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

[Zardnaar]

Talking of appearance retcons, how about them gnomes?
View attachment 139200
5e PHB.
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2021.

Nose job or what?

Could be halflings or even an Elf. Magic card looks better doesn't scream Gnome though.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Could be halflings or even an Elf.

It says gnome on her character sheet.

 

[Zardnaar]

It says gnome on her character sheet.

Yeah I know. The magic card looks pretty but could be several races imho eg elf, half elf etc.

If I was gonna cut a race Gnome, Dragonborn and Half Orcs would be the ones on the chopping block. Dragonborn might get saved with a rewrite.

I wouldn't cut any in 6E though.

 

[Don Durito]

What is "done with" a race is a matter for the campaign setting. It's irrelevant for a player book.

Whatever it is you think I was implying I wasn't.

 

[lingual]

See, this right here is why this thread has gone around in circles over and over again.

It's not about how I or @Chaosmancer or anyone else feel about halflings. That's not the issue. That has never been the issue. Because, if you flip it around, you're basically saying, "Well, I like halflings, therefore that's enough justification to keep them in the PHB." Really? Do you actually feel this way? Is that at all accurate?

Presumably not.

It's never been, "Well, I don't like halflings, so they should be changed". It's always been, "Halflings have pretty much zero traction. Despite 50 years in the game, they have extremely little presence in the game, unlike the other 3 "main" races." Heck, they have less presence in the game than many of the newer races. They aren't being utilized in the game. Like, barely at all.

It's more about not liking something about the game and then insisting that the game be changed for everyone to fit your taste. Not just changing your game to your taste.

 

[Oofta]

Obviously halfling monks have gained a mastery of ninjutsu so complete that no one even knows they exist.

Which obviously means that secretly they control the world.

Excellent! My Order of the Tiny Fist monk is pleased by your complacency.

 

[FrozenNorth]

Honestly? I don’t buy this for a second. The game has a tonne of different races. Except for Dwarves and Elves, ALL of them have extremely little presence in the game. That’s not a Halfling specific issue. Nor is it really an issue at all IMO. Not every race needs more than a brief spotlight once in a blue moon.

This kind of makes @Chaosmancer ’s point. Except for the three common races (Humans, Elves and Dwarves), other races have very little presence in the game. So why are Halflings listed in the common races if the are treated like the other races?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

This kind of makes @Chaosmancer ’s point. Except for the three common races (Humans, Elves and Dwarves), other races have very little presence in the game. So why are Halflings listed in the common races if the are treated like the other races?

There is no reason to treat any races differently. Some settings (e.g. Theros) don't have elves or dwarves. That the PHB does is a historical anomaly that irritates anyone looking for things in alphabetical order.

 

[FrozenNorth]

If I was gonna cut a race Gnome, Dragonborn and Half Orcs would be the ones on the chopping block. Dragonborn might get saved with a rewrite.

I don’t know how mechanically inclined your players are, but that would leave the PHB without a +2 Str race (though I guess M. Dwarf as a subrace could compensate), without a+2 Int race, and without a +2 Wis race (though the default PHB doesn’t have one either) but you would still have 2 +2 Dex races and 2 +2 Cha races.

To me, that would feel a bit weird.

 

[FrozenNorth]

There is no reason to treat any races differently. Some settings (e.g. Theros) don't have elves or dwarves. That the PHB does is a historical anomaly that irritates anyone looking for things in alphabetical order.

I agree. But it is a historical anomaly with some real consequences. Like the fact that the common races get more pages in the PHB and the fact that only the common races get subraces in the PHB.