflings in the MM or whatever.

brb, writing up Summon Gnome and Mass Summon Gnome spells, using Fireball and Meteor Swarm as templates.

DO IT! These spells need to exist.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Everyone is saying that halflings are pastoral, that they live in a bucolic bliss. Well, what if your goblins or kobolds are like that, but instead of getting the wonderful, temperate, rolling English-style countryside, they get the part of the Dustbowl part of the world, with droughts, locusts, tornadoes and that sort of stuff? That's a good way to combine the "brutal homes where the focus is on survival" with the "people who enjoy comfort and the status quo."

I think if everyone just stopped stabbing them for a moment, goblins and kobolds would say they largely want to be left alone in their lairs, kobolds especially.

 

[Faolyn]

Kobolds? People like kobolds? They definitely are not an acceptable halfling replacement.

I love 'em. I used to draw these cute little kobolds as a kid (well, in my middle-teens). I decided they bred osquips like we breed dogs and cats. (I like osquips.)

While looking up info on kobolds the other day, I found a PC race from dndwiki: the cutebold. They looked quite a bit like my teenage self's kobolds.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Not, like delete halflings from the edition replacement, but replace halflings in the PHB? Sure they are. Put halflings in the MM or whatever.

No, they're not. The people who don't want to play halflings and don't want them in anyone's PHB, for the most part wouldn't play kobolds instead. And the people who do want to play halflings -- the people on this thread who keep being told they're wrong to think that way -- wouldn't just shrug and say "well, I guess I'll play a kobold instead."

This thread boils down to "well, don't include them in your game" vs. "no, they should be excised from your game, too," which is a super-weird discussion to be having.