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

[Krachek]

Maybe Wotc should publish a long letter of apologies and self accusation about the fact that the Phb is not totally neutral-setting and include it in future reprint.

 

[Hussar]

I'm currently running an Adventures League module called Forgotten Traditions that is based all around Giant lore. That doesn't mean giants make good PCs.

But... no one has claimed that.

What it does mean though is anyone who has a giantish background has material to draw upon. Or anyone whose background includes knowledge about giants, now has something to draw upon.

But no one has said that having lore makes for good PC races. What has been claimed is that one of the least popular PHB races has virtually no lore and virtually no presence in adventures for 5e which makes it at odds with the notion that this is one of the 4 most common races. It's also at odds with the actual description of the race which states that there should be more halflings running around in human lands.

The point I've been making all the way along is that halflings are basically persona non grata as far as anything in the game is concerned. They aren't in setting guides (not that 5e has a lot of setting guides), they make very little appearance in adventures and they never have.

Since adventures are the primary source of setting material in 5e, that's a pretty glaring oversight.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The problem with this point is that there is zero evidence that there are any significant numbers of "poeple who like to play".

5.9% of dndbeyond’s active characters is significant.

Note, I did mention that I couldn't do a search on Rime of the Frostmaiden, so, I couldn't include that in any of my numbers. But, it looks like halflings play pretty much no role in the module, from what you're saying, in a setting that is predominantly human (the Ten Towns) which means, according to many in this thread, we should be up to our ankles in halflings.

You mean “according to no one, ever.” right? Because no one has claimed that. Every time you hyperbolize someone’s argument, it makes your entire post look like flailing nonsense.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

What it does mean though is anyone who has a giantish background has material to draw upon.

No one has a giantish background. Giants aren't playable, for very obvious reasons. Giants are present in the world. They are in the monster manual. But THEY DO NOT MAKE GOOD PCs.

Halflings deliberately avoid being a significant presence in the world. They like to keep to themselves. But they make good PCs.

The role of a people in the world and the role of a lineage for player characters are completely different.

Consider the Reborn from VGR. There is no lore or kingdom of the reborn. Indeed they don't even all have the same origin. Some are stuffed with straw. Some are stitched together from mismatched body parts, others are reanimating spirits or cyborgs with clockwork hearts. But they make perfectly fine PCs, even outside Ravenloft, because all PCs are unique individuals, not X% of the population.

 

[Mind of tempest]

No one has a giantish background. Giants aren't playable, for very obvious reasons. Giants are present in the world. They are in the monster manual. But THEY DO NOT MAKE GOOD PCs.

Halflings deliberately avoid being a significant presence in the world. They like to keep to themselves. But they make good PCs.

The role of a people in the world and the role of a lineage for player characters are completely different.

Consider the Reborn from VGR. There is no lore or kingdom of the reborn. Indeed they don't even all have the same origin. Some are stuffed with straw. Some are stitched together from mismatched body parts, others are reanimating spirits or cyborgs with clockwork hearts. But they make perfectly fine PCs, even outside Ravenloft, because all PCs are unique individuals, not X% of the population.

dragons are the background race for three types of dragon men over the editions (kobolds, Dragonborn, and draconians) so giants would be fine for one it would probably help them.

a reborn is a one of it is made to be a freak one of character, halflings are kind of supposed to be a people with at least more than five of them.

 

[Oofta]

dragons are the background race for three types of dragon men over the editions (kobolds, Dragonborn, and draconians) so giants would be fine for one it would probably help them.

a reborn is a one of it is made to be a freak one of character, halflings are kind of supposed to be a people with at least more than five of them.

But it's also part of halfling lore that they want to fade into the background and go unnoticed. So the fact that they aren't prominent isn't a big surprise.

I don't buy many modules, especially now that I can get monsters from DndBeyond if I want, but how many races have much representation? I mean, if I had to guess it would be primarily humans, elves and a smattering of others.

 

[Mind of tempest]

But it's also part of halfling lore that they want to fade into the background and go unnoticed. So the fact that they aren't prominent isn't a big surprise.

I don't buy many modules, especially now that I can get monsters from DndBeyond if I want, but how many races have much representation? I mean, if I had to guess it would be primarily humans, elves and a smattering of others.

that is literally never mentioned in their lore where are you getting it from?

reprenstion has little to do with models and more to do with who much they matter in settings.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Nah, everyone has opinions. It's fine that you have one, I don't begrudge you that.

I'm not particularly high halfling lore in MToF myself, but I feel it offers enough texture for the version of halflings it describes to feel meaningfully different from other races.

To my mind, the stuff around story is the best part of it. Story serves as almost a form of currency, and as the lever for influence within the community and to a certain extent as the primary driver for how they spend they time. To me, that is pretty significantly different than other races, and the part I think that should be preserved, if ever there is a rewrite of the lore.

That said, I think it mainly comes doen to a choice to buy-in to what's there, because, to me, it's all more or less equally unbelievable. Pretty much all of the races can be boiled down to "basically human" if you're willing to apply the heat. Consider the nonexhaustive list of commonalities below that apply to pretty much every race(I understand there are some very specific exceptions to a few of these).

• They are mortal
• They are corporeal
• Same basic arrangement of limbs,
• Communicate via spoken or written language
• Require food, water, and sleep
• Can be wounded in essentially all the same ways and are healed in the same ways,
• Experience cognition as individuals, and
• Capable of free will

Like, if your PC was blind and was chatting with a dwarf, an elf, and a dragonborn, how would they tell the difference?

So I just don't see the profit, in the face of all that commonality, of needing to be convinced that some relatively tiny collections of features are "sufficiently distinct" to clear some arbitrary bar of acceptability. I'd rather lean in, explore the differences that are there, and see where that could lead. But that is just me.

I agree that the storytelling aspect should be kept, and I'd like to expand on it.

But to the rest of your statement... The only reason you didn't just describe dragons is because they walk on all fours instead of bipedally. I mean yes, being mortal, physical, and needing to eat and having free will is a commonality between pretty much all forms of life. Are we really going to say that in the face of "but both of them are alive" that we shouldn't push for more differences? Because, my entire point is to try and make them more different, but you are basically saying that to do that I would need to make them immortal, or incorporeal, or lacking cognition. Unless I was willing to go THAT far then it isn't worth trying to make them more different?

As to your blind PC option, well, to begin with the obvious, they are going to know that the Dragonborn is different from how they sound. Not something we can really replicate at the table, but not having lips and being reptilian, they are going to sound pretty distinct from the other two. As for the rest, it depends on what you are talking about. There are certainly conversational topics that are more likely to make someone one race or the other. But you are also missing the point, because then we have to start making individuals stereotypes that represent their entire race.

Pull back a layer. What makes an elven city different from a dwarven city different from a dragonborn city different from a human city? Are these truly so identical as to be indistinguishable?

 

[Chaosmancer]

You're right, I was thinking of @Hussar. Sorry about that.

No problem

 

[Chaosmancer]

What you did here is an example you can hold up to the people who are telling you to "add to them what you like" because all that is one perfectly fine interpretation of that throw-away statement.

My personal interpretation is that it's meant as an in universe bit of gossip....like a modern day "some say our world leaders are really lizard like aliens".

In my campaign dwarves and halflings get along fine. Halflings live in dwarcen cities. Dwarves live in halfling villages.

My take on each of the common humanoids uses the basic notes of description from the PHB (and older experience) as a primer over which I paint my canvas with my own design.

So, you believe that it is 100% made up and has no basis in anything that at all.

But... isn't it strange to say that? It is quite literally the only example I can find of mentioning a mixing of blood from two different races that isn't explicitly a child of the two races.

I'm sure there are rumors about human rulers being demons or changelings too, but that didn't warrant a mention in their racial write up. They don't say that lightfoot halflings have elven blood. So... why include a random detail that is completely meaningless and false?

Edit: And I'm sure people can homebrew to make up answers. I'm not saying they can't. But a lot of these settings in DnD are written out with answers... do any of them address this common belief about a multiverse spanning people?