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

[Yaarel]

That isn't what I said. It's not a matter of enjoying home and safety, it's a complete lack of interest in acquiring power over others.

A complete lack of interest in acquiring power over others is almost the same thing as the Chaotic Good alignment.

In any case, a personality cannot − by itself − define a species.

 

[lingual]

Why does there have to be a core 4 of races? I was not even aware there were tiers much less that people cared so strongly about said tiers. I don't think I've ever played with anyone who cared at all in what order the races appeared in PHB other than "this should be alphabetical".

Someone should set up some brackets or a survivor thread but I suppose DnD beyond stats are much more objective and representative of the general player population.

Is the "ranking" actually matter to some of you so much? I've only skimmed thru much of this thread. But it does seem that there are complaints that being on a "better" page number in the PHB means that you gonna get greater attention. Then I also see complaints that halflings are underrepresented as NPCs. These arguments are probably from different people but if they are not, it seems a bit paradoxical.

 

[bedir than]

Is the "ranking" actually matter to some of you so much?

The ranking doesn't matter.

What matters is that there are those who don't play halflings that want to eliminate the lore that those who do play halflings enjoy.

 

[Faolyn]

When did I, a human, get dragonblood, scales, and clannishness higher than religiosity?

You can get dragonblood from trees, scales from ichthyosis vulgaris, and clannishness from the Scots.

 

[Gammadoodler]

A complete lack of interest in acquiring power over others is almost the same thing as the Chaotic Good alignment.

In any case, a personality cannot − by itself − define a species.

Sure it can. All you really need is the personality to be alien enough.


But if it helps, I hear some of them have dwarven blood.

 

[Yaarel]

Sure it can. But if it helps, I hear some of them have dwarven blood.

Honestly, if you want to officially declare that the Halfling is Half-Human and Half-Dwarf, that actually makes sense.

If you want to declare that the Halfling is Half-Human and Half-Gnome, that makes even more sense!

Then, the Gnome-Human Halfling is clearly nonhuman because the Gnome is transmitting the nonhuman flavor.

If WotC says the 5e Gnome is Fey, and the Halfling is a Half-Gnome, problem solved.

 

[lingual]

The ranking doesn't matter.

What matters is that there are those who don't play halflings that want to eliminate the lore that those who do play halflings enjoy.

Yeah. That's what I still don't quite get from this thread. Just don't play a halfling or ban them from your game. Or quit your game if you feel strongly about it. I've noted previously that the "do it my way" feeling can be rather pervasive sometimes. When it's all said and done WOTC owns the game and they probably are well aware of the backlash they would get if they removed halflings from the PHB or errata'ed them out. They run a business and want to generate revenue and that means casting a big net. Their main target audience is not people like us who quibble about what page halflings are on

 

[Faolyn]

The Human is diverse, explicitly ethnically and physically diverse. If tomorrow the designers announced that the Halfling are a Human ethnicity, perhaps undergoing insular dwarfism, there is nothing in the Players Handbook description to contradict the concept that the Halfling is a Human.

Because humans are naturally Brave and Lucky? Weird; I thought that at most, they just got a feat and bonus skills.

And halflings—I didn’t realize they had a penchant for conquest and were ambitious empire-builders.

This evidences how Tiefling and Dragonborn can work better as part of the core-fore, better than Halfling.

Nobody cares about the core lore, though. The only reason anyone cared about it at all was when Adventurer‘s League had the PH+1 rule.

 

[Faolyn]

Why do you accuse me of missing this?

I already mentioned that farmkid-goes-on-an-adventure is a Luke Skywalker Human trait.

And, as I pointed out earlier, a very non-human Clark Kent trait.

 

[Yaarel]

Because humans are naturally Brave and Lucky? Weird; I thought that at most, they just got a feat and bonus skills.

Being lucky is also a human trope.

A Human can take the Lucky feat at level 1 as part of the character concept and be noticeably lucky, moreso than a Halfling.