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

[Cadence]

Pulling this out... yeah, it is really weird that the writers decided to state "Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Halflings are the most common races in the game". They didn't need to do that.

But they did. They put forth the idea that this matters. Why does it matter? Why did they feel that need?

It would make sense if there are some settings they don't want to have all the races in. Or if in some settings the others are going to be portrayed as rare. If everything is kitchen sink then I have no idea.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I'm not getting that child like innocence from Mordenkainens. I'm getting it from the halfling defenders who are saying that we all hate races that are about joy and happiness and innocence because we don't like halflings.

So you’re casting Teleport to get from what anyone is actually saying, to “wide eyed innocent cinnamon rolls”. Okay.

 

[Yaarel]

Making them the farmers who supply the dwarves would both address perceived issues of halfling military fitness (the dwarves will take care of that) and also provides an early warning system for the dwarves (a runner from the halflings who live in the foothills of the dwarves' mountain comes and tells them that goblin raiders are burning their crops and heading toward the dwarves).

This is great.

I play the Halfling as mercantile river nomads. Sometimes they settle down among sedentary populations. In some Human cities, the Halflings integrate well, sometimes mixing in, sometimes forming neighborhoods.

Your description is great for what it looks like, when Halflings settle down among Dwarves.

 

[Chaosmancer]

In our world, this applies to, say, Switzerland. That nation's impact hasn't been military, it's been economic, and even then, staying the hell out of everyone else's drama and living their lives is kind of their thing.

I used Switzerland as a model for a gnomish nation in my campaign, but it applies equally well to halflings. You don't have to be a winged elf or something even more exotic to come from a difficult to reach place that most people have never visited or perhaps even have heard of.

See... I disagree.

Swiss Mercenaries were one of the greatest military forces in the area for a while. The reason they could start declaring neutrality is because they provided highly trained soldiers to fight other peoples wars. No one wanted to go and start a war with the people helping them win their other wars.

This made them incredibly rich too. Which translates into their economic power in the current day. Economic power which, as you said, has had a big impact on the world.

Halflings have no military or economic impact in the Forgotten Realms. The last time this point of discussion came up, I actually had to argue with someone about whether or not halflings even engaged with trade with neighboring communities.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I don't think saying "in this world, halflings control the rivers" or "in this world, halflings are the best farmers, to the point that many other races rely on them to grow their food" is changing them beyond recognition. And while there aren't any canonical settings that have halflings like that, those are easy ways to make halflings important in a world without changing their lore that much.

That bolded part? That is my entire argument. Right there. You agreed with me. There is no canonical setting that has those details.

Would those details work? YES. I said as much to Doctorbadwolf pages ago when they asked if I'd accept halflings just getting more lore put on them or if I was irrationally hating them no matter what was done.

And yet, getting people to just admit that the canonical settings are lacking is like ripping teeth out of an angry elephant. For whatever reason, that simple fact seems to be hiding how terrible I am and all these other personal attacks that people keep making time and time and time again.

 

[Yaarel]

Pulling this out... yeah, it is really weird that the writers decided to state "Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Halflings are the most common races in the game". They didn't need to do that.

But they did. They put forth the idea that this matters. Why does it matter? Why did they feel that need?

Today, the designers probably wouldnt need to feature the Halfling. But maybe back then they did? There was strong resistance to the less-human lineages, such as Tiefling and Dragonborn. By featuring the Tolkien Foursome as common, and while demoting the less-human lineages to less common, it helped sweeten the bitter pill enough for old-schoolers to swallow.

Today, the less human lineages are reasonably popular in their own right. To some degree, all of the lineages are comparable.

Now the design concern is mainly thinking about which lineages seem most useful to express the tropes of a particular setting.

 

[Chaosmancer]

So you’re casting Teleport to get from what anyone is actually saying, to “wide eyed innocent cinnamon rolls”. Okay.

Go back and reread the post I was quoting. Sure, they never directly used the exact words in the exact order, but the intent was crystal clear in their derision of people who are arguing against halflings.

I even quoted and bolded them TWICE, just to prove that I wasn't making things up. I can't put neon signs on posts. And I don't think going from someone literally posting " the affront is that they are the only race that believes in peace, tranquility, joy, happiness." to them being wide eyed and innocent is me "casting teleport."

But please. Please argue that I am fully overstepping in taking someone saying that halflings are the only race in Dungeons and Dragons to believe in peace, tranquility, joy and happiness to mean that people see them as being wide-eyed innocents. I'd love to know how I was supposed to interpret that text to match your expectations, instead of what was literally written.

 

[Krachek]

This thread is taking trollish proportion. Not surprising, troll don’t even agree on how to properly cook a dwarf, so cooking a halfling is even more debatable!

 

[Cadence]

Hm..here's a thread from a few.montha ago on Halflings and Gnomes. Some repeats from the last 40+ pages, but a few things that at least feel new after the past few dozen. D&D General - why do we have halflings and gnomes?

It made it to 104 pages and I'm only up to number 2 though. Still, gives this thread something to strive for in length!

 

[Oofta]

That bolded part? That is my entire argument. Right there. You agreed with me. There is no canonical setting that has those details.

Would those details work? YES. I said as much to Doctorbadwolf pages ago when they asked if I'd accept halflings just getting more lore put on them or if I was irrationally hating them no matter what was done.

And yet, getting people to just admit that the canonical settings are lacking is like ripping teeth out of an angry elephant. For whatever reason, that simple fact seems to be hiding how terrible I am and all these other personal attacks that people keep making time and time and time again.

Or maybe, just maybe, like the last time this came up a lot of people like halflings the way they are.

The core races all represent at their base an aspect of humanity. Elves are back to nature types, dwarves are no-no sense hard workers. Halflings? Happy pastoral types, the literal "little people" that are happy being farmers or shopkeepers. Sometimes they go on walkabout before settling down.

I enjoy playing that happy-go-lucky PC. A lot of people do. Just because that's not what you want doesn't mean it's a problem for the majority of people.