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

[Don Durito]

Yeah, say what you like about halflings but at least they're not elves!

 

[pemerton]

Well, there's two issue here. One, why don't we have a human group that goes underground? Well, in game, human's can't see in the dark. Humans that stay underground too long die. So, there is that.

The other issue is, well, this is just begging a question. There are no (as far as I know) underground humans in D&D. So, claiming that there could be underground humans, so, dwarves are just like humans, is a bit strange since there are no underground humans.

OTOH, I'm hardly wedded to dwarves anyway. You want to bump them out too? Fantastic as far as I'm concerned. Would not bother me in the least.

For the sake of completeness: I agree with you second para; I'm outraged by your third!

 

[pemerton]

Yeah, say what you like about halflings but at least they're not elves!

Some of us like Elves.

 

[Minigiant]

My gripe is on the DM side.

A village of halflings offers no gameplay alterations over a village of humans. Halflings don't special in anything that affect gameplay. Halflings would not have craftmen and masters that differ in quantity or quality than humans. The only thing that changes is the heights of doors and ceilings.

The base lore do not seperate them from humans at all. A dwarven village would have better axes, hammers, and metal armors. A elven village would have bows, swords, instrutments, and healing potions for sale. Even if you made awhole village of tieflings, you'd think someone has a cursed or infernal weapon stashed someplace for sale as devils and cultists would constantly attempting to tempt evil tiefling villagers.

 

[Mind of tempest]

My gripe is on the DM side.

A village of halflings offers no gameplay alterations over a village of humans. Halflings don't special in anything that affect gameplay. Halflings would not have craftmen and masters that differ in quantity or quality than humans. The only thing that changes is the heights of doors and ceilings.

The base lore do not seperate them from humans at all. A dwarven village would have better axes, hammers, and metal armors. A elven village would have bows, swords, instrutments, and healing potions for sale. Even if you made awhole village of tieflings, you'd think someone has a cursed or infernal weapon stashed someplace for sale as devils and cultists would constantly attempting to tempt evil tiefling villagers.

halflings are like a void of culture.

 

[Minigiant]

halflings are like a void of culture.

No, they have a culture in the base game.
The issue is it is the same as a human commoner.

Swap a human villager for a halfling villager and all that changes is height and AC.

 

[Hussar]

But are they?

I mean, in Dark Sun the "flip" is that halflings are barbaric cannibals who everyone is terrified of, and stay away from their jungle hideaways.

Humans can do that, too... but it's WEIRD when halflings do it. Halflings share a lot of traits with humans, but not all of them- their savagery, ambition, lust for power and search for the divine are all de-emphasized in favor of something more... utilitarian?

As for Elves, well... a race that doesn't engage in agriculture or do hard work doesn't really make sense. Elves must farm and do hard work, or... well... I guess they are REALLY etherial, then, aren't they?

Not that terribly unusual. Hunter gatherer cultures exist and have existed for pretty much forever. And, well, elves are "maaaagiiiiccc" so, pretty much anything goes. I know they don't really go into it, but, an elven metabolism would be weird when you think about it. In order to live so long, they'd need to be (more or less) immune to any natural diseases. Who knows what they actually need to eat? Think of the kind of farming you'd do when your farmers have centuries to work the land.

It's why it always bugs me so much when I see elves in the game that are basically just humans that can see in the dark. Elves are far, far more alien than pretty much any other player race, but, that never gets played up very much.

 

[Bolares]

The problem is, the halfling is simply a human. There is no heightening.

I disagree. They are the simple, fulfilled, happy side of humanity. The rare side that doesn't need to conquer and lacks ambition... for the most part. They are the heightenned chill of not wanting to go to a party on sundays hahah

 

[Neonchameleon]

Let's try an experiment. Let's substitute human for elf in your paragraph. And then human for halfling.

"Humans are a magical people of otherworldly grace, living in the world but not entirely part of it. They live in places of ethereal beauty, in the midst of ancient forests or in silvery spires glittering with faerie light, where soft music drifts through the air and gentle fragrances waft on the breeze. Humans love nature and magic, art and artistry, music and poetry, and the good things of the world."​

How many references to non-human do you need? What humans could be substituted for that description?

Given that races are human traits turned up to 11 let's try

"Hollywood Celebrities are a glamorous people of otherworldly grace, living in the world but not entirely part of it. They live in places of ethereal beauty, in the midst of ancient forests or in silvery spires glittering with artificial light, where soft music drifts through the air and gentle fragrances waft on the breeze. Humans love nature and magic, art and artistry, music and poetry, and the good things of the world."​

Do all humans map to elves? No more than they do to halflings. Are elves some aspects of humans turned up to 11? Either nobles or celebrities? IMO yes, absolutely.

 

[Hussar]

I disagree. They are the simple, fulfilled, happy side of humanity. The rare side that doesn't need to conquer and lacks ambition... for the most part. They are the heightenned chill of not wanting to go to a party on sundays hahah

But, then you slap into the issue I brought up before. Every PC halfling is a rejection of this. A PC rarely lacks ambition. And, "simple, fufilled and happy" doesn't generally describe a PC. So, basically, the halfling writeup is everything a halfling character won't be.