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

[Cadence]

that is an internal structural problem for an organisation, also never suggest you expendable that is a classic blunder.

"internal structural problem" is the strangest way I've ever seen "source of overcharges and profits" spelled before!

 

[Mind of tempest]

"internal structural problem" is the strangest way I've ever seen "source of overcharges and profits" spelled before!

define?

 

[Vaalingrade]

that is an internal structural problem for an organisation, also never suggest you expendable that is a classic blunder.

There are millions of us. Hand over your productivity and no one gets hurt (except everyone).

 

[carkl3000]

See, here is where what you are saying is breaking from what I am saying.

"If the players are involved in the joke" then it doesn't matter. If the half-orc fighter is completely fine jumping into the manure and having that moment, then they are likely to do it themselves. But, what if they don't want to jump aside? I mean, a bull is really scary IRL, but that half-orc fighter stood tall and faced down a Wyvern (which to compare to the real world is the equivalent of a flying, venomous Tiger) without flinching. Now a Bull is scaring them to jump in manure?

And this is the problem. If the players are fine with it, then they are basically just rolling to determine what their character does. But if they AREN'T fine with it, then rules like this force you to create dissonance in your character. As I'm diving into a literal pile of naughty word, I'm wondering "where is that bravery I had when facing down literal death just an hour ago? My character would never act like this."

Also, same thing with the charm. While I'd be perfectly fine with rolling to see if I'm distracted by the performance, telling me that my character is attracted to the performer is not your call to make. And if I was fine with being attracted to them... I'd be willing to RP that a little bit. But, if I'm not, it isn't your place to make that call. Maybe my dwarf isn't attracted to men, and your performer isn't that appealing to him.

This is a player decision. And if you are using the rules to enforce things that goes against what the player wants, then you are overstepping in this instance.

Next time it comes up I'll be sure to follow with "Abracadabra!"

 

[Mind of tempest]

There are millions of us. Hand over your productivity and no one gets hurt (except everyone).

but productivity is essential to all things even not doing anything.

 

[Gammadoodler]

And that expeirence didn't lead to them learning new magic, or new abilities. It led to them being more mentally toughened.

So you might say they had more Wisdom? Weird, I feel like I've seen that in D&D somewhere. Beyond that you wouldn't say they were more stealthy, or insightful, or perceptive, or persuasive, or intimidating? You wouldn't say they'd grown physically tougher (Con) or stronger (Str)?

Curious.

Honestly, serious question, when your level 1 players sit down at the tavern, and a mysterious stranger walks up to them and offers them 100 gold to explore the haunted ruins outside of town where they suspect orcs are setting up camp, do they say "Oh no, that sounds dangerous. And scary. We just came for a drink and to have our dinner and go home. I mean, if we found orcs they might kill us. We'd be better off just avoiding that tower and telling someone else about it."

A. I would expect any mortal creature to question risk vs. reward, especially if death is one of those risks.
B. The question is irrelevant.

So... the light which was only useful because the creature in question couldn't stand any bright lights. A tree seed that never mattered until it was brought up again in the epilogue. And that's it

I like way this interpretation casts Galadriel. Like she didn't have any insight or care for what kinds of items might be useful and was just clearing out her junk drawer before booting some unwanted guests out of her treehouse.

"Hide all the good stuff. They're going into Mordor, we're not getting any of it back. Also, we wouldn't want some a-holes in the future to mistake this piece of literature for some kind of D&D game."

Seriously. I love it. It's hilarious.

Sure, Frodo was given Sting and the armor, which Bilbo found. But, I'm curious, did Bilbo end up in a good way by the start of the Fellowship? I remember him being quite distraught and "spread thin" by that point. Almost like the things he gathered on that adventure were bad for his health. Frodo ended up the same way. And we know it was the ring, but notably... Frodo was the one given the armor and sting as well. The other hobbits had basic swords.

Are retired adventurers always better off after the adventure ends in D&D worlds? I'd say it varies.

Counterpoint, We just had to list out all the magical gear for one the games I'm playing in, because we've been doing Play-by-Post and we realized we'd been forgetting to update. I don't feel like we are getting too much, only a few for each character, but here is the combined list.

Handy Spice Pouch
Alchemical Jug
Bag of Holding
Belt of Transistance
Staff of the Star Field
Cloak of Displacement
Rod of the Pactkeeper +1
Slippers of Spiderclimbing
Magic Maul
Ring of Animal Influence
Pendant of Sophistication
Book of Quests (Plot item)
Escape Crystals (x4)(plot item)
Bag of Beans
Short Sword of Wounding
Chilled Rapier of the White Dragon
Cape of the Montebank
Slippers of Spiderclimb
Magic Cloak
+1 Rapier
Horn of Vallahalla
+2 Magic Great Flail

And at least two more items, people are still checking their lists. And, this isn't unusualy for DnD. Every party member ends up with around 5 or so items at least.

Again, Tolkien's world was very much different from how DnD is played.

A. Tolkien's world is certainly different than your singular example world.
B. If your players didn't have any of those items or only had a few of them, are you saying that you wouldn't be playing D&D any more?

But here is the final bit. Merry, Pippin, Sam, Frodo and Bilbo? They are NOT representative of Hobbits. They are heroes. They are the wierdo's who left the shire. The farmer, the miller, Bilbo's neighbors, the baker. They are representative of Hobbits.

So again, halfling Characters can work fine. Having outliers for the PCs is the point. However, when you zoom out, and you look at the race of people... they are bizarrely out of place. They seemed to have sprung up fully formed into Shires out of the ground and completely seperate from anything else in the world. And for Hobbits, that worked. The idea of these people just minding their business in some quiet corner of the world made sense in LoTR, because the world wasn't that dangerous. There was one source of Evil, it was over there in the East, and it had never really reached the Shire until just now.

But in DnD... that doesn't work. There are too many sources of evil, too many places that evil comes from, and too many forces that have a history of taking and corrupting other races to just ignore halflings.

Ahhh.. so this is the point where we completely abandon our thematic arguments about "rejection of power" or whatever such nonsense, and we reframe it in terms of setting practicality.

Since we're abandoning the remaining thematic discussion which was previously framed as objectively factual, I can only assume that last paragraph is an opinion.

In which case, I disagree..
and that's fine.

 

[Vaalingrade]

but productivity is essential to all things even not doing anything.

I... don't think you're getting the joke and shall stop now.

 

[Minigiant]

Data from my informal straw poll at work asking about the PHB using their memory.

All 5 questioned said there were 6-8 race choices in the PHB.

0 of 5 questioned could name the order the races were presented in. All knew Humans were first and two guessed elves were 2nd or 3rd.

0 of 5 knew why the races were presented in the order they were.

0 of 5 were aware of the concept of a "core" race.

I called the members of my Saturday game. All under age 35. Half started D&D with 5e and with me as their only DM of over 3 sessions.

All of them assumed the "Lord of the Rings races" were first. All using different logic..

The artificer assumed "Common races in alphabetical order then Uncommon and Halfbreeds in alphabetical order". He's the group rules lawyer.

The monk "LOTR races then Cool races,"

The fighter "the humanike races first. Then dragonborn. Then I don't care".

The bard "The Vanilla races in alphabetical order then the Fetishes in alphabetical order." Seriously how does a complete D&D noob end up running a horny, full support bard as his first PC.

The rogue "Dwarf because I remember they are slow. Then Dex races. Then I don't know. I remember Tieflings are last because that's where they belong."

The druid "I don't know. I still don't understand Wildshape."

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The monk "LOTR races then Cool races,"

Pretty much accurate, IMO.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

If anyone wants to recreate my straw poll and post results....here was the 3 questions asked (and the bonus question).

1. How many race choices do you think are in the PHB?

2. Can you name the order those races are listed in?

3. Do you know why they are in that order?

Then I explain the concept of the "core 4"

4. Did you know that those 4 were different than the rest of the list?