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

[Cadence]

It is almost like they are considered a sub-race of humans, like Aasimar and Tieflings, and that humans are treated different than other races.

I mean... that's what the various plane-touched races are. Take a race, add planar energy, boom. My only complaint about them really is that it is very hard to make them seem like actually part of the race with 5e's design, but lore wise? Lore wise they serve their purpose excellently.

Subraces of humans with intrinsically different properties not related to culture doesn't seem like a good track to go down...

 

[Chaosmancer]

Well, it's not a pantheon, but humans do have one racial deity in D&D: Zarus, from Races of Destiny (affiliate link).



Sounds legit!

Yeah, no thanks. And the fact that it is a single niche deity from a book, and clearly meant to be the bad guy and likely a false god or devil leading humanity astray? Poor fit for being an actual human diety.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And, to turn this around, why are you against rewriting them with stronger lore and a better place in the game world? What is wrong with improving halflings by say, making them the diplomats of the world who travel on river boats and caravans, faciliating trade and acting as the glue that stitches the civilized world together. And maybe giving their gods some actual lore and giving them an origin beyond "they were found".

I would love to see a thread that actually did that, rather than two groups of people just contradicting each other.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Subraces of humans with intrinsically different properties not related to culture doesn't seem like a good track to go down...

Maybe not, but that's kind of what they are. The game makes very little secret of the fact that the plane-touched races are simple additions to the normal races, and they are very much presented as being additions to humanity. It is likely why their lore is so lacking, because any genasi or aasimar you play came from a different race or culture, and so you just take the lore from that culture and apply it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yeah, no thanks. And the fact that it is a single niche deity from a book, and clearly meant to be the bad guy and likely a false god or devil leading humanity astray? Poor fit for being an actual human diety.

There are also various gods of cities or "civilization" in general that have mostly been viewed as human deities. There was a hilarious goofy one in 3E's Cityscape where the god was made out of bricks, like a D-level golem, but they're out there. A god of urbanization is a pretty good niche for a human pantheon.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I would love to see a thread that actually did that, rather than two groups of people just contradicting each other.

I've said I was perfectly fine with changes like that, multiple times. Yet, people can't seem to stand the concept that halflings might not be well-written already and can't agree that they might need to be changed. Instead they have to insist that myself and other irrationally hate them and just want to remove other people's fun.

 

[Alzrius]

There was a hilarious goofy one in 3E's Cityscape where the god was made out of bricks, like a D-level golem, but they're out there.

No, Urbanus was also from Races of Destiny.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I've said I was perfectly fine with changes like that, multiple times. Yet, people can't seem to stand the concept that halflings might not be well-written already and can't agree that they might need to be changed. Instead they have to insist that myself and other irrationally hate them and just want to remove other people's fun.

They can be changed and people constantly do so for their own settings. Just like with every other species. The Idea I oppose here is that halflings are somehow uniquely bad. They're not, all PHB race descriptions are super basic and any GM worth their salt will do some tweaking when world building. And, please, no need to write an essay (again) about how elves have this or that which makes them interesting to you while halflings aren't. Because all that is, as they say, just your opinion, man. Some people like stock halflings and don't like stock elves and vice versa. Neither opinion is in any way objectively correct, they're just subjective preferences.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Well, it's not a pantheon, but humans do have one racial deity in D&D: Zarus, from Races of Destiny (affiliate link).



Sounds legit!

That was basically the portfolio of the main deity in the setting I played in for a long time. We killed the bastard.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I've said I was perfectly fine with changes like that, multiple times. Yet, people can't seem to stand the concept that halflings might not be well-written already and can't agree that they might need to be changed. Instead they have to insist that myself and other irrationally hate them and just want to remove other people's fun.

Yes, I caught on to the fact that each side is aggrieved with each other over the last 56 pages.

I think everyone going away and writing up a few grafs on what they'd add to halflings, with specifics, not just generalities of "better stuff" would be more productive and lower the temperature.