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

[Crimson Longinus]

Is there any official DnD setting where all Humans reincarnate?

I don't know. But considering that is super common religious belief in real life, it would be weird if there wasn't. In any case, it is not particularly 'alien' as it is based on real human belief about humans.

However, I think a group of creatures being particularly connected to their past lives is an interesting thing, but I feel it is a bit of afterthought with the elves, the PHB doesn't even mention it. Do any setting actually do anything interesting with it? Also, I feel it might work better with a species that was not ludicrously long-lived to begin with. Elves already have "oh, but I was there three centuries ago when this historical thing happened" and having on top of that "I was there in the past life" doesn't really add much. Also, with shorter lived species reconnecting with your friends from the past lives etc would be a more regular occurrence.

 

[Faolyn]

I disagree entirely. The alfar in my game are not mundane at all, nor the jinn, the Watchers, the Fallen, nor the Vaettr.

It's harder in dnd, because dnd makes everything so damn numerical and concrete, but it certainly isn't impossible.

That's your campaign, though. It uses your mythology and you can enforce both how many people play them (if you choose to), how common they are in your world, and how people see them. You can't do that in the game as whole. If your alfar or jinn (or whatever) were in the PH, then you would have no control over what people in general do with them.

Case in point: in the earliest days, Gygax wanted nonhumans to be very rare as PCs, and probably would have preferred having no nonhuman PCs at all. Which is why he included level limits and the like. He could enforce that in his settings and while he tried to do the same for the game as a whole, that clearly failed. Most of the games I am in have no humans at all.

 

[Gammadoodler]

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?

The list was non exhaustive. It could have included same primary forms of locomotion, same general assortment and configuration of sensory organs, same general physical characteristics as measured by game statistics...etc. etc. etc.

They are all "humanoids". By literal definition, that means like a human. I'm saying that if your question is, how similar are they to humans, the answer is going to be "more similar than not". It's a waste of energy.

As to the rest, it's all fantasy conjecture. Not wrong, but you can apply similar "reasoning" to halflings to conclude that they too are very different from humans (cities especially, the difference in ergonomics alone would yield settlements that are structured very differently than human ones).

Either way, it is conjecture though, supported by almost nothing in lore or rules. It can be used to draw any conclusion you wish to draw.

 

[Oofta]

I don't know. But considering that is super common religious belief in real life, it would be weird if there wasn't. In any case, it is not particularly 'alien' as it is based on real human belief about humans.

However, I think a group of creatures being particularly connected to their past lives is an interesting thing, but I feel it is a bit of afterthought with the elves, the PHB doesn't even mention it. Do any setting actually do anything interesting with it? Also, I feel it might work better with a species that was not ludicrously long-lived to begin with. Elves already have "oh, but I was there three centuries ago when this historical thing happened" and having on top of that "I was there in the past life" doesn't really add much. Also, with shorter lived species reconnecting with your friends from the past lives etc would be a more regular occurrence.

There's very, very little about elves and previous lives that I could find. What little there is can be found in MtOF. There's a mention of an attachment to the faerie realms because that's where they originate from.

Then in another section at the end of the paragraph on their trance we get "What an elf remembers during this reverie depends largely on how long the elf has lived, and the events of the lives that the elf’s soul has experienced before."

That's followed up in the next section "Each birth represents an elf soul that has been to Arvandor and returned. Mortal elves cannot know if it is the soul of someone recently dead or someone who died millennia ago. They cannot even be certain it is an elf of the same world. The only assurance they have is that it is an elf of their own kind, for when the primal elves went against Corellon and took permanent shapes, they chose this fate for themselves." There's a little bit more about it and what they call The First Reflection.

So apparently in FR all elves are reincarnations of other elves. I have no idea where this bit of lore came from, it's certainly not mentioned in the PHB and I don't remember it from previous editions but that doesn't mean much. Since it's in MtOF, I would consider it specific to FR.

 

[Faolyn]

Actually, I have LOTS to back this up and no I certainly said nothing of the sort.

Actually, you did. It was something about getting your numbers from chicken entrails.

I POSTED the number of times halflings appear in WotC adventures. It's pretty much very close to zero in most adventures.

That just means they aren't used a lot in commercial adventures, not that they're not popular as PCs.

 

[Oofta]

Actually, you did. It was something about getting your numbers from chicken entrails.


That just means they aren't used a lot in commercial adventures, not that they're not popular as PCs.

Truth is we have no idea how popular they are. I have two in my campaign right now but that doesn't mean a lot because I limit races to the core options for thematic reasons.

But even if there are other races that are more popular (I think that tends to ebb and change over time) halflings are pretty iconic to the brand and they don't take up a lot of space. There will always be a race du jour, but given how many races there are and how popular humans are, 6% representation is actually pretty good.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

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?

My opinion on it from our discourse here is that you place much more emphasis on lore equating to hard written facts for all settings than I do. This probably is why you might feel there is too much missing from the PHB entry for them versus me, which can take "laid back farmers who are friendly" and extrapolate from there without needing more from the PHB.

As for the statement specific to halflings and dwarves....the language used in the sentence is what tells me it's rumor and innuendo, not some historical hook. "Some people say..." equates to being BS in my interpretation.

Id say if it was meant to be more factual they wouldn't have used "Some say..." and would instead just state it directly.

 

[Faolyn]

But, they aren't.

They are never the shop keepers, or people you randomly meet on the street or anything the PC's interact with. In all of Waterdeep, halflings are barely mentioned at all, in a city of hundreds of thousands of humans. And that's the one module where halflings appear the most. Yet, despite the hundreds of NPC's in Waterdeep Dragon Heist (and there are a LOT of NPC's in that module, it's more setting guide than module), virtually none of them are halflings. So, even the published material doesn't match what you're claiming.

I decided to go through some of the published adventures online, using naughty means to do so (hey, I didn't download them, just searched through them). Excluding the surprisingly high number of dead halflings in these adventures, and history or rumors involving halflings:

Spoiler: Spoilered for size and also because they're from adventures

Lost Mines of Phendalver: A halfling and her son.

Out of the Abyss: Several imprisoned or enslaved halflings that can be rescued. A noble half-elf with halfling guards. Cultists whose ranks include halflings.

Rise of Tiamat: A halfling innkeeper.

Horde of the Dragon Queen: Two halflings in the Dramatis Personae.

Princes of the Apocalypse: A sneaky and unpleasant halfling carpenter. Mention that many of the homesteaders are halflings. A halfling innkeeper. A halfling assistant/thug. An entire clan of halflings, some of which are cultists, who fuel a whole subplot. A halfling rancher/Emerald Enclave member.

Storm King's Thunder: A halfling musician listed under Dramatis Personae. The adventure itself contains a paragraph on the various races in the area and mentions there are lots of small halfling hamlets hidden away, out of sight of bandits and monsters.

Tales from the Yawning Patrol: Oakhurst, a town of mostly humans, with a "sizable minority of halflings and other races."

Tomb of Annihilation: A halfling guide.

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist: An orchard/meadery (is that a real word?) run by halflings. More halfling brewers elsewhere. Halfling wererats (since wererats have the creature type "humanoid (human, shapechanger)" this is actually quite a departure from the norm). A hostel that deals mostly with halflings (note: not Small humanoids; specifically halflings--there would have to be a lot of halflings for them to be that specific). A halfling representative of the Fellowship of Innkeepers. An evil halfling necromancer. Halfling actors. A reluctant halfling pit fighter. A halfling spy. An overwhelmed halfling chef. A happy halfling chef. Halfling Zhentarim agents.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh: Notes that halflings are common in the area and that there are several halfling villages (25% chance that any village or manor found by the party is a halfling village or manor). A halfling bandit. A halfling druid. A halfling merchant. A halfling councilmember. a halfling veteran who's the agent of the town's bailiff.

Essential's Kit: A halfling cleric. A halfling traveler who plays the harmonica. A halfling spellcasting gambler. A halfling warrior "who likes to punch people in the groin."

Balder's Gate: Descent Into Avernus: A halfling spy. A halfling druid. A halfling chef. A halfling patron of a tavern. A halfling baker. A halfling cleric and his two adult children. A halfling who owns a cafe that sells food that has risqué names. Mention of a large halfling community.

The Adventure in the Eberron Book: An imprisoned halfling spy to be rescued.

Candlekeep Adventures: A halfling scribe that can be hired as a guide. A halfling sage. A halfling cleric. A pair of halfling scouts. A halfling cultist.

(As a note, when I say things like "a halfling warrior," this is nearly always a named NPC.)

So I don't know where you get the idea that "virtually none of them are halflings", because here are literally dozens of halflings in a wide variety of roles with a wide variety of alignments, uses in the adventures, and personal goals.

 

[Oofta]

My opinion on it from our discourse here is that you place much more emphasis on lore equating to hard written facts for all settings than I do. This probably is why you might feel there is too much missing from the PHB entry for them versus me, which can take "laid back farmers who are friendly" and extrapolate from there without needing more from the PHB.

As for the statement specific to halflings and dwarves....the language used in the sentence is what tells me it's rumor and innuendo, not some historical hook. "Some people say..." equates to being BS in my interpretation.

Id say if it was meant to be more factual they wouldn't have used "Some say..." and would instead just state it directly.

To me the tie between stout halflings and dwarves is just giving an option to include it in setting lore if you want but it's completely totally optional.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

So how would you change them? Or maybe we should start a whole other thread on how people have made various races interesting in their campaigns? Because I don't have much of an issue with halflings and I don't have a problem integrating them into my campaign world. I just fill in a few details here and there to make them feel a little more integrated. Of course chaosmancer will dismiss that as not relevant.

A new thread might be good. And I don't change halflings so much as add to them, most of the time.

In my Crossroads game (alt history Earth where crossroads lead to other worlds and Earth is full of fantastical creatures as a result, and also where the heirs of Mordred rule the Brithonic Empire from their seat in Cardiff with the help of the Queen Mother, who is also The Morrigan. She was the patron of Mordred's mother, and laid with Mordred so he could sire powerful heirs, and so her power could be anchored in the world, providing her with what she needed to anchor the Crossroads, thus creating this alternate history.) halflings are often nomadic, and their gods literally are family, and sometimes can be found just traveling with groups of halflings. They are the most prolific travelers between worlds, and often carry news an stories with them, as well as rare goods, making them quite welcome in most places. They're also terrifying to try and attack, which helps keep them safe.

In my Islands World game, they are oceanic/coastal nomadic fishers and pearl divers primarily, though they've spread out enough that they can be found in small numbers just about everywhere. They retain their hospitality and everything from the PHB, but with a more Mediteranean aesthetic. They also do the common fantasy nomad thing of having enclaves where the gather en masse to celebrate things and trade amongst themselves, but these enclaves are cleverly hidden such that most big folk whisper that the little ones just disapear into another world once a year.

In my FR game that is a shared world with another DM, my NPC/sometimes PC halfling rogue is from a small fishing and farm village on a river, near the sea, built largely into and below a tall hill with an old castle atop it, in Sembia. The castle isn’t really occupied, but does get used for parties and local market days.

In all cases, they’re just folks. They don’t have kings, they’ve never ruled empires (on purpose), and they make up few of histories great heroes. In fact, they tend not to buy into Great Man History, instead viewing all great works as the result of communities, not individuals.

When I have big grassroots political change happening, it’s often spearheaded by groups of halflings, and in the more early modern games I run they are some of the premiere political and social philosophers, because of their natural focus on community and social organization, but relative lack of personal ambition.