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

[Micah Sweet]

Speaking of the 3E splatbooks, each of them added at least one new race to the proceedings. Dragonborn, with some changes, are now a core race. Goliaths are definitely second tier, but they've stuck around. Does anyone pine for the raptorians (a terrible name for the Winged Folk of 1E), spellscales or illumians?

I kinda liked Illumians.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think it would be in poor taste as I already do not think highly of humanity but making them descended from evil just seems both dull and somehow overdone not that I can place where I heard it.

Of course, not everyone would like it as a concept. I'm not suggesting a new addition to the 6e pantheon. Just an interesting idea for a campaign. If it's good enough for the vast majority of "evil" humanoids, why not humanity?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I actually think it would be an interesting idea to have Zarus be the human creator God, and that his teachings need to be ignored or actively fought against to be a good person. Kinda like Gruumsh and the orcs.

The main god in the world of Ptolus has a murky origin story, where his church replaced a seemingly almost identical church, with the same clergy for the most part, after "discovering" the previous god was actually a demon. The current god seems to be a good guy, but there's a whole lot of WTF about how and why Lothian replaced Castian and whether any of the evil demon god stuff was actually true. (Conservative Lothianites went around for a long time claiming that all other gods were demons and oh, everyone using arcane magic needs to be burned at the stake, too.)

So you can have a Lawful Good paladin or cleric (as I have in my campaign) faithfully serving a church that may have some real evil in its history.

Not for everyone, but we've found that compelling.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I kinda liked Illumians.

The choose-your-own-abilities thing that I recall they had has just gotten more popular over the years. I bet they'd be pretty successful if they were introduced today.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Of course, not everyone would like it as a concept. I'm not suggesting a new addition to the 6e pantheon. Just an interesting idea for a campaign. If it's good enough for the vast majority of "evil" humanoids, why not humanity?

as I do not believe it is sufficient for the evil humanoids.

 

[Yaarel]

First of all, hob is also the word for a niche in a fireplace for keeping food warm; that is most likely the root word for all the "hob-" names for beings related to the comforts of home (or to disrupting them, in the case of hobgoblins).

And second of all, there's a difference between related and identical. I'm perfectly willing to agree that hobbits are related, in name and concept, to house sprites, but it should be self-evident that they're not identical.

"Hob" is a shortform for "Robert", a circumlocution meant to avoid unwanted attention from fairyfolk. But perhaps "hob" in the sense of a food cozy, is an influence.

Obviously, Tolkien humanized all fairyfolk into little more than human ethnicities, including Hobbit, Elf, and Dwarf.

So we probably can agree. The fairytale hobbit and the Tolkien hobbit are quite different from each other, in the sense that Tolkiens is flesh-and-blood, whereas the fairytales is spirit.

 

[Don Durito]

According to this article which gives us the top 5 races in DndBeyond from 2020, neither dwarves nor elves are all that popular either. Guess we might as well get rid of them as well.

Top 5 races:

1. Human
2. Half-Elf
3. Dragonborn
4. Tiefling
5. Half-Orc

THis is interesting and I'm surprised it didn't receive much comment. This is a dramatic change from 2017! Elves use to be no. 2 and Dawaves number 4! Half-Orcs have leapt up from 9 to 5.

Perhaps this is generational change, with new players no longer having a particular attachment to the idea of the ubiquity of the Tolkien races, perhaps it is the impact of the rules changes in Tasha's. Perhaps it is both.

 

[Don Durito]

They could be, but personally I'd avoid such thematic duplications. In that sense I get not liking having both gnomes and halflings as they're very similar, but then again, you don't need to put them in the same setting.

This is kind of my issue wth Genasi. For one genies are kind of just fey from a different part of the world, and two genasi and half-elves are both kind of filling the same niche of 'humans but a little bit more interesting'. (Tieflings also use to be here too, but that changed somewhat with 4e).

 

[Don Durito]

All this talk about halflings when the real problem race is elves.

We're told that they're lithe and fair and don't need to sleep; that they're great casters and warriors and have had vast kingdoms etc.

Buy try and picture an elf working on something (besides drawing a bow). Try to imagine a sweaty tired elf, coming home from their day job cleaning out the stables of the elven cavalry. Picture an elf actually in a forge, hammering away with those skinny arms.

I contend that it is impossible. They are an absurdity and an offense.

Such a race with a focus on beauty cannot exist in any setting where hard work is required to get things done. Such traits do not fit in D&D. It'd be OK(and appropriate)if they were moved to the monster manual for the players that actually enjoy such a silly race, but us serious D&D players deserve something better.

(Only half kidding)

This is seriously why pretty much why we all hated elves in my last group

 

[Micah Sweet]

as I do not believe it is sufficient for the evil humanoids.

Not to dredge up old arguments, but you don't think a race being created by a divine being with dark intentions for them, but still free to choose their own path and just as capable of goodness as any other being, is appropriate for a fantasy story?