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

[Crimson Longinus]

Halflings don't really have that. They're short people that are lucky, for some reason, and brave, for another unexplained reason (even though their race is the embodiment of "hide from our enemies, and we'll be okay". If they don't have much core identity in the base of the game other than "short people with a smattering of traits to make them worth taking and mechanically different from humans", that makes it even harder to subvert the race's tropes.

Halflings are optimists. They are friendly, lucky and have no fear. Grumpy and pessimistic halfling would be the subversion. But I agree that halflings in D&D are not as clearly defined as they could be, (and this is the third time I say this) it is because they can't decide whether they're kender or hobbits.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Sure, and I can't really blame anyone. Like in my current setting I combined elves and halflings into one species of small elf-like creatures who have horns and tails, and that definitely will come across as 'trying too hard' to some.

Spoiler

But then again I feel it a bit weird if such cosmetic things are needed for the species to be worth including. I don't think that having horns or scales in itself makes anything particularly interesting.

And ultimately D&D is D&D. I can make such drastic redesigns for my own setting, but a big part of D&D's mass market appeal is having recognisable tropes. Halflings are a well known fantasy trope, so people expect to have them in D&D, it's simple as that.

I do not see how you're trying to hard? what do people think is not trying too hard a grey featureless humanoid with a level in fighter called steve?

the appearance can be used to further distance them from humanity, use the loxidon truck mechanics for a tail and they can just do something a human will never do and thus can go in ways we can't.

First, punctuation is your friend.

So, take what those small humble folk do that you like and apply it to halflings. You don't need a brand new race for that.

Also, I dare say that the "copy-paste" problem you have with halflings applies mostly to people taking the Forgotten Realms/Greyhawk halflings and making them universal. But that's not the case outside of those systems. Eberron has dino-riding halflings, hospitality-industry halflings, and mafia halflings. Dark Sun has cannibal raider halflings (Edit: and psionics-using biogengineering halflings). Birthright has those shadow-dwelling halflings. Ravenloft has (at least in earlier editions) halfling vampires that drain the physical and mental stamina out of their victims and remove their will to live. Dragonlance has kender.

All that halflings need is a worldbuilding DM who isn't so lazy as to look at their stats and say "huh, they're boring."

it really does not halflings are far too flimsy and just kinda dull plus they will always be seen as hobbits and nothing else, I like recognisable tropes but you got to break a bit more than they did to make something that is not just a legally safe knock off.

plus the dino riding makes literal anything cool it just works that way.
the more divergent ones tend to lose the basic slot they where made to fill hence why I do not put darksun ones in everything

 

[Yaarel]

But the little people? I absolutely would not blink at finding smallfolk pushed to the fringes in pre-Tolkien fantasy. Hobbits are very definitely a Tolkien thing, but the main difference with Tolkien's is that he made them settled.

Little people might be a thing. But nonmagical little people? Lessso.

 

[Mind of tempest]

The little people are universally magical until Tolkien. That's the big thing he changes. How exactly they're magical varies but it often involves building/fixing things and/or vanishing into thin air (hobbits can kind of do the latter, but it's non-magical).

Re: Anglo-Saxon, yeah Tolkien picked myths which were explicitly Anglo-Saxon in the more correct/historical sense. I always felt it was weird because to me King Arthur seems infinitely more "English" than Beowulf. But obvs. Tolkien knew much of the big stuff was French (and or distantly derived from Celtic myth, and he felt Celtic stuff wasn't "English" which was part of the popular ignorance of the time - and still goes on a bit), so felt it was insufficiently "English" by his definition. Man was a crank god bless 'im. You'd probably have to be to come up with LotR.

Yeah I can imagine. I had a hell of time getting hold of Tanith Lee even, let alone Dunsany.

king Arthur is technically welsh who are not Anglo Saxon to some of them, thus Tolkien had some justification, but English is a fairly mixed up culture to start with.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Little people might be a thing. But nonmagical little people? Lessso.

Yeah, but in old folk tales all non-human sapients are magical. Giants, magical, trolls, magical, dwarfs, definitely magical.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Yeah, but in old folk tales all non-human sapients are magical. Giants, magical, trolls, magical, dwarfs, definitely magical.

well yeah a human being the size of a redwood has to be magical to just move around or stand up, dwarves dark vision defies the laws of nature thus magic eyes.

In my view, Tashas solves the problematic of too many elves. The main thing is to have the correct ability improvements. After that, a few trait swaps go a long way. Just four or five different kinds of Elf to start off with as a basis to tweak is more than enough.

Also, enormous flavor actualizes by making sure certain spells known are available to the spellcasting classes. Spells that have elven flavors are great. And balancewise are no problem. Even a lineage minor trait or a background can grant spells known. For the Elf that personifies magic, the lineage members normally are spellcasters.

Helpfully, an Elf character doesnt need every Elf trait. If the community as a whole conveys the appropriate flavors, that is more than enough.



For the far-north, the sun feels gentle. But really, laser beams are close enough to flavor.

I was thinking to give them a bit more bite in conflicts elves are not weak in war and laser beams of death are never not cool.

 

[Vaalingrade]

No. What would be dumb if a three feet tall person could use a six feet long zweihänder or a ten feet long polearm without an issue.

Because D&D doesn't have any other illogical things in it. Or magic. Or the supernatural.

It's dumb for a halfing to wield a big weapon when the square-cube law is so much of a joke that it's part of Elminster's standup routine. Or for every other race of fighters can weild 10 foot polearms as their primary weapon. Or fire is an elemental substance rather than a chemical reaction. Or how being hit by a giant's club doesn't reduce you to a delicious red pulp.

Basically, the Small races get to be the only races who literally can't use an entire class of weapon for a pointless verisimilitude reason the honestly has no place in D&D.

 

[Yaarel]

well yeah a human being the size of a redwood has to be magical to just move around or stand up, dwarves dark vision defies the laws of nature thus magic eyes.

I was thinking to give them a bit more bite in conflicts elves are not weak in war and laser beams of death are never not cool.

Heh, I cant get the image out of my mind, of certain spaceship battles, where a beam is arcing across the visible universe splitting everything in its path.

Suddenly also, Superman laser eyes.

Dont mess with Elves!

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Because D&D doesn't have any other illogical things in it. Or magic. Or the supernatural.

It's dumb for a halfing to wield a big weapon when the square-cube law is so much of a joke that it's part of Elminster's standup routine. Or for every other race of fighters can weild 10 foot polearms as their primary weapon. Or fire is an elemental substance rather than a chemical reaction. Or how being hit by a giant's club doesn't reduce you to a delicious red pulp.

Basically, the Small races get to be the only races who literally can't use an entire class of weapon for a pointless verisimilitude reason the honestly has no place in D&D.

Hard disagree. There is nothing that kills my interest in fantasy faster than 'it's fantasy so nothing needs to make sense.' Also, you wouldn't play a halfling even if they could use polearms, so let those of us who actually like halflings have rules that at least somewhat try to represent their size.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Also, you wouldn't play a halfling even if they could use polearms, so let those of us who actually like halflings have rules that at least somewhat try to represent their size.

Wait. What?

I've been nothing but a fan of halflings this whole thread and the last one. I'm just a hard opponent of bad game design vis a vis screwing Small races for no good reason.