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

[Dannyalcatraz]

Meteoric iron in D&D is star metal.

As I said in the post where I mentioned it.

Perhaps the “cold” would be the cold of the void of space- IOW, another name for meteoric steel, aka starmetal.

We were discussing ways to make “cold iron” common enough to be accessible but rare enough to be a reasonable weakness for OC playable fey creatures.

 

[Yaarel]

What if?

Hob
• gnome: elemental
• goblin: fey
• halfling: material

The "goblinoids" are fey to some degree.



In reallife folklore, the (helpful) hob and the (harmful) goblin are opposites. The term "hob-goblin" is an oxymoron, referring to a faerie who is a practical joker, thus harmful causing pain but helpful causing laughter.

According to Shakespeare, Puck is a "hobgoblin", thus the jester of the faerie court.

For D&D, the Fey Hobgoblin can have a strong jester and humorous theme, sometimes slapstick (within player tolerance).

But the Material Hobgoblins who entered the Material Plane took on a deadly "military games" culture.



The "Bug-bear" is originally a faerie, a "bogey", who shapechanged into the form of a bear. Altho of fey ancestry it seems mainly material.

 

[Yaarel]

As I said in the post where I mentioned it.

We were discussing ways to make “cold iron” common enough to be accessible but rare enough to be a reasonable weakness for OC playable fey creatures.

Forging steel requires Earth (metal), Fire (melting), Air (bellows), and Water (tempering).

Perhaps Fey can overcome their vulnerability to cold iron, by means of some kind of elemental magic − or perhaps "cold iron" is itself elemental magic?

 

[Minigiant]

As I said in the post where I mentioned it.



We were discussing ways to make “cold iron” common enough to be accessible but rare enough to be a reasonable weakness for OC playable fey creatures.

Well cold-iron is just "unforged" wrought iron. You could make maces and clubs out of it. You just need chunks of unforged iron large enough. Just stick a chuck of iron to a wooden stick. It would be a poor ugly weapon but double damage with a mace is better that normal damage with a steel longsword.

The issue is making blades and arrowheads out of it. Then you'd need magic or "secret forging techniques."

 

[Vaalingrade]

The issue is making blades and arrowheads out of it. Then you'd need magic or "secret forging techniques."

Giants pinching it between thumb and forefinger while wearing steel thimbles.

 

[carkl3000]

And all the times I made the attempt and was shut down with "those aren't my halflings"

The difference is that you seem to be insisting that halflings must assume a more complex role in the official game in order to be acceptable.

The counter argument is that it's fine to leave them the way they are in the published material because anyone is free to add as much complicated lore as they want for the purposes of an isolated game.

 

[Faolyn]

Cold iron is also just a description, like red blood.

Personally, I'd go for the meteoric iron.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Cold iron is also just a description, like red blood.

Personally, I'd go for the meteoric iron.

I think if significant penalties were normalized in general, you could get away with cold iron just meaning “iron”, but other Fey drawbacks could be “Cannot (technically) Lie” and “Compulsion: Bartering”, and things like needing to do manual labor for someone who offers you proper hospitality, etc.

 

[FrozenNorth]

Any race's lore can be replaced with a human. Those that only object to halfling lore because it's "too human" merely hate halflings and aren't having an authentic debate.

A poster accused those who disagree with them of “hating halflings”. Quick, everyone take a drink!

 

[bedir than]

But, again, thank you so very much for ascribing motives to people

I didn't do this. Any natural reading of English couldn't read this statement into my words.