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

[Crimson Longinus]

I know my preferences aren't universal. I fully understand that.

You don't seem to.

But, isn't it a bit of a sign that maybe one of the core four, most important races in the game is lacking, if we all just... forgot they existed? I don't even know if the DM meant to take them out.

It tells that no one in your group particularly cared for them. That's not unusual. I don't know many people who care about dwarves.

 

[Mind of tempest]

You don't seem to.


It tells that no one in your group particularly cared for them. That's not unusual. I don't know many people who care about dwarves.

okay you know people who like halflings, right? do they ever note how halflings have no real connections to big stuff like history and cosmology do they ever complain about their lack of connection?

 

[Yaarel]

Brainstorming what a Halfling ambition might look like ...

• Luck, serendipity, thus actively undermining longterm detailed plans?
• Lawful Good Rogue, if lawful by revering family, but oblivious to detailed legislation, a cheerful criminal mafia?
• House sprite, thus obsessed with property boundaries and protective of private property?
• House sprite, wants a home to include others, wants to help do roomates chores?
• River nomad, house sprite, boat counts as house?

 

[Crimson Longinus]

okay you know people who like halflings, right? do they ever note how halflings have no real connections to big stuff like history and cosmology do they ever complain about their lack of connection?

They don't. Halflings are small folk, they don't need epic cosmological histories. And in my settings most species don't have such either. Sure, there is history and mythology like in real world and different cultures have their own stories, but ultimately it rarely matters how dwarves were made and it matters even less whether the dwarven beliefs of their origins are true. Now of course in any world I make I try to give each species a well defined thematic and ecological place, but that varies from a setting to setting.

Also one thing a lot of people have noted as a negative is the halflings living among humans in many settings. That actually is one cool element of them to me. There are no halfling lands, there are halfling communities among other species. And the idea of half the human sized creatures just living along humans is funny to me (in a good way) Halflings living on the human attics, more affluent ones just dividing human house's floors into two smaller ones. Humans and halflings having sort of symbiotic relation ship is pretty unique and it is different than what most other species do. I guess goblinoids living in mixed group of bugbears, hobgoblins and goblins come to closest, but it tends not resonate so well as we're not so familiar with hobgobling lives than we're with human lives. Often I like to add ogres in this human/halfling mix to get a third group in the symbiosis.

My current setting has no normal halflings as in it the halflings and elves are combined into one small kendery-elfin species called the eldri or elflings. But I was thinking another setting recently which would have higher tech level. In it the halflings would have this symbiotic relationship with humans (or perhaps even parasitic in a sense, if you ask the humans.) The halflings live among humans as overlooked underclass, as the humans generally have the same amount of respect and understanding for them than many posters in this thread. So they just live on the fringes of the society, being scrap collectors, low-level workers, swindlers and dealers, gangers living in severs etc. Humans generally don't pay much attention to them, and they basically just run their own small communes in the shadows of the human cities and villages. This also gives them freedom to engage in all sort of underhanded and shady stuff without being noticed.

 

[Vaalingrade]

okay you know people who like halflings, right? do they ever note how halflings have no real connections to big stuff like history and cosmology do they ever complain about their lack of connection?

I mean I've been here the whole time saying I didn't feel it mattered all that much if the race had those as long as my characters did. I don't care if the elves attended the Cocktail Party of King Twitwit fifteen thousand years ago in the age of things not mattering except to the designer, it isn't what would make an elf character interesting.

That's why I kind of laugh at attempts to retcon teiflings into settings-I don't care because teiflings are awesome.

 

[Chaosmancer]

You don't seem to.

No, everyone just keeps assuming I think my preferences are universal, therefore they can get angry with me and deride how I make my points instead of responding to my points.

It tells that no one in your group particularly cared for them. That's not unusual. I don't know many people who care about dwarves.

You are assuming. You have no idea about my group make up, or what they like. You just assume because none of us noticed a lack of halflings that none of us care about them.

But let's take that a step further. Why would every single person in a DnD group not care about halflings? You say you don't know many people who care about dwarves, but I was able to show quite a bit of why dwarves are still used and how there are a variety of dials that can be turned in dwarf depictions to make them interesting.

And the only thing people seem to be able to do for halflings is say that they are really good at being innocent farm boys. That has really been the majority of people's arguments, showcasing that there is value in the innocent farmboy, or the friendly neighbor, as a player character. I spent an entire paragraph briefly going over how the very fact that dwarves live in mountains opens many roads for story hooks in the race, but no one has done the same for halflings living with humans as non-magical short humans.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

No, everyone just keeps assuming I think my preferences are universal, therefore they can get angry with me and deride how I make my points instead of responding to my points.

Literally right after this you continue with your anecdotal evidence about your group. It doesn't matter. You're able to think stuff that is interesting (to you) about dwarves, other people can do the same with the halflings.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I should have waited and responded to you once but I didn't think I'd respond to your response here

They don't. Halflings are small folk, they don't need epic cosmological histories.

Stop. Who said anything about epic? They don't need an epic cosmological history. They need ANY cosmological history. My first post was me literally realizing I couldn't remember the origins of halflings, and then when I looked... they don't have one. I guess they were found one day by the goddess... and that's it. They already existed and "were timid wanderers, scraping out a meager existence."

That's it. The only other race of people I can think of from the PHB that just... appears like this are the Humans. Which, again, special circumstance. Maybe the dragonborn, but they have a few different origin myths depending on the setting. And with a bit of research I can find the origins of most major races in DnD, so the lack of halfling lore is glaring.

And in my settings most species don't have such either. Sure, there is history and mythology like in real world and different cultures have their own stories, but ultimately it rarely matters how dwarves were made and it matters even less whether the dwarven beliefs of their origins are true. Now of course in any world I make I try to give each species a well defined thematic and ecological place, but that varies from a setting to setting.

It gives a sense of realism. Every person asks eventually, "where do we come from" it is one of the biggest questions of existence. Things have an origin point, and when the gods who created things are directly there to tell people they made them... it is odd to not have at least a story about where they came from. Especially for a race who supposedly enjoys stories so much.

Also one thing a lot of people have noted as a negative is the halflings living among humans in many settings. That actually is one cool element of them to me. There are no halfling lands, there are halfling communities among other species. And the idea of half the human sized creatures just living along humans is funny to me (in a good way) Halflings living on the human attics, more affluent ones just dividing human house's floors into two smaller ones. Humans and halflings having sort of symbiotic relation ship is pretty unique and it is different than what most other species do. I guess goblinoids living in mixed group of bugbears, hobgoblins and goblins come to closest, but it tends not resonate so well as we're not so familiar with hobgobling lives than we're with human lives. Often I like to add ogres in this human/halfling mix to get a third group in the symbiosis.

I think it would be a cooler symbiotic relationship if halflings were so human. If they were decidely unusual and inhuman, then it would be a far cooler relationship. As it is... it is just humans living with humans, but some of the humans have special needs.

My current setting has no normal halflings as in it the halflings and elves are combined into one small kendery-elfin species called the eldri or elflings. But I was thinking another setting recently which would have higher tech level. In it the halflings would have this symbiotic relationship with humans (or perhaps even parasitic in a sense, if you ask the humans.) The halflings live among humans as overlooked underclass, as the humans generally have the same amount of respect and understanding for them than many posters in this thread. So they just live on the fringes of the society, being scrap collectors, low-level workers, swindlers and dealers, gangers living in severs etc. Humans generally don't pay much attention to them, and they basically just run their own small communes in the shadows of the human cities and villages. This also gives them freedom to engage in all sort of underhanded and shady stuff without being noticed.

I'll note, you have taken Halflings and made them small elves or basically gnomes. And then you took another setting and basically made goblins and made them less traditionally ugly and called them halflings.

Like... seriously. In that high tech setting you are literally describing a VERY traditional sci-fantasy trope of goblins.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Literally right after this you continue with your anecdotal evidence about your group. It doesn't matter. You're able to think stuff that is interesting (to you) about dwarves, other people can do the same with the halflings.

So... why didn't you? It was kind of an invitation for you to do something.

Instead you just keep saying that clearly I think my preferences are universal (when I've said I don't) and that if I just stopped thinking about myself I'd realize other people like other things and they can be just as interesting.

I know other people can like other things. I've said that a few times. But you seem to not be hearing me.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Stop. Who said anything about epic? They don't need an epic cosmological history. They need ANY cosmological history. My first post was me literally realizing I couldn't remember the origins of halflings, and then when I looked... they don't have one. I guess they were found one day by the goddess... and that's it. They already existed and "were timid wanderers, scraping out a meager existence."

That's it. The only other race of people I can think of from the PHB that just... appears like this are the Humans. Which, again, special circumstance. Maybe the dragonborn, but they have a few different origin myths depending on the setting. And with a bit of research I can find the origins of most major races in DnD, so the lack of halfling lore is glaring.

It gives a sense of realism. Every person asks eventually, "where do we come from" it is one of the biggest questions of existence. Things have an origin point, and when the gods who created things are directly there to tell people they made them... it is odd to not have at least a story about where they came from. Especially for a race who supposedly enjoys stories so much.

Certainly this is completely setting dependent. Presumably in FR halflings have some halfling deity (Yolonda, something like that, I don't care about FR) that made them, just like the every other race. And seriously, it super doesn't matter. What the people believe about their origins might matter a bit, but that is just one tiny bit of culture and religion.

I think it would be a cooler symbiotic relationship if halflings were so human. If they were decidely unusual and inhuman, then it would be a far cooler relationship. As it is... it is just humans living with humans, but some of the humans have special needs.

You may feel that way. Is it also a problem to you that goblins and hobgoblins are similar to each other? Halflings in many settings are 'related' to humans, they're in Middle-Earth for example. This is really not a problem, it explains why these two species tend to get along so well.

I'll note, you have taken Halflings and made them small elves or basically gnomes. And then you took another setting and basically made goblins and made them less traditionally ugly and called them halflings.

Like... seriously. In that high tech setting you are literally describing a VERY traditional sci-fantasy trope of goblins.

There are crazy number of races and subraces in D&D, every trope is done several times there are a huge amount of overlap. Drow, tieflings, shadar-kai and probably some others I forget can all do the 'mistrusted outcast of magical race' thing. There are a ton of 'big brute' races, there are five different sort of reptile people, two differnt types of cat people plus semi-cat shifters, there are like three different sorts of playable merpeople, not counting monster races such as kuo-toa and sahuagin. Any concept you can come up will have some overlap with concept of some other race. That's why I'd never put all of them in one setting. Now if you like goblins more in the niche I described, cool, go for it. I don't, goblins in this setting would be mischievous magical beings dwelling in dark places.

The issue I have with basically all the halfling complaints in this thread is that the same applies to any non-human race in the game but people just laser-focus on halflings because they personally don't care for them.