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

[Oofta]

So you never said the phb lore is inadequate? Cause I’m pretty sure you did...

Multiple times. That and that they aren't "Important" with a capital "I". Because apparently you can only be important if you have kingdoms or be persuasive enough (which is completely different than being likeable) to be diplomats or have some special purpose like keeping libraries of knowledge. That somehow being the literal little people that are happy with what they have is not good enough.

But it is tough to find that when 90% of the posts are playing victim because people don't want anything different.

 

[Don Durito]

Why don't Halflings get much development or overall integration with published fantasy worlds and their history?

It's obvious. It's the same reason for almost every common element of fantasy before 2000. Why do Dwarves use Axes? Why do elves live in forests and shoot bows? Because Tolkien did it (or in this case didn't do it).

It's impossible to underestimate how stultifyingly conservative (small c) fantasy was for a long time.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Does it?

Tell me about these Nomadic halflings. How are they different from the Agrarian halflings?

Dude, stop. This is ridiculous.

The PHB isn’t meant to cover everything. Most people have no trouble extrapolating “General Halfling Stuff+Nomadic Traders”. It’s a pretty clean fit.

 

[lingual]

Dude, stop. This is ridiculous.

The PHB isn’t meant to cover everything. Most people have no trouble extrapolating “General Halfling Stuff+Nomadic Traders”. It’s a pretty clean fit.

But I need in depth analysis of their migration patterns. Without that, it's a big fail for me. For all I know they could have travelled in RVs and stayed in Air BnBs. If so, did they have to modify the vehicles at all since they are short? Without the in depth coverage, the immersion is simply non existent.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The primary attribute of the race that multiple people have told me is the reason they like the race... yeah, totally just important to me.

And, again, every time I ask I get told... "they just are and you wouldn't accept any reasons any ways". You guys can keep declaring you answered, but I still have not seen any answers to why halflings are overlooked.

The bolded text is literally a blatant falsehood. Several people have spoken on why Halflings are overlooked and underestimated, ITT, mostly in direct reply to you.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Wonderful.

I never once made that claim so we are in perfect agreement.



Okay, well if we are both okay with more then that seems like a really moot point.



See, here is a problem. And you'll forgive me if I roll my eyes as I say that because I expect nothing but another thrashing from the thread in response.

I don't view halflings as naturally monolithic. What I am noting is that halflings are never (to my knowledge in any product I have seen) explored in any manner beyond happy farmers except for the occasional evil rogue.

A halfling kingdom? Would be neat. FR had one for about as long as it took to write "and it no longer exists" and writing it out of existence.

One of the issues I have is that halflings aren't being explored in any real manner. All of these potential other takes that would make them less monolithic? They are almost exclusively the realm of homebrew. And I just wish that there was more being done in the game.

You quoted me saying that I 100% agreed with you that halfling lore and inclusion in stories is a good thing and would be something we would like to see.

You went on to explain that YOU TOO would like to see them explored further. Multiple other posters have agreed that they too would like to see them explored further.

You also claim you don't see them as monolithically "friendly farmers" but also filling other archetypes in your world the same as the rest of us are saying we see them in ours.

So, at this point I think we all agree that we all agree and can go home, no?

 

[Bardic Dave]

You quoted me saying that I 100% agreed with you that halfling lore and inclusion in stories is a good thing and would be something we would like to see.

You went on to explain that YOU TOO would like to see them explored further. Multiple other posters have agreed that they too would like to see them explored further.

You also claim you don't see them as monolithically "friendly farmers" but also filling other archetypes in your world the same as the rest of us are saying we see them in ours.

So, at this point I think we all agree that we all agree and can go home, no?

Yeah, if all @Chaosmancer is saying is that they’d like to see halflings get more pages devoted to them in future splat books, I don’t think there are too many who have a problem with that. It’s all the other stuff about how halflings are “broken” because “design principles” and “realism” that people take issue with.

 

[Hussar]

You interpret a sea hag's "Horrific Appearance" or a dragon's "Frightful Presence" as a magical effect?

Like, a dragon is no longer scary if it's inside an anti-magic field? Weird...

Edit: Sorry for delving back into posts from days ago, but this really is one of the things I especially like about halflings that really does have an effect on game play.

Popping out of lurking mode because I was specifically referenced.

Hag's and Dragon's fear were specifically called out as magical in 3e (Su to be exact, which means that while it's magical, it's not affected by anti-magic fields). So, there certainly is a precedence there. Additionally, since the DM is largely forbidden from telling players how their characters feel, barring magical effects, it would be rather strange for this to not be a magical effect. And, as was noted way earlier in the thread, the "Anti-magic Shell" test is largely bogus since it doesn't affect all sorts of things that are obviously magical like dragons being able to fly or darkvision or a warforged being able to move. Heck, I've got an owlfolk character in my current campaign. The character's flight ability must be magical because it certainly isn't natural. Nothing that big and shaped like that could ever get off the ground without magic. Do warforged die if they enter an anti-magic field in your games?

Yeah, if all @Chaosmancer is saying is that they’d like to see halflings get more pages devoted to them in future splat books, I don’t think there are too many who have a problem with that. It’s all the other stuff about how halflings are “broken” because “design principles” and “realism” that people take issue with.

WAHOO!!!! It only took well over a hundred pages but someone FINALLY sees the point we have been trying to make. That halflings are under utilized and, considering they are one of the "big 4", they should play a more prominent role in material. That, or, if no one is going to use them, punt them out of the PHB and make room for something that IS going to get used. I'm pretty happy with either one.

The main reason I went with the punt option is that so many folks insisted that there was absolutely nothing wrong with how halflings are presented in the game and that they would dislike any additional material added to the game regarding halflings. Several folks in this thread were pretty clear that halflings were the epitomy of perfection and that nothing could possibly be added.

 

[Bardic Dave]

WAHOO!!!! It only took well over a hundred pages but someone FINALLY sees the point we have been trying to make. That halflings are under utilized and, considering they are one of the "big 4", they should play a more prominent role in material. That, or, if no one is going to use them, punt them out of the PHB and make room for something that IS going to get used. I'm pretty happy with either one.

The main reason I went with the punt option is that so many folks insisted that there was absolutely nothing wrong with how halflings are presented in the game and that they would dislike any additional material added to the game regarding halflings. Several folks in this thread were pretty clear that halflings were the epitomy of perfection and that nothing could possibly be added.

Oh come now! Being amenable to more pages in future splats≠Whinging about how halflings are treated in the PHB. That might have been one of your(plural) points, but it wasn’t the totality of what you(plural) were saying.

 

[Hussar]

Honestly? It really, really was. It's just that it got wrapped up in a bunch of other crap and misunderstandings and talking past one another.

Look, I'm not interested in starting a fight. I never really was. I was posting in here because the points I was trying to make were being twisted around so badly. The whole "You only hate halflings" schtick and whatnot. That's why I stepped away from the thread. I was not adding to the conversation, only being a barrier.

I found something that illustrates my point rather well. This image is from the Player's Handbook:

Beautiful pic. One thing you have to hand WotC, they really do know their art.

But, here's my point. Is that a halfling making that map? Or a gnome? Or just a short human? How do you know? This, to me, is just so indicative of how little presence halflings have in the game. I can immediately recognize the dwarf and the elf. The person in the background in white? Maybe an elf or a human, not sure. I think elf, but, I could go either way. But the halfling/gnome/short person making the map? Who knows? And that's the problem in a nutshell. Halflings, because they have been so underutilized in the game for so long, lack any real, clear ... I'm groping for the right word here... image? presence? recognition factor? Whatever it is, they don't have it.

So, yeah, that's pretty much what we (plural) have been saying all the way along. Either use 'em or lose 'em. Pick one. Because, after 50 years of being pretty much the "also ran" race in the PHB, there's certainly room for improvement.